I’ve worked out skill tree changes for “Summon Bear”, with the intention of giving the bear more of an “identity” on each branch. This tree is still in close contact with the current layout though I’d welcome bigger changes to the skill. I am also very open to discussion so please comment all your thoughts on these points!
The first of these branches turns the bear into a caster. It is most balanced to give this branch the single target DPS identity since the spells don’t scale with stacking “Aspect of the Shark”.
“Lacerating claws” is damage/bleed chance now, I’d change it to cast/attack speed and, in return, remove “rapid thorns” and “piercing thorns” from where they currently are.
“Thorn bear” receives poison chance (to replace some bleed chance from “lacerating claws”) and loses the retaliation threshold. It also has a shorter range.
“Ursine endurance” is exchanged with a node that gives your bear a large amount of cast speed and more range, but reduces health by a significant amount and adds “cannot poison”. I’d also have this node change the bear’s visuals to a “voidfused bear” since these enemies are rapidly casting a spell already, it’d fit very well.
Behind “ursine endurance”, I’d add a node that gives your bear a minor chance to spawn a void rift on critical strike - with a weak critical multiplier node in between to increase investment.
“shredding thorns” would also be linked to “ursine endurance” rather than “thorn bear”.
“Nightshade bear” is now linked to “thorn bear”.
A new node behind “nightshade bear” allows your bear to spawn a ranged vine - with a cooldown - that also profits from summon bear’s every poison chance.
The other branch, starting with “forceful swipes”, should make the bear able to swipe instead of basic attacking.
“Vicious strikes” is damage/stun now, but replaced with damage/area of effect.
“Rapid swipes” is removed and “claw totems” takes its place. Claw totems now prioritize spawning near distant enemies. The intention here is to increase the clear speed identity of this branch - swipe already hits nearby enemies, and this node helps clear ranged enemies.
A new node connected to “claw totems” should exchange your bear’s swipe attack with “ground slam” (the cone version of earthquake). This attack should have a much longer attack time/animation before going off, and spawn 2 to 4 claw totems instead of aftershocks. (This could use a new animation for the bear standing up and slamming down)
A new node connected to “claw totems” lets claw totems deal more damage.
A new node, connected to “forceful swipes”, lets you add poison chance for summon bear’s swipes.
The third branch is the tank/thorns branch. This branch still retains a damage option, but also allows the bear to take on a defensive role.
“retaliatory thorns” not utilizes “thorn burst” as seen on ice thorns’ tree. The thorns home in on enemies and travel further if your bear also has “thorn bear”.
“Tearing thorns” now also reduces the retaliation threshold and is changed to poison chance (all bleed is changed to poison for synergy with poison companions and Aspect of the Viper).
A new node linked to “retaliatory thorns” adds a thorns cast to the bear’s roar ability. These thorns have a high poison chance per point.
Connected to this node is a new node that turns all poison chance into frailty chance, and adds a large amount of increased health and some regeneration to summon bear.
A new node linked to “armoured bear” increases other companions’ unimportance while your bear is alive.
This layout is potentially incomplete, and I’d love to see new branches. The void rifts let the caster bear deal some AoE damage and the guaranteed totems from “ground slam” give the swipe bear a bit more 1v1 potential, I’d love to hear your opinion about whether these options belong here. And also any other feedback on these concepts, because I’d love to see all companions have a powerful specialization tree!