Grinding Gear Games just keeps cranking things up with Path of Exile 2, and this new Druid update feels like them flexing on the whole genre while players are busy chasing builds and PoE 2 Currency. The fourth big patch, called The Last of the Druids, lands on 12 December for PS5, Xbox Series X and PC, and it is not some tiny balance pass. It brings the eighth class into the game, and the Druid here is not that sleepy nature mage you have seen a hundred times. It feels wild, aggressive, and very “you’re in the middle of the storm,” not just pressing a form-change button on cooldown.
A Druid You Actually Want To Play
We have all seen Druids before. Tabletop groups spamming wild shape, folks still joking about Halsin’s bear moment in Baldur’s Gate 3, and the usual “human caster turns into wolf or bear” thing in Diablo 4 and Diablo Immortal. Last Epoch tried to twist it with the bug-like Swarmblade, which looked neat but still felt a bit niche. Here it is different. PoE 2 leans into the fantasy of nature as a blunt weapon. In human form you are not waiting around for your real skills to come off cooldown; you are dropping volcanoes that spit magma balls all over the screen and torching packs that get too close. You call down heavy rain and lightning that messes with visibility in a good way, and you root enemies with bursting vines that lock them in place so your next hit really counts.
Human Form As A Core Part Of The Kit
Once you start playing, you notice fast that the human form is built to stand on its own. You are not punished for staying in it, which is where a lot of other games slip up. That volcano skill is not just for show; mobs walking through its path melt, and it lines up nicely with slower bosses that sit in one area too long. The storm setup feels great in big maps, because you are kiting around while the rain and lightning do the boring work for you. Those vine traps give you this nice rhythm: pin enemies, stack damage, then switch into a form when it actually makes sense. It lets you plan a fight instead of just spamming shapeshift every time it is off cooldown.
Animal Talismans And Shapeshift Flow
The new Animal Talismans coming with patch 0.4 change how you think about forms. You are not just swapping for flavour; you are building around them. Bear form is slow, tanky, and feels like a walking avalanche. You roll into a pack, slam the ground, and all that lava from your volcano setup suddenly makes sense because things are forced to stay close to you. Then you have Wolf form, which is basically the opposite. It is snappy and aggressive, with skills that freeze or chill enemies as you slice through them, so you end up weaving in and out instead of face-tanking everything. The Wyvern is the show-off form. You take to the air, cast from above, and breathe fire over half the screen while your earlier spells still tick away on the ground. It is the kind of power trip ARPG fans keep asking for but rarely get.
Why This Druid Hits Different For ARPG Fans
For players who bounce between leagues and seasons in different games, this Druid stands out because it respects your time. You do not feel like any part of the kit is wasted, and each form has a clear job instead of being a reskinned damage buff. You can lean into big, clunky Bear hits, zoomy Wolf crit chains, or air control with Wyvern while your storms and volcanoes set the stage. It also looks good in motion, which matters when you are grinding for hours or checking prices on the poe2 market.
