I think GGG shot themselves in the Foot by making Druid a Str-Int class

As per the title says, I think GGG shot themselves in the foot by making Druid a Str-Int class and positioning it on the left hand side of the talent tree.

Why?

Because on that side of the talent tree, there are no nodes which improve Poison Damage, making the implementation of Poison based skills unlikely.

This means, GGG is limited in their ability to design Primal Spells to spells which either deal primarily Physical or Fire damage with a few utility spells which may either deal Chaos damage or Summon a Minion.

At this rate, I predict, we will probably get Marauder in 0.3 because it also ties with the story of Act 4, where alegedly, we travel alongside Doryani and Alva to find Karui tribes with knowledge on how to slay the Beast.

For GGG to gain the ability to create a more diverse school of Magic, they would have to place Druid in the position of Monk because there it has access to Poison Damage Nodes & Elemental Damage Nodes and, potentially, Bleed Damage Nodes.

They obviously lose out on Chaos and Minion spells, but I think we have enough of those from the Occult school of magic in game.

So, how do you think they will be able to fix Druid?

Personally, I think they should alter the class roster and repurpose the Sorceress as a Str-Int replacement for the Druid. I would title her new class Maraketh War Priestess.

And with the existing Druid assets, I will create a Sorceror class with 3 ascendancy choices:

Druid - As an Ascendancy choice for the new Sorceror class, the Druid will provide Shapeshift options as the core class feature. This class will also provide secondary benefits to Fire and Physical spells.

The way shapeshifting works is that, you can only chose one shapeshift option and that option will lock you out of weapon swapping. Instead of Weapon Swapping you will simply shapeshift and gain 3-4 active abilities relevant to your shapeshift form.

This will effectively remove the need to design a whole magic school based on the concept of Primal.

Chronomancer & Stormewaver will remain ascendancy choices for the new Sorceror.

Now, onto the ex Sorceress, now Priestess.

Her quotes about Maraketh Lore allow her to squeeze in seamlessly to this new role.

As for her unique form of Magic, she will gain magic based on the Maraketh religion which is based on the Sun and Moon, which I think is an excelent match for PoE 2, because based on the game mechanics, Water spells, which can be associated with the Moon, can finally be implemented in the game as spells which deal Physical damage.

I don't know about you lot, but I feel hyped about the notion that you can add a Water Bender to PoE 2, by simply shifting the character roster around.

As for Ascendancies, we can have one focused on Fire Spells, one focused on Water Spells (this will likely be the attribute stacker, since bonuses to physical damage can apply to the new water spells, as well as weapon spells and bone spells from Occult skill line) and one focused on providing party wide buffs.

The alternative to fixing Druid, would be to pack it up as DLC alongside the Scion of PoE 1 and making a new Str-Int class to replace Druid in the current roster.