Baelfort Sewers Bear Play Guide (with screenshots).

[Ellyidol]

Hello all!

Bears seem to be the least useless, sometimes even most unwanted, class in Baelfort Sewers. I've also read some VERY kind comments from other players who are as good about my bear, and there's really no secret to it.

So I thought I'd post a play guide on the BS maps, to try and show what I do with my bear. I'll try to make it as detailed as possible with screenshots as well.

Balefort Sewers Bear Play Guide

Preparation

Before actually going into the maps, these are a few things that a bear should remember:

1. You are a TANK.

The last thing any group member would want is the bear (you) lingering behind them because you are afraid of dying. When getting used to tanking, you definitely will die a few times, but once you know what your doing, I guarantee you that you will live.

2. Let the rest of the group (mages/birds) kill.

Following from being a tank, you are not there to kill. Your job is to take aggro, reduce overall mob damage, and pile them up. Once you've done that, the job of killing them is left to the birds/mages.

3. Don't be THAT stingy on pots.

It's definitely better if you have to use less and less HP/mana pots. But most of the time, it can't be helped. Use them when you need to, and don't expect any heals just to keep you alive. If your birds/mages are doing their job, you wouldn't even need to take a second round of damage from the mobs.

Your tanking bestfriends.

Now that you know what you are expected of, these, IMO, are your bestfriends for tanking. They keep you alive, keep your party alive, and do all the work needed.

Buffs :

Iron Blood and Evade WILL keep you alive. Use these before you enter a "tanking cycle" (more on this later) and don't waste them on idle or no damage times such as walking to the next group of monsters.

Debuffs :

Hell Scream is all that you'll need. Using this in the midst of mobs does two things, 1. it mini stuns them and 2. it does a Damage and Hit debuff on them (complementing your Iron Blood and Evade buffs) which keep you alive.

Since Crushing Blow is a single target, its importance lies mostly in spamming it as much as you can in boss fights.

Mob Control / Aggro :

Taunt works well in both mob control and keeping you alive. It allows a small dodge buff (which when compounded twice is better than the Evade buff) and it attracts monsters to you. I find this useful just before I'm about to Beckon, as to make the mobs come to me as much as possible.

Beckon is what defines a slow bear from a fast bear. ALWAYS use these by a wall, unless circumstances don't allow you to (that big circular room in Stronghold). Beckon not only pulls the mobs towards you, but also has the chance of stunning them.

"New: After much observation and trying to figure out why beckon just "fails" to work (yes fail, not just dodge, but just not work entirely), I've noticed one thing that works particularly well with beckon. ALL my beckons have worked because I DON'T have a target.

I don't know why, it just seems to work better without having a target (no dotted line to a mob whatsoever). Mobs still dodge the beckon of course (mini-boss rooms), but I haven't had a beckon just fail anymore."


Stomp is your main damage dealer. Since the new Beckon + Stomp combo was introduced, it made bears especially faster in clearing mobs. Like Beckon, after using it against a wall, ALWAYS step back first before stomp (pictures will show). Also, although it seems like a good spammable skill, spamming stomp actually hinders you from being able to mob control well, since it just scatters all of the mobs.


Play Guide

Now for the actual play guide. To make it easier to understand what I do, let me use these terms :

"Tank Cycle" : This is when I buff my 3 self buffs (Iron Blood, Evade, and Rage). I usually do this before diving into a mob.

"Hell Scream + Taunt" : This is when I cast Hell Scream and Taunt before I do mob control.

"Beckon + Stomp" : This is when I Beckon mobs in walls, WALK THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION, and Stomp them into the wall for the combo.

Also, I took these pictures from Bandits Hideout since it seems to be the most common map done, and is a generally longer map than most, which adds more opportunity for practice.

Please don't mind me using a Trash Can pot, just used it to allow me to go through mobs faster

For Birds/Mages, PLEASE allow us to set them up first, aggro + beckon them. Single targets are fine, since you can pick those off easy. But unleashing all your AoE spells and pushing them back/switching aggro to you just messes up our ability to beckon.

Bandit Hideout

Tank Cycle 1 - I don't cast Taunt here because the barrels are in range for them to blow up.

Hell Scream + Taunt 1

Gather them here.

Beckon - X marks the spot where I casted Beckon, and the arrow indicates that I move in that direction while the mobs are being pulled to me. This sets up the combo and keeping them pinned on the wall.

Stomp - Even if there's no "COMBO" word (since my device can't take 2 screenshots fast enough within combo time), I am using Stomp in this picture. The curved area shows where the mobs are being pushed back to when I use Stomp, in this case, towards the wall to be pinned and finished off.

Those are the main things to do for the Beckon + Stomp combo and at the same time, pinning them to a wall to allow the birds/mages to finish them off easy.

Tank Cycle 2

Hell Scream + Taunt

Beckon and Combo. - Walk back and go the other way from entrance.

Tank Cycle 3 + Hell Scream - Taunt + Beckon Stomp Combo - This is the corridor after turning left from entrance (instead of right to Blanky spot).

Tank Cycle 4 + Hell Scream - Taunt + Beckon Stomp Combo - This is the first RIGHT after the corridor. Turning LEFT (where there are grates in the corridor) lead you to the Bank Vault portal, and is not necessary to clear for the boss spawn.

Tank Cycle 5 + Hell Scream - Taunt + Beckon Stomp Combo - This is the corridor on the way to Catspaw's area. Don't mind her being in the screenshot here, I just accidentally lured her when I was running around.

Tank Cycle 6 + Hell Scream - Taunt + Beckon Stomp Combo - This is Catspaw's area.

Tank Cycle 7 + Hell Scream - Taunt + Beckon Stomp Combo - The corridor after clearing and killing Catspaw, right before the 3 fire grates in that narrow corridor.

Tank Cycle 8 + Hell Scream - Taunt + Beckon Stomp Combo - In these type of bridges, I tend to just walk past the mobs I encounter until I get to the middle of the bridge where I use my skills. This allows me to get the mobs from both ends of the bridge.

Tank Cycle 9 + Hell Scream - Taunt + Beckon Stomp Combo. - This is after you turn LEFT from the bridge. This is also the last time I use my Tank Cycle until the boss, since if you use it after, its not ready by the time you do the boss (assuming your going through quick). These mobs are also ONLY the FIRST cave-in to the right.

Hell Scream - Taunt + Beckon Stomp Combo - This is the SECOND cave-in to the right (the right cave-in has more mobs than the left cave-in).


Hell Scream - Taunt + Beckon Stomp Combo - The same "bridge" method applies here from the previous one.

Hell Scream - Taunt + Beckon Stomp Combo - After the last bridge, this is the FIRST cave-in to the RIGHT.

Last Hell Scream - Taunt + Beckon Stomp Combo - And last but not least, this is the SECOND cave-in by the LEFT (the left cave-in has more mobs than the right).

At this part, the mobs en route to the boss should now be cleared. I'll be adding a boss killing section later on.

The time you get to do these will depend on how fast you are going as a group. This flow is for a group that only needs ONE of each cycle and mob control. It may take you more than one (take for example mini-boss rooms) if your group is slower. I also tend to move on to the next area even before all the mobs are completely dead, to save time.


Video

This is the video I was able to do (thanks Physiologic for the idea).

It was a random group, and luckily was able to be the only bear.

Please excuse the audio, if ever. Was just in living room and TV with siblings around.

I played and took the video from an iPhone, when I usually play on an iPad. Ping wasn't the best, so you can see some lagging. Also don't mind the speed of the run, since this was again a random group and I just wanted to show an actual video.

END

I hope this guide somehow helps and shows what my tanking process and flow. I know its only Hideout, but I believe that the spots where you do the Hell Screams, Taunts, and Beckon Stomp combos vary on the player. These are just my spots.

Let me know if you have any confusion and/or comments and/or suggestions!

Thanks!

[Survivorfan]

This is a very nice guide, keep up the good work!
can't wait to see boss part



P.S. You spelled Balefort Sewers wrong

[Ellyidol]

Thanks! I hope it wasn't too scattered to understand? Last thing I want to do is add more confusion.

Edited

[Survivorfan]

Nope, you arranged it perfectly!

[Ellyidol]

Nope, you arranged it perfectly!

Whew, thanks! Was worried it would be confusing.

[Riccits]

Great guide Elly! Hopefully many bears will read and do it so! Most bears run always behind me and becon/stomp mobs around... when my bird leads the party its going something wrong...

Would only add that after one tank cycle, bears should run away there and make the next croud, birds and mages needs only some seconds to vaporize such a prepared crowd.

[Ellyidol]

Great guide Elly! Hopefully many bears will read and do it so! Most bears run always behind me and becon/stomp mobs around... when my bird leads the party its going something wrong...

Would only add that after one tank cycle, bears should run away there and make the next croud, birds and mages needs only some seconds to vaporize such a prepared crowd.

Thanks!

And yes, I agree. Will add that

[Doubletime]

Ellyidol, nice guide. The pics are a great touch. I think the best part is the explaination of where to group mobs. I find a few too many less experienced bears not knowing how to beckon effectively to group mobs so they don't get scattered by other skills slowing the party down. You have it down to a science. I plan to get out my bear and make a run just to see how it works for me.

The use of the stomp combo is nice as well. I am still a little stomp shy because of the mobs flying every which way. But with the introduction of the combo, I really probably should be using it more in the correct places.

[Ellyidol]

Thanks!

This is effective being a sole tanker almost only though. Having a second bear trying to do the same thing would sometimes result to chaos, unless your in sync with each other.

By all means, don't be stomp shy. Only way to really learn to use it well is by practice

[Echelong]

Nice guide this should help a lot of people that are having problems controlling their bears in BS. A good or a bad bear is the difference between clearing the run in less than 5 minutes or over 7 minutes. A bad place stomp scatters mobs to far off and can reset an almost dead boss by throwing him out of the room and some bears refuse to learn this.

[FluffNStuff]

Ellyidol, first, awesome guide! Just got a question about using hellscream first. Now granted it might not be needed on the weaker mobs if the other players are putting out enough damage, but why not save hellscream for after mage casts weakness on the pack of mobs? Is the terror combo not needed, or is it just more efficient to move on to the next set of mobs?

[Australia]

Thanks heaps for the guide I think this will help all tanking in general, not just BS

[CowboyJim]

Great guide. I learned most of that while doing Plasma Pyramid runs back in the day when I mostly played my bear. But there are a lot of bears out there that this would help if only they visited the forums and read it.....you can really wipe a map fast with bear stacking mobs and mages and birds doing combos.....makes the game more fun when group works together well. Sometimes with two bears can be difficult if they don't work together......congrats....

[KaotiicxDream]

Great guide !!! (As always xD) The title says: "With screenshots".. i guess you will edit the post with screenshots in the upcoming days ;-)

[LADYHADASSA]

Excellent post! You are right there are very few tanks I enjoy game with when the above mentioned occures, the other issue I have seen in ALL the maps where there is more than one tank, no team work stomping by multiple bears in opposing directions....Ahhhhhh... As a Pally I am strong enough to do large amounts of damage to a mob at one time, however when team work is lacking from one to many, The power of mages/ birds are seriousley diminished. I Love a tank who pulls mobs together they are in valuable!

Keep up the excellent work

[lUp3]

I try and follow the exact same routine(After that earlier guide on how not to play like a noob bear). Forget the rage sometimes tho. I would just like to ask that does beckon not work sometimes? I beckon the mob to a wall and sometimes they come with such a speed that its like pointless. Have beckon maxed. Also when I used rage they normally do come dunno how that happens maybe because of the mini-stuns.

Also the boss guide would be really helpful. I mostly play that goldie guy and find that I survive and contain the boss whilst my team members just keep on dying. Some guidelines as how to tackle bosses would be really helpful thanks for the guide!

[Ellyidol]

Thanks guys!

I just got a PM asking why its messed up. I have no idea either what happened. Seems it got cut short. I saved them on a text file so I should be able to get them fixed as soon as I can. Will also answer the questions then

[Oewaden]

Also the boss guide would be really helpful. I mostly play that goldie guy and find that I survive and contain the boss whilst my team members just keep on dying. Some guidelines as how to tackle bosses would be really helpful thanks for the guide!

Check out this thread when you have a sec, it should answer your question on Gold Fever. You might be getting "fever" and spreading it around to other people.

http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...-actually-work

[Ellyidol]

Just put up the original guide, I don't know how the previous one messed up, but should be okay now.

@Fluff

The reason why I cast Hell Scream first is so that while I'm setting up the mobs (so they could be damaging me), they do the least as possible. Terror would be useful, but IMO, the only useful combos on mobs are the damage ones. If I'm with a good group, the only damage I take is the first round of damage from taunting and setting them up. After all the beckon/pinning, they're dead.

[lUp3]

Thanks Oewaden for the link really helped a lot. Mostly died when I cudnt pin him initially(2 Bears colliding :-/) and everyone got the fever. Rather done well when the tank pins him and the rest spread out and use their skills. [/off topic]

I was wondering if Ellyidol or some pro bear could make some sort of a video if possible. Its always better to learn when you can actually see it happening. Also considering the fact that you all cant take each one of us during your runs so a video would be really great( Also 2 bears => disaster). Thnx a lot