Looking to do my first playthrough and decided on a Lightning based Primal Strike build. But not sure what masteries to run. I’m mainly looking at Druid and Vindicator now but not sure which is more beginner friendly and/or fun to play. Any suggestions or advice wwhat masteries to run for it?
Thanks in advance.
I should also add, most builds I see are for HC but I don’t plan to play in HC so are there any good builds to follow that aren’t specifically for HC?
SC and HC is the same game ,also there is no difference in leveling aspects as much as the builds are from trusted authors and up to date everything should be fine . According to what class to pick if guns - Vindicator , if you plan to be melee Elementalist or Warder . Druid is more like caster approach this class lacks some utility to be played as melee or gunner
this is not true at all, remotely 
- and almost seems like a strange statement considering specifically PS and Sav/upheaval druids have been so popular
Where are they so popular , cause there is one Vortex druid out there and Savagery druid with 0 WPS pool is straight meme , I mean let’s be reasonable,please
i don’t know what you’re trying to shift now?
you said it lacks utility to be played as melee or gunner, meanwhile the only PS build that was in top20 was a druid gunner
Upheaval VoS Druid was like the most lamented killed build, but Veilkeeper sav druid is still fine even if not on par with its former Vos exploit (and disliked not for being Melee/ranged Druid but Upheaval variable mechanic over regular wps)
Heck even melee PS druid was preferred over Elementalist by meta builders, and preferred over Warder in the days of dmg focus where Warder’s new tankiness value wasn’t as desired. And even since 1.2 changes you still have folks making them weapon attack druids; because Druid isn’t just a caster 
(even if it’s also great as a caster)
You mentioned endgame sets , exploits and stuff when clearly we spoke about Begginer approach this exotic builds required 100 h + grind , but let’s agree to disagree, cause after 7 K hours in and 6 seasons I didn’t saw a single gunner Druid apart from one Vortex druid and I am not sure on which exact platform they are so popular
what exotic build?
what makes Druid more exotic than vindicator or elementalist; if they need the same items?
then it’s the class utility right? the stuff the class brings, in terms of dmg or bonus support, where arcanist gives you raw dmg/passives and Mirror/Nulli
They both still need XY lightning items/VoS/Sparkthrower, or they still need ultos etc “at end”; or they use the same budget items like halberd/sparkthrowever, faction items etc during levelling
Guys, it’s not that deep. You can make a good Primal Strike character that can kill everything in the game from any mastery combination. Ultos doesn’t care about your second mastery.
exactly, which is also why i’m so puzzled by the dissing of melee/ranged Druid overarching notion
Conception is hard , Arcanist requires cooldown management and understanding how this mastery works , cause every Begginer skip Null and Mirror and Arcanist immediately loose value , Vindicator and Warder are just easier I put myself into Begginer shoes and I wouldn’t recommend Arcanist as first playthrough it’s just the hardest mastery to master and execute
meanwhile i would recommend Druid over Vindicator for PS exactly because utility?
Maiven is more safety imo, +easier, and i feel it’s weird if we consider hard utility when Inquis requires you to use seal, by comparison Mirror can be easier to understand as oh sht button contra being confined to a little area or seal stepping, or burst dmg while still in seal (while Maiven still carries passively)
And when it’s already a case of researching classes/build differences, it doesn’t sound like to me it’s something where a person might just ignore stuff like Mirror because it has a cooldown? - and already actively/consciously gauging those different class utilities
*heck Maiven alone is one of the big Arcanist factors beginners seem to like/praise in comments, even if they accidentally skipped mirror/null and didn’t have awareness of those
Druid is low Armor and low DA class yea Maivens hard carry but no Attack speed in the mastery ,no Damage reduction and no Burst window for the most part . I would take Vigor , Steel resolve, Seal and Aura of censure which is free damage reduction and RR but that’s me , Vindicator phase faster and hit quicker also hard capped seal works on everything except big slams , you have one button to maintain and much later you have seal which I usually don’t pick before Ultimate but as I said that’s my personal opinion as Grim Dawn veteran I don’t try to convince anybody I share my thoughts,it’s up to the other side of they want to play druid as a gunner after all nobody watch over your shoulder you can be even Nightblade gunner if that’s your desire
I can break it down like this
Soldier - armor, attack speed, more hp, damage reduction in war cry, circiut breaker in menhirs will
Arcanist - offensive abilibity and crit damage, spirit and energy, damage absorbtion and CC res, circuit breaker in mirror and nullification (these need some practice to fully utilize)
Inquisitor - damage reduction and resistance reduction in the aura of censure (forces you to play wihtout storm callers pact…), flat damage reduction from inquisitor seal (stand on it), heal and buff skill from word of renewal
Demo - damage reduction from BWC, speed from vindictive flame, circuit breaker from blast shield
Occultist - attack speed, resistance reduction, heal and resistances from blood of dreeg
Maybe even Oatkeeper can be a solid first option too - resistance reduction, movement skill, etc
It all boils down to same playstyle (big 2H weapon, spam primal strike) so they all play basically the same.
top 20? would you suggest anything from there vs. PS? I picked PS for a first build because I liked the flashiness of it, seeing all that lightning called down looked cool and I tend to enjoy lightning damage in ARPG’s (D2 i like fire or lightning builds , and in POE2 I ran lightning archer which I loved. I’ve played others but those are most notable). But I didn’t see the top 20 beginner build list until you mentioned it.
I figured HC builds would put extra points into survivability over damage, would that not be the case?
Nope , you prepare better just but don’t sacrifice all the firepower cause it’s hardcore
The Top 20 list is out-dated, doesn’t include any Primal Strike builds and isn’t going to be any good to you for dozens of hours anyway.
For your first character just play the game. Pick what looks cool and go. You can worry about being a meta slave later.
top20 is/was a list a group of players/builders put together of their favourite/strongest endgame builds by set of requirements of the char. Endgame setups being key there.
Primal Strike is almost an absurdly strong and fun levelling build, and (imo) does completely fine for endgame (different players have different tolerances for requirements and all that), making it an amazing starter/general build to have in your lineup, regardless of top20 endgame list entries.
It’s one of the most popular and recommended starters/levelling builds for a reason, so don’t let a hyper focused endlist mention start questioning if it’s worth to level , - you can’t go wrong with PS
Fun stuff from top20, to me, was chaos sabo, Avenger, aegis archon(lightning retal entry), Ludrigan and Light’s Defender(technically i preferred their LD Elementalist in tryouts, but that version didn’t make the list and they chose Purifier)
*Since those are endgame setups stuff like spam Aegis outright isn’t doable during levelling/until level 94 and as such play a bit a different until then
scroll down to the honourable mentions for VoS cold PS 
why should a new player in this game even be concerned about top 20 end game builds?
just spam primal strike and have fun with the game for now, if you like the game you will level tons of chars. The most thing about this game is to figure things out for yourself - it is not PoE level of complexity you know