The developers behind Path of Exile 2 keep giving us new classes with the updates for their game, and the December 2025 update is called The Last of the Druids, bringing the Druid class and its varying animal forms into the game to change how you experience combat.
If you’re a fan of dealing elemental magic damage from afar while relying on beastly attacks at melee range, then the Druid is likely for you, especially if you opt to rely mostly on the bear form it comes with. By learning to manage mana and Rage, you’ll be powerful beyond belief.
Build Overview
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If you’re looking to get into Path of Exile 2: The Last of the Druids as one of the titular roles, consider checking out the Druid class added with the massive December 2025 update. If you’re a fan of magic skills and tanking, this is likely going to be the class for you.
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As a Druid, you’ve got a few forms, with access to a talisman that lets you choose your form. You’ll be able to switch between bear and werewolf forms with ease using this talisman, but beware that you’ll need to upgrade each form’s skills separately when you level up, so it may be best to focus on one over the other early to on ensure you’re making the most powerful Druid possible.
You’ll need to carefully balance melee and ranged fighting, with your human form well-versed in magical abilities that let you strike from afar before the bear form closes the distance and hits for massive damage after a slower charge-up on tank-like attacks.
By default, you’ll have the highest strength skill of the three, closely tied with intelligence to amplify the abilities of your close-range bear form power and your proficiency with skills from a range. Dexterity is lowest of all, but you can opt to upgrade this in the passives tree if you find it to be too lagging before long – dodging is a critical skill in Path of Exile 2’s combat!
Ascendancy
Because of the skill set allocated for Druids in Path of Exile, we found it best to lean into the Shaman ascendancy when given the chance.
As a Shaman, you’ll have a much easier time managing Fury for your bear form, so if you’re leaning mostly onto this animal, it may be best to choose the Shaman ascendancy to really hone these skills. As you learn to use your berserk and rampage abilities, you’ll find Fury to be an invaluable resource, so having a way to maintain and regenerate it easily will prove helpful.
Build Tips
Leveling Skills And Support Gems
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Human Form |
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Volcano |
This early skill will provide great coverage, placing a volcano on the ground where you cast the skill and spending a few seconds spewing magma that sticks to and burns enemies nearby. |
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Ice Nova |
Shoot ice daggers in an area around your Druid to deal good ice damage and push enemies back |
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Time of Need |
Occasionally heal your Druid and remove elemental effects. |
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Herald of Ice |
Freeze and shatter enemies to deal devastating damage. |
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Bear Form |
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Maul |
This is the first gem you’ll get, but it’s a valuable one, providing a smooth transition that generates Rage when it hits the enemies. |
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Furious Slam |
Slam the ground in your bear form to produce shockwaves that hit enemies around you, using Rage to increase the size and staying power of the waves. |
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Fury of the Mountain |
Pound the ground as a bear to create hot fissures in the ground in an arc around you. |
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Savage Fury |
Build Fury while attacking enemies, then unleash it in your bear form to go on a frenzy of attacks. It ends if you transform back to a human while active. |
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Ferocious Roar |
This is a warcry skill, and you can get some good Rage generation from it. |
Passive Tree
When you first start off on your Bear Druid playthrough, you’ll have access to the Armour and Attack Damage node to kick things off early on. More become available as you continue to play, but this is a great place to start with a class that blends ranged and melee moves like a Druid in Path of Exile 2. You’ll be using an accumulation of fury to scale your attacks, so be prepared to be mad!
While your nodes all cross paths before too long on the passive tree, starting to build armor and attack will help with your bear form, especially with the defensive buffs with your armor and the early access to HP regeneration on the top part of this node. Between the slow tank form of the bear and the preference for your attack stat, this and extra armor can make or break your experience in the game.
You’ll likely want to prioritize nodes based on the form you use most often in combat, your human form or the bear form. The human form can benefit from passive upgrades that improve spell power, with so much reliance on magic to deal damage. The bear form, meanwhile, will do better with passive upgrades for melee might, so balance these two carefully depending on your play style.
You’ll find plenty of elemental damage buffs throughout the Druid’s passive tree, and perks that can ease the slowness you might encounter with an animal form as large as the bear. As you reach out onto further branches of the passive tree for a Druid, you’ll find plenty of ways to hone your craft and make certain elements much stronger, which may influence which gear you use in the long run.
With so much fire damage for both the human and bear forms, you may want to prioritize upgrading this first.
On the outer fringes of the tree, you find a slew of perks that improve your skill with one weapon type, so find and work toward the weapon you find yourself using most often in your human form. There are plenty of chances to improve your three primary skills – dexterity, intelligence, and strength – along the way here as well.
Equipment
The best equipment for a Druid in Path of Exile 2 is going to largely depend on what kind of combat you’re looking for. Since your bear form doesn’t use weaponry, you’ll find that the best chance to add new buffs for your build is through armor used when in bear form, since this is really your only way to tweak your moveset’s power without swapping weapons.
If you’re looking to lean into the magic side of things for a Druid, though, then you’ll find that staves of all sizes are typically going to be your best bet. Each staff you find wil; offer a new skill, so you’ll want to lean into the weapons that give skills that use the elements you’ve been leveling in the passive tree.
Staves allow you to attack with magic from a distance before sweeping in to clean anything up with your mighty bear form. It’s a good idea to start fights with ranged attacks using your human form, before heading in as the bear to finish off any enemies that might remain.
Always look at the skill imbued by a weapon before slotting it on your character. If you rely heavily on a skill given to you by that particular weapon, you’ll need to relearn how to use your new weapon pretty immediately.
Finally, when it comes to gear, you’ll want as much elemental resistance and elemental buffs as you can on your clothing, while using your boots to improve movement speed, since your bear is kind of slow and lumbering.
