METAL GEAR BEAR
It’s only when I’m cheating death on the battlefield. The only time I feel truly alive.
INTRODUCTION
This build has been updated for Mayhem 11 at level 72. It can handle all content so well that it absolutely trivialises true takedown difficulty both at the Maliwan Blacksite and the Guardian Breach. Seriously, you could swiftly breeze through either with almost zero effort.
Metal Gear Bear as a skill build is really more about making piloting Bear foolproof. In the past, the build didn’t have any capstones but with more DLC and the level cap now at 72, Short Fuse is worth getting in this build. All the skills taken are done in order to get the most DPS available while at the same time increasing our changes of negating cooldown duration without having to spend points directly on boosting cooldown rate.
The one omission that you might question is Means of Destruction but that’s because Iron Bear’s grenade usage does not consume any from Moze’s stockpile. The more time spent piloting Bear, the less this skill is required. And this skill as well as Pull the Holy Pin are omitted because the best type of grenade for this build does not require these skills, nor will we run short of them. Our choice of gear will also help explain why we’ve specifically chosen to invest in these particular skills.
GEAR
Eternal Flame is without a doubt THE best class mod for any build that involves piloting Iron Bear long-term. Because of the special effect, you don’t have to be conservative with fuel, nor do you need to blow points on cooldown skills; you can allocate all the points to boosting Bear’s DPS and afford to burn through all the fuel instead of jumping out with half the tank still remaining. Running on Fumes is not mandatory but a nice QoL improvement nonetheless, while Really Big Guns further boosts a damage multiplier (unique to Bear’s DPS skills in the 4th tree) that occupies its own slot in Bear’s damage formula. Best passive bonuses for Bear are AS damage, splash damage and max health, or you could go for SMG damage and/or weapon damage for Moze.
Bear Trooper & Raging Bear are both very similar to each other in terms of performance when piloting Bear, and they both perform better overall when Stainless Steel Bear gets more and more of the bonus points. Either of these COMs allow you to pilot Bear the classical way.
Flare is great if you want a massive spike in V1 damage to spice things up although I don’t imagine it would be that necessary outside of tanky boss fights. Heat Exchanger is a very niche option if you want to roll with Miniguns for whatever reason, and you can get multiple bonus points for Power Creep but for anything other than its focused hardpoint, you’d be better off using the previously mentioned COM if you want a major boost in DPS.
Deathless used to help Bear get the full benefit of Desperate Measures without butchering Bear’s max armour, but this was silently nerfed a while ago so that it will only help Bear if he has missing armour. Normally, it’s not such a wise idea to remove Moze’s health gate seeing as there are enemies in end game who can destroy or bypass your entire shield with one hit. But in a pilot build with total emphasis on increasing total time spent in the cockpit, the risks to Moze’s 1 hp are reduced substantially.
The prefix doesn’t matter much in this context seeing as Moze is invulnerable while in the cockpit. But outside of it, the Snowdrift prefix makes a tremendous difference for her survivability which you can see for yourself during any of the Takedowns, by allowing her enough movement speed to dodge almost any attack that comes her way. Passive bonuses should at the very least be AOE damage and max health. The final slot can be anything else that is relevant to Bear, but I would recommend movement speed and/or SMG damage for Moze.
Plus Ultra made its debut in DLC4 and it instantly became the new best shield for Iron Bear and not just because of a 25% chance to absorb bullets with 30% action skill cooldown rate for a few seconds. The card doesn’t state it, but an unlisted bonus is that it gives the owner +100% max health, which gives Iron Bear GARGANTUAN armour capacity! And because it’s a Pangolin shield, you can get the Multivitamin prefix (x2 HEALTH parts) for an additional 25% max health on top of the hidden double bonus. Combine all this with the anointment where each kill grants Moze +30% CDR per kill for 10 seconds, and you’ve got the perfect shield for Iron Bear.
It’s Piss isn’t a compulsory pick here but is arguably the best legendary grenade you can choose for this particular build. I’m of the opinion that because Bear’s DPS and sustain from grenades are 100% contingent on the 20% chance granted by the anointment, it’s significantly lower than the DPS and reliable sustain Bear can muster with his own arsenal. Combine that with the fact that Moze’s max health is 1 and she can’t use Vampyr for herself in this build, you may as well go for an option that debuffs enemies and makes your strongest weapons hit even harder.
Dark Army is the reason why we even have Short Fuse in this build. Although the DPS won’t match anything close to what Bear will dish out, it’s still a bit of extra damage and the SMG drones can fire rounds with Big Surplus to increase the chance of instantly refunding all the cooldown. For weapon anointments though, there’s only one worth talking about for this build and that’s 100% bonus Railgun damage while Iron Bear is active.
Unforgiven is mentioned for this type of build because it can be used with Dakka Bear to buff the critical shots from the turret so long as Moze is holding onto it when either she or a friend hops onboard. Furthermore, the Urad anointment works by applying radiation damage to the turret rounds!
FINAL NOTES
For general use, Capacitive Armature is so good for mobbing that you want it on Bear’s right hardpoint. And having Corrosive Sabot Round (with its mag size of 3 rounds) on the left hardpoint makes the most sense because it’s the side that can utilise the fire rate bonus from Scorching RPMs and of course relies on Vampyr to provide life steal for Bear. This combo is arguably the best for negotiating the crystal phases in the Guardian Takedown.
Even though Gearbox gave Iron Bear a massive helping hand, first in Mayhem levels with the damage-scaling and now with the Eternal Flame COM that allows you to break all the conventional rules about being a pilot, the fundamental thing to remember with Iron Bear is that increased fuel-efficiency is key above all else when it comes to prolonging your Iron Bear duration and getting the most performance out of him. This is something that is explored in further detail in this guide for beginners or for those who don’t understand Iron Bear that well. But there’s never been a better time to be a pilot than right now. Bear Troopers, assemble!
