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Diablo IV State of the Druid Class - What Needs To Change?
Diablo IV
Pubblicato
04/04/2023 alle 12:21
da
RenataKane
Diablo IV's Open Beta gave us great insights into each of the five playable classes - but none were as polarizing as the Druid. While the reviews were mixed between being severely undertuned, just right, or even outright unplayable, one thing was clear: players had quite a lot to say. One of our own guide writers, RenataKane, reviewed the Shapeshifting builds available to Druids - giving us the good, the bad, and the furry.
RenataKane:
During Open Beta, I tested a Werewolf build and a Werebear build. In both cases, I wanted to see how these shapeshifting builds performed, how the synergies worked together, and how to make these beloved D2-reminiscent builds work. I ran both builds up to 25 on separate characters to test not only their abilities, but also how well they leveled.
Put simply: neither work best as "pure" versions. The Werewolf is in a far better place, but the Werebear skills, particularly in the 1-25 range we were given for Beta, are a conflicting mess of abilities that don't hang together. The Werebear abilities lack good synergies and have abilities that outright conflict with one another. This was disappointing because early theorycrafting seemed to indicate that the Werebear build, particularly with Overpower, would be a great, tanky build that could dish out as much damage as it took. Sadly, this was not the case.
I did not switch out to any Elemental abilities, because I wanted to test these two shifter builds as laid out within the Werewolf- and Werebear-specific skills. While I definitely believe that making a shifter/elemental hybrid would work very well, particularly with interesting Legendary aspects combining Lightning with Werewolf and Earth with Werebear, testing things on straight shifter builds allowed me to study the shifter trees in detail and pick out the strengths, weaknesses, and places where the skills simply break or don't make sense when you run the numbers.
Rabid Wolf Druid Build Guide Pulverize Werebear Druid Build Guide
Shapeshifter Druid Skill Nodes in Diablo IV
With both Werewolf and Werebear, the key to making these "work" in beta involved some level of hybridization between them. In the Werewolf's case, only one ability being switched out to a Werebear ability was needed to make things work. I was able to solo everything including the end campaign boss, as well as a surprise visit from The Butcher with ease. I could have been running Hardcore since my Werewolf never died. In the Werebear's case, making a workable build required so much switching out that I might as well have just been running a Werewolf in the first place.
Here are the major issues with both Werewolf and Werebear in Diablo IV's Open Beta.
Problems with Spirit Generation
Both Werewolf and Werebear suffered early and often from running out of Spirit. However, even at the onset, the Werebear had significantly larger problems than the Werewolf.
For shifters, you build Spirit primarily through your Basic skill:
Claw
for Werewolf and
Maul
for Werebear. Claw generates slightly less Spirit per hit than Maul, which in theory would seem to be a disadvantage since Maul can hit more than one target.
Problem 1: Maul is significantly slower than Claw.
Even without passives, Claw was a much faster and more reliable Spirit generator than Maul. Claw hit more quickly and landed blows more often. Claw's Fierce Claw also adds a poison DoT to each strike, which adds nice damage, synergy with later Wolf companions, and a clear visual of how much you're actually hitting with Claw. If the mob turns green, you know you landed a good hit.
Problem 2: Maul's ability to hit multiple targets relies on striking into tightly clumped mobs.
Maul is melee range, so you need to be right on top of a mob to reach with either ability. Maul does have the Fierce Maul enhancement that increases the range and radius by 30%, but even if the range is 1 yard (and it didn't feel that long), that's only an increased range of about 11 inches. With Maul being so much slower but having slightly better Spirit generation, it's clear that the intent was that being able to hit more than one mob would make up for the slower attack speed. The reality is that such tightly-packed groups are mostly found in dungeons, sometimes during events, and rarely in the open world.
With slow hit speed, reliance on multiple hits, and observed issues with landing blows reliably, Maul could never keep up with Spirit generation.
Pretty much sums up the Werebear Maul experience.
For both Werewolf and Werebear, I had to invest four precious skill points early into two passives on the Spirit tree to get Spirit generation up to an acceptable level: one point in
Heart of the Wild
(Maximum Spirit increased by 3, just for prerequisite) and 3 points in
Abundance
(10%/20%/30% increased Spirit generation from Basic skills). I had a chance to try each one per level and found that 30% was necessary to get Claw up to where I didn't really need to pay too much attention to Spirit generation anymore. Even with that 30%, the Werebear with Maul was still Spirit-starved much of the time.
Once I got my Werebear to 25, I re-specced and swapped Maul out for Claw. My Spirit generation problems disappeared, and my frustrations from Spirit starvation evaporated with it. Remember that the more Spirit you have, the more times you can use your "good" skills to do more damage.
Verdict
: If you're playing a shifter of either type, use Claw for Spirit generation. Maul is broken. Must invest 4 points early into Spirit generation passives for good performance.
Winner
: Claw. Maul performs poorly for Spirit generation.
Spirit Node Skill Choice
Werewolf
Shred
doesn't do the kind of damage output of Pulverize, but by including the Primal Shred upgrade, I could dash on every strike. This not only allowed me to deal better with spread-out groups without having to run down mobs quite as often, but also added a defensive effect that allowed me to pop easily out of ground effects and away from targeted/area spell damage. The best kind of damage mitigation is not taking it in the first place.
Werebear
Pulverize
is an immensely satisfying spell. Who doesn't love running into a group of trash and exploding them all at once? However, it's not like the old D2 ability Shockwave with some range; Pulverize has a fairly small area of effect. If the mobs are at all spread out, you're in the highly inefficient situation of only being able to use it on a couple of mobs at a time. You'll often waste a lot of Spirit only being able to take out a couple of mobs and missing many more because the groups won't cooperate.
There is a Legendary aspect that turns your Pulverize into a Shockwave-type effect, but you shouldn't have to rely on an aspect to fix a fundamental skill issue.
Enhanced Pulverize gives your next Pulverize a guaranteed Overpower every 10 seconds
while you remain Healthy
. It's those last four words that are the killer here early on. Werebear damage mitigation depends almost entirely on Fortify, rather than any sort of damage avoidance mechanics. It just reduces damage; Fortify isn't a Barrier that prevents you from taking damage. Nearly all the Werebear's attacks are very close range, which means you'll be getting hit -- a lot. While good Fortify abilities mean you shouldn't be
dying
a lot, "Healthy" means remaining above 80% Health, and you'll need to do it for 10 seconds (and trust me, you'll be chugging health potions, especially early on). This may be better later, but early in your Werebear career, staying above 80% Health for 10 seconds can be a tall order in some situations. Still, the extra damage is nice to have when you can get it.
Verdict:
Pulverize is visually impressive and can do a lot more damage to packed mobs, but its short range and reliance on tight grouping for good damage wastes a lot of precious Spirit. Pulverize is a better stand-alone melee-range attack for Elemental hybrids. Shred does less damage and hits fewer total mobs, but handles spread-out mobs much more effectively. Shred's upgrades not only speed up damage but add in an underrated defense: increased damage avoidance.
Winner:
Pulverize for fun and high damage, Shred for movement, defense, and versatility.
Defensive Node Skill Choice
Blood Howl
is weak. Don't take it.
Blood Howl is not good because it gives you boosts with little to no lingering effects or synergies, and the upgrade offers no additional defense. Its main ability Heals you 20-26% of your Maximum Life, depending on how many points you have invested. This is okay, but that can be knocked out of you almost immediately by one good hit. 20% of your Max Life every 15 seconds just isn't much. The upgrades give you a 1-second cooldown per kill (nice, but still not as much of an impact as the alternative) and either a 15% Attack Speed boost for 4 seconds or 20 Spirit. The Attack Speed is nice but four seconds isn't game-changing, and 20 Spirit isn't enough to cast even one Core ability.
On the other hand,
Debilitating Roar
is so great that you see it in Elemental builds as well as Shifter builds. It reduces the damage dealt by all Nearby mobs (which seems to be a good-sized radius, about the same as a large dungeon room) by 50% for 4 seconds. Enhancing it Fortifies you for 22% Base life. From there, you can choose Innate Debilitating Roar, which slows enemies 40% for its duration, and also puts an aura around their feet, which can be useful for finding where mobs are in dark rooms. You can also choose Preserving, which heals you for 4% of your maximum Life each second, though I didn't find that as useful, particularly since Health Potions no longer have cooldowns and Health Globes drop pretty often. Innate (Slowing) also shares important synergy with the Wolf companions, which is my preferred companion for both Werewolf and Werebear.
Notice how Debilitating Roar boosts my health significantly.
Changing to Debilitating Roar was transformative; it made my Werewolf feel as durable and tanky as my Werebear ever did. In fact, it was even better on my Werewolf, since the Werewolf's ability to avoid damage kept me from losing as much Life or Fortified Life in the first place.
Verdict:
Never waste points on Blood Howl unless they improve the ability and add better defensives to the upgrades.
Winner:
Debilitating Roar - 100% game changer.
Wrath Node Skill Choice
Rabies
is awesome for Werewolf, especially since the poison can then spread to other mobs nearby. With a short cooldown and upgrades that increase both its max-duration final hit and the ability to spread more quickly, it's a great way to soften up mobs so you or your companions can take them out easily. It's rarely strong enough to make them die on their own, but they only can survive a hit or two once they've had a good dose of poison.
Trample
is a great example of a Werebear ability that is necessary for improving movement while potentially ruining the setup for your main attack.
On the one hand, Werebears' overall movement speed seems to be stuck in low gear, making it hard to get out of ground effects and away from hanging spell effects, particularly if Evade is down. Trample, a charge ability, brings a welcome offensive/defensive movement capability every 14 seconds, allowing you both to charge into enemies and sprint out of ground effects.
Notice how a small group, quickly scattered, becomes much harder to land a good Pulverize on.
But here is the crushing part: Trample acts completely against the interests of Pulverize. In addition to the charge, Trample has a significant knockback, scattering the mobs like bowling pins. This can turn a nice, tight, Pulverize-ready group into a spread-out mess where you can only get a few mobs at a time. Unlike the Barbarian Kick ability, there is no upgrade that removes the knockback part of Trample, or turns the knockback into knocking down enemies. The constant knockback makes what is otherwise a great movement ability into something I was reluctant to use on large groups because it would ruin Pulverize.
Verdict:
Rabies is great. Trample could
be awesome if there was an option to remove the Knockback, but it is incompatible with Pulverize. Better still: give an upgrade or Legendary aspect that would allow you to pull in mobs after Knocking them back.
Winner:
Rabies. Trample badly needs a rework to avoid sabotaging Pulverize.
Overall Issues with Werewolf and Werebear in Diablo IV
As a whole, Werebear is clearly the build choice with the most glaring issues. For a more in-depth look at the skills available to Druids, as well as an overview of the Druid class, take a look at our other guides below:
Druid Skills Overview Druid Class Overview
Werebear Damage Mitigation Issues
Both the Werewolf and the Werebear can use the Fortify mechanic to help with their damage mitigation. Several abilities on both shifters' nodes give a certain percentage of base life as Fortify, which you can see as a darker red section in your health bubble. It's one of the reasons I chose Wolves as Companions for both -- that and the extra damage vs. Slowed, which synergized well with Debilitating Roar's Innate upgrade.
If your Fortified life is higher than your remaining Life, you will take 10% reduced damage. When it's not higher than your normal Life (as in the example below), you don't enjoy the damage reduction. The key is to get and keep your Fortified life higher than your Normal life. Taking damage reduces both your normal Life and your fortified Life, so you need to keep re-Fortifying to keep Fortify over Life. (This amount is a nerf from earlier closed beta when Fortify was a 30% reduction. This is still being erroneously reported in various places).
Not enough Fortify for mitigation, but close
The problem here is that Werebears are overly dependent on damage reduction rather than damage avoidance. As a close-melee build, they're going to get hit a lot. Fortify helps mitigate damage if they can keep it over Life, but this proved to be a challenge. Their lack of high-movement abilities means they end up having to lumber their way out of ground or spell effects, especially when Evade is down. They are literally a slow-moving target. For all its vaunted reputation for being a tank, Werebears posed more of a health management problem for me than the Werewolf.
Werewolves are also a close-melee build, get hit a lot, and can use Fortify, but they also have better tools for
avoiding
damage. The biggest factor here is superior movement -- not just in foot speed, but also in their abilities. Their main attack, Shred, involves dashing among spread-out enemies, making them both harder to hit and better able to move quickly out of ground effects or AoE spell damage. With high Spirit generation allowing them to use Shred frequently, they often end up taking no damage in fights because mobs simply can't hit them fast enough. With Werewolf, I was often able to keep Fortify at 100%, a feat I didn't manage nearly as often on the Werebear.
Overpower Disappointments
Overpower was supposed to be a major damage factor for the Werebear druid, to the point that several people wrote Overpower Werebear guides leading into the beta. However, there are literally only three abilities on the Druid tree that lead to Overpower for Werebears, and their mechanics are problematic. Put simply, Overpower became underwhelming.
Any direct damage skill has a 3% chance to Overpower. Overpower damage is calculated by taking half the value of the character's Life and Fortified Life. The more of each you have, the more Overpower damage you do. Seems like a great fit for a Fortify-dependent Werebear -- though if you're low on health or Fortified health, your Overpower numbers can feel underpowered. These show as orange numbers on your screen.
Oh, pretty orange range numbers, I didn't see you as often as I should.
The first two places you can get Overpower bonuses or effects are upgrades to the Werebear Pulverize skill.
Enhanced Pulverize states that your next Pulverize will Overpower
while you remain Healthy
. Healthy requires staying at or above 80% Health (not Fortified health), and you must do this for a sustained 10 seconds. If you ever go below 80%, that clock resets, Fortify or no Fortify. The second ability, Raging Pulverize, Stuns enemies for 2 seconds when they are Overpowered with Pulverize, on the rare occasions you can make this happen. It's a hard mechanic to get right, particularly early in your career.
The third place you can pick up Overpower is in a series of passives in the Wrath tree, which will require 2-4 points invested.
First, you'll need to put at least one point in Mending, which gives you 5%/10%/15% additional Healing from all sources. After that, you can invest up to three points in Provocation -- while you remain in Werebear form for at least 25/20/15 seconds, your next skill will Overpower. This can be difficult in open-world situations where you may run into a large number of mobs, but not take that much time to wipe them out before you slip out of human form to travel to the next area. This would be good in a long boss fight. It's not a bad ability, but you'd really need to invest all three points to see much difference in your Overpower chances. For something that's only going to proc only after 15-25 seconds somehow managing to stay in Bear form, it seems like a lot of work without a lot of payoff.
Any slip out of Werebear form for the required time negates Provocation -- either to human form or into Werewolf form. Most (not all) Elemental skills also shift you out of Werebear into human form. If you decided to use Shred instead of Maul for Spirit Generation, Provocation would be useless because you'd risk changing forms for your Spirit generation. It's easy to mess this one up.
At lower levels, that many points into passives that only gives a proc for some extra damage every 15 seconds at most simply isn't worth it.
What Needs to Change for Shapeshifting Druids in Diablo IV
Werewolves are in an OK place, as long as you switch to Debilitating Roar instead of Blood Howl.
The Werewolf skill set plays much better, making a melee-based shifter character with high movement, high-speed attacks, and durability that exceeds that of the Werebear. The key here is to adopt the Werebear Debilitating Roar defensive instead of using the Werewolf's Blood Howl, a weak skill that few will take without a significant rework.
Other than the underwhelming Blood Howl ability, Werewolf abilities synergize well with one another, especially when combined with the Wolf companions. The Vine companion showed early promise for a Poison-based build, but the lack of direct synergies, the random nature of the Vine, and the fact that the Immobilize duplicates Debilitating Howl's Slow in terms of Wolf companion damage synergy makes it a lot less useful.
Having played a Frenzy Barbarian during the previous Beta weekend when Druid was not available as a class, I found the Werewolf less squishy, more effective, and more fun to play as a melee build.
Spirit generation for both is poor, but Werebear Maul is just broken
.
The fact that both shifter builds' Spirit generation
requires
four points in Spirit generation passives to avoid constant Spirit starvation means that the basic Spirit mechanic is undertuned. It was better for Claw than for Maul, but both builds became nearly unplayable by the early/mid-teens without these passives.
Werebear Maul is frustratingly bad as a Spirit generator. Even with the passives, Spirit starvation was a constant problem. Whether this skill is not generating Spirit properly from additional attacks, isn't landing often enough, is so hampered by Maul's slow attack speed, or a combination of the three, something needs to be fixed. Otherwise, Werebears will do what I found I had to do: forgo the iconic Maul in favor of going Werewolf for the more-efficient Claw.
Give Werebears more damage management options.
Werebear's overdependence on damage mitigation and lack of damage avoidance makes it less durable than the Werewolf, at least in earlier levels. The build is overinvested in Fortify and straight damage reduction rather than giving them options for avoiding damage upfront. At its heart, the charge ability Trample would seem to mitigate some of their hampered movement, but the forced Knockback works directly against their main attack, Pulverize.
Revisit Overpower.
If Overpower is supposed to be a major mechanic for Werebear damage, the abilities don't support it. Overpower feels more like an afterthought than an investment.
Take a hard look at Werebear's actively conflicting abilities and lack of synergies.
As the skills stand now after Open Beta, a straight-up Werebear build is not viable. With Maul swapped for Claw, it's playable but slow-paced, frustrating, and not a lot of fun. May players are using only Pulverize and Debilitating Roar on two skill slots (the only two strong Werebear skills), with Elemental skills on the other four slots. This is great, but if Blizzard wants any full-time bears running around, they'll need to fix a lot of what's wrong with the Werebear abilities: the lack of useful synergies and actively conflicting abilities.
Rabid Wolf Druid Build Guide Pulverize Werebear Druid Build Guide
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