273 réponses à ce sujet

[Saramania]

hi guys,
i've read through this thread but i'm not sure i got its goal, is it to build a good shapeshifter or an optimized character that beats the game easily ?

this is the one thing i don't get but while i'm at it my 2 cents

beancounter501 wrote...
To me a few things just kills the shapshifter class.
1. No potions - Brutal. That means you must have a healer. You basically need another character to just save your butt. Sorry, but give me a tank that is not sucking up my mages spells. A con tank who can not heal himself.

actually this is a non issue, the game is beatable without any consumable or mage
healing is usually greatly overrated

Modifié par Saramania, 25 avril 2010 - 02:32 .

[grimtoothy]

Just a passing thought. I noticed that the swarm has a built in 40% dodge vs melee. So... has anyone tried building a pure dodge build? I think ... if dodge stacks... that you could get up to 90% dodge in the OC. A 90% dodge that does AOE damage sounds pretty awesome .

[mogon]

First of all ya have to get the shapeshifter mod to work

[grimtoothy]

Ya know, this thread is great. Is there anyone out there who can test which mods on items transfer in Shapeshifted form?

[FFTARoxorz05]

Nice, but I don't see the point of this since you can just play a warrior if you want a strength character and have a normal mage just blow **** up.

[x-president]

TBastian wrote...

I've actually made a guide on how to use the magic-based Shapeshifter properly. If x-president agrees I can give a link here and also link this strength-based shapeshifter guide to my general/magic-based shapeshifter guide.

Yea go ahead.  The more info the better.


Sorry for responding back for so long to everyone's somewhat recent comments.  I actually haven't played for about 3 months ever sense Bad Company 2 came out.


Thank You everyone for your comments and suggestions.  I haven't bought Awakenings yet, but when I do I am very interested to see how my Shapeshifting characters transfer over.  I will keep eveyone updated when that happens.

[x-president]

FFTARoxorz05 wrote...

Nice, but I don't see the point of this since you can just play a warrior if you want a strength character and have a normal mage just blow **** up.

The idea behind the thread is to show that Shapeshifting was not a wasted line to do.  Many people thought it was useless and weak and I wanted to show that it could be used as a primary ability and still have a strong character.

It opens up more team combinations and strategies if you use it.

[DWSmiley]

Hi x-president.  Welcome back!

I'm spec'ing out a shapeshifter now with attributes per your "Strong Shapeshifter."  The last frontier for me.

For spells, I don't see any mention of Arcane Mastery in this thread but it seems to me this is one spell you can "take with you" when shapeshifted.  +5 spellpower helps some of the shapes, doesn't it?

It also helps when not shapeshifted.  A strong shapeshifter shouldn't need a wide selection of spells but when the occasion calls for it, I want them to be effective.  I'm thinking of winter's grasp, glyph of paralysis, force field, stone fist, lightning and arcane mastery by the time I get master shapeshifter and saving a couple of picks to get blood wound right away at level 14.  Then finish off the earth and blood mage lines and maybe get the hexes and death cloud.  Entropic death has enough bang to be worth going two-legged for a bit, I think.

Modifié par DWSmiley, 19 mai 2010 - 06:45 .

[x-president]

DWSmiley wrote...

Hi x-president.  Welcome back!

I'm spec'ing out a shapeshifter now with attributes per your "Strong Shapeshifter."  The last frontier for me.

For spells, I don't see any mention of Arcane Mastery in this thread but it seems to me this is one spell you can "take with you" when shapeshifted.  +5 spellpower helps some of the shapes, doesn't it?

It also helps when not shapeshifted.  A strong shapeshifter shouldn't need a wide selection of spells but when the occasion calls for it, I want them to be effective.  I'm thinking of winter's grasp, glyph of paralysis, force field, stone fist, lightning and arcane mastery by the time I get master shapeshifter and saving a couple of picks to get blood wound right away at level 14.  Then finish off the earth and blood mage lines and maybe get the hexes and death cloud.  Entropic death has enough bang to be worth going two-legged for a bit, I think.

Yea those spells should work good.  The CC spells like GoP and FF will give you time to shapeshift so those are always good pics.  Winter's Grasp is always a must have imo.  Lightning is ok, but you may want to think about Earthquake.  It really compliments shapeshifting.  I believe all shapeshifting forms do not get effected by Eathquake so it can setup excellent combos.  Especially with Swarm it works wonders against groups of enemies and is excellent combo with archer groups.

The Arcane Mastery Line I do eventually get but it was never a primary concern.  After I reached lvl 14 and got Master Shapeshifter then I would slowly fill that line and would have them all before the end.  It gonna really only help you in human form.  If you are gonna fro a strong shapeshifter build and will be running in different forms most of the time, then it really isn't that big of a concern to get at the beginning.  You wanna build up strength which will increase teh attack score for your shapeshifted forms.  After you get Master Shapeshifter then you can slowly increase Spell Casting power and then the Arcane Line will be more helpful.

Still in my playthroughs spell casting was always secondary and I tried to utilize my shape shifting forms at least 75% of the time.

You'll need at least 4 points saved up at level 14 if you wanna get Master Shapeshifter and fill BM to Blound Wound.  3 books and lvl 14 point should do it really.  So it shouldn't be that bad to do.

I'm not sure if you are gonna use Morrigan, but you could set her up with Entropic Death instead freeing you up for other spell choices.

- Just make sure you get all Shapeshifting abilities as soon as they are available.


Have Fun and enjoy Shapeshifting.

[Sammy0721]

This thread me create a power mage with SS abilities.



I think shapeshifter is one of the most powerful mages period.



1. You can focus on damage spells

2. Lots of health with Reaper's Vestments and Lifegiver ring.. think BM cobmo

3. In the bear form (plenty of armor and highest armor penetration in the game period)

4. I focused on damage spells with a lot of hexes from my support mages

5. Used overwhelm on elites and bosses (Branka, Ser Cautherien, Howe, Loghain)

6. With right gear ... low fatigue means more spells) compared to AW

7. I found the build to be a bad mob tank (rather be a mage casting glyphs and damage spells) rather than be surrounded by a mob ... on the other hand against bosses (I really like the bear form)

8. Here are ideas for spell choice (Fire line, grease, electric line, glyphs, paralysis, mindblast, hexes, drain life, winters grasp,blood wound)

9. Get magic to 36ish ASAP and the rest into strength

10, I found heavy armor to be pointless ... you either have a boss like Branka underneath an overwhelm and I prefer better defense gear against mobs (liberterian cowl, magus boots)

11. Basically you can destroy bad guys with mana (mage), BM with constitution or blood wound, or just SS and Slam or overwhelm the really tough bad guys and use a lyrium pot as the fourth option

12. here is the run down of the my SS mage tactics (Fireball, grease fire, vulnerability hex, winter grasp, lightning, arcane bolt, drain life, glyph of paralysis (decide whether to cast another round of damage spells or SS) and throw in inferno, blood wound, tempest for bigger groups.

13. Never shapeshift before a boss or "dialogue trap encounter" fight (you have a 90 second cooldown)

[DWSmiley]

Thanks for the suggestions, folks.

@x-president:  Rereading TBastian's table of stats suggests that +5 spellpower translates into about +1 dex and +1 con when shapeshifted; indeed, nothing to get excited about.  FWIW, that's reminiscent of the arcane warrior equation of +5 spellpower = +1 attack.

@sammy0721:  I want to use spells as little as possible for variety's sake and +defense gear won't help much with no points in dex, so to be a good scrapper I'll go with heavy/massive armor.  Thx for the tip on dialogued encounters.  So no cut scenes with the big bad talking to my flying swarm, eh?

Modifié par DWSmiley, 21 mai 2010 - 02:16 .

[x-president]

dream_operator23 wrote...

Thx for the tip on dialogued encounters.  So no cut scenes with the big
bad talking to my flying swarm, eh?

Yeah, I was actually kind of hoping that my mage would stay shifted for the cut scenes.  It's not like the PC talks anyway and it would have been lulzy.  Imagine the romance scenes! Ok...maybe don't. ^^

Also any loads, NPC talks, Merchants, and Quest dialouges.  Gettign into the Poison Making/Traps/Potions screen may transform you back as well if you are doing it. 


It's usually best to just do it in battle.

[citadel97501]

Hello all,

I have been playing for about a month now, and this thread makes me want to try out a Shape Shifter but I had a few questions first?

Has anyone tested out whether its possible to use two daggers with rune support versus magical staff?

The daggers is just in case you can't use better weapons, and maybe you could get Dagger speed on the attacks, but this I doubt.

I would think this could work well, if the extra damage from runes applies to Spider Spit, or the Swarm Form AOE? Adding on up to 30 extra damage per attack would be incredible and would allow the spider to be even more formidable against things with high Nature resistance?

I also would like to point out that this might work defensively as well, if you throw on 6 master runes of spell resistance, I think you get +48 spell resistance.  

If I am wrong on any point please help me out, and correct me.  

[citadel97501]

I just did some testing, and it looks like Spell Might and Spell Wisp have no function on shape shifting, sadly the calculation is done after the spells are turned off, instead of working as it does for all the other buffing mods.  So it looks like we were weakened in one more way versus arcane warriors.  

My research into this is posted in a separate thread already.  

[x-president]

I finally purchased Awakening and had a chance to play one of my shapeshifting characters.  So far it doesn't seem like they did anything to help the specialization at all with the new additions.  This was dissapointing.


My shapeshifter still rocks and I can overwhelm just about anyone I come across like in Origins.  I have basically been increasing strength mostly like previously to see how much more dmg I can get in shapeshifting form.  So far it is pretty good.  I'm still testing and I am trying to reach 100 strength.

This is just with my character as a powerful shapeshifter.  So far my team pretty much dominates anything we come across, difficulty on nightmare.

[soteria]

Unfortunately, they made the game even easier in Awakening. I don't guess any of the new mage spells work with shapeshifting, do they?

[Liliandra Nadiar]

They don't. I'm running my shapshifter through Awakening now and the new spells vanish and get blocked out just like the original ones when you shift. Can't say for sure about the passives, but I doubt they continue either.

[x-president]

Liliandra Nadiar wrote...

They don't. I'm running my shapshifter through Awakening now and the new spells vanish and get blocked out just like the original ones when you shift. Can't say for sure about the passives, but I doubt they continue either.

Yea I think it's the same as Origins.  I don't think they changed shapeshifting at all.  My shapeshifter dominates from Origins.  I am close to 100 in strength and average 60 to 70 per hit with bear and overwhelm just destroys.  This is on nightmare.

I wish they had added some new shapeshifting forms or at least added some passive or sustained abilites for it. 



Currently I am just kind of going through the campaign sense it's my first playthrough, but it is pretty much the same.

[x-president]

Ok I did some checking and currently with Bear I'm around 96 or so Strength with Boosts, I get on average 70 to 80 dmg per hit, highs into the mid 80s.  Stomp will get 110+ and overwhelm I'll also get around 70 to 80 consecutively.  The average is more around the 80s usually per strike.

Spider gets around 60 to 70 dmg per hit.  I don't really use Swarm a lot for some reason.  It just never seems necessary.  I just never have to switch or die when I am in Spider or Bear.

I think my magic score is around 40 which is low compared to my other mages who are 60+. 


In the Blackmarshes I stayed Bear all the way through when you fight all of the Revenants.  I easily went toe to toe with them with no trouble in Bear form.  I even had 2 beating on me at the same time and survived.

I am still wearing Wades Dragonbone Armor.  It is the Heavy Dragonebone armor he made in Origins.  So it has the highest ratings. 

[x-president]

I just finished Awakening with my single shapeshifter using mostly strength.  My Bear form domintated.  I think I was around 103 strength at the very end.

During overwhelm I would have consecutive hits at 100+ and would dominate those main bosses.  Also my normal strikes were mid 80s to 100.  My highest stomp was 162.  Basically I never really had to be out of bear form or even spider.

I may do some testing with nature dmg and see how strong I can get the spider poison but keeping high strength.  That has a fairly fast cooldown, but it's not something I really used a lot.

[tonnactus]

Just a question regarding the swarm form: 100 percent missile deflection means that not even scatterhot work on it?
And wouldnt it possible to reach 100 percent dodge?