tomofhyrule wrote: »

Werewolf absolutely should be balanced as its own thing and not requiring specific class lines to not use them. It really feels bad that only some lines give power to the were form, and others (like Animal Companions, which logically should be the most appropriate for a werewolf) do nothing at all.

Either all lines should help werewolves in some way or another, or none of them should. But either way, werewolves should not be so memetically underpowered that even pureclass builds feel bad for them.

It’s such a fun playstyle, but it needs a lot of love.
(Also I will pay bank if my werebear could actually be a bear)

The issue I have with removing all Class passives from working while transformed is that Werewolf on its own is not as robust as a ""normal"" build.

A ""normal"" build can use any skill from any skill line. You can mix and match Class, Guild, Alliance War, World, Weapon, and Armor skills. You also get the applicable passives for the skill lines you use, although you always get Armor, Weapon, and Racial passives regardless of whether you actually use Active Abilities from those lines.

A Werewolf build is literally just one skill line. There's not even an Ultimate ability you can build up Ultimate for — it's just 5 abilities you can cast. There's no Scribing skill for Werewolf either, so you have very little build diversity.


What makes Werewolf have more build diversity are the passives that exist outside of Werewolf, which not every Werewolf build can have simultaneously. Armor passives still matter to your Werewolf form, but Weapon passives are intentionally disabled when they would otherwise work. Class passives matter, and that's one of the main reasons you would make a Werewolf on multiple Classes.

Class Sets also matter, but some Classes (like Templar) currently don't have any Class Sets that work in Werewolf form, while others (such as Sorcerer, Dragonknight, and Necromancer) have at least one Class Set which does work, which makes them the "optimal" Classes to be a Werewolf on. If Werewolf gets a Scribing Grimoire and if that Grimoire can use Class Mastery, then that would be another reason to use a particular Class for a Werewolf build over another Class.



In short, removing non-Werewolf passives while transformed would further homogenize the Werewolf playstyle. I see several complaints about Vengeance homogenizing the build system for the rest of the game — just imagine if your passives no longer mattered. That's what I want to avoid happening to Werewolf. Werewolf should have more build options, not fewer, and the best way to give Werewolf more build options is to let the rest of your character (Class, Armor, Race, Weapons, etc) still matter.