Now, I am aware that the latest patch (4.2.1) has introduced nerfs to Beorningers, and I believe this to be steps in the right direction. Their performance has been hampered a bit since they were first introduced. However, I am still under the impression that they overperform, if only a little. I don't necessarily think all that I will suggest is needed or should be the top priority at the moment, but I think that the following ideas might be worth taking a look at. Since Beorningers are a more recent addition, I will tackle this topic with a bit more detail. Allow me to start with a quick little overview on Beorningers:
Role: I believe their role to be some kind light-siege/cavalry hybrid, which can be enacted by switching forms.
Apparent Advantages:
1. A light siege platform that can defend itself, and nothing to snort at either, for they can ignore heavy armour completely, meaning that they can one-shot most infantry models. It also means that they do high damage against heroes.
2. High attack speed.
3. Can switch between forms to suit your army and your enemy's army composition.
4. Can level and do so quickly.
Apparent Disadvantages:
1. More expensive than their light siege counterparts in other factions.
2. Do not possess trample immunity.
3. Take up more population cap than other light siege (If I am not mistaken).
My thoughts:
As it stands, the Beorningers perform quite well. What they lack in direct punch compared to battering rams, they make up for in their high attack speed. They are not uncounterable, since cavalry can trample them, knockback units like Trolls ''troll'' them, and they can still be damaged decently by turrets, archer, sword and pike blobs. Still, I feel they are too attractive and too effective. I've seen a couple of replays and did some tests myself, where ''spamming'' Beorningers was the tactic employed, simply overrunning any and all base defenses and defenders. However, my main gripe with them is that I find the Beorninger bear form kind of lackluster in comparison to their human form. The human form does most things the bear form does, but better. Beorningers need to be more counterable by heroes and also need to be less menacing to heavily armoured units, and I feel there needs to be a little bit more emphasis or focus on their light siege role, and not in their ability to deal with heroes or heavily armoured units.
My suggestions:
- Decrease their overall armour-piercing damage. Make it so that they kill most infantry models in two or three hits. I'm not sure what their current damage modifiers look like, but it would be interesting to see them not take down a model per hit and be less efficient against heroes. Keeping the armour ignoring feature is an interesting feature, but I believe it either needs to be toned down or linked to some kind of research like Forged Blades or Battle Axes upgrade or maybe something else (Scroll down a bit, to the second spoiler tag
).
- Make them more vulnerable to heroes, but I imagine that this is mostly related to their damage output. Nonetheless, a look at their armour values against hero-damage might be interesting, right?
-Make the Bear Form more resilient to arrows and perhaps give it knockback immunity?
- Not completely sure about this one, but trample immunity for the human-form would be interesting to see to make up for their would-be decrease in damage.
- Decrease the amount of EXP they get from killing units. If a Beorninger kills a regular battallion on his own, which isn't that hard at all, he levels up by multiples. Perhaps the EXP they get from buildings could be increased, to provide a counter weight. Taking down a Gondor Spearmen formation can easily level a Beorninger to level 3 or 4, if I am not mistaken.
Conclusion: I believe this will make them less attractive to ''spam'' and make them more defined as either light siege in human form, and more supportive in taking down heavily armoured troops, instead of leading the front in human form. It will also make the switching between bear form and human form more important, apart from the faster movement speed in bear form, as the bear form will become more attractive if you wish to deal with infantry.