My take on Nature's Warrior

[HastyPudding]

Having finally made a melee druid (16 druid/4 fighter bear, just for fun) I decided to give a crack at what an enhancement revamp would look of the Nature's Warrior tree. All of these enhancements are under the assumption that TWF/THF/SWF exploits are fixed for animal forms. Just a few thoughts.

My Philosophy on redesigning the tree:
~ Bear form should be focused on general survivability, generating and retaining aggro, and area damage.
~ Wolf form should be focused on attack speed, critical hit procs, and dodge.

CORE 1
Nature's Warrior: +1 HP per AP spent in this tree
This seems suitable, considering you're going to be melee if this is your main tree.

CORE 2 ~ 5
Instinctive Fighting: Passive:
+1d6 Sneak Attack dice while in any Wolf Form.
+5 PRR while in any Bear form.
+1 base melee damage while in any Wolf or Bear form.
+10 Positive Spell Power
This isn't bad, at all: it suits each 'path' you're building for and gives benefits depending on your chosen animal form. I have no real complaints, with these.

CORE 6
Beast Form Mastery: You have learned to mix strengths from different animal forms.
While in any Wolf form, you gain +2 base melee damage and +10 PRR as well as +2d6 sneak attack dice.
While in any Bear form, you gain +2 base melee damage and +10 PRR as well as +15% bonus to attack speed.
+1 to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution
+2 to Bluff
+2 to Intimidate
It's not a bad capstone, and like the cores, it gives benefits depending on your animal form. I would, however, add another benefit: for wolf form, I'd add a +4 bonus to confirm critical hits/critical hit damage and give bear form +60 HP.

TIER 1
Extra Wild Empathy: +1/+2/+3 Wild Empathy and Improved Wild Empathy uses per rest. +5/+10/+15 Positive Spellpower.
Bread and butter with fluff on top. Nothing to say, here.

Aggravate: Your enemy's fear galvanizes you. Whenever you use intimidate, or use an ability that triggers an intimidate check, you gain DR [2/4/6]/- for the duration of the intimidate effect, whether or not the intimidate succeeds, or indeed if there is anything present to be intimidated.
Boring and almost useless in the current state of the game. I would scrape this and add the following:
Multiselector: 1/1/1 AP
Rampaging Bear: Your massive size adds to your offensive capability. Your basic attacks now produce glancing blows while in any bear form, and your glancing blow damage is increased by 3%/6%/10%. You can now gain bonuses to glancing blows from other related feats, enhancements, and effects while in any bear form.

Swift Attacks: You have grown adept at making quick attacks against your opponents. While in any wolf form you gain a +2%/+4%/+6% bonus to doublestrike. At rank 3 you gain a +1 bonus to reflex saves.

Bestial Nature: Beast Stance: Lose yourself in your animal nature. While this stance is active, you gain a +1/+2/+3 Insight bonus to Fortitude and Reflex, and a -2 penalty to Will.
Nothing special, but I would change this from a stance to a passive and change the bonus from insight to unique so that it stacks with the current loot and other items. All trees need their fluff enhancements.

Shifting Rake: You move in deceptive and misleading ways. Whenever you bluff an enemy, or use an ability that triggers a bluff check, that enemy takes a -2/-4/-6 penalty to AC.
Again, nothing special and lackluster. I would change it to this:
Druidic Guile: Your knowledge of your bestial side lends itself to social interactions. You gain a +1/+2/+3 bonus to your bluff and intimidate skills. At rank 3 the cooldowns of your bluff and intimidate skills are reduced by 15%.

Athletic: +[1/2/3] Balance, Jump, Swim, and Tumble. Rank 3: +1 Wild Empathy and Improved Wild Empathy use per rest.
Fluff. Leave it as-is.

TIER 2
Flight: Gain +10% Dodge for [12/24/36] seconds. (Activation Cost: 1 Wild Empathy. Cooldown: 90 seconds)
No complaints about this, it's pretty decent.

Vengeful Hunter: Trading blows with your enemy whets your combat edge. Your critical hits grant you +2 critical hit damage (before weapon multipliers) for 20 seconds. Being hit by an enemy has a 5% chance of granting the same effect. This effect can stack [1/2/3] times, for a total of +[2/4/6].
No complaints about this one, either.

Hide of the Crocodile: Your skin thickens and hardens, and the cold confidence of the crocodile fills you.
Activating this ability reduces the damage you take from physical or acid attacks by [40/50/60]% for 8 seconds. (Cooldown: 5 minutes)
Increase the duration to 8/11/14 seconds and reduce the cooldown to 5/3.5/2 minutes.

Blood Moon Frenzy: Your pack has caught the scent of blood.
Killing an enemy grants your hirelings, pets, summoned creatures, and charmed creatures a [20/30/40]% enhancement bonus to movement speed and a [10/15/20]% enhancement bonus to attack speed for 15 seconds.
Enemies your own level or higher have a 100% chance of activating this ability. For every level below you, the chances are reduced by 20%. A monster two levels below you only has a 60% chance of creating this effect.
I'm not sure what to think about this one. It fits thematically, but I'm not a big fan of enhancements that require you to kill something. If you don't get kills, it's a wasted 3 AP. I would place this in the 2nd column of the tree, make it require the 2nd column enhancement in tier 1, and change it to this:

Multiselector: 1/1/1 AP
Thick Hide: While in any bear form you gain a +5/+10/+15 bonus to PRR.

Clever Wolf: While in any wolf form you gain +1%/+2%/+3% dodge and maximum dodge.

Action Boost: Double Strike: Activate to gain a +[10/20/30]% action boost bonus to Doublestrike for 20 seconds.
No complaints, here. Solid action boost.

TIER 3
Fight: +1/+2/+3 base melee damage and +1/+2/+3 Armor Class while in any Bear or Wolf form.
No real complaints on this one.

Improved Dodge: +1/+2/+3 Dodge while in any Bear or Wolf form.
Since the dodge bonus was moved to tier 2 with wolf form, I've decided to add this:
Multiselector: 1/1/1 AP
Ravage: Usable while in any bear form. You perform an area damage attack dealing +1[w]/+2[w]/+3[w]. This attack knocks down opponents for 1 second on a vorpal strike with no saving throw and shares a cooldown with the cleave feat.

Tooth and Claw: While in any wolf form, your basic attacks have a 30% chance to cause the target to bleed, inflicting 1d2/1d3/1d4 damage every 2 seconds for 8 seconds. This effect can stack up to 3/4/5 times and scales with 200% melee power. On vorpal strikes you automatically inflict 5 stacks of bleeding.

Reaving Roar: Beast Stance: While this stance is active, killing an enemy grants you a [2/4/6]% competence bonus to threat generation for 10 seconds, and creates a burst of sonic damage that hits all nearby enemies for 5d6 sonic damage.
Enemies your own level or higher have a 100% chance of activating this ability. For every level below you, the chances are reduced by 20%. A monster two levels below you only has a 60% chance of creating this effect.
You can only have one Beast Stance active at a time.
I'm on the fence about this. On one hand it's decent damage, on the other hand it's dependent on landing a killing blow, which I greatly dislike. However, it's good to have options that lock out other options for the sake of dynamics and variety. I would change it to this:

Reaving Roar: Primary Beast Stance: While this stance is active, you gain a 10%/20%/30% competence bonus to threat generation. Additionally, you gain a +1 critical multiplier on vorpal strikes. You can only have one Primary Beast Stance active at a time.

Fatal Harrier: Beast Stance: Killing an enemy grants you a 5% enhancement bonus to attack speed for 20 seconds. This can stack up to [1/3/5] times.

Enemies your own level or higher have a 100% chance of activating this ability. For every level below you, the chances are reduced by 20%. A monster two levels below you only has a 60% chance of creating this effect.
You can only have one Beast Stance active at a time.
Again, I dislike effects that require a kill to activate. I would change it to this:

Fatal Harrier: Primary Beast Stance: While this stance is active, you gain a 5% enhancement bonus to attack speed for 6 seconds when you score a critical hit. This can stack up to [1/3/5] times. You can only have one Primary Beast Stance active at a time.

Strength or Wisdom: Choose one.
For the sake of variety, I would also add a constitution option (for tanky bears) and a dexterity option (for some wolf builds).

TIER 4
Essence of the Turtle: Your enemy's blows give you the determination to keep fighting. When an enemy hits you while in any bear form, there is a 5% chance that you gain will gain [10/20] temporary spell points for 8 seconds.
Passive (permanent): +5/+10 Positive Spellpower

Essence of the Shrike: Striking a blow focuses your mind and body. When you critically hit an enemy while in any wolf form, you gain [10/20] temporary spell points for 8 seconds.
Passive (permanent): +5/+10 Positive Spellpower
I dislike the way these are presented. The wolf one is blatantly miles ahead of the the bear one and there is no reason to have two very similar effects taking up two spaces in the tree. I would change them to two stances that can be used with the two stances from the previous tier (one of each):

Essence of the Wise Turtle: Secondary Beast Stance: While this stance is active you gain +5/+10/+15 positive spellpower and +5%/+10%/+15% healing amplification. You can have only one Secondary Beast Stance active at a time.

Essence of the Striking Snake: Secondary Beast Stance: While this stance is active your basic attacks have a 10%/20%/30% chance to grant you 10/15/20 temporary spell points for 10 seconds. This effect has a 20 second internal cooldown. You can have only one Secondary Beast Stance active at a time.

Four Legs Good: Beast Stance: You ignore most effects that would knock you down.
Requires: Any Wolf, Bear, or Tree form.
This is not a bad enhancement. I would, however, change this to a Secondary Beast Stance to match the other tier 4's and add +1/+2/+3 fortitude saves. I think three relatively strong tier 4 secondary stances makes for a good 'what do I choose? / What do I really want?' situation.

Since we have an open slot in this tier, it's time to add another multiselector!

Multiselector: 1/1/1 AP
Pain Tolerance: While in any bear form you gain a 15/30/45 bonus to your maximum HP. Using any cleave attack has a 3%/6%/10% chance to trigger a Lesser Vigor effect, as per the spell. This effect has a 10 second internal cooldown.

Evasion: While in any wolf for you gain +1%/+2%/+3% dodge. At rank 3 you gain the evasion feat so long as you are wearing light or cloth armor.


Strength or Wisdom: Choose one.
Like tier 3, give constitution and dexterity options.

TIER 5
Alpha Strike: Area Melee Attack: You fight for leadership of the pack. Area damage melee attack dealing +3[W]/+6[W]/+10[W]. This attack can doublestrike. Deals +3d6/+6d6/+10d6 extra slashing damage to Elementals, Animals, Magical Beasts, Vermin, and Plants.
Requires any Wolf, Bear, or Tree form. (Activation Cost: 12/9/6 Spell Points. Cooldown: 18/15/12 seconds)
This might not be a popular decision, but I'm going to do it, anyway.

Multiselector: 1/1/1 AP
Alpha Strike: Usable while in any bear form. You perform an area melee attack dealing +3[W]/+4[W]/+5[W]. This attack can doublestrike and shares a cooldown with the great cleave feat.

***I reduced the damage potential, but greatly reduced the cooldown and took away the SP cost. I feel that bears should be a cleave machine due to always being in the thick of combat.***

Improved Evasion: Usable in any wolf form. For 30 seconds you gain the improved evasion feat, +1/+2/+3 reflex saves, and +4%/+7%/+10% dodge and maximum dodge. (90 second cooldown)

***A temporary improved evasion with a large boost to dodge and reflex. Situational, but with a fairly short cooldown for its power. I didn't want to outright give wolf form improved evasion, but this gives an option other than needing so many levels in another class and lock out potential tier 5 druid options.***

Wild Healing: Despite your wounds, you are a wellspring of vigor. When you are struck in battle there is a 5% chance of receiving 10/15/20 temporary hitpoints and a 10%/15%/20% morale bonus to your healing amplification.
Not very interesting for a tier 5. I would change it.

Wild Healing: Despite your wounds, you are a wellspring of vigor. When you are struck in battle there is a 5% chance to trigger a Mass Vigor effect, centered on yourself. This effect has an internal cooldown of 30/20/10 seconds. Passive: you gain +5%/+10%/+15% healing amplification.

Celerity: Your attacks rain down like a lashing wind storm. Activating this ability grants you a 30%/40%/50% enhancement bonus to double-strike for 15 seconds. (Cooldown: 5 minutes)
Requires: Any Wolf, Bear, or Tree form.
No real complaints on this one, but I would lower the cooldown to 5/4/3 minutes and increase the duration to 15/20/25 seconds.

Natural Adept: You have mastered the art of wielding divine magic in animal form, and using it to empower your body in physical combat. While in animal form, the cooldown penalty for non-animal form spells is reduced from 2.5 times the usual length to 1.5.
Tier 5 fluff: take it or leave it.

Well, there's another empty slot to use. I would add a multiselector to round out your build, make it expensive, but make you think 'hey I want that':

Multiselector: 3 AP
Grove Tender: Your knowledge of natural lore is extensive. You gain 15 positive energy spellpower, your positive energy critical hit damage is increased by 20%, and you gain the empower healing metamagic feat while in any bear, wolf, or tree form.

Nature's Guardian: You have sworn to protect the forests, mountains, and rivers. You gain 15% healing amplification, 10 PRR and MRR, and a 10% bonus to movement speed while in any bear, wolf, or tree form.

Natural Brawler: The path of violence is not always the last resort. You gain 10 melee power and +1 critical damage multiplier while in any bear, wolf, or tree form.

[burlicconi]

As druid is my favourite class, I play both styles (melee and caster), so I can give my thoughts about druid's Nature Warrior.

Overall, when I play druid shapeshifter, I realized that after level 11, which is level when I get 6th lvl spells I don't have any good from druid's level. Level 6 spells offers me Tenacious Pack, which is excellent spell for boosting my summons. New druid levels offers me just:

- more healing, because of higher druid level
- some longer duration of spell, because of druid level
- full levels for my pet, tempting me to go lvl 20 only because pet
- some new spells, I can go without them easily
- bonuses from cores (actually, this is only good, but not enough)

As it is now, none of this is good enough to convice me to play pure druid. I tried, I did pure druid, but on epic I struggled and I TRed.

So, after reaching 11 lvl, I probably could do about 8 lvls of figher and one of rogue, just for traps, or one wizard, for eldrich cleave. So, anything but druid, basically.

This means that after 12+ lvls druid enhancement must offer me some that other tree can not. Fighter tree can offer me PRR, HP, DPS, but druid nothing. So, what is benefit to stay pure melee druid, other that flavour? This must be redefined in new enhancements.

Druid's DPS should not match fighter or barb, since druid has more survivability, but it should be close enough. Also, tank should not be as good as paladin, but should be able to tank most of bosses. As it is now, inimidation is not working nor bear stance working at all

If we agreed on this, I can say that my oppinion is that druid should be "jack of all trades" in some cases. What I want to say is that if I choose to be shapeshifter, I shouldn't be limited to wolf only. Bear form should be used when I want to tank, or when I want to increase my durability or so. Maybe I want to switch to bear form in the middle of combat, to increase my chances of survival. So, my oppinion is that enhancement shoul'd be limited to one form only, but offers benefits based on form, just as core enhancement are.

For example:

Essence of the Turtle and Essence of the Shrike should be joined in one enhancement. And, because wolf is favourite here, maybe further "join" enhancements to be "gain SP on critical hit and 5% chance on being hit".

Aggravate and Shifting Rake - join this in one spot, but those are pretty useless enhcancements.

Beastial stances are not so pretty- when you pass level 10, you'll probably want to have only Fatal Harrier, others are useless. So, either redo this stances or give us multiselector.

Improved Dodge and Four Legs Good- situational, if you use heavy armor your dodge cap will be very limiting, so this can be useless. Also, since Four Legs Good are stance, no good choice for most of the time.

Also, some enhancements are pretty decent, but with long cooldown:

Celerity, Hide of the Crocodile- long cooldown limited use of this, so I often choose to skip this. Celerity is for boos fights.

If we stop with analysis now, it's obvious that 80% of enhancements are not good or can be better with current stance of game.

Back to first conclusion - that we have to "rewarded" to stay pure druid shapeshifter, we have some obvious imporvements here:

give us some DPS based on druid's level (just like that cloak from Devils Assault)
give us some defences(saves, HP, DR) based on druids level (like in cores)
give us some free feat to choose on level 12, 18 and 20 (from figher free feat list)

On this way you can afford being pure shapeshifter, because your DPS and defences are dependent of druid level
Also, free feat for levels 12+ would allow you to still think to stay druid instead of fighter



Another good point will be spells/inatte abilities for shapeshifters. Trip, sunder and other spells(Snowslide, Howl of Terror, Jaws of Winter, Tremor, Cold Breath, Shred, Takedown) uses WIS mode for DC. So, if you want to use those, invest in WIS. In other words, lower your DPS in order to have this spells.
Also, Innate abilities DC is not possible to increase, so add this in enhancement/feat/core abilities.

Magic fang is good spell, but it is not enough compensation if you invest in WIS instead of STR. So, maybe magic fand should be something like "adding your WIS modifier to your STR", or it can be offered via enhancements, maybe in tier 4 or 5?

Spells for druids are decent until you reach 8th and 9th level. As soon as you get spells of 9 lvl you will found that you need only 2 or 3 spells, other spells slots can be empty. And we are talking about the highest spell rank!

Bear form is tragic story- low speed, low DPS compared to wolf, enhancements are joke... I did oit only because I love druids, but as I said, I realised that I have to TR.

Bear should get +5% attack speed at levels 6, 12, 18 and at level 20 maybe another 5% to both wolf and bear. Something similar as vanguard.

Cores are solid, but it must be metter starting from level 12. Increased speed for bears, defence for wolfs and some more attack/damage.

Final core enhancement are very poor in "stat-wise". +1 to STR, DEX and CON. You don't need DEX, so, basically, it's only STR and CON. With new enhancements that gives +4 in final enhancement, this should be at least +2 STR and + 2 CON, and maybe + 2 Innate abilities or so. PRR, sneak attack dices are ok, maybe +5% attack speed when in wolf or bear form and one free fighter feat.

Nature fighting feat should offer, togehter with doublestrike, melee power and maybe something more (1% attack speed)
One nature figthing feat should be in 5th tier of enhancements.

If you think that there is a lot of benefits, remember that you can only be in one form at the time, so benefits to all forms can count as one benefit.

This is my tuoghts, concrete enhancement depends of 3rd tree, of course. Also, maybe Turbine wants to introduce new form, Tree or so, but I don't see need for it, we have one in Avatar of Nature. Better think about elementals who want to fight melee.