Shapeshifting (4 Gems)

Frenzy definitely needs to work with shapeshifters (specifically werewolves) because the 2 forms that use Frenzy charges get no innate way to generate them.

The more I think about it, the more facebreaker would likely break shapeshifting if it was done unarmed... and I'm not sure but it might be hard to alter facebreakers already in the game (and coding the gem to work unarmed but not with facebreakers might be hard to code from the gem side)

I was trying to think of what Strength gems would work well with shapeshifting and found that most could simply be bypassed (remember, seperate animations will need to be made per gem per form, so restricting the gems to claws only restricts the number of gems that can be used to the point that it would be easy to animate)


Also, the 30% reduced damage is damage inflicted, not taken (there to balance the fact that you'll pretty much always have max power charges in this form and will be critting fairly often).

Weretigers are for dealing with most mobs physically

Werewolves are actually more of a caster form (if you use wild spell gems) and can easily take down yellow and blue mobs. It's designed to be used with reave, frenzy, and viper strike but AoE and Duration wild spells could easily turn this into a caster form.

Werebears are the go-to form against Uniques. The idea with Werebears is that you tend to get harder to kill the more damage you take... and gems typically don't give more hp (and I wanted to stay away from life stacking gems. Max hp should be something you get from passives and gear, not skills)


In this way, you need to spec for each form differently (by grabbing charges and the charge related buffs).

-------

On the note of Fauna, Wraeclast DOES use wolves and bears though... or rough analogues thereof. No tigers.... but that still doesn't make me want a weretiger form any less (MAYBE Were-Ape but I still like tigers better)


I did want Heavy Strike to work with bear, but I'm not sure if the coding would be easy for it.


I do agree that auras should be restricted while shapeshifting (which is partially the reason for the 40% mana reservation)

I also agree that it should be something fun, though it should be viable if you build around it which is why I made them rely on dual charges. It requires that you stretch yourself pretty thin to get 5 charges on 2 types (let alone on all 3)

No reason to feel bound by the local lore. We only know about Wraeclast fauna, which supposedly got pretty... endemic over the years (read: corrupted). It's entirely possible outside world has fairly normal fauna, or that wraeclast had a similar one long ago. It would only hold to reason Virtue gems would mimic 'normal' animal forms, rather than their twisted variations. Especially if they predate Wraeclast corruption, which they most probably do.

About animations, weapons really shouldn't be a problem as animal forms would need only three animations, attack, cast general skill use, only the speed of swipes will differ. Not like anyone expected werebear would swing an axe, shifters either meld gear into their animal shapes or ignore its stats altogether. Now, the latter might just work fine, it would solve potential overpoweredness of certain items, you could wear crappy gear that has good slots (tabula?), shifter gems would provide base stats like defenses, resists, life boost, bear could have armor, wolf eva, tiger arm/eva, elementals could have arm/es, pure es and eva/es for fire, lightning and cold, respectively.

Well, you still run into things like Leap Slam (though that would be pretty cool to do in Bear Form). I guess it'd be up to the devs whether or not exactly what restriction needs to be placed on the attack animations/skills

Though again, not looking to have forms give stats (that's what gear and passives are for) and, if you did that, then it might mess up the endgame. I'd rather stick with producing/manipulating charges since the game is woefully lacking in skills that produce/manipulate charges.