The world of Sanctuary, the setting of Blizzard’s Diablo franchise, is full of powerful classes to fight the demons of hell, from brutish Barbarians and Crusaders to mystical and mysterious Wizards and Demon Hunters. Through their mobile-centric release in the series, Diablo Immortal, we’ve even seen new classes never seen anywhere throughout Sanctuary before: the Blood Knight and Tempest. The Diablo Immortal Druid is the newest playable class in Immortal, and it may be the best version of the class to date. Now, Diablo Immortal is revisiting a classic class and adding its own unique spin on it to fit the narrative.
Each iteration of the Druid has always been brutal, with its reliance on the brutal nature of Sanctuary. Through transformations, they can become a tanky Bear or a faster Werewolf to tear through the enemies. Add the complexity of harnessing nature with fire, cold, and vines, and the Diablo Immortal Druid regularly has a full kit of ranged and melee abilities for any given situation. With Immortal’s iteration, this one is from a tribe of druids that has been more in-tune with nature than ever before. What that means is, they are more brutal than ever before.
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This comes with the use of some new forms, too. The standout is a new Stag form that hops around, dealing AOE damage wherever it lands. The Stag is quick and massive, clearly ready to tear through anything in the Druid’s path. They are also very keen on shapeshifting, too. From a Stag, to a Werewolf that is quick and uses its claws to pounce on enemies. Then, a Bear to recover while dealing massive hits with its bear claws.
The Diablo Immortal Druid is now a force of nature in Diablo Immortal.
And when the form gauge is empty, the Druid reverts to its more humanistic form. The human form can summon vines that can heal allies and root enemies. They can also summon plant allies that attack anyone nearby. Overall, after playing this new Druid, they are a great mix of Diablo 2 and 4′s iterations in the class, adding a new take.
Creating a shapeshifting build that bounces between forms was just as fun as a more caster-centric build. They all felt impactful and could easily tear through hordes of enemies with ease. Each build also shows how it could fit into a comp with friends for dungeons and world event completion.
Either being a healer or a ranged tank, they’re not just there to rip and tear. The Druid is now a force of nature, representing Sanctuary’s natural ecosystem that hell’s invasion has disrupted. It’s pissed and will fight tooth and nail to bring peace back to the forests.
So why now? Why is the Druid the next class coming to Diablo Immortal after several brand-new, never-before-seen classes were recently introduced? We got to sit down with members of the Immortal team to talk about this exact question: Ryan Quinn, Senior Narrative Designer, and John Yoo, Lead System Designer.
The Diablo Immortal Druid balances familiarity and new.
When asked why go back to the Druid after creating two new classes, Quinn explained in from a narrative perspective. “We looked for untold stories, and found the druid as a more neutral, instinct-driven, not socially driven character class as something that we hadn’t done in Diablo Immortal post-release with the new classes”. Quinn went on to explain that the Druid was a natural (pun intended) fit with the current location of Immortal‘s narrative as well.
“Knowing that we were going to tell this year’s story in the Sharval Wilds, in this primeval first-forest, and knowing that there were going to be druids and witches around and shot through all of our story. That thematically, the story that we were telling in the questline was going to be a lot about how do people share this land. People who have very different philosophies of taming and tending this vast region. We felt like the druid was the perfect class for this time.”
Yoo added more context from the systems side and why the Druid was a good fit for the health of the game moving forward. “We were concerned that if we released another brand new class, we would be the game that always releases a brand new class, so we also wanted to challenge ourselves.”
Yoo continued, going into how designing the Druid was still difficult even though it’s known to fans of Diablo. “The druid was very difficult in terms of trying to figure out how we were going to design for because of those limitations, the fact that it is an existing class that people are familiar with. We also talked to [Diablo 2] and [Diablo 4] [teams] to verify if this is a good direction.”
Here, the Druid’s melee is more brutal than ever before.
Overall, the Druid executed in Diablo Immortal strikes a good balance of being familiar yet new. It has the heart and soul of the Druid that fans would come to expect, while being a whole new beast. It’s more brutal, it comes with that awkwardness expected of people who aren’t as in touch with Sanctuary’s societies.
It also shows how the familiar Druid abilities have adapted to be more raw, untamed, nature-focused, instead of being harnessed. In other words, the transformations and casts all feel like you’re becoming a beast or using the elements to their fullest instead of forcing them to bend to your will.
In that way, in that combination, this Druid is a class that shouldn’t be skipped out on, as it may be the best version of Druid to date. But most importantly, the Druid is another prime example of how Diablo Immortal continues to be one of the most stand-out releases for the Diablo series in some time.
Diablo Immortal is available now on iOS, Android, and PC.
