There's been a couple threads lately talking about possible new expansion classes, and I've seen more interest in the Druid as one of them then I thought I would. So I figured I'd finally post what I've had written down for awhile now about my take on the Druid class.
I have numbers but I think I'll forgo those just because they'd probably vastly change anyway upon testing. Instead I'll list what skills / passives I've come up with so far, and how I envision they will act. Thanks to Elendiro for the idea of class specific shoulders + resource name =)
Thanks to Ulydssian for the idea of the shapeshift runes changing the color / fur of the animal!
The Druid
Role: Melee + Long range caster
Main Spell Schools: Lightning / Cold / Fire / Physical
Resource: Natural Energy (green in color). Only regenerating attacks regenerate this resource, it does not deplete over time and no target is required to benefit from regenerating attacks. A large pool (think 125-150 or so) with large regenerating attacks (such as 10-15) and big spenders (such as 20-25).
Main stat: Strength
Class specific armor: Animal pelt / feather shoulders. (Thanks again to Elendiro).
Class specific weapon(s): The Glaive, and the Two Handed Glaive.
Skills
Spell Spenders;
Thunder strike. Lightning damage, long range, small aoe around target. Instant cast. The bolt comes down where targeted.
1. Calls 3 lightning damage stars to hit random targets, and also does AOE damage off of each target hit.
2. Add's a 25% chance to stun for 2 seconds.
3. Instead of an AOE upon hit, 6 lightning spears shoot out at a farther distance, piercing.
4. Damage increased, AOE removed.
5. Leaves behind a lightning field that does 45% weapon damage over 2 seconds to anything inside.
Ice Spike. Cold damage, long range, single target. Has a chance to pierce. It's a fast moving projectile that slows targets.
1. Killing a target with Ice Spike creates an explosion of ice that does %WD to enemies behind the target.
2. Grants Ice Spike a 15% chance to freeze any target it hits.
3. Turns Ice Spike into an Ice Trap, that arms after 2 seconds, dealing massive damage.
4. Ice Spike leaves behind a frozen trail, slowing enemies.
5. Ice Spike creates an Ice Wall that blocks enemies.
Lava Surge. A medium range channeled spell that does fire damage. Similar to disintegrate it pierces, but it has a wider swath as it attacks.
1. If channeled for at least 3 seconds, burns the armor on targets making them take 15% addition damage.
2. pools of lava burst from the ground underneath the beam for 3 seconds dealing damage. The Druid can run faster on top of these pools.
3. Turns Lava Surge into a shield that lasts for 120 seconds and does constant fire AOE.
4. Removes the pierce and instead adds a % of damage aoe off of target
5. Creates a volcano at the target location that will hit enemies with fiery brimstone (lol) for 15 seconds.
Wind Blast. Instant projectile, long range and does physical damage. Has a built in chance to knock back.
1. Replaces the attack with a wall of wind that surrounds the druid, slowing projectiles for 10 seconds.
2. Reduces targets attack speed by 20%.
3. Adds a chance for Wind Blast to pierce.
4. Each cast increases attack speed by 3% for 5s, stacks up to 3 times. (the IAS affects every skill)
5. Split Wind Blast into 3 projectiles, shooting off in a cone shape.
Elemental fury. A 2 minute cool down. Randomly picks one of three attacks when used. 1) Armageddon - Rain fire on all enemies. 2) Hurricane - Ravage all enemies caught, while slowing them. 3) Temporal Thunder - Strike random enemies with lightning, adds a chance to displace and stun enemies. Lasts 15 seconds.
1. Decrease the Cool Down to 80 seconds.
2. Enemies killed with Elemental Fury explode for %WD.
3. If Armageddon is chosen, it spawns 3 fiery golems to fight for the Druid for 2 minutes.
4. If Hurricane is chosen, receive a damaging AOE buff for 2 minutes. (D2 hurricane)
5. If Temporal Thunder is chosen, receive a displacement shield for 2 minutes.
Melee Spenders;
Puncture. Does instant damage, plus adds a heavy Bleed on the target. Increases target damage taken by 12% from all sources.
1. Cuts the bleed damage in half, but increases the damage taken by the target to 15%.
2. Receive 9% of the damage done as life.
3. Infect the wound to create a slowing AOE off the target, reducing enemy movement by 20%.
4. Affects all targets directly in front of the Druid.
5. Removes the instant damage and the increased damage debuff, but triples the bleed damage.
Pound. Medium range AOE around the player. 5 second cool down. Has a chance to stun for 1 second.
1. Removes the cool down, and the chance to stun.
2. Increases damage, turns the damage into fire.
3. Gain 5 Natural Energy and 5% life per target hit.
4. Increase the Druids armor by 25% for 3 seconds after use.
5. Freely cast Pound anywhere targeted.
Rabies. A callback from the D2 druid, it's a fast spreading Poison damage Dot. Internal chance to make enemies randomly attack the player or other enemies.
1. Change the chance to confuse enemies to a chance to fear enemies.
2. Increases Rabies damage, reduces the amount of targets able to be effects from all to 5.
3. Slow all enemies effected.
4. Life on Hit and Life Steal return double their normal amount when used on enemies with Rabies. (Druid only)
5. Enemies with Rabies leave behind poison clouds dealing damage over the course of the DoT.
Gnash. Single target physical attack with high damage. Adds a short range charge when used.
1. Increase the range of the charge to long range.
2. Knock back enemies you hit while charging to your target.
3. Replace the charge with a small radius AOE off the target.
4. Using Gnash increases your total damage by 3%. Stacks up to 5 times.
5. Adds a damage effect to the charge itself, and changes the damage type to fire.
Summon skills;
Wolf pack. 1 minute cool down. Summons 5 wolfs to fight for the Druid. The wolfs persist until killed. (Imagine them being about = to 3 zombie dogs).
1. Big bad wolf. Summon 1 wolf for 20 seconds that mirrors the Druid's damage, critical hit chance and critical hit damage. Uses a single target physical attack.
2. The Spirit Clan. Summon a magma, a wind and a nature wolf to fight for the Druid. Each wolf has a unique attack in addition to their melee attack. The Magma wolf randomly raises small volcanoes for persistent AOE damage on the ground. The Wind wolf uses gusts of hurricane force winds to slow and damage enemies, and the Nature wolf strikes out with chain lightning.
3. Blood Brothers. Summon two health-linked wolfs that return 9% of the damage done as life to their master.
4. Lurking wolfs. Increases the Wolf Pack's damage and reduced the cool down to 45 seconds.
5. Seeing Red. When attacking a champion or elite pack, if the enemies health drops below 25% the wolfs become immune to all CC and have damage increased for a short duration.
Ancient Ward. A 1 minute cool down that summons an Ancient Ward at the target location for 30 seconds. An ancestral bear spirit is tied to this ward and will fight for the Druid for the duration.
1. The Ancient Ward summons constant ravens to attack everything within reach.
2. Everything inside the Ancient Ward's radius takes an additional 10% damage.
3. Every party member inside the Ancient Ward's radius receives 900 Life per second.
4. The Ancient ward now lasts for a full minute and is carried with the Druid. Summons an Oak Spirit to accompany the Druid and increase their max life by 10%. This spirit cannot attack, but can be attacked.
5. The ancestral bear spirit now has a high chance to stun when attacking, and will taunt enemies to attack it.
Resource Regenerating Attacks;
Crush. Single target attack that increases it's own damage per stack, up to three stacks.
1. Also increases Crush's attack speed by 5% when used, up to 15%.
2. Adds a chance to knock back the target.
3. Makes affected enemies take X% more physical damage.
4. Creates a shockwave behind the target for X%.
5. Has a chance for an AOE knockback.
Pulse. Lightning damage in cone in front of the Druid.
1. Shoots 6 streaks of lightning randomly.
2. Has a chance to pull in up to 5 enemies.
3. Makes affected enemies take X% more fire damage.
4. A chance to stun enemies that are hit.
5. Create the pulse at long range.
Frost Axe. Attack all enemies in front and on both sides of the Druid for cold damage. (think of an ethereal pair of frozen axes that the druid swings upwards crossing arms, then back downwards ending with both arms as far back as they can go).
1. Gain 3 Natural Energy per enemy hit.
2. Makes affected enemies take X% more lightning damage.
3. Gives a chance for targets to be frozen.
4. Throw the Frost Axe instead.
5. Slam the axe into the ground, erupting frozen energy to do AOE damage over 2 seconds. This effect can stack.
Fire Ball. A projectile that explodes upon hitting the target.
1. Adds a 33% chance to attack with a giant fireball that does double the damage.
2. Turn the fire ball into a ball of lightning. (Not the DH skill >.<)
3. Leave behind a %WD dot on affected enemies.
4. Makes affected enemies take X% more cold damage.
5. Ricochet the Fire Ball up to 3 enemies.
Shape-Shifting; ( every time a shape shift is cast, it randomly chooses one of a couple different skins per form ). All would probably have about a 30 second cool down, except chimera form.
Werewolf Form. A long lasting buff on the player that increases attack and movement speed, and grants +5% strength.
1. Extends the attack speed buff to the whole party.
2. Also creates two wolf cub allies that attack and tank like pets.
3. Upon use, howl and fear every nearby enemy
4. Extends the movement speed buff to the whole party.
5. Gain +25% movement impair reduction.
Lion Form (or bear form). The animal can be debated, but the purpose would be the tanky-type. Increasing dodge / armor / vitality.
1. Increases party members vitality by 10%.
2. Melee attacks have a 15% chance of doing double damage.
3. Reduce all damage taken by 10%.
4. Grants the druid 650 life per second.
5. Adds a 1.5% life steal to all attacks.
Eagle / Raven Form. This would give the Druid the appearance of an Eagle / Raven, while still standing on two legs (think the animals head + wings on the back). It would increase resource regeneration per resource regenerating attack and increase elemental damage.
1. Increases the elemental damage bonus and extends to party members.
2. When reduced to below 20% health, the druid flies up and becomes immune to all damage for 3 seconds. This cannot occur more than once per 90 seconds.
3. Grants three ravens who damage enemies.
4. Reduce physical damage taken by 10%.
5. Attacks have a 10% chance to charm an enemy. Only one enemy may be charmed at a time.
Chimera Form. A 2 minute cool down, 15 second buff. Health globes grant 5 seconds extra, up to 15 seconds, for a total of 30 seconds maximum in Chimera Form. Turns the Druid into an Eagle + Lion and gives him a new set of attacks. Such as;
A hard hitting, piercing lightning bolt.
A channeled frontal cone AOE fire breath.
A huge radius ground-pound AOE.
A massive single target damage attack such as Ravage.
A charge ability that flies the player to the target location, breaking CC, with a 7 second cool down.
The last skill slot would be filled by the rune selection;
1. Summon multiple snakes to attack and poison enemies with a dot.
2. Fixated shield. A shield that can be used once during Chimera form, that blocked all incoming damage for three second. Party members can step inside this shield and also use it.
3. A stone form buff that makes the druid slower, but immune to all CC for the duration.
4. Extend a massive attack speed buff once to the Druid and the entire party for 7 seconds.
5. Creates an AOE stun for two seconds, with a 7 second cooldown.
'Utility' Type Attacks;
Elemental Shield. Decreases elemental damage taken by 10%.
1. Increase the Druids resist-all by 15%.
2. 10% chance on critical hit to gain 15 Natural Energy.
3. Grants + 3 Natural Energy per second.
4. Gives the druid free use of the next attack used against them for 10 seconds, 30 second cool down. Some attacks not eligible (such as boss attacks).
5. Enemies attempting to run in the opposite direction of the Druid will have their movement speed reduced by 35%.
Force Tap. Uses half of the current remaining Resource to heal the player ( each point of resource could heal for 100 health at max level or so). The point of this mechanic is to make it so this skill doesn't need a cool down. Instead once used more than twice in a row without generating your resource, it's really not that useful. The + HP from health globes and potions increases the life gained from this skill.
1. Switch to use 15% of remaining health for 20% of max Natural Energy.
2. Creates a -30% damage taken shield on the druid for 3 seconds after use. Incurs a 15 second cool down.
3. Uses all of the Druids resource to grant themselves plus all party members 1600 life per second for 5 seconds. Only usable when >= 75% Natural Energy. Has a 10 second cool down.
4. Damage surrounding enemies for 200% of the amount healed.
5. Increases armor by 15% for 3 seconds after use.
Iron Roots. A single target root immobilizes the enemy and does damage over three seconds. Has a 5 second cool down.
1. Summon two creeping vines for 3 seconds that seek out enemies, damaging and slowing them.
2. Create a surge of roots that immobilize every enemy within 8 yards of the target for 3 seconds. Has a 10 second cool down.
3. Increases the damage and the effect of the roots to 4 seconds.
4. Creates a giant AOE explosion after the effect of the roots is over.
5. Attacks made on the rooted target deal an extra 20% damage as AOE to surrounding targets.
Drain. Decreases the target's damage done by 20%, and puts a 1.5% Life steal debuff on the target for the whole party to benefit from. Can only effect one target at a time, and lasts 15 seconds.
1. Changes the life steal debuff to a 400 Life on hit Debuff.
2. Gain 5 Natural Energy every time the Druid strikes the target.
3. The target's attack speed is also reduced by 20%.
4. The Druid's strength is increased by 10% while a target is effected.
5. Vines slowly wrap around the target, dealing damage over time.
Swap. Change places with any targets within the small casting area, dealing arcane damage. Has a 5 second cool down, and doesn't require a target.
1. Increase the arcane damage and causes it to be an explosive AOE, but adds a 2 second delay.
2. Each target swapped with will grant the Druid 5% health.
3. Only effects one target, and instead of swapping brings the target to the Druid.
4. After 3 seconds, the Druid is pulled back to the original swap location.
5. On arrival, the Druid unleashes an arcane nova.
Passives
I've only come up with a couple passives so far, so feel free to suggest more.
Blood Rush. Every health globe picked up increases your shapeshift duration by 3 seconds.
Hungering. Recover (insert life after kill number here) each time an enemy is slain.
Power Surge. While not in a shape-shift form, picking up a health globe grants you an additional 3 Natural Energy when using Natural Energy generating abilities.
Razor Scales. Gives the Druid a chance to reflect 10% weapon damage back to melee attackers, and increases armor by 10%. Reflected damage causes the enemy to bleed for 45% damage over 3 seconds.
Natural Order. Spells have a chance to recover 5 Natural Energy upon critically hitting a target.
Lake of wisdom. Increases the Druid's maximum Natural Energy by 75.
Diseased. Enemies under 50% health gave their damage reduced by 10% and take and an additional 10% more damage.
Dead beast's hand. Receiving fatal damage causes the Druid to enter Beast Mode, gaining 30% health and 100% Natural Energy back, and all skills are set to cooldown. This effect can only occur once every 3 minutes.
Infected wounds. Attacking an enemy that is poisoned returns 1.5% of the damage done as life.
As you can see, I've really imagined this iteration of the Druid to be a full on caster, that can also shape shift and work great as a melee class. There might not be any apparent synergy between a lot of skills, but that's because all the rune variations are missing.
I would love to hear feedback on this, positive or negative =D Let me get one thing out of the way early though; I'm very aware a lot of these ideas have been gleaned from Diablo 2, and WoW, and I'll admit I got a lot of inspiration from both.
I would love to see a Diablo 3 druid equivalent. Man the art assets would be amazing. Love the idea of the resource being green (I still side with ppl that thought WD using green mojo would have been more fun). Actually, give me any class that ends up using a green resource globe and I would play it, haha.
Also, I would certainly want a werebear form.
Edit:
each rune could alter the fur, feather, scales (or whatever) color/patterns of each respective shifted form.
Great work, however, I still feel the Witch Doctor fits the "attuned with nature" kind of role, albeit with an emphasis on undead. It would be nice to see the druid, strictly because I enjoyed the druid so much in Diablo 2, and I think this representation does it justice. Also, why is there no Werebear? Can't have a druid without Werebear -- ain't nobody got time fo' dat. Werebear was significantly better for survival and Hardcore gameplay with insane tanking and high DPS with good stunning...I just can't see a druid without that option.
Actually, give me any class that ends up using a green resource globe and I would play it
Patch 1.0.9
All resource globes have been changed to be green in color, except the Barbarian. Fury will now be LIGHT GREEN in color.
@bleu42
Nice thoughts. Some of the runes felt too much like existing spells, but.. yeah there's only so much variety to be had if everything is to remain useful so I'm not exactly raging on that. I like your take on the Druid, though.
@zero(ps)
Agreed. I want to see that guy's interpretation of chimera form!
Great work, however, I still feel the Witch Doctor fits the "attuned with nature" kind of role, albeit with an emphasis on undead. It would be nice to see the druid, strictly because I enjoyed the druid so much in Diablo 2, and I think this representation does it justice. Also, why is there no Werebear? Can't have a druid without Werebear -- ain't nobody got time fo' dat. Werebear was significantly better for survival and Hardcore gameplay with insane tanking and high DPS with good stunning...I just can't see a druid without that option.
Oh werebear is defiantly an option. I simply put the lion in place of it because I didn't want to be TOO much like D2, but personally I loved the bear =D
Actually, give me any class that ends up using a green resource globe and I would play it
Patch 1.0.9
All resource globes have been changed to be green in color, except the Barbarian. Fury will now be LIGHT GREEN in color.
@bleu42
Nice thoughts. Some of the runes felt too much like existing spells, but.. yeah there's only so much variety to be had if everything is to remain useful so I'm not exactly raging on that. I like your take on the Druid, though.
@zero(ps)
Agreed. I want to see that guy's interpretation of chimera form!
You're defiantly right about the rune variants, they are pretty close to other skills. I'm sure there's more unique approaches to a lot of them.
Just got done adding all the rune variations I can think of! I know I said I wouldn't add numbers, but I felt there were cases to where adding numbers made the idea of the skill a little more clear. However this obviously will create imbalance for sure, but just go with it =)
All that's left is more passives. Feedback's always welcome!
There's been a couple threads lately talking about possible new expansion classes
Cool! i decided to tell you my take on the class, but it is too important to be just a reply on your topic, i want new topic of my own!
While I agree that there are lots of copycats quite often on DFans, this thread actually focuses on one class rather than asking for lots of other ideas and therefore deserves a new thread. Usually I understand the grief if someone rips off another person's thread, but it's a bit ironic coming from you as your thread was preceded by a similar thread just 3 days earlier, too.
I might contribute with some passive changes and ideas
Passives
Blood Rush: While in a shape-shift form, each health globe consumed will increase your damage by 5%, up to 3 stacks at 15%. Lasts 10 seconds before wearing off. (In practice this is identical to Gruesome feast)
New: Each time you pickup a healthglobe your shapeshifting duration increases by 3 seconds.
Hungering:When you are in human form, picking up a healthglobe makes you generate 3 additional nature energy for 5 seconds when using nature energy generating abilities.
Razor Scales. Gives the Druid a chance to reflect 10% weapon damage back to melee attackers, and increases armor by 10%. Enemies who recieve reflected damage bleeds for 45% damage over 3 seconds.
Disease:Enemies under 50% health have their damage reduced by 10% and takes an additional 10% more damage.
Dead beast's hand:When you recieve fatal damage you enter beast (the one you have activated), gain 30% health back and gain 100% nature energy back. All skills are set to cooldown. This effect can only accure once ever 3 minutes.
Sidenote: I'd rather see the druids elemental attacks being based on wind, earth (earth and plant skills), and maybe magma.
Oh very cool ideas, I shall add them!
edit; I see what you mean about the Druids elemental attacks. I used cold / fire / lightning for the elements just because it felt the most 'natural', with physical damage of course for most melee attacks.
Very nice thread, the skills and runes seem very well thought out, almost as if Blizzard made them
And also, I think the PvP NPC (Nek the Brawler) has a very "druid-ish" look, perhaps they are hinting about the druids future release the same way as they did with the assassin in Diablo 2?
Hey Bleu, Love the ideas, had pretty much the same ones myself, but there is an inherit problem with making a Druid class. As we all know the Druids are elemental warriors who can shape shift and summon animals to do their bidding, but In Diablo 3 the way the skill system is set up, there really is no room for the Druids skill set. By this I mean he would be too all around, too much here and there, not enough focus on a single area, unless they chose to discard 1 or 2 of his other ability sets.His skill pool would be over 50 which is much higher than any other classes, and his mechanics would be extremely complex. Think about the WD He has only about 4-5 summons, but has the main focus of voodoo magic. The Barb is all about jumping into the fray and fucking shit up, The Wizard is all elemental skills, the Monk is all swift strikes with immense holy power, and the Demon hunter is all about traps and long ranged attacks. They all have a single or two pronged focus where as the Druid has 3, and you'd have to most likely cut the summons away, but also diminish the amount of elemental stuff he has.
IMHO They should focus specifically on the shape-shifting. They should have a set of elemental skills about 10-12 or so that you can use out of shape shifting forms, this is so you're not useless out of shape shifted forms but also not always in shape shifting forms. these skills can not be used while in a shape shifted form just like in D2, and you can choose to have 1-6 of these skills like any normal class could choose 1-6 of any of their skill types. Then you would have the Shape shifting skills Wolf/Bear/Eagle/Chimera, you could choose to put all four on your hot bar or only 1 completely up to you. Then when you change into them you have a special skillset that comes up specifically for them or, allow you to choose 5 skills out of a set of 10 that are only for that shape shifting form.
Now say I use Bear or any of the other Shape shifting skills. As soon as I press one of those buttons my whole skill bar changes and now it reads
LMB: Maul
RMB: Fire Claws
1: Hunger
2: Shockwave
3: Bear Cry (Fake skill used to fill in a slot)
4: Rage (Again fake skill to fill slot)
5: Human (to get out of the bear form) <--- This could also be a skill if you time the forms instead and force people to play human form.
The other option would be you have a skill bar for each form, and you can fill them however you like with a selection of skills based on that form and then you can switch between the forms if you have them on your human skill bar. This way is preferred to me because it allows some more skill diversity within each form. But here is the problem, all this convoluted skill changing and picking, the amazing amount of skills you'd need to come up with to allow choice in all four forms and the human form. I just don't think they'd go for it. I'd personally love to see a shape-shifting class but I just don't think they'll dedicate all this time to it. It would take forever unless they started this class when they were making the original classes and are just saving it for expansion.
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Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
I see what you mean Enty, and I think that would be a really fun take. But like you said, that'd be a huge amount of skills needed.
My iteration here was like you said, focusing on only two of the three main niche's - elemental and shapeshifting. I added *some* summoning skill runes but no actual summon skills. My hope with the shapeshifting portion was that it would work just like D2 - shapeshifting acts like a buff instead of giving you new skills. I tried to give a good balance of elemental and melee skills. Theoretically one would pick a shapeshift they wanted to focus around ( wolf / bear / lion / eagle / raven ) and then pick 2-3 melee ( or elemental ) attacks and then a defensive or a cool down.
I think your version with the changing hotbars would be a lot of fun, but I agree I don't see that happening not only because of the amount of skills needed, but also all the other classes might feel cheated because they only get to have 6 skills.
Just added two brand new abilities that focus almost entirely on summoning, Wolf Pack and Ancient Ward. I realized that while having rune variations for 5 different skills that added a type of summoning, there should at least be 1-2 skills that are meant to be about summoning.
A quick recap of which skills summon what; (original post has all the details about the skills).
Wolf Pack - Base skill summons 5 wolfs.
Ancient Ward - Base skill summons 1 grizzly bear.
The following are rune variants accompanying the skills;
Werewolf Form - Two wolfs protect the Druid.
Eagle Form - Three ravens flock by the Druid's side.
Chimera Form - A summon has snakes attacking enemies.
Iron Roots - One rune summons two creeping vines that attack and slow.
Elemental Fury (Armageddon) Summons three Fire Golems for the Duration.
My main focus for this Druid still remains shape shifting and elemental damage, but Adding in a couple summons does switch it up enough to add excitement =D
Nice take on it. I'm also for the Druid as our sixth class, but I envisioned something much more shapeshift-centric. I want a class that is constantly shifting, each skill (or set of skills) tied to an animal. Something like, charge a pack as a bear, turn into a snake and jump towards the elite, poisoning him, shift into an eagle to fly away from the heavyhitter mob, go lion to fear the small mobs, then stand toe-to-toe against the posioned elite as an ape. When you are done, cheetah your way to the next pack.
This would require a buttload of animations, one for each transition, but if done right could look amazing.
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I have numbers but I think I'll forgo those just because they'd probably vastly change anyway upon testing. Instead I'll list what skills / passives I've come up with so far, and how I envision they will act. Thanks to Elendiro for the idea of class specific shoulders + resource name =)
Thanks to Ulydssian for the idea of the shapeshift runes changing the color / fur of the animal!
The Druid
Role: Melee + Long range caster
Main Spell Schools: Lightning / Cold / Fire / Physical
Resource: Natural Energy (green in color). Only regenerating attacks regenerate this resource, it does not deplete over time and no target is required to benefit from regenerating attacks. A large pool (think 125-150 or so) with large regenerating attacks (such as 10-15) and big spenders (such as 20-25).
Main stat: Strength
Class specific armor: Animal pelt / feather shoulders. (Thanks again to Elendiro).
Class specific weapon(s): The Glaive, and the Two Handed Glaive.
Skills
Spell Spenders;
Thunder strike. Lightning damage, long range, small aoe around target. Instant cast. The bolt comes down where targeted.
1. Calls 3 lightning damage stars to hit random targets, and also does AOE damage off of each target hit.
2. Add's a 25% chance to stun for 2 seconds.
3. Instead of an AOE upon hit, 6 lightning spears shoot out at a farther distance, piercing.
4. Damage increased, AOE removed.
5. Leaves behind a lightning field that does 45% weapon damage over 2 seconds to anything inside.
Ice Spike. Cold damage, long range, single target. Has a chance to pierce. It's a fast moving projectile that slows targets.
1. Killing a target with Ice Spike creates an explosion of ice that does %WD to enemies behind the target.
2. Grants Ice Spike a 15% chance to freeze any target it hits.
3. Turns Ice Spike into an Ice Trap, that arms after 2 seconds, dealing massive damage.
4. Ice Spike leaves behind a frozen trail, slowing enemies.
5. Ice Spike creates an Ice Wall that blocks enemies.
Lava Surge. A medium range channeled spell that does fire damage. Similar to disintegrate it pierces, but it has a wider swath as it attacks.
1. If channeled for at least 3 seconds, burns the armor on targets making them take 15% addition damage.
2. pools of lava burst from the ground underneath the beam for 3 seconds dealing damage. The Druid can run faster on top of these pools.
3. Turns Lava Surge into a shield that lasts for 120 seconds and does constant fire AOE.
4. Removes the pierce and instead adds a % of damage aoe off of target
5. Creates a volcano at the target location that will hit enemies with fiery brimstone (lol) for 15 seconds.
Wind Blast. Instant projectile, long range and does physical damage. Has a built in chance to knock back.
1. Replaces the attack with a wall of wind that surrounds the druid, slowing projectiles for 10 seconds.
2. Reduces targets attack speed by 20%.
3. Adds a chance for Wind Blast to pierce.
4. Each cast increases attack speed by 3% for 5s, stacks up to 3 times. (the IAS affects every skill)
5. Split Wind Blast into 3 projectiles, shooting off in a cone shape.
Elemental fury. A 2 minute cool down. Randomly picks one of three attacks when used. 1) Armageddon - Rain fire on all enemies. 2) Hurricane - Ravage all enemies caught, while slowing them. 3) Temporal Thunder - Strike random enemies with lightning, adds a chance to displace and stun enemies. Lasts 15 seconds.
1. Decrease the Cool Down to 80 seconds.
2. Enemies killed with Elemental Fury explode for %WD.
3. If Armageddon is chosen, it spawns 3 fiery golems to fight for the Druid for 2 minutes.
4. If Hurricane is chosen, receive a damaging AOE buff for 2 minutes. (D2 hurricane)
5. If Temporal Thunder is chosen, receive a displacement shield for 2 minutes.
Melee Spenders;
Puncture. Does instant damage, plus adds a heavy Bleed on the target. Increases target damage taken by 12% from all sources.
1. Cuts the bleed damage in half, but increases the damage taken by the target to 15%.
2. Receive 9% of the damage done as life.
3. Infect the wound to create a slowing AOE off the target, reducing enemy movement by 20%.
4. Affects all targets directly in front of the Druid.
5. Removes the instant damage and the increased damage debuff, but triples the bleed damage.
Pound. Medium range AOE around the player. 5 second cool down. Has a chance to stun for 1 second.
1. Removes the cool down, and the chance to stun.
2. Increases damage, turns the damage into fire.
3. Gain 5 Natural Energy and 5% life per target hit.
4. Increase the Druids armor by 25% for 3 seconds after use.
5. Freely cast Pound anywhere targeted.
Rabies. A callback from the D2 druid, it's a fast spreading Poison damage Dot. Internal chance to make enemies randomly attack the player or other enemies.
1. Change the chance to confuse enemies to a chance to fear enemies.
2. Increases Rabies damage, reduces the amount of targets able to be effects from all to 5.
3. Slow all enemies effected.
4. Life on Hit and Life Steal return double their normal amount when used on enemies with Rabies. (Druid only)
5. Enemies with Rabies leave behind poison clouds dealing damage over the course of the DoT.
Gnash. Single target physical attack with high damage. Adds a short range charge when used.
1. Increase the range of the charge to long range.
2. Knock back enemies you hit while charging to your target.
3. Replace the charge with a small radius AOE off the target.
4. Using Gnash increases your total damage by 3%. Stacks up to 5 times.
5. Adds a damage effect to the charge itself, and changes the damage type to fire.
Summon skills;
Wolf pack. 1 minute cool down. Summons 5 wolfs to fight for the Druid. The wolfs persist until killed. (Imagine them being about = to 3 zombie dogs).
1. Big bad wolf. Summon 1 wolf for 20 seconds that mirrors the Druid's damage, critical hit chance and critical hit damage. Uses a single target physical attack.
2. The Spirit Clan. Summon a magma, a wind and a nature wolf to fight for the Druid. Each wolf has a unique attack in addition to their melee attack. The Magma wolf randomly raises small volcanoes for persistent AOE damage on the ground. The Wind wolf uses gusts of hurricane force winds to slow and damage enemies, and the Nature wolf strikes out with chain lightning.
3. Blood Brothers. Summon two health-linked wolfs that return 9% of the damage done as life to their master.
4. Lurking wolfs. Increases the Wolf Pack's damage and reduced the cool down to 45 seconds.
5. Seeing Red. When attacking a champion or elite pack, if the enemies health drops below 25% the wolfs become immune to all CC and have damage increased for a short duration.
Ancient Ward. A 1 minute cool down that summons an Ancient Ward at the target location for 30 seconds. An ancestral bear spirit is tied to this ward and will fight for the Druid for the duration.
1. The Ancient Ward summons constant ravens to attack everything within reach.
2. Everything inside the Ancient Ward's radius takes an additional 10% damage.
3. Every party member inside the Ancient Ward's radius receives 900 Life per second.
4. The Ancient ward now lasts for a full minute and is carried with the Druid. Summons an Oak Spirit to accompany the Druid and increase their max life by 10%. This spirit cannot attack, but can be attacked.
5. The ancestral bear spirit now has a high chance to stun when attacking, and will taunt enemies to attack it.
Resource Regenerating Attacks;
Crush. Single target attack that increases it's own damage per stack, up to three stacks.
1. Also increases Crush's attack speed by 5% when used, up to 15%.
2. Adds a chance to knock back the target.
3. Makes affected enemies take X% more physical damage.
4. Creates a shockwave behind the target for X%.
5. Has a chance for an AOE knockback.
Pulse. Lightning damage in cone in front of the Druid.
1. Shoots 6 streaks of lightning randomly.
2. Has a chance to pull in up to 5 enemies.
3. Makes affected enemies take X% more fire damage.
4. A chance to stun enemies that are hit.
5. Create the pulse at long range.
Frost Axe. Attack all enemies in front and on both sides of the Druid for cold damage. (think of an ethereal pair of frozen axes that the druid swings upwards crossing arms, then back downwards ending with both arms as far back as they can go).
1. Gain 3 Natural Energy per enemy hit.
2. Makes affected enemies take X% more lightning damage.
3. Gives a chance for targets to be frozen.
4. Throw the Frost Axe instead.
5. Slam the axe into the ground, erupting frozen energy to do AOE damage over 2 seconds. This effect can stack.
Fire Ball. A projectile that explodes upon hitting the target.
1. Adds a 33% chance to attack with a giant fireball that does double the damage.
2. Turn the fire ball into a ball of lightning. (Not the DH skill >.<)
3. Leave behind a %WD dot on affected enemies.
4. Makes affected enemies take X% more cold damage.
5. Ricochet the Fire Ball up to 3 enemies.
Shape-Shifting; ( every time a shape shift is cast, it randomly chooses one of a couple different skins per form ). All would probably have about a 30 second cool down, except chimera form.
Werewolf Form. A long lasting buff on the player that increases attack and movement speed, and grants +5% strength.
1. Extends the attack speed buff to the whole party.
2. Also creates two wolf cub allies that attack and tank like pets.
3. Upon use, howl and fear every nearby enemy
4. Extends the movement speed buff to the whole party.
5. Gain +25% movement impair reduction.
Lion Form (or bear form). The animal can be debated, but the purpose would be the tanky-type. Increasing dodge / armor / vitality.
1. Increases party members vitality by 10%.
2. Melee attacks have a 15% chance of doing double damage.
3. Reduce all damage taken by 10%.
4. Grants the druid 650 life per second.
5. Adds a 1.5% life steal to all attacks.
Eagle / Raven Form. This would give the Druid the appearance of an Eagle / Raven, while still standing on two legs (think the animals head + wings on the back). It would increase resource regeneration per resource regenerating attack and increase elemental damage.
1. Increases the elemental damage bonus and extends to party members.
2. When reduced to below 20% health, the druid flies up and becomes immune to all damage for 3 seconds. This cannot occur more than once per 90 seconds.
3. Grants three ravens who damage enemies.
4. Reduce physical damage taken by 10%.
5. Attacks have a 10% chance to charm an enemy. Only one enemy may be charmed at a time.
Chimera Form. A 2 minute cool down, 15 second buff. Health globes grant 5 seconds extra, up to 15 seconds, for a total of 30 seconds maximum in Chimera Form. Turns the Druid into an Eagle + Lion and gives him a new set of attacks. Such as;
A hard hitting, piercing lightning bolt.
A channeled frontal cone AOE fire breath.
A huge radius ground-pound AOE.
A massive single target damage attack such as Ravage.
A charge ability that flies the player to the target location, breaking CC, with a 7 second cool down.
The last skill slot would be filled by the rune selection;
1. Summon multiple snakes to attack and poison enemies with a dot.
2. Fixated shield. A shield that can be used once during Chimera form, that blocked all incoming damage for three second. Party members can step inside this shield and also use it.
3. A stone form buff that makes the druid slower, but immune to all CC for the duration.
4. Extend a massive attack speed buff once to the Druid and the entire party for 7 seconds.
5. Creates an AOE stun for two seconds, with a 7 second cooldown.
'Utility' Type Attacks;
Elemental Shield. Decreases elemental damage taken by 10%.
1. Increase the Druids resist-all by 15%.
2. 10% chance on critical hit to gain 15 Natural Energy.
3. Grants + 3 Natural Energy per second.
4. Gives the druid free use of the next attack used against them for 10 seconds, 30 second cool down. Some attacks not eligible (such as boss attacks).
5. Enemies attempting to run in the opposite direction of the Druid will have their movement speed reduced by 35%.
Force Tap. Uses half of the current remaining Resource to heal the player ( each point of resource could heal for 100 health at max level or so). The point of this mechanic is to make it so this skill doesn't need a cool down. Instead once used more than twice in a row without generating your resource, it's really not that useful. The + HP from health globes and potions increases the life gained from this skill.
1. Switch to use 15% of remaining health for 20% of max Natural Energy.
2. Creates a -30% damage taken shield on the druid for 3 seconds after use. Incurs a 15 second cool down.
3. Uses all of the Druids resource to grant themselves plus all party members 1600 life per second for 5 seconds. Only usable when >= 75% Natural Energy. Has a 10 second cool down.
4. Damage surrounding enemies for 200% of the amount healed.
5. Increases armor by 15% for 3 seconds after use.
Iron Roots. A single target root immobilizes the enemy and does damage over three seconds. Has a 5 second cool down.
1. Summon two creeping vines for 3 seconds that seek out enemies, damaging and slowing them.
2. Create a surge of roots that immobilize every enemy within 8 yards of the target for 3 seconds. Has a 10 second cool down.
3. Increases the damage and the effect of the roots to 4 seconds.
4. Creates a giant AOE explosion after the effect of the roots is over.
5. Attacks made on the rooted target deal an extra 20% damage as AOE to surrounding targets.
Drain. Decreases the target's damage done by 20%, and puts a 1.5% Life steal debuff on the target for the whole party to benefit from. Can only effect one target at a time, and lasts 15 seconds.
1. Changes the life steal debuff to a 400 Life on hit Debuff.
2. Gain 5 Natural Energy every time the Druid strikes the target.
3. The target's attack speed is also reduced by 20%.
4. The Druid's strength is increased by 10% while a target is effected.
5. Vines slowly wrap around the target, dealing damage over time.
Swap. Change places with any targets within the small casting area, dealing arcane damage. Has a 5 second cool down, and doesn't require a target.
1. Increase the arcane damage and causes it to be an explosive AOE, but adds a 2 second delay.
2. Each target swapped with will grant the Druid 5% health.
3. Only effects one target, and instead of swapping brings the target to the Druid.
4. After 3 seconds, the Druid is pulled back to the original swap location.
5. On arrival, the Druid unleashes an arcane nova.
Passives
I've only come up with a couple passives so far, so feel free to suggest more.
Blood Rush. Every health globe picked up increases your shapeshift duration by 3 seconds.
Hungering. Recover (insert life after kill number here) each time an enemy is slain.
Power Surge. While not in a shape-shift form, picking up a health globe grants you an additional 3 Natural Energy when using Natural Energy generating abilities.
Razor Scales. Gives the Druid a chance to reflect 10% weapon damage back to melee attackers, and increases armor by 10%. Reflected damage causes the enemy to bleed for 45% damage over 3 seconds.
Natural Order. Spells have a chance to recover 5 Natural Energy upon critically hitting a target.
Lake of wisdom. Increases the Druid's maximum Natural Energy by 75.
Diseased. Enemies under 50% health gave their damage reduced by 10% and take and an additional 10% more damage.
Dead beast's hand. Receiving fatal damage causes the Druid to enter Beast Mode, gaining 30% health and 100% Natural Energy back, and all skills are set to cooldown. This effect can only occur once every 3 minutes.
Infected wounds. Attacking an enemy that is poisoned returns 1.5% of the damage done as life.
As you can see, I've really imagined this iteration of the Druid to be a full on caster, that can also shape shift and work great as a melee class. There might not be any apparent synergy between a lot of skills, but that's because all the rune variations are missing.
I would love to hear feedback on this, positive or negative =D Let me get one thing out of the way early though; I'm very aware a lot of these ideas have been gleaned from Diablo 2, and WoW, and I'll admit I got a lot of inspiration from both.
Thanks everyone for reading!
Also, I would certainly want a werebear form.
Edit:
each rune could alter the fur, feather, scales (or whatever) color/patterns of each respective shifted form.
Now get that guy with photoshop skills (who made the Seals and Talisman threads) to make the screenshots and you're done
Patch 1.0.9
All resource globes have been changed to be green in color, except the Barbarian. Fury will now be LIGHT GREEN in color.
@bleu42
Nice thoughts. Some of the runes felt too much like existing spells, but.. yeah there's only so much variety to be had if everything is to remain useful so I'm not exactly raging on that. I like your take on the Druid, though.
@zero(ps)
Agreed. I want to see that guy's interpretation of chimera form!
Oh werebear is defiantly an option. I simply put the lion in place of it because I didn't want to be TOO much like D2, but personally I loved the bear =D
Exactly! I always felt everyone's idea got a lot further with some pictures. I, sadly, have zero photoshop skill D=
You're defiantly right about the rune variants, they are pretty close to other skills. I'm sure there's more unique approaches to a lot of them.
tyvm sir =D
All that's left is more passives. Feedback's always welcome!
While I agree that there are lots of copycats quite often on DFans, this thread actually focuses on one class rather than asking for lots of other ideas and therefore deserves a new thread. Usually I understand the grief if someone rips off another person's thread, but it's a bit ironic coming from you as your thread was preceded by a similar thread just 3 days earlier, too.
Oh very cool ideas, I shall add them!
edit; I see what you mean about the Druids elemental attacks. I used cold / fire / lightning for the elements just because it felt the most 'natural', with physical damage of course for most melee attacks.
tyvm sir =D
hmm that is an interesting though =) I thought of the druid when I first saw him too.
I know some people might think "wtf this is op" but truth is, it could work if balanced right.
My thoughts exactly, that's why I tried not to add any numbers =D
when do I start?!? =D
IMHO They should focus specifically on the shape-shifting. They should have a set of elemental skills about 10-12 or so that you can use out of shape shifting forms, this is so you're not useless out of shape shifted forms but also not always in shape shifting forms. these skills can not be used while in a shape shifted form just like in D2, and you can choose to have 1-6 of these skills like any normal class could choose 1-6 of any of their skill types. Then you would have the Shape shifting skills Wolf/Bear/Eagle/Chimera, you could choose to put all four on your hot bar or only 1 completely up to you. Then when you change into them you have a special skillset that comes up specifically for them or, allow you to choose 5 skills out of a set of 10 that are only for that shape shifting form.
So an example (using D2 skills) would be I have:
LMB: fissure
RMB: Armageddon
1: Hurricane
2: Twister
3: cyclone Armor
4: volcano
5: Bear
OR
LMB: Bear
RMB: Wolf
1: Chimera
2: Eagle
3: Hurricane
4: Fissure
5: Armageddon
Now say I use Bear or any of the other Shape shifting skills. As soon as I press one of those buttons my whole skill bar changes and now it reads
LMB: Maul
RMB: Fire Claws
1: Hunger
2: Shockwave
3: Bear Cry (Fake skill used to fill in a slot)
4: Rage (Again fake skill to fill slot)
5: Human (to get out of the bear form) <--- This could also be a skill if you time the forms instead and force people to play human form.
The other option would be you have a skill bar for each form, and you can fill them however you like with a selection of skills based on that form and then you can switch between the forms if you have them on your human skill bar. This way is preferred to me because it allows some more skill diversity within each form. But here is the problem, all this convoluted skill changing and picking, the amazing amount of skills you'd need to come up with to allow choice in all four forms and the human form. I just don't think they'd go for it. I'd personally love to see a shape-shifting class but I just don't think they'll dedicate all this time to it. It would take forever unless they started this class when they were making the original classes and are just saving it for expansion.
My iteration here was like you said, focusing on only two of the three main niche's - elemental and shapeshifting. I added *some* summoning skill runes but no actual summon skills. My hope with the shapeshifting portion was that it would work just like D2 - shapeshifting acts like a buff instead of giving you new skills. I tried to give a good balance of elemental and melee skills. Theoretically one would pick a shapeshift they wanted to focus around ( wolf / bear / lion / eagle / raven ) and then pick 2-3 melee ( or elemental ) attacks and then a defensive or a cool down.
I think your version with the changing hotbars would be a lot of fun, but I agree I don't see that happening not only because of the amount of skills needed, but also all the other classes might feel cheated because they only get to have 6 skills.
A quick recap of which skills summon what; (original post has all the details about the skills).
Wolf Pack - Base skill summons 5 wolfs.
Ancient Ward - Base skill summons 1 grizzly bear.
The following are rune variants accompanying the skills;
Werewolf Form - Two wolfs protect the Druid.
Eagle Form - Three ravens flock by the Druid's side.
Chimera Form - A summon has snakes attacking enemies.
Iron Roots - One rune summons two creeping vines that attack and slow.
Elemental Fury (Armageddon) Summons three Fire Golems for the Duration.
My main focus for this Druid still remains shape shifting and elemental damage, but Adding in a couple summons does switch it up enough to add excitement =D
This would require a buttload of animations, one for each transition, but if done right could look amazing.