DISCUSSION: Are bears necessary for Mt.fang?

[vaffunculo]

Depends- if you use plat 4x elixires then no- you dont. But run MT famg without elixures and it definately helps having a good tank.

Absolute fact...with elixr a dex bird can tank but in non elixr run you most definitely need a bear, a strength bear..dex bears make horrible tanks IMO.

[AbsolutePally]

Find a bear ig name "Debowe" you will see how quickly and effectively he controls the crowd. Extremly fast bear that makes Mt Fang super quick to get through.
By far the best bear I have seen in pve, knows his role and does it perfectly.
Mobs do however have a high dodge and even a great bear (mot many ig tbh) can miss a few

[Pakax]

Same as Ruby. My bear hasn't gone out to Fang yet. Done the mage and now enjoying the bird and tbh, I am kind of scared of taking the bear out in these conditions :-))
While the mage is at 66 and the bird will get there, I am unsure about the bear. This will have to be a real pain, unless I go fully dext or int bear with no beckon or stomp...

[Gunk]

well ill make one comment. Someone's been watching too much RWJ.

[Ellyidol]

Our opinions shouldn't stop anyone from rolling their bear. After all, we are all the same players with access to the same gear, skills, etc. I just find the role of bears much less significant in this campaign. IMO, bear-play was re-introduced in BS and maximized in Nuri's - both in mobs and bosses. However in Fang, I just feel that instead of the same bear-play being kept as significant, it was reduced.

Kinda ironic too, with the mob's high dodge bears need dex gear to capitalize on Hit to connect their Beckons and tank effectively, but dex gear doesn't tank as well as strength gear.

I've never been one to complain, it just disappoints me that the class I love is losing value.

[Rare]

A good tank is always useful.

As a bear, it is your job to stay ahead of the pack. I know its difficult sometimes, especially with a bunch of juiced up birds and mages just running in and trying to blow everything up.

But just like any other map. If the bear gets in first and pulls mobs to a spot, it will go a lot faster. Here is what I usually do:

1. Stay ahead of the pack and pull mobs together.
2. As a bear, unless you're wearing DEX gear, your damage is pretty low anyway. So, before they are all dead you need to turn tail and start heading for the next mobs. Timing is everything with this, especially if you're still grinding away. Don't want to miss a bunch of XP trying to help the pack.

When I use my mage or bird, having a good bear can be a killer combo. Problem is, I see a lot of bears that hang around with the mobs for way to long. By the time the mobs are dead, the bear is still standing there. At that point they already lost their head start which means it will be difficult to becon at the next mob area without having your party members slow down for you.

[Darkfader]

Yeah I also noticed pretty same thing in this campaign. Bears are not in my opinion MUST, but it makes runs faster a lot when there's bear who can collect bunch of mobs together and then all can nuke em away.

[Rare]

Yeah I also noticed pretty same thing in this campaign. Bears are not in my opinion MUST, but it makes runs faster a lot when there's bear who can collect bunch of mobs together and then all can nuke em away.

I can agree with that. But if we're talking about elixir runs, no class is really a must. They just make things go faster.

A slight exception might be mages. But if everyone is juiced, they aren't really a must either.

[WhoIsThis]

I can agree with that. But if we're talking about elixir runs, no class is really a must. They just make things go faster.

A slight exception might be mages. But if everyone is juiced, they aren't really a must either.

With elixir, damage dealer > tank. The difference is very noticeable. Try running with 5 str builds vs 5 pure dex bird/pure int mage.

[Rare]

With elixir, damage dealer > tank. The difference is very noticeable. Try running with 5 str builds vs 5 pure dex bird/pure int mage.

Yeah I understand that, but the point is, nobody is necessary. It makes things fast to have 5 dex/ints than 5 strs... but it also faster to have 4 dex/ints and 1 str than 5 dex/ints. That's my point.

When you are running with 5 elixir users, none of the classes is a "must".

[Hankomachos]

dex bears make horrible tanks IMO.

Do you mean full dex or dual str/dex? If you mean the latter then I'd have to disagree because bears need dex for hit%. IMO, every bear needs some str and some dex but but pure of both isn't necessary. Pure dex bears, however are indeed "horrible tanks" IMO.

[Slough]

If there's a good bear in the party, as a dex/str bird I'll hold back and follow them and hope the party takes my queue. Pulling them to the corners and walls for me is a wonderful feeling when I can come up tangle and scream.

2 mages (int/int) 2 birds (dex/dex) and a bear (str) is my ideal party but the bears seem to be MIA in fang and that's a shame.

I've even reverted to not using elixers at all and being used to people leaving because I refuse to stay constantly elixered. Even that way I still hardly die unless someone isn't doing their part.

Truth be told, I miss having the bears with me lol

[KingFu]

Do you mean full dex or dual str/dex? If you mean the latter then I'd have to disagree because bears need dex for hit%. IMO, every bear needs some str and some dex but but pure of both isn't necessary. Pure dex bears, however are indeed "horrible tanks" IMO.

As long as they can stay alive, I don't mind them. I personally don't recommend them, but hey, as long as they're not becoming a bear skin rug, it works fine.

[Survivorfan]

My bear is crying, thanks
jk

[Hankomachos]

As long as they can stay alive, I don't mind them. I personally don't recommend them, but hey, as long as they're not becoming a bear skin rug, it works fine.

LOL! Nice. I've tried almost every build (int/str), (Dex/str) even int/dex! I always revert back to my normal str/dex build but i agree, bears are very versatile, and it all comes down to the beholders skill.


I don't recall going pure dex, maybe in my ao3 days but I wouldn't want to risk even more deaths. >.>

[WhoIsThis]

Yeah I understand that, but the point is, nobody is necessary. It makes things fast to have 5 dex/ints than 5 strs... but it also faster to have 4 dex/ints and 1 str than 5 dex/ints. That's my point.

When you are running with 5 elixir users, none of the classes is a "must".

It depends heavily on the quality of the bear. In most cases though, no.

The fastest runs I have seen though are the ones with 4 dex birds and 1 pure int mage. All damage dealers. Birds must be willing to play the "Physiologic style". 3 dex birds and 2 int mage works about as well. Any other configurations lead to slow downs. 2 pure int may be ideal because deaths happen even on 4x. Sadly, no, the fastest runs are not with bears on elixir.

With birds spamming thorn wall, you can lots of nature strikes. The net benefit from beckon/smash is not nearly enough to justify losing a bird, particularly when it's time to face a boss. 3-4 birds on elixir can quickly lock down a boss. This is true, even with a pure dex bear on rage. Unfortunate, but true. Against mobs, the real bottleneck you are quickly going to find is not how fast you can kill, but how fast you can walk, which is unsatisfactory even on elixir.

[Uepauke]

I completely agree about non-elixir runs needing a bear. Also, it's not a matter of 'needing' this class or that class, especially on elixirs.

The following applies to elixir xp runs:

(yes, I caved, I want that armour!): when it was all birds and mages, we killed them fast, running as we killed, but there were times we had to hang around in a room because the mob was still scattered (despite a bird or mage trying to round them up) and the skills didn't hit all of them.

When a great bear joined us (and he doesn't want me to name him), it pulled ahead and constantly moved forward, with us killing the last mob, it was already up ahead with the next mob. Or it would pull them into the forward corner and the mob was dead in literally one second as we mega'd them. Some bears pull to the side, some hang around to finish off the killing, and so the team ends up doubling backwards or stopping the run.

Comparing all mage and birds with mixed team with that bear, the latter runs were MUCH faster.

The negative part for the bear is, of course, it doesn't end up with as high a kill count or as many drops to liquidate as the rest of us.

[jiroununu]

Bear are design for big map, where mobs are seperate but close to wall or corner. Haunted symphony is the perfect map to show what a bear is capable of. And trust me, once u hang around with a good bear, u wouldn't like to do any runs without them. It's all about the art of beckon! The game is much more enjoyable with a perfect beckon.
But what happens now? The new map ruines us! What the heck is this balefort map? It's too narrow, it ruined beckon. For a perfect beckon to work, the ideal distance between u and mob packs are 8-10m, but there's only 3m wide in those maps. I have to say i'm so disappointed with these new maps. Lazy, uncreative, same mobs every map, they don't even bother to make a name for the map, just use first,second,third floor, lmao!

I know some ppl don't care, because they only care about new gear and pvp. But for some ppl like me mainly pve, we are more interested in maps, mob skill combo, boss tactics, instead of just simply make mobs tons of hp, hits harder.
Seriously, i've never been bored with any maps in PL so far, but this time, after two weeks release of mt fang, im really bored.