Slippaz' Bearsin Vs Caster Guide - Topic

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Apr 1 2012 03:52pm

What to expect from this character:

I will tell you right now that this character, much more than a BvC, is limited to dueling casters (and zons, but we’ll get to that). You simply aren’t going to kill a smiter/variant using Normal Attack on a Runic Talon unless you’re fighting the real dregs of pub dueling; you won’t kill even a decent barb (though you should get closer on that one); and you’re equally unlikely to kill an hdin. If you can’t deal with those three (very common) builds having an essentially insurmountable advantage over you, don’t make this class.
So why, then, would anyone make a Bearsin when there are other types of vs Caster specialists that do offer chances against these common classes? For me, the answer is threefold: playstyle, plain-style, and rarity. I love BvC’s, but I find the playstyles of their Sin counterparts much more satisfying. This character is going to play, in large part, like a Ghost, but the end result feels more solid to me. There’s a certain fluidity to WW that a Bearsin can’t touch, but her main attack is more reliable and, despite requiring that same kind of engaging/energetic playstyle, is easier to execute without error. Obviously style comes effortlessly to this build—a Faded Werebear is a beautiful thing and 3-Frame attack is just absurd; and for those of you who like to play the more underdog/unusual builds, this is a character that you very rarely see who will actually get you some marks in that W column. Additionally, kills via intense FHR lock (and I mean intense) are incredibly satisfying. Enough of this crap that nobody’s going to read.

Goals:

86Fhr on the Bearform switch
Never less than 4-frame attack in Bearform
65Fcr with Spirit out/40Fcr on the Claw switch
Max DR with Fade
Max Block with Whitstan’s
6.5k+ Life in Bearform.

Stat Allocation:
Dexterity: Enough for MB with Whitstan’s wearing 1x Angelic Ring
Strength: Enough to wear Dancers (was just a couple of points for me)
Vitality: Rest
Energy: None

Skill Allocation:

You will have no problem maxing all of the skills useful for a Bearsin. Since there aren’t very many, I opted to pump fade and eliminate the need for DR on gear. For those of you who (rightly) love Weapon Block, I’ll give you the uncomplicated version: dual wielding in Bearform screws up your attack, even if the animation says otherwise.

Claw Mastery: 20 (This is your only source of physical ED and a crucial source of AR)
Venom: 20
Mind Blast: 20
Fade: Enough to hit lvl 42 with your Beast Swap + Battle Command (my personal preference which I’ll explain later, but you can shave a point off and make it lvl 42 with Cta on)
BoS: 1
Blade Shield: 1 (Claws are not a high-range weapon and this skill is dirty )
WoF: 1
LS: 1
Dragon Talon: 1 (I set this as my leftclick on the Beast+Spirit swap in case I want some quick non-shift damage or a chance to proc Open Wounds vs a runner)
Shadow Master: 1
Cloak of Shadows: Rest (Why not? It’s not a bad skill and you’re out of really useful ones.)

Weaponry:
This is where the build’s swaps get most involved. I have 5 different claws that I rotate in/out depending on the situation. Three of these 5 are critical to the success of the build. I’ll list them in order of importance. Any useful skills greater than 1 that you can get on your claws are great, but I don’t pay much attention to them for this particular build.

Jeweler’s Runic Talons of Quickness (ShaelShaelShael): Whatever your Wereform calculator tells you, this claw reaches 3-frame attack and is the only one that can do so (unless you count its Exceptional variant). 3x Shaels is the only way it’ll work. This weapon is your go-to for all non-MB casters. The FHR lock you get from this + MB + Traps is absurd.
Fury Runic Talons: 40ias on an RT/GT gets you 4-frame attack, which is not shabby at all. The OW/DS on Fury is just criminal, and this added damage is key for beating those MB Necs/Druids who aren’t having enough trouble getting out of your lock.
Rare 40ias/Fool’s/Cruel Runic Talons (Um or Lo depending on your preference): This claw is great for facing those higher-defense characters that I told you earlier you couldn’t beat. Because you’re not GM Melee, you do, in fact, have a chance against Zealots/Wolves/Conc, and this is the weapon to do it with. With 1x Angelic I get 24k AR using mine.
Fool’s Runic Talons of Quickness (UmUm): This is your high-AR hit-and-run claw, but if you have a 40ias/Fool’s/Cruel/2os Rare, then it’s redundant. It can be effective for OW’ing hammerdins/Vt’s/Barbs to death, but it’s going to take a lot of patience and has a low probability for payoff. Feel free to skip it.
Jeweler’s Runic Talons of Amplify Damage (3x 15ias/100Ar): I just happened to come by this claw and think it’s cute. It’s not worth the time it’d take to track one down, but I said “I have 5” claws above, so I thought I’d list the last one.
Beast (Z/Caddy/Whatever—they all give u max trap speed I believe)
Cta (Not sure why I’m even listing this)

Other Gear:

Helm:
--2Sin/20Fcr/Visionary Circlet: Sure, you’re wasting 10Fcr on your spirit swap, but IMO there’s no question it’s worth freeing up a ring. Visionary is amazing since your skill-based AR isn’t going to get you very far. Mine has a lot of strength and mana on it—two mods I’ve found very useful. Jewel it however you like, but I highly recommend Fhr. I went for Fhr/dex/res. You could also put a Shael (or Shaels) in here to open up inventory + Shield-socketing possibilities.

Armor:
--Enigma: Forget about using anything else.

Shield
--Whitstan’s (Fhr/whatever Jewel): I see it like this…you have skill points to spare, so why not pump fade for DR? Nigma has 8 on it, so it’s possible to hit 50DR with just fade. I believe it took me about 20 points to max block with Whitsan’s, and I deemed that more useful than SS’s 30 strength. I use a different shield for resists, so SS’s Cold/Light don’t help me.
--Swordback Hold (Fhr/Whatever Jewel): The OW on this shield is just absurd, and I always reach for it immediately vs Necs and Wind Druids. Highly recommended.
--70Res Sanctuary: I actually use an UmUm upped Moser’s because I happen to have lost my mind and upped 3 of them, but any resist-oriented shield will do here. You just want something for stacking when it’s necessary.

Belt:
--24Fhr/OW/Str/Life/Res Belt: You’re a vs Caster char who doesn’t need Fcr—This is the logical choice. Pairs with Fury for 76%OW or Swordback Hold for 60%--neither of which is shabby. Try to get that Strength as high as possible so that you can wear your Dancers more easily. I prefer Cold resist for this and went with a 24Fhr/10Ow/20Str/71Life/27Cr belt.

Gloves:
--Trang’s: You need the Fcr, and this char suffers much less from mana consumption problems than a Ghost…I mean, you’re attacking with Normal Attack.

Boots:
--Shadow Dancers: You really want that max block for vs Zons (a class you can definitely beat up on even though they’re not casters), and these boots give you some much-needed FHR.

Rings:
--2x Ravenfrosts: Your go-to rings. You could definitely replace one with a fancy rare, but IMO it’s not necessary.
--1x Angelic: Pair this with a Fool’s and you get some really competitive AR for a char whose primary skill adds 0 bonuses.
--Assorted Sorb Rings

Ammies:
--Highlord’s: My go-to ammy for the DS. Pair this with Fury and you’ve got nearly 70%DS with very little effort.
--Angelic: You get the idea

Inventory
--9x Shadow Lifers: I tried a melee inv just out of curiosity and this definitely works better. If you’re dueling GM, you’ll need to Cube your Cta, so you won’t necessarily use all 9x. I generally just stash-BO if I’m pubbing.
--4x 3/20/5Fhr Sc’s (or 5Fhr/5Res): If you’ve Fhr’d your helm + Shield, you’ll be at 68Fhr. Make up the difference till you get 86.
--6x Life/Res Sc’s: This is a vs Caster char.

Your General Dueling Strategy:

Think of this char as a different application of many of the same principles by which a Ghost functions. Your basic formula is this: Mind Blast to guarantee recovery animation, lay traps, close in, attack. Often this entire process is done from Namelock: NL with Mind Blast, alternate MB’s + WoF (in some situations LS), and then tele while still retaining the namelock and begin to attack. There is one enormous difference between the Bearsin and the Ghost, and it is one that really does take some practice to perform smoothly: the shapeshift.
On a Bearsin, your Beast + Spirit swap is your primary switch. You tele with this switch, you trap with this switch, you MB with this switch…but you can’t attack (as a Bear) with this switch unless you want time to minimize and check your ISO thread during the attack animation. Even though it may sound cumbersome to Tele + Shift + Swap Weapons + Re-NL to attack, it really isn’t. 65Fcr is going to make you shift pretty fast, and all of the chaos created by the MB + Traps is going to give you the crucial seconds you need, but, again, good hotkeys are paramount. When you begin the teleport animation, you can immediately switch to your Bearform hotkey so that the end of the tele animation leads directly into your shift. Once you begin the shift animation, you will not be able to switch weapons for a brief (very brief) moment. Again, only practice will be able to lock the timing in for you, but knowing the instant that you can switch weapons will come to you with just a little bit of practice. Even so, the timing is very important, because only a few attacks with Beast out are going to ruin your whole combo vs someone good at WSG’ing. Once you’ve switched weapons, you NL again with Normal attack. I personally just use left click for Normal Attack, because anyone WSG’ing out of your lock is going to be moving slowly enough for you to switch weapons, unshift, and re-NL with MB without any trouble at all (after a little practice)—people aren’t exactly going to be teleporting out of this stunlock. I find the hotkey that this frees up useful.

Additional General Dueling Information:

Shadow Master is amazing for getting those random MB’s, but it is very important to remember that the cooldown time from SM conflicts with Bearform! If you have to recast your Master, do it at a safe distance from your opponent and stall with traps/MB 7-8 seconds so that you don’t tele on top of them and find yourself unable to shift. Recasting shadow couples well OW, since you’ll need ~8seconds for both to be finished.
Try to find out whether the char you’re facing has max block or not before you duel them. This is very useful information, as Fury is far better vs MB than your 3-Frame claw.
Use the confusion! A Faded Bear can be very hard to see in the midst of a pile of traps. Fairly often my first kill on someone is followed by a “Wtf was that? Are you WW? Kick?” Use this to your advantage! If you can tele+shift perfectly (which isn’t hard to do), they won’t really get a chance to see what they expect—which is an Assassin graphic WW’ing or standing next to them—and they won’t realize you’re there until you have them in a hopeless stunlock.
Remember to tele in unpredictable spirals.
As you approach, lay trap fields so that your opponent has a chance of teleporting into them if they run away. Often, a spiral approach will encourage an opponent to move toward the general area of your pre-approach position.
If you just need a little bit of damage, or if you want to try to proc OW on a runner (zon for example) try Dragon Talon with Beast out.
Never underestimate the damage that MB can do to an opponent on the run. Use it absolutely as often as possible.

A Few Thoughts on Class-Specific Duels:

Zons:
A pure CS zon is pretty much boned here, but vs a high-FRW Bow/Hybrid zon with good sync/WSG, you may have some trouble catching them. Bearsins don’t have the luxury of those predictive forward WW’s that Ghosts have. Light Sentry’s distance is very helpful here when a zon is too fast to be caught in a simple WoF setup. I also frequently work BoS into my attack sequences. This can be tricky because you’re left with only 8%DR, but I find that, once you have a zon on the run and are only dealing with 1-2 arrows at a time, you can BoS mid NL sequence (approaching with Fade is essential in my opinion), MB again, tele+shift, and chase them down. I have 138Frw with 1 point in BoS + Nigma + Dancers and it works very well. This is why I like to have Fade at lvl 42 with Beast (as opposed to CTA). If you turn on BoS and don’t get a kill immediately, you may want to tele away and recast Fade with max DR.
3Fpa isn’t worthwhile for this duel because dodge screws up your lock. Definitely use Fury.

Necros:
Don’t forget to always use BoS vs Necs
Vita Necs are going to be a joke if you can avoid getting clocked by a Spirit train. Use your 3-Frame claw and lock ‘em all day.
Max Block Necs are a little tougher, but you’ll kill them pretty quickly with Fury. Be prepared from them to escape your traps fairly easily so that you can setup another combo. You’ll still get solid hits in with each attack, and your 76%OW never hurts (you). With BoS you can try to run em down on their first tele away as well—this will get you a hit now and then if they’re not expecting it.

Wind Druids:
Essentially the same deal as Necros here, except that you have to use Fade. MB makes isolating the player very easy, neutralizing summons, and (human) Druid FHR is horrendous. If they’re not max block, they’re screwed. Use your Jeweler’s of Quickness.
Max Block Druids are harder than MB necros because of their high life, but with Fury you’ll still have the upper hand in this duel. Respect the ‘nados, however, because they’ll take you down pretty fast.

Sorcs:
Use whatever resist shield you’ve chosen and play carefully, remembering that your life is almost halved when you’re not in Bearform. Trap fields are great vs 200Fcr sorcs, and your Master can swing the duel in your favor with a quick AA Mind Blast. Watch for that little KB-Shuffle they do on the minimap when your Master catches them and pounce on the opportunity. Once in FHR lock a sorc’s as good as dead.
Default to your 3-Frame claw, and swap in the Fury if they’re MB.

Conclusions
I haven’t included information on dueling Barbs/Pals/Assassins, but this char isn’t really made for fighting them. This doesn’t mean that you won’t ever win these duels (Bearsin vs Ghost is quite fun despite your disadvantage), but it’s going to take impeccable timing, a lot of patience, and some error on your opponents’ parts. I recommend drive-by CoS at the beginning of the duel for all of these characters.
So yes…there are definitive limitations for this class, but if used properly and in the right situations it’s incredibly fun and rewarding. We’ve all been playing this game so long that I think there’s merit in making chars geared toward very specific situations if it allows us to do new things, and the Bearsin uses a rich area of the game’s mechanics that I think has been underexplored.

This post was edited by hapycmpr on Apr 4 2012 06:41pm