Thought I would compile this again, for easy reference.
Note: this is WITHOUT Boss powers, as those will be nerfed, everyone gets them during the season, you will eventually lose them, and Eternal realm does not have them.
Skills
Storm Strike
- This skill is used as a damaging attack by only one build: Greatstaff of the Crone, a Werewolf build. Expecting a human form Druid to somehow use this in the harder torments, with the new Aspect, is nonsensical, as it both lacks damage and gives far too small a buff compared to other Offensive Aspects (unless it is meant to buff seasonal boss powers, which would beâŚodd).
- It, and other basic attacks, also do not have a 4th Legendary Node they can take.
Shred
- This beloved classic Druid skill/build currently lacks the damage and survivability for Torment 4 on the PTR. While you can do open world and Helltides, bosses are pretty much impossible, unless you can attack for 15 minutes straight while avoiding constant one shots.
- The Poison tree is not used, because giving up the dashing part basically kills the entire point of Shred, and Druid poison abilities are all useless after Torment 1 (can use it to buff Season powers, but that is bad way to balance the game, because when you lose them, the build will suck again).
- Seems to hit a for a lot less than the number of multipliers would suggest. Perhaps something is bugged?
Stone Burst
- The Aspect change is welcome, but the other Aspect is still very situational. Not many people want to use Stone Burst to buff other abilities, over just using an Offensive Aspect which adds more damage to your actual damage skills. Recommend it is changed to something like âYour Stone Burst pulls targets in, dealing X increased damage for each second channeled, up to x seconds.â while keeping the increased damage to your other skills, for those masochists out there.
- CORRECTION: Stone Burst IS viable for Torment 4 due to it being bugged, and Overpowering on every cast. Just drop the Unique Totem, pick up a two-hander, and spam it. Do not channel. It requires extreme levels of gear, though.
Pulverize/Landslide/Lightning Storm/Tornado
- There is just no damage here, no matter what you do, to make these builds viable for Torment 4.
- Lightning Storm (and Stone Burst) does not proc Natureâs Fury while channeling. It only has a chance to proc at the start of the channel.
- Pulverize needs TWO Offensive Aspects before you can really even use it, and has no boss damage.
- Tornado devours resources for little damage.
- Landslide has good synergies but needs a better scaling mechanic, perhaps through its unique ring (which needs to work with all the Landslide procs, in some way).
Companion skills
- Ravens are only there to make up the numbers, literally.
- Poison Creeper lacks late-game scaling, so is relegated to utility for certain builds (and to make up the numbers for multipliers, like RavensâŚ).
- Wolves still lack AoE, because Wolfâs Rain needs hurricane aspects and boosts, which Companion builds cannot do.
Rabies
- Does no damage, requires an Offensive Aspect on the class that has the most Offensive limitations, has no scaling, does not stack properly, overwrites its own modifiers and in general is a terrible skill. Needs a complete rework.
Boulder
- Having the build-defining item (Dolmen Stone) drop from Duriel/Andariel/Belial means you can never use this until end-game, unless you are extremely lucky and get it as a world drop.
- Needs more Poison synergies, for the changed option.
- It will be the most âbalancedâ build Druids have, in that it can defeat torment 4 bosses with effort and proper gear, etc.
Hurricane
- An extremely clunky build, completely eclipsed by Cataclysm as a main damage skill.
- Used mainly for support.
- Aspect of Wolfâs Rain, while a great anime, is inherently flawed. It cannot be used by Companion druids because it scales with Hurricane, and Hurricane druids do not lack AoE, which means they gain nothing from using it. I recommend making it also scale with Companion damage somehow.
Blood Howl
- Putting more than one point in the base skill is pointless. It needs a reason to max the skill, like lowering the cooldown with more points.
- Skill becomes much, much weaker in harder content (non-boss), because everything takes so much longer to die.
- Staying in Werewolf form is a lot harder than it sounds, because small procs, runes and defensive skills will change your form.
- Having the cooldown lower when attacking bosses is an amazing change, meaning you can have the buff consistently up, and have a nice source of healing. Something similar for Elites would be great.
Grizzly Rage
- Still has far too many Aspects, especially for Werewolves.
- Still far too limiting for how little it gives (even with the crit damage fix) and how Runes swap you out of Bear/Wolf form.
- Impossible to maintain in difficult (non-boss) content, where nothing dies, i.e the Pitt.
Lacerate
- The extreme damage nerf has completely killed this build. It will now be used by no one, just like Grizzly Rage.
- A blanket nerf on all Ultimates was a very poor balance choice, as they are all at completely different levels of power and reliance on the built-in multiplier. Lacerate lost over 80% of its damage to this nerf, because the multiplier was pretty much all of its damage. Was this intended?
Cataclysm
- This still completely dominates, and will be the only thing you see in the new Torment 4, again. However, this time is a bit different, because nothing else can actually handle it, except Boulder (which is harder to gear forâŚ).
Passives
Toxic Claws
- Went from âuse 1 point to poison targetsâ to âuse 1 point if you are Shred or Lacerate and do not have the Seasonal poison powers yetâ because it does no damage.
- This should be a MAJOR source of damage for Shred and Lacerate, and be given some interesting scaling mechanics.
- Poison needs to be given more modifiers and Paragon help.
Perfect Storm
- This Key Passive needs to work with Natureâs Fury, at the very least (the new Unique helm will fail, otherwise).
- Needs a scaling mechanic.
Earthen Might
- Incredibly underpowered passive, which needs an up-time boost, to work with Storm skills without needing an Offensive Aspect (this is a recurring Druid theme), and better ways to trigger/refresh.
Natureâs Fury
- Does very little damage, and therefore cannot touch Torment 4.
Paragon Nodes
Inner Beast
- The inner beast is clearly a kitten, because this âlegendaryâ node is anything but. There are many better ways to reduce resource costs or generate resources, and the ultimate cooldown reduction is only good for using Cataclysm while gearing out (and now that your buffs do not continue between casts, there is really little reason for even this).
- Should probably be completely reworked, especially considered the de-emphasis on Ultimates.
Druid Unique Items
Greatstaff of the Crone
- This does not do anywhere near enough damage. The so-called Stormclaw build does not currently function on live Torment 4, let alone the PTR.
- The staff needs to give Claw the double attack change, make Claw cleave, remove the damage fall-off from Storm Strike chaining, and then buff all basic skill damage up by a large multiplier.
- Unfortunately, Druid unique weapons need massive stats to compete, because Druids have had all their power buffs/fixes put into a few offensive aspects, instead of properly spread around, and lack offensive slots (which uniques use up).
Waxing Gibbous
- The Blood Howl buff made this borderline usable on bosses, but it is still weaker than a two-hander with an Offensive Aspect, and you still cannot reasonably get back into Stealth when fighting any difficult content, especially The Pit. When nothing dies and there are no bosses to hit, you cannot actively reduce Blood Howlâs cooldown.
- The unique buff itself, automatic critical strikes for 4 seconds, is also too weak. There are now a zillion and one ways to max out critical strike permanently, and these ways do not require you have to have a perfectly masterworked GA cooldown Shako and Rakkanothâs to do Pitt (and maybe torment 4 on the PTR) content.
- At the very least, if Blood Howl itself does not receive more cooldown help, then this weapon needs to both lower Blood Howlâs base cooldown and increase the length of the crit buff.
- The chance to Shred to deal double damage is unfortunately still too low for it to compete with an Ancestral two-hander.
- Lacks Willpower and Max Life.
The Basilisk
- Equipping this staff means you take a massive DPS hit, because the proc does basically no damage.
- The stats are horrible and need to be reworked.
Stone of Vehemen
- Unfortunately, this has now joined the list of uniques which are worse than just using a legendary two-hander. The Stone Burst aspect change, while massively buffing Stone Burstâs damage, has resulted in not channeling at all being the best way to play the build. This means you do not increase the size of Stone Burst, thus dropping this item from the build.
Gathlenâs Birthright
- This has far too many hoops and flaws to actually work.
- The first major issue is the inability to REFRESH the buff. This alone kills the build, yet it has even more flaws.
- Perfect Storm only works on CASTS, which means it does not work on abilities procced by Natureâs Fury, which this helm is 100% designed around. This means that you need to use a Storm ability as your casting spell, or get NOTHING from Perfect Storm, and even when doing this, your Earth procs still get nothing.
- Earthen Might only works with Earth skills, and has a weird interaction with Natureâs Fury. You can make it interact with Storm skills, but this will cost you an Offensive Aspect slot and a large damage multiplier.
Malefic Crescent
- Only one build currently benefits from using this on live (thanks to it not using attack speed, being able to force crits and it being pure Wolf) and that is Lacerate. Now that Lacerate has been completely gutted, no one will use this unique.
- A LOT of people would love to use this with something like Shred and Waxing Gibbous, but currently have to take a major damage hit to do so (Wildheart Boots just give a ridiculous amount of attack speed).
- Recommend adding the movement speed to the implicit and giving it another offensive trait.
Final Notes
- Druids are far too reliant on Offensive Aspect multipliers, yet have no room to use them.
- Many Druid aspects are completely unusable, and need to be combined into skills or other aspects.
- Druids fail at doing Poison damage (too little scaling), yet have so many poison abilities.
- Core skills do too little damage, and are not viable for torment 4. Shred can defeat the mobs and standard elites, but fails at anything with boss health and damage, or the Pit.
- Cataclysm will once again dominate, with the odd Boulder and Stone Burst user sprinkled in.
- The new Helm is terrible, the Aspect unusable, and Human Druids lack proper skill point support and paragon support.
- HelmsâŚ
- Dolem Stone and Tempest Roar dropping from Duriel/Andariel/Belial severely limits Druids leveling ability and experience. I actually reached level 100 in two different seasons (under the old system, where you also could not trade) before getting a Tempest Roar.