Recently, Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred released a balance change patch covering a wide range of content. Among these changes, the modifications to Talisman class owned by Druid are the most controversial. Most people believe that reducing the damage bonus value of this class’s most scarce ability is a huge nerf, but some players have discovered the subtleties and regard this change as a buff.
If you’re caught up in the mixed reviews of the community and hesitant whether to continue using Druid to conquer everything in the overhauled endgame, then you absolutely can’t miss IGGM.com’s analysis of the changes to Storm Shepherd’s Call Set in patch 3.0.2, which explains the truth behind the changes and their impact.
Shortcomings of The Old Version
To accurately compare whether Storm Shepherd’s Call Set, which is newly added in Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred expansion, results in a detriment or a gain, we need to first introduce the original version. Originally designed, Storm Shepherd’s Call Set was intended to give Druid a higher damage output bonus and damage reduction in Werebear form.
Therefore, many players consider it an indispensable part of some Druid builds that focus on high damage output, such as Lightning Storm Druid or Nature’s Fury Druid. Like all sets, Storm Shepherd’s Call Set doesn’t require you to collect all five pieces to be effective, but it’s true that the more pieces you have, the more damage bonuses or other types of buffs you’ll receive.
For example, in the original version, if you socketed two pieces, you would no longer slowly consume Spirits when casting Storm Skills, but would consume all available Spirits at once. However, the damage of this type of skill would increase based on your Spirit value. This affix looks great, doesn’t it? However, the fact that the gain can be stacked but not refreshed is its biggest flaw.
Suppose IGGM includes more than one Storm Skill in a Druid build, such as Lightning Storm, Hurricane, Cataclysm, Tornado, and Cyclone Armor, etc. This will cause the damage bonus to accumulate entirely on the first skill cast, and subsequent skills will not have this extremely high damage bonus. This limits the use cases of Storm Shepherd’s Call Set: it can only be used in builds with a single core damage skill.
This type of build does exist in Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred expansion, but it’s too limited to achieve optimal performance in efficient leveling and challenging endgames. And, for the currently popular Hybrid Druid builds, placing Storm Shepherd’s Call Set within them is completely ineffective, even utterly pointless. This is one of the drawbacks of the original Set Charm. Another is that the set effect of five pieces can potentially cancel out or override the effect of two pieces.
Once you equip all five pieces, the set will give your Storm Skills a 20% chance to trigger a Double Cast, which will provide a 100% damage bonus; and a 5% chance to trigger a Triple Cast, which will provide a 300% damage bonus. This buff value looks great, right? However, due to the influence of the rewards within the pieces of the set, IGGM discovered the damage bonus it provides is not as powerful as you might imagine.
So overall, while the original Storm Shepherd’s Call Set does provide a damage bonus, its limitations are too great. It’s not suitable as a master Druid build focused on Storm skills; it’s more like an accessory, only enhancing a single skill rather than the diverse builds advocated by current players. Now, let’s take a look at Storm Shepherd’s Call Set after the changes in Patch 3.0.2.
New Version after Patch
Having discussed the two fatal flaws of the original Storm Shepherd’s Call Set, IGGM will now guide you through the changes in the current set. The biggest change is that the set bonus of two pieces is now included within the set bonus of five pieces, eliminating the problem of conflicting affixes within the set. This means that all damage bonuses will stack positively, thus increasing the overall DPS of the build.
So what effect does it actually provide now? In the current Storm Shepherd’s Call Set, after placing two pieces, your Spirit will not be changed, but you will gain 1 stack of Stoicism after taking damage. If you are in Berserking state, you will gain an additional stack. This effect will increase your Storm Skill damage by 2%, and can stack up to 40 times.
The shift from 75% to 40 layers led many players to believe it was a detriment, but its versatility was actually improved, which is more important. Under the influence of this affix, all your Storm Skills will receive a bonus, whether it’s Lightning Storm, Hurricane, Cataclysm, Tornado, Cyclone Armor, or Shred. With the main and secondary skills working together, the overall effectiveness of the Druid build will be doubled!
With multiple Storm Skills being enhanced, you’ll have more gear options for them, and they can even create some synergistic effects among themselves. So, here directly recommends that you visit IGGM.com to get all Diablo 4 items for sale that meet the conditions. With super affordable prices, super fast delivery, and super security, you will have no problem creating the strongest Druid build available today.
As mentioned earlier, the affix bonus of the five-piece set includes the bonus of the two-piece set. Therefore, when you equip the five-piece set in Storm Shepherd’s Call Set, you will have a greater damage bonus: after Stoicism is stacked to 40, you will enter a Berserking state that lasts for ten seconds, during which your size will increase and you will have an additional 225% damage.
The Far-Reaching Impact
After learning about the changes made to Druid’s Storm Shepherd’s Call Set in Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred patch 3.0.2, IGGM wants to tell you that the diversity of builds in the game will be further enhanced, which is likely an important indication that the developers are gradually listening to player feedback and making corresponding modifications.
Therefore, if you have a strong passion for damage-dealing Druid builds, then you might want to temporarily set aside Grizzly Rage core skill and try combining various Storm Skills for increased combat efficiency and power. IGGM believes you’ll absolutely love this fast-paced and visually stunning Diablo 4 exploration experience!
