Metamorphosis vs Jalal's Mane

or.houster wrote: 2 years ago

Goggen wrote: 2 years ago

I think the OP here has a major flaw that it seems to assume that Shapeshift = Fury.

Somone allready mentioned Bear+ Maul, but there is also options like Fire Claws and Rabies.

I'm using Metamorphosis on my Fireclaw druid and find it to be a huge damage-buff over Jalal's.
Also, Since Fire Claws also has more AR built into the skill then Fury (and offcourse Infinity-merc) I have no problem with swapping Raven Frost for a BK-ring and that way get the most out of Meta.

Rabies is very bad anyway, I played it with top gear and it sucks(including +3 Rabies base with meta and 49% Bramble).
I can see how fire claw can benefit greatly from Metamorphosis, how did you like the gameplay? Smacking once each time sounds... horrible.
That's why when I play shapeshifter it's always Fury. Fury+geddon is a blast to play.

or.houster wrote: 2 years ago

Rabies is very bad anyway, I played it with top gear and it sucks.
I can see how fire claw can benefit greatly from Metamorphosis, how did you like the gameplay? Smacking once each time sounds... horrible.
That's why when I play shapeshifter it's always Fury. Fury+geddon is a blast to play.

I really loved the gameplay (no Teleport in wolf-form is a bit anoying, but that is off course general for all shapeshifting including Fury).
I went for the wolf-version of Fire Claws which get's me to 7fpa which is decent enough, and the massive total damage done made it feel really great.

Having a lot of the damage come from Armageddon is a big help to the overall gameplay feel, where you can focus on smacking down the closest rather than chase to much, and you can let the AoE do the "clean up" on straglers / outliers etc.

Based on my experiences with the Maul Werebear the Jalal's Mane is great for the playthrough but it is not endgame gear. Metamorphosis is the obvious endgame gear choice in my opinion. Metamorphosis helps you to reach the 6 frame attack speed breakpoint (with the mark of the bear), together with the Faith bow from the act 1 merc. Attack rating is also not a big problem in this setup as the act 1 merc casts Inner Sight which reduces the defence of monsters significantly.

The big downside of Metamorphosis is the need to transform into the werefoms every three minutes to get the buffs from the mark of the wolf/bear. However, the great thing from a Werebear perspective is that the buffs from the mark of the wolf are neglectible (30% bonus to attack rating, 40% bonus to life). As a bear you have a high life pool anyway and the additional attack rating you get is very low. The three minutes duration of the buffs are not suffcient to have a nice gameplay in my opinion, in particular as a Werbear running around and not teleporting. For that reason I am also not a big fan of Battle Orders. With the Werbear I have around ten minutes in wereform, that is all what is needed as a "buff" and totally sufficent for the build I play.