Path of Exile 2's Druid class is just as impressive as we dreamed, but I'm equally excited for the return of Atziri

The Path of Exile 2 Druid class has been years in the making, and it feels fair to call it the most anticipated addition to the ARPG sequel since it was first announced. There's been a lot of pressure on developer Grinding Gear Games to deliver on the promise of a shapeshifting bruiser, and it's finally coming in new PoE 2 update The Last of the Druids. While it's tough to know exactly how it'll pan out without putting in the hours, my first impression of the Druid is extremely positive, although I'm probably just as excited for the new league, Fate of the Vaal, and the return of iconic antagonist Queen Atziri.

To set expectations out of the gate, Path of Exile 2 update 0.4.0 doesn't include the next of the remaining story chapters, or quite so dramatic an endgame overhaul as we saw in The Third Edict. Indeed, during the reveal presentation from game directors Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts, the latter admits that there was "a large amount of content for endgame planned," but that the scope was too large and "unfortunately we just didn't get time to finish it." As a result, you can expect that to arrive in the next season of the RPG, approximately four months from now. Despite this, we're certainly not going to be short of things to do in PoE 2 over the holiday season.

The Druid is Path of Exile 2's first hybrid strength/intelligence class (the counterpart to the PoE 1 Templar, which is yet to arrive in the sequel). After his people were destroyed by the King in the Mists, he's been "wandering for years as a beast," but is now fighting to regain his humanity and track down his lost wife. Druids are designed to shapeshift between beast form (using the new Animal Talisman weapon) and human form (where they'll typically spellcast using magical staves).

The transformation is designed to feel "seamless and immediate," so it happens automatically as you cast spells designed for either form. When equipping an Animal Talisman, you can choose which of the three forms you want to set as your basic attack option - either Bear, Werewolf, or Wyvern. Each will have plenty of other skills at their disposal, and there will certainly be ways to build into using one form to buff the others, or to go all-in on a single mode if you prefer. Rogers also reassures me that yes, you can use an Animal Talisman on any of the other PoE 2 classes if you wish.

Bear is your slower but more tanky option, capable of generating plenty of Rage through its attacks. Its Ferocious Roar skill lets you break armor, but you can also slot any other warcry gem into it to augment its abilities. Opt for Seismic Cry to add stuns and double-slams, or even Ancestral Call to add the power of Karui fire god Kaom to your attacks. Its most powerful option is Walking Calamity, which surrounds you in a storm of flames while generating even more Rage.

Next is Werewolf form, which trades out size for speed. Its basic rake attack leaps forwards, and you'll start running on all fours after moving a short distance to quickly dash between packs. Tied into the moon, many of its abilities employ ice-based benefits. You can also mark enemies with Pounce to summon a wolf minion when they die, or (if up against a single, stronger foe) when you trigger the mark with the Cross Slash attack. Pounce is also a meta gem, meaning you can swap out its effect for different mark skills if you like.

The Werewolf's most impressive ability is calling down a Lunar Blessing to transform into an Arctic Wolf that moves and attacks more rapidly while dealing extra cold damage. The duration of the effect can be increased by consuming the Rage generated in Bear form, giving just one example of how you'll be able to benefit from builds that swap between the various transformations.

Rounding out the trifecta is Wyvern form, a more flexible option that switches between up-close talon slashes and long-range blasts of fire. It can devour monster corpses (or even low-health foes, in certain cases) to earn Power charges that can be used to infuse your swipes and slams with lightning. Rogers reassures me that this shouldn't be too disruptive to your flow; the actual bite is pretty fast, and you can chew your way through your meal while moving towards your next victim.

If you'd rather fight at a distance, you'll have all manner of fire-based options, as well as the ability to spit out a barrage of oil to cover foes and make them easier to ignite. The Wyvern's most spectacular skill, however, is Flame Breath, which causes you to fly around raining down non-stop fire across everything nearby. You can't fly over large gaps with this, but it's certainly an impressive way to establish dominance.

You'll be able to supplement all of these forms with spells cast as a human. Place down volcanos that will detonate when slammed as a Bear or hit by the Wyvern's Rolling Magma. Call down a thunderstorm to soak your enemies, making them easier to shock with lightning attacks, or to freeze with the Werewolf's cold abilities. Alternatively, it can make skills such as Thrashing Vines grow larger and more threatening.

Another major tool in the Druid's arsenal is Spell Totems. Long a key piece of some of the most entertaining PoE 1 builds, this lets you place down a totem that will cast its associated spell at nearby targets. The difference this time is that casting them typically requires a charge cost, such as spending three Endurance charges or Power charges. Naturally, if you want to use a Spell Totem on other classes, you'll also need to combine them with some way to generate the charges needed.

Both of the Druid's ascendancies are capable of dramatic shakeups to core systems. The Shaman is all about furious elemental power, granting additional spell damage as you build Rage. Bringer of the Apocalypse turns you into "a walking natural disaster," causing storms of every element to crash around you once you've dealt enough damage. Wisdom of the Magi, meanwhile, will cause extra mods to appear on all Runes and Idols that are exclusive to the Shaman.

Not ready to be outdone, the Oracle offers a trick called The Unseen Path, which causes more than 130 new nodes to appear across the Druid's section of the passive skill tree. That's on top of the roughly 250 that have been added more generally for the PoE 0.4.0 update. Another Oracle option, Fateful Vision, will cause visions of your 'future self,' seen using skills to damage enemies during battle. Match its actions to ensure that timeline comes to pass, and you'll gain bonus damage as a result. In order to ensure fair balance, this will actually occur more often the more skills you have equipped.

That's all for the Druid, but then we have the new league, Fate of the Vaal. This starts out with you activating strange remnants of Path of Exile's precursor civilization, which will ultimately lead you to the underground Vaal Temple, a shifting network of rooms that play home to Atziri, Queen of the Vaal. With each visit you make, you're able to place down six connecting chambers in a grid to determine the temple's layout. Positioning will affect the outcome; maximizing a Smithy requires an adjacent Golemworks and connected power, for example.

Initially, your adventures through the temple will be purely exploratory, but that will change once you meet up with Doryani in the course of the main campaign. He figures out that the temple can give you the chance to travel back in time to right before a fundamental moment in PoE history: Atziri's ultimate experiment. This communing with The Beast led to the destruction of the Vaal, and it's your job to leap into the past and navigate the temple in its heyday to try and stop her from completing it.

The Vaal Temple that you find on the other side of the time jump offers even more powerful, experimental tools. Place a Corruption Chamber near a Thaumaturge and a Sacrificial Chamber to maximize its power, and you'll find a device inside that lets you corrupt an item for a second time. In true Vaal style, this potential for never-before-seen power comes at great risk; there's a 50% chance the item you've already invested so much into will simply be immediately destroyed.

Alternatively, you could rank up an Alchemy Lab and take on the Vaal Construct inside to get your hands on some all-new corrupted Soul Cores. A particularly fun one is the Flesh Surgeon; find one of these and you can craft yourself, replacing one of your limbs with a robotic alternative that provides a potent benefit. The catch here is that these enhancements disappear upon death, but if you're able to keep yourself alive you can continue to replace and upgrade your limbs until you become more machine than man.

Naturally, this whole process culminates in you defeating Atziri's Architect, unlocking the Royal Access Chamber, and battling the Queen of the Vaal herself right as she's preparing to commune with the Beast. Once you're in the endgame, you're able to add increasingly more stacking mods to the Vaal Temple, and can also store up medallions and energy so that you can bank your runs to do them at a time of your choosing rather than as you encounter them.

Of course, this new league means an end to the Rise of the Abyssal from last season, but it doesn't mean we've seen the last of that feature. Abyss is now a core mechanic, meaning there's a chance it'll show up on endgame maps across the Atlas. That also means it has tablets to apply it to your waystones, along with a new Abyssal Depths section on the Atlas passive tree.

Beyond this comes a handful of other key quality-of-life changes. GGG says that its upgrades to game performance and CPU load should lead to frame rates that are "at least 25% higher" than what you're used to, with fewer spikes during intense moments. Monster quantity scaling for higher-tier maps has been replaced with tougher, more rewarding foes following the initial test of decreasing the volume of enemies in lower tiers. The visual effect of Delirium fog has also been toned down.

Then there are all the balance adjustments and extras. Look out for 11 new unique items and rebalancing for dozens of existing ones. 21 lineage supports get a pass and nine more have been added. Almost every ascendancy has been tuned, with a few bigger overhauls such as the Smith of Kitava. Along with the more than 20 new Druid skills and 30+ supports, GGG has tweaked a total of 90 other active ability gems across the game.

Path of Exile 2 The Last of the Druids and the accompanying Fate of the Vaal league launch Friday December 12. A free weekend will run from Friday December 12 through to Monday December 15, and you'll be able to carry over all of your progress if you decide to buy the game. While it's a little agonizing to wait on the remainder of the campaign after how good act four was, I don't think any PoE fan worth their salt is going to be too unhappy at the chance to challenge Queen Atziri in her prime.