S9 Gild's Builds: Bear (TANK)
Table of Contents
Section 1: Notes
Section 2: The Build
Subsection 2.1: Level 1
Subsection 2.2: Abilities you WANT
Subsection 2.3: Talents you WANT
Subsection 2.4: Shadow Bear
Section 3: How it Plays
Section 4: TL;DRSECTION 1: NOTESBear builds are top tier to play, especially this season in particular. Extremely tanky, tons of mitigation abilities and talents as well as a near bottomless resource. Throw in the capacity for a huge amount of damage, almost competitive with any DPS and you're cookin something special. Bear is relatively low luck, needing essentially it's Level 1 spells and a handful of others to flesh out it's kit. it's entirely possible to dredge up a near perfect build just based off your 10 card choices if you have the right cards, of course. Objectively it's also fairly low skill, requiring no complex rotations or combo point managing. The majority of this guide will be focused on covering the "normal" styled bear, mixed with others, like Carnage and Thunder abilities. Thunder Bear only has a handful of abilities (3 abilities and 2 talents) and all of them work well with normal bear so it wont be considered "separated". Shadow Bear has some strong points that I'll cover in a brief section, but I don't particularly enjoy the proc based gameplay and casting in melee range tends to end up clunky in Ascension.
If you need information on where to find specific cards for abilities, feel free to check out S9 Card Drops for locations, or ideas on new cards you might want to collect.
This is a long form guide, meant to give proper explanation and information on the build. If you can't be bothered to read, check out the TL;DR at the bottom.
Things to remember:
- Bear is "slower" but incredibly consistent.
- AMAZING Manastorm/prestige build, can basically take a handful of cards and swipe your way to 60 pulling the whole dungeon at once.
- Few different styles of Bear, all able to be meshed with the basic form very well.
- Chances of getting everything you want are pretty solid with a few cards.SECTION 2: THE BUILDThe level 1 start is important, yet often seems to get skipped over in guides. What cards do you slot in if you dont have every perfect combination you need? Is there any abilities good for leveling, but not so great to keep the whole time? WHY do they suggest the abilities they do? We're going to cover these things, and more!
Primary Stat: Strength or Agility
Bear scales amazingly with Strength or Agility (even without the addition of the classic Mental Quickness buff). Depending on the content you're doing, gear you already have access to etc, there's a VERY strong case to be made for either stat. Plate gives enough extra armor to slightly offset the extra armor (85%) Leather would give in Bear Form and doesn't full bridge the gap, but Strength focused gear seems to have better damage capacity in the long run. Agility ends up slightly more defensive in the long run, Strength can dish out more damage.
Gear: Agility or Strength > Stamina > Spell Power/Attack Power
Spell Power now gives flat weapon damage, making it an incredible secondary stat, especially when paired with Mental Quickness for almost every build out there these days. I will state it here that for a lot of content (short of maybe high tier raids and M+ where you might be tanking and need defense) that Paladin styled gear is likely going to be near best in slot when paired with Strength main stat.
Strength: Lawbringer, Might
Agility: Nightslayer, Bloodmail, Cenarion
Weapons: One hand weapon with a shield. Bears can't block, but benefit from the extra armor. On hit will only apply from main hand. A weapon enchant can do well on bear, something like Fel Infused Weapon, Poisons, Flametongue or Windfury
Bear/Cat/Serpent form have normalized attack speeds (2.5 seconds for Bear), this means regardless of how fast or slow your weapon is, they attack at the same speed (this IS affected by haste, etc) and they only auto attack with the main hand.
Subsection 2.1: Starting Abilities (Level 1)
These are all useful abilities to end up rolling, whether you card them or not.
MAKE NOTE: Always aim for the full version of talents if you can. Substitute in what you have, when you can.
Unbounded Deathhealer
Unbounded Deathbringer
Amal'thazad's Malediction
Amal'thazad's Curse
Seething Flames
Master Shapeshifter
Overheated Strikes
Stormbringer
Purification By Light
Righteous Zealot
Harbinger of Flame(Anything that buffs Bear Form, yours stats, a core ability, or a generalized proc for free damage/heals. Flat % damage is solid, melee haste is a waste)Subsection 2.4: Shadow Bear
Shadow Bear is a pretty unique playstyle, meshing Warlock spells with Bear to achieve a close ranged, proc based caster. While I don't personally enjoy the playstyle, I'll make sure to cover it briefly!
Shadow Bolt Bread and butter alongside Swipe (Shadow Waste Bolt)
Vampire Lord Gives healing for shadow damage
Sunder Soul Shadow version of Devastating Pound
Maledictive Assault Enables Nightfall and Backlash procs to work in Bear Form, also casts two additional projectiles.
Shadow Strikes Melee abilities allow Shadow Bolt and Seed of Corruption to be instant cast
Backlash Allows Shadow Bolt and Incinerate to be instant cast
Nightfall Allows Shadow Bolt and Seed of Corruption to be instant cast (and do more damage)
Soul Leech Shadow Bolt heals you based on damage
Corrupted Bear Form 20% of your physical damage lost, gain high-threat shadow damage
Nightmare Mauling Corruption and healing off it
Siphon Life Corruption healing
Everlasting Affliction Shadow Bolt resets Corruption
Honorable mention, Corrupted Maelstrom Weapon MIGHT WORK, havent rolled this one specifically to test (yet).
Other talents focusing on Shadow Bolt, etc.
Pure Shadow
Grasping Curse
Nightfall's Promise
Improved Shadow Bolt
Molten Core
Feel free to take any other bear talents that works for your style of play.
Primary stat and gearing ends up almost exactly the same. Could make a strong point for going Intelligence as a main stat since Bear Form also gets extra armor from Cloth (or just use pally gear because it's quite solid all rounder gear or druid caster.)SECTION 3: HOW IT PLAYS
How does it feel? Whats the rotation? Manastorm? Macros? HELP!
Some useful macros:
Rotation:
1. Carnage Rend
2. Devastating Pound
3. Lacerate
4. Repeat 2 and 3 until max stacks of both.
5. Swipe
Manastorm:
1. Carnage Rend
2. Spam Swipe (Bear) until you realize you've dug a hole to Australia
3. Enjoy
SECTION 4: TL;DR
Bear form go aaruughh
Section 1: Notes
Section 2: The Build
Subsection 2.1: Level 1
Subsection 2.2: Abilities you WANT
Subsection 2.3: Talents you WANT
Subsection 2.4: Shadow Bear
Section 3: How it Plays
Section 4: TL;DRSECTION 1: NOTESBear builds are top tier to play, especially this season in particular. Extremely tanky, tons of mitigation abilities and talents as well as a near bottomless resource. Throw in the capacity for a huge amount of damage, almost competitive with any DPS and you're cookin something special. Bear is relatively low luck, needing essentially it's Level 1 spells and a handful of others to flesh out it's kit. it's entirely possible to dredge up a near perfect build just based off your 10 card choices if you have the right cards, of course. Objectively it's also fairly low skill, requiring no complex rotations or combo point managing. The majority of this guide will be focused on covering the "normal" styled bear, mixed with others, like Carnage and Thunder abilities. Thunder Bear only has a handful of abilities (3 abilities and 2 talents) and all of them work well with normal bear so it wont be considered "separated". Shadow Bear has some strong points that I'll cover in a brief section, but I don't particularly enjoy the proc based gameplay and casting in melee range tends to end up clunky in Ascension.
If you need information on where to find specific cards for abilities, feel free to check out S9 Card Drops for locations, or ideas on new cards you might want to collect.
This is a long form guide, meant to give proper explanation and information on the build. If you can't be bothered to read, check out the TL;DR at the bottom.
Things to remember:
- Bear is "slower" but incredibly consistent.
- AMAZING Manastorm/prestige build, can basically take a handful of cards and swipe your way to 60 pulling the whole dungeon at once.
- Few different styles of Bear, all able to be meshed with the basic form very well.
- Chances of getting everything you want are pretty solid with a few cards.SECTION 2: THE BUILDThe level 1 start is important, yet often seems to get skipped over in guides. What cards do you slot in if you dont have every perfect combination you need? Is there any abilities good for leveling, but not so great to keep the whole time? WHY do they suggest the abilities they do? We're going to cover these things, and more!
Primary Stat: Strength or Agility
Bear scales amazingly with Strength or Agility (even without the addition of the classic Mental Quickness buff). Depending on the content you're doing, gear you already have access to etc, there's a VERY strong case to be made for either stat. Plate gives enough extra armor to slightly offset the extra armor (85%) Leather would give in Bear Form and doesn't full bridge the gap, but Strength focused gear seems to have better damage capacity in the long run. Agility ends up slightly more defensive in the long run, Strength can dish out more damage.
Gear: Agility or Strength > Stamina > Spell Power/Attack Power
Spell Power now gives flat weapon damage, making it an incredible secondary stat, especially when paired with Mental Quickness for almost every build out there these days. I will state it here that for a lot of content (short of maybe high tier raids and M+ where you might be tanking and need defense) that Paladin styled gear is likely going to be near best in slot when paired with Strength main stat.
Strength: Lawbringer, Might
Agility: Nightslayer, Bloodmail, Cenarion
Weapons: One hand weapon with a shield. Bears can't block, but benefit from the extra armor. On hit will only apply from main hand. A weapon enchant can do well on bear, something like Fel Infused Weapon, Poisons, Flametongue or Windfury
Bear/Cat/Serpent form have normalized attack speeds (2.5 seconds for Bear), this means regardless of how fast or slow your weapon is, they attack at the same speed (this IS affected by haste, etc) and they only auto attack with the main hand.
Subsection 2.1: Starting Abilities (Level 1)
- Free choice depending on cards, see below
These are all useful abilities to end up rolling, whether you card them or not.
MAKE NOTE: Always aim for the full version of talents if you can. Substitute in what you have, when you can.
Unbounded Deathhealer
Unbounded Deathbringer
Amal'thazad's Malediction
Amal'thazad's Curse
Seething Flames
Master Shapeshifter
Overheated Strikes
Stormbringer
Purification By Light
Righteous Zealot
Harbinger of Flame(Anything that buffs Bear Form, yours stats, a core ability, or a generalized proc for free damage/heals. Flat % damage is solid, melee haste is a waste)Subsection 2.4: Shadow Bear
Shadow Bear is a pretty unique playstyle, meshing Warlock spells with Bear to achieve a close ranged, proc based caster. While I don't personally enjoy the playstyle, I'll make sure to cover it briefly!
Shadow Bolt Bread and butter alongside Swipe (Shadow Waste Bolt)
Vampire Lord Gives healing for shadow damage
Sunder Soul Shadow version of Devastating Pound
Maledictive Assault Enables Nightfall and Backlash procs to work in Bear Form, also casts two additional projectiles.
Shadow Strikes Melee abilities allow Shadow Bolt and Seed of Corruption to be instant cast
Backlash Allows Shadow Bolt and Incinerate to be instant cast
Nightfall Allows Shadow Bolt and Seed of Corruption to be instant cast (and do more damage)
Soul Leech Shadow Bolt heals you based on damage
Corrupted Bear Form 20% of your physical damage lost, gain high-threat shadow damage
Nightmare Mauling Corruption and healing off it
Siphon Life Corruption healing
Everlasting Affliction Shadow Bolt resets Corruption
Honorable mention, Corrupted Maelstrom Weapon MIGHT WORK, havent rolled this one specifically to test (yet).
Other talents focusing on Shadow Bolt, etc.
Pure Shadow
Grasping Curse
Nightfall's Promise
Improved Shadow Bolt
Molten Core
Feel free to take any other bear talents that works for your style of play.
Primary stat and gearing ends up almost exactly the same. Could make a strong point for going Intelligence as a main stat since Bear Form also gets extra armor from Cloth (or just use pally gear because it's quite solid all rounder gear or druid caster.)SECTION 3: HOW IT PLAYS
How does it feel? Whats the rotation? Manastorm? Macros? HELP!
Some useful macros:
- #showtooltip
/cast [noform:1] Bear Form; Feral Charge - Bear
- #showtooltip
/cast [noform:1] Dire Bear Form; Feral Charge - Bear
- #showtooltip
/castsequence reset=2 Devastating Pound, Lacerate
/cast Maul
Rotation:
1. Carnage Rend
2. Devastating Pound
3. Lacerate
4. Repeat 2 and 3 until max stacks of both.
5. Swipe
Manastorm:
1. Carnage Rend
2. Spam Swipe (Bear) until you realize you've dug a hole to Australia
3. Enjoy
SECTION 4: TL;DR
Bear form go aaruughh
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