First off, druid is my favorite class in any game, especially Blizzard games, call me a masochist but I like being a jack of all trades, master of none, as long as I get to live out my fantasy of playing a bear / controlling animals and nature etc (No, not a furry).
I have a few concerns about the d4 druid I want to bring up.
NO PERMANENT TRANSFORMATION
This is a big one, making the transformation ability a timed one that you basically shift into whenever you use a skill or attack, and then you get rewarded for keeping it up for longer duration, this is terrible. This invites and molds the class into one of those stressful “fight the timer” classes where you gotta just be moving and hitting stuff non stop in order to not lose your precious combo points or whatever. I imagine there might be some sort of item or codex that lets you keep your form permanently, but it should be a core mechanic imo.
Not only does it change the entire core of what I’ve come to know as a druid in blizzard games, but it completely ruins immersion when transform back into that (sorry, but it’s true) hideous husky piece of flesh that they barely let us customize. I want a permanent wolf / bear form that shows the unique items I’m wearing, maybe in the form of claws or armor and not force me to look like Maui from the movie Moana every time I stop attacking.
WHERE IS THE BEAR PET
Come on guys, you’re going to introduce the bear pet in the first expansion right? along with shields? Having a bear pet is part of the core balance of pets for the druid, you’ve got wolf for focus dps, vines for psn damage, ravens for utility and then bears for tanking and taunting, this is the way, you can’t not have a bear pet, it’s one of my favorite pets in any game. Let me be a caster druid and have my bear pet taunt my enemies, it’s what I always imagined to do in D4. But I’m feeling really sure its going to be a groundbreaking new skill they introduce in the first expansion, along with the ability to finally wear a sword & board.
WHERE ARE THE SHIELDS
I don’t have to write anything here, but I will anyway, you don’t make a fantasy game, especially one in the Diablo universe, and not have shields be part of it. what the heck. I’m fine with using a totem on the druid, but when I eventually roll barbarian because the druid is under powered due to the consistency of the blizzard druid just being bad, I want to be an under powered barbarian with a shield. Let me have this without having to wait 4 years and pay 60 more dollars for it.