Is it just me, or is Bear Strength kind of busted?

[the_iron_troll]

This is coming from the perspective of someone who has only played a few games, all of them as the Beastmaster.

In every game, I have wanted as many Bear Strengths as possible. +2 Melee is great, and for only 5 mana, it's sick. I realize that it can just get Dispel-ed on you, and you can't stack them on one dude, but, it means that my Beastmaster and Timber Wolves are all doing 6 dice in melee. The Grizzly would do NINE DICE, with his heavy claw. And that's before I drop a totem to give my guys more armour piercing.

So, is this working as intended? Or is this, as my intuition is telling me, kinda busted?

[ShamanX]

I played today and threw that on my Knight of Westlock and pretty happy with the results!

[paradox22]

The way I see it ...  It Cant be broken if everyone can use it.

[Shad0w]

Also revere attack helps against it.

[Nihilistiskism]

Why can't you stack them? Don't have my cards with me...

-nihil

[theduke850]

pg. 22 of the rule book:

 "There is no limit to the number of different enchantments that can be on an object, but each object or zone cannot have more than enchantment with the same name attached to it at one time".

[Shad0w]

pg. 22 of the rule book:

 "There is no limit to the number of different enchantments that can be on an object, but each object or zone cannot have more than enchantment with the same name attached to it at one time".

If you guys keep this up I will run out of gold stars

[Nihilistiskism]

Oh yeah. :-P I never wanted to stack something so it never even came up. :-D

-nihil

[Shad0w]

One of the first things I wanted to stack was Ghoul Rot

[Nihilistiskism]

One of the first things I wanted to stack was Ghoul Rot

Does not apply to Priestess. :-P

-nihil

[Nitz]

I think the damage buff is pretty on par as the healing seems pretty legit.  If a caster wants his creature to stick around, you better finish it off when you go after it or else all your damage may be nullified before you can get those last points off him next time.  In that case, Bear Strength can be crucial to making sure your target dies and thus can't be healed.

[piousflea]

Bear Strength is 5 mana for +2 damage dice (avg 0.66-2 damage, depending on enemy armor and incorporealness), once per round, which can be avoided by Defenses, Block, etc. (unless you attach it to Brogan Bloodstone)

Compare to a Ghoul Rot which is 6 mana for 2 direct damage (ignoring armor etc.) every turn, or Flameblast which is 5 mana for 4 unavoidable damage dice plus Burn. Keep in mind that Ghoul Rot and Bear Strength are equally dispellable, but Bear Strength can also be destroyed if the creature it's attached to dies. (on the other hand, if the Ghoul Rot target dies it's not a bad thing)

It all seems balanced to me, nothing that's "busted".

[the_iron_troll]

piousflea:

Yes, Ghoul Rot is also really, really good. But you're missing multiple aspects of Bear Strength.

Consider the melee Beastmaster. He's still able to cast a single spell per turn, and a 2nd if he really has to, but what he wants to do is rush in and start punchin'. He casts Bear Strength on himself, maybe follows it with a Nullify on himself as well, and goes to town. He can do 6 damage dice every round in melee, for the low price of 0 mana. His large attack pool means that he has a good chance to KO creatures before they get to do anything, and his attacks are also unpredictable: they could do 12 damage in one hit! Given the way that Armour works, his attacks are much more threatening now to high-Armour creatures. And he's saving a lot of Mana every turn, so he can easily afford Dispels and Dissolves and other things that keep him on the offensive. Maybe he'll also bust out some Gauntlets and go up to 7 damage dice.

This doesn't even touch how scary (or appropriate) a Steelclaw Grizzly with Bear Strength is.

Now contrast the Flameblasting Warlock. Instead of casting Bear Strength, he got out an Elemental Wand and stuck his Flameblast on it. He's only doing 4 unavoidable dice of damage per round (though yes, with the possibility of burning), for the considerable cost of 5 mana/round. He has a range of 1, but because of Hindering, switching of Initiative, and the small size of the Arena, he will find it very difficult to kite the Beastmaster. If the Beastmaster puts on a Dragonscale Hauberk and the Warlock can't punch through enough Nullifies and Reverse Magics to make it Explode, he will become a very sad panda indeed.

Now contrast Ghoul Rot. For 1 more mana than Bear Strength, it does direct damage (so on average much more than from an equal-die melee attack), can also be Dispel-ed, but does not enhance a natural ability in any way. It is also a very predictable source of damage, so both Mages can plan around it.

And what do you do with your copious quantities of Beastmaster Mana? Summon more huge beaters from your Lair, of course!

[Nihilistiskism]

If everything in this game was based purely on numbers, then this would be a dull game. Yes; please rush your Beastmaster into my face so that I can stun him, dispell his STR bonus, and then beat him to a pulp.

This is a game of counters upon counters. Bear Strength is no less counter-able than any other enchantment in the game. Enjoy spending your whole full action to run across the board only for me to spend a few mana to push you backward, then shoot you down with Archers. It's a game of checks and balances.

IMO, in no way, is Bear Strength "busted" any more than, say, highland unicorn, which isn't busted at all.

-nihil

[PBKWMatt]

Bear Strength is a perfect example of a spell I want more of.  It works well with all of the classes.  

The "in your face" Beastmaster is the best looking deck I have seen thus far... (that isn't saying much considering how few I have played.)

The buffed wizard the pops off some healing is going to be a tough cookie in the current environment.

I want more Bear Strength, but it is just right at its cost.  Not busted.