Solving Ze Bird Problem

[tHelonestud]

I don't know all that much about PvP, but just from what I've seen in PvE, I'm inclined to support Whisperwalk on this one. PvE as any class other than Archer (and maybe Rangers, I haven't seen too many of them at my level) has a bad habit of turning into "ArchersvE, while the other classes try to get in a few kills on the side". My main is a Mage (ie, the class intended to be able wipe out lots of mobs at once), and Archers still out-kill me. If they have Elixirs, its a struggle to even keep up with them, let alone get any kills.

Successful PvE is not simply getting more kills. It should be based on clearing levels with your team as fast as you can. The archer is the primary damage class, bears are meant to take damage and keep enemies from dealing damage, mages put out a lot of aoe damage as well as keeping the team alive, rhino and foxes are designed to laugh at for being weak. If you want to talk about soloing, nothing is easier than a bear, largest health pool, armour, damage buff, and dodge at endgame. Not to mention the massive area debuff from hellscream.

[CrimsonTider]

Successful PvE is not simply getting more kills. It should be based on clearing levels with your team as fast as you can. The archer is the primary damage class, bears are meant to take damage and keep enemies from dealing damage, mages put out a lot of aoe damage as well as keeping the team alive, rhino and foxes are designed to laugh at for being weak. If you want to talk about soloing, nothing is easier than a bear, largest health pool, armour, damage buff, and dodge at endgame. Not to mention the massive area debuff from hellscream.

Exactly. When I see new bears with more kills and less deaths than my 2.5 year old bear, I laugh. I have never been caught up in kills as I have always understood my role (which was clouded with the introduction of stationary bosses during Nuri's.): Control the crowd, take damage, and stay ahead of the group. And trust me Battle when I say that as your bear gets into AO3 and beyond, if you can't dodge, you will get stunned so much that your crowd control will be entirely ineffective.

[tHelonestud]

the introduction of stationary bosses during Nuri's.):

so annoying

[Battlegrinder]

Successful PvE is not simply getting more kills. It should be based on clearing levels with your team as fast as you can. The archer is the primary damage class, bears are meant to take damage and keep enemies from dealing damage, mages put out a lot of aoe damage as well as keeping the team alive, rhino and foxes are designed to laugh at for being weak. If you want to talk about soloing, nothing is easier than a bear, largest health pool, armour, damage buff, and dodge at endgame. Not to mention the massive area debuff from hellscream.

I know that PvE ins't only about the kills, and that bears aren't meant for damage dealing, but I'd still like to be able to get some kills during a run instead of having to sit ack and watch archers kill everything. The main problem I have with archers is that do so much single target damage, and deal it out so quickly, that other classes (even ones like Mage which are designed to take down lots of mobs) have trouble getting any kills at all.

Exactly. When I see new bears with more kills and less deaths than my 2.5 year old bear, I laugh. I have never been caught up in kills as I have always understood my role (which was clouded with the introduction of stationary bosses during Nuri's.): Control the crowd, take damage, and stay ahead of the group. And trust me Battle when I say that as your bear gets into AO3 and beyond, if you can't dodge, you will get stunned so much that your crowd control will be entirely ineffective.

I normally don't mind having less kills, but I do mind having only about 1/8 the kills of an Archer at my level. I'm wanting to get the various achievements for PvE kills, but its really hard to do that when archers are running around killing every mob with two or three attacks. I've had to resort to timing my attacks during their skill cooldowns and in between combos, so that I have at least a chance of getting in the fatal blow. It doesn't help that archers always seem to switch over to whatever mob I've been fighting and stealing the kill. I hate it when I finally grind a targets health down to the point where its just about dead, then someone else fires a volley of arrows into it before I can finish it off.

Thanks for the info about AO3. I didn't have much of an issue with stun damage during my first run through, but maybe that's because I was using a Mage instead of one of the STR classes.

[tHelonestud]

I know that PvE ins't only about the kills, and that bears aren't meant for damage dealing, but I'd still like to be able to get some kills during a run instead of having to sit ack and watch archers kill everything. The main problem I have with archers is that do so much single target damage, and deal it out so quickly, that other classes (even ones like Mage which are designed to take down lots of mobs) have trouble getting any kills at all.

Bears shouldn't be "sitting back watching archers kill everything;" they should actively be leading the birds/rest of the party. If you are effectively tanking, you will get some kills.
Another problem could be your build as a bear. I believe you mentioned you were pure strength, in which case, you wouldn't really be doing damage except with 50-51 level range with a rift set or rooter's gear from sewers, or with the massive boost of hit with the blacksmoke 2-handed weapon sets.

[Battlegrinder]

Bears shouldn't be "sitting back watching archers kill everything;" they should actively be leading the birds/rest of the party. If you are effectively tanking, you will get some kills.
Another problem could be your build as a bear. I believe you mentioned you were pure strength, in which case, you wouldn't really be doing damage except with 50-51 level range with a rift set or rooter's gear from sewers, or with the massive boost of hit with the blacksmoke 2-handed weapon sets.

I usually am leading from the front, I meant the "sitting back" comment figuratively. I get a handful of kills, but it heavily depends on how many birds are in the party and how shameless they are about stealing kills (by that I mean sending a volley of arrows into a mob that was only a hit or two from death, not ganging up on one that's still going strong). I am a pure STR build, because I have 2 other characters that are also mostly STR, and this way I can just buy one set of gear and transfer it between the three accounts as needed.

[CrimsonTider]

I usually am leading from the front, I meant the "sitting back" comment figuratively. I get a handful of kills, but it heavily depends on how many birds are in the party and how shameless they are about stealing kills (by that I mean sending a volley of arrows into a mob that was only a hit or two from death, not ganging up on one that's still going strong). I am a pure STR build, because I have 2 other characters that are also mostly STR, and this way I can just buy one set of gear and transfer it between the three accounts as needed.

Just say "no" to pure strength. Yes, it literally makes you a walking tank, but when your hit% is 67, you won't hit Blacksmoke Mountain with a nuke the size of Jupiter. May be one reason you are not seeing your kill count go up (miss miss miss = miss.) Another thing is adding dex will raise damage (as well as hit%) to allow the gain you need. Use just enough strength to equip strength gear and put everything else into dex.

As a pure strength advocate, until bears get a boost in hit%, this is the best build to use.