Druids were kind of a joke during the Diablo 4 betas. Arguably the most underpowered class at that time, Druid fans could only hope that full version of the game would unleash the class’ potential. As it turns out, that’s exactly what happened.
Druids may very well be the most powerful Endgame class in Diablo 4 at the moment. Some of the things they can do border on being genuinely broken. However, they are also arguably the hardest class in the game to understand from a technique standpoint and to properly build/gear once you do understand how the class is supposed to function. Of course, that’s why we’re here.
As before, we won’t be covering Paragon Boards quite yet with these builds, largely due to a lack of proper tools as well as the fact that part of the game is still being optimized. While we’re waiting to update that information, it’s best to focus on Paragon upgrades that synergize with the major skills and strategies that I’ll be outlining below.
Diablo 4: Best Werewolf Druid Build – Tornado Werewolf
Skills: Storm Strike, Tornado, Blood Howl, Cyclone Armor, Hurricane, Grizzly Rage
Key Legendary Aspects and Unique Gear: Tempest Roar, Mad Wolf’s Glee, Dire Wolf’s Aspect, Mighty Storm’s Aspect, Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast
Simply put, this is quite possibly the most powerful build in Diablo 4 at the moment. It’s the perfect example of those synergies that most people guessed would eventually make Druids one of the best Endgame classes.
Actually, we need to talk about this build’s gear before we talk about its skills. It’s not really possible to make this build work without Tempest Roar, Mad Wolf’s Glee, and Mighty Storm’s Aspect. It can take a while to get all of those pieces, which is why this is a true Endgame build. Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast is also a core component of this strategy, though you can run a version of this concept without it.
With the right gear, though, you can make magic happen. See, all of that gear allows you to stay in Werewolf form at all times and convert your Storm Skills to Werewolf skills. When combined, you have all of the benefits of a Werewolf (Critical Stirkes, Lucky Hits, and Movement Speed) and all the benefits of a Druid caster (impairing effects, AoE).
More importantly, you are now able to nearly guarantee almost constant uptime of your Earthen Might Key Passive. Earthern Might gives you a 5% chance to refill your Spirit and gain guaranteed Critical Strikes for five seconds whenever you use an Earth skill. That chance is increased by 10% when landing a Critical Strike and another 10% when striking a Stunned, Immobilized, or Knocked Back enemy. As you probably noticed, though, this build doesn’t run any natural Earth abilities. That’s why we grab Mighty Storm’s Aspect, which allows Storm skills to also trigger that passive’s effect.
Because Storm skills are almost always immobilizing enemies and because Werewolfs have greatly increased Critical Strike chances, you can actually regularly trigger Earthern Might multiple times in a fight. When that happens, you will melt absolutely everything in your way while crowd-controlling them and never running out of Spirit. Yeah, it’s pretty close to broken.
Your basic strategy will be to kite the biggest pack of enemies possible (especially if you can group multiple Elite enemies together). From there, pop Grizzly Rage and Cyclone Armor. Now, you just need to spam Tornado as much as possible and use Blood Howl as needed to keep your life up (while casting Storm Strike as needed). Before long, you’ll basically be summoning an infinite amount of tornadoes, most of which will be dealing massive Critical damage. With the possible exception of Uber Lilith, there is nothing in the game that can survive for long against that kind of damage output.
There are some variations of this build that run Lightning Storm instead of Tornado. Both are powerful, and both rely on the same foundational pieces of gear noted above. Lightning Storm may be a touch more explosive, but I personally prefer how Tornado lets you deal with packs of Elite enemies and other tough single targets. Ultimately, though, both are worth experimenting with.
Diablo 4: Best Bear Druid Build – Werebear Pulverize
Skills: Earth Spike, Pulverize, Debilitating Roar, Earthen Bulwark, Trample, Grizzly Rage
Key Legendary Aspects and Unique Gear: Vasily’s Prayer, Insatiable Fury, Aspect of the Ursine Horror, Shockwave Aspect, Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast, Aspect of the Trampled Earth
Pulverize Druid quickly became one of the best Druid builds in Diablo 4. Not much has changed since the game’s release, though a few of the specifics of this build have been improved since then.
Like the previous build, you really need quite a bit of gear to make this build work. Aspect of the Ursine Horror is undeniably essential, but you really need more than that to justify running this over other options. Specifically, Vasily’s Prayer, Insatiable Fury, Shockwave Aspect, and Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast will all help you unleash the true power of Ursine Horror and the strategies it unlocks.
For all intents and purposes, this is a “Tank” build. Debilitating Roar, Earthen Bulwark, Grizzly Rage, and many of the passives we’ll be taking are all designed to not only keep you alive but keep you Fortified. The primary goal of this build is to stay alive and keep your health. While doing so, you’ll want to keep pulling as many enemies as you reasonably can.
When you have enough enemies grouped together, it’s time to go to work. Cast Debilitating Roar and Grizzly Rage (if available) while keeping Earthen Bulwark active. From there, use Trample if needed to stun and knock back enemies.
Ultimately, though, you’re looking to cast Pulverize as much as possible. Pulverize not only has a high chance of triggering a devastating Overpower attack, but thanks to Ursine Horror, it can regularly proc our Earthen Might Key Passive. When it does, it will delete anything that it hits. Because we’re also taking abilities that increase the effective range and damage of Pulverize, you’ll actually be able to strike quite a few enemies with that buffed ability. Thankfully, Pulverize is also effective against larger single targets, so we don’t really need to find a slot for another attack ability.
That brings us to Landslide and Earth Spike. We’re taking Landslide simply because Aspect of the Trampled Earth causes Trample to summon six Landslide pillars. Those summoned pillars will be buffed by any Landslide passives you pick up, which means that you can actually make them quite devastating and a little more consistent than the Landslide pillars you would summon simply by casting the ability. Earth Spike, meanwhile, is a fantastic Spirit regeneration ability that also synergizes with everything that we’re doing. It’s pretty hard to replace, though I know some players are working on keeping Earthen Might active for as long as possible to ensure you almost never run out of Spirit through that Key Passive alone. At the moment, though, you will need a filler.
Again, though, this build’s durability is actually one of the best reasons to invest so much gear and so much time into it. It can withstand a lot of punishment while dealing absurd damage to large packs of enemies. While the Werewolf build is a tad more explode from a pure DPS perspective, this build’s durability will certainly help you push through harder pieces of content even while you are otherwise under-leveled.