Bear Form

Bear Form
Bear Form Level 8 druid ability Instant Shapeshift into Bear Form, increasing armor by 220% and Stamina by 25%, granting protection from Polymorph effects, and increasing threat generation. The act of shapeshifting frees you from movement impairing effects.
Properties
Class	Druid
School	Physical
Cooldown	None/Global Cooldown
Other information
Level learned	8
Improvements	[Call of the Elder Druid], [Celestial Guardian], [Elune's Favored], [Empowered Shapeshifting], [Fury of Nature], [Glistening Fur], [Lycara's Teachings], [Master Shapeshifter], [Strength of the Wild], [Ursine Vigor], [Ursoc's Spirit], [Wildshape Mastery]
Related buff
Bear Form Armor increased by 220%. Stamina increased by 55%. Immune to Polymorph effects.

Bear Form is the second shapeshift ability learned by a druid. This form has tank-like abilities, similar to a warrior. While in Bear Form, the druid's mana bar is replaced by a rage bar. The druid's armor and Stamina are also boosted.

For Guardian druids, Bear Form now also increases armor by 285%, reduces magical damage taken by 10%, reduces the chance to be critically hit by 6%, and reduces the chance for attacks to be parried by 3%. Note that as of patch 6.0.2, this information is not displayed in the ability's tooltip, or anywhere else in-game.^{[citation needed]} 

Tips and tactics

• As a druid, you really need to get a feel for when to change forms. Early on in the game, you may find it useful to cast a few long range spells, such as [Moonfire], then change to Bear Form when an enemy gets close.
• Bear Form is generally good to use against non-casters or those with higher armor, since you do higher melee damage, but at a slower attack speed.
• If you're not sure if you can handle your (melee) enemy(s) (i.e. higher level, may be adds), use Bear Form until you get a feel for the fight.
• Also, as a tank, Bear Form has a pretty reliable taunt to draw aggro away from more squishy party members.
• In Bear Form, or as a Druid in general, you cannot block or parry, so your only method of ignoring damage is through dodging. However, keep in mind that you do not gain rage from dodging an attack.

Notes

• Each race has a distinct model for its Bear Forms, and there are five different textures for each model. These textures correspond to the skin tone of Tauren druids, or the hair color of the other races. Druids can change their design at any time by visiting a barbershop and choosing a new skin tone or hair color as appropriate for their race. Since there are more hair colors and skin tones than unique textures, some colors and tones will produce the same designs. The hair and skin colors chosen will, in most cases, correspond to the colors seen in the design of each form.
• Prior to 4.0.1, you had to complete the Bear Form quest chain, starting with the quest   [10] Heeding the Call to get Bear Form. It is now simply trainable at any druid trainer.
• Can only use Bear Form abilities, with the exception of [Barkskin].
• You are considered a beast, so abilities that target beasts can be used on you. On the flip side, abilities like [Mind Control] won't.
• Shapeshifting breaks snare effects. As such, a much used principle is Powershifting, using /cast !Bear Form or alike, to instantly shift out and in, breaking snares at the cost of some mana and a global cooldown.
  • The Bear Form also makes you immune to  [Turkey Shooter].
• Your caster form will start regaining mana immediately after you change to Bear Form, with a convenient extra mana bar displayed below the rage bar.
• You cannot parry or block in Bear Form, so your only method of ignoring damage is dodge.
• Druids in Bear Form generate 500% of the normal threat.
• The attack speed in Bear Form is 2.50. Weapon damage is normalized so that DPS remains the same.
• The armor bonus is only applied to natural armor (received from white effects), and not item modifiers (enchantments, armor kits, etc).
• Auto-attacks generate 5 Rage.
• Malfurion Stormrage has a unique Bear Form that keeps his color scheme, tattoos, and antlers from his night elf form.

Gallery

• 

  Druid of the Claw unit in Warcraft III has Bear Form.

• 

  Warcraft III art with night elf Druids of the Claw in bear form among an army fighting the undead.

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  Highmountain tauren Bear Form.

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  Zandalari troll Bear Form, a ankylodon.

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  Kul Tiran Bear Form, a bramblebear.

• 

  Claws of Ursoc artifact appearance.

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  Claws of Ursoc artifact appearance Stonepaw.

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  Claws of Ursoc artifact appearance Avatar of Ursol.

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  Claws of Ursoc artifact appearance Fallen to Nightmare.

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  Claws of Ursoc artifact appearance Might of the Grizzlemaw.

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  Claws of Ursoc artifact appearance Guardian of the Glade.

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  Blight of the Grizlemaw unlockable bear form appearance.

• 

  Malfurion Stormrage's unique Bear Form.

For images of all artifact weapon appearance colors see Claws of Ursoc

[Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc] gives armor to the appearance of the base bear form (without having Claws of Ursoc).

Old models

• 

  Night Elf bear forms, including the original (seen at the bottom middle) that was used prior to patch 3.2.

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  Tauren bear forms, including the original (seen at the bottom middle) that was used prior to patch 3.2.

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  Troll bear forms.

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  Worgen bear forms.

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  Corresponding skin tones for tauren.

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  Corresponding hair colors for night elves.

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  Corresponding hair colors for trolls.

TCG

• 

  Bear Form ability card art.

• 

  Braxiss the Sleeper, a night elf druid.

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  Artwork used on the TCG card "Brutal Bear Form".

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  Givon, a night elf in bear form to the left, and a tauren in cat form to the right

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  Heart of the Wild ability card art.

• 

  Swipe ability card art.

Patch changes

• Patch 11.0.2 (2024-08-13): Armor is no longer reduced by 20% in PvP combat.
  
• Patch 11.0.0 (2024-07-23): Guardian Druid improved Bear Form Stamina bonus decreased to 10% (was 20%).
  
• Hotfix (2024-01-22): Now increases armor by 175% in PvP (was 220%).
  
• Patch 10.2.0 (2023-11-07):
  
• Patch 10.0.0 (2022-10-25): Rank 2 removed.
  
• Patch 9.0.1 (2020-10-13): Now learned at level 8 (was 10). Rank 2 now learned at level 12 (was 52).
  
• Patch 8.2.0 (2019-06-25): Shifting to Bear Form now gives 25 Rage (was 20).
  
• Patch 8.0.1 (2018-07-17):
  • In Bear Form, Druids now generate Rage in the same way as Warriors, with Rage generated from both melee attacks dealt and melee attacks taken.
  • Rank 2 added for Guardian at level 52: Bear Form gives an additional 20% Stamina.
  • Bear Form has received updates to its stand, walk, and run animations.
    
• Hotfix (2017-04-03):
  • In PvP, Bear Form now grants 125% Armor (was 200% Armor). Guardian Druid Bear Form unchanged.
  • In PvP, Bear Form now grants 40% Stamina (was 55% Stamina). Guardian Druid Bear Form unchanged.
    
• Patch 7.1.5 (2017-01-10): Auto-attacks now generate 7 Rage (was 7.875 Rage).
  
• Patch 7.1.0 (2016-10-25): Now learned at level 10 (was 8).
  
• Hotfix (2016-09-13): Shifting into Bear Form will no longer freeze resource decay for non-Guardian druids.
  
• Patch 7.0.3 (2016-07-19):
  • Now increases armor by 200% (down from 250%) and stamina by 55% (up from 20%). No longer increases threat generation. Mana cost removed.
  • Model updated.
    
• Hotfix (2015-06-30): Fixed a bug that was preventing Balance and Restoration Druids from gaining attack power from Intellect in Bear Form or Cat Form.
  
• Hotfix (2015-02-25): Fixed an issue where various item effects that provides a buff based on the player's highest stat sometimes picked the wrong stat for Balance and Restoration Druids that were shapeshifted into Bear Form or Cat Form.
  
• Patch 6.2.0 (2015-06-23): Now increases armor by 285% (up from 250%) for Guardian druids.
  
• Patch 6.0.2 (2014-10-14):
  • [Thick Hide] has been removed and its effects have been incorporated into Bear Form.
  • Bear Form now increases armor by 250% for all druid specializations (down from 330% for Guardian druids, but up from 120% for non-Guardian druids), no longer increases Haste and Critical Strike from items by 50%, but instead causes Haste to reduce the global cooldown, increases Stamina by 20% (down from 40%), and reduces magic damage taken by 10% (down from 25%).
  • For Guardian druids, Bear Form now also reduces magical damage taken by 25%, reduces chance to be critically hit by 6%, and reduces chance for attacks to be parried by 3%.
    
• Patch 5.4.0 (2013-09-10): Now increases Stamina contribution from cloth and leather items by 40% (up from 20%).
  
• Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Now also increases haste and critical strike from items by 50%, and sets Rage to 10 upon shapeshifting. Now learned at level 8 (was 15).
  
• Patch 4.3.0 (2011-11-29): Now provides an armor bonus of 120% at all levels, up from 65% for characters below level 40, making it easier for lower level druids to tank dungeons, and now provides a Stamina bonus of 20%, up from 10%. Threat generated has been increased to 500% damage done, up from 300%.
  
• Hotfix (2011-08-16): Threat generation for all tanks has been increased to 500%, up from 300%. This includes druids in Bear Form.
  
• Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): Now provides 10% bonus health, down from 20%.
  
• Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): The Bear Form quest chain is removed. Now learned at level 15 for 17 28. Now costs 5% of base mana, down from 35%. Now increases armor contribution of cloth and leather items by 65% (was 120%). Now causes agility to increase attack power. No longer turns into [Dire Bear Form] at level 40.
  
• Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04):
  • New textures for bear models, adjustable at the barbershop.
  • Mana energizes that occur while in this form will now appear in the combat log and floating combat text.
    
• Patch 3.0.8 (2009-01-20): This ability will now grant the correct attack power per level for levels 71-80.
  
• Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): The mana regeneration penalty when in Bear Form, [Dire Bear Form] and [Cat Form] has been removed.
  
• Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): The bonus health from shapeshifting into this form will again be removed correctly when shifting out of this form.
  
• Patch 2.0.10 (2007-03-06): Now grants 25% increased stamina instead of 25% increased health.
  
• Patch 2.0.3 (2007-01-09): The Health bonus of Bear Form has changed to a 25% percent health increase instead of a flat increase.
  
• Patch 1.10.0 (2006-03-28): It is no longer possible at very low health to die when shifting out of this form.
  
• Patch 1.9.0 (2006-01-03): Effects that lower armor will now lower armor by a percentage of the druid's full armor, rather than just base (caster form) armor.
  
• Patch 1.6.0 (2005-07-12):
  • Shapeshifting will now counteract the slowing effects of frost-based spells ( [Frostbolt], [Frost Shock], [Cone of Cold], etc.).
  • Druid shapeshift form buttons are no longer dimmed while under the effects of Polymorph.
    
• Patch 1.4.0 (2005-04-19): Shapeshifting into an animal form will now remove Polymorph effects.
  
• Patch 1.2.0 (2004-12-18): Armor bonus increased from 65% to 180%.
  
• Patch 1.1.1 (2004-11-17): Bear Form has been improved to hold aggro more effectively.
  
• Patch 1.1.0 (2004-11-07): Bear Form abilities that target one or more enemies now generate additional threat.
  
• Patch 0.12 (2004-10-11):
  • Shapeshifting now breaks roots, snares, and freeze effects.
  • Shapeshift forms now include an immunity to polymorph effects.
  • HP gain increased.
    
• Patch 0.9 (2004-08-17):
  • Now considered a beast in Bear Form.
  • Shapeshifting will no longer cancel all buffs on the Druid.
  • Shapeshifting cooldown reduced from 10 to 1.5 seconds.
  • Druids now regenerate mana while in shape shift form.
  • When shapeshifting into and out of Bear/Dire Bear forms, you should now end with the same % of health as you had in the previous form.
  • Bear Form's armor increased.
  • Bear Form and [Dire Bear Form] mana cost slightly reduced.
    

See also

• Bear Form, TCG card

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB