I’ll begin by saying that I was excited to play the Druid in the early access beta, but was disappointed in their unavailability then. For the first beta round though, I experienced playing the Rogue to lvl 25 and got the feeling of the game through that.
The game really surprised me, even for a beta. Of course there were bugs like leaving Kyovashad caused rubber banding, but seriously it could’ve been worse.
Anyway,
Druid Gameplay & Style
The gameplay during the second open beta raised concerns but also praises for the Druid class, as this class is what I aim to mainly play as a nature/caster preferred player.
I enjoyed every level again to 25 as a Druid much more than the Rogue & Sorcerer, only struggling against Nilcar & the Butcher bosses. However, after tweaking my Druid’s build to suit those specific fights, both bosses felt challenging but were more easily cleared than on my Rogue.
The needed change in my build led me to explore other build paths for fun while exploring dungeons. Compared to the other classes, I felt that the druid was more flexible & capable in either caster, melee, or tankiness. I honestly don’t know why people hate on the class outside of min-maxing damage numbers. Druid felt drastically different in their theme depending on their skill selections which made them feel more personalized to me.
I did not think the current Druid shape-shifting mechanic on skill use was initially appealing over the traditional ‘the player assumes a form for x duration,’ but it turned out to be one of the features that felt right & convenient while playing.
Casting spells caused human form, then beast skills shifted into a howling animal all based on the skill. That was more fitting of a character in harmony with multiple forms than making a form the doorway to the skills. It is also more mechanically sound for the gameplay, and I am thankful that a ‘form for x duration’ wasn’t implemented as it would’ve left other skills locked out while transformed. (With that said, Grizzly Rage could be looked into. Currently it removes non-werebear skills, or werewolf skills if aspected for that, and there is no way to stop the Grizzly Rage AFAIK to access skills you might need in a clutch.)
With all that, here are the concerns;
– Basic Skills
These are the skills that I felt are in most need of serious address.
Earth Spike
This skill’s Spirit Generation was too minute to be usable effectively as a basic primary attack. I often found myself swapping it out for something better (like Storm Strike or Wind Shear.)
It took approx 4 hits of Earth Spike to gain enough Spirit to cast a single Landslide when Storm Strike took only 2 hits, and Wind Shear was good for regen but not CC synergy. Storm Strike had chain damage, provided damage reduction, had a 50% chance of Vulnerability (on target & chained), AND could trigger its 15% chance Immobilization to multiple enemies to affect the upgrades of Landslide.
Earth Spike only offered a 10% chance to stun its target on hit, and it’s AoE radius rarely affected adjacent enemies. No matter what build I attempted with Earth Spike, it was beat out by other unmodified Basic Skills and I left it out for a majority of builds.
- Maul
I thoroughly enjoyed playing the Werebear build(s) as a person who doesn’t like melee characters, all those builds were fun except for using Maul in them.
It was actually very silly how slow the animation was for this skill, and it similarly offered a small 10% chance to knock down like Earth Spike’s stun.
Maul had an alternative 30% Range increase instead of the Stun, both stemming from a Fortify on hit (which became ineffective at max Fortify in combat from other skill’s usages), whereas Storm Strike I felt once again beat out Maul, by having a base 25% dmg reduction on its use (not hit, use), more range from chain lightning’s reach, and its 15% immobilize, with a choice between 50% chance of Vulnerable, or 2 additional chain hits.
That melee skill beat out Maul in situations every time I tried it out, and in fact Storm Strike synergized better in the overall tanky build. I could survive 1-on-1 with the Butcher without issue in a Storm Strike/Bulwark/Werebear build. The only reason I found to choose Maul was to maintain Werebear for the 15 second Provocation build to cause an Overpower on my next Skill use, but that had to be closely watched as it could and would be consumed by Maul instead of a stronger skill. It is also consumed by an already overpowered Pulverize coming from its own similar overpower every 10 seconds while you are above 80% health (In that build path, higher sustained HP was easier to maintain with Storm Strike’s damage reduction rather than a 10% reduction from charged up Fortify… again it was another reason to not use Maul as Fortify could be achieved elsewhere.)
Anyway, I suggest that these Skills be looked into for their respective build synergies and power.
I personally love Storm Strike, but it was doing the job for what I believe Earthspike & Maul should have been doing for their paths instead.
I believe enemies hit by Maul should deal reduced damage with a faster attack animation, and Earthspike have more Spirit Regen, Radius or CC %.
Those two Basic Skills are in most need of TLC that I experienced.
– Spirit Skills
I believe all abilities should have more Spirit Generation, given that the cost of Spirit skills currently are so high with zero natural regeneration.
Here are the Spirit skills that I struggled with;
Pulverize
This skill completely outshined every other Spirit ability, especially with the aspect to increase the damage and have it travel forward. It became essential for clearing mobs with it’s overpower damage.
I suggest some damage tuning, or leaving it alone and buffing the other Spirit skill damages altogether.
Landslide
This skill was one of my favorites. However, much like Maul it suffered from its incredibly slow casting animation.
The Spirit Cost felt significantly high for the little presence it made.
Lightning Storm
Where to begin with this ability…
This is a channeled skill that gains more damage per continuous tick, in a game where standing still can mean death.
Thankfully, this skill’s first enhancement is to preserve the amount of strikes gathered from your channeling for 4 seconds, so that you may continue from where you left off. However, due to the cost and the low generation of the resource, it felt like immense work to make this ability useful and in it’s upkeep to remain so. It was much attentive work for little reward, especially when Pulverize was instant damage with a passive power up.
The only use I found with Lightning Storm was against the W-Boss due to the fact that it could be struck by multiple lightning strikes. Even then, weaving in a Lightning Storm every few ranged attacks with low Spirit Gen felt silly and not worth the effort.
– Final Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed the Druid out of every class, but it has some obvious drawbacks and issues with some abilities and their resource usage.
I look forward to what Blizzard has planned for this class in the future, because even through all these issues, I love their aesthetic (yes, even their size, voice actor, and gear)
This will be my main class when the game launches in June, hopefully they will be on par with the other classes in terms of power, but unchanged in their theme.