Good morning,
There were a few things that came to my mind involving the changes made on the
4x40 Owlbear shapeshift form. Finally we druids have some attention, AUTOBOTS
TRANSFORM! ;)
Understandably the changes were posted by Breeze on a different thread. I had no
permission to follow up with anything there which led me to here.
I personally spoke to our most humble hobo, Juggleblood - in regards with the
change and we shared some common ideology behind the change, why it took place and
what it is now. I can’t say I fully agree with the change but I personally
understand a change was needed. It is very important that people are made fully
aware of what I am about to say here. This is no flame or rant but experience from
me as the leading alpha druid shaman in the world of Jord. I also believe I speak
on behalf of my other druid brethren’s from afar.
From my point of view, the changes by far outweighs the good from bad. Why?
Let me share a story with you when I was but a young shaky druid in training to
assume the form of an owlbear……
It was tough. Damn right to the bone it was tough. They see me rollin’, they
hatin’ patrol….Oops, where were we. Ah yes… pantin’ huffin’ and puffin'
through the corn fields like Chuck Norris on steroids. As if he needed any!
Thankfully my beating heart wasn’t nearly foolish enough to beat me. It was
exhausting… I had to return to my human form and refresh myself endlessly to
keep up with the ferocity, to the extent where I am perpetually out of mana with
very low stamina. What was I to do? I persevered. Moons passed and I had finally
attained a worthy spell that was an improved version of my previous one. It cost
me a chunk of my mana to replenish what was lost, but I had little options. I was
soon up the ranks of a Naturalist, much thanks to my persevering….. my problems
became a lot less worrisome. I was light and swift that I felt like I owned the
world. Until I met Chuck Norris himself… I mostly became his owlbear carpet in
his room, hoping he wouldn’t notice my breath in me;ever moving a slight inch. I
persevered. Slowly but surely, my inner power grew and I was promoted to
Skinwalker. I could hardly believe it! I had so much rage in me that my only
burning desire was to assume the form much meaner and nastier to beat this Chuck
Norris who but steps and tramples on me. Every joint in my body that goes crack
and splinters out of my soft fabric skin would send a chill down your spine. The
horrifying pitch that echoes through would send any living soul reeling in
every corner. Even the dead wanted to remain dead. It is also known to be so frightening that our memory would be lost
forever and we would remain idle, in pain, while the beast form shudders back
to and return to my normal self. I dare not live through this pain. I persevered.
It was only then that I had remembered my humble roots of assuming the form of an
owlbear back when I was a young animist….
In reality to what we have in the world of Jord today, the owlbear was nerfed
because it was deemed overpowered. In my eyes, it was only overpowered because
most of the prime druids who rank the scale of 6x40, 7x40 and 8x40 still uses a
4x40 form. Our capabilities grow from new equipment, avatar bonuses, level
bonuses, skill merge but this is not balanced with the higher forms as to our
natural human prowess. As a result, we use the owlbear. A failed check on rapid
shift for the owlbear only results to 6 seconds shift lag. A successful rapid
shift check results in no shift lag. Anything above owlbear results to 10 seconds
shift lag and more regardless. 100% swipe rates, tiny damage reduction and solid
hps.
Try asking Magi, a 4x40 Druid Prime and what he thinks of his new profound ability
to shape into an owlbear. I can assure you, it is taxing. With the new changes to
owlbear, where does a starting druid put a foot on? Grinding is one thing, having
fun while grinding is another. Owlbear form itself is not overpowered. It is when
the human form grows to a point where maintaining this lag-free form and upkeeping
it is no longer a hassle. Owlbear swipes ability definitely do need a fail % put
in. I had suggested this through ‘ideas’ sometime ago. Swipes should still burn
moves instead of mana like how a thief circles. Swipe damage isn’t great either,
so why turn it to mana? The only thing that was going was due to its never fail
rate.
Another thing that comes to my mind is, WHY the nerf now? Most prime druids are
way beyond the 4x40 line. If there should be a nerf, this question should be
answered:
Why are 6x40,7x40,8x40 druids and above still using a 4x40 form?
I sent a very long email that was discussed by me, magi, ramza and suna way back
in the 2012 but we had no luck addressing our issues. So maybe here’s a chance.
Best regards,
Dr
P.S You can replace Chuck Norris with Demon Prince Demogorgon :)
Is Owlbear better than the lower forms?
Will the higher forms be used now?
Owlbear isn’t overpowered, it’s more mana efficient to use… Owlbear is this big kink of mana efficency in a graph that you expected should be about linear improvement… ironically it would seem the mana efficency graph for druids is a bell curve, with owlbear reaching the highest point, and the higher forms taking us to new lows. It’s all about the mana efficiency…
When fighting a stab type mob… as druids normally do… what does 1 or 2 points of damage matter? What does 1 or 2 points of AC matter? It doesn’t. The other forms are similar in power as owlbear (AC/Attacks/Dam), they just simply do not have the mana efficiency that owlbear does.
The higher level forms gobble so much mana that they don’t keep up with the slow increase of our mana in the 6th - 8th level class nor the eq improvements at that level. Owlbear isn’t overpowered, it’s mana efficent.
Putting owlbear back to using mana for swipe… levels the playing field between the forms…
Now fix the mana sustainability issues… you should be adjusting the mana heavily to use the forms, sustain and spells…
Factor in at 6x40 the game becomes a grind… and the form improvements need to improve more exponentially.
Traditionally using the form you just earned is a piece of crap in mana sustain… how about daring to change that tradition?
Don’t get all fancy and write code to make us play a certain way. Keep it simple and fair, let us play how we please.
Most importantly… PLAN (Paper and Pen) these changes… don’t implement until them until it’s right. The forms aren’t too bad really, it’s the game mechanics that’s stuffing them up. You fix forms by implementing a linear playing mana efficiency formula amongst the forms that improves steadily.
Could someone drag Dr away from watching reruns of Walker Texas Ranger to test the new changes?
After much testing and dicsussion with Splork, the man has put in a few favors for the druid class.
Now the higher forms are very much playable, bump. :D
Ask Magi what he thinks about Owlbear?
It was a huge jump in power, letting me kill most mobs 20 mil xp or lower. It was also the point at which I stopped playing druid. Shift lag, and the knowledge that the higher level forms were
a huge xp grind away and
not better than owlbear…
So I gave up on druid. Changes that improve the higher level forms, like the ones just put in game are very good. They won’t tempt me back to the class, but they make it playable at high levels, and that’s a good thing.
Mana efficiency and relative power aside, it was the shift lag that really soured me on the higher level forms. It seems that’s been addressed now.
It won’t, however, tempt me back to druid now. My awesome warrior monk is all the character I need.
Also, the alarm in cloud giants is deadly! (And I like it!)
Thanks so much for the positive feedback.