View Full Version : OMFG Earthshifter
Hi there! I have a question regarding the old Earthshifter. Through a stroke of luck, genious and generosity, my brother has managed to obtain an Earthshifter on the ladder. I looked through the guides at the top of the forum list, but no one seems to talk about it. He despises wind for whatever reason, and wants to build either a fire mage or a fireclaws druid. Which one? Fire claws seems reasonable... but the +7 to elemental skills would probably serve a fire mage better. Or perhaps it should get posted on Ebay. Help!
RetroStar
19-07-2004, 04:54
I am not to familiar with Elemental Druids but this is my go at it.. First off I believe the STr req of it (253str) is too high for a elemental build. Also I believe elemental builds usually use a shield? Anyway.. I am more familiar to Fireclaw druids and the +elemental dmg on that will not affect the dmg on FireClaw as it is a +skill. GC takes the synergy of the actual points stuck into Moulton boulder, Fissure, etc. so the +7 Elemental will not increase the dmg of Fire claw but only the Elemental skills.
Bob_TheMadCow
19-07-2004, 11:15
The Earthshifter can be used in a "glass cannon" fire druid build, where you bascially sacrifice survivableity for getting as much damage out of your skills as possible. It's do-able, but unless you have access to the other high-end gear (CoH, Ravenlore, SoJs/BK rings, Arachnid mesh, 10 ele GCs, anni, 2 5/5 Fire facets), and plan on partying up the whole time so other players can act as meat shields, then I wouldn't bother. If you can meet all those conditions, then go for it, lvl 50 Fire spells with +10% fire skill damage and -35% enemy fire res are a formidable sight to behold.
The Earthshifter can be used in a "glass cannon" fire druid build, where you bascially sacrifice survivableity for getting as much damage out of your skills as possible. It's do-able, but unless you have access to the other high-end gear (CoH, Ravenlore, SoJs/BK rings, Arachnid mesh, 10 ele GCs, anni, 2 5/5 Fire facets), and plan on partying up the whole time so other players can act as meat shields, then I wouldn't bother. If you can meet all those conditions, then go for it, lvl 50 Fire spells with +10% fire skill damage and -35% enemy fire res are a formidable sight to behold.
So true with the lack of a shield and all the extra points into str I makes it harder to survive without some luck, skill and help from others.
would it make sense to keep one on switch to cast armageddon or hurrican?
sound like a cool option for all long lasting skills (cyc armor,...)
Bob_TheMadCow
19-07-2004, 14:27
would it make sense to keep one on switch to cast armageddon or hurrican?
sound like a cool option for all long lasting skills (cyc armor,...)
apart from the 253 str req, which is about 150 more than anything else you'd be wearing. so if your gonna use it, you really have to build around it as your main weapon.
Don't forget that you can lower requirements with a jewel of ease (-15%), and some armor gives a strength boost such a Leviathan (up to +50). A ring of the Titan adds +20 strength, and I think a perfect amythest adds +10 to strength when it is in helms and armor. I would probably just consider a build using these tools and have the Earthshifter as an endgame switch weapon. This should allow you to plow points into vitality or whatever else you need. Obviously you would have to balance resists, but maybe a Tiamat's with a perfect diamond on switch would help along with other resist rings/ammys/boots.
Don't forget that you can lower requirements with a jewel of ease (-15%), and some armor gives a strength boost such a Leviathan (up to +50). A ring of the Titan adds +20 strength, and I think a perfect amythest adds +10 to strength when it is in helms and armor. I would probably just consider a build using these tools and have the Earthshifter as an endgame switch weapon. This should allow you to plow points into vitality or whatever else you need. Obviously you would have to balance resists, but maybe a Tiamat's with a perfect diamond on switch would help along with other resist rings/ammys/boots.
But you defy the idea Bob put forth of getting as much +skill as possible which is the only way this works so you have the have 2 sojs or 2 kathos or one of each as rings etc etc
Bob_TheMadCow
19-07-2004, 15:47
If your gonna go for the glass cannon, go for it. Don't pusy foot about trying to shore it up cause then you lose the purity and it falls apart. If anything you want a +2 druid club & +1 all shield on switch so you can cast OS at lvl 10 with just 1 point in it.
9k FS
3.5k MB
5.5k Fissure
3.8k Volc
15.9k Geddon
+75% health from OS.
you'll be vunerable if anything hits you, and FIs will still be a problem. If you like living on the edge, then this is it for you. You'll be a 1 hit KO for Gloams, but anything not FI will fall before you, provided they don't have a ranged attack.
Personally I'll stick with my shield, resistances and hit points.
EDIT: Shame they nerfed cows, cause this would thrive there.
EDIT2: You could have maxed res in hell...
-100 (hell)
+65 (CoH)
+30 (Anya)
+25 (Raven)
+20 (Anni)
+35 (7x 5% res all sc)
and you still have room for a pair of +20 life scs
would burn them cows to a crisp!!! damm and I like my steaks rare!!! :lol:
I think Earthshifter is a cruel joke to us druids. To slow for Melee, to cumbersome for Casters.
If it had built in -40% Req or so, It wouldnt be that bad.
On My fire druid, I have this gear already piled up:
Lidless
Vipermagi
Jalals
Islestrike (+2 Druid, +10 Attributes :drool: )
Magefists
+2 Elemental, +50~ Life, +15 Mana, Teleport Charges Ammy
Not my final gear, but def good newber gear to have on ladder.
The Gear I Would love to have at the end:
CoH or Enigma
Ravenlore
Stormshield
HotO
Mara's
Ravenfrost (If I used CoH)/Bk Ring or 2x Bk rings
Magefist (Hey I got one part!)
XXXX Boots
Gloomstrap or Verdungos for belt
~Kbob
I think Earthshifter is a cruel joke to us druids. To slow for Melee, to cumbersome for Casters.
so the kbob is a necro now :uhhuh: :lol:
I'm not a fan of Earthshifter as a weapon for either a.) a pure fire/wind druid, or b.) a pure shapeshifter. However, if equiped on a fairly tweaked out build, Earthshifter has its place with a Armageddon/Werewolf hybrid.
On last ladder season I took my geddon-wolf to level 88 and had a heck of a lot of fun with him.
His skills:
20 fury
20 geddon
20 volcano
~10/10 for werewolf/lycanthropy
rest in firestorm
no summons (I put 1 point in oak and with +skills its ok but it gets killed too easy)
While this build is a bit of a glass cannon, because it is a wolf without maxed lycanthropy and/or maxed oak sage, and no shield, and too many points in strength, with the right gear (maxed resists/some physical dmg reduction) he is an offensive juggernaut that kills monsters pretty fast. (not as fast as lightning zon, or some other really fast ones, but faster than any barb or melee pally i've seen, and faster than most pure melee wolfs I've seen).
Gear:
Earthshifter (shaeled)
Chains of honor (need to get resists maxed - this really helps there)
Verdungos belt
Draculs gloves
ravenfrost
good rare mana leech ring
goreriders
seraphs hymn ammy
jalals
annhilus
ar/life charms
Stats:
~255 str
rest vitality
no dex/energy
His ar is low at level 88 (around 6k), but since his level is higher he hits at ~75% in act 5 hell.
Anyways, this was the only build I could come up with that seemed to use that weapon well and I just had to use it...it just looks so nice ;-)
You have to get used to swinging a bit slower, but with verdungoes, and a holy freeze/reapers toll equipped merc you can get away with the slower frame rate (I think the fury is 6 frame?) - you hit pretty hard. I was doing around 1.8-7.9 k melee damage or somewhere in that ball park, and I've got pretty good crushing blow so bosses go down fast. And the armageddon isn't bad (I think its range is 4k-5k right now), and it will only get higher as I keep leveling him.
Worth giving it a try if you have the gear. Without good gear he's tough to play...
inkanddagger
20-07-2004, 04:47
i think a mang songs with perfect -fire res would own the silly eshifter : /
inkanddagger
20-07-2004, 04:52
however if you wanted to go with fissure, and then max oak sage, or even use a wind skill or something, the lvl 14 volcano charges would work as a synergy.
But you defy the idea Bob put forth of getting as much +skill as possible which is the only way this works so you have the have 2 sojs or 2 kathos or one of each as rings etc etc
Yes, I am just so defiant. Why ignore all the other advice on how to qualify for the weapon? I was just offering some ideas, all of which are good if he wants to speed up the requirement process. If he can't use the maul because he doesn't want to switch out a SOJ with a Titan ring, then he loses 7 skill points, not just 1. Simple math. If he chooses to put 20 points into strength instead of vitality because it will cost him a skill point, it is his call, but probably not a good one. 2 BK would be ideal, forget 2 SOJ. BK offers .5 life per level, which would mitigate putting points into strength instead of vitality. I don't see a lot of BK rings for offer, but I hope it works out for him.
I know this is obvious, but dropping a shael in the maul will help for the toe to toe encounters, if he can't switch to a faster/better weapon. It seems pretty slow regardless, but it packs a punch.
yes exactly, this maul is designed for either shifted geddon wolf or for a melee druid.
considering the ability to use HoW and all the str you need for the weapon, youll do some damage with it on fire immunes plus a volcano. nosferatu, 20% ias, 10% cblow blood gloves, highlord's, some of those storm trek's and like a CoH, youll be doing some damage plus leeching and looking MAD cool.
add a might merc to the mix and you'll kill stuff in a few swings or less easy in hell.
Soepgroente
23-07-2004, 01:34
6 facet crystal sword + 4 facet monarch would own earthshifter when talking pure damage. Kinda expensive though, but just to show, even if you get all that str to wear it you're still out-damaged. For windies it's even worse, they need fcr somewhere, and it doesn't give that either.
I sorta figured that it would be the case that it doesn't fit anywhere. It's something of a trophy, and once ladder is over I'll be able to supply all the items I need to make a build that can use it fairly well. Thanks for the input guys.
It does give FCR...and a Hel rune in it would bring it down to 202 STR, which isn't SO bad when you consider what it would give you...
also, consider that Enigma armor (which a lot of ppl like for the Teleport and +2 Skills) also gives .75 STR per level...at 69, when you could finally use this, Enigma would give 51.75 STR...and if you happen to use a Jalal's instead of a Ravenlore, Jalal's gives another 20 STR....there's also Leviathan armor (if you wanted to make up for some of your "glass cannon" with a lot of defense) instead of Enigma, that adds 40-50 STR, and has some good DR, and if you used Verdungo's for the DR you'd get 30-40 VIT, which could free up for some points for putting into STR...
oh, if you're a Wind druid using this, the +7 Cyclone armor along with synergies from your wind skills would absorb a lot of elemental dmg and make up for some of the lack of resists...
and besides, unlike Sorcs and Necros who have to stop to aim at their enemies, Druids are like savage deadly deers...we jump around, avoid getting hit and shoot flaming molten balls of fire from our mouths...you shouldn't be getting hit by more elemental attacks anyway...
I just restarted my Elem druid tonight and am only 6 and I already want one of these...
btw, when this is used by a druid, does the 20% chance for lvl 14 Fissure take advantages of synergies? (probably doesn't but worth asking)
The crushing blow mod is high, and if ya didn't notice, it's one of the highest dmg weapons in the game...I think you could make a fun build around a melee druid (non-shifter) that uses lvl 34+ (+7 from this, +2 From Jalal's or you could get a +2 Elem +3 Armegeddon/Fissure pelt...rare, but possible, or you could Delirium a +3 x/y/z skill pelt, +3 from Elem amulet, +2 from Enigma) Armegeddon/Hurricane and Fissure/Tornado/whatever along with a weapon this powerful...it gives +14 Mana after each kill (which could probably one-hitters and everything takes dmg from Armegeddon and the Fissure procs) too
it could make a good end-game weapon to upgrade to....
Mang Songs with perf fire resist lowering would be so much better. You can also socket it with a -5/5 fire facet for fun, instead of having to use a Hel rune.
It would not just give more damage (will it do more dmg? idk, but it would at least be close.), but the +skills would affect your OS, Grizzly if you have one of those, and so on. +5 to OS gives you some extra life that could be useful due to the fact you wont have any block.
The only part i wouldnt like with using Mang Songs instead is that EarthShifter looks sooo much cooler ;)
Mang Songs still sound cooler though
It's also a level 82 item...so use this until then!
inkanddagger
25-07-2004, 23:43
if you use the volcano charges to synergize fissure, you can max:
fissure, firestorm, cyclone armor, tornado, hurricane.
magefists + 20fcr on shifter, + arachnid, + 1 10 fcr ring = as much fcr as most wind druids ever use.
birdfoot
26-07-2004, 09:31
geez... i hope i don't get flamed for this cos imma gonna say that it's quite viable (forcefully)... :P anyway, here goes...
i believe that Earthshifter makes more sense to be used with a werewolf/bear who casts armaggedon during a fight... i have not tried it myself but looking at its dmg and +skills alone, it's pretty logical for it to be used for a fire wolf (more than a bear actually, cos of AR bonus)... however, i've tried it on my fire mage druid which is 1/3 summoner... currently, it works fairly well... although, i'm quite sure that in hell with more than 4 players, imma gonna have big probs...
my reason for starting one was becos i've not tried a fire druid before and i've got my Earthshifter and Ravenlore collecting dust for quite some time now... one problem with my char is that i need lotsa +skills to boost up the fire dmg... worst of all, nothing is really synergised fully... it rocks in 1 player hell at act 1 so far (cos i just got there and hasn't died so far), managed to quest till tamoe highlands... nm baal wasn't too much of a problem (but took me quite a few full rejuv pots), but i didn't max out some of my core skills (due to complacency)... i must agree that adding alot of stats to str was kinda wasteful, but in order for me to realise the potential of this build, i had to do it... i kinda regretted it at 1st cos it didn't kill baal as fast as i expected, but taking into account i wasn't in my best gears, maybe it isn't too bad... my gears are as follows:
Equipment
Helm: Ravenlore (socketed w/ die +5/-3 fire facet)
Armor: Perfect Skin of the Vipermagi (gonna change to Archon Plate CoH soonz for better looks and resistances... :))
Belt: Gloom's Trap (don't have an arachnid, thinking of TGod's, Verdungo's, Trangs' Girth* or Crendendum) *preferred
Gloves: Magefist
Boots: Tearhaunch
Amulet: Magic +3 Elemental Skill Amulet (looking for +2 Druid skills rare amulet with resistance and +dex/life)
Rings: 2x SOJs
Weapon: Earthshifter (socketed w/ Hel)
Charms: 1x Elemental GC, 1x Summoning GC
Skills invested so far
20 Molten Boulder
20 Fissure
20 Volcano
10 Firestorm
10 Direwolves
1 Raven
1 Oak Sage
Currently this is okay for normal game play... it however has some probs with bosses... i'm considering to add a point to grizzly bear for bosses cos direwolves die too fast against them... in normal gameplay though, direwolves are better... previous experience with grizzly bears for wind druid was that it can't lure enough enemies away from me... hence, more wolves to distract enemies keeps you and your merc safer; besides, they can take quite a beating... i have yet to die in a 1 player game and killing is relatively fast in hell at act 1...
there's no prob with immune to fire mobs... reason being, molten boulder and volcano are both half-physical damage... my killer skill is volcano, which i use for killing unique monsters... mass killing is fissure but it doesn't work against immune fire so i still use molten boulder or volcano depending on situation... molten bolder for tight spaces like in maggots lair or arcane, which volcano in open spaces... btw, volcano can 'halt' an enemy if you cast on them, only prob is, there are some places (like near an edge or small space) that your volcano can't be cast... it's actually quite a fun build cos you need to be more strategic than usual... i have Earth Shaker + Lidless Wall on the swap and its definitely safer than using Earthshifter... however, it's pretty much a trade-off actually... either power or safety... with Earth Shaker, you can use HoTo in place... summons will be stronger becos of the +skills but you elemental dmg will fall by +4... you can also max blocking in this case and probably even do abit of melee... with Earthshifter, you can't block and will get hit easily so more care needs to be taken... also, you'll need to deal with the lack of resistance one way or another... with more str being added, you'll most likely find that there aren't much valuable points you can add to dex... this will also eliminate the possibility of being able to go into some melee fun... however, the gameplay becomes more straightforward IMHO... if you can't block, you need to find a safe spot... you won't take much risks as opposed to using a shield... more strategy in terms of mob engagement, how you position your ravens, wolves and yourself... to me, it's much more fun than i ever had before... :) btw, it'll be way cool if my druid could go for alittle melee with Earthshifter... attacking speed ain't too bad, moreover, 200+ str... hmmmz... i usually add the str i need for the gears i wear (cos don't wanna compromise on a pop or things like that...)
sorry for the long post... :)
Earthshifter sucks. That's the simple fact. Earthshaker has always sucked, and Earthshifter just ups the suckage a few notches.
SS+Wizardspike over it ANY day. It's not that great. Blizz doesn't understand that melee can't viably swing at 15 frames an attack (Exaggeration, get over it), and 10fcr isn't enough for an already incredibly slow casting form.
Earthshifter vs. HoTO/SS (perfect setup)
Earthshifter - +4 Elemental, -87 Str,
H/SS - +62 resist all (Um ss), with +25 light and +60 cold additionally, +30FCR, +3 Summoning, +35% Damage Reduced, +75% Block (Those 100 points of str you'd need for Earthshifter could go a long way as dex for block with SS, as well as +10 dex from HoTO), +30 STR for anything higher than SS, 15% Increased max mana, 20 replenish life.
Each have one socket so that factor doesn't really matter.
Is +4 ele really worth 87 points of str, massive resists, +3 other skills, 30fcr, HUGE dr, block, and all that mana?
birdfoot
26-07-2004, 11:29
well, if i were to choose, i'd use a HoTo for sure... but have never tried using an Earthshifter before, so giving it a go (instead of leaving it there) since i wanted to make a fire mage druid... anyway, using Earthshifter is still viable (of cos not a top build for sure)...
you're right dimoak, a HoTo/SS owns Earthshifter anytime... :) seriously, i can't think of much reason for using Earthshifter unless one were intending to push skill levels to the limit... but to put in a fair statement for those intending to use Earthshifter, it's still a fun weapon to use if you're into strategic gameplay or if you're a power-hungry animal! :)
it's not impossible to boost resistance to the max using Earthshifter and I seriously think that FCR isn't of core importance to a fire druid (unless you're into firestorm).... major trade-off would be +skills to other skill trees, DR, blocking and heavy reliance on equipment... the only good thing so far seems to be +4 elemental skills (which in other's opinions may not be that good since it's only to a skill tree) that you can use for killing enemies faster... for my char, summons are nothing more but tankers... i'm still in charge of killing (with a little help from me merc).... besides, the fun thing about it is to position your summons and yourself well so that mobs don't get to you (ideally) so DR and blocking can be disregarded (in a multiplayer game, this is seriously difficult, not to mention chaos sanctuary even for 1 player)... it's definitely not a fantastic gear for elem druids, but it's alot more challenging... :)
P.S. if ya wanna use Earthshifter, do re-consider whether you wanna do armaggedon... :)
Bob_TheMadCow
26-07-2004, 14:31
I think streatching yourself to get Direwolves was a good move. A 1pt grizz will be worth it, cause he has the same base life at lvl 1 as lvl 40, and each point in DW boosts it, so he should be able to tank quite well even at lvl 1. As I said earlier, Earthshifter lends itself to a glass connaon build. It's not so much that it sucks, but more that it makes you pay very dearly for those extra +elemental skills.
But seriously it's too slow as a melee weapon. It's a base 24 frame attack with WB, 29/16 fury on WW. The fastest you can get it to go would be 13 frames on the WB, or a 16/9 fury on the WW. In human mode you'd start at 20 and be able to force it down to 13. So you weren't really exagurating Dimoak.
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