My PVP Bear- Level 55- Share your experience/stats

[braluk]

Posting my stats here for a level 55 PVP Dex Bear to get feedback and also to share my experience with it. I found a few guides but I wanted to start a thread for other bears to share their experience. Playing PVP has been humbling and a good learning experience when playing with other great bear pvp players - such as Fabiokmd, isohategcd. So here goes:

I have 2 PVP builds that I can use depending on situation:
1) Str Tank with high dodge/armor/regen, when my opponents are insta-crit'ing me with a Dex setup and I need to survive to help debuff opponents as my teammates (non-tanks) kill them, my team is outnumbered or outleveled, or when I'm facing a team of at least 2 mages with mana shields up and need to outlast them until their mana runs out.
2) Dex with high crit/hit/damage, when I have a mage on my team to help heal, when opponents are majority bears, majority birds, when I have tanks on my team, but mostly anything else I haven't mentioned above.

My naked build without rings:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_BcMwT3ueRMw/Tch2WG7enJI/AAAAAAAAAYY/EB6fBu9DXI4/s800/snap20110509_173046.jpg

My skill points: (haven't reassigned yet but works for me so far)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_BcMwT3ueRMw/Tchsxdb1qAI/AAAAAAAAAYg/16bvOrEmiNQ/s800/snap20110509_173508.jpg

Using my skills in battle
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_BcMwT3ueRMw/Tch6R0AWjNI/AAAAAAAAAYw/_OtV2OKS2no/s800/snap20110509_183455.jpg
Before I go onto each setup I have a general order of skills I press before approaching opponents. Taunt --> Iron Blood --> Evade ---> Taunt and finally Rage right before I get within attack range so it gives me the longest effective time it stays active to use on groups on enemies. I spam my Taunt as it becomes available because it stacks twice and gives me persistent +16 Dodge.

Auto-attack so I know I'm within range--> Beckon as I run back away from crowd (usually can rubber band pull someone away or an entire group towards me)--> Run back towards or through beckoned opponent ---> Crushing Blow ---> Turn around and stomp right into them sending them forward. This has been my most effective combo with insta kill- and I've definitely killed entire crowds this way.

I follow this by running towards an opponent who survived it immediately after a stomp, Hell Scream to debuff land my slashes beginning with SMS, run through enemy, to regain my distance where I can then rebeckon/stomp/slash. Buffs should be ready again. Of course you try to do this with your team and not alone but for general purposes this has been effective for me. With Str you'll want to constantly keep close and run circles around enemy as you slash and disorient and pull and stomp (You control their camera angles since bears do all the pulling and stomping). With Dex you keep distant and only come close to land your combo as you slide away.

My Str Tank
I don't have the best gear here but I can definitely survive and give hell (it's also fairly unstoppable in CTF)- Sewer Helm, Fury Axe, Sewer Plate, Bellows's Shield with Acrobat's Fine Golden Band Ring 2Dodge/8Armor. Fully buffed with spammed taunts. I haven't really used pure attack builds with Str (high crit/hit/dmg) because I've done it before and I've always gotten creamed. I also don't have full sets:
Pre-Buff
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_BcMwT3ueRMw/Tch2YgaczQI/AAAAAAAAAZI/4H7S5Lz51T0/s800/snap20110509_173105.jpg

Full-Buff
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_BcMwT3ueRMw/Tch2mUB6wKI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/3e4g77xi408/s800/snap20110509_173302.jpg

My emphasis is to get max dodge (Hence choice of Bellows over Henchman's). I won't survive a massive crit regardless of what my armor is (I've tried0, but I can survive if I dodge it. The goal is to waste opponent mana and not letting anything land on you.

My Dex Bow Warrior
I haven't really experimented with all the gear here but I use full Raid Set with Recurve for set bonus with 2Hit/10Dmg Ring. This is a setup where I expect to die but at least kill one person before I do (or more if I pull a group)- with a mage in my group I've once killed 10, but I typically average 3-5. Sometimes I won't get any and that's against some really good players that have 1000's of kills over me or I just might be with a scattered team. This is fully buffed but I haven't invested in a level 6 rage yet. I've used the auto bow but I never felt that I got the same damage output as I do with Recurve- and I believe it added less to skills damage. As for talon, the idea is to land one or two major crits in a short period of time to kill quickly. Talons do not accomplish this as it lands moderate damage per hit (albeit at a fast pace) but it allows opponents time to react not to mention you lose the benefit of attacking at distance.
Pre-Buff
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_BcMwT3ueRMw/Tch2a9KNI_I/AAAAAAAAAZY/dia3fCAPaXU/s800/snap20110509_173116.jpg

Full-Buff
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_BcMwT3ueRMw/Tch2q1fBWpI/AAAAAAAAAZg/sUySmNXlsPM/s800/snap20110509_173455.jpg

I've also included a skill dmg on my stomp with the Dex Recurve Bow Set.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_BcMwT3ueRMw/TciC2XmgxiI/AAAAAAAAAZs/IFLRrdrxkmM/s800/snap20110509_173508.jpg

As you can see, it's an extremely powerful skill, and definitely one of the strongest in the game, especially if you can land crushing blow (Beckon also has undocumented damage that I'm sure increases with Dex).

As to what I can do to change my stats, I'd like to decrease my skill points in one of my slashes due in part to GCD- I can no longer spam my slashes and by the time I can use my third slash I am off to rebuffing or debuffing or beckon+stomp again. I prefer to keep my taunt at level 6 just because I can stack it and lasts longer than evade. I'd redistribute to max rage, hell scream, and evade and dropping two slashes to level 1 or 2. In PVE, I use mostly dex but I'll swap out for a Sewer Scarab and 2%Dodge/8Armor ring for survivability and switching to drainers if I have trouble staying alive. Also important to know that you'll want to taunt for dodge buffs before you approach enemies to avoid full aggro from enemies/bosses. Anyhow I thought I'd share, and this was somewhat informative. By all means I am no expert nor a pvp war machine. As a newly minted dex bear, without millions of gold lying around to buy the absolute best gear I can, I share my relatively new experience on what I've done with what I have to try to run with some very experienced players. I welcome any advice on how to improve my bear, and look forward to hearing from other attack bears here.

[WhoIsThis]

Don't worry about buying the absolute best gear. You'll find that it doesn't make as big a difference as many players would like to think. I think that the "placebo effect" of actually owning the gear may be stronger than what the end-game pinks may actually offer.

Strategy I guess will differ based on what the target is. Come to think of it, I wonder how a bear vs bear fight would end up looking like. I guess it would depend on if both were armed with strength gear, both dex, or one of each type of gear maybe.

[Otukura]

Don't worry about buying the absolute best gear. You'll find that it doesn't make as big a difference as many players would like to think. I think that the "placebo effect" of actually owning the gear may be stronger than what the end-game pinks may actually offer.
Exactly, I do much better when I'm sparkling. SK set just doesn't cut it :/


Could you explain a bit more of the build to me? Confused about why you don't max rage, evade, or HS, and put 4 in the cs and 5 in sms... can I hear your reasoning?

[WhoIsThis]

Could you explain a bit more of the build to me? Confused about why you don't max rage, evade, or HS, and put 4 in the cs and 5 in sms... can I hear your reasoning?

I never posted the words that you quoted in this thread in bold.

You can see above. There is no record of me editing my original post, which was 42 minutes before you posted yours.


Edit: I'm confused as to how you got the words in bold that you did.

[Ellyidol]

Maybe the words in bold was his own statement, Attack :p

The bear on bear fight, from my experience, it all comes down to timing and rotation, especially if str vs str. If you have both bears using their buffs/debuffs/attack skills at the same time, I don't think you'd ever finish.

I usually just buff up my armour skills first, debuff as much as I can on him, and after awhile buff up my own rage, dodge/armour debuff, then unleash combo. That way I can catch him without his evade/iron blood on, and hopefully crit him as much as I can.

[braluk]

Could you explain a bit more of the build to me? Confused about why you don't max rage, evade, or HS, and put 4 in the cs and 5 in sms... can I hear your reasoning?

Haha I'm not sure exactly what you mean or who this is directed to but I guess I can answer. That original skills setup was based on my Tank Bear before I dual spec'ed. It was a matter of assigning skills as I saw them fit in BS and AO. I also only gotten involved in reading forums and seeing how a proper skill setup should be done only recently. Since then I just haven't gotten around to respec my skills. I originally figured that I'd do it after I got to 56 (not likely anytime soon now). But that aside it's actually been working ok for me on PVP, but I know I could do better by upping my debuffs and buffs and bringing down my slashes. I just found that after a Hell Scream following a stomp, I have enough time to land two slashes (for bosses and coincidentally in PVP) before I can debuff/buff again since cooldown has typically expired. Which gives me a choice to use my third slash (not often used except for bosses) or to debuff/buff to cut down time I am vulnerable- which is helpful.

My other original reason (it has changed now) why I had arranged my skills that way is because my gear typically gave me more than enough dodge and armor by itself, let alone stacked with 2 x taunt. Originally I had SMS at level 5, with intent to raise to 6, with Crippling Slash at 1 or 2. As I leveled from 50, I figured that I would rather have another slash to boost my attack, and that didn't knock an opponent back away from me(as with VS)-so I went with leveling CS to land some damage as a tradeoff to maxing other debuff/buff skills- I thought that if my debuffs landed, it wouldn't make a significant difference between the skill being a level 5 or 6 (HS or Rage), but it would matter if I had more than one powerful attack skill to use if I did land my debuffs. If I missed my debuffs, then the only thing that would matter comes back to my basic slashes. As for evade being at 4, I just wasn't convinced an additional +4 dodge by leveling from 4 to 6 would make a world of difference as my str gear (with a dodge ring) with spammed taunts provided more dodge then I needed. I preferred to instead invest those skill points in the other debuffs or slashes. Now this is before I switched to dual spec and PVP and I suspect that it could make a difference in fight outcomes but so far I've been ok using that setup for both PVE and PVP on both sets of gear.

So hence, my seemingly random assignment of skill points boils down to just readjusting my skills as I progressed through the game equipping new gear, then ultimately discovering the forums and tweaking accordingly, and then PVP for trial and error. But hey, it's been working so far but I will rearrange soon enough. As for using other gear, I do not have any Dex Sewer Gear with the exception of bow, so I'm not sure how SK gear changes things. It's probably true that you don't need the top gear or set bonuses or sparkly colors coming from somewhere from your character's body to be proficient and you could easily get do just as well, if not better by mixing up gear but I guess I'm just sharing my experience- and would like to hear other's experiences with gear setups. I just enjoyed finally obtaining a full set and using it, and comes with a nifty little set bonus.