New PoE 2 Character Druid: Forms, Skills and Ascendancies

The 0.4.0 The Last of the Druids livestream has concluded, and the GGG developers showcased a lot of exciting content. Naturally, the main focus of the broadcast was the new playable character - the Druid, whose release had been anticipated for a long time. During the stream, we got to see the character himself, his skills, and his in-game capabilities. And at the end, the developers revealed which league awaits us next, though that’s a topic for another discussion. So let’s dive into the overview of the new PoE 2 character - the Druid.

PoE 2 Druid Patch 0.4.0

The Druid is a new class that combines the hybrid nature of Strength and Intelligence. He commands the magic of natural forces and can transform into three different animal forms. These forms differ not only in appearance but also completely change the gameplay by providing unique abilities in each transformation.

To assume these forms, the game introduces a new item type called Animal Talismans, which is equipped in the weapon slot. These items also grant the basic attack of the chosen animal. And to transform, all you need to do is use that basic attack. There’s no need to worry about transformation speed - the developers made it instant. If you want to switch back to human form, simply activate any human skill.

To fully reveal the hybrid identity of the class, most human-form abilities have long-lasting effects that remain active while you fight as a Bear, Wolf, or Wyvern.

Now let’s take a closer look at the forms of the new PoE character, the Druid, and the skills they offer.

Bear Form

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The core strength of the Druid in his animal forms is Rage. By using abilities, you generate Rage, which you can then unleash to activate powerful skills:

• Rampage makes you burst forward with great force, smashing the ground beneath you.
• Ferocious Roar applies an effect that causes your subsequent attacks to break enemy armor.
• It also allows you to use any Warcry by socketing the appropriate gem directly into Ferocious Roar.
• Walking Calamity is a powerful ultimate ability that requires a large amount of Rage.
• When activated, it summons a storm of fire around your character, further increasing your Rage generation.

All of these abilities can interact with your human-form skills. For example, if you cast the Druid’s human-form ability Volcano, you can then build up Rage and use Bear Form’s Ground Slam, which will make the Volcano erupt more frequently, thereby boosting your spell damage.

Wolf Form

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The second Druid form is the Wolf Form. While the Bear focuses on slow, heavy attacks, the Wolf is all about speed and mobility.

Your basic attack makes the character leap forward, performing a flurry of strikes. The form is centered around cold damage and freezing mechanics. After freezing an enemy, you need to follow up with a normal attack to shatter the ice, scattering shards that damage nearby foes.

• Lunar Assault allows your strikes to instantly envelop enemies in ice.
• Pounce lets the Wolf quickly leap to a chosen target. It also applies a Mark, and if the marked enemy dies, a small summoned wolf appears. The ability functions as a meta-gem, meaning you can socket any Mark into it rather than being limited to the default one. You can have multiple summoned wolves active at the same time.
• Cross-slash is used to consume the Mark during boss fights.

One issue with this form is boss encounters, where it’s much harder to summon wolves and their damage isn’t very impactful. However, you can still summon wolves on bosses: first apply a Mark, then use Cross-slash. Cross-slash detonates all Marks on enemies, allowing you to summon wolves without needing to kill the target.

Wyvern Form

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The third and final Druid form is the Wyvern Form. Its basic attack is a melee strike with a forward lunge. After killing an enemy, you can consume its flesh to gain additional Power Charges. These charges empower your wings, increasing your damage and adding bonus lightning damage.

They also enhance a variety of other attacks.

• Rolling Magma releases bouncing balls of lava and triggers the Volcano skill in Human Form for additional damage.
• Spit oil at enemies, making them ignite more easily. The ability turns into a channeled barrage while you consume Power Charges.

In Wyvern Form, you can also rise into the air and burn everything to ashes. While in this state, you can still move, but slower than usual.

For now, this form appears to be the weakest. Not that the previous forms are particularly strong, but this one is currently very difficult to make effective.

Human Form

The core gameplay of the Druid in Human Form revolves around combining elemental effects and using them to empower his animal forms.

The first skill you obtain is a small volcano that erupts in a limited area, launching fragments that deal damage in a chaotic pattern.

Entangling Vines spread across a set area and slow enemies. This ability can be enhanced through the skill Thunderstorm. Thunderstorm creates periodic lightning strikes and also makes enemies wet, increasing lightning damage and helping you freeze targets faster in Wolf Form. The added water effect also strengthens the vines, making them tougher and allowing them to deal damage as well.

Druid Spellcasting Totems

The new Spellcasting Totems mechanic is a set of meta-gems that allow you to create a totem which automatically casts any spells in the game for a certain duration. To summon a totem, you must spend either 3 Endurance Charges or 3 Power Charges.

In Bear Form, you can generate Endurance Charges by absorbing Ferocity, while in Wyvern Form you can generate Power Charges by consuming corpses. The developers also mentioned that these are not the only ways to gain charges, but they haven’t revealed the other methods yet.

Naturally, the game will also receive 30 new support gems, which can be used not only with Druid spells but with other classes as well. You can also read about the gameplay changes in our blog post “ When Does New League Starts In PoE 2 ”, where we answer many questions related to the update and the new league.

Druid Ascendancies

The Druid comes with two new Ascendancies: the Shaman and the Oracle. And this is one of the few cases where the Ascendancies genuinely make the character significantly stronger.

Shaman

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On the first Ascendancy, the Shaman, he is presented as an elemental spellcaster who increases his damage by building up Ferocity. One of his key sockets is called Druidic Champion, which grants a solid bonus: every 2 Rage also provide 1% increased spell damage. The second one, Furious Wellspring, allows you to generate Ferocity continuously.

More about Furious Wellspring: There is no natural Rage decay. You regenerate 6% of your maximum Rage per second. All increases and reductions to mana regeneration rate also affect your Rage regeneration. Non-basic-attack skills cost 5 additional Rage to use. It also grants +7 to maximum Rage.

However, the more interesting part of this Ascendancy is the branch containing the Wisdom of the Maji socket. Thanks to this ability, all your Runes and Idols grant additional beneficial properties that are exclusive to the Shaman.

There is also a rather powerful ability called Apocalypse. With it, the Shaman summons a rain of all elements around you once you’ve dealt enough elemental damage.

Oracle

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The Oracle Ascendancy looks and sounds very cool, but it’s unlikely to be widely used. This Ascendancy increases your damage and also gives you the ability to summon minions.

Fateful Vision occasionally shows you an illusory version of your character, which uses one of your equipped abilities (the phantom itself doesn’t deal damage). If you use the same ability it displays, your next hit will deal increased damage.

Converging Paths creates an illusory copy of an enemy when they become vulnerable to Freeze, Stun, or Shock. This copy doesn’t attack on its own but takes damage together with the real boss, boosting your total damage output.

Unseen Path reveals additional passive nodes on the skill tree. For example, the Self Sacrificing notable reduces your Spirit Reservation Efficiency but increases Reservation Efficiency for minion-related skills.

New PoE 2 Character Druid Conclusion

To conclude, the Druid and his abilities look visually impressive, but at the moment I believe he is almost unplayable. Judging by the developers’ showcase, where they demonstrated the Druid’s supposed “power”, it was clear how much he struggled even against basic white mobs in early acts in any of his forms. And his boss encounters looked even more disappointing.

The skills also leave much to be desired. The damage is nearly nonexistent, and the form-switching combos are complicated. On top of that, you need to invest into both Intelligence and Strength on the passive tree, which makes things even harder. As it stands, progressing through the acts on a Druid will be very challenging, not to mention Endgame content or the League.

So for now, all we can do is wait for future patches and watch how the developers decide to fix the situation.