My thoughs about classes balance

[nemesis205bw]

So I have been metagaming thro and finnally capped my level. Heres what I found out:

 

1. Chanter

- high level summons are very weak, dragon doing 10-20 damage with very slow attack speed and have less hp then ogre, so 2 ogres would be better pick

- phrase that shorten ranged weapons reload speed is the most OP thing in this game. There is really no point to take any other weapon then guns on each of your character. Even my druid with albarest (and chantes's mantra) doing more single target dps then barbarian on frenzy.

- invocations are just bad compared to other classes skills. By the time you can cast one, your cipher will cast like 5-6 spells that are also stronger in effect...

 

 

 

2. Cipher

- Blunderbuss + draining whip = 30-50 focus per shot and with chanter mantra u generate focus faster then u can spend it... BROKEN

- Some of the stronger spells are:

Disintegration - it will kill most enemies in this game. Deal around 500-700 damage (raw!!!) per cast.

 

Pain block - 10 DT boost and very good regen. Enough duration to last whole fight.

 

Borrowed instinct - I always start fight with this, gives me +20 accuracy (so I can land other spells), +20 defense and debuff my enemy. Very long duration.

 

Mind plague - once u get this skill u can solo this game as cipher. Use it and watch your enemies kill each other... Makes this game so easy.

 

 

 

3. Ranger

- take some high damage ranged weapon and use swift aim + chanter aura. This way you will deal tons of dps and also have good base damage for wounding shot or poison shot (talent)

- his pet is useless

- its better to go with the route of wounding shot and *1.5 damage on dot targets. I maxed perception on my ranger so stunning shot is waste as I can perma stunlock enemies with high interrupt (which is futher multiplied by high damaging weapon) and good attack speed from stance + aura.

 

 

 

4. Barbarian

- he is melee so its difficult to focus the target you want and have to attack closest. He deals less damage then my other ranged characters.

- if you build him for damage he will die fast (cuz hes melee), but if you build him defense, he will have no damage... The way I keep him alive is cast pain block from my cipher.

- threatening presence is very good because it lowers enemy will so my cipher can crit more often. It synergises well with brute force because it also lowers fortitude.

 

 

 

5. Druid

- useless in regular fights because u cant spam your spells. Better on some stronger encounters and bosses.

- his last summon spell is very strong, much better then chanter's. Also these elementals are unbalanced because the lightning one is like 2 tiers better then others. He can wipe full room of enemies alone with his aoe and high damage.

- shapeshift has absolutely no use in this game. It makes you worse.

- his better spells are the lightning ones that periodicaly strike your enemies near druid (returning storm and relentless storm). You can actually stack them. They also stun with each strike and lasts entire fight.

 

 

 

6. Paladin

- I build him full tank (maxed con, per and res) and he just dont die. His auras are good because they have infinite range. He also have some buffs per encounter which are usefull. Dont know if fighter could make a better tank.

 

 

Thats my team. Dont know about other classes.

[PrimeJunta]

I disagree about druid's shapeshift. I think of it as an extra weapon slot. Give the druid a couple of guns and Fast Switch, and when he's used them all or gets mobbed, shapeshift and manfight them off.

[Lasci]

Druid spells are incredible and shapeshift utterly destroys the early game. My PC is a forest godlike druid using the stag form with a hodgepodge of suboptimal attributes and it's only just recently -- towards the end of Act 2 -- that shapeshift has fallen behind named and heavily enchanted weapons. 

 

Your barbarian shouldn't need to be tanky, and shouldn't die easily if you're using your tanks correctly.

 

Ranger feels a bit lackluster, I will admit. 

 

Cipher is definitely incredibly powerful. The synergy with all the classes is pretty stellar -- Grieving Mother does impressively well as long as people stay off her, and god forbid if you have a rogue supplementing her debuffs.

 

Chanter is a very good support/off-tank. The summons provide a shieldwall and can distract the enemy. Any time you invoke, you're getting your money's worth despite having to wait all that time. Paralyze the entire enemy? Awesome. Reduce everyone's DR? Sweet. And all the while you're healing your allies' Endurance? What's not to love?

[nemesis205bw]

Druid spells are incredible and shapeshift utterly destroys the early game. My PC is a forest godlike druid using the stag form with a hodgepodge of suboptimal attributes and it's only just recently -- towards the end of Act 2 -- that shapeshift has fallen behind named and heavily enchanted weapons. 

 

Your barbarian shouldn't need to be tanky, and shouldn't die easily if you're using your tanks correctly.

 

Ranger feels a bit lackluster, I will admit. 

 

Cipher is definitely incredibly powerful. The synergy with all the classes is pretty stellar -- Grieving Mother does impressively well as long as people stay off her, and god forbid if you have a rogue supplementing her debuffs.

 

Chanter is a very good support/off-tank. The summons provide a shieldwall and can distract the enemy. Any time you invoke, you're getting your money's worth despite having to wait all that time. Paralyze the entire enemy? Awesome. Reduce everyone's DR? Sweet. And all the while you're healing your allies' Endurance? What's not to love?

Even early game my druid dies too fast if I shapeshift because he becomes melee. I build him squishy to make most use of his spells.

 

I build my barb full damage and no heavy armor so he can deal most dps. However even one enemy attacking him will like 2-3 shot him. There is no point equiping better armor or putting more points in defense because he will deal much less damage.

 

Ranger isnt useless. He deals the most aa dps in my team. Driving flight is very good at killing thrash monsters by the way of stunlocking (with high interruption) some tougher enemy.

 

I agree on cipher. Definitely strongest class right now.

 

The point is, other classes have better spells and dont require you to wait 20-30 sec to use them. Every other spellcaster classes have some sort of mass CC with better range or duration then chanter's paralyze.

[Stun]

3. Ranger

 

- his pet is useless

Oh, it's worse than that. The problem with the ranger class, period, is that the Animal companion is a gigantic liability. If it falls in battle (which is pretty much every other fight unless you manually keep it out of combat) your ranger suffers. Hard. The "Shared Grieving" penalty (or whatever it's called) is cripplingly massive. It turns the ranger from a fairly decent damage dealer to a worthless toon who misses and grazes everything for the rest of the fight.

 

 

I disagree about the Barbarian, though. It's a surprisingly powerful class. I'm doing a min-maxed Aumaua, who's wielding a super powerful enchanted pike; He's wearing all the +crit multiplying gear; He's taken all the x Damage bonus talents (savage attack etc.) And right now his average damage per hit is in the 40s. He's consistently critting for 70-80 damage. Also, despite the fact that I dumped his constitution to something like 5 or 6, he's got more health than everyone in my party (something like 900, at level 8.)

Edited April 1, 2015 by Stun

[SeekDWay]

The only Chanter op skill is the ranged reload invocation and that's because ranged weapons are very "balanced".

 

Ciphers are op, but it might be only because ranged weapons are an issue. I think they should tone this down, even if PoE is a single player game.

 

Fighters and Paladins can tank, so what? Better nerf some godlike subraces, they are infinitely more broken.

 

Rangers have been underwhelming since beta and have not improved much. This is the only class I think they should scrap, I don't like their take on rangers and I loved them in DnD.

 

I think Barbarians feel out of place in PoE, there is nothing unique about them (splash so what?) and their rage is a joke. The class is fine and all, but just like the ranger I don't like their take on it. They simply cant survive or feel powerful in PoE like they do in other games. For me Barbarians were always these fighters who have severe ups and downs. You rage and overwhelm the enemy, when your rage isn't up you are underperforming, unfortunately the barbarian rage in PoE is a joke and I cannot call it anything else with the current combat mechanics.

Edited April 1, 2015 by SeekDWay

[PrimeJunta]

Oh, it's worse than that. The problem with the ranger class, period, is that the Animal companion is a gigantic liability for the ranger. If it falls in battle (which is pretty much every other fight unless you manually keep it out of combat) your ranger suffers. Hard. The "Shared Grieving" penalty (or whatever it's called) is cripplingly massive. It turns the ranger from a fairly decent damage dealer to a worthless toon who misses and grazes everything for the rest of the fight.

I used to think that but have had to reconsider. I'm using Itumaaq more or less the same way I use a rogue: only attack targets which are already engaged. Apart from the buffs it gives the ranger attacks, it confers Flanked which is highly useful.

 

I've also used it to pull enemies with everybody else in ambush with ranged weapons, and as a "suicide bomber" against a high-value target, since having it go down carries no strategic cost.

 

I used to hate the ranger in the BB but rather to my surprise am digging it so much now I'm thinking of rolling one.

[nemesis205bw]

 

3. Ranger

 

- his pet is useless

Oh, it's worse than that. The problem with the ranger class, period, is that the Animal companion is a gigantic liability for the ranger. If it falls in battle (which is pretty much every other fight unless you manually keep it out of combat) your ranger suffers. Hard. The "Shared Grieving" penalty (or whatever it's called) is cripplingly massive. It turns the ranger from a fairly decent damage dealer to a worthless toon who misses and grazes everything for the rest of the fight.

 

 

I disagree about the Barbarian, though. It's a surprisingly powerful class. I'm doing a min-maxed Aumaua, who's wielding a super powerful enchanted pike; He's wearing all the +crit multiplying gear; He's taken all the x Damage bonus talents (savage attack etc.) And right now his average damage per hit is in the 40s. He's consistently critting for 70-80 damage. Also, despite the fact that I dumped his constitution to something like 5 or 6, he's got more health than everyone in my party (something like 900, at level 8.)

 

Didnt know about that dead pet penalty. Tell me more about it.

 

Why did you pick aumaua? Human is much better barb because of their passive synergize with blooded so well. My ranged characters deals as much damage but from much safer distance and they can pick the target they want. Ranger attacking marked prey deals even more damage (highest hit I have is 97)

[Maydawn]

I agree with pretty much everything you said, balance in the game seems to be WAY off at the moment, though I'd like to add monks.

 

I originally started as a monk, picturing myself a 2015 version of BG2 monk. A martial arts dude with light / no armor, that kicks and punches, can dodge pretty well, and has innate damage reduction. I was really disappointed to be neither of those things. Hits like a wet noodle, heavy armor feels mandatory to utilize wounds properly [if you can even manage to get hit], and the whole concept of getting hit to use special abilities feels bad.

 

Should've been a bit more like the Cipher, hit stuff to generate X resource to spend on abilities. As getting hit isn't reliable, and outright dangerous when wearing none-light armor [which fits the class flavor], this was disappointing to the point of me ditching my monk and rerolling some other class.

 

Just a few notes regarding my experience: I ditched him about 3-4 hours into Defiance Bay questing. Attribute points were rather balanced, as I try to RP a bit. No 3 INT nonsense. Playing with Leather Armor [Light], as it feels it fits the class much more than Heavy. The usual starting party, me, Eder, Alot, Ranger-girl-with-wolf, Talk-too-much-priest, and Oh-so-chatty-Kana

[Stun]

Didnt know about that dead pet penalty. Tell me more about it.

It's statistically horrific. It inflicts your ranger with -20 accuracy, -4 Might and -20 will.

 

 

Why did you pick aumaua? Human is much better barb because of their passive synergize with blooded so well.

Eh? I hadn't thought about that. I just chose an Aumaua because they can start the game with 21 Might.

[Dongom]

First let me point out by this is one of my favorite games ever and I give it a 92%.  But I Agree on most of that,

 

 

1. Chanter and a party full of guns/crossbows - holy cow.  That Chant is too strong.  

 

2. Cipher - Amazing. With the above combo he makes playing most other classes pointless.

 

 3. Wizard/Druid/Priest - Actually all very solid casters and make very hard battles Trivial.  Wiz/Druid scale exponentially later on. Great CC/AOE/BUFFS.  While they are awesome, their game design isn't that great.  Auto Attacking for a majority of the game isn't fun.  The per rest + camping mechanic result in lack luster gameplay.

 

4. Ranger - Pet is a waste of  Obsidian resources, how did it make live? Makes Ranger just a  poor man's Cipher/Rogue when his main class feature is worth nothing.

 

5. Melee DPS - Pointless.  All of the above does more damage, aoe, healing, and utility and more safe. Also annoying Micro because of the dps/tank polarization. 

 

6. Paladin - Spectacular tank. But that's it.  Flame skill nerfed too much. Should have stayed at 200% buffed.

 

7. Shapeshift was a waste of Obsidians resources (GREAT models/animations) and I have no clue how the beta testers let this go through. A class defining feature that becomes pointless after level 3? Lolz.  I was actually looking forward to making a Shifting build when I heard about this game. Oh well.

 

 

 

*I really want a modder to make Shifting a toggle, and scale better.  Possibly make a talent that causes Shifting to be a toggle and increase it's dmg/defenses by x% per level, but reduces Spell effectiveness by x% per level.  A modder has already made Arcane Shield a toggle, so please someone do this.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Dongom

[Faerunner]

Wow, so many complaints against the Ranger (especially the Animal Companion) and yet it's my favorite class. (And the animal my favorite class benefit; Piggy!)

 

Second favorite is the Druid due to Spiritshift, but it looks like that's a liability too.

 

My first Obsidian game was NWN2, and its animal companions/shapeshifter abilities had damage/survivability/usability issues too. After how much passion, creativity, and in-universe lore the devs put into the PoE Ranger's Animal Companion and Druid's Spiritshifter, I was really excited and hopeful that this one would work out. Hopefully it'll get patched soon--I hope it gets patched soon, because I still really like the Ranger and Druid in theory, and would love to still love them just as much in practice. (In the mean time, I'm glad I'm playing on Easy since Piggy is less likely to get stuffed.)

Edited April 1, 2015 by Faerunner

[Dongom]

Wow, so many complaints against the Ranger (especially the Animal Companion) and yet it's my favorite class. (And the animal my favorite class benefit; Piggy!)

 

Second favorite is the Druid due to Spiritshift, but it looks like that's a liability too.

 

My first Obsidian game was NWN2, and its animal companions/shapeshifter abilities had damage/survivability/usability issues too. After how much passion, creativity, and in-universe lore the devs put into the PoE Ranger's Animal Companion and Druid's Spiritshifter, I was really excited and hopeful that this one would work out. Hopefully it'll get patched soon--I hope it gets patched soon, because I still really like the Ranger and Druid in theory, and would love to still love them just as much in practice. (In the mean time, I'm glad I'm playing on Easy since Piggy is less likely to get stuffed.)

 

 

Both classses are still great and can be used in PoTD.  The only thing is you won't be using their unique class features much after level 2/3 (depending on difficulty), which can be an issue if you're an animal fan!  

 

And yes it sucks how most CRPG seem to hate on Shifters and I usually almost always have to end up waiting for mods.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Dongom

[Faerunner]

Both classses are still great and can be used in PoTD.  

 

That's good. =)

 

The only thing is you won't be using their unique class features much after level 2/3 (depending on difficulty), which can be an issue if you're an animal fan!

 

That's bad. =(

 

And yeah, half the reason I love nature-based classes is because I love animals. I was looking forward to the Ranger and Druid almost specifically for the animal companion and spiritshift ability. If they're both just crippling liabilities at this point (where all the class strength comes from not using them) I might just go with my planned Cipher playthrough until it gets fixed...

 

And yes it sucks how most CRPG seem to hate on Shifters and I usually almost always have to end up waiting for mods.

 

You and me both. v.v

Edited April 1, 2015 by Faerunner

[Bulshock]

First let me point out by this is one of my favorite games ever and I give it a 92%.  But I Agree on most of that,

 

 

7. Shapeshift was a waste of Obsidians resources (GREAT models/animations) and I have no clue how the beta testers let this go through. A class defining feature that becomes pointless after level 3? Lolz.  I was actually looking forward to making a Shifting build when I heard about this game. Oh well.

 

 

 

*I really want a modder to make Shifting a toggle, and scale better.  Possibly make a talent that causes Shifting to be a toggle and increase it's dmg/defenses by x% per level, but reduces Spell effectiveness by x% per level.  A modder has already made Arcane Shield a toggle, so please someone do this.

Shapeshift as a toggle with scaling?  Yes please, even if it costs a talent.  It needs to either get bonuses from gear (such as the unarmed attacks getting bonuses from what weapon you have equipped in the slot when you change) or separate scaling.  I was very annoyed when my defenses dropped when I shifted.

[Vadász]

My take on the classes:

 

Cipher: He is good, maybe too good. They will nerf it soon, so you might as well roll one while it's "legal".

 

Chanter: I agree on the stufff about reload speed. The speed of the invocations is fine since they are not affected by dex or armor, so you can slap a full plate on and dump dex if you want to.

 

Rogue: Love both ranged and melee, if you manage to enable their sneak attacks they are great damage dealers and they have awesome abilities to escape agro.

 

Barbarian: He is good the way it is now, barbs are usually glass cannons after all.

 

Ranger: I agree that rangers who focus on their companion need a buff.

 

Paladin: I like the pally the way it is.

 

Fighter: Fighter needs some kind of talent that punishes enemies for leaving his engagements, tanks usually have puny attacks so engaging enemies only for the extra attack is kinda pointless. High might/intellect fighter is fine.

 

Wizards and Clerics: They need either more spells per rest or buffing their spells a bit since they are outshined by the other spellcasters.

 

Druid & Monk: Haven't played with one yet.

[Jasta11]

The ranger pet should be used to tie up specific targets in melee combat (mostly mages and ranged). If you send it at an Ogre, it will die in two hits and your ranger becomes useless. Definitely keep it out of combat unless the target cannot fight back in melee.

 

Druid shapeshifting is worthless at higher levels. I honestly have never seen an RPG that properly balances shapeshift. Whenever in this game, BG2 or DA:O, it's always useless. Diablo 2 is the only game where you can actually be semi viable playing a shapeshifter. 

 

Chanter's reload speed buff is a bit over the top. Then again, without it guns and crossbows have pretty woeful damage output.

 

Ciphers seem to have all the benefits of a being a spellcaster with very few of the drawbacks on top of doing great weapon damage. Their spells are only marginally less powerful than wizards/druids and they can use them far more often, and some Cipher spells (such as Mental Binding and the AoE Domination) are borderline OP even then. 

[sterrius]

My opinion. Only Played Path of the Damned. 

Ranger - 

 

The problem with the ranger is not the ranger itself. It have solid DPS (with so many buffs to ranged i would say the biggest single target DPS), and option to go Atack Speed for Heavy hiting guns and bows or  DT penetration + Interruption + damage if you go bows.  

Very solid and dont even need the chanter to be OP if you Min-max.  
About the pets.!

The problem is the pets don´t do damage!  So if you go one of the 3 offensive ones. (Stag, Wolf or boar) you have a squishy pet that can be one shot by most enemys and do no damage. 
If you go bear, Lion or Antelope you are fine.  They have more HP, the lion even have a spell and the bear have DT.    

In the end the pet was never meant to be a super DPS machine, but i agree for now the pet for damage is useless even if you go for talents. 

But the pet have tons of uses. 

I use my pet to protect my ranged chars, being a "free" tank. 
Use it to flank after everyone is fighting and the first AOE Spells go off. 
In the case my tanks drop he is a Last chance i get giving me some seconds to shoot a little more. 

Yes, the debuff is anoying but you just dont need to send you pet to suicife charges and he is fine. 


Fighter ->  He is fine and useful. He can go Solid Crit-DPS or tank! 

 

Barbarian -> Also a very solid class, he can Dual Wield or go Two hand and you find no lack of damage if you make him with tons of Might and Dex! (And low armor, use you con to take hits). 

 

Chyper ->  just need a little fix on focus and he is fine.   No problem with the spell but with all much he can spam while the other casters you will cry if you use 2 top Circle spells. 

 

Chanter -> Also solid class.  While the summons are not very strong they can be spammed in crazy speeds giving yourself a army.   The ranged buff is the best but far from being the only good chant he have. 

 

Wizard/Druid/Priest ->  No complains.  All have strenghts and weakness. 

Paladin -> dont liked it.  Fighters tank better, Full DPS classes do more damage and Buff classes Buff better!

He can do everything, master of none, usually i love this type of class but usually you can get good in one route if you sacrifice the others.  Here you will not get good and stay a regular tank/dps/support; 

Dont get me wrong, he can still work on POD Difficulty and still have its uses, but if you want damage you dont need a paladin, if you want accuracy or DT buff you go for another priest and get yourself also a lot of other buffs, debuffs and options. 
 

 

About being a tank.  If the enemy can get trough his deflection he can´t stay for too long unless he rely heavily on heals. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sindrie]

I like the Idea of the Rangers Pet (Animal Companion) being the focus point of the class and that they work together to damage. I just wish the Pet was actually something to brag about, I think it needs a across the board buff. It's DR is plenty I feel but its reflexes/deflection are horrid at like 20. I think they need a buff to reflex/deflection and also damage slightly across all pets.

 

The current build I am using right now is a Ranger (Hard) human 8 / 6 / 18 / 10 / 18 / 18. The idea of the build is using my wolf to do most of the dmg. So far I have taken 30% damage increase from sneak attacks, 50% damage increase from enemies under damage over time, and the flat 15% damage increase (all these for the pet). I have taken wounding shot which with 18 INT it hobbles for like 15 seconds and does damage over time for almost 30 seconds. With all that together my wolf hits for generally like 40 damage conservatively per normal hit on enemies, then you have to factor in my damage also on top of that. I am only level 4 now so it could get much worse soon. So far I think what obsidian should do is instead of making them tanks (especially when as of now they cant even tank) make the pets DPS and not have the Ranger be the DPS. Have the ranger work with the pet to get high DPS other wise the pet takes a back seat and is a wasted opportunity to be unique.

[Darkbridger]

Chanter -> Also solid class.  While the summons are not very strong they can be spammed in crazy speeds giving yourself a army.   The ranged buff is the best but far from being the only good chant he have. 

 

 

Why do people keep saying this? You can only have 1 summon active at a time... you can never have an army. Well, unless you take a group of 6 Chanters. 

[Lightzy]

I find it especially hilarious that the only character who DOESN't need high might is the warrior. (well, whatever you take for front line tanking really)

Tank it out with con, dex, res, never hit anything, you wet noodle, but be able to stand and never fall against anything

 

 

While your wizard in the back is a monster that can bend iron bars because magic damage too depends on might. Intuitive or not as it may be, wizards hardly need intelligence, because pretty much all their AOE spells damage your party and are hard and as combat is always a tight clump of ppl hitting on each other, you don't need increased AOE. Low int, high might. that's a PoE wizard for you.

 

Also, your ranger with the gun, because gun damage too depends on might. Brilliant.

 

 

 

This is the stupidest RPG system I've ever seen. If it didn't force you to take all kinds of bizzaroworld dialogue choices to boot, then fine, but if you want to play effective characters then your dialogue choices will be all stupidded up.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Lightzy

[Killyox]

IMO game just has many gamebreaking bugs and is easy regardless of class if you play with normal party @hard. Even for casters when their Lv1-2 spells become per/encounter there is almost no reason to use higher lvl spells.

 

As for chanter he is only good for Reload + blunderbuss cipher nad himself with arquebus. Other than that I found him useless. Most fights end when he has 2 charges and long fights he gets to 4 uses a skill single time aaaaaand that's it. Too slow or others too fast.

 

Priest and Mage spells are mostly boring/bad unlike Druid. Cipher is very strong even without blunderbuss. Normal pistol is OK too. He has some very useless spells but he has some very nice gems in there as well.

 

Paladin is very good imo especially with Per Encounter "revive" and 2pE buff that pauses debuffs on target ally/self.

 

 

I find it especially hilarious that the only character who DOESN't need high might is the warrior. (well, whatever you take for front line tanking really)

Tank it out with con, dex, res, never hit anything, you wet noodle, but be able to stand and never fall against anything

 

 

While your wizard in the back is a monster that can bend iron bars because magic damage too depends on might. Intuitive or not as it may be, wizards hardly need intelligence, because pretty much all their AOE spells damage your party and are hard and as combat is always a tight clump of ppl hitting on each other, you don't need increased AOE. Low int, high might. that's a PoE wizard for you.

 

Also, your ranger with the gun, because gun damage too depends on might. Brilliant.

 

 

 

This is the stupidest RPG system I've ever seen. If it didn't force you to take all kinds of bizzaroworld dialogue choices to boot, then fine, but if you want to play effective characters then your dialogue choices will be all stupidded up.

 

You confuse Might with Strength. Might doesn't have to be physical attribute at all.

 

Also some choices do affect what you get but that's ok. Doesn't matter much at all though. Unless you are playing Triple Crown (I advice against it with current bugs) then you don't need to maximize your chars to be able to beat it. Not even POTD requries it.

 

PS

 

Barbarian's massacre is amazing

So is any Warrior/Barb/Melee char with Lore and access to scrolls. Tank with stuff like fan of flames is pretty sweet:D

Edited April 2, 2015 by Killyox

[Ravila]

You can't say that barbarian is a solid class. The class is so fragile at the start it is not even worth his AoE damage I hope it will change as I get gear otherwise I will cheat and reroll. (Playing barbarian on path of the damned second play-though)

[BlackAdder]

I have to agree with OP's take on druid. When I initially picked one I was hoping shapeshifting would be a much more pronounced feature. My dissapointment when at level 3 I shifted and saw *all* defences go down was immense.

 

I'm thinking 3 things would make shifting a valid class feature:

1. Toggleable at will.

2. Disable casting when shifted.

3. Form's defences added on equippement. (specific numbers tweeked accordingly of course)

 

That would allow for a more valied role in party, to plug holes in cases of emmergency but never approaching the effectiveness of dedicated classes.

The way it is now druids are another variance of wizards.

[Kelstrom]

You can't say that barbarian is a solid class. The class is so fragile at the start it is not even worth his AoE damage I hope it will change as I get gear otherwise I will cheat and reroll. (Playing barbarian on path of the damned second play-though)

Thats wrong. The barb can solo most encounter at the start - even the thugs harassing the Inn's owner. With bear and a healing pot you can as well solo the wolves - all that on POTD difficulty.