Still figuring out how this class works and haven't fought beside enough of them to know the many various forms and their strengths/weaknesses...

Do you only get one form at each tier, for each of your major and minor focus areas? Is that form determined randomly? If not, what matters?

Any tips on how to place this class well, or special things to do (or not do) while young that will make a more effective character down the road?

Thanks for your help!

Could someone either do this or point me in to a place where it's already been described...?

List the forms available for each shapefocus, in order of rareness and/or desirability...and describe their special skills (ie. what makes them good or bad)?

I don't have a sense of what forms do what or which focus they are for, nor how good they are. Seems like there's a lot of em to experience without playing 20 shifters into the high ranks.

When I get a first tier form, it would be great to know which are relatively crappy and worth using the edges to roll again.

http://www.carrionfields.net/CFwiki/Shapeshifters

http://diku.qhcf.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Shifters

Some useful hp stuff you can grab at different levels:

sandy brown desert cloaks (araile)
glaurukhide stuff (glauruks)
pitch-black rings (midbie/hero range,udgaard)
snow worm stuff (leggings/armguards/torso,Frigid wasteland)
snow leopard hide (Frigid wasteland)
Wide bronze belt (troll commander @ goblin village)
wide ring rimmed with razor sharp spikes (tail, Velkyn Oloth)
circlet from Galadon graveyard.

Read over this page and all the helpfiles it links to (mainly the key concepts): http://www.carrionfields.com/help/class/shapeshifter.php

After reading over that material, you should have a solid understanding of what forms are, when you get them, how to use them, etc.

Until you have a form, you'll have to rely primarily on partial shifts for damage. Like another player said, your best bet is probably horns of the bull, but as a new player, it certainly wouldn't hurt to practice whatever skills and spells you want for learning purposes, even if people (correctly) tell you that you probably won't use them later on.

Since hitroll / damroll, attack type, number of attacks, etc. are all determined by the forms, shapeshifters tend to gear almost exclusively for HP. Until you have a better grasp on a game, that's what I would do. Things like saves (save vs. spell, save vs. mental) are important, but go ahead and punt on that for now.

Learning where to get equipment comes with time. Rely on friends and allies for information. Explore as much as you can. If you're pretty new to CF (and not just this class), my advice would be to simply write off dying and simply explore, learn, and have fun. Every character gets easier and better as your game knowledge grows. If you hemorrhage constitution (by dying) with your first few characters in return for a much better understanding of the game, then that's probably worth it. Feel free to make use of the unofficial resources linked to on the website as well.

The great thing about shapeshifters is that they're hard to do wrong. Make sure you keep your intelligence, wisdom, and constitution maxed out or as high as possible so you get the highest returns out of HP, mana, and training gains. Learn the ins and outs of your forms and what they're good at and not so good at fighting. Keep your controls up at all times to maintain bash / trip protection. Remember too, that when you reach zero mana in-form you are forced to revert. This can have dire consequences as an air form. Be weary of poison / plague or anything else that can drain your mana or prevent it from regenerating.

To summarize: Read the help files and try to make friends IC. You'll learn a lot, including things that aren't always cool to talk about on the forums from people by hanging out with them in-character. Supplement that with a healthy attitude for learning and exploration and you'll be in good shape in no time.

Oh, and stay away from BattleRagers.

The helpfiles for the forms and when you get them are pretty decent.

As a shifter you want to rank fairly quickly up to your Tier 2 forms, the ones you get betweel 28-33 (I think) and as you then rank from there to your final forms, and you will want to because some forms will be viable PKers at midbie ranks but most aren't for solo PKing, make sure you enliven your control spells (fly, haste/slow, stone skin, pass door and control trans) with every shapeshift as you will have them at a reliable level before you get your final forms.

Shifters without controls mastered lose the ability to switch forms for different attributes (risk free) so get them mastered quick. To rank you can get away with fine leather gear and just get the hell away from any PK attempts and then when you have idle time or final forms you can start to gear for hps, saves and then str and dex, depending on form bonuses and greater enlivens which can give str and dex as well.

If it is your first shapeshifter I would advise you to go with defense major and offense minor. This will hopefully make you always useful to a group as a tank or as a damage dealer and make ranking easier. You will also, hopefully, get a regenerating form, which are not the be all and end all of shifters as a class, but as a new shifter being able to word or teleport away and then shift into regen form to survive nasty maledicts will be key. Damned handy for exploring too!

Bit vague in places, I know but check the helpfiles either in game or in the top right corner of the forums to check.

P.S. Horns of the Bull and one of the shell, hide, chitin or scales partial shifts is all you will need to get to your first form so don't really bother with the rest.


This is straight from the search function on the forum:

syntax: forms

Forms displays the forms a shapeshifter knows how to shapeshift into.
They become more skilled at these forms by doing those things these
forms do best. The different level of skill in a form are Clumsy, Adequate,
Competent, Skilled, Confident.

It is rumored that there exist some forms which are far more powerful than
the norm. It is more strongly rumored that the best way not to gain one
of these forms is to ask the Gods for one.

Shapeshifters gain their forms based on their level in the guild and whether
it
is a form in their major or minor focus.

| Major | Minor |
--------------------------------
Tier 1 | Lvl 42-44 | Lvl 47-48 |
Tier 2 | Lvl 28-30 | Lvl 31-33 |
Tier 3 | Lvl 20-22 | Lvl 23-25 |
Tier 4 | Lvl 14-16 | N/A |
--------------------------------

See also: SHAPEFOCUS, SHAPESHIFT, REVERT, ENLIVEN

Does +dam and +hit eq affect you when in form?

Are the forms you get completely random at each tier or is there something you should do to get different/better ones?

1) No, unless the eq gives you an affect like frenzy or bless or berserk. +hit +dam from gear never transfers over, and conversely, -hit -dam doesn't either.

2) 98% random. In that, the only non-random thing is a situation like, I'm a defensive shifter, I get tortoise at rank 30, I know for A FACT I am not getting armadillo as my form at rank 43.

>Does +dam and +hit eq affect you when in form?

They do not. Saves, stat bonuses and hp/mp/mv bonuses carry over in form. What shows up in your affects (type affects in game) will also carry over in form. Gear for more saves if spells are causing you trouble, for more stat bonuses if maledicts hamper your action but mostly, gear for hp. Hitroll and damroll are completely irrelevant when gearing a shifter.

>Are the forms you get completely random at each tier or is
>there something you should do to get different/better ones?

Forms are mostly random, but some tier 2 forms exclude similar tier 1 forms. What you can do manually is picking foci and sticking with what you get.