13 replies to this topic

[Aslep11]

Greetings Guys who play BM,

 

I've recently joined and played RO2 AoV, and proud to say I want to be a decent BM, I want to learn how to be a decent one...

My part to be played would tank/off tank but more of PVE character since I dont have a thing for PVP.

 

I want to learn the following:

 

1. Skills

2. Stat (What I know is that they come as vit, str and few agi?) but please correct me if im wrong.

3. earning my way for money and items

 

did notice the economy is rather pricey at hand.

 

and I've read some guides already but im confuse and heres one question also.

 

I saw many guides and notice common traits; they always prefer 5/5 bear form vs. 0/5 grizzly form, may I ask why and what is the main explaination for this 2 skills and humbly ask for advise and updated guides/ reference for tank/off -tank PVE oriented player like me?

 

thank you and see in the game if possible... HAPPY RO2 guys

[Critspam]

The first "bear form" increases your attack power and is used to become a DPS/PvP player. Grizzly form changes you into a Bear and gives you 65% more HP and a threat bonus for tanking.

 

Skills you can fiddle with as you see fit since not everybody plays the same way.

 

For stats go Full on Vitality for tanking.

 

The in-game economy is shot right now so pretty much ignore money. If there is an item you want, due diligence and farming will get you farther than Zeny.

[Aslep11]

The first "bear form" increases your attack power and is used to become a DPS/PvP player. Grizzly form changes you into a Bear and gives you 65% more HP and a threat bonus for tanking.

 

Skills you can fiddle with as you see fit since not everybody plays the same way.

 

For stats go Full on Vitality for tanking.

 

The in-game economy is shot right now so pretty much ignore money. If there is an item you want, due diligence and farming will get you farther than Zeny.

 

I understand so they adjusted the BM for flexibility accdg. to players play style, much more I learn from your explanation that both forms can be use for tank/off-tank players like me and it all depends to what I prefer. hmm....

 

so for now since im new here ill play on both of the 5/5 bear and g.bear, then str/vit to maximize my play style.  till then if have some question, would you mind if I send a msg/s to ask questions?

[Critspam]

That is what we VCRs are here for.

[Greven79]

I understand so they adjusted the BM for flexibility accdg. to players play style, much more I learn from your explanation that both forms can be use for tank/off-tank players like me and it all depends to what I prefer. hmm....

 

so for now since im new here ill play on both of the 5/5 bear and g.bear, then str/vit to maximize my play style.  till then if have some question, would you mind if I send a msg/s to ask questions?

 

Nope, you can use only the Grizzly Form as a tank player. Only this shape gives you the additional threat that is needed to force a PvE boss to concentrate on you.

 

The first form (the Bear form) orignally was a brown bear shape. Gravity removed the visual change to sell more costumes. That's why it's still called bear form although you're still in a humanoid form.

 

I don't recommend to level both Bear forms and I heartly advise to stick to Grizzly Form alone. A DPS bear is quite useless in raids, because his damage output is inferior compared to Assassins, Rogues, Priests, Crecentias, Warriors, Socrcerers, Wizards or Knights.

 

The only skill build that I think might be worth it is this one.

 

For stats: VIT is the easiest choice, but it might not be the best one. You already get the highest amount of hitpoints per VIT. You also get a huge HP boost via Grizzly Form. Additional HPs might just be 'for the show'.

 

On contrast. the Beastmaster is lacking an unbalanced skill like Battle Tactics, so his damage output is already quite low. That can even lead towards tanking issues, because an Assassin / Crecentia can outthreat him. So it might be advisable to go full STR instead.

Edited by Greven79, 08 September 2014 - 11:38 AM.

[Aslep11]

Nope, you can use only the Grizzly Form as a tank player. Only this shape gives you the additional threat that is needed to force a PvE boss to concentrate on you.

 

The first form (the Bear form) orignally was a brown bear shape. Gravity removed the visual change to sell more costumes. That's why it's still called bear form although you're still in a humanoid form.

 

I don't recommend to level both Bear forms and I heartly advise to stick to Grizzly Form alone. A DPS bear is quite useless in raids, because his damage output is inferior compared to Assassins, Rogues, Priests, Crecentias, Warriors, Socrcerers, Wizards or Knights.

 

The only skill build that I think might be worth it is this one.

 

For stats: VIT is the easiest choice, but it might not be the best one. You already get the highest amount of hitpoints per VIT. You also get a huge HP boost via Grizzly Form. Additional HPs might just be 'for the show'.

 

On contrast. the Beastmaster is lacking an unbalanced skill like Battle Tactics, so his damage output is already quite low. That can even lead towards tanking issues, because an Assassin / Crecentia can outthreat him. So it might be advisable to go full STR instead.

I see, so in current game, BM tend to be unstable in present situation, while other class have each others role they can play and logically if you think about cannot be replace their roles during raid or partying in the dungeon. e.g is assassins tend to be the best dps around, warriors for off tank/tank even and knights tend to be tanks at most... question left is what BM's role is playing in the game?

 

im enjoying my current BM and as a new player around I seek to learn and apply all what i've learn and read... my current build is str and vit but more of str atm....

[Arbalist]

Grizzlies are perfectly fine at filling the main tank role most of the time. If a properly geared Warrior, Knight, or Crescentia isn't around (haven't seen an Assassin out-threat me yet, but it's probably possible), you'll still be able to get top threat. Grizzlies also have the advantage of not needing a healer in all but 1 or 2 of the end-game dungeons (Assassin's Sanctum and some Silent Corridor bosses). You can pretty much solo everything outside of those two if you wanted. 

The impact of stats is minimal to be quite honest. You won't notice much of a difference regardless of whether you use Str, Agi, or Vit. I've gotten slightly more mileage out of Vit, dueling similar or better geared Beastmasters using Str/Agi builds, but you're not interested in dueling anyways.

I'm just going to say that Greven's build is not the only viable build. Beast Charge and Wild Impact sees little to no use in raids for example. Even Survival sees little use if you have maxed Cruel Bite anyways. These are utility skills at best and there is lots of room for flexibility.

[Greven79]

I see, so in current game, BM tend to be unstable in present situation, while other class have each others role they can play and logically if you think about cannot be replace their roles during raid or partying in the dungeon. e.g is assassins tend to be the best dps around, warriors for off tank/tank even and knights tend to be tanks at most... question left is what BM's role is playing in the game?

 

The Beastmaster is quite ok as a main tank, but not overwhelming.

 

As it's always been, the main tank role is determined by the threat meter... and unless you have some friendly guys to play that hold back or deactivate their tank auras, you will get outthreated by at least two of the three other tanking class (Knights and Warriors).

 

But even if there is no other tanking class around, classes like the Crecentia (due to broken pets) and the Assassin (due to a broken cooldown) might outthreat you.

 

As I've already written, the DPS capabilities of the Beastmaster are also underwhelming. The BM is broken due to two things: Abnormous hitpoints and abnormous heals and neither of these two are DPS specific.

 

The impact of stats is minimal to be quite honest. You won't notice much of a difference regardless of whether you use Str, Agi, or Vit. I've gotten slightly more mileage out of Vit, dueling similar or better geared Beastmasters using Str/Agi builds, but you're not interested in dueling anyways.

 

The thing is that questions about stats often also imply a certain type of honing... and then it's noticable.

 

I'm just going to say that Greven's build is not the only viable build. Beast Charge and Wild Impact sees little to no use in raids for example. Even Survival sees little use if you have maxed Cruel Bite anyways. These are utility skills at best and there is lots of room for flexibility.

 

Sure thing, IF you want to do a pure PvE build, you can skip Beast Charge and Wild Impact (although the latter might be quite handy as well). But IMO none of the alternatives make sense.

 

I really like Survival as it's a heal skill that doesn't generate threat and more importantly - doesn't require a living target. The issue with Cruel Bite is that in a usual grinding party, possible targets might be dead before you could land a successful hit. So you can't rely on the heal. And that's the time when you want Survival just for convenience reasons.

 

If you haven't used your skill reset vellum already, I honestly recommend to level this skill - even before Wild Crush (which is useless for grinding).

 

And since my previous build already included the 20 buyable skillpoints, this is the build that I recommend for ML1 to ML30 grinding.

Edited by Greven79, 10 September 2014 - 03:44 AM.

[aoi911]

i think that we can skip Beast Charge, but Wild impact still useful when grind xD, stun the mobs when healers got agro ^^

[9632130515120055620]

There's also the fact that during grinding you're mostly just spamming tornado and never getting beast points, which survival doesn't require.

Edited by 9632130515120055620, 10 September 2014 - 04:16 AM.

[Arbalist]

I assumed the stats advice was in regards to distributing the 325 stats, because that's what most new players are asking for. If I'm wrong, sure, it'll be the same advice as always: Get your core stats of Str, Agi, or Vit. As I mentioned before, I just use Vit build.

Honing could be an entirely different consideration altogether, in that case I hone for Vigor, especially if you like using Survival for you main heal. True honing will start to make the build noticeable, but let's be honest: With RNG  this bad, you'd probably settle for any of the core stats (Str, Agi, Vit) than to pay to craft/scrub your gear several times over for perfection.

OP mentioned PVE only build, so Beast Charge won't be helping you in PVE that much. I guess you can use Wild Impact for emergency stun while grinding I guess, but 1 point is enough for that. Healers aren't that squishy anymore either, they can survive long enough for your Tornado/Red Pots to pull off mobs if necessary (Hell, they'll kill the mobs before you reach them if they needed to).

If PVE also includes boss fights, getting Rage Smash is slightly useful as single target damage, or even Frenzy to pull off more heals/resets in a pinch (like you might want in SC and AS). I'm not criticizing the proposed build in any way, I'm just saying that there are other utility skills that can be considered and would make sense depending on the playstyle too. And yes, I know your opinions on these two skills are in other threads, so we don't need to go into detail on these skills here.

Survival is a fine skill for grinding, but you can still effectively alternate Fury Strike + Cruel Bite in between Tornado when grinding, which will heal up HP much faster. It's just not an early concern in my opinion, especially before buying skill points and getting enough Vigor to abuse it. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the skill, it still saves lives in Archer farming with out of range bugs and is great in PVP.

All in all, this clashing of opinions just goes to show there are several playstyles you can experiment with that are successful, which is why I say that BMs have some flexibility.

[Aslep11]

whoaa!!! there's many of you all of sudden, now im more and more curious and interested in exploring Beastmasters, thank you in advance guys, I really appreciate and read every detail of your opinions and reference regarding BM's and I am for fact is serious to my class.

 

exploring while reading from your posts makes it worth, having fun also knowing that BM's can't be underestimated. That they're for the logical fact can be in par with other class in terms of team play and solo, and its not that I hate pvp, but I prefer exploring the whole game content itself

 

right now im just waiting for weekends to play non-stop for my BM see things with my own eyes, experience it thoroughly.

 

I'll be learning from you guys and learn through the game. ^_^

[Greven79]

@Arbalist:

 

I didn't meant to offend you and I wouldn't call it a "clash of opinions":

 

But once more about Survival. When I was grinding with my beastmaster, the mobs always died quite fast. I know that Cruel Bite is more effective, but at least for me - can't tell anything about other BMs - most attempts to use this skill resulted in quite a few "can't attack target, it's already dead" responses. So I ended up using Survival instead, which worked perfectly.

 

I can't recommend to max Rage Smash, but that's not a given fact, but rather a personal 'preference'. When you're mobbing enemies, you won't cast a single Rage Smash and once you start doing Sanctum or do solo grinds to get "tri-elements" f.e., you should have enough Vigor to cycle through different skills instead. So that skill doesn't suffice my expectance... just to make it clear that it's something personal.
 

Same thing is true for Frenzy. If you're mobbing enemies, you can already swap between Fury Strike and Cruel Bite and additional rage points are rarely useful. If you do ther stuff later, the long cooldown and short duration of Frenzy are real downside. The additional heals in "critical situations" can be done saving up rage points that aren't needed.

 

But of course, it's all a personal thing. When I wrote "that's the only skill build that I think is worth it", I only spoke about personal experience as well. Of course, some might find a maxed out Tiger Form and Feral Defense to be quite good for grinding... you can lure mobs and make yourself invincible until they're all dead, but that no gamestyle I'd enjoy (I might consider that if the BM would have Mass Provoke).

Edited by Greven79, 11 September 2014 - 01:29 PM.

[Arbalist]

Haha don't worry, no offence was taken. I didn't mean clash as in a bad thing, I just meant there were differences in playstyle. The advice on the other utility skills was mostly in terms of boss fights, not grinding, because it would be part of PVE build the original poster asked for. I just wanted to lay out a few extra scenarios that might be useful for him to consider for deciding his own build. Either way it's all good, BM is mostly fun and easy to work with, so it doesn't matter too much.