Early Feedback on Path of Exile 0.4 – Druid Werewolf

I didn’t play much of 0.3, and I’m glad to be back. I think the Druid and the shapeshifter forms are really good overall. I really enjoy the flow of combat and how the skills interact with each other.

My first feedback point is about Lord of the Wilds. I really tried to use this skill, especially because of the bond bonus on the runes for the scepter, but the double penalty is so high that it makes the skill very hard to use. I think removing one of the penalties would make this skill much more usable and would also make it feel more like a Keystone. Right now, it feels more like a drawback than a meaningful choice.

Regarding the Abyss, there is a modifier that gives a rare Abyss monster an aura of degeneration. I think this aura is overpowered. I was reduced to zero in less than two seconds, with 1500 life, 1500 energy shield (yes, I was full), and 87 life regeneration per second. It felt impossible to kill this rare monster because I couldn’t hit it more than once before needing to jump back. This feels extremely punishing for melee players. I was running Tier 3 maps with only three modifiers, so there was no juice involved.

The werewolf form’s movement speed bonus could also remove the heavy stun from Sprint. The speed feels the same, and I have the muscle memory of using Sprint all the time. I’d also like to see my Sprint MTX. Beyond that, I think the Predator Mark bonus should be embedded directly into the wolf form. Currently, the mark serves two purposes: generating wolves (which feel very paper-thin) and providing a damage bonus. However, you need to consume the mark and lose the damage bonus in order to summon wolves. I’m using Eternal Mark to keep the bonus after summoning wolves, but compared to other shapeshifter forms, the wolf feels very lacking.

My full proposal is that the shapeshifter werewolf form should gain some defensive bonus depending on the number of wolves (maybe hyenas too), along with inheriting the Predator Mark bonus. Predator Mark, as a skill, should mainly exist to summon more wolves.

The Vaal Temple feels very rewarding during the campaign, but it was a bit too much—though I understand this will likely be rebalanced in the future. That said, I feel that after going back into the past, the rewards should improve and continue to scale as we defeat the Architect or Atziri. Right now, I don’t want to use a Regal Station in the Vaal Temple because I already have better regals in my stash. During the campaign, the Vaal Temple allowed me to craft early, and I think this theme should continue in maps, with improved currency rewards. This would make it always worthwhile to use the temple to upgrade gear and push into the next map tier.

My last point is about power in the passive tree. Every time I felt blocked during the campaign, it was because my weapon wasn’t dealing enough damage. My decisions in the passive tree felt minor, as everything revolved around weapon damage.

Regarding the Shaman ascendancy, I really liked the Wisdom of the Maji node. It made the ascendancy feel like it had something truly unique to offer. In contrast, I dislike ascendancies like the Invoker, which don’t seem to have anything unique—especially when nodes like “Sunder My Enemies…” can be easily replicated with readily available uniques.

Last thing, what happened with supports? Like I got 2 tier 3 support all the campaign, and I'm struggling to find tier 5 or 4 in maps.