Poor bears & co.

[Metathron]

Still no improvements for them, whereas some of the other units are practically drowning in talents and abilities.

How about giving them at least something, like bear roar that makes a random/specific enemy stack lose their turn or something like that.

Or/And perhaps a skill that makes bears furious when being shot at, which gives them some kind of speed boost or even makes them run up to the aggressor and strike them, then return. A kind of limited/retaliatory version of the HoMM III harpy or the HoMM V blood maiden.

What does everyone else think about these poor, neutral critters?

Warm regards,

PETAG (People for the ethical treatment of animals in games)

[rancor26]

Well they still hit pretty hard when attack doubled atleast polar bears i never use any other bears.

[BB Shockwave]

Ancient bears are good too, in early islands. Frankly, they critical very often, do insane damage, and have a lot of HP, they don't need more.

[Metathron]

The giant hits pretty hard too. Once he manages to get close to someone, which happens once in a blue moon.

[rancor26]

Originally Posted by Metathron

The giant hits pretty hard too. Once he manages to get close to someone, which happens once in a blue moon.

normal speed 2 and with running 4 isn't actually that bad considering how the AI moves his troops.

[Metathron]

Who cares? Sure, I get it bears are tanks, but no (meaningful) special abilities? Once they've spent running, they're pretty much there to be whittled away by the enemy. Off the top of my head, I can't even remember any other tank units so stripped of abilities. Nor "many" units I'd rather face in combat. That's saying something.

[Saiko Kila]

Originally Posted by Metathron

The giant hits pretty hard too. Once he manages to get close to someone, which happens once in a blue moon.

Giants are intended to jump and damage all walkers, not to hit directly. They are to precious for that.

I don't like bears, they do have high priority when I target enemies because they hit heavily. Most animals are bad, only animals I use are royal snakes. Units with no specials? Griffins. They have nothing useful. Berserkers have useless ability. Thorn warriors, unless summoned. Miners. Cannoners are good for nothing. Bears at least can regenerate and have enough HP to make them potentially usable.

[BB Shockwave]

Griffins are great. They are the perfect defenders with Stoneskin/God Armor. They were my core units in my first Legend walkthrough. Granted, in AP I'd rather use Royal Griffins.

I just noticed, the weakest and most useless unit got another ability - the Peasants now do 150% damage to Plants... not that they'll ever reach one with that speed, mind you.

As for Bears being slow and not having any talents - frankly, so do Black Knights and yet they kick ass. They are both tank units, they don't really need special talents.

The hibernation is a weird ability... I learned the hard way to always act with my bears every round. The AI, if blocked by his own units, sometimes lets them fall asleep too.

[Puce Moose]

Like the original poster I always liked bears but felt that a little extra attention to them would make them an interesting addition to an army.

I think the bears are ripe for a synergistic effect with another unit. How about a Bear Tracker, who could place a honeycomb on the arena in any location. *any* bear could use an ability similar to greed to instantly teleport to the honeycomb, heal, then gain an action point or two. This would work for both enemy and friendly units, so exercise caution prior to launching that sweet, sweet honey.

Eh, just idly thinking about possibilities here. I'm not sure if the editor will even let us edit units in any capacity, let alone add functionality.

[key]

I've found that increasing the HP to 200 of polar bears really makes them viable - hibernation now really helps to preserve the unit on lower levels. The leadership req. is also upped to 190.

Also bears get +1 speed with the Orc Tracker present.