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Friday 21 September 2012

LOTRO: Bear tanking


Busy studies

As you may have noticed, my blog has been a bit more quiet lately than it used to be. This is not due to a lack of enthusiasm, but rather due to an overflow of study load. I've just started a new master in September, and I love it, but it does mean less frequent posts. Don't worry, I promise I won't disappear: a one post a week minimum should be doable.

Because I've been so busy studying, I haven't been able to play much either. At the same time, the "final days before the expansion" are very present in the general atmosphere in LotRO: not everyone is as enthusiastic about raiding ToO anymore, and we sometimes struggle for the right numbers or classes. In a weird way, this is actually positive for me: I wouldn't be able to keep up with raiding four days a week with the amount of homework I got. 

Bear tanking

Some failed raids resulted with very fun stuff, for instance the realization of an old dream of me: bear tanking the Twins fight in Barad Guldur ("BG"). As expected, six-manning BG wasn't that challenging, but it was a blast. We went right through the gauntlet, and after that I plus a captain had to "off-tank" Durchest. Lore-master tanks for the win! After that it was off to the Twins, probably the hardest of the three boss fights for over-leveled characters. Stress when it turned out my bear food stock was depleted! So I went out and quickly made some, and then the fun began. It was actually a bit challenging, and I had to be main DPS on Cargaraf (traited reds), while the captain was tanking it.

Advantages of bear tanking:
  • No tank player needed, so it opens up a spot in your raid, which can be filled with an extra DPS class (not relevant here in BG, as we were under-manning, but I guess we were actually effectively 7-manning instead of 6-manning it, if you include the bear)
  • The bear might not take all negative effects (in this case the Immolate effect from Morgaraf, so it didn't have to run away every so many seconds), which sometimes makes up for having inferior sturdyness compared to a real tank

How to bear tank:

To the right: Zwartje moaning about having the aggro of an imaginary fabricated nazgûl (he's such a whimp!).

With all these buffs, the bear should be able to tank sufficiently. You don't need its force taunt Roaring Challenge unless there's an emergency. This skill doesn't give the bear any aggro, but just forces the target to attack the bear for a set amount of time. It doesn't have much to do with actual (permanent) tanking.

A debated tactic

In the past, bear tanking has been looked at with mistrust. The tricky part is in the "bear might not take all negative effects" part. If the bear is able to avoid a total game mechanic and ridicules the fight, you might speak of an exploit. This happened in Moria times, when a lore-master and a minstrel were able to duo the Turtle with a bear tank. The bear didn't get the acid dot that would force real tanks to swap aggro. Thus a fight designed for twelve could be completed by two. 

It must've been a very long fight, mind you. They had no champions or burglars to give the bear aggro, so the players weren't able to deal much damage to the Turtle, otherwise it would loose it. The bear would be main DPS. Meanwhile, the lore-master would be pulling power to supply the minstrel, who had to heal the bear with an increasing intensity. Seriously, it must've taken ages!

In the case of the Turtle, I can can understand how this was considered an exploit and why they changed it so it cannot be done anymore: people were using this to farm for first age symbols without having to roll against many others. However, bear tanking is usually harmless, as most people take the bear with them as a tank to approach fights in a different way and have some fun. Bear tanking isn't something you can do mindlessly: you need to make up a tactic and people need to coordinate and put effort in to let the bear keep having aggro. Also, healers will have to heal the bear more than they would a normal tank, because it's just a bit more squishy. Bear tanking in BG doesn't make the fights easier, rather harder. It did make it faster, though. If done the right way, bear tanking can be very much fun, like it was for us.

Finally, hurray for Zwartje, proud tank of Morgaraf!


16 comments :

  1. Being busy with school actually sounds really lovely! :P (Wish I could go back to school to get a certification I want but not speaking Dutch is peskily blocking that!) Nice to hear you're enjoying it as well. :)

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    1. I do indeed actually like it. :) If you are serious, have you considered taking Dutch classes? My boyfriend (from Sweden) took them at the University of Amsterdam and they also give classes in the evening hours. He now speaks Dutch fluently, after half a year of study.

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  2. wow, these pix are so noir!!

    So... if you're so busy with school and all... isn't, like, you know, that Riders of SomethingOrOther coming in IDK a few weeks or so and HOWisTHATgoingTOwork??????

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    1. It's so hard to get good pictures in raid environments in LotRO, because they're almost always in dark dungeons or castles. More realistic than in SWTOR, but no thankful subject to photographers. Still, I thought dark pictures would be better than no pictures.

      And... LALALALALA I'm not hearing anything! ;)

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  3. Yay for bear tanking! I love those kind of unusual group setups. They are a great way to break the routine. :)

    I also hope things get less hectic at school for you, if for no other reason so that you can play more at a more leisurely pace. :)

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    1. The first week was crazy, with hundreds of pages to read and a presentation to do the week after right away. I'm in a routine and the homework is slightly less, so it's better now. I'm still hoping it will be a bit less work in some months when I get different subjects. Thanks for your kind words and I indeed love to break the routine with crazy things as well.

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  4. Very cool! Bear tanks are awesome. I can see them being an integral part of the Loremaster single-class challenge for any instance. You should take 3 Loremasters and do Pits T2. Or Dargnahk. I'd do it myself, but I doubt I'll get my LM from 62 to 75 and geared before RoR. So I must stick to all captain and all warden instances.

    Last night, Goldie tanked the Tyrant in TR. Everyone in the fraid was amused by the best bear tank of all.

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    1. Hehe, not sure if I'd like to stack lore-masters if I'd want to bear tank. Without burgs/champs to drop aggro on it, that will be an interesting play of Inner Flame, rotating Roaring Challenge and bumping aggro around. You're probably right, though, weird things are often fun things to do. :D

      And hurray for Goldie, my favourite bear of the Ettenmoors!

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  5. Ohhhh, you went to BG! Did it drop, did it drop?! If it did, I don't wanna know :P

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    1. It was getting pretty late, so we didn't continue to the lieutenant (if you're aiming at the Unwelcome mat).

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    2. I want that Mat sooooo badly!!! *cry*

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  6. That is so cool! I know so little about Loremasters, it is exciting seeing you talk about how cool they are with such wisdom. I want a bear now, lol!

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    1. Oh yeah... and good luck with school! Go do smarticle things! :D

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  7. Mines a polar bear I called Icykill... heh...

    Out of all the pets so far, I'm getting the most use out of the bear. Apart from a tendency to sit on fallen enemies making looting sometimes an issue, he does some quite reliable DPS and is getting on towards triple the morale of my LM. Even flanks fairly often.

    I know you've touched on this before for traits (this is for solo work and assuming two blue) - hardy companion and healer...? Master of beasts and improved flanking...?

    Choices, choices...

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    1. If I solo, I go for five reds with Light of Hope and Fast Loader or Healer.

      Improved Flanking is the third one you take (in addition to Light of Hope and Healer) if you want to go main-healing a 3-man. The rest can be a combination of reds and yellows. Hardy Companion and Master of Beasts aren't so great. I'd only take Hardy Companion if I go solo something really hard and want the bog lurker (five blues required).

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    2. If you're doing serious bear tanking in a group (as described in the article), Hardy Companion and Master of Beasts are great choices, of course.

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