GU 43: Nature Fauna Advanced Mechanic

Please use this thread to discuss and give feedback about Nature Fauna Advanced Mechanics. Preliminary update notes:

• Primal Wolf Form: Increased the damage caused by Feral Stomp, Hop Claw and Double Slash. Significantly increased the damage caused by Primal Uppercut and Lupine Darts. Primal Wolf Form can now take advantage of the Power refund mechanic available in damage role.
• Hive Mind: Hive Mind now has a new icon. Hive Mind is now a self-only buffing ability with additional significant advantages when with Insectoid Form. While in Insectoid Form Hive Mind restores Power for each Pheromone effect applied and whenever Blossom removes Pheromone effects. While Hive Mind is active the damage caused by Acid Spit, Fury and Launching Uppercut is increased significantly and Fury also hits additional enemies in an area surrounding your target.
• Insectoid Form: Increased the cone length of Acid Spit from 5.5m to 12.5m.
• Swarm: Swarm now uses a new icon.

From the notes I do not see this listed. I will on PC Test sometime this weekend but wanted to ask before I got on:

• Is the damage modifier for Primal Wolf still 40%?
• What was the reason for Hive Mind to be a single buff only?

If damage from Primal Wolf is enough I'd gladly go back to it but it would have to be significant enough to lose -10% damage overall compared to normal form and Weapon Mastery. I'll reserve judgement until I test it though. Glad to see tweaks to Primal Wolf and Insectoid instead of outright removing them though.

I was wondering if bug form power refunds are equivalent to or greater than power reductions for WM combos and whether that is reduced in PvP at all. Also, we've seen so much cleaned up that I wonder what purpose dog form is meant to serve other than be a power point stepping stone or niche vanity skill.

Not just that, wolf form doesn't work with max damage. So you can still do more damage out of wolf form.

No it does. You just get the 10% buff and not the full 60%.

You are locked in a 40% modifier from wolf form and a 10% from max damage.

I use it for the Operations in Origin Crisis, sneaking past adds in Paradox Wave and in the new content for Power Regen between bosses in Spark of Parallax and for Power Regen and the heal in Spark of Ion. It is still pretty useful if you utilize its strength.

I personally don't want it removed. It is still pretty useful to me.

Yes which is 50% damage overall. Therefore what I said about -10% would be accurate and what I was referring to.

I did some testing and here's my opinion about the status quo:

Shapeshifting in general:

• Please consider removing the requirement to skill Canine Form before you're able to skill Gorilla Form. You would be better off when you were able to put this Power Point into the Regeneration SC for example.
• Having to put a Power in your loadout to switch back to your normal form is a pain... It makes shapeshifting less viable, as you have to ditch one power from your loadout. Can't you just allow us to press "T" to switch back to your normal form when you're currently shape-shifted?
• The shapeshift power to switch to Wolf/Insectoid Form should be beneficial so you can use it to clip another power and don't waste the time just watching your toon transform when you could aswell be doing damage or healing instead

Insectoid Form:

• Leap Attack (Hold Melee) doesn't have a "dodge" effect. Not sure about the interrupt component, but it definitely didn't show the fist icon when I tested it on the sparring targets.
• Acid Spray isn't viable to use at all, since you can't clip it with a power nor can you stop the animation instantly. A form which is only available to Healer stance shouldn't render you unable to react when a quick heal is needed. Also, the range doesn't appear to have changed, it's still mid-range. As a healer I want to be able to stand out of bosses' mid-ranged attacks or I'm better off not using this form at all. I'd like this power more to be instant-cast with a DOT component to it, like Rage's Regurgitate (if I remember the name correctly. If not, please correct me), but on full-range.
  Like I said above, the power point to switch back is a big no-go in a raid loadout, where 2 HOTs, Blossom, Shield, Cross Poll/Bloom (depending on the situation or whether I'm forced to run with a 2nd Nature Heal) and an SC or HIVE Mind is needed.

Wolf Form:

• Power refund does work now, but you won't get the damage bonus when using Briar after Vine Lash. Please fix
• Innate 40% buff should be buffed to 50% so you can get your 60% modifier with Max Damage like everyone does. The current 50% inc. MaxDmg shifts the balance more towards precision damage which have to be buffed even more to even keep up with the other powers

HIVE Mind:

• Nice idea, especially for people who like to go hybrid. It should, however, grant power upon using Blossom both with or without Insectiod form and scale your Resto proportional instead of increasing it by a fixed amount. Nature feels more power-hungry to me than the other healer powers to achieve the same amount of healing in a situation where Blossom is extensively needed anyway.
• Why doesn't it increase the damage of every physical attack but not your melee tap>hold attack? (Forgot the name)

Side note: Since you're working on Blossom, can you please consider making it remove Pheromones from allies (non-party-members and NPCs) and burst heal them, too - like how it works on your party members? It kinda sucks when you're drawing aggro because of that...

That is extremely niche. To warrant a spot in a tree, it should provide more value than that.

Stuff like Snowball from Ice also don't get that "OMG I must use" use either. I don't mind additions/tweaks to the form but there are uses for it as there is.

Want it to drop agro?
Add a 6th trait to the loadout that can be used tactically?
Add a trait to the loadout that provides some damage over time (for a Weapon Mastery loadout)?

Personally I don't want it gone because I find use in it. That said just asking for a "replacement" and no options or tweaks to the existing form does not help either.

Edit: Adding Prehistoric Might from Pterosaur is an option too.

It would be so much better if Gorilla and Insectoid forms gain Weapon Mastery combos if u have them specced just like movement traits work for them now .

Id like the old melee: Hold Hold Hold Hold combo to be added again to Wolf Form melee attacks. I never liked the new tap hold type combos.

It would be so much better if Gorilla and Insectoid forms gain Weapon Mastery combos if u have them specced just like how movement traits work for them now.

Id like the old melee: Hold Hold Hold Hold combo to be added again to Wolf Form melee attacks. I never liked the new tap hold type combos.

I never said to replace it. I just questioned its value as it is. Personally, I think dog and pterosaur should exist only as abilities available from Wolf/Insectoid form. I think they should be temporary transformations with long cooldowns. I think they should have MAJOR buffs active while transformed. DoTs shouldn't be available to place in a Wolf form load out (expected to use Terror). That's a more true Shapeshifting play style.

BUG REPORT

Harvest and Savage Growth are not refunding power while in Insectoid Form with Hive Mind active. I suspect this has to do with the phenomenon we've reported before about how Harvest and Savage Growth are doing both their healing and damage components when in Insectoid Form even though they don't in Normal Form (healer stance).

For those testing, the power back from Hive Mind in Bug Form does seem to scale with your equipped CR. I Could take gear off and see the power back numbers reduce. It's not you high-water mark CR like you see in your stats tab.

Loadouts
This has an interesting effect on Bug Form loadout choices. If you take your standard: SAVAGE GROWTH, METABOLISM, BLOSSOM, REGEN then you have two slots left. Except now one of those slots should be HIVE MIND. That means your choices for your last slot are SWARM SHIELD, CROSS POLL, HARVEST, BLOOM, or CARNAGE. That said, maybe there's another argument to drop METABOLISM for HARVEST but I've never made that work. I have made it work with both. It just means that the old school standard loadout with HIVE MIND and SWARM SHIELD in those spots might still be a good way to go.

Hive Mind Weapon Buffs
The damage buff for those three moves in bug form seem like they do 7x-8x the damage with Hive Mind active.
Fury: Range Tap, Range Hold (kinda like pulse beam)
Acid Spit: Rang Hold (bug puke)
Leaping Uppercut: Tap Melee, Tap Melee, Tap Hold

I'm a little surprised that Chaotic Overgrowth wasn't included in that buff (Tap Melee, Hold Melee). Outside of that, I guess I'm not surprised Leap Attack (Hold Melee) was excluded.

Are there any plans to change the look of insect form?
These changes to the mechanics all look very interesting but I'm still very much pushed away by what the form looks like.

I guess I don't understand Hive Mind no longer being a group buff. It's 270 restoration or 15% Might. I don't understand what makes it be a self-buff now. Would similar things happen to Anoint, Benediction, Wired, Inspiration, Carnage and Bloodlust? Or is this just because of the Restoration element of it? I can't recall if any other abilities buff restoration. Is that because of a balancing effect for tanks?

270 Resto in current tiers are nothing. It also doesn't change PvP that much, since healing itself was reduced. I don't get the change either. Reinforce is similarly low and a self buff. :/