Sat Jun 24 06:17:49 2017

At 6 o'clock AM, Day of Thunder, 17th of the Month of the Heat
on the Theran calendar Qarodeth perished, never to return.

Race:	felar
Class:	shapeshifter
Level:	51
Alignment:	Evil
Ethos:	Chaotic
Cabal:	OUTLANDER, the Outlanders of Thar-Eris
Age:	35
Hours:	135

For the most part I enjoyed this character. Although, I did note several things I'd change about shifters and the way certain skills/abilities affect them. Biggest ones being the large nerfs they ate due in no small part to power-gamey, now non-existent scions being very powerful with them. i.e. shifting lag and movement lag from maladies, flyto/swimto lag. Since forms already take monumental drops to their power, defenses or regeneration based on stat loss, I don't see any of those as needed.

Many people will say Shifters have it easy and deserve more drawbacks because even without gear they're powerful but I say, most race/classes have the ability to be just as competitive in most situations. Sure, the instant you die you can shift and be still pretty powerful but most people can be right up there with a simple re-gear set.

The other thing they say is that you have access to wands, that's true but I was straight up owned by quite a few folks while I had wands and they didn't because shifters have a relatively low power ceiling compared to other classes and lack any real way to do much about it. I'd liken this to having fast car that you can't modify, except to give it a bigger gas tank, or make the frame more durable. Sure you have a fast car that can drive a long ways and is more durable at the sacrifice of rebuilding but even joe smoe with the honda civic can drop in a crate motor, twin turbo, carbon fiber the body, and eat you for breakfast, not to mention his neighbor who owns Bigfoot (the truck not Sasquatch).

Last one kinda goes along with the above, their power ceiling with forms at all levels is fairly low. A warrior, ranger, assassin, thief, etc almost all tank as well and deal more damage; build and form dependent. This is due to fairly easy access to above avg gear and enhanced damage or other such skills. Shifter forms are much like the above 4 classes when in form but pound for pound can easily be outperformed by them. As a suggestion, I'd say to give them a higher overall power ceiling in general but also as a level based/form confidence factor. i.e. get level 14-16 form that can be beaten now by level 11 warrior with gear they can get solo, well pump that form up so that it's competitive and scale it even stronger until that next set of forms is available, so that your 14-16 form can keep up with a level 20 warrior, etc.

Now, regardless of my complaints, I still enjoy shifters as a class. The mystery of forms is great, finding out their strengths and weaknesses is fun, even with the above mentioned.

Also, Outlander, great cabal. A bit overlooked by many but the interactions you can have there are unlike most other cabals with the 3 align mashup and the ability to fight one another. I wish I could have been a more evil, evil Outlander but I didn't get to dig too deep into the character before having to deploy, so there is that. I'll try to roll something else when time permits, until then.. Fair winds and following Seas, CF.

nt

I brought up many of the same points but got hit with the spiel about how shifers are pretty much "easy street" and deserve to have so many drawbacks from maledictions. Ah well, maybe one day!

Good luck with your next, hope to see you back soon.

You'll pray thanks for having ability to maladict them and stop flyto onslaught.

I say the shifters are fine.

n/t

I'll say that if you're dying to a murder shifter, you're doing something wrong, you got a poor race/class to form match (just like some classes/races can naturally beat others) or they're just that much better than you that you'd likely die to them without flyto.

Flyto/swimto is a convenience with a specific design that can be used to chase people down that a shifter may actually beat in a fight, catch off guard, find in an area with their pants down, etc. To give the opponent the opportunity to move prior to flyto/murder is in the code naturally. That's why almost anyone who kept calm and moved fast enough could get somewhere they couldn't fly/swim since CFs inception, not to mention it isn't 100% anymore because the imms gave it a failure rate. Also, removing that functionality by means of 1 broken bone or bleeding hamstring is absurd. As it is, flyto/swimto under malady has enough lag to allow the target to get in 1 movement virtually "EVERY TIME" before the shifter's flyto/murder. That's instantly an escape button for someone who doesn't panic/doesn't make a mistake in their movements.

Also the assumption that I've never fought against a powerful shifter who used this ability and that's why I have this view is horribly skewed. I've live through and killed a few of the most potent ones in recent CF history including Oshui, Halifan, Solec, Obregon, and Zameida.

So, having said that, I'll ask you to think about this. Have you ever been in a fight that was knock down/drag out that you just finally won and then have someone come in and one shot you with ambush, assassinate, pwk, or something similar? If so, you understand what goes through a shifter's head when they spend the time to scout and find their prey, they drop and prep (using wands that can take hours to acquire) because if they don't there's not a good chance of them winning, then they come back and attack and get hit by 1 attack and then... no matter what they did, how hard they try, mechanically they just can't seal the kill.

I believe the idea behind this change was from good intentions but from my perspective was done mostly to pacify the vocal minority that had trouble dealing with this mechanic because a few people abused it that were also talented at PK and/or were overly enhanced by cabal powers/special rewards. And rather than teach the them how to better deal with these types of shifters, the Immortals simply took away/tweaked the ability that shifters had, greatly diminishing part of the functionality inherently designed into those specific foci that are supposed to make up for the lack in combat power and/or limited mobility.

These changes were also somewhat rationalized by the idea that this should be more realistic, i.e. a broken bone should slow someone but we are talking about a magically changed/enhanced humanoid in the shape of some great animal or mythological beast...

When I fail to do so - I die. So thanks for the hints :)

>So, having said that, I'll ask you to think about this. Have
>you ever been in a fight that was knock down/drag out that you
>just finally won and then have someone come in and one shot
>you with ambush, assassinate, pwk, or something similar? If
>so, you understand what goes through a shifter's head when
>they spend the time to scout and find their prey, they drop
>and prep (using wands that can take hours to acquire) because
>if they don't there's not a good chance of them winning, then
>they come back and attack and get hit by 1 attack and then...
>no matter what they did, how hard they try, mechanically they
>just can't seal the kill.

Shifters have options to have the easiest time of ALL classes to find their prey. Adding flyto to the basket and a chance for unblockable lags and a chance for pounce - I say occasional "can't seal the kill" is fine by me. You have also a lot of options to wear your opponent down and chase him to the depth of inferno.

The change was not to make shifters more "realistic", it was to make shifters powercombos survivable and balanced. The same reason they took away insects in form. Totally fine, sorry you didn't feel overpowered as Qarodeth.

Shifters encompass everyone who's not a murder shifter as well. Also, unless you're a rager, if you cannot get away from an air form, you have problems. And if you're a rager, you probably have little to fear from air forms.

You shouldn't care because PK isn't your priority. I get it you have feelings from Kycue, but hey, you still had your shiny moments.

Just because murdering people isn't your priority doesn't mean you won't be attacked or that you should run when you are.

complains that you can't "seal a kill" are not accepted.

Where do you get these ideas? You can be:

1) Not a murderer
2) Want to defend yourself if attacked
3) Want attacker to die

I put my shifter change idea on the gameplay board. Go comment on that (and it better be positive).

All those don't mean that you have right to complain about having no kill sealing ability. And even more so, "not having kill sealing ability when maladicted". That's like complaining "Hey I can't kill people when I'm out of HP".

I don't think it's good to go on and on on a death thread like this. I just wanted to bring up some meaningful discussion but these are my questions to you, since you seem to have it out for shifters with these skills:

1) What other class gets 2 round lag and suffers damage any time they switch weapons when they're maladicted, even if covered stat loss? None, except shifter? (A shifter in form is basically the same as a melee class, so changing shape I am equating to changing weapons.)

2) Which other class can't use their skills to 100% when they have gear covering stat loss from maladies? None, except shifter? (flyto/swimto get lag that negate the skills from being effective in pk for chasing unless the enemy can't run by adding enough lag that the prey always gets a command before the predator.)

3) Do you honestly think that flyto/swimto need an the extra round of lag caused by maladies when the skills aren't 100% to work, the skills can't be used within a certain amount of time with a person logging in, after a crash/reboot, when the person is under ground/under water, in a guild or indoors, depending on location, or across multiple areas without moving manually?

4) Have you ever tried to play a "murder shifter" and if you have, were you successful at PK?

Shapeshifters are trash character classes anyway. Great for newbs and people who can't manage many options on the fly. They come prepackaged and shovel ready to play and they can be exceediny powerful with little effort.

I felt dirty everytime I played one. Like I was cheating. Only assassins come close with the level of cheese shifters have. At least assassins have to make real decisions in a fight.

A garbage class we would be better off without. At least change the names and descriptions. Lame in all ways.

But out of my three best PK characters, two were shapeshifters. Shapeshifters are very powerful and can beat almost anyone. The only two notable exceptions are undead necro and rager scout.

And you can't equate forms to weapons. There is no formbreaker or form disarm, and nobody can loot your forms when you die.

Just don't choose air or defense. These two foci are utter crap.
Pick some combination of water, offense and utility.