Spellclaw, the Palemaster Razorclaw

After making about 20 shifters and running tests on them to see what I like... I found that...

Introducing

SPELLCLAW!

Spellclaw to be the best!



Spellclaw is a razorclaw shifter that beefs up his claw handwrap attacks with EK and PM mostly, tossing in Harper for Int to hit and damage. I maxed out Spellclaw's Int, and completely ignored his rage anti-casting ability for the build. Wizard over Sorcerer because if he is still going to use his claws to tear stuff up and needs magic feats too (since he is primarily a caster), wizard class becomes the only option for best doing this (alchemist and artificer have noooooo synergy with handwraps.. ).

Spellclaw
Race: Razorclaw
Class: Wizard 19/Barbarian 1

Enhancements:
Palemaster 36
Eldritch Knight 21
Illusionist 11
Harper 12
=80 Enhancement Points

Starting Stats
STR 10
INT 16
WIS 8
DEX 16
CON 14
CHR 8

Feats:
2WF
I2WF
G2WF
Crits:Bludgeoning
Dodge
Heavy Armor (he can wear this with EK and a stone -10% to armor casting penalties for the 35% needed)
Toughness or Mental Toughness

Quickness
Maximize
Empower
Extend or Heighten


Pump dex up 1 first chance you get and dump the rest on Intelligence. The 17 dex is required to get Improved 2 weapon fighting and Greater 2 weapon fighting feats.

I took wraith and lich for the Pale Master forms (vampire was tempting and I am curious what a zombie cat animations would look like), allowing me to switch from anti-physical damage to anti-magic damage resistances from either form. The first 2 Pale Master undead core choices I took was 15% cold absorption with light no longer dealing extra damage, and the cold touch!!!! The cold touch is very important since it gets delivered by claws and scales with spell power. It isn't much, but it does add up with EK's elemental stances which also scales with spell power, and combined with harper intel to damage line, illusionist's embow weapon, it becomes more effective than the barbarian original, cutting through the mobs faster and dealing better dps. Oh, and he comes with spells!!! It doesn't get any more versatile than wizard when it comes to spells. So he can easily amp up, adapt, and adjust to many situations. The elemental choices on EK line allow him to alter his elemental claws to exploit enemy weaknesses, which adds up to even more dps.

Plus, being a floating cat with claws is so much fun!


Since my spellclaw build is not done yet, and has yet to reach epics, I can not give final stats, adjustments, but I can say that from what I got so far, I can already tell this build will do very good in its final stages. Part of testing a build out is to determine early on if its a wise investment or a waste of time. I will put it together first on paper, than build it in the computer, than run it through some tests to see how it ends up performing. I find that most builds that I can get to perform well early on end up performing the best in the long run too, with some spell casters and missile builds being exceptions to this rule of thumb. Spellclaw performed excellent right away!!! - I am excited to see his final stage of development!

The build instantly become a hit, excellent performance, can solo quests, heals, casts spells, decent melee, and comes with a meow!!! (which is even more meow if you choose a white cat or tressyln for your familiar)


Weaknesses? He doesn't do missile combat, can't use his rage or even his racial tree (though he uses the claw fighting animations that normal shifters don't even get), and his saving throws are not on par with a paladin, though they are still fairly decent, along with the undead immunities and extra 100% fortification, healing 50 to 150 hps per a tick with death aura, and ghostly incorporeal cover, he seems to make up for not having a bow or crossbow or saving throws beyond the beyond. Oh, and his PPR and MMR are not on par with a tank, but they function well enough coupled with his other perks.



If you want a shifter that doesn't resort to warlock for the easy life, that can actually fight with his handwraps, and has a ton of utility - Spellclaw is just what you are looking for!


Rating
Soloability 9/10 (this toon can handle a lot on its own)
Fun 10/10 (haven't had this much fun with a toon build in a while, definitely 10 out of 10 here)
Complexity 3/10 (3 means its more complex, 10 means its simple. Being 19 levels of wizard and doing melee makes this a bit more complex of a toon to play, with so many options around the spells alone)


PS: EK as the main prestige line makes a lot of sense too, and I was very tempted to choose this. I decided on PM as the primer because my spellclaw needs to turn into a swarm of bats, it just fits into the character concept I was aiming for. Otherwise I think EK would be another top choice from the wizard class.

PS PS: I forgot to mention the animations for EK work very good with Razclaw, they are not choppy, delayed, or overly dancy. Most of them execute snappy quick, and are working great. Animation smoothness and snappy effects are super important for a good build. Just try using those claw attacks with ear smash, and get that ackward delayed animation attack and you will know what I mean. Another great example is the male razorclaw using bezerker tantrum. The animation is so off its almost useless. I made a female razorclaw to compare, and indeed her version was effective and made the difference. I think the worse animation effect in the game right now is vistani whirlwind attack :P you dance, its choppy, and its delayed for like 3 seconds, way way wayyy too much time in a split second battle.

I made a similar build in HC. At first I started out with 2 barb levels, then I lesser reincarnated and got rid of both of them. At first, Blood Tribute help early survivability, but I didn't see much use after about level 7. I also surprised myself by dumping Int a bit in favor of Str so I could skip the Harper Tree. Since I dumped Int, I don't rely on spells that have saves or SR: Most are utility buffs or I use AoEs, direct damage rays, or dots (Niacs and Eladars). I've been using Maxed Necrotic Ray for occasional heavy hitting.

I also started out in Zombie shroud, which was a one-punch build using hand wraps early on. By level 12, I switched to Lich and picked up sword and board (well, hammer and board) because of HC, otherwise I would probably still be using handwraps.

I'm curious as to why you have the one barb level?