Was working on a guide update and had this very small note that I felt is worth sharing.  It's kind of common knowledge that the stag form gets a really lame-seeming "carnage" ability that actually is nothing like barbarian carnage; instead of like in poe1 lasting for a while and actually functioning like a barbarian's carnage, it's a single attack that does miniscule aoe damage. a lot of people (including myself) wrote it off completely.

in my current shifter run, i noticed that the stag's carnage actually interrupts on hit. so it actually is useful, if not necessarily super powerful. this extra tidbit is enough that i actually think stag is better than a wolf (who gets a single-target prone knockdown, but a potentially less-useful passive IMO). on a shifter especially, being able to rapidly switch between wolf and stag to do both knockdown and stag carnage on an annoying caster is quite handy.

I'm using Fassina as a shifter this playthrough and I'm liking all of the forms.  Looking at the combat log I was usually fairly happy with the AoE damage from the Stag but if it's interrupting in an AoE then that's pretty strong. 

you know i actually don't know if the aoe itself interrupts - funnily enough i only really use stag form 1:1 (because it's low on my priority list and there's not many enemies left at that point... cat form and boar form rock). i need to actually double check that.

My sense for what forms to use when:

Bear = need the engagement to control a choke point perhaps

Cat = mage or other squishy killer

Stag = AoE crowd damage

Wolf = single target CC, like if a rogue gets into my backlines

Boar = high armor killer (boss fights) where the raw damage helps

This run is my first time using a shifter, though, so I could be doing things wrong.  Fassina is multiclassed with her normal conjurer wizard so she does all her self buffing before shifting. 

16 hours ago, crdvis16 said:

Stag = AoE crowd damage

unfortunately the stag isn't good at this - the carnage ability is only a once/encounter attack, not something like what the barbarian has.

 

On 10/14/2021 at 5:17 PM, crdvis16 said:

but if it's interrupting in an AoE then that's pretty strong. 

i just checked this, and it only interrupts the primary target.

Let's say it together:

Does the polish mod make the carnage permanent?  Stag form hits with carnage every attack for me.

Community Patch does this.