If you are a Cleric, and you have Hirge, you should be able to keep the lv 10 bear alive for a while, and the Bear can do some ok damage.
If the Bear dies, then you can just replace it with your Wolf(Summon Wolf 1,2,3(Get by joining Cleric guild as a Cleric).
And if your Wolf dies and you have to wait for the cool down to summon another Wolf, then you can summon the Bear to replace your Wolf.
Also at levels 7,8,9,10,11,12,13, the Bear can still be very effective.
Also if you get the Summon Skill and put it at Rank 3, your Bear will be a Level 13 Bear.
The Wolf Skill, Summon Skill, and Beast Master Skill, Summon Bear Skill, altho can use Bear with any class, its best to help a Cleric become a sort of Druid.
Also a Mage can use the Bear Pretty Good. The Warrior, and Rogue usually dont make as good of use of the Bear as Cleric, Mage does.
The only bad thing about it, is the insane cool down time for the Bear.
But I wouldnt be surprised to see the Cool Down for the Bear to be greatly reduced in future updates.
Its all in how you play it the Bear. And playtesters found ways to make the Bear very useful.
Instead of complaining, saying how bad the Skill, Bear is, how about you listen to what has been said, and or try to find a way to use the Bear effectively.
But if you cant find a way to have the Skill, Bear be successful to you, then you dont have to use the Skill, Bear, and instead of telling other players how bad it is, you can let them find out for themselves how effective the Bear is or not.
Dont be so quick to rush to judgement, on a Skill, the Bear.
Makes me want to get the Skill, Bear to prove you wrong.
Only reason I didnt get the Skill, Bear, is that by the time I did Path of the Deer, got the 25 Rep with Vannarri, etc, I was too high Level(Level 19,20,21)
But I can probably get the Path of Deer, 25 Rep with Vannari, and the Skill, Bear at about 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th level, and do pretty well with the Bear, Cleric, Hirge, Wolf, Mercenary.