Shapeshifting Skills

Hello everyone!

I've put a little bit more thought into this. I'm aware that there are a few obstacles that need to be past to implement shapeshiftig skills to PoE. One of the first questions one might ask if:
Why shapehifting skills in PoE?
Traditionally shapeshifting skills were are great method of breaking the boundries of the basic design of a character (By design I mean that one character was to be a spellcaster, another type was a melee physical fighter etc).

Shapeshifting skills are also supposed to add more depth to the customization of a character. Shifting often granted access to new skills.

One might say now that we don't need shapeshifting abilities since skills in PoE aren't bound to a class. There are also no stereotyped characters and last but not least: More depth in customization? Really?

However, I'll now try to bring a few examples of how shapeshifting could be implemented to PoE:

1) Inspired by Avatar of Fire and the (more or less) recent Herald of Fire / Ice / Thunder

Turns the character into an Fire Elemental
[+] 50% pf Physical, Cold, Lightning Damage converted to Fire Damage
[+] Deal no Non-Fire Damage
[+] Attacks have Herald of Fire

[-] 50% Increased Fire Damage taken (or 50% Increased Cold Damage taken)
[-] Any drawbacks you can think of the balance this out

Same can be done for Lighting and Cold.

2) Shapeshiting can also solve problems when it comes to niche builds that require a build enabling unique. (I have the discussion in mind when people were complaning that Low Life builds require Shavronne's Wrappings and Solaris Lorica didn't exist yet)

Turns the character into some kind of energy thingy
[+] Chaos Damage does not bypass Energy Shield
[+] 20% more Energy Shield
[+] 50% faster start of Energy Shield recharge
[+] Ghost Reaver (can't think of something to balance this right now)

[-] Can't wear chest armor
[-] (...)


And there certainly is alot more that can be done. I'm out of detailed examples right now but I'll throw out some more ideas that can be discussed:
- When shifting into a specific form your character uses Blood Magic (so auras can be cast before changing)
- Life Leech applies instantly (mentioning that because of the recent discussions about Atziri's Acuity
- Any combinations of increased Life, movement speed, armor, evasion (i.e. base character stats can be tweaked)
- Messing around with charges (more max charges, methods to obtain/spend charges)
- Enabeling some sort of alternating gameplay: Imagine a Buw Puncture character that shoots out a couple of volleys and then changing to finish enemys off
- There are alot of unique mods than can be messed around with

I feel that the possibilities of these skills are endless. And instead of creating new uniques so players can build low budget versions of some builds balance can be done with these skills.

Edited my original post and gave some examples. Hope to get some input here :)

Shape shifting has some similarities to Stances (Offensive, Deffensive, etc, etc...) I'm not against it if GGG wants it.

But looking at your ideas, I'd throw the thought in that if I could turn into an elemental, I'd expect to receive a max resist benefit to one element and perhaps a minus resist penalty to others.


I expected you were going to list Were-Bears/Wolfs/Rats/etc. (Were-Rhoa's?) Which is another topic perhaps.

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Gregoriel escreveu:

Shape shifting has some similarities to Stances (Offensive, Deffensive, etc, etc...) I'm not against it if GGG wants it.

But looking at your ideas, I'd throw the thought in that if I could turn into an elemental, I'd expect to receive a max resist benefit to one element and perhaps a minus resist penalty to others.


I expected you were going to list Were-Bears/Wolfs/Rats/etc. (Were-Rhoa's?) Which is another topic perhaps.

Problem with +max resist is righteous fire. You'd need to have some changes there to balance it out. However, the ideas I listed are very basic. I don't say we need elemental type shapeshifting. I just thought it was a great example of how you could mix existing mechanics together and make something new of it.

The thought process of these shapeshifting stuff started with diablo 2 and the werewolf / werebear (i like the were-rhoa btw!). That's why I listed some other stuff that can be used for shapeshifting skills. The werewolf form in Diablo 2 increased life and movement speed iirc. Again, the reason why I posted these example is not so they could be implemented that way exactly. I just wanna highlight that PoE can benefit from shapeshifting skills.

Bringing this up again :)

Feedback is highly appreciated!