Druid Feedback and what we need for further testing

Hi All,

I have spent some hours testing the Druid on PTR. I will keep this brief, many other posts go into depth of these topics.

SUMMONING TREE

  • Damage still too low, even with Heart of the Wolvering, Might Act 2 Marc, Pride and Beast (4 Auras!). Too low to be enjoyable playing and having clear speed at all respectable. We are not talking about wanting to be S tier suddenly. Just want this to be playable and fun…

  • Please allow at the very least wolves and bear to be up together, at most all summons

  • Ravens are an interesting idea, but something is missing. Either summon all in once cast, or increase the number of hits

ELEMENTAL TREE

  • Twister still too low damage to be worth using, even maxed out, please increase

  • Please decouple Armageddon from Wind tree prerequisites - we need those skill points

  • Fire skills damage still seems to be too low to rival other caster builds

  • Arctic Blast better, but still meh

SHAPESHIFTING TREE

  • IAS are massive. I am all FOR greater weapon diversity, but I am AGAINST massively nerfing current builds. Consider some mechanic that would make builds on Live do similar damage and content clearing capacity to make this IAS change viable.

  • Rabies - still very weak skill with the poison duration as it is. Please limit duration like on Plague Javelin

  • Fire Claws - please change synergies to [Firestorm and Fissure] or [Firestorm and Volcano] instead of [Firestorm and Molten Boulder]. This will make interesting builds and elemental synergies possible - Molten Boulder does not fit anywhere.

  • Hunger - please consider making this an Always Hit skill

  • Hybrid elemental/shapeshifter builds might become more of a thing with PTR attack speed changes, but we need more weapons to test this (see below), and we need the Elemental Tree changes (as above)

WHAT WE NEED FOR TESTING

Please add more uniques to the Druid stash to allow for testing hybrid builds that might benefit from IAS changes due to viable weapon pool being bigger. At the very least please include:

  1. Windhammer
  2. Earth Shifter
  3. Fleshrender
  4. Earthshaker
  5. Facet jewels on one of the template chars would be welcome
  6. Please boost characters to lev 99, or allow for the possibility to do so. Not all builds can be tested without filling in the skills/synergies
  7. Please change or add some of the weapon bases intended for melee/missile runewords from Exceptional level to Elite level. Nobody would ever use these bases, and it makes testing hard to assess and compare to Live.
  8. Druid pelt (headgear) base with 3 sockets with skills for elemental skills to test Flickering Flame, and a mix of skills to test hybrid builds with Flickering Flame or Delirium

MERCENARIES

As mentioned by others, some improvements are there, but Act2 Merc still dominates.

  • Infinity runeword needs to be possible in all weapons, it is too strong and endgame for most builds

  • Insight runewords needs to be usable in swords to allow for Act3 and Act5 mercs to use them

  • Consider what else can mercs provide to rival the party encompassing benefits of auras? Consider please removing the weaker skill from each merc tree (e.g Fire Arrow, Firebolt, Bash) and put something of higher value to the party.

Thank you for the work so far. Please hear our feedback and be careful before Go Live with some of the changes.

3 Likes

+1

Summoning Tree - still useless, needs a total rebuild it’s, not just increase dmg.
Elemental Tree - Fire Druid is still unplayable in Hell without Infinity. Armageddon has a bit phys dmg, yea super, but still it has almost 0 successful hits.
Shapeshifting - I am very sad and disappointing about that. I love Fury Druid, but this way it isn’t playable at all.

I see potential of hybrid Fury + Hurricane, but how we can test it with that AS on Wolf? I would add Ribracker to testing. I hope it will be a fun and satisfaction to play Druid in this game yet.

I made a bunch of observations and referenced all of them at the bottom of each topic.
i.e. The Shaper IAS one is here: Shape attack speeds issue - Not working as intended

I am now looking at this forum to see what was covered by players and adding my 2 cents.
Therefore I 100% agree with : IAS are massive. I am all FOR greater weapon diversity, but I am AGAINST massively nerfing current builds <i.e. shapers>. Consider some mechanic that would make builds on Live do similar damage and content clearing capacity to make this IAS change viable.

Alternatively grant +teleport in shape form and problem solved.