After testing the updated form and his new/updated abilities i would give my feedback and possibly some suggestions to make both mentioned skills feel better.
Maul Cooldown ability which does lots of damage / inherits skilltree from Fury leap if specced / movement skill
The thematic of the skill seems to be that of a (small range) gap closer with a follow up AOE slam which allows for fast paced playstyle when combined with Rampage (another Werebear movement skill). Ideal for zooming in map campaign zones.
The problem lies when fighting beefy monsters or bosses. When you’re infront of a boss you either jump outwards around the boss and slam or it does not fire off if there is no room.
I would suggest to introduce a node which converts Maul to a stationary slam which does NOT move your character to give this skill MORE control in (close range) boss fights without putting your character in danger jumping in a high damage AOE zone,/etc.
Thanks for @Tree mentioning it.
Maul seems not to ineherit most of damage nodes when speccing Skull Crusher. @EHG_Mike I assume this is already in the known issues?
Rampage Channeled movement skill / damages enemies in its pathway / has a cooldown
I quickly noticed that you can not control the direction after you started channeling it.
Here is where the problem is. It only works if you know beforehand where you’re going to go and the level design is random so players will sooner or later run into bigger or minor environmental obstacles (and collide) which cancels the movement and puts it on cooldown, leaving your character in an awkward and often dangerous position/situations.
A good step would be to allow players to control the skill while channeling to avoid abstacles and make this skill feel less clunky.
I’ve spent most of my hours since the patch released playing Werebear, and I wanted to add my feedback concerning Maul and Rampage.
For Maul: @ApprenticeCorner has a video up on Maul + Rampage Wearbear, and one of the comments is that most of the Fury Leap nodes don’t really work with Maul (the ones that directly modify damage). Can someone confirm whether Fury Leap’s damage nodes are syncing with Maul’s damage nodes?
For Rampage: This is more controller-specific feedback. Since I play controller, I use the control stick instead of a cursor to determine where my character should move. I use the control stick to avoid having to move the cursor around so I can pick my cursor target (especially as the cursor isn’t on the screen most of the time when you’re playing controller).
I think it has to do with the cursor placement compared to where my joystick is aimed, because there are numerous times where my Bear starts running nearly the opposite direction of where my joystick is, and it’s moving so slow the Werebear’s practically running in place. It’s not related to any Slow effects; I’m trying to move around a corridor or an open zone where you have to right, then left, and I’ll just be in this slow-motion run and have to let go and put the skill on cooldown.
I wish I could explain it better, but it is a big issue when trying to Rampage as Werebear.
I tested Maul a bit and i can confirm that Fury Leaps damage nodes that i tested (Panther Strike,Savage Impact,Brutal Impact) do not increase the damage of Maul.
Ofc i have skilled the Werebear node Skull Crusher so the Fury Leap skilltree works for Maul.
I made sure to have changed forms in case the old damage tooltip gets snappshotted but it does not change either.
My base Maul damage is 2809 (Lvl 47 bear) and nothing from the Skull Crusher Node + Fury Leap damage nodes increase it.
Not even the Ambush node (Beastmaster) seems to have any effect.
I have double checked and tested vs dummy. But damage range is approx the same while i have 3x Panther strike, 1 in Savage + Brutal impact.
I really hope its just tooltip but i dont see this to be the case.
edit: Panther strike CD reduction works, damage as mentioned not.
AFAIK, This is planned, but didn’t make it into the game, yet.
I use the Rampage/Maul Combo as you said: Rampage into a mob, Maul. You can at least Maul to the cursor direction.
Everytime I do this while having haste buff, I think the Maul should go a bit further. Would be awesome if the Maul distance would be affected by the momentum you have when activating. Going faster = longer range.
With the changes (as well as fixing Skull Crusher + Fury Leap) it will feel way smoother than it already is.
@Llama8
Not sure if i will continue my current werebear (full phys only hit damage) knowing his only meaningful CD damage ability does not work.
Have you any ideas? I may go swipe all day and try to weave in some elemental dmg with lightning AOE as a bandaid or just continue my current trajectory and see long it feels good.
I really like proccing Upheaval with Maul. This is a big burst on top and has nice synergies with a physical Werebear (although I’m doing a cold build myself).
Finished campaign and have not changed my current build.
Still hit based and full phys.
I had no problems vs Majasa and face tanked her in second phase. Died one time in 1st phase because i was overconfident and did not noticed the poison pool on the ground (with bad poison resists).
I think this fight pretty much confirmed my issue in the OP. Maul did almost nothing in the fight since it misses very often (due to mini leap) when using it in melee face-to-face range and the secondary effect of Upheaval did not proc either.
I think i will scrap it and use Ice Thorns instead of Upheaval. This way it will at least be procced consistently and give a nice defensive buff.
