Bernie Tree should be this:

[Yuuko]

EDIT:  Here is an update of what I think Bernie's skill tree should be:

I think Bernie tree needs something more.  Right now most of it is just stats.  While stats are powerful, they are not interesting.  There is only *1* skill in the Bernie tree that is actually something you do, and its so expensive that you must give up a significant amount of Lighter tree skills to get it...

A major issue with investing in Bernie is his own weaknesses.  You must raise and lower your sanity to get him out and put him away, you cannot heal him while he is large, and if you get too far away from him (teleport, use wormhole, etc) he does not go with you.

The Bernie tree needs to be better.

 

Here is what I propose for Bernie's new skill tree

The first 3 skills all get a 3rd level skill.

Health 1 => Health 2 => Healing Flame: Willow can spend an ember to heal Bernie 20%

Sanity 1 => Sanity 2 => Warm Embrace: Willow can pick up Bernie returning him to an item in her inventory at any time

Speed 1 => Speed 2 => Flames of War: Casting Burning Frenzy effects Bernie as well as Willow, increasing his damage +25%

Hot Headed: Requires 6 Bernie skills.  Bernie will grow and fight when near shadow monsters regardless of Willow's sanity.

Burning Bernie: Requires Hot Headed.  Ignite Bernie, same as the skill currently works.

Affinity skills => If you have Hot Headed Bernie will grow and fight opposed alignment monsters.

This smooths out your access to Bernie - if you're going to invest a lot of points into him, you really NEED to be able to use him as a primary play element.  Gaining more control over Bernie with Warm Embrace and Hot Headed don't take away the sanity play style, but ensure when the game forces certain sanity states on you that you are not robbed of your primary investment.  Flames of War adds another active option for an aggressive Bernie.  Rather than just Burning Bernie where you light him up and watch, or neglecting him because you don't want to invest so much that you lose your strongest fire spells, we can now play WITH Bernie.

Also putting something special at the end of each of the first trees means even if a player specs heavy into fire they still have an interesting choice to make on the Bernie side.

Regen is dropped because its really just a bad idea for Bernie.  Regen has to be really low so he doesn't just out-heal any damage he takes, but at that point its so negligible you'd just pick him up and repair him.  A single use of a sewing kit can repair him to 100%.  I think we can safely drop this skill, and put in ember healing instead.

OP:

Quote

I feel like Willow's fire skills are pretty good, but her Bernie tree is lackluster - and in NEED of some changes.

As some have pointed out Hot Headed is just a bad skill.  Basically it just enables Bernie to grief the team by attacking Glommer and Shadow Chester.  What is the point?  There are lunar and shadow aligned enemies but if you have big Bernie anyway they would already draw his aggro...  like it really doesn't do anything.

That has to go - and that sucks because its 1 of only 2 skills in the Bernie tree that actually DO anything.

Burning Bernie is great.  I don't think anything really needs to change here, BUT it feels really bad to have to spend 8 points on meh skills just to get the single skill in his tree that does anything worth doing.  Buying this locks you out of the biggest fire spells so it should feel like a worthwhile investment more than just this 1 point.

I think we need to drop Hot Headed - and add a few better ones.

Warm Hugs => With no hand item equipped Willow can r-click on Big Bernie to pick him up, reverting him to an item.

Fervent Fighter => Bernie will grow and fight any shadow monster nearby regardless of Willow's sanity.

Burning Heart => Willow can use Embers to repair Bernie.

Then we add to the Bernie affinity perks:

Shadow Bernie => If you have Fervent Fighter Bernie will grow and fight Shadow aligned creatures regardless of Willow's sanity.

Lunar Bernie => If you have Fervent Fighter Bernie will grow and fight lunar aligned creatures regardless of Willow's sanity.

 

The reason I think these skills are important is that often when I'm playing Willow I want to use Bernie BUT I don't want him out yet because then he's stuck out until I can restore my sanity.  Bernie is easily distracted, and gets caught on collision (he cannot pass through 1 wall space) making him a more inconvenient friend.  Also the only way to heal him - or even track his health - is to get him back in item form.  Being able to pick him back up solves this for a skill point - allowing me to pick him back up at any time.

If I want to invest in using Bernie as the majority of my kit I want to be sure he is as helpful as possible.  Currently small Bernie will activate and draw nightmare aggro, but the health is only 1000 and it does not return any damage.  Also in lunacy Bernie is basically de-activated completely.  This is a real killer to any consideration of investing in Bernie over fire because you're very limited in his actual use.  So we add Fervent Fighter to let Bernie grow big, and tie this together with Shadow / Lunar alignment so IF the appropriate mob is nearby Bernie will help even if there is Lunacy or I haven't dropped my sanity.  imo this enables Bernie to be a more serious consideration in late game.

Bernie can easily be sewn up so restoring health is not really a problem - this is more about rounding out Willow's Bernie centric theme.  IF she is about fire magic, then Bernie is surely somehow also empowered by fire magic.  Its also about streamlining her kit towards end game to include Bernie.  You are already needing to sacrifice inventory space for embers, but to also need a sewing kit?  And sewing kits aren't exactly expensive or late game...  so if we're going to tax inventory space with Embers and a Willow wants to have her Bernie, we might as well drop the sewing kit tax.  Still allow sewing kits to be used for a full 100% gain but maybe an ember can be 45%?

 

[Gashzer]

Change the health regen perks to flame patch up so 5% repair per ember for first skill 10% per ember second skill, these are more reasonable numbers as embers are extremely easy to farm. Altho these skills would require unlocking ember skill obviously.

Otherwise i agree with everything else.

[Jakepeng99]

Ides for a replacement skill (not my idea it was Saladmanders):

Bernie drops stuffings occasionally when on low hp which you can use to heal or repair bernie. They dissapear like ash, and picking them up automatically heals bernie without the need to give it to him.

[Yuuko]

17 hours ago, Gashzer said:

Change the health regen perks to flame patch up so 5% repair per ember for first skill 10% per ember second skill, these are more reasonable numbers as embers are extremely easy to farm. Altho these skills would require unlocking ember skill obviously.

Otherwise i agree with everything else.

Nah, better to just cap her at carrying 40 ember.  ppl are really over-blowing how powerful she is just b/c she can get embers.  But like she HAS to get embers, give it a rest.  Next you probably complain about wall cheese for dfly or something smh

5% and 10% healing is VERY low, and you can just use 1 use of a sewing kit for 100%.  Why would healing Bernie need to be so absolutely gimped?  The point here is to build up Bernie's skill tree to be something you'd actually want to use.  At such paltry healing I would just carry a sewing kit.

17 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Ides for a replacement skill (not my idea it was Saladmanders):

Bernie drops stuffings occasionally when on low hp which you can use to heal or repair bernie. They dissapear like ash, and picking them up automatically heals bernie without the need to give it to him.

idk sounds too automatic and uninteresting.  b/c you get the healing from Bernie taking damage if the healing is good then you just hold space next to Bernie and he never dies, and if its bad then its just bad and he still dies.  Also you're just holding space, its not really that active.

That is kinda the same flaw as having the lighter refuel from absorbing flames.  If it gives more fuel then it takes to light something on fire then you just light things on fire and put them out instantly - but if its not enough fuel then you lose fuel all the time and the perk is kinda worthless.  Better to detach it, absorbing fire is a perk but embers refuel.  Same here.

My goal with putting it these ways is to make Bernie more active, and interactive.  Healing via embers connects the two skill trees, and possibly gives people who want fire magic something to actually buy on Bernie that makes sense for them.

[Mysterious box]

11 minutes ago, Gashzer said:

Change the health regen perks to flame patch up so 5% repair per ember for first skill 10% per ember second skill, these are more reasonable numbers as embers are extremely easy to farm. Altho these skills would require unlocking ember skill obviously.

Otherwise i agree with everything else.

That's far too low to be worthwhile how about 25% per ember I don't think making it grinding is a good thing

[Gashzer]

Just now, Mysterious box said:

That's far too low to be worthwhile how about 25% per ember

Takes about 2 secs to collect like 5 embers from bees for 50% regen. Bernie is pretty tanky atm anything over 10% is too much in my opinion. We would have a practically immortal bernie even with 25% lol

[Mysterious box]

Just now, Gashzer said:

Takes about 2 secs to collect like 5 embers from bees for 50% regen. Bernie is pretty tanky atm anything over 10% is too much in my opinion. We would have a practically immortal bernie even with 25% lol

Your looking at it from the perspective that everyone is going to use a spider farm and even then you still need additional embers for other spells why are you asking for Willow to be so grindy when so many others aren't?

[Yuuko]

7 minutes ago, Gashzer said:

Takes about 2 secs to collect like 5 embers from bees for 50% regen. Bernie is pretty tanky atm anything over 10% is too much in my opinion. We would have a practically immortal bernie even with 25% lol

That is very unrealistic.  You can get an ember from a bee in probably 2 seconds.  1 swing with a torch and 2-3 with a weapon.  Casting Combustion for 4 ember on a swarm of bees takes like a minute for them to actually die, and another minute to walk around picking up the embers.

The "problem" of Willow farming embers is greatly overstated, its also the worst part of her kit to pick on b/c embers are an essential part of her fire kit.  She NEEDS to be able to get embers to cast her spells.  If we just up the cost of everything to ridiculous numbers we just force Willow to play the dumb minigame of farming embers all day.  Willow shouldn't NEED to do some janky combustion farm just to play the game.  (also while I get the angle from Wortox being a bit envious of Willow getting embers, really he can do his thing about it too - and he doesn't have his skill tree yet.  We cannot compare characters with a tree against characters without it.  No one is saying Maxwell shouldn't get nm fuel so easy yet his spells are far superior to Willows)

Its much better to approach the real problem.  IF getting embers easily creates a problem it is only because she has no cap on the amount of embers she can carry.  Cap her at 1 stack of embers and it doesn't matter how quickly she can get them b/c she'll only have 40 of them with her at any time.  This gives us a much better base line to balance her around rather than the mystical "Willow with 400 embers OP."

Also healing for 5% is just absolute garbage.  That is 20 embers just to heal Bernie to full.  Even if you can cast Combustion on a good swarm of spiders or bees, that is ALL just for 1 use of a sewing kit?  Nah, not even.

[xhyom]

I just disagree with Embers being used to repair Bernie, it's much more interesting to repair him using the sewing kit, I see him as a beloved tool for Willow, not a battle tank where she just throw fuel inside. But the rest is a great quality of life update, so it's very welcome.

[Mysterious box]

Just now, xhyom said:

I see him as a beloved tool for Willow, not a battle tank where she just throw fuel inside. But the rest is a great quality of life update, so it's very welcome.

I mean it's basically the same thing just substituting embers for tape and sewing kits.

[Yuuko]

3 minutes ago, xhyom said:

I just disagree with Embers being used to repair Bernie, it's much more interesting to repair him using the sewing kit, I see him as a beloved tool for Willow, not a battle tank where she just throw fuel inside. But the rest is a great quality of life update, so it's very welcome.

I don't dislike using a sewing kit, but I think that is starting to clog Willow's inventory.  Lighter, bernie, souls, and sewing kit too?  Getting to be a bit much imo :\ 

So my suggestion is to keep the sewing kit as the stronger option restoring Bernie to 100% with a single use, but let embers patch him up as well.

Also like, if not tanking, what would you give Bernie in his kit otherwise?  What could his kit give you that would make you say "Yes, I'll invest in Bernie instead of fire spells."

b/c right now there is kinda only 1 build for Willow, and it is all of the cool and interesting fire spells, and then some left over points into Bernie b/c they are there...

[grm9]

24 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

idk sounds too automatic and uninteresting.  b/c you get the healing from Bernie taking damage if the healing is good then you just hold space next to Bernie and he never dies, and if its bad then its just bad and he still dies.  Also you're just holding space, its not really that active.

could make it require applying them to bernie directly with a 2-3 seconds long animation of crafting near him, so you need to do it at the right time to not get hit by AoE of the boss that's attacking bernie, possibly creating a small fire blast after a repair to compensate the time spent repairing instead of casting spells and waiting for him to die and get replaced by a second one, also could limit the number of total dropped stuffings that would only reset after you sew bernie, but idk if that'd be fun and balanced in gameplay

[Swiyss]

42 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Ides for a replacement skill (not my idea it was Saladmanders):

Bernie drops stuffings occasionally when on low hp which you can use to heal or repair bernie. They dissapear like ash, and picking them up automatically heals bernie without the need to give it to him.

I like this, the idea of him doing all the damage and you summoning him is really good. With this you can also participate in a kiting minigame while also repairing him, like a "brain" and Bearnie is the "body".

[xhyom]

10 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

I mean it's basically the same thing just substituting embers for tape and sewing kits.

I just think it's too simplistic and reduces all the complexity of the character and the affection she supposedly has for the bear to a character who only solves everything with her new magic powder.

5 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

I don't dislike using a sewing kit, but I think that is starting to clog Willow's inventory.  Lighter, bernie, souls, and sewing kit too?  Getting to be a bit much imo :\ 

So my suggestion is to keep the sewing kit as the stronger option restoring Bernie to 100% with a single use, but let embers patch him up as well.

Also like, if not tanking, what would you give Bernie in his kit otherwise?  What could his kit give you that would make you say "Yes, I'll invest in Bernie instead of fire spells."

b/c right now there is kinda only 1 build for Willow, and it is all of the cool and interesting fire spells, and then some left over points into Bernie b/c they are there...

I don't think it's concerning like this since he lasts very long, and if you have a certain level of sanity where monsters don't come at you, it will repair itself over time. I mean not being a battle tank because I don't see it as an Abigail that you throw at any problem you have, it is a tool for things it was made for, like taking care of shadow creatures and protecting Willow when she's desperate and in danger, so Bernie coming out when there's something like this as you suggested feels very fitting for me.
I also think it's an exaggeration to say as if there were few points and if she invested in Bernie there would be nothing left for her, first of all, to have Embers anyway you need to spend some points on the lighter, but it's completely possible to have both good parts of both trees, it's not like Bernie is completely alone Willow can help too.

[Swiyss]

41 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

Nah, better to just cap her at carrying 40 ember.  ppl are really over-blowing how powerful she is just b/c she can get embers like she HAS to get embers, give it a rest.  Next you probably complain about wall cheese for dfly or something smh

5% and 10% healing is VERY low, and you can just use 1 use of a sewing kit for 100%.  Why would healing Bernie need to be so absolutely gimped?  The point here is to build up Bernie's skill tree to be something you'd actually want to use.  At such paltry healing I would just carry a sewing kit.

Why bother repairing the bear with embers if the sewing kit already heals him full? Also, repairing him with the kit makes sense, but dumping heat residue on a toy doesn't make sense in my point of view.

21 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

I don't dislike using a sewing kit, but I think that is starting to clog Willow's inventory.  Lighter, bernie, souls, and sewing kit too?  Getting to be a bit much imo :\ 

So my suggestion is to keep the sewing kit as the stronger option restoring Bernie to 100% with a single use, but let embers patch him up as well.

Also like, if not tanking, what would you give Bernie in his kit otherwise?  What could his kit give you that would make you say "Yes, I'll invest in Bernie instead of fire spells."

b/c right now there is kinda only 1 build for Willow, and it is all of the cool and interesting fire spells, and then some left over points into Bernie b/c they are there...

Wouldn't it be better if you can choose between summoning (bear) or magic (embers)? Of course there would exist a place where you can do both but it would only be optimizable to a certain point in the skill tree.

That would fix the inventory issue a bit.

 

[Yuuko]

17 hours ago, Swiyss said:

I like this, the idea of him doing all the damage and you summoning him is really good. With this you can also participate in a kiting minigame while also repairing him, like a "brain" and Bearnie is the "body".

It sounds fun in theory, but I think it has 2 flaws that make it actually bad in practice.

1) take damage to heal.  Too simple and self-fueling of a loop.  Just like having the lighter light fires, that you then absorb to refuel.  It cannot be balanced like that b/c if its too good then its too good and he just has infinite health.  If its bad then it doesn't really heal him well enough and the need to heal bernie is unfilled.

2) bernie stays out - I think its important that you need to take bernie out of the playing field to restore him.

17 hours ago, xhyom said:

I don't think it's concerning like this since he lasts very long, and if you have a certain level of sanity where monsters don't come at you, it will repair itself over time. I mean not being a battle tank because I don't see it as an Abigail that you throw at any problem you have, it is a tool for things it was made for, like taking care of shadow creatures and protecting Willow when she's desperate and in danger, so Bernie coming out when there's something like this as you suggested feels very fitting for me.
I also think it's an exaggeration to say as if there were few points and if she invested in Bernie there would be nothing left for her, first of all, to have Embers anyway you need to spend some points on the lighter, but it's completely possible to have both good parts of both trees, it's not like Bernie is completely alone Willow can help too.

Passive healing does not work very well.  It is very low and whether bugged or intended - currently I don't think he heals out of combat.

Hot head is actually bad.  All it really does in enable Bernie to punch Glommer.  Aside from that everything is just mild passives.  Really there is no point to buying most of them.  A few max health?  Regen that doesn't work out of combat?  Between sanity 1 and sanity 2 you only have like 10 sanity points variance.  None of these feel like actual things you want to take, more just places to put points to either get alignment bernie or b/c you've bought literally every fire skill there is and HAVE to buy some bernie skills.

I think the Bernie side of the tree is wholly unsatisfying currently EXCEPT for Burning Bernie which can only be taken if you forsake the the biggest fire spells.

17 hours ago, Swiyss said:

Wouldn't it be better if you can choose between summoning (bear) or magic (embers)? Of course there would exist a place where you can do both but it would only be optimizable to a certain point in the skill tree.

 

You kinda have to have both b/c you get 15 points and including affinity you could only spend 11 points into either fire or bernie.  You'll always have at least 4 points in the other tree.  So there is no reason not to have some synergy between the trees.  But also you really need more impactful Bernie skills that make picking to invest in bernie more worthwhile then just Burning Bernie - which right now is the only skill there that is actually a thing.  Everything else is boring passive stats (or hot head that is actually just a troll skill.)

[Swiyss]

7 minutes ago, xhyom said:

I don't think it's concerning like this since he lasts very long, and if you have a certain level of sanity where monsters don't come at you, it will repair itself over time. I mean not being a battle tank because I don't see it as an Abigail that you throw at any problem you have, it is a tool for things it was made for, like taking care of shadow creatures and protecting Willow when she's desperate and in danger, so Bernie coming out when there's something like this as you suggested feels very fitting for me.
I also think it's an exaggeration to say as if there were few points and if she invested in Bernie there would be nothing left for her, first of all, to have Embers anyway you need to spend some points on the lighter, but it's completely possible to have both good parts of both trees, it's not like Bernie is completely alone Willow can help too.

Having more control over bearnie would probably fix this issue I think. Maybe the skill tree could use some control settings or perks like Shosuko mentioned here.

[Mysterious box]

13 minutes ago, xhyom said:

I don't think it's concerning like this since he lasts very long, and if you have a certain level of sanity where monsters don't come at you, it will repair itself over time.

This isn't really true unless your playing solo since in only takes around 2 to 3 other players for enough shadows to spawn that he gets overwhelmed fairly quickly and even when your alone your always going net negative with his regen as he'll always aggro shadows even when your not insane with the regen being far too slow to make a profit from what I tested before the regen broke outside of combat it's the reason I feel the regen skill is useless and definitely not worth a insight point at the very least it should regen while he's not active as well.

[Swiyss]

2 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

It sounds fun in theory, but I think it has 2 flaws that make it actually bad in practice.

1) take damage to heal.  Too simple and sell-fueling of a loop.  Just like having the lighter light fires, that you then absorb to refuel.  It cannot be balanced like that b/c if its too good then its too good and he just has infinite health.  If its bad then it doesn't really heal him well enough and the need to heal bernie is unfilled.

2) bernie stays out - I think its important that you need to take bernie out of the playing field to restore him.

Hot head is actually bad.  All it really does in enable Bernie to punch Glommer.  Aside from that everything is just mild passives.  Really there is no point to buying most of them.  A few max health?  Regen that doesn't work out of combat?  Between sanity 1 and sanity 2 you only have like 10 sanity points variance.  None of these feel like actual things you want to take, more just places to put points to either get alignment bernie or b/c you've bought literally every fire skill there is and HAVE to buy some bernie skills.

I think the Bernie side of the tree is wholly unsatisfying currently EXCEPT for Burning Bernie which can only be taken if you forsake the the biggest fire spells.

You kinda have to have both b/c you get 15 points and including affinity you could only spend 11 points into either fire or bernie.  You'll always have at least 4 points in the other tree.  So there is no reason not to have some synergy between the trees.  But also you really need more impactful Bernie skills that make picking to invest in bernie more worthwhile then just Burning Bernie - which right now is the only skill there that is actually a thing.  Everything else is boring passive stats (or hot head that is actually just a troll skill.)

I agree that it would certaintly have some issues, but those could be fixed very quickly just by trying to implement it. The idea is what matters, because it's a great idea. Then later they can refine it. The problem is that a lot of ideas are popping up in the middle of the beta, so it's kinda hard for them to implement them all at once or even stop to think about them.

I agree too with the second paragraph, hot headed is a bad skill. the whole bearnie side is a mess. but we need ideas and narrow them down I think.

I don't think that fervent fighter is a great idea, it kills his purpose which is to fight when she is insane.

I also don't think warm hugs are a good IMPLEMENTATION of the idea that you had. I think the "brain" and "body" idea is way more polished and easy to implement. Maybe not exactly like described there but I have a suggestion in mind; everytime the bear takes damage a piece of stuffing flies a bit further away from him, and if you have a bad job taking them back, he won't keep going. But you don't stuff him immediately, bearnie fall into the ground like sharkboi and daywalker and then you sew him alongside some stuff, or they can even create a new item instead of the sewing kit. IDK just the idea of managing him instead of participating is very cool, cause you're still participating but indirectly. The idea of having to take 2 bearnies into some fights is bad in my opinion.

[xhyom]

7 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

Passive healing does not work very well.  It is very low and whether bugged or intended - currently I don't think he heals out of combat.

Hot head is actually bad.  All it really does in enable Bernie to punch Glommer.  Aside from that everything is just mild passives.  Really there is no point to buying most of them.  A few max health?  Regen that doesn't work out of combat?  Between sanity 1 and sanity 2 you only have like 10 sanity points variance.  None of these feel like actual things you want to take, more just places to put points to either get alignment bernie or b/c you've bought literally every fire skill there is and HAVE to buy some bernie skills.

I think the Bernie side of the tree is wholly unsatisfying currently EXCEPT for Burning Bernie which can only be taken if you forsake the the biggest fire spells.

I agree that the perks for him are much less relevant, but that's another discussion entirely, my problem with this heal using Embers is more conceptual if that's the correct word... Something really more about the aesthetics, I don't think it really It would be a problem for balance. But I also don't like to think of Bernie as just one thing alone, he became about 2 if not 3 times more durable and Willow gained much more usefulness both in combat and in survival/helping allies like the bear itself totally benefits from having the perks of the lighter working together with him, not conflicting things.

[Swiyss]

17 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

 But also you really need more impactful Bernie skills that make picking to invest in bernie more worthwhile then just Burning Bernie - which right now is the only skill there that is actually a thing.  Everything else is boring passive stats (or hot head that is actually just a troll skill.)

I still think the we need to be able to use fire staf to set him on fire. Can we do this now?

[Yuuko]

12 minutes ago, Swiyss said:

I think the "brain" and "body" idea is way more polished and easy to implement

I don't think the brain and body idea fits for Bernie at all.  Unless you take Burning Bernie, he is never a viable source of damage.  He is a tank, and sometimes he punches things.  We should not be forcing Willow to take a significant amount of time to cater to Bernie who is punching for 50 damage every 2 seconds...

Abigail gets the brain and body type thing with Wendy being able to control aggro or not, and to get a damage bonus when they fight together, and potions to augment her abilities.  Willow and Bernie don't have that relationship.  He is more a tool for her, tanking and distracting.  They aren't supposed to fight together really, and he should be free to tank things away from her.

12 minutes ago, xhyom said:

I agree that the perks for him are much less relevant, but that's another discussion entirely,

That is entirely the point of this thread.

I get that it might not be the perfect thematic, but it gives Willow synergy between her trees making them more interesting, and gives Bernie an active perk which is neeeeded for him.  If you have other ideas for perks instead lmk

[Mysterious box]

6 minutes ago, xhyom said:

I agree that the perks for him are much less relevant, but that's another discussion entirely, my problem with this heal using Embers is more conceptual if that's the correct word... Something really more about the aesthetics, I don't think it really It would be a problem for balance. But I also don't like to think of Bernie as just one thing alone, he became about 2 if not 3 times more durable and Willow gained much more usefulness both in combat and in survival/helping allies like the bear itself totally benefits from having the perks of the lighter working together with him, not conflicting things.

This is more so still a system of these skills needing to be in the end game but but being given out to the early game Bernie didn't need it now but in the late game.

[Swiyss]

I understand your point but abigail is for aoe, bearnie is for bosses. It wouldn't hurt making him do much of the work since she is a character that a lot of casual players pick, and what better thing to do then to sit back, relax, and watch your little bear transform and kill that deerclops on day 30 without interupting your peace? ofcourse she needs to know how to do that, so some managment here and there for the bear to not die still sounds amazing to me.

[Yuuko]

2 minutes ago, Swiyss said:

I understand your point but abigail is for aoe, bearnie is for bosses. It wouldn't hurt making him do much of the work since she is a character that a lot of casual players pick, and what better thing to do then to sit back, relax, and watch your little bear transform and kill that deerclops on day 30 without interupting your peace? ofcourse she needs to know how to do that, so some managment here and there for the bear to not die still sounds amazing to me.

Bernie will never be killing bosses.  He is not a damage source.  Even Burning Bernie only makes him a damage source against hordes of small monsters like shadow moneys, nightmare creatures, spiders, etc.  He isn't dealing any significant amount of damage to any boss any time.  That hasn't changed, and shouldn't.  Unlike Wendy who is sisters with Abi, Willow is the main character and Bernie is just her stuffed animal / protector.