Shifting/Rage flaws that need to be addressed

[Alcides]

The purpose of this thread is to provide an account of my own personal experience with the Shifter race, and some feedback that might help make this race better and see a little bit more usage. I played this race up to 30 and ran R10 Ravenloft and Sharn to give me a good idea on how the race performs in that environment. This is by no means comprehensive; however, I think it will provide some good insight on some very big shortcomings regarding the overall design of this race.

Note: I ended up spending $200 (Levelling up to 30 then restoring my original build) on this whole project for the following reasons.
- There was no clear documentation about what did work and didn't work with Shifting.
- There was not a review phase where the final mechanics were frozen before production release.
- Design of the race is too narrow minded with regards to class synergy.
- Design of the race does not align with the documented fantasy of Shifting. Shifting is lycanthropy not a rage. As documented, none of the original source material states that there is a partial/complete loss of control of the character while Shifting.
- The race fell woefully short of my expectations due to what was documented here.

My original thoughts on picking a shifter for Paladin tanking.
- As a player, I wanted to try something new that due to lack of documentation looked competitive with the other tank races of Aasimar, Dwarf, Purple Dragon Knight or Warforged.
- The race fantasy of Shifter intrigued me as something new and different.
- I bought the Feywild Ultimate Edition for my whole family, and wanted to experience the content as I saw fit.
- There was nothing in the documentation that said Shifting locked out major tanking abilities such as Combat Expertise, Sacred Defence or Stalwart Defense.
- There was a complete Beasthide package available that on the surface could have made a pretty competitive tank when matched against the other tank races.

So what in the Beasthide package appeared to make a good tank?
- Passive: +1 Con, +2 Dex, -2 Int (Decent chassis for a tank)
- Beasthide Shifting: Grants a +4 Rage bonus to Con and AC, a +2 Morale Bonus to Fortitude save, and -2 Wisdom for the Con based duration.
- Racial tree really plays to the flavor of Shifting for tanking.

Pros:
- Passive: +2 Con, +75% Threat Generation, +3 Intimidate, +6 Natural AC, +3 Shifting Charges, Petrification Immunity, 75% longer Shifting and Shifting charge regeneration every 90 seconds.
- Shifting Buffs: +3 Con, +12 PRR, +30% Healing Amplification, +20% Threat Generation and a +5% Quality HP bonus.
- Magic Fang: Provides extra hit and damage for threat generation, extra Spell Power from implements, and extra shield AC. All good for tanking.
- Maul: Provides a secondary intimidate against one Mob every 6 seconds. A pretty big game changer, and very helpful with threat lockdown.
- Beasthide Howl: Fully buffed provides a +14 Action Boost bonus to PRR/MRR to the Party, and a -14 Hit penalty to Mobs for 20s with a 60s cooldown. This is a very flavorful tank ability and great in a party with the Beasthide acting like a pack leader.
- Howl of Terror: Long duration Wisdom based Paralyze. I didn't like this very much, and felt that the DC should be based on the highest stat of the character since there are so many different play styles.

Cons:
- The in-game documentation was absolutely unclear about what did and did not stack with Shifting.
- Combat expertise did not work which is -10% AC and -20 PRR
- Sacred Defense did not work which is minimally -600% Threat, -25 PRR/MRR, -6 Con.
- Beasthide Shifting did not allow casting. A well oiled Paladin tank is going to run Divine Might, Steel's Eternal Flask of Super Bold Coffee Blend, Prayer and maybe Tenser Transformation. You have to drop Beasthide shifting to reapply these then go back into Shifting. It really made the gameplay experience very awkward, sluggish and ultimately aggravating.
- Wildhunt Shifters get an undocumented +4 Con while shifting and can cast. However, they don't get tank pump up abilities so I didn't want to be one of those.

Ways to make it better.
- Allow shifting to work with Combat Expertise, Precision, Monk Stances, Sacred Defense, and Stalwart Defense. There is no documentation stating that these should not work while shifting nor is there documentation that explicitly stating that it is a Rage either. Therefore it should work with abilities that rage normally locks out.
- I don't see a huge problem with providing rage based bonuses while Shifting at best it will give Druid and Barbarian tanks a bit more advantages. It will also allow it work with Fighters and Paladins in a better synergistic way. Also it will provide another alternative to the Aasimar chokehold that is prevalant in a multitude of Melee tank and DPS builds.
- Allow Beasthide Empowered by Nature to allow casting while Shifting.