Hello.
I played druid this weekend and it felt mediocre - something is missing to make this a great class. I don’t want this to become another thread about the druid being too weak and focus more on the mechanics the class offers - the numbers can be tuned quite easily later and we don’t know how the druid will feel when all the spirit animal boons are enabled.
So here are my impressions what the druid is missing and suggestions how he could be improved:
boring and too similiar defensive skills
With earthen bulwark, debilitating roar and blood howl the druid has 3 skills that all give him effectively hp (albeit in the form of barrier, fortification or common hp) and apply some sort buff/debuff. I’m aware of synergies like fortification + enhanched pulverize, but I still find these skills feeling too similiar in function and they also don’t really feel that interesting to use.
One way of dealing with that could be to merge them into a single skill that changes depending on the current druid form (determined by the last skill the druid used). That would fit the druid class and give the skill a nice amount of depth.
Trample feels like a defensive skill and could be moved to defensive skills, maybe boulder as well.
Another defensive skill could be added: maybe a storm that slows down projectiles or some other idea that offers some sort of choice, interactivity with monsters or otherwise interesting gameplay.
Many interesting skills become available quite late. One could fix that by swapping wrath with companion skills in their skill tree.
the class could need more spirit spenders / active combat skills
I’m concerned that the druid playstyle might become stuck in using mainly 1 core skill + 1 basic skill + the occasional ultimate and the rest ist just utility/defensive skill/low impact skill like the wolf companion attack. I think it would be good if the class could have a wide variety of offensive combat skills available similiar to all the different attacks a barbarian has. Instead of an arsenal of weapons the druid could carry within the potentials of the different forms.
It’s better for melee players who get rabies and hurricane than for elemental druids that get nothing after the core skills? Of course there are trample and boulder, but they feel more like utility skills (I know that the boulder can deal solid damage). The entire storm skill tree doesn’t offer a good single target option to deal damage. Some more ways to spend spirit (adding an element of choice on what to spend it) and more active combat skills that are not merely utility, but strong attacks would make the class feel much better.
weak ultimates
The ultimates feel weaker and less impactful compared to lets say the sorceress class. I think they could be lowered in cooldown, so that skills like petrification could be more like a central skill in an earth build that can be regulary used than something super strong that is only used occiasionally. Maybe cataclysm could be an expection to that and be a really strong skill on a very high cool down.
the druid class mechanic
The druid class mechanic could be easily become the most boring one, if it offers mainly stat increases (which was the case in the closed beta) without enabling new playstyles, modifying skills and adding new synergies beween skills.
not many synergies for a hybrid druid
The current druid capstones offer benefits for going either purely elemental druid or opting to stay in a melee form. I find hybrid builds (melee + ranged) to be generally really enjoyable and would like to see those more supported. Adding cap stones would help, but also adding some more synergies between elemental magic and melee skills. Especially the wind/storm magic seems to be lacking in that regard.
if someone goes and links the druid vidya with that thumbnail where it looks like its spamming 25k hits. dont get fooled its actually not that when you play it lol
Was there a reason for not taking ranged abilities with melee ones? I did so on my druid, having Boulder and Ravens despite a melee focus (with Boulder as Core skill due to legendary).
Played it quite a bit this weekend. The class felt very dependent on the skill modifications from legendaries / dungeon unlocks for more fluid and mix up gameplay. Earthspike felt like hot garbage till the 50% slow affix came in along with the one that does empowered Boulder. Same with the werewolf build once I got some gear with bonuses for that.
I never really felt underpowered so much as some of the classes early game felt overtuned. Can’t wait to see what the end game looks like
This was my thought as well. Landslide is such a great skill. But the spirit cost + no passive spirit regeneration makes it feel like it takes so much effort. Meanwhile my rogue does a shadow imbuement and concealment and clears and entire screen with a single arrow.
The spenders feel situational and underwhelming, which is also how they felt in D2.
Also all of the ultimates feel underwhelming. Which might stem from me having played a sorcerer first. But none of them seemed exciting to use.
At the current difficulty level everything goes. I just observed that there weren’t many synergies encouraging a melee + ranged playstyle. I found out that a ranged melee basic skill to build spirit + enhanched pulverize can work well (since kiting allows you to stay high hp for it to recharge). But other than that it didn’t feel really meaningful to go for (I haven’t tried out the aspect you mentioned, since I didn’t aquire it) and there is also no cap stone supporting such a playstyle. I consider the cap stones to be quite significant in their strength.
The WAY they give effective HP is VERY important. What form you are in is very important with regards to quite a few passives. Quickly switching forms can be as important as staying in forms.
For instance, Pure Werebear would benefit MASSIVELY from Blood Howl or Earthen Bulwark. They would also lose the Overpower from “Provocation”, which is a large portion of damage.
Trample can be overpower’d easily with “Provocation”, starting a fight with massive AoE while keeping the overpower from “Enhanced Pulverize” from being used up. basically starting almost every fight with 2 AoE Overpowers for strong burst damage.
Companion skills are more important than they look. Wolves quickly fortify for Werebear and Earth. Vine Creeper poisons and criticals for werewolf and immobilize for Nature. Ravens for Criticals and vulnerabilty.
Look to the passives for ideas. You feel Trample is a defensive skill, while pure Werebear will use it as an AoE Overpower to avoid using up “Enhanced Pulverize.” Legendary Aspects create all kinds of powerful mixing of Earth, Lightning, Werewolf, and Werebear skills, like Trample and Pulverize being classified as Earth skills too.
Petrify stuns and gives extra crit damage. Landslide with Terramote passive gives guaranteed crit and extra crit damage. Earth skills deal a lot more damage to stunned enemies. You can see how the passives all start adding up to make weak skills into major ones.
“Critical strikes heal you” is MAJOR for a Werebear. After X amount of kills, next Earth skill overpowers is major, as I have already said Legendary Aspects can make Trample and Pulverize classify as Earth for this.
Aside from the passives mixing with each other, legendary aspects greatly mix things up. There’s one that makes werewolf count as storm and werebear count as earth for Natures Fury Capstone - so using Pulverize could automatically cast Lightning Storm.