What is Blizzard's reasoning for not improving Bears

Community General Discussion
1

I’m at a bit of a loss to figure this out. Bears are not horrible tanks, but they are certainly on the low end of the spectrum. With Warriors being what they are, it makes us look worse than we are, but even against other tanks that aren’t War, Bears are lagging behind.

DH got buffed for its armor and its % damage reduction
Brews are getting buffed for magic stagger (I think they need more, but it is at least being looked at)
Paladins and DKs are basically being left alone… I think both could use a bit better single target damage, but that’s a discussion.

But Bears… ok, I understand we were not finished in Beta. Our class tree had not been worked on and our spec tree was left until the last second then had some slapdash thrown at it. We felt ok until content started getting harder, then the obvious lack of damage mitigation started to show. Then, our vaunted “well damage bro” started falling off too.

So… Blizzard says they are going to finally rework the Bears. GREAT! We need it. They make a talent baseline, make a bunch of changes and new talents, connect a few nodes, and poof, NEW BEAR… right?

But then I look at it, and I see

  1. Incarn Bear is getting nerfed
  2. MoonBear isn’t getting any better damage mitigation, and their damage is only getting shifted around with 1-2 talent changes, for almost zero net gain.
  3. The left side of the tree is still heavily nerfed and people don’t go into it.

Then, its documented that Tooth and Claw hasn’t been working for magic damage this entire time.

So Bears are going into the patch today, looking to be at BEST equal to where they were, and more likely nerfed from yesterday… when we are already the least favored tank.

Can someone explain this to me? Blizzard? hello? You took the worst off tank, who is doing the lowest keys out of all the tanks, and nerfed them by reworking them and gave them no added mitigation or healing, when that is the things they are lacking the most.

Some of the new talents look like they could be interesting, but we don’t have the points to take them and none of them help with the problems we have.

What gives?

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2

Sometimes it’s all about the slick transmog to get Yourself a cute lady friend man

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3

I’d like three changes;

  • Wild Charge should generate 40 rage when used.
  • Ursoc’s Fury should be changed from 30 to 60%
  • Tooth and Claw needs to be fixed.
4

They also need to make bear combat animations as badass as warrior animations. I love my bear but he doesn’t seem as into it as any of my other tank characters.

5

It’s a shame, druids are by far the most fun class to play (for me).

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6

I think it tends to come down to Frenzied Regeneration. This is why bears always seem a bit more squishy then the rest. A fairly big heal that can be used often has to take from something.

I haven’t played a DK in some time but I have healed them. They seem to have a similar issue, taking spiky damage at times just to have a use for their great self heals.

7

Those would be nice Illy, but we would still be the worst tank by a decent margin.

Bears need

  1. Better mitigation against magic, whether that is % DR, interaction with an ability, more self healing to counter it, better mastery scaling… something
  2. More access to utility and kit inside bear form… I have suggested for a long time the simple “Ursine Adept allows all instant cast druid spells to be cast in Bear Form”. This would give us a wider array of spells to work with.

I personally think the best option would be to take my suggestion for Ursine Adept and revert the mastery scaling nerf we got awhile ago. Let mastery scale our health and healing recieved like it used to, giving us a larger health pool and more potent heals. Add to this the ability to use some of our healing spells (that are mostly worthless speccing into atm) or boomkin spells for more damage and utility.

Those two changes would solve alot of issues, without requiring any talent changes or shifting anything around.

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8

PvP …… is the answer

9

Quor, frenzied regen is usable less often than DKs heals which are stronger, and does less overall healing than warrior healing, which is usble more often too.

It ain’t as good as its made out to be.

10

Make bear more sponge, less rock

Ez fix

11

Fair point. Nerf ALL tanks in pvp. F that S they are too hard to balance properly that way.

12

See my suggestions above. We are currently neither sponge nor rock, hence the issue.

13

I have never played bear, nor will I ever.

The limit of my understanding is more sponge, less rock

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14

They have never been able to tune tanks in PvP . Either OP or useless and it affects PvE whatever they do . Guardian for instance can and was pretty OP in PvP few weeks back

15

Define Bears.

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a large, heavy mammal that walks on the soles of its feet, having thick fur and a very short tail. Bears are related to the dog family but most species are omnivorous.

Family Ursidae Fischer de Waldheim, 1817 – bears
Genus Ursus Linnaeus, 1758 – bears
17

Oh, so this guy.

18

DPS bear form when

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19

Koala Bears should be a form

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20

About the time they let Prot Warriors dps with a shield… oh wait.