Direction of Druid Changes are the Critical Turning Point of D2R (P 2.4)

General Discussion
1

I heard that the Druid was going to be able to cast spells or cast at least hurricane in Wolf form? Let me explain to you how this change could be bad or even turn in to a catastrophe considering that Armageddon in Wolf form is already a bent rule with an implication of wrong direction/aim.

There are 3 diversitalists/soloists in D2R and they are the Amazon, Assassin, and Necromancer. The Druid is not included whatsoever as he is a Tank Support. Contrast this with the Necromancer who is a Cannon Soloist for example.

What are the Rules that Ama, Sin, and Nec follow that classify them as Diversitalists/Soloists? There are at least 4.

  1. Complete and Legitimate builds push for spanning all 3 skill trees.

  2. Individual skills can be used primarily or as back up that don’t need synergies.

  3. Synergies tend not to cross between entire skill trees.

  4. Magic damage skills available.

Do your research and investigate this yourself to find out how true it is, however, Armageddon broke the rules with bear and wolf form Armageddon and oak legitimacy. The first thing to note there is the cross skill tree synergy.

The second thing is that the druid’s uniqueness brought him some close proximity offensive spells like Armageddon which would align with the druid becoming more durable in wolf form (mind you this may even factor oak). Because of both the alignment between damage type and range of both fire claws and Armageddon, it would seem obvious that both worlds were brought together to just “liberate the spectrum” and generate a creative and cohesive theme. This is a dangerous territory however because it starts to confuse the tank/support druid with the diversitalists/soloists.

I don’t want to leave this thread here under the impression that it’s still not possible to take realistic and quality steps forward with out damaging the Identity of Diablo 2 though, but you need to direct your hopes alternatively as I lay this out for you.

  1. Hurricane on Werewolf or Bear is a Bad Idea.

  2. All Summons out at once is a considerable idea because single skill tree dedicated druid’s need to be viable, BUT they need to be viable in a unique and unclashing manner to the other heroes.

  3. Unique Druid Pelts that provide + 1 fire mastery and/or +1 cold mastery (from the sorceress) is a GOOD idea. The Druid is a mana regenerator with his solar creeper that the Necromancer is very jealous of. (I’ve talked about redemption on iron golem). If he can regenerate his mana from 1 skill dedicated to mana regeneration then he should be using his mana. It might just be uncertain why there wouldn’t be a corresponding increase in mana cost with Fire and Cold mastery pelts, but then again… the Druid is not an intelligence core stat hero so it’s almost uncertain where the druid should use solar creeper, but I do see how it would work with infinity.

  4. It’s also a good idea because the druid receives 2 life per vitality point comparable to sorceress and necromancer. This could mean that he may be the simultaneous melee and ranged of the game but in a very divided and situational way. This makes a lot of sense when you just consider the way he functions. Cold Mastery and Fire mastery might not be the answer though, maybe more like lower resist curse with out being plague runeword. Cast lower resist when struck on a druid pelt maybe.

Follow my writing trail here

and DO. YOUR. HOMEWORK.

2

Did randy get a new account? Nothing in this rant made any sense.

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3

What? The druid is a “jack of all trades, master of none”. He can do everything in the game, but generally there is another class that can do a specific task or role better than him… What are you talking about?

Armageddon and Hurricane in WW/WB form is nowhere near as strong as Auradin/Tesladin, so why is giving WW/WB the ability to cast Hurricane “bad” or “a catastrophe” as you say?

I have tested a WW druid with hurricane and fury in PTR, it is a fun, novel build. Not broken or overpowered, just fun and silly…

The whole game is full of confusing and strange builds, just look at the sorceress for example; bear sorceress, crossbow sorceress, immortal sorceress (energy shield). All those builds go against the sorceress’ theme as being a glass cannon, caster type character…

4 Likes
4

FALSE

https://ibb.co/1MX3kS9

Do. Your. Homework.

I said that the Druid was divided down the middle in his design for sure, but I did not say that that pushes him in to an “extremity of cannon and tank” either way because of it.

His primary strength/role is Tank/Support. Solar Creeper is a deception on a hero who needs mana less than the Bone Necro does in particular.

He is not a diversitalist or soloist in the same sense that the 3 aforementioned heroes are and his design is in the spirit of the sorceress’ “dependant” role but he is by no means “dependant”. He is exclusive skill tree viable in that sense.

That’s what truly narrows him down to the support and then on to tank with high life pool and life steal scaling impact.

He’s not a glass cannon caster of the intelligence world, rather, he is more like a 1 hit wonderer with infinity.

Meaning, most of his spell casts should not function with faster cast rate.

And solar creeper, poison creeper, and carrion vine seem like the worst skills in the game because they obviously can be 1 pointed like the way a soloist would 1 point corpse explode, or slow missile, or cloak of shadows… but these vines don’t hold weight on their own like a soloist , which he is not.

An argument could definitely be made for cross synergies somehow but I’m not even sure if these skills should be in the game the way that they are for him.

On Second thought if Solar and Carrion supported the whole team, only then would we see the light of their potential worth.

5

Doesn’t matter how many times you edit this incoherent gibberish, It still makes no sense.

12 Likes
6

Who says is a tank support?
The old blizz disbanded and they were no changes to a half made class. So you all invented the support idea cause there wont be any balance.

Druid wasnt made for a support, if otherwise plz post me the words from blizzard, saying that druid made for support purposes

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7

I am glad i am not only one. I was reading it and was like: “What the hell is he trying to say…”

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8

LMAO, diablo classes dont have roles. You are confusing this with wow.

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This is in fact 100% false.

The Druid does not have masteries like the sorceress for his elements so he does not scale in the elemental department beyond what synergies provide.

Take Feral Rage for instance, it reaches 4-88 % life steal on attack and beyond with even additional bonus levels from gear and charms.

He’s getting enhanced life from lycanthropy and enhancement of that life from oak sage.

The fact that he dominates on the tank role is not even arguable.

And since everyone does oak, wolverine, or barbs shows that supporting is the staple of every build.

10

You are in fact 100% false with this whole topic.

Diablo 2 classes have no roles. Every character has skills which can provide damage, various kinda of support, tanking or utility. It always depends on how you build your character.

Can you build your Sorceress as tank? Yes you absolutly can, can you build her as damage dealer /Glass Cannon? Yes of course. Can you build her as support? Oh yes, teleporting provide support to your group just like enchant.

So as you can see all characters have these option, but default position is always versatile character and its up to xou what you make out of it.

Druid is getting significant changes for the first time since d2lod was released and you dont like it? Its crazy.

Melee druids had serious issues in past, summoner was garbage and elemental druid was well playable basicly only with enigma and the wind build. Many druid skill were complete useless or pointless to level up.

Blizzard is finaly adressing all this after so many years making druid as playable class for a lot of people who would not touch him before. And you think its bad? Lol.

8 Likes
11

I provided the accurate perception in a 1. bad idea 2. considerable idea and 3. good idea format.

I never said changes to summons was a bad idea, proceeded to challenge it, then I questioned why neglect of a good idea is going on here.

At first I considered a pelt with +1 fire and +1 cold mastery but then thought better of it and realized plague was stealing from what should be on a druid pelt “% chance to proc lower resist on hit”

Second, each class has major and minor role identity and the minor roles are more ethereal and controversial than the major ones but this is mostly because it is true that each hero touches base on almost every concept that any other skill can be classified as under any other hero.

For example, Enchant from the Sorceress.

It’s the one potential support skill the Sorceress has, but every other hero has a support skill. She has to dedicate herself hard to it for it to be viable compared to other support skills.

Enchant is the only exclusive support skill because every hero needs a relationship with their mercenary who doesn’t have a follower skill especially such as the barb and sorc.

If there was no Mercenary for everyone, then I’m 100% sure enchant would have never existed. But the fact she can cast it on her merc means or meant that it would obviously be allowed to cast on everyone else.

But see how it casts individually and not on any more than 1 target at a time?

Purpose: Meant strictly for the fact that everyone gets 1 mercenary.

https://ibb.co/1MX3kS9

The Sorceress is NOT a Support, nor is she a Diversitalist/Soloist. She is a Dependant.

She places a single buff on ONE TARGET meant for the Mercenary

And so therefore depends on that target because she infused nearly everything she had in to him/the target. THAT is the correct implication.

Also, the skill Static would be her soloing aspect if static was not limited to non lightning immunes. But that reinforces exactly why she is once again Dependant.

Only sparks of alternative roles that every other hero does says nothing about the Big Picture identity of Diablo 2. And then when you finally sit down to properly analyze those sparks, they actually line up to support the overall role identity accordingly.

It can even be said that the Sorceress depends on every one else, especially and particularly the identities that are male in the game.

https://ibb.co/BL6636R

Then when you properly make the final realization that she is actually depending on herself when she casts enchant on herself… you’re like “oh she is female! problem solved!”

You’re suddenly shut down by that final dagger to the heart, because Fire identifies as Masculine.

BOOM

And that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

The Hidden Progressive Sexism of Diablo 2 exposed.

12

i think you played way too much wow. There are no real roles or responsibilities on d2. All classes are DPS.

1 Like
13

The Necromancer is a Glass Cannon Soloist

The Sorceress is a Glass Cannon Dependant

The Sorceress depends on others in virtually the same way that a Necromancer depends on his own minions. But they are his minions so he is independent(soloist).

Note: 2 life per vita is what both the Sorc and Necro receive hence “Glass… Cannon”

Amazon and Assassin are Diversitalists/Soloists

Barbarian, Druid and Paladin are Supports.

“Everyone is DPS” is a Diablo 3 statement. This is not the Diablo 3 forum.

Diablo 2 has Tanks, Cannons, Supports or Supports, Diversitalists/Soloists, Dependants

Depending on which lens you choose to see the heroes though.

14

You just added all these non sense by yourself. Blizzard never implent such role thing to heros in the game. They may have give them different feels to it, but EVERY char has the ability to solo the game by default.

Stop your crap.

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15

Except for the dependant(Sorceress) who stops soloing when she runs in to multi immune monsters to both of her elements and has to invest in two separate masteries which cripples her utility potential.

Solo is with out mercenary, that’s what solo means. If you require or include the merc then you are “dependant”.

16

If you equip a belt then you are Potion Dependant (doubling as Support).

17

WoW classes generally have two or three different roles depending on which talent tree you spec in. A WoW paladin can be tank, dps or heal depending on spec. Or at least, that’s how it was 12 years ago when I last played. Roles in WoW were more a function of build than class.

18

Why? Do people often do Armageddon with shapeshifting? It doesn’t seem like it synergizes well since if you’re using either shapeshift, you’re probably focused on melee combat and need most of your points in the relevant skills. You’re not going to be able to spend lots of points making armageddon as good as it can be. The only benefit otherwise is simply having more life.

All Summons out at once is a considerable idea because single skill tree dedicated druid’s need to be viable, BUT they need to be viable in a unique and unclashing manner to the other heroes.

I don’t see how they “clash” with anything other than a max skelly+revive necro. Even then I don’t see it being a big issue unless you’re playing on Switch with 4 people all doing summoning tress.

The only thing I want to see with Druid right now is tuning Poison Creeper upward and removing the Rabies synergy being required for it to be useable.

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19

wtf did i just read?

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20

This guy has never played a shapeshifting druid and felt TRUE pain.

Every class has better utility than that garbage hurricane. There is a reason elemental druids barely register on the viable tier ranking. It’s aura is terribly tiny. You need to be ontop of something for it to register. But how easy is that if any monster just runs away? Can’t use teleport, leap, or charge like…certain superior classes.

Also how many druids are left? Really think about this. Do YOU play shapeshift druid? Most players are just judging something they don’t understand. Everyone is a paladin, sorc, barb, necro… even assassin, before they main a druid.

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