So, I've been exploring air forms and have had all but the crag soarer as a second tier. Some questions to those who know...

None of these questions apply to quest forms...just normal ones.

1) First, do any forms of any focus (not quest forms) require IMMxp or anything to get?

2) It seems like some forms are more common that others in my limited sample size of shifters. Do you have the same odds of getting the forms or are some supposed to be more rare?

3) I've had all but one tier 2 air forms and noticed that the Skyflash doesn't have fire resist, though I thought it used to. Is that a recent change?

Just looking at the things that seem to add real value to the forms (not things like furor or prey/predator) it seems like the Skyflash is a significantly less useful form than the others. Am I missing something?

Burrowing owl: detect hidden, slight dam redux, excellent dodging, burrows
Shirka: High dex, excellent dodge, camo, ambush, greater evasion
Crag Soarer: *Major Regen*, Evasion, avg dodge w/ 21 dex
Boulder hawk: Knockout dive, dam redux, avg dodge, bash redux
Osprey: Avg dodge (but with 23 dex), drown resistance, dive, high hit/dam
Skyflash: Avg dodge

.

>So, I've been exploring air forms and have had all but the
>crag soarer as a second tier. Some questions to those who
>know...
>
>None of these questions apply to quest forms...just normal
>ones.
>
>1) First, do any forms of any focus (not quest forms) require
>IMMxp or anything to get?

No.

>2) It seems like some forms are more common that others in my
>limited sample size of shifters. Do you have the same odds of
>getting the forms or are some supposed to be more rare?

Even odds, in theory. There might be some bias if the forms in a given tier/foci aren't evenly distributed amongst types (e.g., feline), but I imagine Zulg accounted for that.

>3) I've had all but one tier 2 air forms and noticed that the
>Skyflash doesn't have fire resist, though I thought it used
>to. Is that a recent change?

It looks like it used to be but was changed when Zulg revamped resistances/immunities. So 2012, I guess.

>Just looking at the things that seem to add real value to the
>forms (not things like furor or prey/predator) it seems like
>the Skyflash is a significantly less useful form than the
>others. Am I missing something?

Skyflash has the second highest average damage per round of all tier 2 air forms. It dodges averagely and has middle of the road movement lag/cost, etc.

It's probably not the bee's knees, on paper anyway.

NT

It's confusing when the +dam doesn't seem to correlate to the damage output per attack. I suppose they each have different avg claws or something. The osprey has like +20 dam on the Skyflash.

It's why Alligator hits harder than a lot of forms with similar damroll.

The only way the forms change is if you roll the bones/spin the wheel

There is no IMM influence in changing the odds on the pre-set forms besides quest forms, and even then they usually just add to the existing lineup instead of replacing.

Just checked my logs, yes it had resist fire. 20 str, 20 dex, the only form I had with that character that felt like it could actually do some damage (was air/def).

Crag soarer can lash.

I believe all normal forms are equal in chance and you don't need immxp to become eligible for them, because they are in fact determined at the moment when you choose your shapefocus.

I had a shifter a while back that had its forms all jacked up, where I could not shift into them for some reason, stating that I didn't know that form. This was after many of them were already to Confidant. I was pulled into the ROTD, where the imm removed all of my forms, and reassigned them and their skill lvl.

When they were done, they said this bug might affect future forms (at the time I was 2nd tier in both shapefocuses). But they couldn't do anything about it as they were not assigned yet and they didn't know the level they at which I would receive them.

Maybe this needs some Imm confirmation, but the RNG assignment of form comes as the system rolls to see if you get a form at that level. (I.e. you level to 14, you have a 35% chance to gain a form, If you succeed it rolls to assign a form. If you fail, rank to 15, you have a 65% chance to obtain a form, it then rolls to assign form, so on and so forth.) Thats my rudimentary understanding.

where an imm comment referenced a character's future form, that they hadn't gained yet but were going to. Which leads me to think forms are rolled ahead of time and a sufficiently high level imm can see them via stat or some other command.

All forms (and levels) are assigned at the moment of character creation.

Forms are assigned when a character chooses their shapefocuses, not at creation.

And all possible forms for all possible focuses are assigned at creation.

Unless the only thing "assigned" is a randomizer seed.

asd

Yep, what I meant and what I typed were two completely separate things, thank you for catching that.

Now when I'm spending hours ranking up knowing I'll delete if I get a certain form or combination (Like Air/Utility and get mantis), I won't be able to forget it's already written somewhere if I could only peek at what was in store and save much time!

I don't expect sympathy.

.

It's the sort of power that only high enough Imms have that aren't going to go around telling people. Amusingly, though, I did a utility/utility shapeshifter that while in the description room an Immortal randomly commented I had an "interesting" set of forms. I power levelled as quick as I could to get baboon, orangutan, and howler monkey. I think I managed about 2wks before I couldn't take it any more.