Bio - Human or Cyber?

[smitty]

I'm really torn, as the extra survivability of cyber vs. more combo' level == more health on the battle crys...

This is the only class that I've really been torn about...
'zerker and Champ' definitely lean in the favor of Human, IMO.
Commando & Defender seem to be better suited for cyber...

Bio? Who knows...

[THransformer]

It is tough, but I think human is the best choice for the Bio Engineer. Your heals cost less combo, and you'll be able to do well in combat and build the combo pretty consistently.

Though, it all depends on your style of play.

[Konvict8811]

This post might work better in the Bio Engineer board.

But I too will have a difficult time deciding which alignment to choose when I roll my BE. I want to lean towards Human for better healing, but I want to go towards Cyber for damage/soloability.

[moon]

I have been using cyber as the class for my bio. The way I use my bio is get a really good melee weapon and hammer up the strength and bonuses and use that. For big baddies I try to use the cannon. I have specced the middle route for going solo. That makes the most sense. I can heal and use a shield if I make a mistake in the set up of enemies. I try to use the smaller goblins to gain momentum in fights then use fierce on the harder monsters. I have also included procs for my weapon. I use slow and root. That helps keep from being overrun.

*I also keep a good set up pistols just in case.

[Atax]

I got to level 28 or so with my Cyber-BE who was using the BE-left branch and noticed that I was focusing on battle cry efficiency and fierce attacks for crowd control. I was also searching for attack speed buffs to increase my crowd fighting abilities with 2h spears. Once I realized all this, I slapped my forehead realized that the human tree is the perfect fit for my play style - which I think is really what its all about.

My combat strategy is fierce attacks as they approach, move in and slam one into the air, jump up and hit him to increase combo meter to gain up healing. Once I need to heal, I try to throw one up and hit him with a rifle to increase the hit meter then hit a battlecry (which helps take away the nicks suffered from shooting while surrounded). I try to toss a few more guys up then roll back and fierce attack the crap out of em.

So I guess my recommendation is figure out how you like to play your engineer. The trees will make more sense once you realize what you like.

BTW, I like the left branch as its the best for crowd control in my opinion.

As a side note, I restarted my engineer with a human tree this time.

[Fireside]

I like my cyber bio - but I use the spider alot!

I think both paths are strong....it really depends on your play style. I wish the choice was made later in the game........

[Atax]

I agree 100%, They really should of put the choice after the ice forest. Actually, they should of put an inbetween level that was shorter then the ice forest, but gave you a better idea of how hard the game can get.

[Zyke]

Human cause you can heal more.

[poizon]

I can see arguments for either one, but I chose Cyber and have been very happy with it. The increase spider duration is a life-saver!

I don't tend to cast heals very often solo, largely because I'm not taking much damage. Being able to run in to a large group with a shield up or throwing up a shield to run through a crowd and attach the missile goblins with the shield still up when you get there makes it worth it to me.

For co-op human is probably better overall. While the shield is good for solo since you regain health anyway, it does not heal your partner even if it does temporarily protect him.

[ThEoRy]

I play human right path bio. I like the quick melee speed, 1 hand damage boost, quickly built combo meter for attack buffs and huge ruiners for room clearing heals. Runes for max attack speed, 1 hand damage, hybrid damage and hammer damage. People I've played with so far were pretty amazed at how fast I "zerk" around 1 hitting enemies and hammer juggling when surrounded. It suits my play style perfectly.

[bansin]

I'm a 38 BE human. I went down the middle path and right path of human. I focus on two-handed speed and damage. I focus on armor. My heal over time fills my entire life with one use. I melee my way through all my enemies, fierce packs with my preferred weapon of staff (second choice is sword). Currently using a 2h hammer. I use my rifles grenade and then engage melee. I air combo any enemies that take many hits. I oddly, never have to use my spider shield though. I often use my Heal over time battle cry only in multi-troll type occasions. But with my bio-eng regen I almost always do well. I've died only once a level except ( not Hel) one time against a spider that killed me four times in a row. It's stomp was instantly killing me and it kept doing it in the middle of a finisher until I got wise and stopped doing two of them in a row.

I normally use only my heal over time and not ruiners(only when surrounded by too many enemies). I use my heal after I get 100 hit combo so as to get reduced combo meter usage.

I went Human because I felt that more combo meant more healing and it has. I look forward to teaming with a zerker for a 220% combo meter growth rate.

I did not die on Hel. Since my first play through, I've not even come close to ever dying now. (Except that spider on my second play through).

I feel like a real god as a bio engineer and believe that all the professional reviewers should go "pike" themselves for calling them "just" a useless healer. Some of us pride ourselves on not dying even in games with low death penalties.

Edit: And my not dying is not a standing back half the time waiting for my regen to fill me, but aggressively smashing enemies with no pause but to walk into a cyberwell or hit an item thing. If I could frap you'd see me fearlessly wading in on four trolls without fear. Like a God of the Aesir.

[BigKevSexyMan]

I went cyber, mostly for the proc rate(for conversion) and spider duration. I'm probably not getting the final cyber node.

[Corey Waits]

Well, I went Cyber with mine. Being able to dish out extra damage is nice, the cannon is awesome, but yeah, me and my co-op buddy died a couple of times 'cause I didn't have the Combo Level there to use on a healing Battle Cry.

If you go Cyber you're really gonna have to work on keeping your Combo Level up, whereas with Human it will just happen. That's the main difference methinks.

[EA_Cru_2002]

Both alignments have their merits. The Human can boost up his combo meter easier and his ruiner heals you. Not as much as the middle path healing, so you want to save that for your big heals, but it's a nice bonus besides doing damage to your enemies.

The Cyber path (which I use) also has its merits. You can deal more damage and take more damage with more armor. You get access to cannons which are great against boss fights. I actually prefer rifles for general fighting but when I know I'm gonna be fighting Garm or Grendel, it's nice to bust out your cannon.

Generally I find the Human alignment's main strength is in the ability to use it's Ruiners often while the Cyber's strength is having more raw stat strength and defense.

I play my Bio as a Paladin (knight who heals) so I like the bonus damage and defense I get which allows me to run into the battle and fight side by side with my coop partner. I save my combo meters for Battle Cry healing anyway and don't use ruiners much so the Human path doesn't fit my style so much. But a Human Bio can build his combo meter faster so he can use Ruiners more liberally anyway. So as you can see, either way works. There's no "better" way.

That being said, one thing that I find really awesome personally about Cyber Bio is that once you get the Epic Staff for it, you'll see it has Necrosis on it. It's a skill where when you hit the enemy, there's a chance a pool of acid will bubble up beneath them and heavily damage them, usually killing them instantly. The great thing about it is that when other enemies run into that pool, they get affected and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. No exaggeration, I've sometimes hit an enemy with it and then just stand back and watch as it kills everyone in the entire room. And I mean everyone. From what I can see, that is a Cyber Bio weapon. Also the Cyber skill tree has a node where you can increase the % of status attacks on your weapons. So I maxed that out and I notice the pool of acid trick happens pretty often in my games. It's rare for it not to show up during a skirmish. Right now I'm working to get my Epic Charms for Necrosis working so I figure if I can equip two of those on me, put everything else, I should be pooling up acid 24/7!

I'm sure there are some really cool weapon, charm, skill combinations some Human Bio players have come up with that I don't know about. Let us know!

[Sentient Muffin]

I have a level 47 Bio on the left path and on the right human path with maxed out nodes on the bottom and the top (Quick to anger and the other one). I die at least a dozen times a level (Hall, Hel you name it) no matter how hard I try.

The extra combo meter building doesn't help if you can't get close enough to do it. I'm considering using a Cyber for my next Bio.

Oh and I REALLY wish that regen was faster.

[EA_Cru_2002]

I've learned not to rely on the Regen skill as anything that'll really help in the heat of battle besides negating Poison and Burn effects to the point they're not much of a factor most of the time. It might not seem like much but trust me, when you're another class without it and get hit with those statuses, it's a mad rush to get health orbs. Sometimes even though I have an extra combo meter and could clear the status with a battle cry, I just let the Poison or Burn work itself out because it's not really doing that much damage to me.

[blaquangel20]

In my opinion you need to go human...you are a healer with this class the more combo points you can get the better...along the way you can get gear where you can customize to your liking.

[BattleOn]

I used to die ALOT when I was leveling my Bio, The key I found out is to use your ranged fierce attack. Knocks them down and then you can pick one out of the crowd and serve them into the air. I also put quite a few of +total armor runes in my armor for survivability and i went with middle BioE - Left Human, I have the epic rifle and the extra plasma radius really owns for crowd control with increased rate of fire etc. I only need to use the shield occasionally in ice forest other than that I dont have any problems with not having the extra cool down time. My main weapon is the Runic hammer of the dwarf kin which has 6% enthalpy drain on it (freezes target on occasion) which also helps when things get tough.

[T.E.C.K.1]

honestly i went human and i chose the middle path for one reason, spider shield. if you watch the silicon knights skill tree videos on youtube and watch the bio video they say that the shield is one of the best spider abilities in the game, it not only gives you the shield but your teamate also. however between the cyber and human sides, it all depends, do you want a cannon? or do you want a better ruiner? personally i like the ruiner valkyrie, its BA!!!

[Sentient Muffin]

I've learned not to rely on the Regen skill as anything that'll really help in the heat of battle besides negating Poison and Burn effects to the point they're not much of a factor most of the time. It might not seem like much but trust me, when you're another class without it and get hit with those statuses, it's a mad rush to get health orbs. Sometimes even though I have an extra combo meter and could clear the status with a battle cry, I just let the Poison or Burn work itself out because it's not really doing that much damage to me.


Burn seems to do way more damage than my Regen can handle, I end up using my Iduun's Boon to get rid of it anyway. I did however find Regen useful during certain boss battles (Grendl and Hod mainly). You can continually strafe around them while firing your guns and wait to get some HP back.