I appreciate the insight, and u taking time to post this.
im definitely gonna try the druid now
The Plant Druid seems like it clears very well, but Shapeshifting may offer more fun. Ultimately go with what you wanna play. There is still enough time left to build 3+ characters if efficient.
As far as affording gear, you can get to maps and run 3 Abyss tablets and you'll make enough to gear your chars without the need for insane items. Most things can be crafted pretty easy as well.
If you do a Bear or Wolf all you need is to find/make/buy a Talisman with Crit Chance fractured, the other two Suffixes will be definite with the two Perfect essences, so you just need to Chaos spam until you hit T1 (or T2) Phys % and then it will be hard but you can try to get the other physical damage via Perfect Exalt or Prefix Desecration. There is a perfect essence that will add extra damage as physical, this is also a Prefix. Make sure you're using an iLvl 82+ base or you can't get a T1 Phys roll. i81 can get T2 though.