PoE 2 Druid - Release Date, Overview, Skills, and Guide

Path of Exile 2 is releasing the Druid, one of 6 new classes releasing alongside the original 6 classes. With 6 new classes, the game will open up a lot more in terms of build diversity and character fantasy.

The Druid class is looking to add some separation between the class fantasy of the previous 6 classes.

In this guide, I’ll be covering everything we know about the Druid class and how it works. Let’s jump right in.

Note: The Druid is planned, but will not be available on the release of Early Access (December 6th, 2024). Expect Druid to release some time into the Early Access (predicting a few months)

The Druid class is a new class with the STR/INT attribute. This makes them start at the same location as the Templar class, with proximity towards the Strength and Intelligence portions of the passive skill tree.

As the class name suggests, Druids will specialize in Shapeshifting Spells/Skills.

This style of gameplay is new for Path of Exile, and many players are looking forward to trying out the new class.

While the Bear form of Druid has been teased, the Druid isn’t necessarily built for being tanky. From gameplay we’ve seen so far, the Druid is a mixture of melee and spellcasting, which matches the STR/INT attributes well.

With the starting location, we can assume that Druids will lean toward things like Armour/Life/Energy Shield for defense. For offense, the Druid will likely focus on a mixture of physical, fire, and/or lightning damage.

Shapeshifting

In the gameplay we see, the Druid character uses a mixture of spells and Shapeshift spells. Because of this, your character will often switch between human and animal form.

When you use a skill, you will automatically transform between the correct form. However, there is a slight delay to transform, so you’ll want to be cognizant of your skill order. Use your regular spells while human and transform into a Bear to start slamming the ground.

This style of gameplay is further augmented by the Dual Specialization system. You can set one weapon loadout for your regular spells, and the other for when you’re transformed. This way, you can build a strong weapon for spells, and another for your Bear slams.

Easter Egg: When dodge rolling, you will automatically swap back to human form in combat. However, if you’re in town, you can roll around in bear form.

These are the currently known Druid skill gems:

• Lightning Storm

  • Casts an area that deals Lightning damage to enemies.

• Volcano

  • Create a volcano that shoots out projectiles, dealing fire damage. Can be cast longer to shoot more projectiles. Slamming near a Volcano will also trigger additional projectiles.

• Bear Maul

  • Generates Rage

• Rampage

  • Continuously slams the ground while you’re moving, dealing damage to enemies.

• Furious Slam

  • Slam the ground around you, stunning and dealing damage to enemies.

• Ferocious Roar

  • Exerts your next Slam, causing it to have a second aftershock.

• Summoned Wolves

  • Summon wolves to distract enemies and debuff them.

A common theme in PoE 2 is that players will get more mileage out of their character if they combine skills. This is in contrast to PoE 1 where builds often poured everything into 1 or 2 skills.

For the Druid, smartly combining your spells and slams will result in more damage.

Firstly, you can set up a Volcano while in human form to fire projectiles out. If you slam near the volcano while in bear form, it will fire more projectiles.

This will also count toward aftershocks as well. You can use Furious Slam to stun enemies, Ferocious Roar to exert your next attack, and finish with Rampage, slamming the ground constantly.

This will result in massive damage from both your Rampage and Volcano.

We don’t have information on the Ascendancy Classes for the Druid, but we do know there will be 3 different ones. The Druid is a STR/INT class, so the Ascendancies will likely be thematic towards these attributes.

One Ascendancy might lean towards empowering your human spells, and using the Druid skills to empower them further. One may lean more into the Bear form, making you tankier and giving you more damage on that end.

Or, one might turn the Druid into more of a Summoner class, giving you a horde of animals to aid you in battle.

There’s a lot of possibilities for Ascendancy classes, and we’ll be sure to update this section when we get more information.

This wraps up everything we know about the Druid class in Path of Exile 2.

The Druid class is a new and fresh addition to Path of Exile, as there isn’t anything like it in PoE 1. While the spells and slams are similar to things like Warrior or Sorceress, the animal style really adds another level of flavor.

It also makes quite a bit of sense thematically why the Druid will be a STR/INT class, as it borrows from both the Sorceress (INT) and Warrior (STR).

As the Beta comes closer, we’ll likely be able to dive further into the Druid class and see what more is in store. We’ve only seen the bear form so far, but maybe the Druid can transform into other animals too. We’ll just have to wait and see.