114 réponses à ce sujet

[AlanC9]

ladydesire wrote...
If Bioware had wanted the shapes to ignore prior weapon held damage, like the Polymorph spell does, don't you think they would have done so? That is, to me at least, an indication that Shapeshifter is intentionally emulating Druid Wildshape and not Wizard Polymorph.

So Bio got away from D&D but emulated one of its dumber rules? OK, but then they should have documented it.

Like I said upthread, they should have had Morrigan equip a sword before shapeshifting in the Sacred Ashes trailer. Sure, it would have looked stupid. But if your mechanics look stupid, maybe you should be using different mechanics.

And with regards to NPC Mages in DA:O not having melee weapons even if they are shapeshifters, have you ever given Morrigan or Wynne a sword and had them run into melee to use it instead of staying at range and attacking with their staff? I have.

Unless the target's immune to the staff's damage type and you don't have a different staff, that's probably a bad idea. 

Modifié par AlanC9, 13 mars 2010 - 10:27 .

[Havokk7]

My dislike of Shapeshifter has been pretty much "why should I gimp my mage by (1) losing spell casting when shifted and (2) having to put points in Str to be able to equip excellent weapons".



I wonder if I am thinking about this the wrong way?



Is Shapeshifter a spec that is aimed at the second mage in a party? If you already have a "classical" mage, making the second one less effective as a mage to become effective as a melee fighter is an acceptable tradeoff. First mage does the ranged damage, second mage starts the battle with some crowd control or buffing then shifts and takes a melee damage role.

[Ahisgewaya]

I think it's hilarious everyone keeps saying it works the way the devs intended. If that's true, then they are a bunch of liars. Why? BECAUSE IT SAYS IN THE DESCRIPTION IT USES SPELLPOWER FOR DAMAGE. Does it use spellpower for damage? No it does not. SO either Bioware messed up and is now being a bunch of cowards about admitting it, or they lied when they put that little bit of text into the game. EITHER WAY THEY NEED TO FIX IT! I was calm about this at first, but if they actually said there is no problem when their own text says there is, then I have less respect for them than I once did.

Modifié par Ahisgewaya, 14 mars 2010 - 04:56 .

[CybAnt1]

If damage bonuses from your weapons carry through when you change form, does that include things like + fire damage? 

No, no magic bonuses, rune bonuses, other bonuses from coatings/spells, etc. 

The only thing that does is base damage. 

[Mavkiel]

CybAnt1 wrote...

If damage bonuses from your weapons carry through when you change form, does that include things like + fire damage? 

No, no magic bonuses, rune bonuses, other bonuses from coatings/spells, etc. 

The only thing that does is base damage. 

Aaah, how about armor? I assume then only the base armor level goes with you? So no real benifit of equiping armor with fire resist to offset swarm forms weakness.

[Mavkiel]

filaminstrel wrote...
I would think you could be a shifter/AW and be quite versatile then, being able to melee when necessary, cast spells when necessary, and equip a big sword and shift when.. well.. I dunno about "necessary", but opportune, anyway.

You would probably be better off going blood mage. You get your cake and get to eat it as well. I am thinking a shifter/keeper might be interesting. Not exactly a powerhouse combo, but it might be fun.

[ladydesire]

[quote]Ahisgewaya wrote...

I think it's hilarious everyone keeps saying it
works the way the devs intended. If that's true,
then they are a bunch of liars. Why? BECAUSE IT
SAYS IN THE DESCRIPTION IT USES SPELLPOWER
FOR DAMAGE. Does it use spellpower for
damage? No it does not. SO either Bioware
messed up and is now being a bunch of cowards
about admitting it, or they lied when they put
that little bit of text into the game. EITHER
WAY THEY NEED TO FIX IT! I was calm about
this at first, but if they actually said there is no
problem when their own text says there is, then
I have less respect for them than I once did.[/ quote]

They did not lie, they chose not to put in full
details of how pretty much every spell and
talent in the game works; there is a difference.

Modifié par ladydesire, 15 mars 2010 - 10:04 .

[CybAnt1]

Aaah, how about armor? I assume then only the base armor level goes with you? So no real benifit of equiping armor with fire resist to offset swarm forms weakness.

Same situation. In bear/spider anyway -- it's only base armor carrying over (partially -- see the formula description in the two shapeshifting guides) -- forget any bonuses or runes. Bear btw always winds up more heavily armored than spider. It's the tank form. 

Flying swarm works the way most people who don't like shapeshifter want it to -- flying swarm shape cares not what you were holding or wearing before you become swarm. 

Just one thing: pump up your mana to full before doing it, swarm loses mana not health over time, and when it runs out, you're back in human shape. 

[Ahisgewaya]

Alright, I finally caved and put points into strength. I am now noticing a HUGE improvement. I really wish the instruction manual said something about this.

[macdaddy304d]

They should make shapeshifting much stronger and add some cool forms, like a dragon or something. I fould this video of someone who modded shapeshifting and they should just add it. obviously, they shouldn’t over power it but they could maybe build off of that. Also, if they could add a necromancer type thing where they could raise the dead or something that would also be AWESOME! If BioWare just took these ideas into consideration, it would be much obliged. Thank you =D

Modifié par macdaddy304d, 17 avril 2010 - 10:35 .

[CybAnt1]

There are mods that give you a wide bonanza of forms. While I was intrigued by them for a while, I decided what I really wanted was something that just made the existing forms work properly (my definition of properly is that you still have decent base damage even if holding a staff prior to shapeshifting and don't pump points into human STR).



That mod is Shapeshifter Plus. Bonus, it does give you a 4th dragon form, as an extra icing to master shapeshifter. And it's Awakening compatible.

[Wonderllama4]

I really want to roll with a shapeshifter mage class but I'll be damned if I have to place any points into Strength... it's really not fair

[Dlokir]

I used Shapeshifter in Awakening and spend no points in STR/DEX/CON other than what I wanted for the mage himself and found Shapeshifter rather powerful. The game don't need have more holes in its design to make the game even more easy. On one side everybody complain that the game is too easy and another side many people forget this and complain when something is nerf down. Ice cone is a good example, a spell that allowed before nerf down to constantly froze some mid boss and a spell so powerfull that many people didn't used much more attack spells that it.

If I would fix Shapeshifter it's to have it supported and fully supported by tactics. Cunrently shapes get zero support from tactics, perhaps a mod can fix but that's something else.

It's possible that some points needs to be changed but allow using spells in a shape will be easilly over powerful. Also fast morph time, people request that because the morph they get during the dream game part had instant morph, but then why not have all instant spells? It's like the swarm, many points make it overpowerful, hence the very high fire weakness so using it aimlessly in all fights isn't possible.

Shapes aren't shape to use constantly but to use during some fights and in some circonstances and for some purposes. Shapes are also not supposed to replace a fighter or all characters would be mage, so support all equipments when in a shape isn't an option when you can combine Shapeshifter and Arcane Warrior. This is anyway an interesting option to use the improved AC from an heavy armor worn by an AW. 

[1varangian]

The whole point of shapeshifting is to turn a frail unarmed mage into a viable combatant at the cost of losing your spellcasting ability. Equipping massive armor and a greatsword to make your *bear* form more effective makes absolutely no sense and screams exploit. Altough in this case shapeshifting is so weak the exploit is necessary.

Overriding the strength of a bear form by dumping lots of points into str and gimping your spellcasting abilities seems very very wrong.

On the other hand, improving str and dex as an arcane warrior would make perfect sense for a build that can fight and cast at the same time. Only AW's have no use for strength whatsoever the way they are set up. They should need strength for equipment just like everyone else, leaving it up to the player how to balance their spellcasting and combat skills instead of just handing it all on a silver platter of overpoweredness.

I'd very much like to see both specializations heavily reworked.