How to be a Shifter: subclass analysis and class build

[Raven Darkholme]

Nice post @Jayd.

I'm slightly confused (excuse the pun) about the issue with the Berserker tho.

You use Captain's banquet to minimise the will penalty for Fury Shaper, why not use it for Berserker?(It does make you immune to confuse after all)

 

Before I started my Chanter/Skaen for the ultimate I tried shifter/skaen as well btw.

The early game for Shifter is by far the best early game for any class on the ultimate except for tactician, which arguably is because of a bug tho, since the shifts are not affected by Woedica's challenge.

The reason i went with chanter in the end, was getting brilliant lategame isn't amazing with the druid, since he has no way of recovering spells in Woedica's (except resting) so doing self damage has to be done with Rakhan's outside of combat and neither shifter nor priest has regen outside of combat so one has to heal with drugs/consumables, but maybe the early game power of the shifter should still make up for it, since so far I always died before level 16.

And late game the shifter/priest is as powerful as any priest multiclass and has the added benefit of not needing Deltro's Cage for returning/relentless storm.

Sadly one can't really abuse shifts with SoT since casting while shifted is not possible, but that would make the shifter the most op class of all so i guess it's ok

(tbf fully buffed up with sot scordeo's and boarform one should destroy any enemies during the duration)

Edited June 7, 2019 by Raven Darkholme

[Waski]

37 minutes ago, Raven Darkholme said:

Nice post @Jayd.

I'm slightly confused (excuse the pun) about the issue with the Berserker tho.

You use Captain's banquet to minimise the will penalty for Fury Shaper, why not use it for Berserker?(It does make you immune to confuse after all)

 

Before I started my Chanter/Skaen for the ultimate I tried shifter/skaen as well btw.

The early game for Shifter is by far the best early game for any class on the ultimate except for tactician, which arguably is because of a bug tho, since the shifts are not affected by Woedica's challenge.

The reason i went with chanter in the end, was getting brilliant lategame isn't amazing with the druid, since he has no way of recovering spells in Woedica's (except resting) so doing self damage has to be done with Rakhan's outside of combat and neither shifter nor priest has regen outside of combat so one has to heal with drugs/consumables, but maybe the early game power of the shifter should still make up for it, since so far I always died before level 16.

And late game the shifter/priest is as powerful as any priest multiclass and has the added benefit of not needing Deltro's Cage for returning/relentless storm.

Sadly one can't really abuse shifts with SoT since casting while shifted is not possible, but that would make the shifter the most op class of all so i guess it's ok

(tbf fully buffed up with sot scordeo's and boarform one should destroy any enemies during the duration)

Re: regen.  Troll belt should heal outside combat. 

[Jayd]

@Raven Darkholme I should have been more explicit that my reservations on Berserker are mainly personal dislike of having my build's playability be so dependent on food and items. Realistically it's not that hard to get around (late game it's pretty non-issue) and if you don't have that hang-up Berserker provides the most benefits (though also making you squishier - I'm also a glutton for fat builds).

Glad to hear about Shifter getting a bit of love in The Ultimate. Maybe late game a regular Druid would be better because you can SoT your shift? Though maybe that defeats the point of early-game power.

@Rimiu I didn't mention it in the build but I always choose Charm Beasts for a free spell too. It remains useful through the game though not often, because Druid foe/friend-only spells have anti-synergy with charm/dominate effects. But it's always a nice thing to have in your back pocket and makes the dig site cry.

Edited June 7, 2019 by Jayd

[Jayd]

@Boeroer I checked Blood Thirst and found it works like I thought it did. You don't recover from the killing blow and you still get the Blood Thirst buff which will remove your next recovery as well.

Here's a shabby demonstration gif. No, that's not Crushing Blow.

[Boeroer]

Hm, maybe this was tweaked. My first early Warlock and some other Barb builds didn't have 0 recovery after the killing blow but after the following attack (different from PoE). Which I thought made sense since you have to move to the next target after killing blow anyway. If it now works for the killing blow and the next attack: even better!

Edited June 8, 2019 by Boeroer

[Winterheart]

Question...as a shifter do the enchants on your armor and weapons still function while you are shifted?

[Raven Darkholme]

4 minutes ago, Winterheart said:

Question...as a shifter do the enchants on your armor and weapons still function while you are shifted?

Nope.

[Boeroer]

Everything else does though (helmet, rings, belt, boots etc.)

[Elric Galad]

I think there is an important information that is missing in this thread. It might be obvious but since I discovered it very recently, some others might be unaware too.

SPIRITSHIFT IS CANCELLABLE by hitting shift button by clicking again on the current form icon.
This is useful for any druid but obviously much more important for shifters.
You can even use the shifts for self-Healing.

I don't know how I could have ignored it till now. Probably because I never needed to cancel Spiritshfit.

Honnestly, it changes everything. The subclass almost feels like a strict upgrade from animist, especially because of its very solid free Spell list.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Elric Galad