I am disappointed by this “feature”, and I can’t find any reason to make this a game design choice - if the balance is a problem, nerf the damage and allow wp skills to proc could easily fix it.
So I just want some context here: I heard that it was considered “impossible” to have a shapeshifter class for the engine that the game runs on; is this “feature” an artifact of trying to navigate the engine and it is impossible to make the werewolf attacks proc wp skills?
I would go with game design choice. Seems the most logical to me. The best example I can think of would be Force Wave & Primal Strike. Neither of them can proc weapon pool skills. Now, granted neither of them are in a ‘shapesift’ form, so maybe a bad example or maybe bad adjacent.
Why would I want the damage nerfed just so I can go spend a bunch more skill points into wps to get my damage back? It behaves exactly like Blade Arc. It’s just another kind of skill, with its own advantages and disadvantages. If it feels weak, maybe ask for a buff. Adding WPS is not what the skill needs, completely pointless.
Necromancer has two weapon pools skills but no default attacks, dissapointment for 9 years
Because the way it behaves now is kind of boring and counterintuitive? For the boring part: if there is a class that has only one skill that could kill everything with one hit, that class is very powerful but boring to play. I imagined that this new class would be something that feels genuinely different from other classes since it was advertised as a shapeshifter after all. For the counterintuitive part: I think when someone sees a werewolf with 2 skills that are basically claw and leap, nobody is gonna treat it as a melee spellcaster that goes well with chaos damage. My biggest gripe is that this class doesn’t feel new and interesting, and the balance should come after an interesting concept. Adding wp would open up a lot of build options, and I wouldn’t call that “pointless”.
There are tons of ppl playing like that right now, what do you mean?
There are already like 300 builds you can do with Berserker. I think it is just as fun and interesting to build around as say Oathkeeper.
Personally kind of tired of so many melee builds being made around wps. Feral Claws is a nice change of pace where a skill can be made strong without needing a million wps on top of it.
That’s exactly what I meant: The way it works now as a melee chaos mage is not aesthetic to the first impression of “claw&leap”, and that is the build I play now, which is counterintuitive. I am kind of disappointed with the gameplay as well.
it’s blade arc, what’s counterintuitive about it? specially when it says it can’t trigger wps outright?
i really dont’ understand why so many players/new or old seem to connect “melee” = DAR therefor wps
primal strike and blade arc doesn’t result in the same outrage 
I thought the werewolf was superfun to start playing with, like you get both an attack skill and a movement skill for the price of one. So fast and furious gameplay from the start.
Ok you so are meaning a chaos mage werewolf? The “mage” side of berserker is native built in to wereraven instead. But it is a game that kinda forces you to play with a secondary master and items.
I agree that it has a faster start and all. Also I guess by “chaos mage werewolf” I was using “mage” figuratively: I am playing mystic(+occultist) with a home-made chaos build that focuses on chaos damage with feral claws + doombolt as primary damage source. This is the most interesting thing I can make for myself but it’s still a bit lacking for me.
I guess I was expecting a shapeshifter like the druid in the other games and got disappointed that the berserker is not like that. I will say the berserker feels like it has this identity crisis though, having 3 directions to build on (wp, wolf & raven) that don’t interact with each other, as least I don’t see how they interact.
Yeah, I just strongly disagree with all this. The claw and rush skills are 2 very solid base abilities that the class comes with that do not need more power. You are meant to either build into those, or on top of those using other skills with the conversions and buffs the forms give. Adding wps would do the opposite of add variety. It would simply change it from “Blade Arc” to “DAR”, and then you would have to use wps with them. This would also put a huge strain on skill points cause you would lose power from the base skill. As far as being interesting, maybe speak for yourself but I enjoy Blade Arc builds and I am enjoying the class and the transformations as they are too.
If that’s an identity crisis, then all classes in this game would have it. I would call having multiple directions to build “variety” not “crisis”.
you have 5 different things in zerker, 3 of them are separate, the others are not
Onslaught DAR+wps you can use with leap still
Werewolf/Raven you can use with leap and Winds of Asterkarn
*“technically” you could use onslaught for stacks, then shift into werewform and use cd skills, but seems like a dual hassle so i wont count that one even if techncially doable.
But, the class like all classes was made to be used with a secondary, and then you still get the usual full potential like you do any dar build, with the bonus of onslaught not pairing with CD skills better than most DAR+wps masteries before it (what little i tried it’s kinda nuts in act 1)
And then ofc you have the wereforms able to use any and all non dar/wps skills from other clases, so you can use forcewave, blade arc, blitz, Ring of Steel, Shadow Strike, ABB, Nado, Canister, BWC, Trozan, Panetti, AAR, Doom Bolt, DEE, etc etc etc etc in all the other classes.
You can make a Primal Strike Wereraven/wolf if you so wish - the sole thing you’re locked out of is wps comboing, again no different than if you had picked spam Primal Strike in shaman already, or DEE, or PRM, or CT, or Blade Arc or Forcewave or EoR/“any other spam skill”. - only difference is Form of the Beast allows you to scale those extra/++ whatever general 'zerker passives or buffs and RR you pick in 'zerker