Druid Oracle vs Witch Infernalist
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Hello!
I've been playing PoE2 for a couple of months and got my Witch Infernalist to level 92. I could push higher, but with my very hardcore schedule of "about 1 hour a day", leveling past 92 feels like applying for a second job that pays in tiny numbers. Anyway - I finally installed Path of Building, and the latest update shows the Druid, its ascendancies, and the new passive stuff. And... yeah. After staring at the tree like it's going to confess, my takeaway is: "Is Druid Oracle basically Witch Infernalist 2.0 for pure minions... except it also comes with a free bear-shaped panic button?" I get that it doesn't have Infernal Hound, and it seems a bit tighter on spirit (no Beidat's Will vibes). But the Druid Oracle gets some absolutely unhinged minion scaling if you take "The Unseen Path". Stuff like: - 40% increased minion skills efficiency - +% ally damage/attack/cast speed - +% minion damage - And it even gets +2 passive points from ascendancy So now I'm sitting here like... is it intentional to make a brand new class/ascendancy that directly competes with an existing class using basically the same mechanics, and just does it better? For reference, when I mess around in PoB: - My Witch Infernalist lands around 3 mil DPS unbuffed and 7 mil buffed - The Druid Oracle setup I tried lands around 4 mil unbuffed and 8 mil buffed Not a "delete your character" difference, sure. But the Druid also has the whole "forms" thing, which means if something goes sideways you can weapon swap, lose some minions, become a tanky bear, and waddle out of danger like an embarrassed bouncer leaving work early. So for a pure minion master playstyle (I mean the kind where I am basically a walking HR department for undead employees, and I don't cast direct damage spells) - is Druid Oracle meant to be the new home for that? Or is this just PoB bait to make me reroll and suffer again? EDIT: Don't get me wrong, the main goal of this post is not to whine. My point is just: should someone actually switch from Witch Infernalist to Druid Oracle if the goal is pure minions, since on paper Oracle looks straight-up better? Also, one more thing that feels like a pretty game-breaking change (at least for me). PoE2 was sold as a "classless game" where classes mainly matter for ascendancy and starting position, and everything else is basically "go nuts". But this is... not that. Now there are passive tree nodes sitting around the tree that are only available if you're a Druid Oracle and specifically took "The Unseen Path". That is a huge shift. It means you can't really do "try weird stuff on any class" anymore, because the coolest parts of the weird stuff are locked behind a specific class, a specific ascendancy, and even a specific ascendancy point. Zuletzt bearbeitet von Jyrlep#4788 um 20.12.2025, 02:47:59 Zuletzt angestoßen am 23.12.2025, 16:29:32
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" i agreed with you on this take, i am hoping for either the unseen path to be less specific to a certain build or the other ascendancies gets the same unseen path scpecial for them and their thematic. but i shit you not, some will argue about that being that makes none of the ascendancy to be special. kekw |
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Yeah, this is exactly my problem.
I already have a 90+ Witch Infernalist that does the pure minion thing just fine, and it would be pretty disappointing if GGG's new hotness is "Druid Oracle, but with Unseen Path that unlocks secret passive tree goodies no one else can even see". PoE has always been "your class mainly decides your start point and your ascendancy". Everything else is supposed to be you doing weird science on the same tree as everyone else. But now we have hidden variations that are locked behind a single class, a single ascendancy, and even a single ascendancy point. That's not "classless with flavor", that's "exclusive content behind the correct label". And it isn't even some wildly different playstyle. It's directly competing with the existing pure minion summoner lane. So the choice starts looking less like "pick what you enjoy" and more like "pick the one that gets extra buttons on the skill tree". I will probably try rolling a Druid anyway, but the motivation is... questionable. "Level to 90+ again, redo campaign, redo ascendancies" just to end up with what I already have, except 10-15% more DPS and a bear form panic button, feels like replaying the same movie because the director added one extra explosion in the remaster. Also, honest question. What was the thinking here? If I'm wrong and other ascendancies also unlock hidden passive tree variations like this, call me out and give examples, I'll go look them up. But if this is the only one, it feels like a pretty big, core shift. If Unseen Path is going to be a thing, either: - give other classes comparable thematic unlocks, or - move these "special variations" into the ascendancy itself where class-locked power actually belongs. Because right now it reads less like build freedom and more like a secret menu that only one guy at the table is allowed to order from. Zuletzt bearbeitet von Jyrlep#4788 um 23.12.2025, 16:29:15
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BUMP:
Okay, I get it now. Bear form isn't some exclusive Druid cosplay - it's available via Talisman gear, so Witch can also do the whole "panic bear" routine. Fair enough. But the original issue still stands, and it has nothing to do with the bear. Druid Oracle + Unseen Path is basically a pure minion master that directly competes with (and in practice replaces) Witch for the "I am a middle manager for undead employees" playstyle. Same lane, same job, but one of them also gets access to extra knobs on the passive tree that the other literally can't touch. And that's the bigger problem. Those Unseen Path passive tree nodes being unavailable to everyone else is a core mechanical shift. PoE has always sold itself on "classless" in the sense that your class is mainly starting position + ascendancy, and the rest is you doing questionable science on the same shared tree as everyone else. If one ascendancy point unlocks a private section of the tree, that's not "classless with flavor" anymore. That's "exclusive menu items." My suggestion - Put those "hidden passive tree points" into the Druid Oracle ascendancy itself where class-locked power belongs. - And make the passive tree variations they represent available to everyone in a non-class-locked way (so it's still a shared tree, not a VIP lounge). Right now it feels like we went from "build freedom" to "pick the class that gets the secret DLC baked into the tree." |
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