Shapeshifter was one of my fav classes in nwn and really enjoyed the high versatility there... the class was pretty usefull and nice to play and, due to the large amount of forms with different stats and skillsets, it was really possible to adapt to different situations...
of course dao is not nwn and is natural that the "class" is not the same (in nwn shapeshifter was a real class, in dao is just a subclass, or a spell line if you prefer) but in its current status i dont see shapeshifting particulary usefull and for a few reasons
the main "drawback" with shapeshift is that the caster cant cast, this mean that a mage is sacrifying his spell arsenall while shifted and to make this "sacrifice" worth the form he get should compensate with usefull stats and abilities something that atm is not happening
various forms are generally quite weak and not very diverse, they generally give a small amount of armor/defence a boost to hps and some (weak) melee dmg, some of them get some minor CC but that can hardly compesate for the loss of casting abilites
forms
- Spider: imo is not that bad but still falls quite shorts, it have some cc capability but generally not on par with a mage one who can have a decent CC arsenal with good aoe CC, its melee stats are quite lackluster (as with all form)
- Bear: again lackluster, the dmg is low, the defence/armor is low for what should probably be the tank form...
- swarm: this form have some merits (aoe dmg and a good cc ability) but the defence is just too low to make it usefull a form like this should make you almost invult to physical dmg... instead even arrows(!!!!!) are able to hit you easilly, also the fact that when you get hit you lose mana and not health is quite problematic as you are unable to get any heals while in this form and it makes the master shifter power (the drain health thing) totally pointless (spending 2s to turn into a swarm to heal? a potion is just better
)another big problem is the loss of sustained spells... if you could keep your sustained spells while shifted here that we can see a purpose for various forms, it will be possible to put various group buffs on and then shift into a bear or a spider... the low cost of various shifted abilities will make it possible to still use them and keep the buffs going... as sustained spells are mostly about fatigue than "limbs" i dont see any reason why they should disappear while shifted
an interesting thing about shapeshifting is that the stats are added on your current ones... this mean that if you focus on str and wear big armors the shifter stats will add on top of that and the str dmg bonus is supposed to "carry" on... i did not try that but that can be interesting... the only problem is that you are going to gimp your magic capability (resulting also in a weaker shifted form in theory) just to play a sort of odd warrior
shapeshifting + arcane warrior... this had the potential to be a nice combo... if it was not for the loss of sustained spells... is it possible to use arcane warrior to equip massive armor and then shift, you end up with some massive armor rating but you loose the dmg bonus so yup... you can get a big tanking bear but with crappy dmg... at that point better to not shift, you still get good armor, better melee dmg, sustained spells and some spell capability...
shapechanging in fade... during the mage tower part is it possible to aquire some forms in the fade (all the class) and to morph into them... that imo is what shapeshifter should have been... the forms are just 4 but extremely versatile... nuker with fire immunity, huge tank with some aoe cc, sneaky form for recon, mystical form with CC and magic dmg... the normal shapeshifter line just pales in comparsion of that and this is kinda sad as every char is going to get good shifting abilities for that quest but a dedicated shifter is kinda stuck with useless forms:P
so... how o boost shapeshiftng?
here a few changes that imo can make it more worth...
- sustained spells active while shifted (the mage alredy loose a lot in shifted form, at least he can keep these to buff himself and his comrades)
- spider form, more focus on CC... an added chance to stun effect on the poison or a debuff can be nice also an aoe web spell on long recast can be quite wellcome
- bear form... more focus on tank/melee... give it more base dmg scaling on magic stats (is a big bear in the end it should not do less dmg than a low level warrior with a dagger
) same can go for armor/hps... if the caster lose all his spells and ability to use potion (big in melee) to be a warrior... make it at least decent, expecially if he have master shift (so alredy in late midgame)- swarm... this is a form that atm is not that good but have the potential to become op... there are different ways to handle it....
1) keep the dmg on mana but boost its defence/armor to the point to get be almost invul to melee and ranged dmg (just a few mana points/hit)
2) make dmg inflicted on health
3) boost armor/defence as in 1 and switch dmg on health rather than mana, but replace the master shifter ability to drain health on hit with something else maybe a weaker aoe version of divide the swarm
thats all... as said this doesnt want to be a whiny post, just trying to provide some feedback and some ideas to boost this specialization subclass that imo falls quite short compared to the other 3... sorry for bad english
Modifié par Zilod, 09 novembre 2009 - 05:24 .
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