So I’m glad that they made the announcement to companion skills for the druid. But there’s still a long way to go imo.
For instance, everyone has been talking about the druid’s lack of mobility. The only one being… Trample.
Trample needs some attention. The distance it travels isn’t nearly as good as any of the other classes mobility skills. It only stuns when you run something into a wall… but how do you do that when the distance is so bad? Either make it stun on anything it runs into or increase the distance… 1 or the other, that’s all I’m saying.
Also the single target skills need improvements. As they are now, they just don’t feel good and other classes do all these things better, but at range. There needs to be some kind of buff to the single target werewolf and werebear skills since they are melee ranged. Having to a group of mobs and just attack 1 out of the pack will just make every single druid use Storm Strike only. I would suggest making claw and maul cleave so that they also hit up to 3 monsters at a time… hell maybe even 2… anything is better than 1.
Shred and Lacerate need help too. Sounds really cool when you read it, then you realize you are just leaping and attacking 1 mob while the rest of the pack of mobs attack you, all while your main skill goes into cooldown. Lacerate too… when I got it I was hoping it would AoE or do some cool move as it AoE slashes an area… but instead it’s just this underwhelming skill where you normal attack really fast and hard on a single target.
Petrify also seems cool until you start playing with it more. It doesn’t even work on bosses and can be nullified by any unstoppable skill in PvP (once launch comes) without accomplishing anything. Would also be better if it just did some form of direct damage or DoT while lowering the stun time. A skill that only stuns and does zero damage when you can only have 6 skills in slot is a huge waste of space.
Use of Storm Strike IS the point. The Devs have made many bosses immune to CC. So, actually getting into combat is the only way to take them out. It is a bit of a slog but you can do that with a basic skill. For the same reason, AoE will not be added to Shred or Lacerate. Same with Petrify, it is a CC skill. And so, you cannot use it on bosses. However, you can use CC skills to quickly eliminate trash mobs and save mana for those single target skills needed to take down the boss. Otherwise, we would have AoE builds being the only viable thing.
Shred and maul are both multitarget attacks already. Lacerate definitely feels bad though. Also, petrify does work on bosses and it’s actually extended to lasting 6 seconds, they just don’t turn to stone.
With the possible exceptions of summons and minions, because you can direct their attacks but don’t have to, have you noticed how damage works in any Diablo title. AoE does the most but can be avoided; DoT does the next highest but takes awhile; Direct damage does the least but can be done quickly and repeatedly. So, Tornado currently classifies as AoE which means it can be avoided. If you can target, it becomes Direct and must do less damage but you can spam it.