I was actually just thinking this the other day…
Used to play druids and shapeshifters in Neverwinter nights, only questions are how would they play out, how would they fit into each races’ lore, and would they be unique enough a class?
Mechanics would have to be from scratch, as if you’ve ever run around wayfairer’s foothills with the most awesome bug imaginable, you lose access to the ability to move while attacking with your number 1 ability. Same for most form shifts currently in game, but it’s not that difficult to avoid/rectify. The other relavent question here is what are their other abilities? Most classes get 5 skills of a type, such as five signets or five turrets as an engineer. Assuming they follow the same pattern, they would likely have 5 shifts, 5 signets, and then 2 sets of 5 other skills.
Next, what role would it fill? Or, more specifically, what roles would it be best at? A thief is obviously one of your best dps/offensive support, but it is weaker in defensive team support abilities than other classes. Also, given the nature of a shifter, it would most likely wear cloth or leather, meaning you now have 4 classes wearing one type of armor. Weapons are in a similar boat, as it would most likely not have weapon swap (shifting skills would be similar to kits, hopefully), meaning that it would likely have a likewise limited pool of weapons to choose from. That means you’d probably have 3-5 weapons available, and 4-9 combinations with them. Not a bad thing, but something to remember.
Lore-wise, we have a problem. They’d either need to have some new content introducing these guys, or find a way to bs them out of a hodge-podge of sources. Sylvari are a possible source, but the gw2 setting doesn’t have a very strong “nature” power (while you have spirits of the wild and the goddess Melandru, you don’t see a whole lot of direct intervention, with the exception of the norn-shifts). So, given that all races aren’t going to suddenly convert to worshiping the spirits, and a boat isn’t going to appear out of the mists to teach people how to become either aspects of nature or something similar, each race would have to have a different explanation of why they suddenly have this ability and why they never expressed it before (norn excluded).
So, back on target, it seems that if you want to play a shapeshifter in this game, roll a norn and wait 3-4 minutes between fights. It’ll work, don’t worry. ;P
Also, if I am wrong about the nature-power-shiftyness thing lorewise (ie there are forces in place to allow it for all races), say why, and toss me a few links to supporting info, I have read a lot of lore, but that doesn’t mean I know it all. Thank you, and have a nice day.
Asura Engineer- Aelara Fole
