Around when does bear form become useful?

I just started a baby bear to take advantage of the VIP event and have been a bit puzzled by the class so far. I'm in the high teens levelwise, and even with 5 points in the bear damage increase trait from red line my bear form abilities are still far worse than man form. Bear form only has thrash and bash really at this point while man form has several single target abilities, an AOE, and gets more benefit from expose weakness. On top of that even the basic man form skills do more damage than thrash 3. I suppose over the course of a long fight bash might be worth quickly switching into bear form to use, but at this point there aren't any long fights. Ohh, and man form has access to the heal, too.

I'm sure at some point I should start using bear form more actively -- around when should I expect that?

I leveled in red for the most part, now 102. while you level, you need to pick things up for quest objectives and you can do that in man form only. Fast enough on landscape, you can kill with slash then biting edge and run away.

By the time I was around 80, I discovered claw swipe in blue line. At that point I never got out of bear form as I was just enjoying gathering tons of mob to aoe and fast heal myself with recuperate.

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Originally Posted by swarmofseals

I just started a baby bear to take advantage of the VIP event and have been a bit puzzled by the class so far. I'm in the high teens levelwise, and even with 5 points in the bear damage increase trait from red line my bear form abilities are still far worse than man form. Bear form only has thrash and bash really at this point while man form has several single target abilities, an AOE, and gets more benefit from expose weakness. On top of that even the basic man form skills do more damage than thrash 3. I suppose over the course of a long fight bash might be worth quickly switching into bear form to use, but at this point there aren't any long fights. Ohh, and man form has access to the heal, too.

I'm sure at some point I should start using bear form more actively -- around when should I expect that?

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This is difficult to answer because the numbers have got changed before christmass and the most players are at the cap. Thus they (me included) can´t experience it unless they create a new character.


But maybe here lies your issue: you are wearing two one-handed weapon and not one two-handed weapon.


The damage of bear-form skills is calculated only from mainhand weapon, never from off-hand weapon (1 exception in counterattack). Thus having equiped twohanded weapon means much more dmg in bear-form.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by swarmofseals

I just started a baby bear to take advantage of the VIP event and have been a bit puzzled by the class so far. I'm in the high teens levelwise, and even with 5 points in the bear damage increase trait from red line my bear form abilities are still far worse than man form. Bear form only has thrash and bash really at this point while man form has several single target abilities, an AOE, and gets more benefit from expose weakness. On top of that even the basic man form skills do more damage than thrash 3. I suppose over the course of a long fight bash might be worth quickly switching into bear form to use, but at this point there aren't any long fights. Ohh, and man form has access to the heal, too.

I'm sure at some point I should start using bear form more actively -- around when should I expect that?

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To answer you question " its usefull from the start"

Expose benefit bear form too.
Your bear skills do far more dmg than human form.
Will become ""more"" usefull with more skill points put in red + when you get your aoe skil / relentles maul.
Just play and learn the class. Use whatever form you want, with time you will notice that bear one do more dmg.

At 120 in red or blue trait both landscape or resource instance mobs can be done easily in man or bear form. The number of pickups/resource nodes/opening doors requiring man form in the resource instances means I pretty much stay in man for except when doing multiples or the end boss. Bear form loses 1/3+ of it’s damage using a 1h versus a 2 hander so equip 2h. Vastin has said “fixing” bear for dual wield is way too much work. IMHO blue is funnest to play but expose and the 15% full wrath crit bonus in red are too effective to miss. So, try to not worry about which form you play in and enjoy the journey.

Granted, Im only 8, so yeah, have no idea what I am talking about.

But yeah, was looking for an answer to this also.

Was just curious when I would be wanting to use bear more than man form right now.

And yes, I am using a 2hd ax, and my man hits are harder than my bear form.

But I am way to low to have any idea, what is better the further on I get. Which was why I was looking for the answer also.

Thanks

There's some good information in this thread! My bear's 120, and I've been running a red focused build, dual wielding. I think there are some ideas here to improve my performance. I'm going to level a 2-hander, and try a blue based build.