It’s way too much “giant bug” and not enough “guy”.
If it wasn’t for the liiiiiiittle tiny bit of tattered cloth you can barely make out when he’s standing still, that thing just looks like a big Locust. There’s some semblance of a human-esque shape to the main hind legs and a little more in the chest, and that’s about it. Neither of them are noticed easily if at all from the isometric perspective.
I don’t know about anyone else, but this really puts a pretty substantial damper on the feel of the Form as far as being a “transformation” like the other two. It doesn’t feel like you’re transforming into a Swarmblade Form but just into a Swarmblade itself. Looking at the concept art for Swarmblade, every single last one of them has a substantial amount of humanity left in it literally until the final finished version, where it’s all gone.
I’ve had a vision for the Swarmblade Form and I can’t let it go now, I’m envisioning more of a…man being carried by a giant bug.
Not like, literally, but the Swarmblade bits would be up on the top, wings and a MUCH smaller thorax coming out just south of his shoulderblades, the head being largely insectoid but leaving the Primalists beard and jaw to show through, giving it the appearance of a grisly headdress. The Primalists legs and torso and arms would still be very human, with bits of chitin and insect sort of spilling out from his shoulders and neck down. His legs don’t quite leave the ground, they more drag across it as he is propelled by the wings. A second pair of giant scythe arms grow above his own now smaller and weaker human arms, the former used for the Swarmblades melee attacks, the latter for summoning its hives.
Sort of like, Blue Beetle from the DC universe…It’s like this big mutant hybrid growth that comes out of him or attaches to him like parasite. It’s like a symbiotic metamorphosis instead of a full on transformation, this bug entity growing into and out of his spine and brain, carrying his half limp body around - it’s super appropriate for nasty bug behavior too, as they do have a penchant for carrying around the half dead bodies for their own devices.
Werebear, Spriggan, both of those look like a guy who has transformed into a thing. Swarmblade just looks like a thing, and it…bugs me.
It is badass, but I don’t think it fits with the other two forms and how they keep the character very humanoid. They have sentiments in their wording for the Werebear and Spriggan form reworks that speak to their desire to be thematic and consistent between the Mastery skills and their aesthetics, and I think they missed the mark by a bit on this one, you aren’t playing a Primalist who’s transformed into a giant bug, you’re just a giant slashing insect, and it doesn’t quite fit.
The Spriggan has a human body, human face, a beard and hair (made of leaves) and is very human. The Werebear stands upright, has visible clothing, jewelry, war paint, and a pair of big braids. The Swarmblade is, like you said just a badass giant slashing insect.
If half-man, half-bug wasn’t what they were going for, which I think it sort of obviously was in at least some capacity, why was half-man half-whatever what they went for on the others? Why does it retain any human features (the barely-there loincloth and oh-so-subtly-human torso and 1/2 of each limb) at all, if these were unintended features to begin with? How come all of the concept art, even the final version, still looks fairly humanoid - until the actual model comes into play? Even the posture changes and becomes almost wholly insect.
Again, I think they just missed the mark, thematically, by a couple notches on the man/bug slider. They’re like here: man---------|–bug and they should be like, here: man-------|----bug
Of course I am still enjoying it, like I said, and it’s not like I expect them to double down and change the model just for me, this is just my observation and I decided to post it in the Feedback forum to give the devs some feedback on their very new Druid form. Thanks for checking in though, I appreciate the bump at least
I like the one where he’s sitting on his thorax sort of like a throne, and he has 4 arms instead of 4 hind legs. Somehow having 2 hind legs is more human than not having 4 arms.
If they got rid of the two dangly useless mosquito legs in the back, and gave him two human-ish arms to go with his slashers, then that at least would make it feel more like a man-turned-bug than just a bug.
I really dislike this form and would rather it wasnt in the game
Maybe if it was the end result of Brundle Fly from Fly 1, maybe Primalist and a Bug get put in a telepod and make some abomination where they are fused together - not giving an Insect Scyther arms and a 6pack with chiseled muscles to fit some theme
maybe if it was some horror type scenario like a bug laid eggs in the Primalist brain and morphed into G-virus type resident evil mob but instead its this perfect marriage of bug/human which is like some kind of Kpop image it should have been utterly disgusting maybe half a Primalist coming out of the thorax and stuck there half giving birth to a Primalists head, and the Primalists head spews out toxic attacks as part of being ‘Swarmblade’ or the ‘Hives’ are small mutated half primalist half bugs that come out deformed with missing limbs
Like that boss in Sekiro who comes out of his relatives neck, he crawls out of it
Looking at the concept arts i would prefer any version that has not prevalent wings and that big tail thingy.
Having the armblades alone in combination with chitin skin, insect legs and head would be enough to make it already look way different than Spriggan.
The problem i see in making it non-float like now is that the walking animations need to be really good ,but still fitting for this type of form, and they rather stick with a floating/fly animation since its easier to realize.
But i think there are enough examples of ground based insectes they can draw from.
I know some species of Mantis cant fly so i would start with a Mantis (since thats the closest with its ‘blade arms’) and go from there.
They use there praying arms/arm blades to propel forwards but when standing still/slow moving they are hold upwards, which would give the Druid a humanoid posture when standing still/idling but an animalic look when moving/sprinting forward.
@EHG_Dodo
Maybe we can expect some visual updates for this form. What do you guys think about it?
What would you improve, what would you keep?
I thought the Swarmblade was an odd choice, versus a Scorpion Form myself at first, but went with it anyway. We have a Pet bear, we can turn into a bear. We have a pet spriggan, we can turn into a spriggan. We have a pet scorpion, we can turn into a …flying mantis beetle locust thing. Not a huge issue, but it is another inconsistency with the others, in a much broader sense than pure aesthetics. Even the Locusts themselves from our Hives have Scorpion Tails.
At this point I would be happy to continue to look past it, but the whole thing gives the Swarmblade Form’s visual much more of a “we thought this looked cool” vibe than a “we thought this fit in with the rest of the class in a cool way” vibe.
If you watch the other transformation animations, they are real fast but pretty thematic themselves. The Spriggan form almost, grows on top of the primalist like he’s enveloped in vines and roots. The werebear grows out from within the Primalist, almost like a super speedy Animorphs book cover. The Swarmblade? He just does a little spin and goes “Now I’m a bug!”
I agree it would be way cooler to watch some thing grow out of him, a giant insect explodes from his back to carry him around to do his bidding for a while like a parasitic wasp larvae.
The gameplay is slick, no complaints there. Maybe there are going to be like, alternate form MTX some day, which would be rad, and all in all I’d call the Swarmblade a resounding success, it’s just the visuals like you said that put me off even though I do enjoy it.
I think if you took the current model and cut off the tail and the wings it does look very humonoid. I think the reason the concept art feels more human is because he is standing upright on his legs where in the model the legs are not used and just crawled up as the form is in a constant state of flight. I think that’s the part that got lost in translation from art model to actual gameplay.
As for the form itself I find it cool but gross. I really don’t like incests and the fly sounds in the sewers were enough of a trigger for me now all these bug noises… I do like playing it with the sound off however. Though the skill tree could use some work. even with 70% dodge 3 rage per dodge is not enough and I can’t fathom why you have to spec into serpent strike when you’re not even gonna use it with the node behind it. But I’m getting sidetracked.
I agree with all your statements. It feels very odd considering the other two forms. And both those forms are amazing to look at. That spriggan form is gorgeous. I can’t say the same about the bug. It’s not bad and I do think it looks cool. There’s just something about it I can’t put my finger on that makes it subpar somehow.
Tbh. If they change the character model this way and give it actual walking animations instead of hovering it would already look better.
Maybe reshape the legs a bit but all in all i dont like this hovering/floating, it triggers me a bit and reminds me of League of Legends or Dota cartoon Heros.
Well, you can get +4500 flat added damage and 3000% increased damage on Locust Swarm with 50 Locusts, just from passives in that tree. That alone is worth playing around with
As far as Serpent Strike and the Node behind it, Locust Master that gives it a +5 second cooldown and summons Locusts in the interim, you can get like, 36% increased attack speed just from Serpent Strike, if you combine that with the nodes that let you summon a ton of Locusts from hitting your own stuff (and don’t tell EHG, but Swarm Strike and Dive both will trigger that release, not just Arm Slash - EHG pls don’t fix) you can cast your 4 hives, Arm Slash, Summon, Summon, Dive, Summon, Summon, Swarm Strike and you’ll have a pile of Locusts out and a big fat Locust Swarm in a matter of like, 2 seconds - without having to spec into Attack Speed at all, outside of maybe 3 points for Aspect of the Shark. If you’re doing a Player Poison Damage build, it also gives you access to Plague, Global Increased DoT, Global Increased Poison Damage, and an 18% execute threshold. Not too shabby.
I got sidetracked too! No matter how you build it, it still looks weird.
I think they have established another transformation archetype for the future. I could see that they offer different forms via mtx or items that change the appearance, like the white Werebear.
Werebear could also become a werewolf. It fits thematically with swipe and warcry, which would be a howl instead of a roar.
