Best Diablo 4 Druid build

What is the best Diablo 4 Druid build? If you decide to get your grubby little paws dirty with the Druid class, you should know that this bestial class has dominion over the elements and spirit animals that join their cause. However, their main method of attack is to indulge their savage side and shift into a Werebeast to tear their demonic foes to shreds. Of all the classes in the series, they’re perhaps the most underused, but Diablo 4 makes an effort to make them appealing.

To stand a chance against the forces of evil, you’ll need to make the best Diablo 4 Druid build. Skills for one of the strongest Diablo 4 classes can lead you in several directions, with wolves, ravens, and even plant monsters among the companions on offer. Nature also governs the Druid’s magic skills, with the best of them having domain over the earth, wind, and lightning elements. If you’ve seen this build before, we’ve tweaked it a bit based on some findings during the early access period, so be sure to check below for our findings.

What is the best Diablo 4 Druid build?

The best Diablo 4 Druid build is Earth Bear – here’s how to make it:

Basic skill: Maul
- Basic upgrades: Enhanced Maul and Wild Maul
Core skill: Pulverize
- Spirit upgrades: Enhanced Pulverize, Raging Pulverize, Heart of the Wild, Abundance, Wild Impulses, Predatory Instinct
Defensive skills: Earthen Bulwark
- Defensive upgrades: Enhanced Earthen Bulwark, and Preserving Earthen Bulwark
Companion skill: Wolves
- Companion upgrades: Enhanced Wolves and Ferocious Wolf Pack
Wrath skill: Trample
- Wrath upgrades: Enhanced Trample, Savage Trample, Crushing Earth, Stone Guard, Mending, and Provocation
Ultimate skill: Grizzly Rage
- Ultimate upgrades: Prime Grizzly Rage, Supreme Grizzly Rage, Defiance, Circle of Life, Resonance
Key Passive: Ursine Strength

Druid Earth Bear basic skills

Your basic skill here is Maul, transforming you into a Werebear to strike enemies. It has a decent 14% lucky hit chance and allows you to fortify every time you hit them with the Enhanced Maul perk. Sadly, the Enhanced Maul perk only gives you 2% health, but it’s better than nothing. It can be tempting to get more range and radius, but the newly buffed 20% knockdown chance that Wild Maul gives you syncs well with the rest of the build.

Druid Earth Bear Core skills

Pulverize is a hard-hitting Werebear attack that slams the ground, dealing AoE damage to any surrounding enemies, and is the main attack of this build. Enhanced Pulverize gives you the Overpower perk if you remain healthy every 12 seconds, which increases overall damage that scales with life and fortify stats, which pairs well with Maul. Raging Pulverize stuns any Overpowered enemies after a Pulverize attack for a few seconds – this has some significant advantages with the rest of the build.

The passives in this tree are also very effective. We recommend grabbing Heart of the Wild to increase your maximum Spirit, Abundance to give you an additional percentage of Spirit generation whenever you hit an attack that grants you this resource, Wild Impulses to increase Pulverize’s damage while also increasing its cost, and Predatory Instinct to increase your Critical Hit chance against close enemies.

Druid Earth Bear Defensive skills

The Druid is a more defensive class overall, so we’re taking two skills in this tree. The first is Earthen Bulwark, which surrounds you with rocks for three seconds and grants you a barrier to absorb 10% of your base life in damage, protecting you from hard-hitting foes. The enhanced version makes you Unstoppable while it’s active, which makes it impossible to become inflicted with impairing effects for a few seconds. Innate Earthern Bulwark turns the skill into a high-damage dealing projectile that hits surrounding enemies. Its base damage is 300% of your attack output; barrier bonuses can increase this further.

Druid Earth Bear Companion skills

Druids can bring pets with them in Diablo 4, and what better companions than man’s best friend’s ancestor? Selecting the Wolves skill will give you two wolves that bite enemies, and you can direct them to leap onto enemies for a huge amount of damage. Enhanced Wolves will deal increased damage to any immobilized, stunned, slowed, or poisoned enemies, which works with some of our previous skills. In addition, Ferocious Wolf Pack ensures that your wolf attacks have a chance to fortify you for a portion of your base life total if you land a lucky hit.

Druid Earth Bear Wrath skills

For the Wrath tree, we’ll take one skill and some extra passives for good measure. Trample turns you into a Werebear, granting you the Unstoppable perk and charging forward to inflict damage and knock back enemies. Those knocked into a wall take extra damage and are also stunned for three seconds, making this a powerful skill to wield whenever you’re spelunking for loot. Enhanced Trample adds massive bonus damage that scales down sharply for each enemy hit after the first, while Savage Trample adds a valuable spirit resource to your pool.

This is another part where we take lots of extra perks, Crushing Earth pairs well with any skill that inflicts stun, slow, immobilize, or knockback, as they now deal bonus damage. Spending several points here is a good option, as well as on Stone Guard, which increases Earth skill damage as long as you have over 50% maximum health in Fortify health. Mending gives you additional healing from all sources while in Werebear form, and Provocation gives you a guaranteed Overpower on your next skill if you remain in Werebear form for 30 seconds.

Druid Earth Bear Ultimate skills

For this set of skills, we’re going to get Grizzly Rage. This transforms you into a Dire Werebear for ten seconds, granting a 20% bonus damage and 20% damage reduction from foes. This damage bonus increases by 3% each second while in this form, and you can extend the duration of this ultimate for one second after every kill, up to a total of ten. Prime Grizzly Rage also gives you Unstoppable while the skill is active, while Supreme Grizzly Rage also adds gains 3.2% base life as Fortify per second.

Since Pulverize is now an earth skill, it’s also considered a nature skill, so you’ll benefit from these three perks. Defiance increases nature skill damage to Elites, Circle of Life heals you whenever you consume Spirit, and Resonance increases damage

Druid Earth Bear Key Passive

Your Key Passive should be Ursine Strength, which gives 20% additional maximum life while in Werebear form and for three seconds after leaving it. You also deal 30% more damage if your health is above 80%, which, given all the buffs to ensure your Druid is healthy, should always be the case.

Druid Earth Bear Spirit Boons

As for your Spirit Boons, you should spec into the following perks:

Deer: Wariness
Eagle: Scythe Talons and Swooping Attacks
Snake: Obsidian Slam
Wolf: Calamity

All of these boons give you additional bonuses. For example, Wariness makes you take 10% less damage from Elites, Scythe Talons gives you 5% increased Critical Strike chance, and Swooping Attacks grant you an extra 10% attack speed. As for the other two Spirit Boons, Obsidian Slam causes your next Earth skill to Overpower every ten kills, and Energize has a 15% chance to restore ten Spirit upon dealing damage.

Druid Earth Bear equipment

With these skills, the other key ingredient to making the best Diablo 4 Druid build is a set of weapons and armor that complements them nicely.

Here is the equipment for the best Diablo 4 Druid build:

Weapon: Legendary equipment
Amulet: Legendary equipment
Boots: Storm’s Companion (Unique)
Chest: Insatiable Fury (Unique)
Gloves: Legendary equipment
Helm: Vasily’s Prayer (Unique)
Ring slot 1: Hunter’s Zenith (Unique)
Ring slot 2: Legendary equipment

Insatiable Fury makes your Werebear form your true form, adding two ranks for all of your Werebear skills. Vasily’s Prayer also turns Earth skills into Werebear skills, adding more Fortification and, presumably (though unconfirmed) stacking with Insatiable Fury. Storm’s Companion infuses your wolves with lightning damage and grants them the Storm Howl ability, which can take care of foes resistant to your Earth-based attacks. Finally, Hunter’s Zenith gives you extra healing for the first strike after you kill an enemy with a Werebear-based attack.

We also have two pieces of Legendary equipment that are mandatory for the build: any legendary gear with “Shockwave” and “…of the Ursine Horror” in its name. Shockwave gives your Pulverize an additional shockwave that travels forward to deal damage to enemies in your path. This makes clearing rooms with every slam a piece of cake, and when combined with the Enhanced Pulverize, it becomes a one-hit kill on many tough foes.

It also plays nicely with other Legendary equipment that buffs Pulverize, such as any equipment with “…of Ursine Horror”, which makes Pulverize an Earth skill and raises some tectonic spikes to deal continuous damage to nearby foes over two seconds.

This leaves us with two more equipment slots with Legendary gear. Our recommendations here are “…of Quicksand”, as that slows enemies hit by Earth skills by 25% for five seconds, pairing nicely with the “…of Ursine Horror” buff, and “…of Retaliation”, which increases Core skills damage by up to 20% based on your Fortify.

The main point is to find gear with decent stats and at least one of these terms in the item’s name, as they can buff your skills. Here are all the relevant terms to look out for:

Balanced – increase maximum Spirit and Spirit Generation while Grizzly Rage is active.
Ballistic – when you have X Fortify, your Earth skills gain X ranks.
Crashstone – Earth skills deal more Critical Strike damage to Crowd Controlled enemies.
Earthguard – gain a bonus amount to your next Earthern Bulwark for each enemy you Crowd Control up to a maximum of X.
Mangled – when you are struck as a Werebear, you have a chance to gain X Spirit.
Skinwalker’s – when you use a Shapeshifting skill that changes your form, gain some life. If you’re at full life, gain the same amount as Fortify.
Shepherd’s – Core skills deal additional damage for each active companion.
Shockwave – Pulverize creates a shockwave that travels around, dealing X% of its damage to targets in its path.
… of the Alpha – your Wolf companions are now Werewolf companions. They deal additional damage and can spread Rabies.
… of Quicksand – damage from Earth skills slows enemies hit for X seconds.
… of Mending Stone – the duration of the Earthen Bulwark is increased by X seconds. In addition, killing an enemy with Earth skills replenishes some of your active Earthen Bulwarks.
… of the Rampaging Werebeast – The duration of Grizzly Rage is increased by X seconds. In addition, while Grizzly Rage is active, Critical Strikes increases your Critical Strike damage for the duration.
… of Retaliation – your Core skills deal increased damage based on your amount of Fortify.
… of the Stampede – grants an additional Companion. In addition, your Companion skills deal bonus damage.
… of the Trampled Earth – Trample now summons pillars of earth during its duration that deal normal damage. Trample is now also a Nature Magic and Earth skill.
…of the Ursine Horror – Pulverize is now also an Earth skill. After casting Pulverize, tectonic spikes continue to deal damage over X seconds.

Diablo 4 Druid skills

Finally, here is the full list of unlockable Diablo 4 Druid skills for your reference:

Basic skills

Earth Spike – sunders the earth, impaling the first enemy hit for 16% damage (generates 10 Spirit).
Wind Shear – conjures piercing blades of wind to deal 17% damage (generates 12 Spirit).
Storm Strike – imbues your weapon with electricity, dealing 20% damage to your target. This hit chains up to three surrounding enemies, dealing 20% less damage each time it chains. You also get 25% damage reduction for three seconds after dealing damage with Storm Strike (generates 14 Spirit).
Claw – shapeshift into a Werewolf and swipe for 20% damage (generates 10 Spirit).
Maul – shapeshift into a Werebear and maul enemies in front of you, dealing 20% damage (generates 14 Spirit).

Spirit skills

Landslide – crush enemies between two earth pillars and deal up to 75% damage (Spirit cost: 30)
Shred – shapeshift into a Werewolf and perform a trio of attacks. The first attack dashes toward the opponent and deals 25% damage. The second attack deals 35% damage, and the third performs a finishing move that hits for 60% damage (Spirit cost: 35).
Pulverize – shapeshift into a Werebear and slam the ground, dealing 50% damage to any surrounding enemies (Spirit cost: 35).
Tornado – conjures a tornado for 35% damage (Spirit cost: 40).
Lightning Storm – conjures a lightning storm that grows and deals 32% damage per strike. The number of strikes increases the longer the storm is channeled up to a maximum of five at once (Spirit cost: 15).

Defensive skills

Debilitating Roar – shapeshift into a Werebear and bellow a mighty roar, reducing nearby enemies’ damage dealt by 70% for four seconds (Cooldown: 22 seconds).
Blood Howl – shapeshift into a Werewolf and howl furiously, healing you for 20% of your max health (Cooldown: 15 seconds).
Cyclone Armor – gain a passive 10% non-physical damage reduction. When activated, winds rapidly expand, knocking back enemies and dealing 30% damage (Cooldown: 18 seconds).
Earthen Bulwark – rocks surround you for three seconds, granting a barrier that absorbs 45% of your base life in damage (Cooldown: 16 seconds).

Companion skills

Wolves

Passive: summons two wolves that bite enemies for 7.8% damage.
Active: direct the wolves to focus and leap onto an enemy for 110% damage (Cooldown: 14 seconds).

Ravens

Passive: the ravens fly above the Druid and periodically attack nearby enemies for 13% damage every five seconds.
Active: swarms the target area, dealing 160% damage over six seconds (Cooldown: 15 seconds).

Poison Creeper

Passive – a vine creeper periodically emerges from the ground every seven seconds and poisons a nearby enemy for 36% poison damage over six seconds to an enemy in the area.
Active – vines strangle enemies in a target area, inflicting 90% poison damage and immobilizing them for two seconds (Cooldown: 20 seconds).

Wrath skills

Hurricane – forms a hurricane around you to deal 97.5% damage to surrounding enemies over eight seconds (Cooldown: 20 seconds).
Boulder – unearth a large rolling boulder that repeatedly knocks back enemies, dealing 33% damage with each hit (Cooldown: ten seconds).
Trample – shapeshift into a Werebear, become Unstoppable, and charge forward to deal 75% damage and Knockback to enemies. If knocked-back enemies hit terrain, they take 45% additional damage and are Stunned for three seconds (Cooldown: 14 seconds)
Rabies – shapeshift into a Werewolf and bite the target to apply 28% damage and an additional 52.8% poison damage over the next six seconds. Infected enemies spread Rabies to other surrounding targets (Cooldown: 12 seconds).

Ultimate skills

Cataclysm – a massive storm follows you for eight seconds. Twisters cause Knockback on enemies, and any lightning strikes that hit them deal 52% damage (Cooldown: 60 seconds).
Lacerate – shapeshift into a Werewolf that’s Immune, and quickly dash ten times between enemies in the area dealing up to 400% damage (Cooldown: 45 seconds).
Grizzly Rage – shapeshift into a Dire Werebear for ten seconds and gain a 20% bonus damage and damage reduction. Damage bonus increases by 3% each second you’re in this form. Kills extend the duration by one second, up to ten additional seconds (Cooldown: 50 seconds).
Petrify – encases enemies in stone, stunning them for three seconds. You deal 25% additional critical strike damage to affected enemies. Against bosses, this critical strike damage increases to 50%, and the duration increases to six seconds (Cooldown: 50 seconds).

That’s the best Diablo 4 Druid build. If you want to see what chaos and mayhem the other Diablo 4 classes offer, we have the best builds for the Barbarian, Necromancer, Rogue, and Sorcerer. There is no real wrong choice with which class you play as in one of the most anticipated RPG games of the year, but if you decide to go with the Druid, don’t be afraid to get in touch with your wild side and maybe pay attention to what the devs think are the best Diablo 4 builds – they know best, after all.