Now let me share some experiences with post-update creator character; it was quite a special experience to recognize that their strength mostly comes from being able to easily fill the blanks and summoning characters that are otherwise hard to get like seals, or ones that normally have undesirable passives like the portal ripper creature into something that stays that way and with traits you want. Yes, makes elementalist and such less useful on them, but mechanist doesn't seem to be a bad thing, if only the fact there's plenty of competition in form of other characters, but still, being a class with heavy reliance on summoned characters due to abilities you want and soul fragment effect instead of bred characters like with shapeshifter. Of course, I am saying this since it was post-patch which gave the ability to give free adapts on said characters, because before that, it was weaker than its competitor, but now it is as good as the other, especially if you get get shapeshifters special forms as units, since they still confer their effects like strength form giving 25 carry capacity each, which stacks with each other and unique character that gives 100, which gives you highest possible carry capacity with merchant trait. It is already overkill, but still, such power for elite-grade characters is their strength to compete with.
The druid on other hand is arguably the weakest character nowadays, since creator with growth traits can reach about the same, if not outright higher statline with levels, while druid has to level each of their trees individually, which takes a long time without rushing bosses(giant hunter trait)early on, which is mostly shapeshifter strat with harpy essences/characters to burst through. And the fact that male creator can rival, if not surpass druid in combat due to growth combined with skill that can be used each turn to deliver a free attack. Skills are still versatile, and so the utility, especially effective dates which give easier time to raise relation in the new dating system, as well being able to juggle the king considering that you no longer have reputation based safety net now(but the game still has descriptions related to it). Yes, you still have blood fairies which are solid characters and being able to boost character growth using that, as well the special elemental seedling that is quite powerful if used proper, but when you progress slower than the other characters in terms of character level, seedlings being slower to raise to full potential than spirits and hidden power trait being mandatory if you want to ever become comparable to them in the long run, I can say for sure they need further changes if they need to be competitive to others.
And yes, stone element still gives 2 armor to main characters, but for shapeshifter, that only applies until they change their form, so its not exactly adapted to system that relies on summons over stat bonuses. And professions that give percentage based bonuses to main characters like knight are still only good for shapeshifter because other characters only get the base stat boost which doesn't apply when leveling up, making it not desirable for such classes in the long run.
