I hadn't paid much attention to the ladder chatter after the December 12 launch, but curiosity got me, and I ended up sinking my whole week into the Wyvern Cleave Druid. If you're the sort of player who likes turning map packs into confetti without thinking too hard, it's hard not to get hooked. The loop is simple, but it doesn't feel brainless, and if you're trying to speed up gearing, having some PoE 2 Currency on hand can smooth out the annoying gaps where your damage is fine but your survivability isn't.

How the rotation actually feels

You stay in Wyvern form and live on Rend for clear. That's the part you'll do on autopilot after an hour. The "freight train" vibe comes from how you enter packs: Pounce in, everything gets jolted, then Rend spam and you keep moving. Tribal Fury-style splash makes each swing matter, and the leftover stragglers tend to vanish once your burn effects start rolling. It's not one of those builds where you stop to admire procs. You're already halfway to the next screen.

Bossing is a different button rhythm

Bosses are where you notice the build's second gear. Instead of pretending Rend is enough, you build charges with Wing Blast, then swap into Empowered Oil Barrage when the window's right. The ramp is the whole point. If you mistime it, you'll feel it, so it's not totally free. But when you line it up, health bars don't "tick down." They drop. It's the kind of burst that makes you overstay in a bad mechanic because you think, yeah, I can finish this phase.

Early acts and the stuff no one brags about

The start can be rough. Druids don't feel invincible out of the gate, and Acts 1 through 6 can be a bit of a paper-armor experience if you're greedy. I leaned on basic leech and kept my links practical instead of cute. Cloak of Flame is a big stabiliser if you can grab it early, since shifting physical damage into fire buys you reaction time. Around Act 7, once your rage generation pieces click, the whole thing stops feeling clunky. At that point, attack speed becomes your real "defence," because smoother animations mean fewer dumb deaths.

Gearing, mapping, and keeping it efficient

In endgame, the build loves straightforward farming: Essences, Delirium, anything that rewards fast clears and doesn't force you into long downtime. Prioritise a high physical DPS weapon first, then stack speed wherever you can, because it scales both comfort and output. A few specific mods like Energetic Resonance can push you over the edge into that "everything pops" tier, but you don't need mirror-grade gear to start printing. If you don't have the schedule to grind every night, some folks top up gaps with poe2gold so they can buy the one upgrade that makes the whole setup stop wobbling.