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Post by Egg on Dec 1, 2008 19:52:46 GMT
I am currently levelling one of my first ever builds - a thri kreen shifter ( I have two anarch books ready for when I hit 60 to reincarnate). May I just say a big thankyou for acaos for putting in all the work on these new forms and giving us something else to play with. The next paragraph certainly isn't meant to be disrespectful nor ungrateful, so I hope it doesn't come across that way. I'm pretty saddened that the draggy form isn't as powerful as I was hoping: afterall it's a DRAGON! To me a dragon (with all the feats/skills pumped into it) should be truely powerful creature excelling at breath and/or knockdown and be decent at melee. If the large size is going to stick, then people need a carrot to go dragon form ahead of tyran's suggestions. I realise this isn't the thoughts and ideas thread but perhaps selecting damage from breath (like the staffmaster) without having to shift into different dragon forms may be one route to a better form.
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Post by bort on Dec 1, 2008 21:59:22 GMT
The Banshee death howl does not respect SR. Could be useful on at least one hell mob i can think of...
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Post by tyranlthixis on Dec 2, 2008 8:22:37 GMT
Well dragons are not terrible as in unplayable or useless. It is more that they suffer from niche overlap much more so than the other forms. Dire Tiger has knockdown, elemental damage can be better covered by melee, and other forms can act as hardy tanks. Dragon is the most stable tank form a shifter can get and it probably the best universal tank in the game. Most universal tanks have terrible AB and can't really match the stats by normal means a dragon can have. That doesn't help "an ability mage" who is not really interested in being the best meleer around. It does help people who are making dragon tank builds.
It would be more correct to say the other form groups are better choices rather than dragon is broken. Undead gives you Banshee wail, vampire domination, and baelnorn spells and abilities. Plus, risen lord has a nice twist to its melee abilities. Outsider gives you the protective auras. Golem gives you a few interesting abilites including iron golem poison gas attack, marut chain, and rock hurl which is like manitcore in terms of damage output but with FAR less kickback. More importantly those represent abilites you can't get any other way. Some of the are even unique to the shifter class itself.
Tyran
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Post by dodrudon on Dec 2, 2008 8:40:00 GMT
Undead has a few downsides, as Basilisk covers some of those bases and is AoE as well.
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Post by Egg on Dec 2, 2008 10:42:47 GMT
Well dragons are not terrible as in unplayable or useless. It is more that they suffer from niche overlap much more so than the other forms. Dire Tiger has knockdown, elemental damage can be better covered by melee, and other forms can act as hardy tanks. Dragon is the most stable tank form a shifter can get and it probably the best universal tank in the game. Most universal tanks have terrible AB and can't really match the stats by normal means a dragon can have. That doesn't help "an ability mage" who is not really interested in being the best meleer around. It does help people who are making dragon tank builds. It would be more correct to say the other form groups are better choices rather than dragon is broken. Undead gives you Banshee wail, vampire domination, and baelnorn spells and abilities. Plus, risen lord has a nice twist to its melee abilities. Outsider gives you the protective auras. Golem gives you a few interesting abilites including iron golem poison gas attack, marut chain, and rock hurl which is like manitcore in terms of damage output but with FAR less kickback. More importantly those represent abilites you can't get any other way. Some of the are even unique to the shifter class itself. Tyran Right, but if other forms are better (you have said, and I have seen druid dragon tank builds) then what I'm thinking is, who would want to invest feats into dragon shape if it can be better supplied by a druid dragon tank; and the other forms, as you suggest, are better choices? I'm trying to play devil's advocate a little here I will probably go wildshape and undead at reincarnation - though I love dwaggies.
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Post by bulkas on Dec 23, 2008 23:02:51 GMT
Incredibly good reading, compliments. I am not sure if my question belongs in this thread but here it goes: does a pure druid focussing on dragon suffer much compared to a shifter other than the flexibility. Also, how are the elder elemental forms on HG?
Furthermore, I am thinking about a druid 50/shifter 10 build focussing on outsider shape. Any suggestions?
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Post by dodrudon on Dec 24, 2008 2:28:25 GMT
Elder Elemental shapes are unmodified afaik, and they suck.
The problem with going Druid-based is that you lose your spellslots on shift.
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Post by sabregirl on Jul 25, 2009 2:17:30 GMT
*bump*
Updated 2nd build post to reflect my choices for my 2xD shifter. Also updated play strategy for that build. May update for other foci later.
-S
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Post by Cimion on Jul 26, 2009 23:39:44 GMT
I am having trouble maxing out my animal empathy and still covering everything else I need to, anyone having success in this area?
Cimion
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Post by greven on Jul 27, 2009 0:19:32 GMT
I am having trouble maxing out my animal empathy and still covering everything else I need to, anyone having success in this area? Cimion It's really hard to do at least until lvl 55; what would be nice would be some items with both AE and phy imm %.
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Post by Egg on Jul 28, 2009 8:37:01 GMT
well depending on your starting int skill, you can ditch say cw or ca for a 1 hit to ab or ac in order max animal empathy.
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Post by Chaos on Jul 28, 2009 19:19:05 GMT
What kind of gear would you use at level 60 for a 10druid/30shifter?
Chaos
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Post by gandoron on Jul 28, 2009 20:19:43 GMT
Can you really even discuss gear setups anymore?
-G
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Post by Chaos on Jul 28, 2009 20:37:20 GMT
LOL good point gand....great point actually Chaos
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Post by dodrudon on Jul 28, 2009 20:47:07 GMT
Yes you can.
Stack immunities. That's basically it. Make sure you have all the resists covered. Shifters have the most gear flexibility out of any class, I'd wager. you can even put on plate mail and a torch, since your Shield AC doesn't transfer, and use AC-less ammys. Just be careful when you unshift.
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