On Friday, December 12, 2025, the new expansion of Path of Exile 2 will be released. Now the director explains why the new class was so difficult to develop.
What kind of class is this? For months, fans of Path of Exile 2 have been waiting for the new class of the Druid. With the new expansion “The Last of the Druids,” the class finally enters the game. Compared to other characters, it is quite special. In addition to its typical human form, the class can also transform into 3 other beast forms.
- The Bear is the slowest but at the same time the most powerful and resilient form. In combat, everything revolves around building and depleting the Rage resource. When the Rage bar is filled, you can unleash it to trigger devastating attacks or ultimate destructive abilities.
- In Wolf form, you dominate the battlefield through speed and the use of cold damage. The key here lies in the marking mechanic: each of your attacks marks your opponent. If you kill a marked enemy, a loyal wolf pack will be summoned as a reward to assist you in battle.
- The Wyvern offers a versatile mix of melee and ranged combat. You can fly, spit fireballs, or control lightning. The uniqueness of this form is its bizarre resource gain: you must consume corpses to generate so-called Power Charges. These charges are essential as they significantly enhance your subsequent attacks.
So the class is not as simple as some others in the game. Even the director, Jonathan Rogers, revealed how difficult the development was.
Here you can watch the trailer for the new season of Path of Exile:
Complicated Development
What did the director reveal? At a presentation event for the new season of Path of Exile 2, director Jonathan Rogers answered several questions. He also talked about the difficulties in developing the new class.
He explained in the discussion that the Druid was extremely difficult to develop. He said, “The Druid is like four classes in one; I mean, he has 6-7 skills per form.” The director pointed out that the class can be played both as a hybrid of the human form and beast form, as well as a pure beast class. Therefore, each form has its own skills and was designed to be playable well in the endgame.
Technically, however, it was challenging to develop the class as well. All forms should feel somewhat different but still be playable with WASD and also have a sensible dodge mechanic.
What else did the director say? According to Jonathan Rogers, it was also quite challenging to design the werewolf. He said that during development, it felt too much like a man in a wolf costume for too long and required a lot of fine-tuning.
Also, the melee and ranged attacks of the Wyvern were difficult to design. The form needed to maintain a good flow despite the attacks, which the players can enjoy.
Path of Exile 2 is adding a quite complex class with the Druid that holds much promise. At the same time, there is criticism from fans that the new expansion focuses too much on the Druid while neglecting the endgame: Players rejoice that the Druid is finally coming to Path of Exile 2, but what about the endgame?
