Give tank bears their jobs back

[Kujen]

I posted this in reply to a thread about paladins, but I think it deserves its own thread.

No offense to the pallys out there, it's a great build for survival, but I'm beginning to think they're overrated as group tanks. My bird gets a lot of aggro, and since nobody plays their bears anymore, nobody can taunt the mobs to gain aggro. Paladins can't taunt like the bears. If there is a bear, it's probably a dex bear who won't taunt anyway. So as my bird, I often end up tanking when I don't want to, due to my DPS.

I really just something would be done to make bears desired in groups again! Give them their jobs back lol

My bear has a full rift set and can hold aggro pretty well I think. Yet when I join games as my bear, I always have this feeling like I might get booted, nobody will want me. Bears used to be desired, like in Crush the Keeper for instance, for their crowd control and tanking abilities. It was harder to get through without one.

The game has been made so much easier, that all you really need are mages and birds. Bears just slow a group down now because of their low DPS. Something should be done to make the bear class more useful, because they just are not as enjoyable to play anymore. They need to have a bigger role in groups again.

[Gamelova]

Yeah True, I'm on mostly my mage now lol!

[jonboy]

Yea the bears do need some love.

[KingFu]

Bears need to be SLIGHTLY improved, without improving str bird or pally. The 2 most op classes in game right now. Coming from a pvper, bears don't suck, just most people can't play them. I've played suicidekings, and iamlone, and I'm gonna play res when he hits 50. They're not overpowered. Just most people think all they need to be a bear is a rift set, most can't play them. Since bears take strategies and tactic to play, there are easy way outs to avoid requiring tactics and or strategies. Become a str bird or pally. Im not gonna sit here and say how op they are, not everyone that is a pally or str bird has no skill, strategies, or aren't good pvpers in general. I see many good pallys and str birds as players all around. In all honesty though, they are much too easy to play. Literally str bird only requires you to hit button. Most str birds I know don't even have a combo, they just mash the screen, and they aren't bad pvpers at all. Pally is a little more skill requires since you need to know combos bur honestly, a few minutes on forums and you'll be a decent pally, yet you'll own most things. Again, I'm saying this as a used to be pally and a used to be str bird. I've been them both, and pvped with them both. Both were fairly easy to pick up, and both owned almost all pures. Which proves they're op considering they're hybrid but eh, I don't see anything happening to them sadly. This is worse than the bow bears IMO.

[Kujen]

Sorry I should point out, I am really just addressing pve. I don't pvp much so I don't have a lot of knowledge about how bears fare there. But in pve right now, nobody wants them in their group. They used to have a class role and now they don't. And I think that should be rectified.

[Seratonin]

When bears are played right, they are useful. I boot all dexbears. Ibeatface is an outstanding bear. He will be good in any group.

[Kossi]

dont worry, theyll come out of hibernation sooner or later

[icantgetkills]

I had a level 50 mage and bird had no intension on leveling a bear... But I did and I was on him 24/7 when this update came out pallies were just so much better and no one wanted my bear anymore don't I packed up his rift shifted it to my mage and now I have a bear 50k worth of gear when they get some tanking back hopefully before the level 55 cap I'll use him again

[EricB]

lol wow so many complains about bears... This really need to be fixed in 1.6!

[KingFu]

lol wow so many complains about bears... This really need to be fixed in 1.6!

They won't, 1.5 has been submitted already.

[omnipresence]

If you increase the difficulty of mobs and give bears class specific armor that counteracts that difficulty increase, it should make bears valuable again. I love my Mage but it seems funny that I can be in a group of 3 mages and easily run through AO2.

[ciss]

yea, bears do need some love back! Still I love to play my bear though and after a random run, I always end up with friends requests, so... I guess a bear is still appreciated.
Well, they need some more attention though, pallies have taken their spot lately.

[SuicideKings]

Hm interesting topic... As far as Pvp goes, yes bears may be extremely underpowered because of the change is health and mana from the re-balanced (unbalanced) update. Yes this may have been a good thing because change is good once in a while. Before than dex bears were unstoppable. PVM-wise bears are actually very useful...but...you only need 1 in the group, which kind of contradicts its usefulness. PVP-wise fighting paladins or warbirds can be frustrating, especially when they say their health is full. Dex birds and mages on the other hand can fall with one successful combination. One day we will be back to rule the PVP arenas. And thanks Mystical for the compliment, you're a very worthy opponent yourself.

[TwinkTastical]

Devs wont, cause it takes skill, nothing in this game takes skill because its made for 3 year olds who cant play mmos.

[Gamelova]

They won't, 1.5 has been submitted already.

1.5 is already finished, STS has already submitted 1.6 and waiting for it to be approved by apple.

[Zeus]

Game, I believe it was a typo and he meant to say 1.6. I have rarely seen an instance where Mysticaldream is wrong lol. He is like Royce's right hand man.

[relayer]

So what are your suggestions for making Bears more wanted / viable in groups again?

I haven't played one at higher levels but what I have noticed is taunt should be a lot more effective. Its great when a bear can pull a mob off you... seems right now with the high dps of birds its pretty difficult to do. Bears need taunt that works to do their job.

[Lesrider]

They basically just have to revert to pre-1.5. Pve was balanced then, before the re-balance.

[omnipresence]

Right, because everyone wanted a mage in their group then. :P Let's not move backwards. That change was made for a reason.

[Polyph]

Yea bears are so-so at best now, after I finish cyber armor on mine he'll go back on the shelf for my bird. My bear gets booted instantly out of well over half the Victory Lap games I join even though I would consider myself a rather good bear, usually getting groups of mobs pinned in a wall or corner very quickly etc. A lot of groups I join with my bird boot other bears because they "slow us down". It's quite sad. I'd love to see this game require some tactics as it matures. Allowing the tank a moment to grab agro from mobs/bosses or it's certain death for you etc would be a nice start, at least make some high lvl elite instances that run as such. Gurg fight is a cool one at least it requires people to do SOMETHING other than attack mindlessly.