Best Diablo 4 Druid builds, Skills, and Aspects to use
From shapeshifting to elemental spells, learn about the Diablo 4 Druid class and its best Skills and Aspects
The best Diablo 4 Druid builds allow you to deal all sorts of AoE damage and excel in one of the class’s many other strengths, whether that’s shapeshifting attacks, poison, or crowd control. Overall, the Druid is a surprisingly versatile and very powerful class, largely thanks to its diverse Skills that cover brutal melee combat with deadly elemental magic – they even gets animal summons! If you’ve chosen to play as a Druid in Diablo 4, this guide will help you out with the basics of the class, the best Skills, good Aspects to use, and more to craft a great build.
Diablo 4 Druid guide
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How to respec in Diablo 4
The Druid class in Diablo 4 employs a mix of melee weaponry, elemental spells, shapeshifting, and animal summons. This variety means that Druids are excellent for creating either highly specialized or general builds. This variety does also mean they can feel like a master-of-none class at times, and they’re lacking in mobility options, but broadly, the best Diablo 4 Druid builds are great for AoE damage, crowd control, and being slightly lesser tanks compared to Barbarians. Here’s a quick rundown of how they work in Diablo 4:
- Role: Melee, spellcasting, AoE, crowd control
- Skill Resource: Spirit – using Basic Skills generates Spirit
- Class mechanic: Spirit Animals – Give Spirit Offerings to four animal spirits to unlock and equip useful boons.
- Druid weapons: Two-Handed Axes, Two-Handed Maces, Two-Handed Swords, Axes, Maces, Swords, Staves, Totems
- Damage types: Physical, Lightning, Poison
Diablo 4 Druid Spirit Boons
With the Spirit Boons mechanic, Druids can apply a selection of Animal Sprit Boons that add or enhance certain powers, adding to your Druid build’s power, along with its Skills, Aspects, and more. These include things like increasing your maximum health or Spirit, increasing your attack speed, or adding new ways to become Fortified. Although, you won’t unlock this mechanic until you’ve completed the ‘Druid: Spirits of the Lost Grove’ Priority quest which automatically gets added to your Diablo 4 quest log at Level 15.
Once you’ve completed that quest, you can give Spirit Offerings to each of the four Spirit Animals – Eagle, Snake, Wolf, and Deer. Spirit Offerings will drop randomly in varying quantities from enemies you kill from Level 15 and onwards – you can check how many you have in your Quest item inventory. Each animal spirit offers a new Boon every 25 Spirit Offerings, except the Snake who demands all 100 offerings at once.
There are four boons for the four animal spirits, so that’s 16 Spirit Boons in total. Importantly, you can have only one active boon from each animal, so you’ll only ever have four Boons equipped at once. However, you can freely switch these boons in the Spirit Boons menu at any time, and once you’ve unlocked all 16 Spirit Boons, you will unlock Spirit Bonding. Bonding with one of the spirits allows you to equip a second Spirit Boon that they offer. You can change your bond, but you must visit the Animal Spirits to do so.
Diablo 4 Druid builds
Here you’ll find the best Skills and Spirit Boon combinations for two of the best Diablo 4 Druid builds. One shows off the brutal, beastly attacks of a shapeshifting build, while the other specializes in dealing AoE damage at all ranges and debuffing enemies thanks to storm magic. Further down, you’ll also find pointers on the best Attributes, Aspects, and Gems to use across your Druid builds.
Diablo 4 Druid storm magic build
The Druid’s storm and earth nature magic can be mixed and matched, but this build focuses solely on the use of Storm magic Skills that can protect you and damage enemies at almost all ranges. Start with Storm Strike as your Basic Skill to deal a little lightning damage that has a chance to both immobilize and enemies it hits and make them Vulnerable. Follow up with the Lightning Storm Skill to create a storm that grow more powerful the longer it’s channeled.
Since this Diablo 4 Druid build is not naturally that resilient, Cyclone Armor adds a bit of protection and helps you apply several status ailments to enemies that get too close. Your Ravens will chip away at enemies but will also help your Critical Strike chances and will make enemies Vulnerable when they’re caught in the flock.
For plenty of AoE damage that follows you around, the Hurricane Wrath Skill and Cataclysm Ultimate Skill will have you covered – almost quite literally. Both deal lots of Lightning damage and can apply numerous crowd control effects to enemies, giving you ample protection from any enemies in melee range. The Perfect Storm Key Passive rounds this out, helping you deal even more damage to Vulnerable enemies and will generate a little extra Spirit. Here are the skills that you should unlock for a solid Storm magic-focused Diablo 4 Druid build:
Header Cell - Column 0 | Skill | Cluster |
---|---|---|
1 | Storm Strike | Basic |
2 | Enhanced Storm Strike | Basic |
4 | Fierce Storm Strike | Basic |
5 | Lightning Storm | Core |
6 | Enhanced Lightning Storm | Core |
7 | Primal Lightning Storm | Core |
8 | Heart of the Wild | Core (Passive) |
9 | Abundance | Core (Passive) |
10 | Cyclone Armor | Defensive |
11 | Enhanced Cyclone Armor | Defensive |
12 | Innate Cyclone Armor | Defensive |
13 | Ravens | Companion |
14 | Enhanced Ravens | Companion |
15 | Ferocious Ravens | Companion |
16 | Nature's Reach | Companion (Passive) |
17 | Hurricane | Wrath |
18 | Enhanced Hurricane | Wrath |
19 | Savage Hurricane | Wrath |
20 | Elemental Exposure | Wrath (Passive) |
21 | Charged Atmosphere | Wrath (Passive) |
22 | Bad Omen | Wrath (Passive) |
23 | Cataclysm | Ultimate |
24 | Prime Cataclysm | Ultimate |
25 | Supreme Cataclysm | Ultimate |
26 | Defiance | Ultimate (Passive) |
27 | Circle of Life | Ultimate (Passive) |
28 | Perfect Storm | Capstone Passive |
To maximize the effectiveness of your storms, you’ll want the following Druid Spirit Boons:
- Deer: Gift of the Stag – Gain 10 maximum Spirit.
- Eagle: Scythe Talons – Gain 5% increased Critical Strike chance.
- Wolf: Energize – Lucky Hit: Dealing damage has up to a 15% chance to restore 10 Spirit + Calamity – Extend the duration of Ultimate Skills by 25%.
- Snake: Overload – Lucky Hit: Dealing Lightning damage has up to a 20% chance to cause the target to emit a static discharge, dealing more Lightning damage to surrounding enemies.
Diablo 4 Druid shapeshifter build
Druids can also use shapeshifting magic to transform into a Werewolf or Werebear for certain Skills, but this great Diablo 4 Druid build uses the best of both beasts with rapid, single-target strikes, and powerful AoE attacks. Starting with the Werewolf’s Claw Skill and its upgrades, you can slash rapidly and quickly build up Spirit. Your Spirit can be spent on Pulverize to slam the ground, dealing massive damage all around you, especially when Overpowered. This combo alone is great for crushing clusters of foes in the early game as you level up.
Since this build is melee-focused, Blood Howl provides necessary healing and other bonuses to help battle the enemy. Your two Wolf companions will also provide extra damage and support as you charge into the fray. Add to your AoE power with Rabies to rapidly spread Poison effects to lots of enemies too.
To cap off the build, Grizzly Rage turns you into a tanky Dire Werebear, letting you rampage around and soak up damage for up to 15 seconds. With so much shapeshifting going on, the Bestial Rampage Key Passive grant you some useful buffs to boost your DPS based. Here are all the Skills needed for a one of the best shapeshifting Druid builds in Diablo 4:
Header Cell - Column 0 | Skill | Cluster |
---|---|---|
1 | Claw | Basic |
2 | Enhanced Claw | Basic |
3 | Wild Claw | Basic |
4 | Pulverize | Core |
5 | Enhanced Pulverize | Core |
6 | Raging Pulverize | Core |
7 | Predatory Instinct | Core (Passive) |
8 | Digitigrade Gait | Core (Passive) |
9 | Iron Fur | Core (Passive) |
10 | Heart of the Wild | Core (Passive) |
11 | Abundance | Core (Passive) |
12 | Blood Howl | Defensive |
13 | Enhanced Blood Howl | Defensive |
14 | Preserving Blood Howl | Defensive |
15 | Wolves | Companion |
16 | Enhanced Wolves | Companion |
17 | Ferocious Wolves | Companion |
18 | Rabies | Wrath |
19 | Enhanced Rabies | Wrath |
20 | Natural Rabies | Wrath |
21 | Neurotoxin | Wrath (Passive) |
22 | Envenom | Wrath (Passive) |
23 | Grizzly Rage | Ultimate |
24 | Prime Grizzly Rage | Ultimate |
25 | Supreme Grizzly Rage | Ultimate |
26 | Defensive Posture | Ultimate (Passive) |
27 | Thick Hide | Ultimate (Passive) |
28 | Quickshift | Ultimate (Passive) |
29 | Natural Fortitude | Ultimate (Passive) |
30 | Heightened Senses | Ultimate (Passive) |
31 | Bestial Rampage | Capstone Passive |
Your weapon choice doesn’t really matter too much for this build, but a powerful two-handed weapon will help with making sure Pulverize deals as much damage as possible. To round it off with your Spirit Boons, you should pick:
- Deer: Prickleskin – Gain Thorns.
- Eagle: Iron Feather – Gain 10% maximum health + Swooping Attacks – Gain 10% attack speed.
- Wolf: Calamity – Extend the duration of Ultimate Skills by 25%.
- Snake: Masochistic – Critical Strikes with Shapeshifting Skills heal you for 3% of your maximum health.
Best Diablo 4 Stats and Attributes for Druid builds
Boosting your core stats with the right gear can help you round out your build to help you slaughter demons effectively. Druids gain a range of benefits from each of the four stats, all of which are useful but it varies based on your Druid build:
- Willpower: Increases Overpower damage, healing received, and Skill damage for Druids. Offers plenty of benefits and should be one of your highest stats regardless of what your build is.
- Intelligence: Increases resistance to all elements and improves Spirit generation. Definitely a useful stat to boost if you’re looking to spam a Core Skill and makes you a little more tanky.
- Dexterity: Increases Dodge chance and Critical Strike chance. Dexterity isn’t the most useful stat for any particular build but the two benefits it offers are undeniably useful.
- Strength: Increases Armor. Strength is still a useful stat for your build, especially if you’re leaning towards a tank playstyle.
Best Diablo 4 Druid Aspects
Aspects can quite radically change how certain Skills or other elements of you build perform, and the right combination of them can massively improve your combat capabilities. Here are several Diablo 4 Aspects for Druids that are great for a range of Skills and builds:
- Ballistic Aspect: When you have Fortify your Earth Skills gain +2 Ranks. Found in the Whispering Pines, Scosglen.
- Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt: Damaging a poisoned enemy with a Werebear Skill will instantly deal 120% of the poisoning damage and consumer the poisoning. Found in the Conclave, Kehjistan.
- Crashstone Aspect: Earth Skills deal 30% more Critical Strike damage to crowd controlled enemies. Get this Aspect in the Stockades, Scosglen but you can only access this dungeon by progressing the campaign in Scosglen.
- Aspect of the Expectant: Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast by 5%, up to 30%. Get it in Underroot, Scosglen.
- Nighthowler’s Aspect: Blood Howl increases Critical Strike chance by 5%. In addition, Blood Howl also affects nearby companions and players for 3 seconds. Unlock this Aspect in the Forbidden City, Fractured Peaks.
- Overcharged Aspect: Lucky Hit: Up to a 10% chance when dealing Lightning damage to overload the target for 3 seconds, causing any direct damage you deal to them to pulse additional damage to surrounding enemies. Get this in Mariner’s Refuge, Scosglen.
- Rapid Aspect: Basic Skills gain 15% attack speed. Find this Aspect in the Buried Halls, Dry Steppes.
- Skinwalker’s Aspect: When you use a Shapeshifting Skill that changes your form, gain a small amount of health. If you’re at full health, gain the same amount as Fortify. Get this in Fading Echo, Kehjistan but you can only access this dungeon by progressing the campaign in Kehjistan.
- Aspect of the Ursine Horror: Pulverize is now also an Earth Skill. After casting Pulverize, tectonic spikes continue to deal damage over 2 seconds. Found in Belfry Zakara, Hawezar.
- Vigorous Aspect: Gain 10% damage reduction while shapeshifted into a Werewolf. Find this Aspect in the Steadfast Barracks, Hawezar.
Best Diablo 4 Druid Gems
Even with all your Skills and Aspects, you can add even more to your Druid build with Diablo 4 gems. The extra boosts they provide will be better suited to certain builds and classes, so here are the best gems for Druids:
- Emeralds in weapons: Increases Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable enemies.
- Rubies in weapons: Increases the damage of Overpowers.
- Rubies in armor: Increases maximum health.
- Sapphires in weapons: Increased Critical Strike damage to crowd controlled enemies.
- Skulls in weapons: Increases the amount of health you regain with each kill.
- Skulls in armor: Increases the amount of healing received.
- Skulls in jewelry: Increases Armor stat, reducing Physical and Bleed damage taken.
- Topazes in weapons: Increases Basic Skill damage.
Once you reach Level 50, you can start taking your Druid build to the next level via the Diablo 4 Paragon Board and Diablo 4 Glyphs. Why not test your build against other players in Diablo 4 PvP too.
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Will Sawyer is a guides writer at 12DOVE who works with the rest of the guides team to give readers great information and advice on the best items, how to complete a particular challenge, or where to go in some of the biggest video games. Will joined the GameRadar+ team in August 2021 and has written about service titles, including Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Warzone, as well as some of the biggest releases like Halo Infinite, Elden Ring, and God of War Ragnarok.
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