Patch 0.4, The Last of the Druids, marks a new chapter for shapeshifting in Path of Exile 2. With the addition of talismans, players are no longer restricted by class when it comes to assuming the forms of bear, wolf, or wyvern. The flexibility to transform is now available to everyone, which means the real question becomes: which ascendancy delivers the strongest shapeshifting builds? This guide walks through the forms, the mechanics, and offers recommendations for the best class ascendancy pairings and builds for each form.

Path of Exile 2 0.4 Shapeshifting Class & Build Guide

Shapeshifting in PoE 2 is not exclusive to the Druid class. Anyone can wield a talisman: a two-handed weapon that grants form shapeshifting and gains access to the full suite of bear, wolf, and wyvern skills. These transformations offer unique toolkits:

• Bear: Tanky melee bruiser with slams, roars, and the apocalyptic Walking Calamity.

• Wolf: Agile, cold-based attacker focused on area strikes, summoning wolf allies, and rapid movement.

• Wyvern: Hybrid of melee and spell, using power charges, devastating flame breath, and lightning-infused attacks.

Classes and ascendancies determine your starting position on the passive tree and the flavor of passive and active skills you can combine with shapeshifting talents. As such, the ascendancy choice can define the power and synergy of your shapeshifting build, often even more than playing as a Druid itself.  That means, for example, you could be a witch ascended into a blood mage and shapeshift into a bear if you wanted to, or you could be a wyven shape-shifted pathfinder. The possibilities are many. And if you're coming from one of the other franchises, or if you're just new to the genre, you may be wondering what the point of the druid class is, then. 

Well, back at the launch of Path of Exile 2, this was a hot topic revolving around the lack of any true minion ascendancy. But this was by design because GGG wanted to avoid the scenario where minion builds would always gravitate towards the same class and the same ascendancy due to the power they provide for those specific builds. Much like the necromancer from POE 1, which for many years had powerful notables for minion setups to the point that choosing this class for those builds was pretty much a no-brainer.

Another example from the past Path of Exile 1 would be the old saboteur with trap and mine builds. But it's clear that in Path of Exile 2, they want to avoid these situations by ensuring that ascendencies don't have options that cause them to be the obvious choice for particular archetypes.

And so the druid as a class and the ascendancies of the druid will have themes that can support the types of play styles that shape-shifting is trying to introduce. A good example of that is the shaman's node that makes rage also grant more spell damage, reinforcing the concept of a spell and attack hybrid build. But it's extremely unlikely that a druid ascendancy will grant access to nodes that essentially make it the go-to ascendancy for any shape-shifting build, as that's the exact scenario that they've tried so hard to avoid with minions. 

PoE 2 0.4 Best Shapeshifting Classes

Now, as you know, any class can shapeshift in Path of Exile 2, and this leads to something kind of interesting to think about: the idea that other classes and their ascendancies may be better options for shape-shifting builds. So, which are the best classes for shapeshifting? Here we sort out some suggestions for each Druid forms:

Best Class Ascendancies For Bear Form Shapeshifting

The bear form shines as a powerful melee archetype, featuring Furious Slam and Ferocious Roar. Bears can generate and spend rage to boost attacks and trigger aftershocks, and they have access to Walking Calamity, calling down meteors for huge area damage.

• Titan Ascendancy (Warrior):

• Starting as a Titan offers immediate access to the best rage nodes and slam synergies. The Titan's Earthbreaker node provides a 25% chance for slam skills to cause aftershocks, and Mountain Splitter adds more aftershocks every third slam. Hulking Form further increases rage effectiveness.

• Titan is extremely powerful for bear form, stacking rage, maximizing area of effect, and multiplying aftershocks for overwhelming damage.

• Smith of Kitava (Warrior):

• Smith of Kitava empowers glory generation (crucial for Walking Calamity) and boosts fire spell synergy, which pairs well with volcano and other elemental spells. With Katavan Impring, body armor grants 60% increased glory generation, allowing for frequent meteor storms.

• Fire spell on hit and increased spirit generation make this path appealing for a hybrid slam/caster bear.

• Warbringer (Warrior):

• Warbringer focuses on war cry speed and corpse explosions, offering a unique approach to bear form with Ferocious Roar and war cry builds. Ignoring war cry cooldowns and maximizing armor break allows for creative war cry-centered gameplay.

• Pathfinder:

• The Pathfinder ascendancy allows you to start from the warrior or mage side, giving flexible access to rage and spell nodes, while also providing increased damage and defenses from attribute points. This flexibility makes Pathfinder a top contender for bear builds.

• Shaman (Druid):

• The Shaman can work for bear, especially if focusing on spell damage, rage sustain, and hybrid volcano/bear setups. However, the rage mechanics tend to favor spells over attacks, and most of the bear's preferred nodes are farther away on the tree compared to those accessible by warriors.

Best Class Ascendancies for Wolf Form Shapeshifting

Wolf form specializes in cold conversion, fast melee attacks, and summoning a wolfpack for extra support and damage. Lunar Assault and Lunar Blessing provide cold scaling, while cross slash and wolf summons encourage a rapid, aggressive style.

• Invoker (Monk):

• Invoker offers skill speed, attack speed, and added elemental damage, plus the ascendancy features ways to ignore elemental resistances. This leads to high attack speed, strong elemental scaling, and robust defenses through evasion and energy shield.

• Tactician:

• This ascendancy excels in boosting allies, making it possible to empower your summoned wolves dramatically. With increased spirit, banners, and added attack damage for all allies, a Tactician wolf build can deliver a powerful army playstyle.

• Pathfinder:

• Pathfinder's access to both left and right sides of the tree, combined with generalist buffs to damage and defense, offers yet another powerful platform for wolf form. The ascendancy's mobility and stat flexibility can support fast, cold-based attacks and summoning.

• Lich:

• While not as directly synergistic, Lich can offer unholy might to both you and your wolves, increasing chaos damage output for a chaos/cold hybrid approach.

• Shaman (Druid):

• The Shaman offers some rage and elemental protection, but most of their bonuses are not focused on minions or melee cold damage, which leaves the wolf form seeking better synergies elsewhere.

Best Class Ascendancies For Wyvern Form Shapeshifting

Wyvern form is a hybrid melee/spell caster that thrives on power charges, rage, and elemental effects. With attacks like wing blast, devour, and the spectacular flame breath (with 750% more ignite magnitude), wyvern builds can inflict massive elemental damage and chain lightning surges.

• Amazon (Huntress):

• Amazon ascendancy is highly compatible, providing elemental surges (cold, fire, and lightning) and leveraging power/endurance charges for tremendous burst potential. The Amazon's area of the tree is packed with projectile speed, attack speed, and elemental damage.

• Pathfinder:

• The ability to start from the warrior or mage side lets you access key rage, spell, and defense nodes. The ascendancy offers flexibility, bonuses to global defenses, and speed, creating a robust foundation for both melee and spell-based wyvern builds.

• Shaman (Druid):

• Shaman can work for wyvern builds focused on rage-fueled spell damage, especially with Furious Wellspring and increased maximum rage. Wyvern skills often benefit from stacking rage and power charges for devastating flame breath and lightning attacks.

• Ritualist:

• Ritualist grants bonus damage to enemies affected by blood boils, and the ascendancy can boost jewelry effectiveness. This offers a generic damage multiplier for any melee-focused wyvern build.

PoE 2 Best Druid Shapeshifting Skills for Each Form

Here’s a sorted list of the best Druid Shapeshifting skills for each form (Bear, Wolf, Wyvern) to set up meta builds in PoE 2 0.4, focuses on core active skills for each form, the support/utility skills that synergize well, and the unique mechanics or buffs that should be integrated for top-performing meta builds.

Best Shapeshifting Skills for Bear Builds

Core Attack & Utility Skills

• Furious Slam
  Main melee slam skill that spends rage for large, aftershock-heavy slams. With the right ascendancies (Titan, Smith of Kitava), this becomes a screen-clearing AoE nuke.

• Ferocious Roar
  Warcry skill. Instantly grants rage if enemies are nearby, and empowers the next attack to break armor (even below zero with Warbringer), which increases all subsequent damage.

• Walking Calamity
  Bear’s unique “ultimate”. As you gain rage at max rage, you build Glory. When at max, you trigger meteor showers for massive AoE and boss damage.

Synergy/Support Skills

• Volcano
  Nature spell with synergy in hybrid builds (especially with Smith of Kitava or Shaman). Place volcano, then slam into it for bonus lava balls/projectiles—great for AoE and single-target burst.

• Infernal Cry / Ancestral Cry
  Socketed warcries that can be triggered by Ferocious Roar, boosting attack damage (Infernal Cry for fire, Ancestral for strike/slam synergy).

Rage Management

• Furious Wellspring (Shaman only)
  No inherent rage loss and passive rage regeneration, crucial for maintaining maximum rage during extended boss fights or Walking Calamity uptime.

Skill Combos for Meta Bear Builds

1. Furious Slam → Ferocious Roar (to cap rage/break armor) → Furious Slam (repeat, build Glory) → Walking Calamity (meteor storm)

2. Cast Volcano → swap to Bear → Furious Slam on the volcano for extra projectiles/damage.

Best Shapeshifting Skills for Werewolf Builds

Core Attack & Utility Skills

• Lunar Assault
  Primary AoE melee strike, converts physical to cold, and applies intense chill/freeze. This is your main spam attack for clear and freezing enemies.

• Lunar Blessing
  Buff skill. Sacrifices all rage to grant a massive cold damage bonus and increases buff duration per rage spent. Critical for burst windows and engaging tougher enemies.

• Cross Slash
  Additional wolf melee attack; also helps manage rage and can summon more wolf allies.

Summoning & Minions

• Wolfpack Summon
  On kill, summon temporary wolf allies. These are not permanent minions but act as damage multipliers for pack-based builds.

• Herald of Eyes
  Early-game utility skill, possibly for clear; not exclusive to wolf, but often used in wolf builds for added AoE/autoclearing.

Skill Combos for Meta Wolf Builds

1. Lunar Assault (to clear packs and generate rage)

2. Wolfpack Summon (triggered by kills)

3. Lunar Blessing (spend rage for cold damage burst)

4. Cross Slash for additional AoE or summoning

Ascendancy Synergy

• Invoker (Monk): Stacks attack/cast speed, elemental damage, and criticals.

• Tactician: Buffs all allies (wolves) with banners and added attack damage.

• Pathfinder: Flexible, offers global defenses and movement speed for speedy wolf form.

Best Shapeshifting Skills for Wyvern Builds

Core Attack & Utility Skills

• Wing Blast
  Signature dash/attack skill, launches the wyvern backwards and primes for power charge generation (with heavy stun).

• Devour
  Leap forward; devours a marked (blue orb) enemy for power charge and life regen. Essential for sustaining power charges for other skills.

• Flame Breath
  Wyvern’s “ultimate” skill. Take to the sky and breathe fire for 4 seconds, deals massive ignite damage, further empowered by power charges and rage. Consumes rage to extend duration. One of the highest potential DPS skills in the form.

• Oil Barrage
  Fires electrified oil projectiles in sequence—synergizes with power charge generation and elemental surges for AoE devastation.

Charge/Elemental Synergy

• Charge Profusion Support
  (Optional, but meta) Grants a 30% chance for supported skills to grant an extra charge, crucial for keeping up power/endurance charges.

• Elemental Surge
  (Amazon ascendancy) Consumes power charges to create lightning surges/explosions on projectile skills—key for boosting both clear and boss DPS.

Skill Combos for Meta Wyvern Builds

1. Devour (to generate power charges and heal)

2. Wing Blast (for mobility and more charges)

3. Oil Barrage (consume charges, create surges/explosions)

4. Flame Breath (massive DPS during charge/rage windows)

Ascendancy Synergy

• Amazon: Maximizes charge and elemental surge synergy, boosting all projectile/elemental wyvern skills.

• Shaman: Focuses on rage sustain for extended Flame Breath and spell hybridization.

• Pathfinder: Provides flexible access to both spell and rage nodes for a hybrid wyvern playstyle.

PoE 2 0.4 Best Shapeshifting Builds for Each Ascendancy

To help you gain some inspiration for creating meta shapeshifting builds in Path of Exile 2 using these new druid forms and skills, we've summarized the following theoretical builds from professional players and the gaming community:

• Nova Falling Thunder Bear/Wyvern Amazon Shapeshifter

The Nova Falling Thunder Amazon might be the best shapeshifter in PoE 2 0.4 The Last of the Druids because it uniquely combines exceptional speed, robust defense, and effortless charge generation, which directly addresses the most persistent pain points of the new Talisman shapeshifters. With a remarkable 40% damage buff in this patch, the build transforms what was once a single-target skill into an unrivaled map clearer using Nova projectiles, while reliably generating power charges through crits and Amazon’s ascendancy, allowing for consistent and powerful charge-spending payoffs. Amazon’s toolkit not only solves the slow charge generation that hampers other shapeshifters, but also grants access to the strongest crit and rage mechanics, making boss fights and mapping feel equally smooth and fast. This setup delivers a tanky, one-button playstyle that’s comfortable for all content, with defensive layers from evasion, deflection, and leech, while being ready to pivot into bear or wyvern shapeshifting with little adjustment.

Leveling to Endgame Setup:

1. Ascendancy Progression:

   Begin as Amazon for the early campaign, using its crit scaling and easy charge generation.

   Prioritize Stalking Panther for doubled evasion values and defensive layering.

   Take Mystic Harvest next for life leech from elemental damage, greatly improving sustain.

   Consider Asentia Sanguist if you want extra survivability, but most players won’t need it with the evasion/deflection combo.

2. Skill Setup:

   Start with Falling Thunder as soon as it’s available, supported by Nova Projectiles to turn it into an area skill.

   Early links: Falling Thunder + Increased Critical Strikes/Chance + Nova Projectiles.

   Add supports like Added Lightning Damage, Elemental Damage with Attacks, and Increased Critical Damage as you progress.

   Use Whirling Slash for rapid movement, which also generates rage.

   Herald of Thunder is activated for extra clear and charge generation.

3. Weapon and Offhand:

• Use a Sky Sliver spear in your main hand for leveling and mapping speed; swap to a crafted rare spear if needed.

• Offhand with a quarterstaff for Falling Thunder; this can be deterministically crafted using essences and harvest crafts as you approach endgame.

• Aim for mods like “+1 to Level of All Physical/Lightning Skill Gems,” high attack speed, and crit chance/multiplier.

4. Gear:

   Focus on evasion, life, and resistances on all armor pieces.

   Prioritize evasion on helmet, gloves, and boots since Stalking Panther doubles these values.

   No movement speed needed on boots, freeing up suffixes for resist or life.

   Get life and crit chance/multiplier on rings and amulet; look for lightning damage scaling where possible.

   Endgame: Look for deflection and life on shield or offhand if you swap to another weapon setup.

5. Passive Tree:

   Take all crit/attack speed clusters near the bottom right of the tree.

   Prioritize life, evasion, and deflection nodes.

   Path to resonance if planning to use endurance charges for bear or wyvern shapeshifting later.

   Pick up power charge nodes and any leech clusters for extra sustain.

6. Auras and Utilities:

   Herald of Thunder is mandatory for charge generation and bonus clear.

   Use Wrath or Precision for more damage if mana allows.

   Use a flask setup focused on evasion, armor, and life recovery.

7. Charge Generation and Playstyle:

   Rely on high crit rate from Amazon ascendancy and accuracy stacking to fill power charges quickly.

   Falling Thunder’s chaining and AoE, combined with Nova Projectiles, ensures packs instantly generate charges.

   On bosses, a few hits is enough to ramp up for maximum damage.

   No need for combo-based play; one-button mapping and bossing is the norm.

   If experimenting with bear/wyvern, add the appropriate charge spender to your bar and use the rapid charge generation pipeline from your Amazon setup.

8. Weapon Swap:

   Use weapon swap for different attack speed and damage setups—main hand for speed, offhand for damage.

   Set up keybinds for smooth swaps during harder content or while experimenting with shapeshifting payoffs.

Check out how to set up the Nova Falling Thunder Amazon Shapeshifter

• Titan Bear Slammer

Starting as a Warrior and choosing Titan, you can leverage Earthbreaker and Mountain Splitter to maximize aftershocks with Furious Slam. Focus on rage generation, aftershock bonuses, and slam skill supports. Pair this with volcano for added firepower—slam into volcanoes to create cascades of bonus lava balls. Rage nodes are close at hand, and Walking Calamity provides screen-clearing meteor storms.

• Smith of Kitava Meteor Bear

Smith of Kitava enables rapid glory generation for Walking Calamity, making meteor spam easy to maintain. Combine slams with fire spell on hit for hybrid attack/spell performance. Invest in body armor masterworks for bonus glory and spirit, allowing for frequent ancestral cries and a mixture of melee and elemental damage.

• Warbringer Roaring Bear

A Warbringer bear build focuses on war cry speed, corpse explosions, and armor break. By spamming Ferocious Roar and socketed war cries, you can continuously break armor, even below zero, boosting all damage types. This build thrives on war cry support gems and maximizing war cry uptime.

• Pathfinder Shapeshifter

Pathfinder’s multi-start positioning allows access to both melee and spell nodes. This build can pick up rage, area of effect, and global defenses efficiently, creating a versatile shapeshifter that can transition between bear, wolf, and wyvern forms. The ascendancy’s bonuses to movement and resistance to slows/stuns make for smooth, fast gameplay.

• Invoker Speed Wolf

With Invoker as your ascendancy, wolf form’s cold melee attacks become much faster and deadlier. Skill speed, attack speed, and extra elemental damage stack up quickly, and evasion/energy shield nodes can be used for defense. The wolfpack can be further empowered by investing in minion and ally support nodes.

• Tactician Alpha Wolf

Tactician enables an army playstyle. Summoned wolves gain added attack damage equal to a portion of your weapon's power, and banners boost your entire team's output. This build is for players who want to fill the screen with allies and crush foes with numbers and buffs.

• Amazon Lightning Wyvern

Amazon’s elemental surge, projectile enhancements, and charge synergies are perfect for wyvern. Use power charges generated by devour and wing blast to empower flame breath and oil barrage. With the new elemental surge system, projectiles can detonate for extra lightning damage, and the ascendancy offers substantial skill speed.

• Shaman Rage Wyvern

Shaman offers passive rage generation, increased maximum rage, and spell damage scaling. Focus on building and sustaining rage to maximize flame breath and capitalize on powerful spell-based attacks. This variant blends melee and caster play for explosive effects.

• Ritualist Melee Wyvern

Ritualist can be used for a generic bonus to all damage, especially when stacking blood boils and jewelry bonuses. This setup is less specialized but can result in strong all-around performance for those who want a simple yet potent wyvern build.