Feedback and Suggestions for Druid Improvements

Druid
1

The Diablo series has always been my favorite game series, so I truly hope it becomes more and more enjoyable.

Currently, the game has too many useless Aspects, Uniques, Skills, and other elements. This results in a lot of items and skills, but the viable playstyles are still quite limited. My main aim here is to list items that are clearly less practical or almost never used, and to offer some suggestions for improvement. These suggestions are simply meant to provide the developers with some ideas, rather than insisting on specific changes.

I have considerable experience in game design and have run a small company publishing mobile games, so I believe the feedback I provide is of some reference value. Since the class I’ve spent the most time with in Diablo IV is the Druid, the following content will mainly relate to Druid. However, I believe similar adjustments could be applied to other classes as well.

By the way, English is not my primary language, so please forgive me if there are any unclear expressions.

General

  • Triggering a fixed damage effect (e.g., Tyrael’s Might) can be fun, but it’s virtually useless in the endgame, as there are very limited ways to scale up the damage.
  • A complete endgame build must include the following elements:
    • One main damage source (e.g., a Core Skill, Poison, an Ultimate Skill, or a triggered ability).
    • Supporting Skills to enhance the main damage source.
    • Defensive/Mobility Skills (optional).
    • Offensive buffs (from Equipment, Aspect, Paragon, etc.).
    • Defensive buffs (from Equipment, Aspect, Paragon, etc.).
  • Players prefer 100% uptime on duration skills. While challenging, it shouldn’t be impossible to achieve. Examples:
    • Grizzly Rage
    • Wrath of Berserker
  • Both regular mobs and bosses are integral to gameplay. However:
    • Many abilities are useless against bosses (e.g., on-kill effects).
    • Certain skills (e.g., Lucky Hit) are less effective against single targets. Balancing these mechanics would improve gameplay.
  • Lucky Hit mechanics are limited due to their current calculation formula:
    • When a skill has multiple triggers, the Lucky Hit chance decreases exponentially, which feels unreasonable.
  • Channeled Skills cannot Overpower.
  • Damage over Time (DoT) Skills cannot Critical Strike.

Aspect

Offensive

Accelerating Aspect

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [10.0 - 30.0]% for 5 seconds.
  • New:
    No changes.

Note: Increase attack speed limit from 100% + 100% to 150% + 150%.

Aspect of Accursed Touch

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    Lucky Hit: Up to a [20.0 - 40.0]% chance for your Skills to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies afflicted with Vampiric Curse are also Vulnerable. Vampiric Curse’s stored souls deal [20.0 - 60.0]% increased damage.
  • New:
    Lucky Hit: Up to a [20.0 - 40.0]% chance for your Skills to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies afflicted with Vampiric Curse take [20.0 - 50.0]%[x] increased damage.

Note: Fixed damage sucks.

Aspect of Creeping Death

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    You deal [5.0 - 20.0]%[x] increased damage over time to enemies for each different Crowd Control effect they’re afflicted by. Unstoppable enemies and Staggered Bosses take [10 - 40]%[x] increased damage over time instead.
  • New:
    No changes.

Note: Require more damage multiplier to DoT skills.

Aspect of Inner Calm

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    Deal [5 - 13]%[x] increased damage. Triple this bonus after standing still for 3 seconds.
  • New:
    Deal [6 - 17]%[x] increased damage. Triple this bonus after standing still for 3 seconds.

Resource

Aspect of the Calm Breeze

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    Wind Shear now deals 0 Poisoning damage over 4 seconds.
    Lucky Hit: Wind Shear has up to a [6.0 - 14.0]% chance to fully restore your Spirit.
  • New:
    Wind Shear now deals 0 Poisoning damage over 4 seconds and damage is increased by [30.0 - 70.0]%.

Note: Restore spirit & poison? It’s hard to think of them together.

Aspect of the Dark Dance

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    Every 5 seconds, your next Core Skill costs [1 - 93] Life instead of Primary Resource. Will only occur if you have at least 60% of your Maximum Life.
    Skills that consume Life deal 80%[+] increased damage.
  • New:
    While you are Healthy, your Core Skill costs no Primary Resource. Instead, it costs [0.5 - 1.0]% of your Maximum Life per Primary Resource cost.
    Skills that consume Life deal 30%[x] increased damage.

Note: Make this aspect more funny. Players need more health generation instead of resource generation.

Aspect of the Unsatiated

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    After killing an enemy with Shred, you gain 20 Spirit. Your Werewolf Skills deal [20.0 - 40.0]%[x] increased damage when cast above 50 Spirit.
  • New:
    Your Werewolf Skills deal [25.0 - 50.0]%[x] increased damage when cast above 50 Spirit.

Note: Unbind this aspect to Shred since there are too many Shred-related aspects.

Aspect of Vocalized Empowerment

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    Your Shout Skills generate [5.0 - 12.0] Primary Resource per second while active.
  • New:
    During the duration of your Shout Skills, increase your Primary Resource generation by [50.0 - 120.0]%[x].

Note: 12 Primary Resources per second is just a joke in End Game.

Aspect of Voracious Rage

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    Killing an enemy with a Core Skill refunds [15.0 - 35.0]% of its base cost. Can only happen once per Skill cast.
  • New:
    Casting a Core Skill refunds [30.0 - 50.0]% of its base cost.

Note: Original version is far far worse than just reducing the 35% resource cost, making this aspect a joke.

Balanced Aspect

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    Increases your Maximum Spirit by [50 - 90] and Spirit Generation by 50%[x] while Grizzly Rage is active.
  • New:
    Increases your Maximum Spirit by [50 - 100] and Spirit Generation by [50 - 100]%[x] while an Ultimate Skill is active.

Note: There are already too many aspects only for Grizzly Rage.

Bold Chieftain’s Aspect

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its active Cooldown is reduced by [10.0 - 30.0]% per Nearby enemy, up to a maximum of 50.0%.
  • New:
    While a Shout Skill is active, casting Skills has [10.0 - 30.0] chance to reduce cooldown of one Shout Skill by 1 second.

Note: Original version is useless when fighting a Boss.

Mangled Aspect

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    While in Werebear form, you gain [10 - 30] Spirit every 8 seconds.
  • New:
    You gain [10 - 30] Spirit every 2 seconds. Whenever you Shapeshift, it’s doubled for 6 seconds.

Note: 30 Spirit every 8 seconds is totally a joke.

Rejuvenating Aspect

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    When falling below 20 Spirit, there is a [15 - 30]% chance to fully restore your Spirit.
  • New:
    When falling below 20 Spirit, there is a [15 - 30]% chance to fully restore your Spirit and increase your damage by [15 - 30]%[x] for 5 seconds.

Note: Too many Aspects for resource recovery, but Resource & Offensive Aspects almost share all slots. Resource Aspects require more functions to be attractive.

Starlight Aspect

Legendary Aspect

  • Old:
    Gain [25.0 - 45.0] of your Primary Resource for every 20% of your Life that you Heal or every 120% Life that you Overheal while at Maximum Life.
  • New:
    You heal 3% of your Maximum Health when you recover [45.0 - 25.0] of your Primary Resource.

Note: Too many Aspects for resource recovery, but Resource & Offensive Aspects almost share all slots. Resource Aspects require more functions to be attractive.

Unique

Stone of Vehemen

Unique Totem

  • Old:
    While Channeling Stone Burst and for 2 seconds afterwards, you gain 15% Damage Reduction.
    Stone Burst’s final explosion deals [10.0 - 15.0]%[x] increased damage, further increased by [10.0 - 15.0]%[x] for each size increase.
  • New:
    Stone Burst is no longer a Channeled Skill and is now also a Werebear Skill.
    Stone Burst retains its initial size. Every time you cast Stone Burst, the size is increased, and damage is increased by [10.0 - 15.0]%[x] for 3 seconds.

Note: Channeled Skills suck.

Shard of Verathiel

Unique Sword

  • Old:
    Basic Skills deal [50 - 200]%[x] increased damage but additionally cost 25 Primary Resource.
    Your Basic Skills are now also Core Skills.
  • New:
    Basic Skills deal [50 - 200]%[x] increased damage but additionally cost 25 Primary Resource.

Note: The ‘Core’ tag is very important to make this weapon usable.

Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander

Mythic Unique Staff

  • Old:

    • +159.5% Critical Strike, Vulnerable, and Overpower Damage
    • +18.0% All Stats
    • +33.0% Movement Speed
    • +66.0% Resistance to All Elements
    • Lucky Hit: Up to a 15% chance to restore +66.0% Primary Resource
    • Gain a random Shrine effect for 20 seconds after killing an Elite enemy (once every 30 seconds).

  • New:

    • +159.5% Critical Strike, Vulnerable, and Overpower Damage
    • +24.0% All Stats
    • +33.0% Movement Speed
    • +66.0% Resistance to All Elements
    • +88 Maximum Resource
    • Gain a random Shrine effect for 20 seconds every 20 seconds.

    Note: In the current version, Shrine effects are no longer extremely powerful. Even with a permanent Shrine effect, this effect still isn’t worth placing on a two-handed weapon.

Skills

Nature Boulder

  • Old:
    While you have any Fortify, Boulder has 20%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance.
  • New:
    Boulder no longer Knocks Back enemies and has a 10%[+] increased chance to Overpower enemies.

Enhanced Rabies

  • Old:
    Rabies’ Poisoning damage also increases over the lifetime of the disease, dealing 60%[x] bonus damage at max duration.
  • New:
    Increase damage dealt to enemies affected by Rabies by 15%[x].

Savage Rabies

  • Old:
    Rabies deals its total Poisoning damage in 4 seconds instead of 6.
  • New:
    Increase Rabies’ Poisoning damage duration from 6 seconds to 9 seconds.

Note: The Druid has many skills that can inflict Poison, but there are almost no ways to increase Poison Damage, making it impossible for the Druid to use Poison as a primary damage source. However, Poison can still be designed to serve as an excellent support effect for the Druid.

Lacerate

Cooldown: 35 seconds
Lucky Hit Chance: 7%
Shapeshift into a Werewolf, become Immune, and quickly dash 10 times between enemies in the area dealing up to 560%[x] damage.

Note: This Skill is fine, but the issue is… Not a single Aspect enhances this Skill. This Skill is totally forgotten by developers.

Lacerate Aspect (Example)

Legendary Aspect

  • Reduce cooldown of Lacerate by 1 second for each Critical Strike caused by Lacerate, up to 10 seconds.

Grizzly Rage

  • Old:
    Cooldown: 50 seconds
    Shapeshift into Dire Werebear for 10 seconds, gaining 30%[x] bonus damage and 20% damage reduction. Damage bonus is increased by 3% each second while in this form, up to a maximum of 75%.
    Kills extend the duration by 1 second, but the duration cannot go above 10 seconds.Prime Grizzly Rage: Grizzly Rage makes you Unstoppable for 6 seconds.
    Supreme Grizzly Rage: Gain 8% Maximum Life (X) as Fortify per second while Grizzly Rage is active.
  • New:
    Cooldown: 50 seconds
    Shapeshift into Dire Werebear for 10 seconds, gaining 30%[x] bonus damage and 20% damage reduction. Damage bonus is increased by 3% each second while in this form, up to a maximum of 75%.
    *(Duration is no longer extended by killing, but cooldown starts immediately after activation.)*Prime Grizzly Rage: You are Unstoppable while Grizzly Rage is active.
    Supreme Grizzly Rage: Gain 8% Maximum Life (X) as Fortify per second while Grizzly Rage is active.

Note: The most important thing to fix is to change back the cooldown mechanism. In order to balance that, limit the base duration to this Skill to avoid it being too easy to become permanently active.

Earthen Might

  • Old:
    Lucky Hit: Damaging enemies with Earth Skills has up to a 10% chance to:
    • Restore all of your Spirit.
    • Cause your attacks to be guaranteed Critical Strikes for 5 seconds.
      This chance is increased by:
    • 10% for Critical Strikes.
    • 10% if the target is Stunned, Immobilized, or Knocked Back.
  • New:
    Lucky Hit: Damaging enemies with Earth Skills has up to a 10% chance to:
    • Restore all of your Spirit.
    • Cause your attacks to be guaranteed Overpowered for 4 seconds.
      This chance is increased by:
    • 10% for Critical Strikes.
    • 10% if the target is Stunned, Immobilized, or Knocked Back.

Note: “Guaranteed Critical Strikes” is obviously too weak in the End Game. Also, Lucky Hit chance is actually far lower than represented. Overpower may be too strong—if so, simply reduce the duration.

Perfect Storm

Your Storm Skills grant 2 Spirit and deal 40%[x] increased damage when damaging a Vulnerable, Immobilized, or Slowed enemy.

Note: This Passive is fine, but the problem is… While all Key Passives have corresponding Aspect or Unique gear, none of them is related to this Passive. Storm Skills need to convert to Shapeshifting Skills to get enough damage, making Bestial Rampage obviously better than Perfect Storm. Thus, simply give it an Aspect to change this situation.

Perfect Storm Aspect (Example)

Legendary Aspect

  • With Perfect Storm Key Passive active, your Storm Skills are now also Earth Skills.

Paragon

Constricting Tendrils

  • Old:
    Lucky Hit: Nature Magic Skills have up to a 15% chance to entangle the enemy with vines, Immobilizing them for 2 seconds and Poisoning them for 150%[x] of the Base damage dealt over 4 seconds.
  • New:
    Lucky Hit: Nature Magic Skills have up to a 30% chance to apply Tendrils Vines on enemies for 5 seconds. Enemies with Tendrils Vines are Immobilized for 2 seconds. Damage dealt to them is increased by 30%[x].

Note: In the original version, I can’t see any possible situation to use that. Very low trigger rate and bad effect. The only value is to apply Poison to enemies (Who would use a Legendary Node for that?).

1 Like
2

Im sorry but putting an (x) multiplier to skill and aspects won’t solve any problem. Druid and all classes needs the spirutborn treatment, they need to rework them completly for how the game works now.
Having some buffs and more multipliers is fine but a lot of your suggestions are just that, putting an (x) instead of a (+).
Although you did point out a lot of inconsistencies and things that doesn’t make any sense, so i think blizzard should focus on that: changing the funcionality/mechanic rather than just adding (x) multiplier.

1 Like
3

I feel bad that you put in this much effort to a vacuum. :frowning_face:

2 Likes
4

Constricting Tendrils needs to be triggered by any damage and enemies entangled take 50X damage. Another damage option for people to fit in. Or turn it into enemies poisoned deal 30X less damage.

The existing skill’s poison damage is negligible.