So I started playing the Druid on Saturday (3/25) and thought it was relatively fine on Veteran. That was until I hit the first boss of the first quest dungeon. Then I realized how underpowered I felt. Early on I was pretty much forced into a Storm Strike/Pulverize leveling build as those were the two skills I found the most useful early level. As I leveled up and geared up, I just felt more and more underpowered to the point where I had to group up with another Druid to kill things more efficiently.
Out of all the classes, Druid is the worst class to level up early game. Even more than the Barbarian. The Barbarian can at least hold his own. That said, I do realize that the Druid is missing its Spirit Sacrifice buffs since that wasn’t part of the testing area so an accurate assessment can’t really be made. I will say that from what I experienced, the Druid feels like it is lacking roughly 15%-20% in damage output and durability compared to the Barbarian level for level.
I would seriously increase the damage output of all the active attack skills by 5% (I’m assuming the Druid class feature provides roughly 10-15% of its overall damage) just to make the Druid feel a little better during the level up process.
Also I don’t know if this was intended or not but I couldn’t imbue legendary powers over the Totem. I don’t know if this is intentional or if this is a bug. It was just annoying mostly as I ended up having to gamble a lot for the right Legendary Totem that was most useful in the build instead of imbuing it with the one I wanted.
Now that the complaining is done, here is the build I found that worked the best:
Druid Thor Build: 27 points total
5x Storm Strike Rank 3 - Fierce Storm Strike to apply Vulnerable
5x Lightning Storm Rank 3 - Primal Lightning Storm to Immobilize enemies
(note that if an item gives 1 Rank in Lightning Storm, you can swap 1 point out and put it in Predatory Instinct passive for increased Crit Chance to against close enemies)
3x Earthen Bulwark - Innate Earthen Bulwark for Barrier and a little AoE damage
3x Wolf Pack - Ferocious Wolf Pack for the companions and to passively gain Fortify
3x Hurricane - Savage Hurricane for some damage but to apply slow and gain some damage mitigation (if you have enough damage mitigation take the other that applies Vulnerable)
1x Elemental Exposure passive to allow all Storm skills the chance to apply Vulnerable
1x Charged Atmosphere passive to get a free Lightning Strike every 18 sec for decent damage
2x Bad Omen passive for the 20% chance when dealing damage to Vulnerable, Immobilized, or Stunned enemy that a lightning strike also hits dealing damage (this is the most important passive needed for this build)
3x Cataclysm - Supreme Cataclysm to apply Vulnerable
Weapons for the Build: 1H weapon + Totem (for damage output and to get 2 legendary powers)
Legendary Powers:
Most important:
- Critical Strikes with Storm Skills charge the air for X seconds causing a Lightning Strike to periodically hit for X Lightning damage (I had it drop on my weapon)
- Lucky Hit: Up to % chance when dealing Lightning damage to overload the target for 3 seconds, causing any direct damage you deal to them to pulse X additional damage to surrounding enemies (Mine rolled 26% for 238 damage on my necklace)
- Damaging an Elite enemy grants you a Barrier absorbing up to X damage for X seconds (can be found as a drop or imprinted through the Codex of Power. it is mainly used as a catalyst for the next legendary listed)
- Deal X% increased damage while you have a Barrier active (I was able to get this on my gloves and it is where my damage shot up in conjunction with the other required legendaries and Earthen Bulwark skill)
- Gain 1 additional Companion. In addition, your Companion Skills deal 150% bonus damage (this is why we take Wolf Pack skill)
- Core Skills deal an additional X% damage for each active companion (this damage bonus layered with the Barrier Damage bonus and other damage bonuses is how we get the crazy Lightning damage)
- Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast by X% up to X% (I had mine on my totem for 5%/50%)
Optional Powers:
- When you have Fortify your Earth Skills gain +2 Ranks. (This is a boost to the damage mitigation from Earthen Bulwark skill when the Wolf Pack gets you Fortify. The amount of Fortify doesnt matter as long as you gain the Fortify status. This wasnt a necessary power but I felt it synergized with the build. This is a take it or leave it kind of power.)
- Using a Basic Skill reduces damage by X% (more damage mitigation to be tanky as possible)
Rotation:
Normal Mobs: You gather up a pack and use Hurricane to apply Vulnerable. If you took the 1 point into the Predatory Instinct passive, you will notice just your basic skill is enough to chain vaporize everything you swing at as soon as it gains the Vulnerable status (purple outline on its health bar).
Elite and Boss Mobs: You do the same thing with the normal mobs but you have more buttons. As soon as you hit the Elite or Boss, you will auto proc your Barrier which will turn on your damage boost. Wait until this boost is on its 30 second cooldown to use Earthen Bulwark to have a longer up time on the damage boost. Use Hurricane and Wolf Pack on cooldown. Use Cataclysm and Lightning Storm at your discretion for big damage.
Your welcome. 