~Noodleleg's Ultimate Bear Guide~

[Noodleleg]

~Noodleleg's Ultimate Bear Guide~

Index:
I. Introduction
II. Why Bear?
III. Skills
IV. PvE
V. PvP
VI. Defensive vs Offensive
VII. Combos
VIII. Builds
IX. Specs
X. Important Stats
XI. Terminology
XII. Gear
XIII. Practicing
XIV. Conclusion
XV. Thanks


I. Introduction

~Well, if you read that index… You know this is going to be quite a long guide. Yes, a big phat guide. I've grown to love bears and I think by now, I've had enough experience to teach y'all! Bears are a lot of fun and I think everybody should try them out. Don't rage quit on me! It takes a lot of practice to become a good bear!


II. Why Bear?

~As I've said before, bears are very fun. They're my favorite class. Some people tell me bears are low-damage dealing noobs that never get kills etc. That's not true! You can be any style of bear you wish to be! You can be an attack bear, a defensive bear, a debuff bear, an agro bear, and much more! You just need the right build up, and I'm here to teach you some!


III. Skills

~There are a total of 12 skills for a bear and 12 like any other class… All skills are useful and it's hard to choose which skill you want to focus on. I'll let you decide in this part.

Buffs:
Rage:
Offensive Buff - Lets you deal much more damage than usual
Iron Blood:
Defensive Buff - Gives you a lot more armor
Evade:
Defensive Buff - Gives you more dodge
Taunt:
Defensive Buff / Special Skill - Gives you dodge (stackable) / Taunt enemies and take agro

Slashes:
Super Mega Slash:
Powerful Slash - Does the most damage, reduces enemy's armor, and knocks back
Vengeful Slash:
Spam Slash - Does okay damage and knocks back enemy
Crippling Slash:
Stun Slash - Does the least damage and has the least range, but stuns enemy

Debuffs:
Hellscream:
Defensive Debuff - Reduces enemy's hit/damage and also has much more range than Crushing Blow
Crushing Blow:
Offensive Debuff - Reduces enemy's damage/a lot of dodge, but has horrible range

Miscellaneous:
Beckon:
Important Skill - Pulls enemy towards you (lets you get close enough to use other skills)
Stomp:
Important Skill - Does the opposite of Beckon (pushes enemy away from you), a hit debuff, and negates stun effects
Restore:
Healing Skill - Replenishes little health and gives +5 health regeneration for a short period of time


IV. PvE

~A bear's main job is to agro (tank). However, you don't have to tank, but all good bears know how to and usually do. Tanks' best friend are walls. Draw the mob towards you, and fling them towards the wall. If you're running with a good party, mages should heal you a lot, so you might not have to spam those health pots while agreeing.



Walls and corners are great for agro-ing. Whenever using beckon, make a mental 12m circle (red). Pull your enemies towards your wall and use hellscream right away. It'll stun them and make them hit much less, which can mean life and death. A bad bear will automatically stomp and fling the mob all over the place. Be a good bear and step back (orange) and then, stomp (blue).
Red=Beckon ---> Orange=Step Back ---> Blue=Stomp
After stomp, keep debuffing and start spamming those slashes! If a teammate is in trouble or you want to make sure the mob is following you, use taunt. Don't get too carried away though! Sometimes, taunt can kill you! Ah, do I love that corner in Haunted Symphony…

The trickiest thing in PvE is agro-ing correctly without walls. With walls, you have a bit "leeway" and don't have to be so conscientious. My method of no-walls agro-ing is drawing the good ole' 12m circle. I'll show you what I mean.



In a no-wall agro situation, make sure that all your enemies are on the circle. As in, they're all equally distant away from you. If they're scattered or too close to you, they'll scatter all over the place and you're team is going to have a lot of difficulty clearing the mobs. In scenario 1, I have the mob surrounding me. I can beckon, hellscream and might be able to stomp them towards the wall. However, in scenario 2, I don't' have any walls to stomp them too. Make sure all of the mob is on that line and then beckon. If they dodge, don't freak out. Use hellscream instead. In scenario 2, don't stomp. The only time I'd stomp is if I'm 100% sure they'd die if I did a beckon/stomp combo (barely any life left).


V. PvP

~Bears are really tricky in PvP. As my good Parfee said, "Bears are all in logic." Don't' be too dependent on combos to win! If you know your range and have experience, you'll do fine without a combo. The most important skills in PvP are the debuffs. Without debuffs, you'll die really fast. I have yet to see a good bear that doesn't use debuffs well… I"m not talking low level! Bear PvP is very funny… You can have 1/10 life left, but if you land all your debuffs, you might live through the whole fight with only 1/10 left.

Try to pin your enemy. You don't have to, but it helps.



Mages:
Try to pin mages like you pin mobs in PvE. If you can't pin them, practice and learn to kill them without flingin' them to a wall! A bear doesn't need a wall to win. It just helps if they're running for their lives…



When you fight mages, they have something really annoying called heal. They can un-stun themselves and un-debuff themselves (only hellscream). A smart mage will let a bear beckon and hellscream and then, heal. If you're a good bear, you'll time your hellscreams well, so that the only times they're debuff-less is only a few seconds in a fight. When fighting a mage, I like to always keep the mage at most 2m away from me. I also keep at least 1 stun skill available. If the mage is un-stunned, make sure to stun them right away and keep them in a debuff trap.

Most fights:

Beckon, Hellscream, Crushing Blow





Bears:
Bears are squishy when they're fighting each other because bears don't' like hurting their own kind. However, pandas can be really racist and like to kill fake robot bears. Bear vs Bear fights are determined by whoever landing the debuffs first. Try to debuff the other bear as much as possible, but be tricky and make sure they don't land theirs. Like… Run towards the other bear and use crushing blow, but step back right away and make sure he doesn't land his. If the other bear is not debuffed and you are… I recommend running. If you can barely dodge and hit and he's in good shape…. You're screwed, bro.

Hellscream-


Crushing Blow-


I like to start off my fights with hellscream and crushing blow because it debuffs their damage, hit, and dodge. If I land both of them, I can beckon them towards the other direction and start poundin' them without much effort. Again, make sure you hit those debuffs!

There's a technique called late buffing. It's a bit annoying, but it works very well. Start off with only defensive buffs and play defensively. When their buffs end, turn on your Rage and pin them. You're going to do much more damage than the other guy if he doesn't have any buffs and you have Rage.

Birds:
~Against birds, bears are pretty darn squishy. Beckon determines the winner. If beckon misses, good fight, bear. If beckon hits, good fight bird. Well, unless the bird is a pro and the bear is a phatty. Now that Hellscream is 12m, it's easier to run away from a bird, but that also means the bird can do massive damage to you with 9 blast shot. Always make sure they don't root you… And especially make sure they don't double root you.

Beckon-


Hellscream-


Do your damage!


Birds are very dodgy also, so you might miss your debuffs. If you do, either spam those slashes or stomp and run away!

Birds are mean and like to start their fights with blinding shot. Your hit goes down so low that it's not even funny. If you miss that beckon and the bird roots you, HELLSCREAM, STOMP, AND RUN. If he roots you, he's going to do that combo and you're screwed if he does it with root debuffs. Root debuffs your dodge a lot and… If you don't dodge… And he has a lot of damage… Good fight. But remember! Birds are squishy too and if you think you can, nuke him with a beckon, hellscream, stomp, SmS!


VI. Defensive vs Offensive

~There are 2 main ways to play bear, defensive or offensive. A defensive bear likes to debuff and agro a lot, while an offensive bear likes to do as much damage as possible. Most good bears play a mix of the both. Example of defensive: Beckon, hellscream, crushing blow, slashes, auto attack, restore, hellscream, crushing blow, stomp, slashes, etc. Example of offensive: Rage, beckon, stomp, SmS. I prefer to play defensive in PvP and PvE.

Defensive:
Pros:
-Not much damage done to you
-Helps practice with timing of skills
Cons:
-Not much damage done to enemy
-Not many kills

Offensive:
Pros:
-A lot of damage
-A lot of kills
-Can nuke easier
Cons:
-Easily nuked by a smart enemy
-A lot of damage done to you
-Fast deaths

~Should you go defensive or offensive? I chose defensive. It's more fun, in my opinion. Offensive is all in how fast you can spam skills and how well you know your range.

~There's something I do when playing defensive I haven't seen anybody else use. I do something called "bluffing". It's usually against a bear, but when I have all the skills I need charged up and a lot of health, I pretend to run away as if my health was almost depleted. Some people might decide, "I'm gonna chase and nuke this guy a bit more." That's when I step in and counter-attack them. Playing defensive doesn't mean you can't nuke!


VII. Combos

~Again, bears shouldn't have a set combo. Oh, Parth, do I luv yew. Basic Combos.

PvP:

Top: Offensive
Bottom: Defensive

Bears:



Mages:



Birds:

*Same combo with mages*
If beckon doesn't hit, stomp and run. If beckon or hellscream hits, run towards the bird.


VIII. Builds

~There are many good builds for bears. I'm just going to say a few I recommend you use. A good PvP build usually works in PvE also.

Levels:

10:
5 Rage
3 Stomp
1 SmS

18:
6 Rage
6 Hellscream
3 Stomp
1 SmS
1 VS

26:
6 Rage
6 Hellscream
6 Crushing BLow
3 Beckon
3 Stomp
1 SmS

35:
6 Rage
6 Iron Blood
6 Hellscream
6 Crushing Blow
5 Beckon
3 Stomp
1 SmS
1 Cs

45:
6 Rage
6 Evade
6 Taunt
3 Iron Blood
6 Hellscream
6 Crushing Blow
5 Beckon
3 Stomp
1 SmS
1 VS
1 CS

56:
6 Rage
6 Iron Blood
6 Evade
6 Taunt
6 Beckon
6 Stomp
6 Hellscream
6 Crushing Blow
4 SmS
1 CS
1 VS
1 Restore

66:
9 Rage
6 Iron Blood
8 Evade
9 Taunt
6 Beckon
6 Stomp
9 Hellscream
9 Crushing Blow
1 SmS
1 CS
1 VS

There are many builds out there! If you got the plat, try a lot out!
Skills I recommend maxing:
Rage
Taunt
Hellscream
Crushing Blow
SmS?
Stomp?
Skills I recommend keeping low:
CS
Restore


IX. Specs

~There are 3 specs for bears… From the department of Dr. Obvious. Str bear, int bear, and dex bear. Most people use dex bear… Dex bears with str gear rox! I use dex bear all the time, well not back in the day when level 26 still had skill!

How to spec:

-Pure str bears have nice tanking capabilities, but lack hit, crit, etc. They aren't very good in PvP and barely hit anything.
How to: All in str.
-Int bears are very fun to use, but aren't very good in PvP. They die very fast due to their lack of dodge and armor. They have excess mana regeneration that is useless.
How to: Just enough for the int gear and the rest in dex (or str if you wish to mix up different spec gear).
-Dex bears are baws. They have the perfect balance of damage and tanking power.
How to: Just enough for the str gear and the rest in dex.


X. Important Stats

~Some stats are very important and they vary in different levels, too. Example: Hit is much more important in low level compared to level 61 PvP.

Hit:
Hit is a very important skill in all levels of bear, both PvP and PvE. As a bear, you start off with very low hit. To rebalance it out, people spec their bears as dex bears so that they can have above 100 hit. Having 100 hit+ does not mean you hit all the time, by the way! Also, if you don't hit in PvE, mobs won't get agro-ed correctly and that's just plain annoying.
When to use hit rings:
Low level
Strongman Glyph
Beastly Set

Crit:
Some of you may not know, but a bear usually wins when he gets the "lucky crits". A secret of my builds were that I'd use a crit ring. I think it was an 11 damage and 1 crit ring? Whenever I used that ring in low level… And even in level 51, I'd crit so much the other player would complain. I'm not even kidding… That +1 crit seemed to do so much more than any other ring I ever used. Wow, I just told you one of my secrets o_O… You're welcome.
When to use crit rings:
Any level

Dodge:
Dodge will save your life a lot. It's the only reason bears don't die within seconds of starting a fight. A lot of the dodge comes from the buffs, so I wouldn't use a dodge ring most of the times.
When to use dodge rings:
35
Whenever there is too low dodge in gear


XI. Terminology

~There are some terms you need to know about bears. Here's a few.

Nuke:
Doing as much damage to your opponent as fast as you can, without worrying about your own health. Usually a beckon, stomp, SmS.

Tank:
Trying to take all the damage for your team.

Debuffs:
The opposite of buffing to your opponent. Lower their stats.

Buffs:
Boosting up your stats for a short period of time.

Flinging:
Like a nuke. It throws your enemy across the map with a quick beckon, stomp, SmS.

Running:
Just like what it sounds! Run away from your enemy to regenerate health!

XII. Gear

~Some people, like me are very stingy and don't want to spend money on gear. However, there are others that have way too much money to waste. I'm going to list some gears you might consider buying.

Being stingy:
10: Buy some Halloween items
20: Buy some more Halloween items
30: Buy an Iceberg set
45: Make sure to pick up those alien oasis items
50: Buy a Rift set
51: Pick up some Sewer's items
60: Buy a Big Top set
66: Use Angel
75: Buy Beastly

Being wasteful:

10: Buy Halloween Items / Winterfest PJs
15: Buy Artisan and Halloween items
25: Buy Earthquake
30: Buy Iceberg
35: Buy Copperhead
45: Buy Shock Lance and pick up some armor
50: Buy Rift set
53: Buy Royal Sewer/Raid Roach Bow
55: Buy Fortified
56: Buy Strongman
61: Buy Orlok
66: Use Angel
70: Buy Tiki Crusher
71: Buy Beastly
75: Buy Savage


XIII. Practice

~As stated above, bears take a lot of practice to become good at. There are things you for sure need to practice and I'm here to tell you what you should focus on if you're new to bear.

Debuff timing:
Go around and ask all good bears and tell me, did any of them say debuff timing wasn't important? A successful bears knows his debuff timing very well! You must master this to master bear! Remember, Hellscream and Crushing Blow needs to be timed perfectly for the ultimate debuff. Beckon ---> Hellscream ---> Walk back or towards enemy ---> Crushing Blow

Slash mania:
Each slash has an important role. You'll notice that some slashes have a knock back or a pull into effect. The more you level that slash, the more your enemy will be moved by your slash. Make sure you know where the slash throws your enemy. If you can't handle high level slashes, learn how to.

Getting out of bad situations:
Usually, stomp will save your life. But what if you don't have stomp? There are 2 things you can do. Beckon them towards you, debuff them, and wait for stomp to reappear. Or... counter-attack! Sometimes, mages especially, thing they're all so pro and thing that if they stun you, you're dead. However, you can always use that to your advantage and PWN them! Make sure you know how to time beckon, when not chasing (which gives +2m to beckon).


XIV. Conclusion

~Bears are very fun and you need to try them out, if you haven't already! If you're having trouble, just give me a call! Shoot me a pm or do something! I'm usually available and ready to help you out anytime… Well, please don't' stalk me just because I said that… I can teach you much more in game than through a guide! It's like… Will you learn more from YouTube or from a personal trainer …? Exactly! Catch me in-game if you need more help!


XV. Thanks

Special thanks to:
Parth for being a bro
David for being my bear fur life (see what I did there?)
The Funkies for starting me off with a true bear
All friends for being supportive


Good luck and catch me in game!