Wolf Form: weapon questions

[Expalphalog]

1. As I understand it, weapon materials like adamantine/cold iron etc. don't get applied to
wolf/bear attacks. What about the metalline prefix? I hope it's working, there seems to
be no other way to bypass DR of certain mobs otherwise. There's align fang in spells,
but no "metalline fang". I'll defer to someone else, because I thought that weapon materials did apply. In fact, I'm almost positive that they do. But it's been a while since I've ran my Wolf so I could be misremembering.



2. Earlier in this thread it was confirmed that enhancement bonus from weapon gets
applied. Does this stack with the magic fang spell? Yes. Magic Fang increases the enhancement bonus by +1.

Answers in yellow.

[hermespan]

Maybe I have built my druid poorly but I am finding my DPS better in form than out - the wolf 30% attack speed bonus makes all the difference - that said i haven't added any TWF/THF feats (as I saw these as redundant to form attacks which I planned to be in for fighting). In addition the knockdown blow is awesome at taking out casters.

Bear form wasn't as strong for sure - the 10 or 15% AC bonus just wasn't enough to make up for the lost DPS - 30% maybe but at 15% at 40AC the diff is 6 which just doesn't get you missed enough for taking 30% longer to kill stuff. That said I mainly solo so being an agro magnet isn't an issue- in a group I could see this being a helpful option in the right situation. Mainly just use bear form for skellies where the DR breaking of bludgeon makes up for the speed difference.

For my weapons I have gone with a basic scream of bleed scimitar for applicable trash and a holy of undead bane qstaff (in case I wanted to go out of form). I am using a combo of shields depending on the situation as well (high AC, guard based, lesser ac+Invuln, or casting boost).

I just got to L10 and have been handling elite content fine so far - mostly 2 below but occasionally at level as a quest chain demands (CO6, Tangleroot). Even did Prison of the mind (though I duo'd that with a guildie) and we handled it all fine - though the Cha damage spiders made me helpless very fast (only 4 Cha in form). So far druid has been easier to solo/level than anything other than a WF caster or Arti for me.

you also lose wolf sneak attack when out of form.

[Lil_Jaxon]

1. As I understand it, weapon materials like adamantine/cold iron etc. don't get applied to
wolf/bear attacks. What about the metalline prefix? I hope it's working, there seems to
be no other way to bypass DR of certain mobs otherwise. There's align fang in spells,
but no "metalline fang".

Your claws will bypass the same DR as your weapons normally would, with the added bonus of whatever animal form you are in. Ex. +1 Adamantine Scimitar bypasses Slashing, Magic, and Adamantine DR. In animal form your attacks will now bypass all of the above in the addition to piercing for wolves and bludgeoning for bears.

[SealedInSong]

(snip...)
* dual kamas, suffering the full dual-wielding penalty with no way to reduce it since TWF feats don't apply in form
(...snip...)
There are definite benefits to the monk splash, but it's a tougher call than it might initially appear.

Is this true? I was under the distinct impression that TWF/THF feats imposed no penalty and garnered no benefit while shapeshifted.

[Bluenoser]

I know, it's a very old thread, but for anyone looking this up for the first time, the keen effect from weapons are STILL (5 years later!) not being applied to druid wild form attacks. For those who are curious, I tested this on my lvl 5 toon with an item whose keen effect is otherwise most definitely working properly, a tiefling assassin's blade (keen effects in the updated cannith crafting system are buggy, so I avoided those for testing). In wolf form (level 2), you usually crit on a 19 or 20; with a keen weapon it should be 17-20 ("base critical threat range of this weapon is doubled"), but I still only crit on a 19 or 20 (and no, not an 18 either). It didn't matter whether I equipped the weapon and then changed into wolf form, or equipped it while already in form.

[unbongwah]

I know, it's a very old thread, but for anyone looking this up for the first time, the keen effect from weapons are STILL (5 years later!) not being applied to druid wild form attacks. For those who are curious, I tested this on my lvl 5 toon with an item whose keen effect is otherwise most definitely working properly, a tiefling assassin's blade (keen effects in the updated cannith crafting system are buggy, so I avoided those for testing). In wolf form (level 2), you usually crit on a 19 or 20; with a keen weapon it should be 17-20 ("base critical threat range of this weapon is doubled"), but I still only crit on a 19 or 20 (and no, not an 18 either). It didn't matter whether I equipped the weapon and then changed into wolf form, or equipped it while already in form.

Not sure why you necro'ed this particular thread, but: Keen weapons don't work; Impact weapons do, because wolf attacks are still considered unarmed which falls under the Blunt category.

Yes, I know wolves do slashing+piercing damage. Don't overthink it.

[Bluenoser]

Not sure why you necro'ed this particular thread, but: Keen weapons don't work; Impact weapons do, because wolf attacks are still considered unarmed which falls under the Blunt category.

Yes, I know wolves do slashing+piercing damage. Don't overthink it.

Thanks for the clarification--someone earlier in this thread explicitly tested for that, and it didn't work either. I now have IC: bludgeon, so can't test Impact weapons personally to see if it was ever fixed.

I necroed this thread because after 8 years of DDO I'm running my first dronk build and everything I read before rolling it up (including this thread) said that keen was supposed to work in animal form. When I searched for info on the forums on this topic, this thread came up first, so figured I could pay it forward.

While I'm at it: probably not news either, but stunning fist no longer works in wolf or bear form, even if you're wearing handwraps (or nothing); doesn't matter whether you equip them before or after taking animal form. Updated ddowiki to reflect this.

It's a pity that there is usually no official list of answers for questions like this, or it's scattered across various release notes, not to mention that many things that are supposed to work--but are well known not to--aren't in the Known Issues list. Even ddowiki, which I otherwise love and try to help with, is often outdated (as it was this time).