8 réponses à ce sujet

[Stasis_Sword]

 Has anyone used the chantry monk or learned skills shapeshifter mods? Did you enjoy the mod? How balanced (weak, average, powerful, overpowered) was it throughout the game? Did you try awakenings with it?

[keeneaow]

i tried the shapeshifter mods, i was going to use it instead of arcane warrior when
the monsters has debuff spells, but guess what, the shapeshifter gets debuffed as well.

All shapeshifter mods are inferior to arcane warrior in terms of fight capacity,
but looks quite impressive tho

[Stasis_Sword]

@keeneaow you have a great point about the arcane warrior. I guess I'm just curious how strong the forms end up being. If I get master shapeshifter and pump magic would Spirit Wolf/Ogre compare to a sword and shield warrior? Or would it be like a rogue low dex/low cunning rogue without backstab?

[TBastian]

Speaking as a powergamer, there is no obviously fair shapeshifter mod in existence that allows you to outdamage a pure mage. Anyway if you play the shapeshifter as a nuker mage that dips into physical attacks by way of the shapeshifted forms' special abilities then there's absolutely no way an Arcane Warrior can ever outdamage a mostly magic-stat shapeshifter to begin with (nuke, Overwhelm, nuke vs slash, nuke, slash = no contest).
However, the shapeshifter mod does make it so that the forms' normal attacks are actually decent enough so you won't need to shapeshift back into human form as soon as you use up all your form's abilities. Average damage, nowhere near as strong as magic but stronger than other character's normal attacks at lower levels. Long-term combat-prowess-in-exchange-for-magical-power (and vice versa) is really more Arcane Warrior territory. If you really must play the shapeshifter as more of a WoW druid rather than the traditional D&D druid  then I guess there might be a way for the Arcane Warrior spec to be modded so that your character avatar changes into -insert animal of choice here- when you activate Combat Magic. Of course you'd need the right skills but that would be the best solution imo. If it's possible, then you're looking at  lots of other interesting possibilities.

In Awakenings everything is overpowered. A well-equipped unmodded shapeshifter in Awakenings can solo dragons without shifting back into human form, so not much point discussing that part of the game.

Modifié par TBastian, 15 janvier 2013 - 02:59 .

[Stasis_Sword]

@TBastian thanks for your response. I recently read over your Shapeshifter FAQ which was very helpful. You've answered my primary concern, which was that the shapeshifter could still handle itself in melee later in the game (and into awakenings). I wasn't looking for a WOW/Diablo shifter, just some assurance that the forms held up.

[Last Darkness]

Shapeshifter is more themetic or cool factor in all degrees. Dosnt really function so well except in a few party makeups. Dog/Shale/Shapeshifter are immune to grabs and some boss abilities. 3 Rangers with Spider pets and a shapeshifter spider is a intresting party makeup and can be hell due to all the disables combined with Coup de Grace. Theres also the 3 Swarms shapeshifter parties that are ok.

[TBastian]

How is getting a bunch of abilities for a single point (each form comes with at least two, three with Master Shapeshifter) or having a total of two Overwhelms only purely thematic or cool? All Shapeshifter abilities also ignore spell resistance, which makes them doubly effective in nightmare difficulty. On top of all that, since your mage is going to be sinking almost all his/her points into Magic then you have a natural born nuker. Stacking +defense or (mid-late) dodge/spell resist items (the combination of which makes a mage practically invincible in Origins, which makes me wonder why some people pick Arcane Warrior exclusively "to improve my mage's survivability" - I can understand picking Arcane Warrior if gear is scarce, otherwise cloth is already OP as is... seriously ~40-50% dodge AND spell resist -only from gear- is already ridiculous, add Rock Armor/Arcane Defense to that as well as heals, very good poultice heal scaling due to magic and buffs like forcefield and one needs to ask him/herself  "What the _ was I thinking?" Not to mention only one of the high-end dodge cloth items appears in endgame, everything else can be assembled early/mid game). Add most of the nukes of the primal line and your mage will do a very good job of basically killing everything in sight all by him/herself.

Modifié par TBastian, 17 janvier 2013 - 07:01 .

[Last Darkness]

TBastian wrote...

How is getting a bunch of abilities for a single point (each form comes with at least two, three with Master Shapeshifter) or having a total of two Overwhelms only purely thematic or cool? All Shapeshifter abilities also ignore spell resistance, which makes them doubly effective in nightmare difficulty. On top of all that, since your mage is going to be sinking almost all his/her points into Magic then you have a natural born nuker. Stacking +defense or (mid-late) dodge/spell resist items (the combination of which makes a mage practically invincible in Origins, which makes me wonder why some people pick Arcane Warrior exclusively "to improve my mage's survivability" - I can understand picking Arcane Warrior if gear is scarce, otherwise cloth is already OP as is... seriously ~40-50% dodge AND spell resist -only from gear- is already ridiculous, add Rock Armor/Arcane Defense to that as well as heals, very good poultice heal scaling due to magic and buffs like forcefield and one needs to ask him/herself  "What the _ was I thinking?" Not to mention only one of the high-end dodge cloth items appears in endgame, everything else can be assembled early/mid game). Add most of the nukes of the primal line and your mage will do a very good job of basically killing everything in sight all by him/herself.

Any character with near 120 defense is practicaly invincible not even counting resists or dodge chances. Though I agree on Arcane Warrior. Everytime I see one being played im just dissappointed. You dont actualy need to equip a weapon+shield or even heavier armor. 

Im dissappointed with Shapeshifter as a whole in the game anyways as presented. I belive theres a mod on the projects section that just boosts magic/spellpowers contibution to the forms. Unless your Warden is the shapeshifter you cant really do much with companions unless you have some exhaustivly long tactic list sequence. Generaly your better off staying in casting mode.

But thats the Caveat yes? The problem is people try to focus too much on Shapeshifter and be in the forms 100% of the time when they should exhaust their mana pools then switch forms correct? Self Mana <10% = Shapeshift right?

[TBastian]

For the console? Indeed. AFAIK Shapeshifting macros don't work (this was never fixed for some reason) and Morrigan's default spell selection is too broad such that if you try to get all her Shapeshifter forms first, her spellcasting potential suffers. Not a problem if she's the only mage since you can give her spell tomes, otherwise it would have been a lot better if she had a more practical starting spell selection, Shapeshifter-wise.

For the PC micromanaging is so much easier and causes far less headaches. Micromanaging is superior to relying on (advanced) macros because it allows you to change strategies on the fly (like finishing off low HP enemy units as soon as you see them or having a character gather enemies up so you can nuke them all or keeping your tank under control so he doesn't run off and leave your squishies undefended). The one-button shortcuts and the mouse helps tremendously, and with good micromanagement one can potentially finish battles faster and with the least amount of hassle, even counting pauses.
The 8-or-so-hotkeys for spells restriction that consoles have also doesn't apply to the PC so it's easier to find any spell you need and queue/time castings/skills efficiently.

Overall, after sorting through most Shapeshifter complaints I've realized that most of them are from people who bought the console version. For sheer info-gathering purposes I recently tried playing PS3 DA:O and tried using the Shapeshifter. I gave up around halfway through. The console version Shapeshifter is a ridiculous spec riddled with bugs (and I don't mean the spellpower->shifted form stats "bug") and incredibly unwieldy. The 8-hotkey limit alone practically kills the spec, nevermind the fact that even simple micromanagement is extremely difficult to pull off on the console.

Modifié par TBastian, 08 avril 2013 - 10:55 .