Werewolf Transformation lost its synergy with Howl of Agony

Erickson9610

One of the burst combos that players could do pre-U42 was to cast Werewolf Transformation and its morphs to fear their enemy, and then use Howl of Agony for the bonus damage against feared enemies — but Howl of Agony was changed to only offer bonus damage against Off Balance or Terrified enemies, when Werewolf Transformation applies neither. Howl of Agony lost the synergy with Werewolf Transformation that it once had.

Here's a comparison between an old version of Howl of Agony and the new version:


And here's what the base morph of Werewolf Transformation looks like:


Before Update 42, it was possible to use Werewolf Transformation to fear your enemies and then hit them with Howl of Agony for 25% bonus damage. To pull that combo off now, you'd have to transform (which fears them), cast Roar (which is a redundant fear), and then cast Howl of Agony. What was once a two ability combo is now a three ability combo.

I initially overlooked this myself as I generally play a "permawolf" playstyle, i.e. I try to maintain Werewolf form for as long as possible and select my gear to synergize with that form specifically. It only just occurred to me that this change to Howl of Agony is a nerf to playstyles which temporarily use Werewolf Transformation as a burst ability for their humanoid form builds.

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I think a simple solution would be to apply Terrified and/or Off Balance to enemies who are feared by the initial cast of Werewolf Transformation, so players can immediately start casting Howl of Agony for the 3 seconds their target is feared before manually reverting form. Alternatively, Howl of Agony could be modified to work against feared enemies again.