[L] NO guide addresses this...

[MasterWolf]

What Merc should a PvM / Maybe PvP Shapeshifter use? Blessed Aim needed? or the usual Holy Freeze?

[TheWormishOne]

What Merc should a PvM / Maybe PvP Shapeshifter use? Blessed Aim needed? or the usual Holy Freeze?

That all depends. What with Werewolve's non-existing crowd control capabilities, a Holy Freeze merc would indeed be a prudent choice. A Werebear could on the other hand get away with Shockwave as crowd control, but with AR from HoW I don't know that Blessed Aim would be the way to go.

Edit: And I'm talking from a PvM point of view. I wouldn't know anything about PvP.

[MasterWolf]

HoW over Oak? For fireclaws?

[Chimaira]

Since werewolves usually use 2-handed weapons with big damage my personal favourite is a Might merc, but Holy Freeze is (almost) always nice. I wouldn't choose Blessed Aim for wolves since they already have a quite substantial bonus to AR...Bears however could benefit quite a lot from a Blessed Aim merc.

For Fireclaws I'd say Oak Sage...the physical damage enhancement of HOW is wasted on a Fireclaws bear (I presume you are using a 6xShael Phase Blade or something equally fast with crap damage). With "only" the AR bonus I like Oak better...

You are also quite fragile, unlike other melee characters, so that extra life is nice! If your AR is totally crap the of course HOW.

[TheWormishOne]

HoW over Oak? For fireclaws?

Oh, sorry. There are some crazy people in this world who still likes to play a physical Werebear now and then :p No HoW for Fireclaws! But you wouldn't want a Blessed Aim merc either, then.

[MasterWolf]

OK, well this is my first SSer, and I'm not all that sure what to do. I figured just try to max out Fire Claws and one or two synergies and figure the rest out later. It seems most SSing builds focus on PvP but I wanted a mainly PvMer, so I'm not sure exactly what to do. I figure fast attack and enough AR to hit 80%. But I dunno if I'm supposed to max out either Bear or Wolf, or what. I was gonna go HF merc, but didn't want to end up being wrong. But yes, this will be a mostly Fire damage Wolf, maybe a Rabies hybrid. Very little physical damage.

[TheWormishOne]

For speed and AR you'd definetily want to go with Werewolf. If you haven't allready done so, you should read Electric Blue's marvelous Hybrid Wolf Guide. As I said, I'm a complete ignorant when it comes to PvP, but for a PvM wolf there's no better merc than a Holy Freeze'er.