I just started playing D4 yesterday and I’m currently level 30 on my druid. I’ve been enjoying the campaign so far, but my damage feels so weak and my health goes down so fast even when I’m fighting regular enemies. I just killed Astaroth on my first try but the fight took me about 5 - 7 minutes.
Is this normal for D4? I’m pretty sure I wasn’t this squishy when I first played D3.
Here, some leveling giudes.
(https://maxroll.gg/d4/build-guides?filter[classes][taxonomy]=taxonomies.classes&filter[classes][value]=d4-druid&filter[metas][taxonomy]=taxonomies.metas&filter[metas][value]=d4-leveling)
Oh nice i’ll check them out. Thanks 
I haven’t played the campaign in months, but defense has been reworked recently. You want armor for physical defense, resistances for your elemental defense and flat damage reduction and health also help.
You’d have to post more about your build to say anything about your offense situation, if you’re running pulverize or boulder or shred or whatever. A good dps weapon is the most important part of your damage output besides your build.
Yes and no. A few things:
Firstly, the game is balanced around having all of the extra stats and skills that you get via renown rewards. If you’re brand new, you won’t have any of that, and it has a big impact. After collecting all of the “Altar of Lilith” rewards, plus powering through the renown tiers, you’ll end up with dozens of extra stats and 10+ extra skill points, which makes a very significant difference at low levels.
Also, even with the above bonuses, the early levels can be a bit sketchy until you can get enough gear, gems, potions, aspects and other defensive stuff to be more robust. Some of this is particularly important for survivability; it’s actually quite easy to become practically invincible in normal content, but to get to that point you may have to unlock certain aspects by running dungeons, and of course hitting 50 and getting access to Paragon stuff gives you another avenue to strongly boost your HP, armour and resists.
And of course, you have to actually choose wisely in terms of balancing offensive and defensive power; if you go full ‘glass cannon’ it will be harder to survive, you do actually have to invest in defensives if you want to live (though I’m coming from the perspective of a HC player - obviously survivability is a bit more important there!)
Honestly, sounds pretty normal, especially for a first run. Some of the bosses are pretty tanky, and they’re not meant to be trivial. The fact that you got through it first go means that you’re winning, as far as I’m concerned!
Thanks for the detailed response. For some reason I never realized that Altar of Liliths give extra stats, I’ll be sure to interact with them everytime I see one from now on
You really want to collect them all asap. its annyoing but its one time job at least.
Druid is slow at lvling, but its good in “endgame”.
anyway stack +%armor (still one of the most if not most important def stat) and life and you will be good. At WT4 you should cap your ele ress.
honestly, if you find druid squishy, with all the fortify they have, don’t ever even try playing a rogue. they are glass cannons.
first time leveling is rough for druids though, but I agree on the renown, even though it is a pain, it is worth it in the end for all those ability points, paragon, and stats.
So I just found out about the druid Spirit Boons today after completing my first stronghold haha. The perks they offer have really helped me out a lot. I’m no longer losing health so easily and I actually feel strong now.
I’m so focused on doing the main storyline in order to get my mount ASAP that I am missing out on important things I guess. I’m also going to start doing side quests so I can get extra potion slots and skill points. I’m learning how to play slowly but surely lol but I’m still having fun playing 
Oh wow, yeah, I forgot about the Spirit Boons, but I’m glad that is helping you!
Finishing the story (and especially getting the horse) is really important and helpful, since having the horse makes it easier and faster to get the altars, and to get everything else done. So that’s not a bad idea.
As long as you’re enjoying it, you’re certainly not doing it wrong. Having fun with it is the main thing. And while knowing and learning everything can also help to get more out of it, you only get one shot at that ‘first run’ where it’s all new and fresh and exciting. So yeah, have fun and don’t worry too much!
At level 30 just upgrade your gear to 2 levels, before you need veiled crystals.
That will make all the difference.
Some of Druids skills don’t really feel great while leveling. They get stronger though.
You can also go get all the codex aspects for druid so you can put them on your transient gear and not have to worry, this gives you some level of benefit.
I love druid, one of my top five classes At lower levels though killing can be slow. I do find most druid builds to be pretty tanky, so if you are dying a lot you may need to check you have defences.
Is this your first ARPG? One problem people coming from other types of games have is how to build damage. In a lot of games you want multiple skills and you’ll use all of them at different times. In an ARPG you generally focus on one or two damage skills (generator and spender, or close and ranged for example), and then use other skills to support that - shouts, curses, companions to apply afflictions etc. Again, it’s worth just checking you aren’t spreading your skill points too much. At level 30 I’d guess you would want probably three points in basic skills (one in the skill, and the two additional branches to the skill). Then 7 in a core skill (5 in the skill + the additionals), that leaves you 20 points you probably want in defences and passives. Bulwark, roar and/or howl, that kind of thing. This is assuming you are using a core skill.
Also while levelling I tend to change around what I’m using a lot - if I get a gear piece with +2 to a core skill, I’m likely to switch around to take advantage of that. Those two points can make a difference early on.
And to add again to what others have said - go through the campaign first. I wouldn’t do many of the side quests as the campaign caps out at level 50, so you really don’t want to over-level too much or it’ll get boring. Look up a map of Altars of Lilith and grab them when they are close. Once campaign is done I’d get the rest of the altars (it’s a pain, but with a mount and a map you can do a region in a hour). I left completing renown until I was in WT4, you will naturally be gaining it while just playing anyway, probably enough to get a lot of the skill points.
New characters after you have the +10 skill points tend to breeze through to level 40 on easy mode, you are skilled 10 levels higher than the game ‘expects’ you to be, and as long as you are switching gear up often you really do have a massive advantage. 40 to 50 ish can be a bit of a pain, but when you move to WT3 you quickly get massive gear gains. Then you get the same when you move to WT4. On both moves I have tended to find my first 30 minutes or so are dangerous, until I’ve regeared. You can cheese WT3 and WT4 gearing by going along to legion and world boss events, and just leaching XP and gear. Early season you may get a few comments, but not for long.
Druid actually struggles quite a bit early on compared to other classes but has consistently been extremely powerful at endgame.
If you’re taking too much damage it’s probably because your armor isn’t keeping up - it’s the most important defensive stat overall along with resistances. This game unfortunately really punishes you the further from the armor cap (relative for your level) you are.