So, Patchnotes are out.
The druids on the official D4-Discord-Server didn’t have much hope but there was some hope, even if seldom shown - and the Mid-Season-Patch which is all about “Balance” is like laughing at a starving kid while giving the other 4 well-fed kids treats.
The boons - granted, doubling the crit.-chance to 10% is a nice touch, so is 5% more attack speed - but the rest will probably go unnoticed. Maybe some will be happy about 6% more life, but that’s just a treat in a form of a bare bone.
Skills - 2, in words: TWO, skills have been adjusted. Skills used in “our” B- and C-Tier-Builds (so C- and D-Tier compared to other classes). Alrighty.
Passives - okay, credit is due, where credit is due: The single most thoughtful change for the “whole lot” of druid changes is adding 3/6/9% damage reduction to Defensive Posture, followed by increasing the damage of Natures Reach from 3/6/9% to 5/10/15% - too bad that only benefits distant range builds. Because who’d like to go into melee range with druids - apart from half the acceptable (just acceptable, not competing!) builds there are and the ranged builds are already better than those.
The rest of the “balancing” could’ve been made without an announcement and there’d be a high chance people wouldn’t have ever noticed without someone comparing numbers to old planners.
Legendary Aspects:
My motivation to write something about that is as lacking as your effort to actually bring druids at least within striking range of the other 3 1/2 classes (sorry Sorcerers, I know you ain’t got it easy either but you fellas got more viable builds than us, even if it’s just one.)
TL;DR:
It feels like Druids are the class that’s not even considered a doormat to those who balance/design the classes - there can’t be any other possible explanation for the treatment this class and it’s players are getting. (Okay, maybe there’s just no developer associated to the class so a random-number-generator picks the talents/aspects/boons and another one rolls some numbers between 5 and 15 for the adjustment.)
I really loved fighting my way up to Pit 111 with my LS-LS druid but seeing how the effort is being regarded and how blatant the favorism to other classes is, I might as well just wait for the expansion and see how the class replacing Druids fares.
Cheers.
19 Likes
Well just roll a barb ,do the season goals and call it a day for next season i guess…
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I cant believe they buffed Flay, which is one of the best builds out right now. How are they this out of touch with the game and balance between classes. Lust for Carnage is still just 2 spirit on crit…like its insane when you think where the game currently is.
2 Likes
No Bestial Rampage update, Earthen Bulwark still uses Base Life, no Heightened Malice tune-up, and no bug fixes in sight really sucks for this patch.
Feels like a lazy number bump for Druid instead of functionality additions.
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We’re being punished for previous season bulwark and shred interactions or so it feels like.
I can’t tell you how hyped I was in both betas, pre-season doing the HC grind to get my name on the statue as a Druid main and seeing how much out of touch the dev’s are with Druid after repeated bug fixing.
You really notice this on diablo.trade when you look for Druid gear because there’s hardly any, low player count, low supply. You’d think they would notice this but they don’t know exactly how out of touch they are.
2 Likes
But but but my melee Shred build will do like maybe 20% more damage now!
I think I can hit 600k crits!
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Quickshift
Maximum damage bonus increased from 6/12/18% to 8/16/24%.
this will become pretty big when you add hunters zenith and amulet both having a GA and masterworks on quickshift getting a whopping total from 108% to 144% (18 ranks)
Aspect of the Alpha
- Werewolf Companion damage increased from 85-115% to 100-130%.
pretty nice buff 15% → 30% on twohander
I think you didn’t get the point. To use hunter’s zenith you have to sacrifice the temperings and to get the unique effect in the storm builds (the only ones you can scales properly) you need the damn tempest roar. That sucks!
you only need tempest roar for the spirit on crit from LEG para and lucky hit spirit.
you could run human form with shako which also gives increased resource gain, but you probably need to compenate somewhere for more spirit regen
Energize
Spirit restored increased from 20 to 30.
This comes pretty handy for that case
Just two essential slots for x37% dmg increase? Not to mention losing one aspect and two tempering slots? Damn man that’s insane.
for getting an 144% multiplier? dude thats almost shepperd on a twohander (180%)
its insane not to take it
It’s still just a 37%x increase. You typed the number and don’t understand the math? You know that a single aspect can give you a whooping 30% dmg increase right? Adding tempering on top your x37% looks like a bad joke.
ye but you forget that noone goes for that multiplier currently. so most have 3 ranks base (24%) and 144-24 is an 120% multiplier
If only the quickshift mechanic was like an 30 sec buff instead of the couple of seconds now… almost unplayable for the casual…
1 Like
Because it’s not worth it over envenom, an aspect and 2 tempering slots. Those that just work 99% of the time without some weird shifting mechanism? Not to mention leg ring stats can roll twice as high so you’re losing out even more using Zenith.
i doubt that 8% alldmg is weaker than 10% crit dmg unless you have 100% crit chance in your build
You need to factor in the dps loss when you shapeshift and only do basic dmg. It’s never a straight number buff with those silly conditional buff.
for tornado im running maul on my alt druid which guarantess 100% quickshift uptime with almost no tornado breaks. you just need to maul once every 6-8 seconds
edit: you should maul anyways regularly because you want the fortify
You misunderstood quick shift. It only works if the skill literally transforms you. That means you maul then tornado, the first tornado gets the buff but the second doesn’t because you stay wolf after the first tornado.
So you would need to shift constantly and that just halves your dps.
The 8 seconds rotation is actually cor beastial rampage 50% dmg increase while in wearbear.
you misunderstood it…
you stack the buff and the next 8 seconds all you dmg is increased by X % until the buff falls of. its not only for the next cast of anything.
yeah the first tornado may only have 1 stack, but you just need to keep the stacks up and voila you have a permanent dmg buff for all dmg.
i use that on my companion build and they get buffed too…
1 Like