How are druids (especially shifting) post patch?

[SweetMagooMagoodle]

Hi, all.  Thanks for those who have been playing both pre and post patch and posting your initial experiences &  strategies.  I am close to being ready to play and looking forward to continuing my POE 1 druid run (boar build, as per Boerer).  

 

I want to be a shift moslty and cast spella to set up fights or clean up.  How are druids holding up in that regard?  Shifter subclass interests me, especially, as I don't need to cast at all when shifted, so i feel like I only gain and don't lose with this build.

 

Of course I am also wondering about single or multi (looking at monk or rogue options).

 

Any thoughts, those of you have been playing post patch?

 

not looking for perfect / power build, just a fun one with lots of strategic options.

 

And I don't see a ton of love for druids so far...

 

thanks!

[Shadenuat]

Shifting is kinda nice in the beginning and for armor bonus, but doesn't really compare to real martial classes and multi-classes stacked with super equipment imo.

 

Best druid is no-kit druid. The strength of the druid is versatility. Spells can do ton of cool things, druids have super heals (mass Robust, Moonlight), good attack spells (1st level Blind), debuffs (-10 acc against will, mass entangle), awesome defence spell (Adragan, forget about pierce&fire, and never get paralyzed), control (lightning spells) and blatantly overpowered aoe spells with raw damage (empowered Plague of Insects, tornado & storm). Summons compared to chanter are weak (except SLIME, as they are immune to INT afflictions and terrify vampires lol), but they can also help. Shifting is good because you get some serious armor buff and can still cast spells, really, I think that's their best part.

 

The shifter kit can't even cast spells that seem like they were made for shift form (like that raw damage+heal bite) while shifted, so that's that. It probably would make more sense to make all spells affect single target/affect druid when shifted (so if you cast heal it works only on you).

 

So just pick all the spells, items +power level and go to town.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Shadenuat

[Gutbuster]

I mean, shifter single class is pretty meh.

 

Shifter/Berserker on the other hand is a powerhouse.

[Shadenuat]

I gotta play a Werewolf: Apocalypse party if Obsidian ever fixes difficulty so game would be worthy of replay some day; 5 dual class shifters for lulz.

Edited June 9, 2018 by Shadenuat

[Braven]

I think shifter is a lot of fun. It is probably the strongest class in the game early. You can always shift back to human to cast spells. The claws might fall behind fully optimized character later on, but think of all the gold you can save by not boosting a weapon set to legendary. Though, you will be hard pressed to find a better weapon than the cat form’s claws with cat’s flurry active. Even if you did, just can give it to a companion instead.

 

Martial class powers can be used while shifted making paladin/rogue/fighter/monk/barbarian good multi-class options. Your animal attacks are always treated as “duel wield”, meaning that cheap full attacks are good to have.

 

Paladin is my favorite with shifter. Kind wayfarer can heal the druid and nearby allies with flames of devotion while also attacking in animal form. Paladin defenses and resistances help make up for the fact you can’t wear items that do the same thing.

 

Note: monk fists are not used and does not help animal form attacks if you were thinking that.

 

Pure shifter is an absolute power house if you invest heavily in the alchemy skill. Each point in the alchemy skill increase the power of your poison based spells. This means you stay top-notch in DPS all game. For level 1-8, you will be extremely powerful using your animal forms. Starting at level 9, you can use the plague of insects spell buffed significantly by your alchemy skill to cause massive harm to your enemies. It will kill things so quickly that the potential late-game scaling issues of animal forms not having items won’t matter at all.

Edited June 9, 2018 by Braven

[QuiteGoneJin]

Shifting is kinda nice in the beginning and for armor bonus, but doesn't really compare to real martial classes and multi-classes stacked with super equipment imo.

 

Best druid is no-kit druid. The strength of the druid is versatility. Spells can do ton of cool things, druids have super heals (mass Robust, Moonlight), good attack spells (1st level Blind), debuffs (-10 acc against will, mass entangle), awesome defence spell (Adragan, forget about pierce&fire, and never get paralyzed), control (lightning spells) and blatantly overpowered aoe spells with raw damage (empowered Plague of Insects, tornado & storm). Summons compared to chanter are weak, but they can also help. Shifting is good because you get some serious armor buff and can still cast spells, really, I think that's their best part.

 

The shifter kit can't even cast spells that seem like they were made for shift form (like that raw damage+heal bite) while shifted, so that's that. It probably would make more sense to make all spells affect single target/affect druid when shifted (so if you cast heal it works only on you).

 

So just pick all the spells, items +power level and go to town.

Shifter idea; new abilities like the taste of the hunt spell that scale with spell level act like martial actives and use spell casts. Also would be nice to pick one form that you can be in without worry of it ending for long fights. And while I'm day dreaming. New animations for certain attacks like multiclasses shifter monks etc. So much wasted potential.

[dunehunter]

They should make Druid form scale with PL, not level. Now the penetration of animal natural weapon is not enough for PoTD, multclass shifter is better because u can multi berserker to get +2 Pen.

[Ichthyic]

I'm thinking of making a modded build using Tekehu's druid form (can do that via mod console), but having played with tekehu in this go round, I am wondering...

I've found items that boost spell cast slots for wizards and priests, but nothing so far that boosts druids or chanters.

can anyone recall any items they ran across that boosted spell slots for druids?

 

[mishona]

There... most definitely are items that directly benefit chanter casting. Search the wiki of your choice for a singing scimitar.

Edited June 10, 2018 by mishona

[Lokithecat]

Haven't tried it, does a Devoted Shifter count their claws as specialized?  Monk works, but everyone can access the unarmed Modal (Haymaker) and I don't think that Shifters even have a Modal.

[Shadenuat]

Shifter idea; new abilities like the taste of the hunt spell that scale with spell level act like martial actives and use spell casts.

Mechanically it would be easier to give these spells [TAG] probably, and do not allow Shifter cast anything but spells with this tag.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Shadenuat

[SweetMagooMagoodle]

Shifting is kinda nice in the beginning and for armor bonus, but doesn't really compare to real martial classes and multi-classes stacked with super equipment imo.

 

Best druid is no-kit druid. The strength of the druid is versatility. Spells can do ton of cool things, druids have super heals (mass Robust, Moonlight), good attack spells (1st level Blind), debuffs (-10 acc against will, mass entangle), awesome defence spell (Adragan, forget about pierce&fire, and never get paralyzed), control (lightning spells) and blatantly overpowered aoe spells with raw damage (empowered Plague of Insects, tornado & storm). Summons compared to chanter are weak (except SLIME, as they are immune to INT afflictions and terrify vampires lol), but they can also help. Shifting is good because you get some serious armor buff and can still cast spells, really, I think that's their best part.

 

The shifter kit can't even cast spells that seem like they were made for shift form (like that raw damage+heal bite) while shifted, so that's that. It probably would make more sense to make all spells affect single target/affect druid when shifted (so if you cast heal it works only on you).

 

So just pick all the spells, items +power level and go to town.

 

Thanks -- the slime tidbit is interesting.  

 

Anyway, i knew about the loss to the taste of the hunt spell for the shifter subclass, but I assumed that's way the partial healing when shifting thing was added (for shifter only)  

[SweetMagooMagoodle]

I think shifter is a lot of fun. It is probably the strongest class in the game early. You can always shift back to human to cast spells. The claws might fall behind fully optimized character later on, but think of all the gold you can save by not boosting a weapon set to legendary. Though, you will be hard pressed to find a better weapon than the cat form’s claws with cat’s flurry active. Even if you did, just can give it to a companion instead.

 

Martial class powers can be used while shifted making paladin/rogue/fighter/monk/barbarian good multi-class options. Your animal attacks are always treated as “duel wield”, meaning that cheap full attacks are good to have.

 

Paladin is my favorite with shifter. Kind wayfarer can heal the druid and nearby allies with flames of devotion while also attacking in animal form. Paladin defenses and resistances help make up for the fact you can’t wear items that do the same thing.

 

Note: monk fists are not used and does not help animal form attacks if you were thinking that.

 

Pure shifter is an absolute power house if you invest heavily in the alchemy skill. Each point in the alchemy skill increase the power of your poison based spells. This means you stay top-notch in DPS all game. For level 1-8, you will be extremely powerful using your animal forms. Starting at level 9, you can use the plague of insects spell buffed significantly by your alchemy skill to cause massive harm to your enemies. It will kill things so quickly that the potential late-game scaling issues of animal forms not having items won’t matter at all.

 

 

Wow, I never would have guessed that about alchemy.  So sounds like you are suggesting that a single class shifter with lots of alchemy is a viable build even on hard difficulties?  (I usually play on second hardest difficulty and not PoTD).  But sounds like that would be true for any druid build and not shifter per se?

 

Is there any way to make shifter forms truly effective in late game?  barbarian multi?

[Braven]

Wow, I never would have guessed that about alchemy. So sounds like you are suggesting that a single class shifter with lots of alchemy is a viable build even on hard difficulties? (I usually play on second hardest difficulty and not PoTD). But sounds like that would be true for any druid build and not shifter per se?

Yep, it is viable. Solo play might cause problems because some enemies are poison immune so you have to fall back to something else like returning storm which is not as strong and they will just kill you too quickly at high difficulty. If soloing, I would prefer a multiclass because you need a better “plan b” option since you must deal with every encounter without additional help. I created a druid/priest build here on the forums called Lord of the Flies specifically designed for soloing at high difficulty.

 

If you have a party, Either single class or multiclass is perfectly viable. Multiclass will always be strongest overall since you lose so little by doing so and gain so much.

 

Single class is only technically best if you want to focus more on spells since you get the better ones sooner allowing for a stronger mid-game, particularly if abusing the alchemy trick to the fullest. Getting plague of insects four levels sooner makes levels 9-13 stronger.

 

The druid healing spells are also really great for group healing. Patch 1.1 greatly increased the healing radius of the level 2 one so that it has a base size of 8m. I think that is the largest AOE in the game. You could start off by casting that, then shift and fight. Then later shift back and refresh the healing zone when the duration runs out.

 

Alchemy makes all druid builds/subclasses equally strong, so you can be a different one.. Shifter is strongest in the early game, for sure, and I think the most fun.

 

I have never played bezerker or barbarian, so can’t comment there.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Braven

[Odd Hermit]

 Summons compared to chanter are weak (except SLIME, as they are immune to INT afflictions and terrify vampires lol), but they can also help.

So just pick all the spells, items +power level and go to town.

 

This reminds me of mustard jelly vs. lich in Baldur's Gate II hahaha.

[Shadenuat]

It's the best druid summon imo, even compared to Galawain's. You summon 3 slimes and not only they are sorta tough and pack some resists (including int and resolve immunities), but surprisingly they also pack a punch and have ranged attack. They're huge and each have about 500 hp so you can create slime barricades and just slime the enemy until he succumbs.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Shadenuat

[QuiteGoneJin]

They should make Druid form scale with PL, not level. Now the penetration of animal natural weapon is not enough for PoTD, multclass shifter is better because u can multi berserker to get +2 Pen.

Agreed, neither is the accuracy, nor each shifted animal's special attack very good. Needs some real looking into. 

[dunehunter]

 

They should make Druid form scale with PL, not level. Now the penetration of animal natural weapon is not enough for PoTD, multclass shifter is better because u can multi berserker to get +2 Pen.

Agreed, neither is the accuracy, nor each shifted animal's special attack very good. Needs some real looking into. 

 

 

Monk fist has no issue neither single classed nor multiclassed. It is a good example they shall copy to both Druid Spiritual Form and Wizard Ogre form.

[SamOftheUels]

Anyone have any opionions on Infestation of Maggots - good spell? Worth taking?

[AndreaColombo]

It's the best druid summon imo, even compared to Galawain's.

 

IIRC Galawain's was pretty underwhelming at release. Didn't hold a candle to the Chanter's dragon summon, and I don't think it's been buffed. No surprise lower-level summons are better than it.

[Dakkaface]

They should make Druid form scale with PL, not level. Now the penetration of animal natural weapon is not enough for PoTD, multclass shifter is better because u can multi berserker to get +2 Pen.

Not sure exactly what the scaling is but it's at least partly PL based. The damage boost for shifted weapons is 5% per PL. Not sure how penetration is figured.

[dunehunter]

 

They should make Druid form scale with PL, not level. Now the penetration of animal natural weapon is not enough for PoTD, multclass shifter is better because u can multi berserker to get +2 Pen.

Not sure exactly what the scaling is but it's at least partly PL based. The damage boost for shifted weapons is 5% per PL. Not sure how penetration is figured.

You are wrong, it’s only scales with your real level, not PL.

[Kian]

Does Alchemy still affect spells like "Insect Swarm" and "Plague of Insects"? I thought Alchemy affected spells that had "Poison" or "Antidote" key words, but I'm about to start a Druid pt and noticed the only keyword for these 2 spells is "Beasts".

 

And speaking of Alchemy, is this effect on certain spells intended? Just finished a Wizard/Monk pt and with Alchemy 20 "Noxious Burst" and "Malignant Cloud" were basically one-shotting everything except stronger bosses.