Metamorphasis idea does not work with the required human go between

[SwiftKitten-1452]

first off i like the fact you are helping wolf and bear out… they need it…

but other than that…

these changes seem completly at odds with how the classes are designed to be played

as it is now, both feral rage and maul have spinny orbs … but these go away if u swap to human, and you cant swap direct from bear to wolf or wolf to bear… it always goes to human in the middle.

the way shapeshift was designed was to NOT use both bear and wolf at the same time… it was to pick one of the other.

this change… is trying to get you to use bear and wolf at the same time to get both buffs.
but… WHY?
you arnt allowing a quick transformation between forms.

we cant keep feral and maul both active.
and because of this all this will do is make it so bear stop what they are doing and swap to wolf every 2 min… and wolfd swaps to bear every two minutes… its cluckly and accomplishes nothing.

if you want this to work then do the following:

allow us to swap directly between wolf and bear without going human in between.
all feral rage and maul to be kept spinning when in the other form, and all said skills refresh the duration of the other.

this will make people actually USE both forms

because without being able to swap directly from wolf to bear and vice versa… all this helm will do is force a clunkly swap every 2 min and no changes to any builds.

this is a change that needs to be done in how the skills work themselves, you cant band-aid a rw over this. we dont play both at once because the skills don’t allow us to… fix the skills and then you can add this great rw. but you wont accomplish the “playing both bear and wolf” as long as human is a forced go between

[TauCeti-21300]

You are right.
Direct transformation should become a valid option for shapeshifters.

As it is now I see no other reason to use the bear other than to get the Mark of the Bear buff.
For a pure shapeshifter build, I definitely prefer Fury over Bear’s Maul attack because it’s just so much better.
Transforming to the bear just to get the “Mark” buff feels annoying in its current form.
It should feel smooth (without the interruption of the human form), but also there should be a further reason to use the bear.

Both forms wolf and bear need to be a valid option.
Wolf: OK
Bear: buff the Maul skill. Add crushing blow to it. Also, maybe allow the hit chance to reach 100% (remove the 5% guaranteed chance to miss).

• Charge up buff of the wolf:
  Feral Rage - red orb
  Run/Walk + Lifeleech buff

• Charge up buff of the bear:
  Maul - green orb
  Increased Attack Speed buff
  maybe also 100% hit chance possibility buff
  (Increased damage build up should only apply to the Maul skill itself)

Both buffs persist when transforming to the other form.

• Both buffs together:
  orange orb
  by refreshing either Maul or Feral Rage the other charge up buff is also automatically refreshed
  this allows you to maintain both buffs as long as you keep attacking

Crushing Blow should only be effective on the Maul skill as a bear’s unique perk.

These entirely skill-based buffs would replace the “Mark of the Wolf” / “Mark of the Bear” concept.
Instead of a new, ridiculously overpowered item that pulverises everything else, the alternatives would also have a chance to be somehow viable.

In addition, the bear could be a viable fallback option for tricky situations.
If you are cornered in wolf form, you can turn directly into bear form and thus save yourself from dying.

I am grateful that the issue is being addressed.

[SwiftKitten-1452]

bear is actually good now, its damage is solid, its defense is more than solid, its a strong build… its just… slow. bear’s maul will actually out-damage fury

Maul vs fury post 2.4

i was running some numbers and it seems… that while maul is capped at 6-7 frames compared to fury’s 5 frames it should… hit harder and be uninterruptible as well has have much more defense and the ability to stun level wolf total AR % wolf total damage % bear total AR % bear total damage % defense % 1 100 100 20 145 40 2 125 117 30 190 50 3 150 134 40 235 60 4 175 151 50 280 70 5 200 168 60 325 80 6 225 185 70 370 90 7 250 202 80 415 100 8 275 219 90 460 110 9…

i need to run the numbers again with the lvl 9 burst of speed prebuff, but it will likely make bear even stronger

[TauCeti-21300]

“bear’s maul will actually out-damage fury” … for one single hit, yes. But if you calculate the whole attack series fury gives much higher numbers.

I used the D2Planner tool on the maxroll.gg website.
(you can upload your savegame there and check all detailed calculations)

for my own druid I get these numbers:
Lvl 28 Maul - damage 5414-7876 (w. 17 stacks) - Attack Rate: 8 frames (3.13 hits per second) - Damage per Second: 25,182
Lvl 28 Fury - Damage: 5737–8343 - Attack Rate: 18 frames per 5 hits (6.94 hits per second) - Damage per Second: 63,124
According to this tool Maul could be faster: With a lot of additional IAS you could get to 6 frames. Fury with 18 frames on the other hand has already reached the highest speed.

Of course Maul is slower. This will always be the case because it’s just one single hit.

I’d like to have Crushing blow on Maul…

• to have a strong boss-killer ability
• to have an ability where part of the damage is skill-based instead of item-based; (when you level up and can’t find a good weapon you have a fallback option which you can use for fighting regular monsters)
• (Although Maul is slower you are also safer because of the bear form.)