Nature and Weapon Mastery....

i'm having trouble framing it in that mentallity.

The poison-based style was balanced with WM based on a full DOT loadout (SG, VL, Briar, Swarm, Harvest, and Voracious Plants). If you use that loadout for Terror, you won't be able to setup the PI and make VP hit as hard as it should. If you drop one for SerpentsCall, you won't have the full DoT arsenal that Poisons were balanced against. If you're using Wolf to make the loadout wide enough to fit all the powers, then you're really just playing the Shapeshifting-style.

Well I wouldn't actually be using Shapeshifting benefits (combos and bonuses). I am only using it for the extra loadout slots. If you use the form's benefits I consider you using Shapeshifting. If you just use Poison Spores and Swarm in your loadout you are using the Poison Spore style and if you use the Terror variants (there are a couple) you would be using Terror. For the style I mentioned I am not narrowing on any of these styles but have the option of either when I need it.

When I see Builds being explained I usually see them pick one or the other, normal or Primal Wolf, Poison Spores or Terror. Because of this I classify them as different styles of play. Before players jumped on the Weapon Mastery combos I did see some Nature players play exclusively in Primal Wolf and using its full benefits. Because Nature can have so many loadout spots I would bet that SOE takes that into consideration when comparing Nature to other powersets even if not explicitly illustrated.

So it's a semantics things. I consider using additional forms to extend your loadout to be Shapeshifting-style because...

(1) Staying purely in Wolf form went out of style for PvE during T2-era when the community gained an understanding of the benefits of a 50% modifier. That was reinforced in PvP once the counter-immunity glitch was fixed and again later when the block breaker was switched to an actual range animation (no longer confusing other players). Of course the nail in the coffin was it not receiving WM combos.

(2) For the past two years, anyone advocating leveraging Shapeshifting has been advocating extending their loadouts.

Let me try to guess the loadout:

WOLF: Human, Savage Growth, Vine Lash, Briar, Swarm, Harvest
HUMAN: Wolf, SerpentsCall, VoraciousPlants, Harvest, Swarm, Carnage

Terror-based: (Start and stay Human)
SC/Carnage, WM/VP, WM/VP, WM/VP

Posion-based: (Start Wolf, end Human)
SG, RangeHold//VL, RangeHold/Briar, RangeHold/Swarm, RangeHold/Harvest, Human, Weapon/VP/Carnage, Weapon/VP, Weapon/Harvest, Weapon/VP, Weapon/VP, Weapon/Harvest

Or something similar?

I used Primal Wolf in tier 5 8-Man content because of the quickness of its range combos. I use Primal Wolf as a form to this day for quick open world content where Weapon Mastery is too slow due to open world NPCs generally being pretty fragile. The difference between your definition of the Shapeshifting style and mine is that in yours you use it once and in mine you use the full benefits. With mine you can make a distinction between a normal form Poison Spores, normal form Terror and Shapeshifting full benefit (combos, criticals, movement, etc.). Thus you can then talk about a mixture of the styles as a different discussion.

Simply not being popular doesn't negate the benefits of a the full Shapeshifting usefulness (though I have noticed no one will give it much of a chance because they apply for the wrong purpose).

As for the all-in-one style yes that is basically what I use. I have one with the loadouts reversed too plus a pure solo Primal Wolf for times when I need to run older content but keep my Nature feel (this last one is purely cosmetic I'll admit though).

This is what I would do to improve these play-styles:

Terror-based: Allow Swarm to be used along side WM. It would replace either Robot-Sidekick or a Supercharge (and have 2 pets, of sorts).

Poison-based: Either allow Savage Growth to apply the spore at a distance or allow Briar to work similarly to Electric's Electrogenesis: give Briar a longer cooldown; if Briar's DoT is Harvested, you can re-apply Briar and harvest it again for a full 3-stacks of DoTs. Getting close, even if for 1 second is too dangerous. I can imagine the Nature DPSes dying in Survival/T6 raids trying to get the outmost of their Amazing Mechanics' Potential. Burst AoE on SG, VL & Briar would be a good start as well.


As for Shapeshifting-based: WM would look off, but it should have better "weapon" damage out. I wonder if one day all powers will have 3 mechanics to play with (eg: Nature - Shapeshift, Terror WM, Poison AM; Earth - Pet, WM, Aftershocks, etc.)

My only concern is that if they change Nature again, this would be like my 9th time I have to start from scratch on coming up with a decent loadout I feel comfortable with. I'm all for buffs, but I don't trust the devs enough to bring positive changes without bringing a few negative as well (Carnage going down to 15% for example). If they decide on making Swarm work with WM (for example) I wouldn't be surprise if they lower its damage or make it a full pet to avoid it being used along side the Iconic Robot. I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but I feel like Nature is the least stable power.

Nature is fine.
Good tips on the loadout Superskull85, I have used that myself in the t6a, very effective.

You can get in to place your SG in survival, you just have to time it right(after the tank counters the boss).

I honestly feel its very effective and that Tunso knows what he's doing. I have posted in this thread since the beginning and was a firm believer that Nature would shine in instances that had bosses with alot of health, I was right. In SM, Nature is probably the best ATM. I am almost sure that it will be the same for the new raids, but I dont really know how much health the bosses and adds.