03-15-2003, 02:18 AM
While I agree with everyone who has said, effectively, that there is no 'best' character class, and that all classes can be equally enjoyable to play, I would argue that the Assassin class is much better designed that the Druid.
In saying this I am not suggesting that Druids 'suck' or anything of that sort - I love the Druid, and have started more of them than any other class.
What I mean by a well-designed class, is a class whose skills support each other and combine in interesting and sometimes unexpected ways. The Assassin is excellent in this respect: you can go Traps, you can go MA, you can take a combination of the two. The SD tree complements both the others. There are upwards of 15 really good, usable skills and only a handful that are close to useless.
The Druid is not like this. If you are a shifter, then you have no access to one whole tree, and you can only really use half the shifting tree, so you are really looking at one-and-a-half trees' worth of skills, about ten of which are worthwhile (after substracting Raven, Poison Creeper etc). This means that the number of different were-Druid builds is quite limited. Basically, you can do the Fury wolf, you can do the Maul bear, with slight variations on each.
The elemental druid, in my view, is much more interesting - I think it's the shift tree that needs fixing, not the elemental one - however, the real problem tree for the Druid is Summoning. It's (usually) a support tree but there's almost no synergy with the other two. Compare it with the Necro's Curse tree, or the Barbarian's War Cries - they have skills that combine with, and cover the weaknesses of, skills in other trees - eg War Cry's stun compensates for Berzerk's DR=0 effect; Lower Resist makes Poision Nova, BS & CE more effective, while AmpD helps out Revives and boosts CE's damage.
What I would like to see are spirits that would enhance spell damage (as HoW enchances physical), or perhaps spells that transfer some of their effects to minions, so that a character with, say, maxed Arctic Blast, can get a Grizzly with high built-in cold damage.
Or something. I trust Blizzard's imagination more than my own - they have produced a wonderful game here - but I think that when LoD shipped the Druid was only half-done.
In saying this I am not suggesting that Druids 'suck' or anything of that sort - I love the Druid, and have started more of them than any other class.
What I mean by a well-designed class, is a class whose skills support each other and combine in interesting and sometimes unexpected ways. The Assassin is excellent in this respect: you can go Traps, you can go MA, you can take a combination of the two. The SD tree complements both the others. There are upwards of 15 really good, usable skills and only a handful that are close to useless.
The Druid is not like this. If you are a shifter, then you have no access to one whole tree, and you can only really use half the shifting tree, so you are really looking at one-and-a-half trees' worth of skills, about ten of which are worthwhile (after substracting Raven, Poison Creeper etc). This means that the number of different were-Druid builds is quite limited. Basically, you can do the Fury wolf, you can do the Maul bear, with slight variations on each.
The elemental druid, in my view, is much more interesting - I think it's the shift tree that needs fixing, not the elemental one - however, the real problem tree for the Druid is Summoning. It's (usually) a support tree but there's almost no synergy with the other two. Compare it with the Necro's Curse tree, or the Barbarian's War Cries - they have skills that combine with, and cover the weaknesses of, skills in other trees - eg War Cry's stun compensates for Berzerk's DR=0 effect; Lower Resist makes Poision Nova, BS & CE more effective, while AmpD helps out Revives and boosts CE's damage.
What I would like to see are spirits that would enhance spell damage (as HoW enchances physical), or perhaps spells that transfer some of their effects to minions, so that a character with, say, maxed Arctic Blast, can get a Grizzly with high built-in cold damage.
Or something. I trust Blizzard's imagination more than my own - they have produced a wonderful game here - but I think that when LoD shipped the Druid was only half-done.
- Cartimandua