Best Druid Spiritshift?

[DruidX]

Hey so am planning on playing a Druid as my main char

 

Anyway was wondering whats the best spiritshift to choose

 

I found this site which lists all the Spiritshifts

 

There is:

 

Bear - has a frighten effect

 

Boar - Stamina regen

 

Cat - fast attacks

 

Stag - Defense

 

Wolf - knockdown

 

which form do you think is the most powerful?

[Gromnir]

this is a trick question?  answer:  whatever form you were in before you spiritshifted.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Tamerlane]

Though druids are presently very strong, Spiritshift is quite underwhelming at the moment. Really hope it sees some love in the next patch.

 

(Stag is the coolest, though.)

[Diogenes]

Goku

[Luckmann]

Like Gromnir said, this is a trick question.

All of them are terrible. If you desperately want to Spiritshift, just pick what you want.

[Skie Nightfall]

Wolf, because wolf. Really, not biased here... <.<

[DruidX]

why are people saying spiritshift is not good?

[Odd Hermit]

why are people saying spiritshift is not good?

 

Because... it isn't.

 

You can do better damage in melee outside of it, and your casting is more limited while shapeshifted(increased recovery time, so longer time between castings).

 

You can't enchant your bear's claws to be anywhere near as good as melee weapons wielded in human(oid) form.

 

 

Basically entering into a spiritshift is just making yourself weaker at everything, at the cost of an action.

[Luckmann]

why are people saying spiritshift is not good?

 

Because as of BBv435, it's horrific. Now, it may still change before release (I'm still hoping for some major changes in some things before release; Paladin & Ranger overhauls, Improved Spiritshift and Dueling, etc (yes, I have no hope for them fixing Stealth & Combat Only before release, which are otherwise my pet hatreds) but as of right now, Spiritshift is terrible, absolutely terrible.

 

It's got zero good Talent support, it adds very little as a mechanic, it actively gimps your character in virtually all ways, it doesn't benefit from gear at all, etc, etc.

 

Spiritshift could be really cool, but personally, I would've preferred it if you could just pick up different shifts as you level, with each shift having clear utility and scaling stats that at least made it worthwile to spiritshift at some point. Now it just feels like a shamanistic gimmick, rather than true shapeshifting of the ol' DnD variety (which had other issues, but at least you could switch).

[rheingold]

Hey, speaking as a die hard druid fan, shape shifting has always been terrible in the older games! Obsidan sold this as a nostalgic trip back to the good ole days. By making shape shifting useless, they are just delivering on that promise

Edited March 5, 2015 by rheingold

[WotanAnubis]

I've come to the slow, reluctant realization that the only time in gaming where shapeshifting won't be inferior to the point of uselessness will be when someone makes a werewolf game where shapeshifting is the primary mechanic.

[Luckmann]

I've come to the slow, reluctant realization that the only time in gaming where shapeshifting won't be inferior to the point of uselessness will be when someone makes a werewolf game where shapeshifting is the primary mechanic.

 

Probably.

 

I mean, I kinda get it, shapeshifting is probably hard as balls to balance properly. But at the same time, you should probably sell it as a primary party of a class if it's a thing. Not just something tacked on to the side and then make the rest shine. If there's active shapeshifting, that should be the main thing, the big star, and thus balanced with all other abilities of other classes in mind.

 

Druids are balanced around being.. well.. druids, naturalist spellcasters. They probably shouldn't have been. They should have been modeled around shapeshifting, with minor magic at best.

[etagloc]

the stag just seem like the most unique to me, but I think all of them look cool.. except the bear (MANBEARPIG) 
I like the bear but I think it looks horrible.

[Heijoushin]

Hey, speaking as a die hard druid fan, shape shifting has always been terrible in the older games! Obsidan sold this as a nostalgic trip back to the good ole days. By making shape shifting useless, they are just delivering on that promise .

 

True. I remember giving my druid/fighter 18 str and being disgusted when his winter wolf shape shift reduced it down to 13 (or something like that). I don't really understand why it's hard to balance. Can't you just add a little to the druids physical stats?

 

It's a real pity. I'm not a big druid fan but I would have considered rolling one if the shape-shifting was decent. It should be a cool "trump card" ability that can turn a battle around when you're out of spells and wounded.

 

HA! Could have been Good Fun!

 

 

Edited March 6, 2015 by Heijoushin

[DarkWanderer]

Well I dont really care that much, as im using the druid as the second wizard with the different collection of spells, but spiritshift should have similar effect to Tenser's Transformation with different bonuses for different shapes, but the ability should be sustained (work like paladins aura) OR spiritshift form could be customized and leveled as a regular character with its own perks to choose and such.

[ruzen]

I think stag looks way cool than others but I agree others about Its usefulness.

[Luckmann]

 

Hey, speaking as a die hard druid fan, shape shifting has always been terrible in the older games! Obsidan sold this as a nostalgic trip back to the good ole days. By making shape shifting useless, they are just delivering on that promise .

 

True. I remember giving my druid/fighter 18 str and being disgusted when his winter wolf shape shift reduced it down to 13 (or something like that). I don't really understand why it's hard to balance. Can't you just add a little to the druids physical stats?

 

It's a real pity. I'm not a big druid fan but I would have considered rolling one if the shape-shifting was decent. It should be a cool "trump card" ability that can turn a battle around when you're out of spells and wounded.

 

HA! Could have been Good Fun!

 

 

 

 

Well, yeah, you could just add a little to the druid's physical stats, but at the same time, you want the shapeshifting to be meaningful, to actually change the character from one thing to another. It's been a problem in a lot of mediums and games at different points in times, and I honestly can't think of a game (PnP or Vidya) that pulls this off very well.

 

Either the druid is too flexible, and outclasses others. Or it's gimped with the rationale that it's flexible. Or shapeshifting is just terrible and never gets used.

 

If you make shapeshifting too good, druids (as full spellcasters) will outclass other spellcasters simply because they can perform more functions or multiple roles (say, if we make the Bear Spiritshift too tanky, or the Wolf Spiritshift too rogue-y). If it's too bad, we get what we have now, where it just plain sucks. I want there to be a middle-road, but I'm not sure that there is one.

 

At the same time, there are no classes in PoE with limited spellcasting (there's classes with spell-like effects, but for spellcasting, there's only really Priests, Wizards, Druids and - only arguably - Chanters). I think they should've made druids a class with more limited spellcasting, but with shapeshifting (into multiple forms, not just choose-1-on-creation) as the main focus and the focus of their class abilities.

 

But that's just me, and I realize that it's far too late, I'm just musing, really.

[Heijoushin]

Yeah, I pretty much like that last idea. Take away some spell casting and be more shape-shifting orientated. Priests and wizards can cast spells but shape-shifting is something unique to the druid.

 

Well, as you say, too late now.

[transfett]

I am not a Beta player, but looking at the wiki, Druids seem to be casters that can shapeshift because lore. Druids could be a sandbox-like class if they chose their spells.

That way Druids might choose utility that is not very effective if they do not specialize in said utility, thinking it is still better than being reduced to a single purpose.

Example: Some "Fear" spell puts fear counters on target enemy, who is paralyzed until fear counters run out. The bear has means to put more fear counters on enemies, so have few other spells.

Druids as a whole class were overpowered that way, but each single one on his own balanced.

[DarkWanderer]

Yeah, I pretty much like that last idea. Take away some spell casting and be more shape-shifting orientated. Priests and wizards can cast spells but shape-shifting is something unique to the druid.

 

Well, as you say, too late now.

Naah - spellcasting is a must - but I wouldnt mind kites: spell oriented, shapeshift oriented and totem oriented Well maybe in expansion

[DruidX]

hey seeing how everyone is saying that shapeshift sucks, I might go with ranger instead

 

please help me decide what animal companion to choose

 

i made a poll here:

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70801-best-animal-companion/

[Tamerlane]

Druids are still really, really good right now! It's just one particular class feature of their is bad. And that's a shame, 'cause I'd ****ing love to play a spiritshift-focused druid who ****s dudes up with his antlers a bunch.

 

But since the version of the game that everyone is using for reference isn't the final version of the game, it's awkward to base decisions on the present strength of things. I recommend you hold your decisions until we can see the classes in their final form (or at least until the next BB update, which will hopefully give druids and rangers another pass).

[PBJam]

Druids look interesting,

 

What is the primary role of a druid in the party? (ie tank, healer, dps, etc?)

[Faerunner]

Is the Spiritshifting ability really as bad as people say? That's highly disappointing. In theory, I always thought some kind of shapeshifting ability seemed the most interesting from a role-playing and combat perspective. In practice, in most games they're painfully mediocre at best, crippling at worst. I was hoping Pillars of Eternity would be different since it's Obsidian's own intellectual property and they set out to make every class balanced and interesting from the beginning. It seems that was a fruitless hope for the Druid's spiritshifting ability after all. ='(

[Tamerlane]

It's looking and sounding buffer in the next patch, so maybe we'll see what it's like tomorrow?