Are Spiritshifted druids good fighters?

[QDI]

Hello,

 

In old DnD, Druids used to be very good casters and excellent hand to hand fighters once transformed.

 

I heard they are the best casters at the moment (and will therefore be nerfed). But are they good in melee too? Or are Spiritshifts too weak?

 

Thank you!

Edited March 26, 2015 by QDI

[Bazy]

It's pretty weak and doesn't scale well. 

[Oneiromancer]

The form itself is decent but it lasts for a short time and it uses your base accuracy, becoming more and more weak as you level up. It's once per encounter though, so you can use it when you're out of spells or don't want to waste any of them on small/easy fights. 

[QDI]

Ok, thank you!

[Odd Hermit]

It's not worth building around, but it's a strong tool for druid.

 

It absolutely wrecks at low levels before enchanted weapons begin to overtake the benefit of high base claw damage though.

 

I am shredding through most early game encounters with ease using it.

[Dongom]

Shifting sucks, just like in all other cRPGs of old.  They sadly kept that tradition with PoE lol.

 

You're gonna have to wait for mods.

 

Till then, pew pew lazers on Druid

Edited March 26, 2015 by Dongom

[KingsGambit]

I'm currently level 4, finishing off quests in Gilded Vale on my first playthru with a Pale Elf Druid. I rolled 18,8,16,8,18,10 stats wise and werewolf spiritshift form. I was looking forward to the mix between shifted beatstick and caster form. It's not the best. As with everything I've noticed (so far) in the game, everything is tempered and restricted.

 

Probably the most annoying thing is that it's not an "at will" ability. It's restricted to one change per encounter. This itself wouldn't matter since that's when you want to shapeshift, but for the fact that it has a stingy timer on it. Any more than two enemies in an encounter and it'll wear off before you're done. The damage output is good and the damage reduction is nice too....being equivalent to high level armour but without the speed penalty. Being able to cast spells while shifted is also very good and the shift time is instant.

 

The short timer however is frustrating and I'm dearly hoping a mod/tweak could be made to remove it, alongside the single-use per encounter. Further, the benefit of the werewolf, being able to knock enemies prone, is not passive as I thought, or even per encounter, but 2 uses per *rest*, hampering it's usefulness. I find I just use my fighter's knockdown instead and save the werewolf's for tough fights, so the majority of the time the werewolf specific bonus is ignored and unused. Lastly, despite the good DR, spiritshift gets no bonus to deflection or HP so if you're getting hit, you still won't live very long at all.

 

Altogether, it's mostly effective, at least for now, but meh. For the sake of answering questions I had but couldn't find answers too:

 

- I believe taking Weapon Specialisation: Peasant will increase accuracy while shifted (since it counts as unarmed)

- Taking Two Weapon Style will increase attack speed 20% while shifted.

- I'm not positive, but I believe taking "Scion of Flame" or "Secret of Rime" for example will further increase the Wildstrike Fire/Freeze damage respectively.

[Bazy]

- I believe taking Weapon Specialisation: Peasant will increase accuracy while shifted (since it counts as unarmed)

- Taking Two Weapon Style will increase attack speed 20% while shifted.

- I'm not positive, but I believe taking "Scion of Flame" or "Secret of Rime" for example will further increase the Wildstrike Fire/Freeze damage respectively.

Good to know. Thank you. 

[Gralq]

- I'm not positive, but I believe taking "Scion of Flame" or "Secret of Rime" for example will further increase the Wildstrike Fire/Freeze damage respectively.

 

I tried that, it doesn't add the bonus.  At least on patch 1.03 (didnt play since patch 1.04)

 

I'm playing druid as main character, on level 6 now.  I actually built around shapeshifting, it's an amaua 19 might beast, catform to maximize attacks.

 

Early game:

Grazes were klling enemies ..... who cares about the short duration?

 

Level 5-6:

Im not shapeshifting anymore.  The spells are a lot more useful and needed, while the accuracy of shapeshift remains low.  But the worst part I'm encountering it's the fact that DR does not scale.  

The druid has a very poor endurance and deflection (shield and armor bonuses go away when spiritshifted)  , so that DR of 8 at level 1 was good.  At level 6 it's very bad and I suspect at high levels, unusable.

 

My druid only jumps in in spiritform if the enemy needs to be flanked and it's about to fall

 

Whenever there's a fight were he gets caught in melee, enemies ALWAYS choose to atack him (lowest endurance/deflection) and he doesnt last long. With his level 3 cocoon spell and the priest healing he survvives the battle , but the low health forces me to rest even though he has many spells left

 

 

Last but not least, there's no animation for the elemental extra damage he causes... small hing, but flavoury

[Jimmysdabestcop]

Yeah its usually good under level 6. Starts to trail off around 4. Then you will never use it again.

 

I guess that's the problem with no kits or specialization of classes. Typically you could have a specialized druid for shape-shifting that gave say spells or weapons/defense for beast mode. Or a melee/ranged flavor druid and then a spell central druid.

 

In PoE right now there are no items that give druids more spells. Priests get 1 and Wizards get 2. And druid spells are good you dont want to waste talents on shapeshifting, defense or really offense if its not related to your spells.

 

The only thing Wizards have over Druids is they can instant self buff basically into super fighters and front line melee attack enemies. Then cast fire cone spells at the enemy once it goes per encounter.

[Ineth]

Spiritshift sucks (except maybe as a defense when you get swarmed), but thanks to their generous spell selection druids are nonetheless the most powerful class in the game.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Ineth

[b0rsuk]

Monstrous damage, short duration, low accuracy (base druid). It disables most of your equipment. I'd say the main problem is accuracy. It completely wrecks stuff if it can hit.

 

Yes, it doesn't scale very well, but it's instant. So if it happens that an enemy next to druid is stunned or goes prone, go for it !

Edited April 30, 2015 by b0rsuk