With the new IAS changes that have the intention of matching humans and shapeshifted weapon speed, now Fury is extremely slow, effectively capping the FPA to what seems like 10 instead of 4 like in the current patch. This is of course a DPS loss of about 70% if not more. Clearly there are already way too few wolf/bear players, as the class is clearly underpowered, but this change really was the nail in the coffin. There aren’t even any topics here discussing this issue, because again this class heavily needed buffs, and therefore barelly anyone plays it, instead we got the worst nerf to ever happen in Diablo. All other classes got some nice buffs, but shapeshifters which needed an increase in attack speed, got a massive nerf.
In the current state of weapon speed for shapeshifters the class is unusable, and it would be better to remove the shape shifting skill tree, and replace it with a tree oriented to a third elemental skill line.
66 Likes
I completely agree with Oscar - Blizzard needs to look into these intended changes and REVERT them. Don’t nerf such a niche class into the ground - it is extremely enjoyable to play, and slowing things down will not help anyone.
Expand the options a wereform druid has, not limit them!
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Yep, and they either didn’t touch or made more powerful already crazy powerful classes like sorc and hammerdin
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I feel like theres no way this was intentional. I’m assuming they were actually trying to buff wereforms, but accidentally nerfed them instead. Or at least I hope. Please fix this blizzard.
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This is what I am hoping, when I first read the patch notes I thought they meant IAS outside the weapon would count and we would attack faster now, but in reality what happened is we attack much slower, human form slower, which in retrospective is also what the patch note said, but everyone thought it meant something else… as it is now it is indeed a massive nerf to an already underpowered class
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Oscar’s post does not even accurately convey the magnitude of this change. That is because it is hard to put into words what a devastating change this is. The title of this thread is apt. Shapeshifting abilities are useless in the PTR with the changes to IAS. I can only pray that Blizzard is planning on reverting this. As someone who is in touch with countless wolf druid players, the wolf druid community was happiest when the IAS “bug” was in place when D2R was first released (when we could get IAS from all gear). This allowed for more gear/build versatility. This change has doubled down on making wolves and bears unviable in PVP and PVM. I am very sad about this decision.
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it would be incredible if they opened up the options vs (not only shutting off options, but making our present options WORSE)
thanks for reading and please blizzard, consider reverting these changes
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I agree with this, go back to the bugged IAS, it actually made werewolf fun.
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Th way things were before the IAS “bug” fix was great for shapeshifters attack speed wise, it gave much more options on equipment. I recognize the IAS bug was broken in many instances, but I have never seen someone say it made werewolf broken lol, it just leveled up the playing field slightly, we were still underpowered
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I agree. I do not agree with personally attacking the developers as many on these forums do, but the message they are sending is that they have a very poor understanding of the shapeshifting community’s interests and, beyond that, how their decisions are starkly opposed to making these builds viable.
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Was hoping to see an increase of attackspeed making more weapons viable for the WB (mainly).
Things I’d like to see apart from fix and boost to druid shapeshifting attackspeeds are (so far):
Autohit Hunger. They did it for impale and boosted assassin finishes. But this skill NEEDS to hit in order for us to leech. You don’t go 20 levels into hunger so AR from skill is minimal. Going in for a bite means you are desparate for that leech to kick in. And instead you miss. 
Increase duration for Maul charge (and probs Feral Rage). 20s duration is really poor. Dead end? Sorry, your charge will vanish before reaching an enemy. Killing Diablo or Baal? Not with your charged skill… I suggest at least giving 1 second extra duration per level of the skill or through synergy from WB/WW respectively. Or both. If we can reach 40-60s duration we might be able to cover these punishing charge losses even tough we’re actively using them and desperately searching for enemies.
No deshift while changing act. Deshifting isn’t fun. Losing charges comes with it as well. If we’re trying to be fast (which is hard when we’re so slow) and fight in different level 85 areas - why do we constantly need to reshape and get new charges because we have to move between acts. Let our timers keep running or automatically give us the same level shift and charge with act changing.
Just some initial thoughts.
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Oh, not in this thread. But I do see a trend on these forums in general to make sort of snarky and nasty comments to the developers and Blizzard in general, which I feel is useless, immature, and unhelpful.
This is what I believe as well. The people (person? AI??) being paid to develop this game have absolutely no idea how it works at a deep level. Imagine working on this game and never having solo’d through hell mode… like what makes you think you’re cut out to make decisions about things you know nothing about?
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Not to mention the new runeword for a possible rabies build may not even be BIS…plus rabies as a skill needs buffed too. 20 second dot is ridiculous.
Rabies could use some buffs too, specially in PvM
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Please, Blizzard, don’t let this go through. And consider giving him some more love, too. This is the character I rushed to build to recreate my favorite build from LOD. I know we’re a niche bunch, but those of us who enjoy this playstyle REALLY enjoy this playstyle. Thanks for listening !
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really anything would be better than this, the wolf is being neutered with these planned changes
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Even the summoning buffs, which certainly are buffs, are nice but still feel weak compared to other classes.
This ias Nerf is too much. Its nearly impossible to keep your head above water against decent Concentration barbs or Zealers. This Nerf means there is no longer a point to playing Shapeshift builds.
2 Likes