Druidism/evocation shapeshifter: Big numbers!

[Accidental Teamplay]

A while ago, I was disappointed to learn of how few perks (passives in SpellForce lingo) work when shapeshifted, on top of how all you needed to do was pump willpower.

This meant a dedicated shapeshifter couldn't make a very interesting build and had very little to look forward to from level ups. You can have 10 WP at level 1, so why care about stat points? As for skill points, certainly improving your shapeshifts is good, but half of them just go to waste. Well! I've made a build that at least has use for more stat and skill points, for improving the forms, not for making you useful outside them!

At the bottom of the evocation tree we have Tame the Arcane. The third rank of it is called Master the Arcane, and empowers all magic schools. And guess what - shapeshifting is nature magic. You might not need further explanation.

Since MtA for some reason scales with strength, this is what you will be pumping after willpower. As for skill points, you will be spending 7 in druidism for your forms and 12 in evocation: Master the Arcane, 6/6 Evocation (which improves your shapeshifting with each point, AND improves MtA with each point), and three skills to dig your way down the tree. That's 19 in total, and spare ones can be spent on the magic attack aura, immolation (needs three points to become an aura) or the druid aura. When I did this, I left pumping the Evocation perk until last.

The trick with Master the Arcane is as difficult as: Use it and then shapeshift. It will improve your forms by say 50% (damage for cat, health for bear). The exact degree depends on your points in Evocation and empowerment effects. Also you don't lose the effect as the MtA buff wears off as long as you shifted while it was on. Your bear will have over 9000 health.

Going to dedicate this paragraph to "BUT EVOCATION IS DISABLED WHEN I'M SHIFTED!!!!11" remarks =) it's entirely true; Evocation does not help you when you are shifted but it helps you when you are shifting. It makes your shapeshift stronger, and this is easily observed. It also goes for any other empowerment effect you can get from gear. Goodies to pick up:
- Empyrian Ring, if you are Aerev. Take the ability power version. 15% empower
- Crossbowman's Light Armor, if you're a dwarf (mercs should be dwarves). Requires only 2 con to use and you can get two of them. It's from the dwarf in Windholme who lost his hammer. You can get one such armor as the quest reward and then buy another from him. 15% empower
- Light Assault Helmet, bonus inventory of a Cahlabrok merchant. 25% empower
- Ring of Emperors (strength ring is good too), from the Shaiogded quest. +1 Willpower
- Old Mage's Focus, quest reward for getting the Jade Staff. +1 Willpower (and int)
- Amulet of Omnipotence, from a King's Vantage merchant. +1 all stats
- Any ♥♥♥♥ing crossbow whatsoever, in case you ever need a ranged attack or just don't want to risk the AI running your unshifted druid into melee combat.

If Aerev is playing this build, here are three synergies[spellforce.fandom.com] you could consider for when you get the potion choice.

Demonology: Druidism/demonology has a powerful demon shapeshift, and with MtA I made it swing for 3k raw damage. You'll have to give up on your other forms though, because this one scales with constitution and you still want strength for MtA. Or you can just make a druid/demo to begin with and stack constitution and willpower.
Beguilement: You get a huge aura that has a chance of dealing a respectable amount of AoE damage every few seconds. As I played mass shifters this was only interesting for long fights where some/all of us were bears, as cats already have strong AoE, plus it's pointless to hope for this to proc in the very short glass cannon fights that you get when you run in with four cats. Also note it scales with willpower, which you only have 5 of when you are shifted, but the damage is still good.
Defensive Arts: This one is a bit tricky. Scorching Reprisal will not proc in forms, but one point makes Boon abilities scale with intelligence. Since Master the Arcane is a boon, you can stack intelligence and willpower instead of strength and willpower. This means you can be a good spellcaster when not shifted and lets you be a really versatile druid without giving up shapeshifting power, though you don't have all that many spare points to invest in spells. Even if this doesn't interest you, it means you can make full use of the Old Mage's Focus for your normal shapeshifting play. And it will make you not buy WoW Classic because this whole weirdass str/wp build has given you a fetish for "of the Boar" equipment, but now you are cured.

Now, I played this as mass shapeshifters (with Kaiawu), because I like to have themes for my parties, but that's not necessary. That said, shapeshifted druids are powerful, even before messing with the bonuses from the evocation tree. Cats hit really hard and bears take forever to die. I've had a lot of fun with just bull rushing down encounters with four cats, and as four bears I've tanked armies while my own army shot them down. Shapeshifters are strong, but they don't have much utility.

A few tips...

How do I heal a bear with over 9000 health?
You shift it into caster form where it has like 500 health and then heal it, since health percentage is preserved when shifting. Or just have it drink a potion. Then it will shift into a full health bear... after you've endured the 30 second cooldown on shifting into a form you just left =(

These are big numbers. Can we make them even bigger?
If you want to go balls to the wall with stacking empower effects you can create supermonsters, but one simple trick you can do if you have multiple shifters is use the cat's roar (need to max the cat shapeshift to get the ability) to empower other shifters before they shift. You can go really crazy here but I already made one thread about it.

Will my dwarf merc(s) be naked until I get the Crossbowman's Light Armor for them?
You can always go 10 WP -> constitution to look decent out of forms. Strength doesn't help you until level 15, when Master the Arcane becomes available, and you can respec then.

How can I make my characters aesthetically fit the shapeshifting theme?
The cat shapeshift is specifically a cougar, so they should look like fifty year old women.

Master the Arcane is some good ♥♥♥♥...
It is! Any magic ability can be made crazy good with it, you just have to deal with the strength scaling. It is my sincere stance that the strongest melee build is evocation/necromancy, able to deal massive burst[i.imgur.com] with Blood Harvest.

[Dieu-Sama]

I necro this one because it deserves it.

A druidism/Evocation with demo synergy for Aerev completly makes last RTS battles (King's Crossing/Dwarven Uprising/Temple of Light)l and all the endbosses completly trivial on Circle Mage. This is by very, VERY far the most powerful characters you can create in Soul Harvest

With the empyrian ring, the amulet of omnipotence, tribe eater shapeshift lvl 3, 11 constitution, Master the Arcanes with 11 strengh, I end up with a 7000+ hp, high resistances for Circle Mage standards and 3000+ pure dmg dealing shape.

Add the light assault helmet => 9700 hp, 4000+ dmg. I personally don't, I feel their should be a restriction on empower effect : one effect by character, the strongest and that's it. I already feel bad using the ring + Master The Arcane.

The funny thing : MULTIPLE USES OF MASTER THE ARCANES SOMEHOW STACK WITH THEMSELVES. So you don't even use the shenanigans of Accidental Teamplay to do it : just spam Master The Arcanes as much as you like and you can end with 20k hp, 10k dmg dealing tribe eater . . .

[Manwe]

Originally posted by Dieu-Sama:

I necro this one because it deserves it.

A druidism/Evocation with demo synergy for Aerev completly makes last RTS battles (King's Crossing/Dwarven Uprising/Temple of Light)l and all the endbosses completly trivial on Circle Mage. This is by very, VERY far the most powerful characters you can create in Soul Harvest

With the empyrian ring, the amulet of omnipotence, tribe eater shapeshift lvl 3, 11 constitution, Master the Arcanes with 11 strengh, I end up with a 7000+ hp, high resistances for Circle Mage standards and 3000+ pure dmg dealing shape.

Add the light assault helmet => 9700 hp, 4000+ dmg. I personally don't, I feel their should be a restriction on empower effect : one effect by character, the strongest and that's it. I already feel bad using the ring + Master The Arcane.

The funny thing : MULTIPLE USES OF MASTER THE ARCANES SOMEHOW STACK WITH THEMSELVES. So you don't even use the shenanigans of Accidental Teamplay to do it : just spam Master The Arcanes as much as you like and you can end with 20k hp, 10k dmg dealing tribe eater . . .

Can you tell me the statistics you used on your Main? I will test this build soon

[Dieu-Sama]

Wow, blast from the past !

Easy, you start with 10 willpower and the wolf form. The power of your druid shape is dictated by willpower, so you start at "full power" right from the start. Use the wolf form for all the RPG/exploration sections, it will be by far you're biggest asset during the first few level, and absolutely the most powerful character you can have at low level. Don't forget you have an AoE melee attackk of wolf as an active ability, use it.

Focus on upgrading duidism first, you'll want the bear form for RTS battle : little power but big tanking ability with debuff on the side

For the rest : pump strength to 10 for ultimately use the last evocation skill to it's max potential, for the rest of your ability point just pump intelligence for the evocation aura, which is great to have with shape.

But unlocking the true power of the build is to unlock via a side quest the third synergy with demonism, which enable the Tribe Eater shape, but it's around 2/3 of the main quest.

[Accidental Teamplay]

Indeed a blast from the past =)

Grimlore patched it so that shapeshifts don't scale solely with willpower anymore. Willpower gives health, and IIRC the highest of str/dex/int gives damage.

Also if you want more satisfying shapeshifting check out my mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2811684049

I stopped updating it long ago but it has major changes for shapeshifting:
* Most passives work while shapeshifted
* Two more abilities while shifted
* Shifting is instant

Check out https://pastebin.com/0fJKR3My with a search for ### SHAPESHIFTING UPDATES to read it all.