Shapeshifting mod -> WoW-style druid?

[Skintimate]

Hey all,

 

I think most of us can agree that shapeshifting in this game is basically a wasted talent point. I've seen a couple of mods that improve things (Expanded Shapeshifting and Val's Shapeshifting), but at the end of the day I just don't like the talent. Mages are primarily there for CC and nuking, and all the shapeshifting mods do is add to their CCing and nuking options, making them powerful, but still kind of dull.

 

I think that it would be a lot better if it was more like the druid class from World of Warcraft. In case you somehow don't know anything about WoW, the druid class has different forms that work like limited versions of other classes. Here's the basic idea:

 

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• bear form (warrior): basic tank with high HP and armor, half-decent damage, and some melee, debuffing, crowd control, and aggro skills
  
• cat form (rogue): basic assassin-type rogue with high dexterity, stealth, and the ability to do moderate damage with some basic rogue-type attack skills
  
• owl-bear-looking-thing form (mage): basic DPS-caster with a large mana pool, some crowd control spells, and a the ability to do decent damage with nature spells

 

So here's my idea/request for a druid-style shapeshifter class:

 

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• bear form (tank) - DA:O shapeshifting already has bear form and it's actually pretty decent, but it could use some aggro and debuffing skills in order to be a viable for tanking.
  
• spider form (ranged DPS) - With a bit of tweaking spider form could be a good CC and ranged combat form (maybe remove the DoT from Poison Spit, add a chance to slow, and make it the default attack, replace Overwhelm with an AoE web, and leave regular Web alone?). Spider form would also have some nice synergy with normal AoE spells.
  
• stealth form (sneaky DPS) - DO:A lacks a rogue-type form with stealth, backstab, and perhaps a debuff, stun, or DoT. It would be great if we had one. Some kind of wolf would work just fine.
  
• mabari form (fast, aggressive DPS) - It would also be cool to have a form that specialized in charging mages, knocking them over, and tearing their throats out. It would be loads of fun to have a mabari form that was fast, somewhat resistant to magic and crowd control, and had the Charge and Overwhelm abilities.
  

 

So what do folks think about this idea?

[clutchkick]

i'm with you on this one.. but why stop at shapeshifting alone.. add the root spell that the sylvan use for some human form CC (or moonkin form, but we dont need that here).. also need to add some of the spirit healer spells to the druid pool (life ward, mass heal)

 

i'd just be leaving the forms as they are: wolf (dps), bear (tank), spider (maybe give them stealth? spiders can be sneaky too..) do like you spider ideas tho..

 

i've been trying to do this in the toolset, but damn it aint easy

 

oh yeah, and dalish elf origin only imo (as it suits the class)

[Argol]

I like your ideas. I would have Wolf in place of mabari and something like Panther for stealth. I like your idea with spider. Roots, poisions and slowdowns can make it a pretty mean dps/support.

 

Shapshifting was a letdown for me. I kind of had this idea of having forms inspired by animals/creatures, not a complete shapeshift. e.g you use wolf form and you look like a werewolf...but that is a request for another thread XD

[MightyMe]

Throw in the shapeshifting UI from the Fade as well when you are about it. First shape could be free for just picking the specialisation, let's say a cat that can stealth.