Path of Exile 2's new druid class is the most fun you can have being a bear in a videogame right now

Like a lot of folks, I viewed the Path of Exile 2 0.4 livestream with lukewarm ambivalence. We knew we were getting the druid because it didn't quite make the cut for 0.3, but apart from that it seemed a little mopey—no new campaign bits, a league mechanic we already recognized from PoE1, and most importantly, no endgame changes. I came away from the presentation with a big ole' meh.

That changed the first time I reared up as a bear and slapped a zombie with my big, meaty paw.

Say what you want about the pacing change between PoE2 and its predecessor, I really do find the combat to be more fun. Early bosses especially have that tough soulslike feel, and having to do more than just activate Righteous Fire and meander through loot explosions actually makes me enjoy the game more. That's in part down to how the skills are designed to make you use them in concert and the monsters themselves, but perhaps the biggest factor is the new character rigs that have let GGG make some really satisfying skills.

When the druid rears up on its hind legs in bear form to smack things with Maul, you feel huge. The smacks are meaty and crunchy, and when you slam back down to do the second part of the combo, the resulting earthquake feels amazing. You don't just twiddle your fingers to cast your buffs, you let loose a bellowing roar. And the ultimate skill for bear form is literally called Walking Calamity, which causes a giant swarm of meteors to fall from the sky as you crash around through packs of mobs, hurling them to and fro. Exquisite.

It gets even better when you pick up the Fury of the King talisman, too. This unique changes your regular bear form into a demon bear and unlocks a new skill, Molten Crash. Not only does it do tons of damage, but the animation for the demon bear pouncing on its enemies reminds me of a kitten learning to hunt by attacking a ball of yarn. (If the kitten then triggered an earthquake that shot out huge gouts of burning lava.)

The other druid builds don't disappoint, either. Wolf form could use some love when it comes to the minion build, but people are clearing super fast with Herald of Ice. The drake build has incredible single target damage, and while it's buggy as hell it sure looks fun to flap around breathing fire on stuff. Even the plant magic is good, although the character I used to explore that was not a druid. The new sorceress ascendancy, Disciple of Varashta, is based on summoning djinn and made for a good time filling the screen with angry plants and watering them with a Thunderstorm.

Unfortunately, it's not all sunshine and honey for 0.4. The promised major endgame overhaul is still in the pipeline, so mapping remains a bit one dimensional. The campaign still ends abruptly without acts 5 and 6, and we're still missing a bunch of classes. All of this will come in time, and there's a lot of game here for something still in early access. That being said, I can't avoid talking about the bear in the room, the Vaal Temple.

What a mess. 0.4's league mechanic calls back to PoE1's Incursion league, where you battle Vaal monsters to build your own dungeon, the Temple of Atzoatl. The mechanic here is similar—every zone you enter has a small battle with Vaal monsters, and completing six of these lets you run the temple. Every time you go in, you get tiles to place on a board that correspond with rooms. Complete the temple and a few of your rooms will disappear, making you rebuild it.

What started off in the campaign as a fun mechanic that added some monsters and let me get some additional crafts to improve my gear quickly has revealed itself to be a huge pile of confusing spaghetti. Incomplete tooltips, buggy minibosses, savagely brutal RNG on which rooms and medallions you get, and infuriating deletions of rooms you worked your ass off to get in the first place have left lots of players frustrated and willing to write it off completely.

Not Fubgun, though! One of the most popular PoE content creators has become infamous this league for getting, shall we say, creative with how to run the temple. It was hotfixed yesterday, but for a week or two there it was possible to build up temple attempts incredibly quickly with a low level character by repeating the same campaign zone over and over. This let him (and lots of other folks) speedrun temples, setting up incredibly lucrative situations once the dust cleared.

Hopefully with a few patches these things can be fixed, and I have confidence that once GGG gets back from its annual winter holiday that we'll see some improvement. Despite its flaws, I think the Vaal Temple has the potential to be a fun side activity. Building stuff is fun, and I've used Incursion as an atlas strategy in PoE1 more times than I can count. But it's no fun when people break your Legos, especially when the rules for them doing so aren't clear. And I swear to Jonathan if that High Priest gets stuck under the earth one more time, I'm gonna lose it.

In the meantime, I'll go back to stomping rituals with my demon bear. It's absolutely the most fun I've had being a bear in a videogame, although dropping owlbears from the top rope is a close second. And there's always the bear level from Altered Beast if we wanna go waaaaay back. Who doesn't love spin jumping evil snails to death? I sure do.