Bears are underwhelming?

[blehz]

I chose bear as my first char and I've got it to 37 right now. So far it doesn't seem like there's anything that bears are particularly good at.... Bears are doing the worst on all leaderboards and most of our skills are inferior to the other classes. I'm not talking about the balancing between stats because all classes can be used however you want. If you want to dominate pve...choose enchantress. If you want to own in 50+ pvp choose an enchantress or an archer. At best, you'd break even in PvP as a bear. Can't they make bears good at something other than spamming beckon and pretending to help in PvE? Enchantresses seem to tank just as well and kill so much faster....

In fact, if you really wanted to tank, you could roll an enchantress or an archer and tank just fine with a str build. You'd probably do even better since the enchantress heal actually dispels root and freeze plus you get ranged attacks with both other classes. Point is, most of our skills are close ranged, so why aren't they stronger? And since our damage sucks so much more than other classes, why isn't our defense that much better? Shouldn't we get huge buffs for choosing melee since ranged attacks are so OP in this game? I'm relatively new so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Lesrider]

You're actually spot on.
I started with bear as well, didn't like it and ended up making an enchantress and bird as well. Enchantress became my main, and the only time I really got use out of my bear was when ao3 first came out and mages and birds were dying too easily.
I agree, melee characters are supposed to do the most damage bc they have to get up close and personal. It's usually why I choose a melee character -- I usually find them fun. But for some reason, they still haven't found their ideal place in PL.

Some people do like them, but for me, they're just not quite as fun as the other two classes.

[Inching]

bears are good for cuddling

[Junside]

They're still useful in a team. When you pull a mob around you and they get stunned, birds and mages use aoe attacks and wipes em out. And under the protection of constant mage healing, a bear makes an excellent damage sponge. They don't need to kill, but if used in any other manner I imagine, wouldn't be as helpful. I guess the biggest difference would be going solo. A bear might be able to, more than others.

[Conradin]

Dude i like bears at BS. I don't die much at all- and I got trough the plain in the slimjalls w/ out the quest

[giayuan]

Angry bears are scary.

[blehz]

Well TBH, enchantress are amazing damage sponges. First, they freeze - any melee ranged mobs don't even hit you. Second, they have weakness - basically hell's scream. Third, they have blessing of vitality. Lastly they have mana shield. To add to that, all their skills are ranged and AoE's.

Archers get stomp, dodge buff, and aoe root. Admittedly, I don't think archers would do too well with a str build. But assuming they did, they'd probably have less survival but get ranged attacks to make up for it. All in all, enchantresses are by far self sufficient. I'd say in order of best to worst tanking: enchantress/bear/archer. In order of best to worst AoE DPS: enchantress/archer/bear. In order of best to worst single target DPS: archer/enchantress/bear. And sadly, in order of best to worst melee dps: archer/enchantress/bear. As far as I can see, we're almost dead last on everything. Our "skills" make use #2 on tankability to me.

EDIT: I see so many easy solutions to this that it makes me wonder if space time studios even plays their own bear class.
Solution #1: Make all bear skills AoE's. Sure we risk alot standing in melee range getting hit by everything but it might be worth it if we had 4 damage aoe's instead of 1. At least we'll have more survivability as the enchantress and more AoE dps than archers.
Solution #2: Make us number 1 in DPS when we're in melee range by making melee weapons hit for 2-3x the amount that other weapons do or make us number 1 in tanking by far -> AKA make evade give us 50 evasion or something ridiculous.
Solution #3: Make our stuns that much better. That's the only real difference between bears and other classes: we get 3 stuns and I think only the bird has 1. Despite that, our stuns are terrible. If you stomp in pvp, you're most likely helping them get away from you especially if you're melee. You might not even stun them. At least pvp won't just be "hope SMS stuns this time so I don't get murdered when beckon is on CD".

Other things:
RESTORE: Restore really needs to have a purpose. Make it dispel debuffs at the very least. Also, archer heal needs to be replaced with something more exciting.

SMS: Super mega slash should have increased chances of stun as it's level gets higher.

Crippling slash: Crippling slash needs a range of 8m at least....wtf 3m? This means that in pvp you need to execute a perfect beckon under no lag, hoping it stuns, before the opponent decides to stun or freeze you and run after beckon finishes, and land that crippling slash without them dodging. Way underpowered. If bears don't stun in pvp - mind you the chances are extremely high that you won't, you've basically lost.

Vengeful Slash: Maybe the dev's didn't plan on pvp or see the endgame role of the bear but this skill is way outdated. Why would you want a single target knock back? Stomp is already annoying enough and I honestly only use it because it stuns. This might be good for dex/int bears but isn't the point for there to be a good melee class?

[Inching]

i hv to admit tho, i would want a bear in BS with me... I would not be able to take on the king and queen if the bear was not with me.... i mean i cannot seperate them on my own and i need a bear.

Yest i need the bear to take agro from the king while i killed the queen in the room and after i ran out to heal him and finished off the king.

bears are still good.

[blehz]

i hv to admit tho, i would want a bear in BS with me... I would not be able to take on the king and queen if the bear was not with me.... i mean i cannot seperate them on my own and i need a bear.

Yest i need the bear to take agro from the king while i killed the queen in the room and after i ran out to heal him and finished off the king.

bears are still good.

Ahh lol. But what if you had 2 enchantress instead of an enchantress and bear. Each one takes a boss and you guys kill faster. :P

[Royce]

There are two components to the problem:

1) They made bears into real tanking machines with the rebalance, dodge and armor but not overwhelming offensively.

2) The game with the exception of a few maps is a bit to easy, and for the most part, tanking isn't needed, people just run through maps blowing stuff up...

[noobmigo]

Bears are the most fun, but the worst high level chars....unless you got a squishy mage.

[StompArtist]

I started with a bear and have more fun with my STR mage. Actually I play my mage pretty much the same as I played my bear :-S

I wish my bear was a mage. LOL

[Junside]

Archers get stomp, dodge buff, and aoe root. Admittedly, I don't think archers would do too well with a str build. But assuming they did, they'd probably have less survival but get ranged attacks to make up for it. All in all, enchantresses are by far self sufficient. I'd say in order of best to worst tanking: enchantress/bear/archer. In order of best to worst AoE DPS: enchantress/archer/bear. In order of best to worst single target DPS: archer/enchantress/bear. And sadly, in order of best to worst melee dps: archer/enchantress/bear. As far as I can see, we're almost dead last on everything. Our "skills" make use #2 on tankability to me.

Just wanted to say, birds aren't supposed to tank, ever. The idea would never be considered. This game is designed so that if everyone is doing what their character is best at, will make an efficient team. 2 mages, 2 birds, and 1 bear for balance, 4 birds and one mage for boss farming, and there are others.

In my opinion, the only dual spec build that works is a pally and anything else just sucks. Under that, maybe a high lvl dex bear.

If the bear totally sucks at everything, there's a thread somewhere to suggest combat rebalance again.

[Djinn80]

At lower lvls (under 25) bears are pretty awesome. Dex/int bears especially due to rage + distance weapons. My lvl 20 bear was hitting fully armored chars for 120/shot with a wand when raged. Awesome damage - not to mention stop/sms. I wish the heals were better - they are decent (25 hp for lvl 1 - wohoo) with an int bear, but I as dex bear heals are a waste (do 10 pt heals for lvl 1).

Bears are probably one of the best 1 v 1 chars below lvl 25 but after lvl 30 your best off with a mage or bird.

[noobmigo]

At lower lvls (under 25) bears are pretty awesome. Dex/int bears especially due to rage + distance weapons. My lvl 20 bear was hitting fully armored chars for 120/shot with a wand when raged. Awesome damage - not to mention stop/sms. I wish the heals were better - they are decent (25 hp for lvl 1 - wohoo) with an int bear, but I as dex bear heals are a waste (do 10 pt heals for lvl 1).

Bears are probably one of the best 1 v 1 chars below lvl 25 but after lvl 30 your best off with a mage or bird.

You just nailed it there. But they suck if you don't know how to use them.

[Tvis]

The bears have the skills of "punching bag." We take the punishment and the others get the pinks.

[Greyhorse]

The bears have the skills of "punching bag." We take the punishment and the others get the pinks.

Yeah, I was thinking close to the same thing the other day, as I chugged potion after potion trying to stay alive long enough to get close enough to a boss to hold him while others ranged their attacks. Gets expensive, with not a lot to show for it sometimes. Of course, my eternal gratitude goes to the mages who heal and rev me, LOL.

I freakin' love this game, heh.

Klaubocera, lvl 49 bear
PyanfarChanur, lvl 22 mage
Nozama, lvl 12 archer

[mycroftxxx]

Bears have top-notch tanking capabilites. Birds have top-notch damage for killing bosses. Elves have top-notch mob destruction skills. Seems fair.

If you were to give bears damage like birds have, then you would end up with bear-only leagues that boot everyone else. The game is designed to force you to have more balance. Though in most lower level maps, a team full of birds is pretty freaking good, so maybe it isn't quite balanced.

[Tengotengo]

If there were more kite-disabling bosses, bears would be waaaaay more useful. I started with my bear too, and although I still enjoy the chance to play him, people either want to play with my HateSTR mage or my Sun-Void Bird. A group and I were doing Shadow Caves 3 and got stuck on the witch (of course), so I offloaded my hate armor from my mage and loaded up the bear...only to return to find everyone took off. Then I had to spend friggin 10k to step up my mages strength to wear the hate armor again...
frustrating.

[Chiok]

Hi all, if they made the bear class something more closely related to Warrior class in World of Warcraft that'd be awesome.

I was looking for a skill that would increase the dmg and crit% of bear as his health comes closer to death. That meaning more dmg dealt pvp and pve wise in the front lines.

I also wouldnt mind a charge skill. Rather than using beckon to get mobs closer to you, use a charge and stun with aoe effect attack.... again like the warrior class in WoW.

My 5cents.