Wild Shape (Su): An aquatic druid gains this ability at 6th level, except that her effective druid level for the ability is equal to her druid level – 2.
I don't quite understand this. It looks to me that the aquatic druid doesn't get Wild Shape until two levels after a normal druid does and when they do, it's two levels worse than a normal druid's version of the ability.
All of which would be fine if there were some sort of payoff but I don't see one in the rest of the archetype description.
What am I missing?
Get at 6th level, function as a 4th level druid.
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Aquatic Adaptation is better than Woodland Stride.
Natural Swimmer is better than trackless step.
Seaborn is better than Venom Immunity.
Resist Oceans Fury is a wash with Resist Nature's Lure.
I'd prefer Thousand Faces to Deep Diver but they're probably about equal.
So while there's no direct trade off for thebdecrease in Wildshape it happens because overall the archetype gains better abilities than it loses.
(Though Menhir Savant doesn't seem to suffer because of that)