Warning a wall of text incoming and if you manage to read through all of it you’re a hero.
Like mentioned in the title what was your experience so far and what aspects you would improve both from a mechanical and vistal standpoint. I will mention that i only played Werebear to endgame and anything in this OP is subject of my opinion how i personally see or like things.
Visuals:
- For me Druid Bear looks the best in regards of animations and character model
- Second place is Spriggan. Character model looks mostly okay but walking animations look stiff and floaty at the same time.
- 3rd place is Swarmblade. I never even tested it becuase how disgusting it looks like.Give it at least some resemblance of a human form and not this floaty DOTA visuals.
Gameplay
Mechanically i have only tested Werebear because it looks the coolest and is melee focussed, my second favoured arche type in LE after minions (which includes totems as well).
My impression so far during leveling (after 0.8.4 release) and no leveling uniques or other gear i could salvage was indeed smooth considering i was going in blind in the later chapters or the updated Monolith of Fate.
But i noticed that every Bear skill i used pales in comparisond to Earthquake human form/Bear hybrid or when having the luck to drop a Bhuldars.
Swipe itself is very weak damage wise and not considered a main damage ability ,in my opinion, considering the low numbers compared to EQ or even Maul/Upheaval.
I think,and you may prove me wrong, that Swipe is mainly used as a utily and filler skill to give you temporary buffs the and 17% cull.
Next on the list is Maul with the Fury Leap and Upheaval combination which you can trigger with Maul.
There is even proccing Maelstrom with Warcry,Swipe and on kill for a Blade Vortex like play style. I tried them all (with self crafted items) and while it feels nice during monolith rushing anything pales when compared to Earthquake with leveling gear and not even being in Human form, when fighting hp sponge monsters like Timeline bosses.
It is not even close and it opened my eyes at the Reign of Dragons endboss.
This is not about how hard the boss is but just simply comparing the damage numbers.
While i was fighting the Emperor of Corpses the first time ever with fully Bear Maul/Fury leap/Upheaval combo (self crafted with T15 weapon) it just tickled him and eventually i died to my own mistake when he was at 30% (my knockback placed the boss in a bad position and i could not escape the Spirit bomb in time).
Then i pressed S and looked at my skills and noticed that EQ even unskilled had more damage than Maul or any Upheaval proc.
Then i weaved EQ in, did 2-3 echos to get to EQ level 18 and blasted the boss in no time in human form.
This is just to showcase the comparison in power to any inerent Werebear skill that could be triggered while in werebear form.
So i think there is either something wrong (balancing wise) or Werebear is not considered as a top tier damage dealer , unless you get Bhuldars Wrath.
But then your just an EQ build and would do way more damage in human form if able to sustain the mana cost (which should be doable as hybrid bear/human form and mana gain on transform idols).
The last part my come up as a rant but it was my observation during leveling and doing all timelines when comparing all possible skill combinations.
What are your thoughts about the updated druid during leveling,early and later endgame?
What would you improve visually and mechanically?
Thanks 0/
edit:
Current work in progress setup. I may switch back to pure Maul(with Fury Leap tree) + Upheaval after i find a juicy 2 hander like the Leviathan Carver which scales well with phys damage.