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My first steps into being a druid in Dark and Darker made me realize just how much DNA they share with the druids of World of Warcraft Classic. They even suffer from the same “hybrid tax.” Shapeshifting is incredibly strong and great for soloing, and their spells are equally fantastic, giving you plenty of options as a caster. However, just like the feral druids of WoW, you need to do your Druid homework if you’re playing one in Dark and Darker.
Dark and Darker: The Art of Shapeshifting as a Druid
Outside of human form, shapeshifting gives you four animal forms: bear, panther, chicken, and rat. As an animal, you are granted a passive, two abilities, and one skill. However, you cannot interact with the world, so no opening chests or casting spells.
| Form | Passive | Ability #1 | Ability #2 |
| Panther | Gain movement speed and jump higher, but lose 30% max health and incoming physical and magical healing. | Scratch: Deals physical damage and causes the target to bleed for 3 seconds. | Neckbite: Deals physical damage and silences the target if you’re frenzied (by Rush). |
| Bear | Gain physical damage reduction and max health. You lose 30% movement speed and 20% action speed. | Swipe: Deals physical damage and pushes your target back. | Bash: Deals physical damage, knocks targets back, and can be used to break containers and non-reinforced doors. |
| Chicken | You can fly for a short while. You lose 60% max health and incoming physical and magical healing. | Pecking: Deals physical damage. Ignores 30% of your target’s armor. | Clucking: You make an audible cluck. |
| Rat | Gain movement speed and jump higher. You can also fit through narrow gaps. You lose 95% max health and incoming physical and magical healing. | Infected Fangs: Deals physical damage, inflicting the plague, which deals magical damage over 3 seconds. | Squeak: You make an audible squeak. |
The trick to being a good druid is knowing the benefits of each form. Even if you focus on being a bear druid, you’ll still jump into chicken form for easy health recovery via Insect Predation or use the rat form to escape through prison bars or hide behind a crate.
Bear form is fantastic in groups, given that it grants innate physical damage reduction at the cost of movement speed and action speed. Your abilities also scale off of strength, a stat that not only increases your damage, but health as well.
When you’re soloing, the panther form is equally deadly. You aren’t as healthy, and your abilities scale off of agility instead, but the scaling is actually really good. If you can push for 25+ agility, your hits will totally make up for the hit to defense. You can also use perks and spells like Enhanced Wildness and Barkskin Armor to mitigate the loss.
Druid: Skills, Perks and Spells
Skills
Your skills are dedicated to the left mouse and right mouse. For the druid, you’ll see these frequently change based on the form you’re in.
| Skill | Effect |
| Shapeshift Memory | Transforms into selected creature. Cannot use tools in non-human state. |
| Shapeshift Memory 2 | Transforms into selected creature. Cannot use tools in non-human state. |
| Spell Memory | Allows you to memorize and use spells. |
| Insect Predation (Chicken Form) | Eats crawling insects to recover health. |
| Survival Instinct (Rat Form) | Gain 20 additional movement speed for 6 seconds. When the effect is over, lose 20% movement speed for 3 seconds. |
| Wild Fury (Bear Form) | For 6 seconds, physical damage bonus increased by 15% and physical damage reduction increased by 15%. |
| Wild Rush (Panther Form) | Rush forward, entering a frenzied state for 3 seconds after initiating the rush. You can use attacks while jumping, and this can be used in the air. |
In order to shapeshift in Dark and Darker, you have to have Shapeshift Memory or Shapeshift Memory 2 in one of your slots in Perks & Skills. That’ll let you choose your animal forms.
On the flip side, if you want to cast spells, you need to have Spell Memory slotted in, too. As a druid, you are also required to have a catalyst of some sort, like the Ceremonial Staff that’s supplied by default.
Spells
Druid’s have an excellent selection of spells, with a spell memory of 14. You have nine spells to mix and match:
| Spell | Effect |
| Nature’s Touch | Target gains 15 additional recoverable health. Also healed 15 health over 12 seconds. |
| Barkskin Armor | Increases armor rating by 20% for 8 seconds. |
| Dreamfire | Deal magic damage to all targets in an area. If used on yourself or any ally affect by Nature’s Touch, they’ll be healed. |
| Summon Treant | Summons a treant to fight with you for 24 seconds. If you summon one in water, it’ll become stronger. |
| Thorn Barrier | Creates a thorn barrier that lasts for 10 seconds. Characters standing near the thorn barrier take physical damage per second. |
| Entangling Vines | Spreads roots across the floor in a 1m radius that lasts 6 seconds. Passing through the area freezes characters in place for 1 second. Targets are immune to being rooted 1 second after the effect ends. |
| Restore | Restore health to all allies within a 3m radius, over 10 seconds. |
| Tree of Life | Sprout a tree of life, granting +5 to all attributes and granting 40 recoverable health over 8 seconds. Cannot cast on yourself. |
| Mending Grove | Create a forest area centered around you within a 3m radius. Targets in the area gain 10% max health and are healed for 10 health per second. |
The strength of the druid’s spells comes in their diversity. You can create some pretty heavy-hitting loadouts, whether as a healer or CC machine. Here are a couple beginner loadouts to consider that fit within the 14-spell memory limit:
- Balanced: Entangling Vines, Summon Treant, Dreamfire, Nature’s Touch, Barkskin Armor.
- Healer: Barkskin Armor, Restore, Nature’s Touch, Tree of Life (or Mending Grove)
- Support: Nature’s Touch, Summon Treant, Barkskin Armor, Thorn Barrier, Entangling Vines
Over time, you can expand on these if and when you get gear that increases your spell memory slots. The “balanced” loadout is also your go-to for solo play, even if you deal most of your damage with the panther or bear forms.
Perks
Last but not least, we have the druid’s perks. You can equip four perks at a time:
| Perk | Effect |
| Dreamwalk | Taking damage increases your magical power by 5 for 4 seconds and you become spiritual. The player does not collide with other targets and cannot attack or use skills, but can cast spells. This ability triggers every 12 seconds. |
| Enhanced Wildness | While you are in animal form, you gain 5 additional move speed and 10 armor rating. |
| Force of Nature | When you heal a target, the target gains 3 physical power for 3 seconds. |
| Herbal Sensing | Detects nearby herbs. |
| Natural Healing | Recover yourself and neary allies’ health every 3 seconds. |
| Shapeshift Mastery | Changing form happens instantly. |
| Spirit Bond | Every 1 second, you receive 15% of damage received by party members instead. Can receive damage up to 20. |
| Spirit Magic Mastery | When you cast spirit magic, you gain 10 magical power. |
| Sun and Moon | Nearby allies gain 3 vigor and 5 magical power. |
| Thorn Coat | When melee attacked, return 5 true physical damage to the attacker. |
Like with the druid’s spells, the perks you pick are going to be significantly influenced by your role. For example, if you are using Panther or Bear as your main source of damage, then you absolutely, positively cannot run that build without Shapeshift Mastery. Just like casters should always run Dreamwalk.
Some standout loadouts for the druid, as far as perks are concerned:
- The Shapeshifter: Thorn Coat, Enhanced Wildness, Sun and Moon, and Shapeshift Mastery.
- The Caster: Sun and Moon, Force of Nature, Natural Healing, Dreamwalk
You can experiment by mixing and matching the two loadouts for a solo hybrid build, too. Whatever you come up with, you want to avoid these perks: Spirit Bond and Herbal Sensing. Sorry, but neither perk pays off. There are never enough herbs for Herbal Sensing to make sense, and you don’t want to be taking unwanted damage from Spirit Bond, even if you’re thinking of playing a tank.
Just Pick a Roll, Druid
Now that you have an overview of what the druid is capable of in Dark and Darker, here’s my best bit of advice: pick a role. The druid can fit any role and do so incredibly well, as long as you aren’t splitting off into too many directions with your build. Focus on one role—damage, healer, tank—and just dip your toe into another for that splash of uniqueness.
I mentioned earlier that the druids in Dark and Darker suffer from the same “hybrid tax” as the druids in WoW. It means druids can suffer greatly in performance if they try to do a bit of everything. When you’re a jack-of-all-trades, you’re a master of none, right? Druids in DaD suffer from the same symptoms.
That’s the most important lesson to keep in mind if you plan on playing druid. Their versatility is best when you focus your skills through a role, especially if you’re in a group.
