Guild Wars 2

I really enjoy pretending that I’m an earthly shape shifter, such as Diablo 2’s Druid and WoW’s Druid. It’s something that my imagination really thrives on. As of now, none of the professions really cater to my imaginative-fantastical self image; the Necromancer and Elementalist get pretty close, but not as close as a Druid like profession would.

I imagine that a shape shifting profession could would like an Elementalist, such that it would have attunements; but they wouldn’t be called attunements, and they would each be a different form. I imagine it would almost be like being able to switch between all the Norn shape shifting elites, if each one was its own attunement.

Its abilities could be like Engineer kits, whereas they are not tied to the weapon; so, only the shape shifters natural, unshifted, form would have abilities that varied based on weapons.

It could be like the Elementalist in the sense that it provides a lot of variation, with one form being for healing, one form being for tanking, one more being maybe more bursty and mobile. But, a big difference from the Elementalist would be that the shape shifter has very little to no AoE; everything effects or self, or is direct damage to another player. Aesthetics and no AoE would be the big difference from the Elementalist’s mechanics.

I think the Norn Elites are amazing, and so beautiful, but 30 seconds only, and only being able to use one, and such a long cool down is not enough for my imagination to thrive on and build an entire character.

If anyone else shares these sentiments with me, and has some cool ideas, please post! I’d love to hear some ideas about utilities, elites, and traits. We never know, maybe the next Profession released could be a Druid like character!!

Or—— they could actually revise the norn forms.

Any ideas how so?

Love this idea. love shapeshifters. Shifter was an awesome class in Neverwinter nights.

One problem with ‘shapeshifting’ is that if it is not temporary in some way it makes the armour/gear you earn not clearly visible which is one aspect of the game that is enjoyable, and making each armour set somehow fit however many different forms is a lot of unnecessary work.

That being said, I have always loved shapeshifting and if it were to be implemented it would likely be a future ranger elite. (form depends on the pet currently in use, which would be freaking amazing).

alemfi.5107:

Or—— they could actually revise the norn forms.

Dont dare take away my norn stealth and ultra-mega-super-fast speed!
That thing is really useful in so many dungeons and WvW…

A shape shifter would be amazing. Norn forms are the antithes of the combat standard in this game with lack of mobility and feeling clunky. I think the forms should be temporary, like 3 minutes or something so it forces you to keep on your toes in extended battles. I really do miss my WoW druid. I know this isn’t WoW and I could never go back to playing it, but I would love a shape shifter. Like F1-4 could be different forms. This could be the reintroduction to the ritualist even, if you make them spirit forms. Shift into spirit of destruction, creation, ect. As for utilities you could have kit like urns, spread ashes, drop pots. Spirit summons could be 4 other utilities. To keep them different than other summons you could have them like really temporary pets similar to the mist fire wolf where they’re good for one or two attacks. So that’s 8 utilities there. Hmm… then there could be buffs/debuffs in the form of wails (shout like thing) and lastly I would guess some type of signets?

No. This is gw2. No.

They could make it a light armor, magic class that shifts forms for different stat bonuses and/or skills. Requiring a degree of kit swapping. And it would fill a light armor, melee niche. The possibilities are pretty endless with the kit system.

It’s like you’re asking Anet to copypaste Druid from WoW over into this game and name it differently.

I agree, any shapeshifter class shouldn’t just have forms to fill trinity roles since A-net specifically wants to stay away from the trinity. Druids are one of many possibilities that a shapeshifter can be represented as. A GW shapeshifter doesn’t need to have 3 forms to fill trinity roles. Mechanically, elementalists and engineers could have easily been reskinned and called shapeshifters. So there really are more ways to do it than just WoW’s.

The concept of a shapeshifter is great. Unfortunately, I don’t like playing them because all your hard work earning sweet looking custom dyed gear is for nothing when you’re a big naked bear running around. I rolled a Druid in WoW & played her till 30 when you could shift….hated being a giant boring owl all the time. I loved my D2 Druid too but it sucked having cool armor and then just seeing a werewolf all the time.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

It’s like you’re asking Anet to copypaste Druid from WoW over into this game and name it differently.

why not? its interesting concept which isnt in GW2

You guys bring up some good points. The original mention of the trinity in shifted forms was influenced kind of by the tool tips of Elementalist attunements and WoWs Druid; but, Anet is trying to stay away from the trinity. Regardless, there are more ways it could be, that’s a great point. Essentially, I’d just love to have that shape shifting Profression, just for purely aesthetic value. The mechanics are already there with the Elementalist and the Engineer.

I really like the idea of trinity, or just variety like the Ele, so for me that would be awesome; but, a whole new type of Shape Shifter could be really cool. I like a character who can do a little bit of everything, and shifting forms just seems to invite that for me.

Even if I could just have the Norn Elites as utitilies which I could pop in and out of at will, like an Engie with its kits, I’d play it devotedly, even if it was terribly underrated and considered lousy. Or, just heck, give us a new Norn specific class with those elite forms as attunements and I’d be hooked for years.

I get that some people dislike not being able to see their gear; but for me, when being a shape shifter, it’s not about the gear, it’s about the animalistic beast I get to become. There’s also a sense of humility the shape shifter carries for menot being able to show off it’s gear always. But, that’s just me. Yet, there might be others who agree.

I’d like to bring up what I mentioned earlier and hear some opinions on it: the shape shifter being similar to the Elementalist, in shifting attunements mechanics wise, but lacking all AoE, being intentionally built for single target combat. That might even be a fair enough difference to take away attunement cool downs and allow the shifter to pop through forms at will, like an Engie with it’s kits.

Heck, it could be interesting if the shifter didn’t even get to use weapons too, or just got to use something simple like only axe and daggers. And, depending on what types of utilities one picked, it changed some of the moves in the forms – say there’s spirits which provide passive buffs, but also influenced to types of moves in the forms based on the essence and style of that spirit. It could add a lot of fun diversity to the shifter.

Anyways, I’m just type away dreaming now!

Please share your ideas! I’d really love to hear them, and maybe one day they could even be found in the game as a new profession, the product of all our creative thought!!

Really if you can come up with a unique class mechanic that is not already in the game I see no reason it couldn’t be considered. You can theme things a lot of ways. But just having a shapeshifter class to have one is not enough. Flesh out your ideas.

As stated the ele could have been a shapeshifter if they used forms instead of attuments. So creating a shifter with a unique mechanic may be harder but still possible.

Just remember as much as we like certain skills and they do have a theme to them its the class mechanics that bridge every possible build and define the class.

Some random thoughts on this:
If GW2’s norn elites were fixed there’d possibly be a lot less need for this, though switching them would require dropping out of combat.

Diablo 2. Hehehehe. Well, it wasn’t too much of a problem in that case because the armor rarely was interesting. In GW2’s case it can be a problem, but at least you’d know what you signed up for.

Or, you could make the forms use armor (where it makes any sense though, I don’t know what we’re talking about here). Problems arise if they’re not particularly humanoid, but there might be some ways to deal with that… could handle it kind of like town clothes (haha remember those? Ever used them?).