After spending a weekend exploringDiablo 4’s freshly unlocked Druid class, I was left with the resounding impression that despite passing the level 20 mark, I had barely scratched the surface. Maybe the Druid is just a free spirit that wants to experience all that life-in-Sanctuary has to offer, or maybe they’re just easily bored, but it’s like they couldn’t pick a specialty so they just chose to do it all. And honestly, it’s perfect for me.
Wanna live life exclusively as a bear or a wolf? You can do that. Want to sick a pack of wolves or murder of crows on your unsuspecting prey? Of course you do. And if you’re not an animal lover - well first of all that is weird, and I’m definitely judging you now, but nonetheless - you can always focus instead on mastering the elements; hurling a boulder at crowds, or pulling lightning from the sky like Chris Hemsworth. The point is, the Druid class has a build for almost every scenario - the Jack Of All Trades if you will.
As I ran around the frozen landscape of the Fractured Peaks, slashing enemy after enemy with my sharpened were-claws, I felt like I truly belonged to the wild. No werewolf I faced was quite as menacing as I, and even the local giant polar bears trembled under the girth of my werebear belly. Unlike the Druid in Diablo 2, where shapeshifting came with a 40-second timer, I was able to shift between forms as I unleashed combo attacks, seamlessly changing between human, werewolf, and werebear on the fly. This was an interesting change of approach and kept combat feeling fluid, allowing me to choose the best kind of attack for the circumstance, without any real drawback.
I initially made a shapeshifting, summoning, and elemental build, and honestly that got me pretty far. That is until I had to face the high-level bosses occupying the dungeons scattered throughout the world. I’m not going to say that I got spanked, but… I was definitely challenged to a much higher degree than my prior playthrough with the Rogue.
Related:Diablo 4’s Necromancer: Is It The Best Class, Or Just The Most Fun?
As cool as my build felt when I was demolishing the hordes of enemies above the surface, it was a bit more hit-and-miss in the more challenging underground areas. In theory the build worked well. I’d use my basic attack to draw the enemy in, smash them with my werebear’s ground-pounding Pulverize, do a three slash werewolf combo to shred the stronger enemies, and clean up the stragglers by calling down a lightning storm. If things got a little hairy, I’d summon a whirlwind and earth shield combo around me, dealing passive damage while I remained protected.
This was all well and good above-ground, but it really didn’t hold up in certain scenarios. I had stretched myself a bit too thin, and each of my many skills was a little too underpowered. After reallocating some skill points (which is easier than ever in Diablo 4), I was left with just a handful of abilities–not even enough to fill all my attack slots–but I was much stronger and more effective.
With my new build, I went back into the Forbidden City dungeon to face the Resurrected Malice boss with newfound bravado, defeating them while only breaking a minor sweat. Even with a slightly harder learning curve, and some unexpected trial-and-error, I had an absolute blast giving in to my feral nature, and can’t wait to do it all over again when the game launches.
