Blizzard made a wise decision in letting players experience Diablo 4 ahead of its launch in the span of three different beta weekends, as this has given the team a chance to make adjustments to the game's mechanics and class balance, and many players are sold on the game already. While this looks like a win-win scenario, it wasn't like this from the get-go, and there were a few moments where the game didn't feel great to players testing it, especially when playing some specific characters. Diablo 4's classes all have a variety of available abilities, and although not all of them are meant to deal high damage one Druid skill became a meme very quickly, but it has potential.
This skill is Hurricane, which has a lot of value as a defensive skill thanks to its ability to slow nearby enemies and make them deal 20% less damage, all with a 3-point investment. However, Hurricane is indeed supposed to also deal damage, and at first, it became a meme thanks to a video from Raxxanterax, who talked about the disappointments of playing Diablo 4's Druid and the first cast of Hurricane dealing a whopping 17 damage to enemies. This will likely remain a meme in Diablo 4 for a long time, but the skill itself can be redeemed.
Why Diablo 4's Hurricane Skill is More Than a Meme
The Druid's Wrath cluster of skills already features good choices for several builds, and Hurricane is often considered a good pick simply because of the value one gets out of just three points. Even then, the skill doesn't deal massive amounts of damage as is, with it dealing a total of 136% weapon damage over the course of 8 seconds, all on a 20 seconds cooldown and with five points invested into it. Comparatively, the Druid's Basic Skills in Diablo 4 deal from 16% to 20% damage with a single point.
And yet, Hurricane can start dealing great amounts of damage the more Druid builds scale in Diablo 4's endgame, all thanks to various options available to the class. Among them is the Endless Tempest passive, which is found in the same cluster as Hurricane itself, and it increases the skill's duration by 15% with 3 points, which gives the skill 1.2 seconds more on its timer, proccing one more hit. More importantly, when used in a Werebear build, players can also grab Provocation from the Wrath cluster, which with 3 points requires the Druid to spend a total of 20 seconds in Werebear form to make their next skill a guaranteed proc of Overpower.
Overpower makes skills deal more damage based on the caster's Life and Fortified Life combined, which the Druid is already investing into with most Diablo 4 builds, eventually increasing the damage of Hurricane substantially. On top of that, there are further options to increase said damage or make this possible build work in a smoother way, such as the Insatiable Fury chest armor, which makes the Druid's Werebear form their true form, meaning it's active at all times. This mixes perfectly with Hurricane and Provocation, as the former has a 20-second cooldown and the latter requires a build-up of 20 seconds in Werebear form.
Other improvements come from the Resonance passive skill, which with three points provides a 6% bonus to Nature Magic, tripling it for a whopping 18% increase when an Earth skill is used after a Storm skill or vice versa. Furthermore, the Perfect Storm Key passive provides another 15% increase in damage to Hurricane, and the Legendary Aspect of the Tempest can provide another 7-to-15%. Diablo 4's powerful bosses won't likely be shredded by this skill immediately, but it can be an increasingly menacing tool, especially for add-clearing.
Diablo 4 will be available June 6 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
