They need a way of doing damage outside of melee in general terms. Not all forms have that. Jaguar, Tiger, Dire Wolf, Gator and the large majority of other forms do not have a big damage skill like rake or smash that will both lag the STSF but also land and cause any significant damage. I'm not saying STSF is unbeatable but it really shines against most shifters for this reason.

A lot of the shifter downgrades over the years have been because shifters had access to an extra large HP pool and lagging pet via Scion, in my opinion, they could do with an un-nerfing now that it's gone. But, having said that, the staff likely sees more bang for their buck devoting time to other resources.