Early Druid & League Feedback

Hi!

I wanted to share my experience and thought's on the Druid Class so far. I am playing in HC SSF.

As a Melee class he is too squishy. Fully geared in Armor and Energy Shield doesn't give much protection at the beginning of the game because there is not enough energy shield recharge. Later on it might be a good defense but in the early stages i found myself at 50% health after 2 hits.

Since there is no Evasion and we only rely on armor (which was around 50%) and very low amount of life regeneration (0.1% per skill point is not worth the talent point in my opinion). If i would start new i would probably gear in full Armour.

The Bearform i didn't play much because his sluggish attacks makes him even less durable. I would recommend to give some sort of passive boost to the different forms like for exammple:

Bear: More Life or Life reg
Wolf: Evasion
Wyvern: More Energy Shield reg

Stuff like that.

The Melee combat with the Wolf form feels good, it's fast but still mostly stationary, i assume that's why there are so many "while being stationary" stat's in his tree. Still in early game i wasn't able to do the full combo of his standard attack because i have to dodge.

The Wolf Companions, triggered from Pounce or the wolfpack with the 60 spirit reserve... are... when used bare with no minion boost or support gems, absolutely useless like they cannot even kill 1 trash mob.

I leveled with the Plant and Storm skills and im at lvl 40+ right now. It was smooth and enjoyable. I really like the idea of watering plants.

When i looked at the ascensions as a plant caster i chose Oracle. Since the shaman is more on elemental damage i couldn't see much use of it because the plant skills are physical and damage conversions aren't really available at the beginning but in general i wasn't really thrilled by the Ascendencies of the Druid. Especially the one with -15% life and mana seems to be the worst.

I always like the Atzoatl event in PoE1 and the build your own temple idea is nice but fighting the same bosses in the same room seems a bit tedious and boring. Especially if you have 30% more efficiency on rare monsters and just fight a boss for 7 minutes with a terrible drop at the end.

The Workbenches on the other hand are quite amazing for early game progress. I have already a lvl 22 Talisman with 3+ all melee skills and like raw damage with 2 empty sockets (it's waiting for my next character).

This was it so far, thanks for your hard work as always!

Take care & stay safe!

All you need to do is use the wyvern base auto attack skill. It has insane clear due to cleave range and damage. Yet another league where auto attack herald is the best.

GGG: "We hear you and will nerf temple workbenches by 75%, thank you for the feedback!"

Shapeshift already have passive bonus:

Bear -> 10 armor/level, 30% of armor apply to elemental damage & gain 1 endurance charge/15 rage spend.
Wyvern -> 50% increase Elemental/Stun threshold & 50% faster start recharge of ES.
Wolf -> 30% mouv. speed while moving after a short time. It doesn't stack with Sprinting unfortunately.

Minion without investment doesn't do damage. Nothing new here.

The -15% Life & Mana is better with some good amount of sustain (Leech, on Kill, Recoup) so yeah it's hard to achieve that in Early Campaign but it have great potential in End Game.

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Djirane#4170 wrote:

Shapeshift already have passive bonus:

Bear -> 10 armor/level, 30% of armor apply to elemental damage & gain 1 endurance charge/15 rage spend.
Wyvern -> 50% increase Elemental/Stun threshold & 50% faster start recharge of ES.
Wolf -> 30% mouv. speed while moving after a short time. It doesn't stack with Sprinting unfortunately.

Minion without investment doesn't do damage. Nothing new here.

The -15% Life & Mana is better with some good amount of sustain (Leech, on Kill, Recoup) so yeah it's hard to achieve that in Early Campaign but it have great potential in End Game.

certain minions also deal no damage with investment, especially melee minions, which are bound to freaking weapons... so if we play minions we always have to rely on ranged, cause melee is not a thing.

The wolf benefits compared to bear are immensely weak. Played wolf on amazon, made it to act 4 and it is a pain. Especially with the showcased skills and the idea of freezing enemies, if Shred the actual main skill of the combo cannot compete with other skills cause we get no sockets for it or so late, that all other skills already have 4 or 5 sockets even.

I have on amazon now the ele damage leech node, in total 16% leech from all sources and having a 250 dps weapon in act 4 and i literally cannot sustain in packs nor does the wolf deal damage.

Market, neither NPC shops or people offer better weapons which could make an upgrade to what I have. gotten the crit chance from second asc, not that much of an impact but with each act it feels like I loose more damage and survivability while I only upgrade the character xD