"Berserker" The Bear-Shifter Mage - Dragon Age Origins
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ย. 2024
- Is Shapeshifter a failed Specialization???
For the longest time, I thought that...
Still, the idea behind this specialization intrigued me so much, that I was willing to give it another shot. It turned out that with a few tweeks, this spec can turn your mage into a Nightmare viable killing machine!
Here's hoping da4 will have this level of freedom and customization...and its time for another playthrough
Hell yeah!
It would be amazing to see the shapeshifter spec revived in DA4. The potential it could have now would be just awesome.
Inquisition felt like a step back in the right direction, but it's a tough outlook when you have key writers of the original being let go.
Here's hoping it doesn't go full Andromeda...
In the meantime, there's a healthy amount of fan-crafted content on nexusmods, that have restored cut content, and even expanded the roster of classes and specialization for a brand new experience!
I really hope the bring back shapeshifter as a specialisation in DA4. Even better, Morrigan as a playable companion AND shapeshifter 🕷 🐻 🐝
I know this is an old video, but I just had to say. Thank you for the inspiration! This inspired me to do a nightmare shapeshifter run and it was awesome! I focused on the hex tree and anti mage spells and using passives while in mage form to basic be a basic attack demon with a staff. I pumped magic and took Arcane warrior to be able to use a greatsword. It was an amazing rp experience and made me feel like I was playing the game again for the first time. So I just wanted to say thank you so much for all the work you put into your videos I love learning about all the neat little mechanics of this game and the crazy and fun ways you can use them! 🎉
I am glad you had fun! :)
And here I am, back again with reports from the field!
I've tried this build for a couple of days and I met an interesting glitch or twink - if you use Overwhelm on any enemy, that is not "overwhelmable", instead your attack animation cancels, and you make your next attack faster. This works consecutively, so you basically can increase your attack speed for this enemies, whose are many (dragons, demons, animals, ents ogres etc.).
Also I decided to stay with all-strength build, because I am not sure about Agility working in calculation of paws damage)
Thanks again for the idea!
I know this is an old vid, but I've replaying DA2 and DAI and just think it would be funny if the Hawke and the Inquisitor asked about this version of HoF.
Anders, Alistair, and Leliana remembering him denying he is a mage while Cullen remembering him doing a lot of push ups and gettting swole
My favourite Shifter build is the "immortal" Flying Swarm glitch mage (perhaps not a "legal" build, but it's just so much fun, to troll nightmare difficulty for once). Flying Swarm has some broken effects, when cast while under the effect of Anti-Magic Ward - it gives all of the passive effects, while retaining a normal form. Awesome, right? But wait, there's more - the character still takes mana damage, rather than health damage, and continues to do so, even when mana gets depleted, because the character does not undo the transformation (since they were never transformed in the first place...), making the character practically unkillable, unless dispelled, which nullifies the effect.
Me: There's no way someone found a way to make this class work.
*searches youtube*
Holy... Bless the maker I didnt expect anyone to do it! You absolute mad lad! And from the looks of it, this isnt your only build for this game! Now we know the true reason the chantry tries to keep mages in check, they are secretly MUCH stronger then them hahaha
Hah! True! Most of the magic known to the Chantry belongs to the playground called the "Circle". If you want to unlock its true potential, you have to go outside and discover it on your own.
Kind of like the game, where you have to invest in stats that normally would not do well for a mage to make a spec work right. :)
This build is very well done. I am excited to try this build out next time I play Dragon Age: Origins
Thank you! I'm glad you like it! :)
On the Loghain fight it woulda been funny to hear people watching in the gallery go "WTF!!" That would be a hell if thing to see for the first time. Dude changes into a raging Bear rt in front of them
Must've been a shocking thing for the Landsmeet to witness Loghain get mauled by a Bear
This is an incredible video and the ending is the icing on the cake.
Thanks! :)
Nice, this kind of thing is what makes RPG's great
wow always a pleasure to see you update thank you for this!
Thank you!
Always a pleasure reading comments like yours! :)
Bruh, these builds, man... They are so freaking creative, like you made the most weakest specialization the best! Bro, you deserve a like and a subscriber.
Good video also! No, wait, a great video.
Thank you very much! :)
11:43 BY THE MAKER!
You made Loghain look like he had *no* gains. 🥶
Quite literally #builtdifferent
I was hoping the shape shift ability was better when playing the game. This definitely looks like fun and worth trying out.
Really good build and video. Reminds me a lot of the Druid from WoW.
Edit: now that I think of it, this might be the tank that can go toe-to-toe on threat with my dexterity archer....
Thanks! :)
Don't.
Dont make me go back...
Playing DA:O?
I hope I just did... :)
I remember i made a pretty op shapeshifter back in the day.
I only used the swarm shape shift, obtained 100% dodge through gear with arcane warrior.
Prioritized fire res, mana regen, then other resistances.
If i took damage my mana regen would kick in while i kite what ever im fighting.
I also levelled magic and mana evenly.
Was it optimal? Probably not. Did it work? Yes!
I actually used Morrigan as a tank in swarm form. She is pretty hard to beat with 100% dodge and magic res(max WP - Cailan's arms, Andurils Belt for mana regen), especially if Wynne is in the team giving non-stop Rejuvenation/Mass Rejuvenation for her. You can pick up Leliana too with her Song of Valor. It is next to impossible to kill Morrigan this way. :)
The only problem is getting her to turn into a swarm. But usually she can finish it without being interrupted.
@@AKisHerceg nice! Yeah i solo’d the game this way, but Wynne with support and haste + Leliana would make it unbeatable (:
The one problem I have trying to set the build up: I don’t have a lot of the gear you use, since it requires you to beat certain stories in certain ways in order to get them. I doubt the build would be as good without this stuff.
Naturally, with better gear the build is going to be better. But it works with lesser gear as well. The robe, the rings and the amulet are all purchasable, so all they require is gold. The boots require the Return to Ostagar dlc, the belt requires the Witch Hunt dlc. The weapon requires the completion of three main quests. But you can use any good two-handed weapon and the build will work with it.
This looks so much fun, I kind of want to try it for myself now.
Finally, a build for Morrigan
Somewhat off-topic but Shapeshifter is great if you don't mind glitches and want to become invincible xD good ol' anti-magic ward and swarm form woo!
Yeah, I mentioned that glitch in the video. :)
It's weird that this never got a fix. I guess it remained so that people can go through the game while invincible lol.
I always used to use swarm form on Morrigan to go fly to some archers and disrupt them
Wow! A beary good build!
Haha! :)
Here's your Boo Boo
If you feel short on Ideas for Dragon age: Origins builds, I'll give you 2, both of which I'm doing myself right now -
Quadruple warrior archer champion team
2h rogue (i mean, they animated backstabs for greatswords for some reason, so let's take those puppies for a ride).
Yeah, they sound nice! :)
I often use Leliana and Nathaniel as two-handed rogues, because I just love how the 2h sword looks on them. Plus it's always nice to do something you are not supposed to. :)
I am currently making a video about a group of Blood-Necromancers! I am already done with the playthrough, so all that is left is to show the build. :)
@@AKisHercegSpeaking of 2h rogue, how which specializations would you pick for warden? Duelist for active abilities? Bard for more cunning payoff? Or ranger to make use of stealth more reliably in solo? Assassin does sound like a default pick.
@@dmitrygolubev9398 You can never go wrong with Duelist, so I usually use that for the sustainable ability and the auto-crit skill. This is the number one pick for my 2h rogues.
Assassin is also great, Mark of Death plus the passives. So coupling these two is great for a pure backstab rogue warden.
Bard also works. You can have some nice buffs and a way to disorient enemies.
Since you go for 2h you need to boost your Strength. Strength will be the main attribute you dump your points on for more damage(dex will not increase it since that only works with daggers). You can try boosting cunning with Lethality after you have enough strength to equip your gear, but I prefer just boosting strength more, since I already placed quite a few points into it. 2h weapons are pretty heavy. :)
I usually don't pick Ranger with the 2h rogues, but it will work fine since if you go for pure backstab with the few skills you can use from the rogue tree, stamina will not be a problem.
The rest of the skills are Below the Belt, Dirty Fighting and Deadly Strike. Stealth for me is optional. Sometimes I want to use it sometimes I go without it. :)
In Awakening, the best is to go for Legionnaire Scout if you don't use Stealth and Shadow if you do.
Very cool to see a shapeshifting build that actually works very well - kudos! I have a couple of questions regarding equipment:
1. Given your massive strength, wouldn't it be better to equip something like Evon the Great's Mail or Battledress over reaper's vestments? It's true that it would drop your spell resist a little, but it would also give good armor, evasion, and the opportunity to use armor runes in Awakening for big bonuses.
2. Would it be better to use the First Enchanter's Cowl at endgame for the +10% dodge chance?
Thanks, and once again, great job!
Thanks! :)
Personally, I like sticking to my equipment all throughout the main game and the dlcs. So I almost always keep it the way it is.
The FEC is really great for this build, but you get it so late in the game, I just did not bother to change it, since I basically completed the game without it. But yes, you could change it if you want to.
Yes, you can use any armor you want with it, including Evon's Mail. Thing is, you really need the magic res though, so you better get something that gives you a huge amount, because otherwise you will be kicked out of your form pretty consistently. Dispel can come the worst possible time... Enemies able to remove your form include: Uldred or Pride Demons, Gaxkang or Arcane Horrors, Templars, Caladrius and other Blood Mages, mages in the Fade etc. None of these will be fun to play against if you will get knocked out of your form, so I went with the Reaper's Vestment. :)
@@AKisHerceg Good to know - thanks for the info! Also, I like how lore-appropriate some of the gear is, like the Chasind great maul and Veshialle given Chasind and Dalish connections with shapeshifting.
Pardon me, but i believe it should be called "BEARserker" not just "Berserker"
I thought about that when I named it but Berserker comes from the old norse and it literally means Bear Skin so I did not complicate it. :)
@@AKisHerceg oh, didn't know about that :o
@@AKisHerceg Heyyy! You know your stuff.
I was about to comment this, but you got it.
@@clabajea Berserkers were literally shapeshifters that took on the spirit of either a Wolf or Bear. They'd wear these animal's skins, then do a Shamanic ritual before battle to become "possessed" by the spirit of that animal.
You could say it’s a “bearserker”
Missed opportunity
Fun fact, the word "berserk" comes from old norse and it literally means "bear skin" or "bear shirt"
@@dannyboy2875 Yup, that is why I called it Berserker. :)
Plus in the Witcher 3 you have the Berserker warriors who can turn into bears.
@@dannyboy2875 real question, why don't we have a the more you know star emoji
Oh, this is beautiful, the army of bears attacking...GLORIOUS! I hope DA4 will have shapeshifting and for it to be more akin to druids. Sort of like Baldurs Gate 3, where once the animal form reaches 0 hp he just ends up in his human form with his normal health pool.
Wow! Now that sound cool! And a bit op. :)
@@AKisHerceg Yup nothing bad with that hehe and I do believe they need to rework the class if they ever bring it back. Only the bear being viable is a bit annoying when all the forms should have a certain advantage.
@@lordmarwolaeth4570 Well, actually they all have their strengths and weaknesses. So all of them are viable, but not in every situation. :)
The bear obviously is great at high damage and being a tank.
The spider is fast with high dps, but it has pretty useless abilities. Still, its fast attack speed with enough dodge can have some decent results when you go against small crowds with small health. It can kill them faster than the Bear.
The Flying Swarm is pretty op. It gains 50% dodge and 100% missile deflection. It leeches life and it does not take life damage, only mana damage when it gets hit. This is why it is good to use it with a Blood Mage, since it can quickly regenerate health. It has an area effect nature damage(which can be coupled with the Blood Mage's Blood Wound for nice aoe damage). However the nature damage is very low, and it also has a pretty bad fire resistance penalty.
You can use all of the forms in certain situations, but in my opinion the Bear is the only one that you can use in almost every situation. :)
I have been planning to do a Shapeshifter that uses all forms effectively, but the problem comes with the attribute distribution. The Bear and the Spider deals physical damage, so high strength is great, but the Flying Swarm uses Magic to improve the aoe damage. More mana is more beneficial for the FS, more health is better for the Spider and the Bear.
So yeah, it is a bit harder to min max a character like this. :)
Have you found a way to make the wolf or the spider work? Great video by the way. I'm currently doing my 20th playthrough of Origins or something stupid like that and I decided to do a Hexer/Shapeshifter build. I plan to use AoE spells when facing large crowds of enemies but switch to a melee animal when fighting bosses or isolated enemies. I searched for youtube videos for Shapeshifter builds and, beside rejoicing that people still make videos about this game, your video has convinced me that my idea of a hybrid build with Shapeshifter may actually work. It may not be "optimal" but the cool thing about combat in Origins is that the key to master combat is really just a literacy test (mostly reading spell descriptions and item descriptions). As long as most of your characters in your party have the right stats, the right abilities and the right items, you can deviate from "mathematical" optimal builds and go in all sorts of directions while still be able to play on Nightmare. This offers an amazing replayability value to the game, as you can make any Specialization work even if they are inferior to other options. I remember playing Inquisition on Nightmare and having to spam barrier 24/7 with TWO MAGES during every single encounter on Nightmare + all of the optimal difficulty settings like healing pots healing for 1 hp, etc, and it wasn't fun at all (among other issues that game has...). Anyway, have a good day, cheers.
Thanks! I am glad you enjoyed the video! :)
In Origins, you can only become 3 forms: Bear, Spider and Flying Swarm. So sadly there is no "wolf"(otherwise it would be pretty cool to make a build around a "werewolf" character, and it would be similar to this Berserker).
Your idea is very solid! Hexes could work very well with the Flying Swarm(continuous aoe nature damage around you, small, but with hexes it can be very powerful).
So the combat would look like this: You cast Misdirection Hex on someone who hits hard, then Death Hex on someone who has a lot of health(or just the target who you want to get rid of the fastest), you turn into a bear or spider(they are very similar, but bear has more health and armor, spider attacks faster)and attack the enemies. When your health is sufficiently low(let's say 50%), you leave the form and cast Glyph of Repulsion around you, so that no enemy can interrupt your casting and turn into the Flying Swarm to suck back your health and "swarm" your enemies with nature damage. Of course before you turn into the swarm, you cast Affliction Hex(gives an aoe curse that lowers the resistance of the target and everyone else around the target) on one of the Elite or Boss enemy(it is good to cast Affliction to enemies with higher health since they go down slower, so the curse can be more effective against the enemies following the boss).
This could be quite fun. For maximum damage, you should invest your points into Strength and Magic. Very little to Willpower and Constitution.
You should use the equipment in this video, but you can choose a staff, because your strength will be a bit lower so your attack will be less and with a staff, you always hit. I think with this build you could even solo the game, since the "can't heal" aspect has been solved by switching into the swarm! :)
@@AKisHerceg You're right there is no wolf form in DAO; I got confused with the Ranger specialization (I think it's because of the Blight Bear featured in your video reminding me of the Blight Wolf that master Rangers can summon lol). I've also downloaded a mod that allows me to cast Shapeshifter spells very fast to make the combat a lot more fluid like engaging a group of enemy as a bear for exemple, but then spotting a few archers sniping my Healer (Morrigan forever!) from afar, quickly reverting back to human form, cast Sleep on them and then very quickly shapeshift into a Spider. I think this is going to be great.
@@Mitia_k Nice! Have fun! :)
@@AKisHerceg Hey there, I can confirm that the mod that reduces the channel time of shapeshifting spells is a must. It makes combat so much more exciting. Cast some hexes and glyph, turn into a swarm of insects and go super fast towards the enemy back line, turn back into human form, cast a quick offensive spell then immediately turn into a bear and Overwhelm the highest priority target. If you use any mods, I highly recommend that one.
The bearserker mage
you, on the other hand, little one, might be a better student. you let go of the human form years ag (the demon bear in the fade at the start of the mage origin) i always wanted to try shapeshifter without blood magic, i might try this but first i need to play awakening and the other two story dlcs for the first time before i jump into something like this.
It is a pretty unique experience going through the game as a bear. I think my character could teach a few tricks to Sloth haha!
And of course, you should play Awakening and the rest of the dlcs! They are almost as good as the main game and they offer new talents and equipment. Unless I sacrifice my character(which does not happen often), I never leave them out. :)
Plus ther Amgarrak dlc has one of the most challenging part out of all DA games and dlcs. The Harvester fight. I consider it the ultimate test of your build. Everything is just so overpowered around you. :)
Is it possible to male this build by dumping agility instead of strenght and use two knives? This will provide better survivability via armor class (or defense stat) and you can use a knive with +30% to dodge. You can add this to 42 points of strength (or 42 of magika and Warrior - mage specialiization) for best equipment
Your damage comes from your main hand weapon. So double knives are not really ideal, since the off hand weapon will be completely ignored(if you want to use a knife, go for a shield instead). As far as I can tell there is no knife with 30% dodge. The only knife with dodge is from Awakening, not the main game, and it gives 25% - Voice of Velvet.
Dex will not hit as hard as str because the base damage of a dagger is less than half of the any two handed weapon.
It is definitely doable I think, but you are more of a tank character than a damager that way. :)
@@AKisHerceg thanks for answer!
Yes, i was referring this dagger, my mistake)
As for tankiness - i like to play solo nigthmare runs and i was interested in making of "no-magika" mage, and i will try this strat as soon, as i can!
Hell yea beast mode!!
Haha! I like that!
Ezek miatt a videók miatt tegnap megvettem az Origins-t :D törtben volt meg régebben, amint kivittem rendelem a DA 2-őt is.
Az Inquisition pedig alap hogy meglegyen. :D
A második részről tervezel csinálni valamilyen videót?
Origins "alapabb" mint az Inquisition. :)
Meg nem tudom. Mostanában gondolkodtam rajta hogy felrakom, bar emlekszem nem igazán tetszett anno mikor kijött úgyhogy nem sok idot toltottem vele(de azert kivittem parszor, de a dlck nelkul mert akkor meg nem jottek ki hozza, igen ilyen regen jatszottam vele XD ). Talán itt az ideje hogy újra elővegyem. :)
@@AKisHerceg nekem az Inquisition volt az első DA játékom azért alap nekem :)
Aztán a 2. részt vittem ki mivel érdekelt Hawk története :D
( ja visszafele haladtam xd)
Mindenesetre ha előveszed a másodikat várom a vidiket :D
Hey, if bear damage scales from strength, isn't staff just straight up better than any melee weapon because of 100% accuracy (staves can't miss and can't crit unless ability has a forced crit built into it, like slam) and ridiculous armor penetration? Yeah, you will lose some strength to be able to carry one, but you are still going to get some magic stats from the mage tower and your gear, might as well out them to good use.
I tried it with a staff(avg dps from the auto attacks was around 80-90 with the maul it was around 100-120 not counting the crits) and although the "always hit" feature is great, you will never hit as hard as you would with the maul or the axe. They are stronger, the maul also comes with great AP(plus you always run Telekinetic Weapons anyway, since you can't run any other weapon enchantment so the staff's AP does not really give you much advantage) and you can crit with both(which happens quite a lot with the axe because of its added crit chance and you top that with your bard's Song of Courage, and you will pretty much crit after every 4-5 hit with each crit doing 200+ damage... that dps is pretty hard to beat, even if you never miss with the staff). Plus I always set my mage to put Heroic Offense on me, which will greatly boosts my attack, so I rarely miss anyway.
Losing strength for me was not an option since the bear is such a powerhouse of damage, I really wanted to maximize its output. Putting points into magic for a character that does not cast spells, is just a waste in my opinion.
But you can try it with the staff(especially if you go without a team), it certainly works, not doing as much damage as it would do with the melee weapons I selected, but it can still be quite consistent with the output because of the auto hit ability. I just dislike the less damage and the fact that you can't crit, because a crit on a full strength build is amazing and it will give you some very impressive numbers. :)
Well if you chosen subclass arcane warrior with his passive to convert spellpower to strength you will take double bonus when you shapeshift... From spellpower to increase shapeshift stats plus strength to wear heavier armor... Also in shapeshift form you don't benefit from haste so why don't use stave as weapon to have more armor penetration
Have you researched this? Because I tested this, and this is not true: First off, the Arcane Warrior has no passive skills that would convert SP into STR. If it would have that would solve a lot of issues. But it does not have.
The AW has a sustainable ability, the Combat Magic, that will transform your Magic stat into STR. It does not use SP, it uses your Magic attribute(SP is used only as your Attack rating). And since it is a sustainable ability, it needs to be activated(the only thing that does not need to be turned on are the requirements for equipment - they will use MAGIC passively instead of STR). In any shapeshifting form, every sustainable ability will be turned off. So any MAGIC based damage boost you would get from CM will be completely nullified, since the mode will be turned off. So AW in this case is completely useless, aside from the small attack boost that comes with the Specialization.
Feel free to test this yourself.
A staff is also a good weapon for the build, but personally, I prefer having critical hits. With a staff, you have no chance of having crits, hence I did not use it. The maul also deals more damage, and since I really don't need my hits to be auto-hit since I have Wynne/Morrigan casting non-stop Heroic Offense on me, plus I have a huge amount of Attack since I went full STR. So I can have a lot more damage this way and I don't sacrifice accuracy.
If this would be a solo build, I would go for a staff for the auto-hit, but I planned this as a team based build, so I prefer to use melee weapons with it.
@@AKisHerceg Your magic stat raise your spellpower it tell it as information when you allocate your attribute points... And also raise your strength if you have AW even with combat magic closed so double benefit... Test it on your arcane warrior archer and close combat magic... You don't see big difference
Did you delete your comment? Or was it TH-cam? YT has a tendency of removing comments as spam, but I have it in my mailbox, so can I respond to what you said:
"From dragon age wiki (While this mode is active, the arcane warrior channels magic inward, trading increased fatigue for an attack bonus and the ability to use Spellpower to determine combat damage. Aura of Might and Fade Shroud improve the effects. Additionally, regardless of whether the mode is active, an arcane warrior who has learned this spell may use the magic attribute to satisfy the strength requirement to equip higher-level weapons or armor.) It says if you have mode inactive you can still wear heavy armor... And 2nd your magic stat raise your spellpower and converted into strength from dragon wiki too"
The description is wrong about attack damage being based on SP. That is based on your magic attribute. You can check the Dragon Age Wiki if you don't believe me. Here is a quote from the wiki: "In the description it is said that Spellpower is used to determine weapon damage, in reality the Magic attribute is used."
So both the wiki, and I are saying the same thing. You damage is based on your magic attribute.
It's actually easy to test this: just activate Spell Might and see if your damage gets improved or not. Spell Might gives a huge boost to your Spellpower but it will not increase your Magic - hence you will not see any increase in damage. So Spellpower does not increase damage at all. The description is wrong.
As I said, the mode does not need to be active to "satisfy strength requirements". But this does not mean that you don't need to have the mode active to get the damage boost based on your magic. You can test this yourself. Get a melee weapon and activate Combat Magic. Look at your damage, then de-activate Combat Magic and look at your damage again. You should see the difference. So the damage boost will not work if the mode is not active, hence it is useless for a Shapeshifter. It does not matter if you can wear heavy armor or not if your damage is lame, the build will not work.
Spellpower will never gonna be converted into Strength with Combat Magic. That is an error in the description. Your Spellpower will be converted into your Attack rating. This is easy to test by the way: just look at your stats while Combat Magic is active. Do you see any boost in your STR? You will not.
So let's go through it again: Combat Magic will convert your SP into your Attack, it boosts your damage based on your Magic attribute, and passively turns STR requirements on items into Magic.
None of this is useful for a Shapeshifter who wants to deal decent damage.
The problem with a Magic based Shapeshifter is that you have no control over your attributes if you let Spellpower determine your stats. This will result in a totally ineffective character. You can check the stats for a Spellpower based form on the wiki. Arcane Warrior does absolutely nothing to fix this issue.
@@pazioulhsgewrgios8669 Magic does increase Spellpower, but that is not the question here.
You stated that SP raises your SRT passively as an Arcane Warrior which is NOT TRUE.
"arcane warrior with his passive to convert spellpower to strength "
So this is absolutely false. Not sure what else to say here. Your Spellpower does not raise your STR as an AW. Period.
The only thing Combat Magic does passively is turning STRENGHT REQUIREMENT INTO MAGIC. So it is useless for a melee focused Shapeshifter who wants to deal decent damage.
And since for the Arcane Warrior, Combat Magic needs to be active to get the damage bonus from the Magic attribute, this is also useless for a Shapeshifter because you will loose every sustained ability once you transform.
Not sure how to make this any more clear.
Is it possible to have a good Shapeshifter build without making it the entire focus of the character? I am playing Dragon Age: Origins for the first time, and I'm level 9 now. I really like the idea of Shapeshifter and it would fit my character's story (I'm romancing Morrigan and she teaches it to you). All the guides say Shapeshifter is terrible and not to use it, which is a bummer, so I haven't chosen it for my first specialization. I figured I would be Spirit Healer instead, but I still haven't unlocked any other specializations yet! I'm playing as a human mage, so the majority of my points are in Magic/Willpower.
Is it possible to pull off a mage who focused on magic first, and can Shapeshift when necessary? That's how I would play it. The only Shapeshifter builds I've seen are builds like yours for dedicated shifters, which look fantastic, but since I already built my character with magic in mind, it seems like this option wouldn't be available to my character.
Also, thanks for this video. Even if I end up not making my character a Shapeshifter, I definitely want to build a mage like this in a future playthrough, and your guide would be essential for doing so. Fantastic work here!
Thank you! :) I never actually saw a dedicated shifter build for this game. Everyone ignores the Shapeshifter because it is indeed garbage. The best I was able to find is the silly glitch that would break the game and make you invulnerable. Basically Anti-Magic Ward, then Flying Swarm form. Flying Swarm actually works well with the Blood Mage spec, because it leeches back health and loses mana when it takes damage. As you know Blood Magic uses blood instead of mana, so shifting between the two can be a fun gameplay. Other than this, no. There is no way to make Shapeshifter better for a normal mage. Spirit Healer is vastly superior.
Did you try this build on the vanilla version, or have you used mods? IIRC, the effect that spellpower is supposed to have on Shapeshifter skills is bugged in the vanilla game, and you need mods to have spellpower influence the damage you do...
This is Vanilla Ultimate Edition. :)
No idea if its bugged or it was designed this way, but even with colossal SP your form will be trash when it comes to damage. According to the table on the wiki(I tested this, and it looks like it is working as intended), at 250 spellpower the Bear gets 65 STR(this governs your damage as a bear and it does improve by increasing your spellpower so it does not look like a bug), 65 DEX and 81 CONS. This is a horrendous stat distribution by any metric if you try to build a damager. What on earth would you need 81 Constitution for? It seems that they really designed this form to be a tank and nothing else - which is unacceptable if you ask me. So I actually don't think it's a bug, but instead just terrible design.
So I decided to bypass spellpower and boost strength for my damage. Stacking STR is a much more reliable method since it will directly boost your damage in Bear form. You don't need stupidly high CONS to be tanky, especially with proper support. So I can just boost STR and get huge damage which will improve the gameplay tremendously. Especially with a good melee weapon. In my opinion, this is the only viable way to shift(into a melee monster) without mods. The devs really messed up the stats of this form. But the spider is even more messed up lol.
I'm using this build right now and I must say it is a barrel of fun. However, I've encountered one issue: The fact that mages have the lowest base physical. attack score of any class. When paired up with other melee characters, this is rarely a problem as flanking bonuses tend to compensate. But when fighting alone in melee, I find myself missing well over half of the time. This shortcoming becomes painfully apparent when in the Fade during the Broken Circle quest.
Possible solutions:
1. Rely on damage dealing spells. While weaker than spells from normal mages, it's betting than missing.
2. Using a staff. Lower attack power and no critical hits, but it never misses. Again, better than missing all the time.
3. Boosting attack score, either directly or indirectly, via equipment. The Battledress of the Provoceteur (sp?) and the Helm of Honnleath appear to be options early on. They're both from DLC, however.
PS: If you choose to use the Spider Form, Dexterity helps with Poison Spit and Web. If you're going to go straight Bear, however, stick with Strength.
If you aren't playing solo, a good team setup to counteract this problem would be a Champion with Rally (+10 Attack), a mage with Heroic Offense (+15 Attack with 50 Spellpower) and a Bard with Song of Courage (+7 Attack with 50 Cunning). That'll give you a decent boost to Attack that equates to around 60 points of Strength or Dexterity.
Watching a Bear go toe to toe with a Dragon doesn't seem realistic. Funny
Seriously you beat a crap out of da games impresissive.........
Thanks! :)
Great, now want to replay this game again...
And Oghren is wearing here a mage robe, are you doing it on purpose?)
Mission accomplished then!
I placed that on him just for fun. I like doing things like that. Placing robes on warriors and heavy armors on rogues and mages etc. Stuff they are not supposed to wear. It's so out of place and refreshing for me. :)
Speaking about robes and clothes for warriors... in my next video, Oghren will literally wear nothing else but the Commoner Clothes(or ragged clothes not sure, maybe I got it from Sten or the dog found it lol), he barely has any skills, and yet he will stay alive and help me out a lot. Can you guess what build can make this possible? :)
Oh, I've got a question - is Spider auto-attack damage same as bears? I know that for most things Bear form is better - more armor, more health, better abilities and more hits on overwhelm, but is damage scaling from strength the same? If it is, there is in thing that spider would be better at - DPS, since spider's attacks speed is higher.
No, it is not. Especially when the Bear activates Rage, which gives bonus to Strength. Spider has less damage, less health, less armor but attacks faster. I guess this is the way they balanced the two forms.
Plus I find most of the spider abilities kind of useless. Web fails most of the time, Poison Spit does too little damage.
That is why I picked the bear. :)
How about Mage Archer?? 🤣
An old video of an old game but damn is it good. Always find myself coming to it. Never made a shapeshifter due to how bad they were so i thought id give this a go. Does anybody who has tried this have trouble with actually hitting ? Because i seem to be missing 75% of the time, and this guide never mentions putting points into dex for hit chance… unless it is somehow different because I’m a mage ? Both auto attacks and slam (especially slam).
Thanks! :)
There is zero reason to boost Dex. When you are wielding melee weapons, your Attack will be boosted by Strength as well, not just Dex. Your chance to hit is based on your Attack. Dex gives the exact same amount of Attack as Strength(which is 0.5 per 1 attribute point), but it gives no additional damage to two-handed melee weapons(or full-sized one handed weapons). Dex only gives damage bonus to bows and daggers.
Sadly, for mages, your Attack is not displayed on the character screen, but you can calculate your Attack: Mages have a basic Attack score which is 50. Then you multiply your Strength attribute by 0.5 - 10. Since our total STR is 89, then this looks like this: (89 - 10) * 0.5 = 39.5. So our Attack is 89.5. Which is why at the end you can miss quite a bit, since enemies tend to have around 90-100 defense.
This is why Wynne or Morrigan should definitely use Heroic Offense on you non-stop. The Attack bonus from Heroic Offense is calculated from the caster's Spellpower. (100+SP)*0.1. My Morrigan has 62 SP, so it looks like this: (100+62)*0.1=16.2.
So with her Heroic Offense we have a total of 105.7 Attack.
With our Rage ability enabled, we get another 5 Attack, because it gives 10 Strength, so we end up having 110.7 Attack at the end. Which should make us hit pretty consistently.
If you are still having trouble hitting, specialize Alistair(or Sten or Oghren, depending on who you bring) into a Champion, and make sure he uses Rally. This gives another 10 to our attack(120.7). Leliana can also help you out with Song of Courage which gives Attack bonus to the party based on her Cunning attribute. It gives a minimum of 3 so our total attack can be around 124, which already counts as very good.
@@AKisHerceg wow thanks dude, I was going to bin this play through off but I think I’ll keep going based on what you’ve said, thanks a lot :)
is it true the spider overwhelm is the only one that can crit? if so could a spider build be even more burst damage on elites. with a mage casting auto crit spell and spider overwhelm? can you pull this off with other forms? or is the bear the only one you find viable?
I'm playing the Ultimate Edition. Nothing can crit with the Overwhelm skill. Even with Death Hex applied on the target.
I don't like the Spider because it's "Bear light". Lower health, lower armor, lower damage. This is a pretty lame exchange for a slight attack speed boost.
The Bear also has a massive auto-crit skill(Slam), and a Berserk-like Rage ability to boost damage(STR which is basically damage and attack with that build).
The Spider has Web, which gets resisted half the time, and it won't hold enemies for long, not even Elites, let alone Bosses. A useless Poison Spit(it would be good if you could spam it, and it would stack, but it does not and it has a 15 sec cooldown), and a good Overwhelm(it's still weaker than the Bear's).
So basically, the Spider is viable for fun, or role-playing(Spider Man lol), but the Bear is better in almost every way.
Thank you for your content and your community engagement. You are the goat.@@AKisHerceg
Damn. After looking how fast it dealt with the harvester i must say this build is OP.
How does this build work for the early game? Trying to recreate it, but at lvl 9 I'm hitting a wall. Bear form until lvl 20 for mastershifter, right?
From the beginning you have to boost nothing but STR as far as attributes are concerned. Get any weapon you want: you can get weapon and shield and two handed on switch if you want. Use Herioc Offense to boost your attack, Heal when your health is low and Rock Armor for extra protection. You can wear armor since your STR is gonna be high, so if you add Rock Armor to that, your armor is going to be plenty.
So you have good attack great armor and the ability to heal - this is you melee mage form.
At level 7 pick the Spider, and switch between that form and the melee mage, whichever is the easier for you.
At level 9 you pick up the bear, and you are good to go! Bear gives extra armor and health, plus Slam and Rage - Slam is auto-crit knockdown, and Rage is extra damage and attack. Make sure you pick up Heroic Offense and Heal for Morrigan, and from there, just follow what you see in the video - keep boosting STR and get the items you need to complete the build. Pick up Flying Swarm and finally Master Shapeshifter.
Master Shapeshifter will increase the effectiveness of your Bear form, and it gives Overwhelm to your skills. Now you are pretty much unstoppable as long as you let mages heal you and boost your attack. :)
@AKisHerceg you are legend! Thankyou so much!!
Why not use Ancient Elven Gloves? More spell resistance.
That is a good choice!
Super!
Can you please say what's the song you used at 2:32? I can't find it anywhere and Shazam isn't helping
Edit: btw, your ranger guide gave me so much joy) My shifty queen Cousland thanks you for that build personally
Looking forward to trying this one as a new "off-canon" run
Glad to hear it! :)
The song is the Grey Warden Legacy. Just type this into YT search: The Grey Warden Legacy - Dragon Age: Origins Soundtrack. It will be the first result. At least for me it is.
I've been having fun with this but when I chose Arcane Warrior at level 14 and picked the first talent it cut my weapon damage in half. Did that happen to you as well? I have a 2h weapon.
Nope. It didn't. Not by just picking the ability.
Did you activate the ability? You must NOT activate it, because it will turn your build on its head. Combat Magic while active, will use Magic instead of Strength as damage multiplier, so a full Strength build will be useless.
You just have to pick it so that you can reach Shimmering Shield eventually. Shimmering Shield can be activated, unlike Combat Magic and it will give a huge boosts to your resistances without messing up your build.
Although I remembered that this did not happen to me, I just reloaded my save and used the tome to respec my character in Awakening to double check your issue: my damage is the exact same after picking Combat Magic. However when I activate, it goes down to one third. So as I said, you must NOT activate it.
If this is a bug and you really getting this simply because you picked the spell without activating it, then you should leave Arcane Warrior out. I recommended the spec for the Shimmering Shield alone, because it is a great defensive skill, but if a bug messes up your game, then just ignore the Arcane Warrior spec. The build is perfectly viable without it.
You can set Wynne up to keep casting Heroic Defense on you. This will boost your resistances instead of Shimmering Shield. :)
@@AKisHerceg Thanks so much. I did activate it but I made a save before I chose AW so I'll just go back and follow your instructions. Thanks so much for replying!!
@@OldDecoy3 No problem! I am glad you play the build. :)
If it does not happen when you don't activate it, then you don't have to reload a save, since you still want the 3rd spell in the Arcane Warrior tree as soon as you can get it. Shimmering Shield will make you a great tank while you are outside of your bear form. :)
Does this build work with mods that adds other shape-shifting forms?
I don't see why it would not. :)
Strength is still the base modifier for all physical damage(except daggers), so yeah, I think it should.
Let's say you turn into an Ogre instead of a bear: assuming that your weapon will still determine your base damage, every attack you do should be calculated based on that. Strength increases this(even with a staff, but you have no chance for crits). So yeah, as long as you melee in a form, this build should work.
Obviously, ability damage like Acid Spit from spiders, deep stalkers or the magical ball that the Arcane Horrors shoots(just guessing forms here - I have no idea what forms you can assume with the mod) will not be increased, since those are not increased by your strength. :)
But if we are talking about physical abilities like the Ogre's Grab, Stop, Ram or the Golem's Slam, Quake, etc. then those will deal incredible damage on enemies. Based on the Overwhelm of the bear, a Grab from an Ogre can even destroy a boss with full health.
@@AKisHerceg I see. Thank you for the response. 😊 You have a great day.
@@BazookaJoe1028 You too! :)
Sorry, YT flagged your comment as spam for some reason. I only noticed it now.
Hmm I always thought shape-shifting is useless, didn't think it's actually strong
How do you heal though, do you need a healer mage to always heal you?
Well, the short answer is: yes.
Otherwise you have switch back to human form and use a poultice. Which is also fine since with the sustained abilities, you can have enormous armor rating, so you basically turn into a tank whenever you are not a bear. And you still have huge damage with your auto attacks because of your huge strength.
I usually always take a healer with me though, because I want to use the support spells like Haste and Group Heal so it makes no difference to me in gameplay.
Love dao
Hi @Akisherceg did you actually pay for the game on your pc?
Pay for the game on pc? What do you mean? Did I buy the game? Yes. I had the Ultimate Edition disc back in the day but nowadays I just use the Ultimate Edition I bought on Steam. Why do you ask?
@@AKisHerceg Nah...I was just wondering because I play on my console and was wondering how you guys play on PC
@@Schuyler_A-Team From what I heard/saw it is quite different on the pc than on the console.
@@AKisHerceg Yes it is...I actually think I'll prefer it on the pc tbh
@@AKisHerceg Yes it is...I actually think I'll prefer it on the pc tbh
Amazing hehe
Thanks! :)
@@AKisHerceg
Np
My last name is Herceg!
Nice! :)
Who’s more immortal, you or Storvacker?
Sadly, Storvacker... since he literally can’t die. :)
You cant make her full magic then subclass her as a arcane warrior?
You mean dumping all her points into magic and then use her as a Magic based Shifter/AW?
No.
Magic is sadly trash when it comes to Shapeshifting. The stats are gonna be terrible if you stack Magic. With the AW your damage is based on Magic(with Combat Magic converting your Magic attribute into damage and attack), but with the Shapeshifter it's more complicated, which is why the Shapeshifter is considered the worst spec. The stat distribution based on Magic(when you shift) prioritizes Constitution especially for the Bear. That is terrible because you will have no damage and you won't be able to hit anything.
You need STR because STR increases your melee damage and attack, no matter what, even if you are a mage and even if you shift into a form. So if you shift, you still keep your attack and damage based on your STR attribute.
@@AKisHerceg yes though it just occured to me sustsined skills automatically toggle off while in bear form so . likely no go on the aw.
@@DavidSantos-ix1hu As you see it in the video, you can still pick the AW for the Shimmering Shield in case your Bear form gets dispelled. Just put it on and start crushing skulls as a human, then turn back into a bear when the cooldown expires.
Is there a list of passive Spells who remain active while shapeshift?
Last I checked all passives(like Arcane Mastery from Origins or Fade Shield or Stoic in Awakening) will remain active even if you shift into a different form.
You should use one of those artificial voices if you don't want to talk