I had a hard time playing the Druid in beta, but not for lack of power. (I totally died a lot though lol)
“Am I minmaxing or do a lot of skills have no effect without a very precise prerequisites?”
(I always choose gameplay effects over increased damage, so it felt weird to ask myself that question. I don’t care if my character is weak, so long as I have crafty fun.
In D3 I loved that runes radically changed gameplay, but I liked D2 skill trees, too.)
Many skill passives only work with very specific prerequisites.
…
Recommendation:
Maybe make more skillpassives generalizable?:
Effect and Increased Effect if Condition (ex: Earthen Might: Effect and Enhanced Effect)
That way it’s maybe not as strong, but it’s at least possible?
Skill Issue Examples
Boulder’s capstone.
Critical strike chance or critical strike chance?
Maybe differing options or effects on gameplay?
Petrify and Boulder vs Bosses
Petrify Bosses…maybe add slow effect? Petrify goes from Control to a pure damage buff.
Boulder Bosses…no knockback…so it’s tricky to use… (still my favorite spell, so I’ll deal with it)
Underutilized Status Effects
Slowed
Perfect storm or Nature’s Reach or Enhanced Wolf Pack
Poisoned
Neurotoxin, Envenom, Enhanced Wolfpack
–Immobilized and Stun have many Earth options and some Storm.
Shifting and Casting
Werewolf only has poison status.
Werebear has stun, slow, knockback, fortify.
–Werewolf can’t proc earth or storm effects like the werebear can.
Companions and Status
Wolves can capitalize on most status effects with Enhanced Wolfpack.
Creeper Vine has poison and immobilize.
–Immobilized pairs with Earth. Poison doesn’t work with nature magic.
Raven can make vulnerable.
– Perfect Storm and Bad Omen
WRATH
Storm can be Lighting or Wind
Electric Shock, lightning usually immobilizes already and has 2 prerequisites.
Does Charged Atmosphere have a Lucky Hit or count as Storm Magic (lightning)?
Bad Omen doesn’t proc on Poisoned or Slowed.
Blood Howl
(Healed health and resource.) I unlocked the dungeon that spread the affect to nearby allies and increase attack. (I had no allies in beta 
…one day jk lol)
It had no affect on my Ravens or my Creeper Vine, so I respec to test Wolves and it healed them and they attacked faster. Vine and Ravens were not improved.
Thoughts:
Thematically, I love the Druid, but the skill tree really bothered me. I’m not asking for everything to synergize, but it was challenging to pick skills I like AND figure out IF I could even proc certain passives based on prerequisites.
Left me wondering if I should stop caring so much and just pick the skills that look/play cool and not worry if I wasted skill points or not.
The IF it was the issue, not that I’m missing optimized performance.
(It’s fine if there are better druids than mine, but if I can’t activate passives skills, say, as a werewolf but a werebear could, or because I like Vine Creeper more than Wolves, I’m less enthused.)
(In contrast. I had a blast playing a melee Rogue. I didn’t expect to like that class, but it felt easy to choose skills and passives.
The Sorcerer also felt a little easy, despite the elemental synergies.
The Druid stood out.)
I do like the game, so I hope this is somewhat helpful…