One of the things I wanted to try this season was a Boulder Druid build. In previous seasons, the Boulder skill was bugged and caused the build to be broken in a bad manner. Finally, it seems that they fixed that bug (where I read it was occurring when the Boulder hit a wall or some similar interaction that would cause the boulder the stop). With the gear in place, I was able to get the basics rolling and am quite happy thus far.
Originally, I started this Druid off as a Lightning Storm build. I’ve done Lightning Storm in previous seasons but currently this version is mostly good for leveling. There were a few bizarre issues I encountered such as a weird dismount UI bug that caused my character to freeze but show just the mounted position while moving around (I suspect it might have to do with Strongholds) Nonetheless, I managed to accumulate enough gear except a Tempest Storm and had been using an Heir of Perdition which did fine except I needed the Werewolf tag for Lightning Storm.
The thing with Boulder is that gearing is mostly a lot easier. I prefer using a Tyrael’s Might for increased tankiness and still require a Ring of the Starless Skies and possibly a Shroud of False Death to do this build more optimally. But I still don’t have either nor a Tam Rune for the Cast a non-channeled spell trigger. Nonetheless, for my purposes my setup is fine. Outside of one glyph, the rest are not leveled at all and I probably might spend some time tomorrow getting a few up to level 15 as well as swapping to T2.
Right now, I have no idea how far I want to take this build. I still have my Necromancer for which I didn’t transition into the Spirit Wave build but part of that was due to boredom. Also, I’m considering running a new Sorcerer, although I have absolutely no build in mind as there haven’t been anything that looks enticing nor one that I have not done in an upper echelon that could persuade me to go out and play one right now. However, the Boulder Druid is in a slightly unique position just because it’s been pretty fun so far. With the Necromancer, I’m still twirling around with the Minion build and only just found a normal chest piece that has the right configuration to make the Spirit Wave build work. The difference is just in effort.
At least in Torment II, I’m not seeing any real downside of playing the Boulder druid build. Usually, when you get to T2, things are a little less forgiving and your damage goes down while your damage resistance lowers. Fortunately, in having a well Masterworked Tyrael’s Might, I should be able to handle the initial transition. After that it might become a bit more of a struggle. Most likely, I would use T2 to promote my Glyphs to level 15 while working on farming more Ancestral gear. I got lucky in a few items already. But the rest that are more difficult involve ladder bosses and it makes little sense to continue farming them on T1 except for Tree of Whispers.
I wish there was more motivation in the current season to play other builds because part of me wanted to try a Companion druid. I read how some people managed to figure out how to get the Companion Druid to work with the new Spirit Wolf rune as well as gaining an advantage through a bugged passive interaction using the Shroud of False Death and the One with Nature passive. In that scenario, One with Nature receives a secondary point effectively through the Shroud of False Death, which causes the passive to add another companion. So you get another Raven, Wolf and Poison Creeper, which is pretty nice with the Shepherd and Stampede Aspects. But I doubt that alone would resolve the major issue for the build which has been the general lack of AoE. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t mind trying this out just to see how this build differs from previous ones I’ve played.
Also, I saw how Dance of Knives has changed most notably in using the Druid’s Petrify rune to activate the Preparation passive and solving the cooldown issue. With the sharp turn “bug” fixed, I’m kinda hoping that Dance of Knives feels better. If that’s the case, I might give that build another shot. It won’t be as good as my Spiritborn, but I simply want to see if anything improves.
At any rate, I still would like to find a new Sorcerer build that might be fun. I know that the Lightning Spear has been modified and that Chain Lightning became a thing. But Sorcerers in their current state are probably one of the worst classes to play. Similarly, I need to return to my Barbarian at some point. It’s a shame that everything I read about Mighty Throw Barbarian has led me to conclude that it’s just a clunky build. The video posted for it doing a high Pit showed everything I hate about that type of build: gather and blast down. It reminds me a bit of group play with Monks in D3 where you just clump up a large number of enemies and spam your ability until everything is dead. I really hate that play style.
The only other build that is different but I’m reluctant to play is Leapquake. My main complaint for that build is the cooldown issue. I know that the chest piece helps with this issue but then you’re sacrificing resistances and tankiness from losing a Tyrael’s Might. So again it’s not something I’m a huge fan of. Whirlwind itself wasn’t great but at least the addition of Earthquake made the build more interesting overall.
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