» Mon May 20, 2013 4:47 pm
Taken from a base gameplay-mechanic perspective:
Depends on the Vampire because there are different builds. Werewolves (as I remember, I may be wrong) are about the same regardless of the base characters' build. Their stamina and health pools don't fluctuate, or if they do it's very little. The Vampire Lord form is more reliant on the base character's build. That build is drastically reflected while transformed. Some Vamps might focus on beefing up their stamina pools and/or their health pools, which would drastically change their Lord's pool. So in that regard the Lord could match the Wolfs' own stamina pool, or at least get really close to it. Imho, it's foolish for a vamp to do so, since it negates every bonus that makes Vampires so ominous and deadly, but to each their own .
But! That still doesn't change the fact that Griffix is right. Werewolves can generate greater damage output per swing than a Vampire Lord, regardless of the Lord's build....or even the base Wolf's build. Bottom line, in a slapping contest the Wolf will win 8 or 9 out of 10 rounds. Easy. Factor in the poison claws (if they even count. Don't WWs gain immunity to poison?) and the bat swarm and that might bump the Lord's chances...but we're still looking at 7 out of 10 in favor of the wolf.
Now factor in the Werewolf's "[censored] slap" maneuver that knocks you down, guaranteeing around 4 free hits, and the Lord's chances of survival drop considerably. Granted, this is all my conjecture, but it's based on what I've seen so far in game since vanilla.
So in short: I'm with Griffix on this one.
That's not to say that the Vampire Lord's can't deal out a whallop with their claws. It just means that they'd have a really hard time trying to take on a Werewolf with just claws. But that's the beauty of the Lords. They have so many tricks that make them deadlier and increase survival. If anything the Lord's (using all their tricks) are more likely to out last any wolf. Sure, a wolf can regen Hp by feeding, but remember that just leaves them open for free attacks, likely negating whatever benefit that would bring them.
Now, to say something like "I would just run into the woods and loose him, feed and return to battle!" then you'd be getting into game play tactics, and that's an entirely different discussion. Imho.