Druids are one of the main melee classes in Diablo 4, even though interestingly they can be played as a melee-ranged hybrid as well.
Part of our complete Diablo 4 class guide.
Given that they can tank very well as a class, plenty of Druid players naturally go for shapeshifting builds. But today we’re going to have a look at a hybrid build that makes excellent use of the Tornado skill. And on your path to the endgame, have a look at our best Diablo 4 Druid leveling build. This build will also be using some shapeshifting skills, but your main damage-dealing capabilities will be built around the Tornado skill. So let’s check out one of the best Druid builds for endgame.
Main Skills
Storm Strike
This will be mainly used to generate Spirit when running low, while also dealing some AoE damage. Storm Strike will chain to surrounding enemies while dealing less damage. Two skill points will be needed here, with one for the Enhanced upgrade that will also give you a chance to Immobilize enemies.
Tornado
The hero skill of this build, Tornado will take up seven skill points in order to get the Enhanced and Raging upgrades. After you cast it, a Tornado will start somewhere around you and start heading for the nearest enemy it can find. The Tornado will continue seeking enemies automatically until it dissipates due to one of the Aspects that we use.
Cyclone Armor
This armor will give you a 10% Non-Physical Damage Reduction passive effect. When you activate it, it will knock enemies back while also dealing 30% damage. Cyclone Armor will take up three skill points, with two going into the Enhanced and Preserving upgrades.
Blood Howl
After activating it, your character will turn into a Werewolf as well as heal your character for 20% of your Maximum Life. Three skill points will go here, with two for the Enhanced and Preserving upgrades. When in danger this is a great healing effect that can obviously be buffed by Healing Received stats from your gear.
Hurricane
Add three skill points here, with two going into the Enhanced and Savage upgrades. After casting it, a Hurricane will surround your character and deal continuous damage over 8 seconds. Due to the upgrades, it will also Slow enemies around you and reduce their damage output.
Grizzly Rage
Activate your Ultimate and become a giant Dire Werebear that is ready to tear enemies apart for 12 seconds. You will receive a 20% bonus for your damage as well as your Damage Reduction. The bonus to damage will also increase by 3% for each second you spend in this form. The Prime and Supreme upgrades will also turn you Unstoppable throughout the effect and give you Fortify stacks worth 8% of your Base Life. This is an amazing Ultimate that can keep you alive in even the toughest of situations.
Passive Skills
Key Passive – Earthen Might
Whenever you land a Lucky Hit, your character will get a 5% chance on his Earth Skills to either restore all your Spirit or guarantee that all your attacks will be critical for the next five seconds. This chance will be 10% for Critical Strikes or for targets that are already Immobilized, Stunned or Knocked Back.
Predatory Instinct
Three skill points added to this passive will give you a 6% increase in your Critical Strike Chance against Close targets.
Digitigrade Gait
While in Werewolf form, you will receive a 9% Movement Speed buff after adding three skill points to this Passive.
Heart of the Wild
A single point will be needed here to give you access to the next Passive. Your Maximum Spirit will be increased by three.
Wild Impulses
Even though your Core Skills will cost 9% more Spirit they will also deal 15% more damage. Three skill points will be needed here to make the most out of this passive.
Ancestral Fortitude
By adding three points here, we will get a 15% increase in all of our Non-Physical Resistances. Since Resists on gear are generally overlooked, this is a huge buff for a Druid.
Vigilance
You will get a 15% Damage Reduction effect for six seconds whenever you use a Defensive Skill. To get the most here, we will need three skill points.
Elemental Exposure
A single point is all that is needed here to get access to the next passive. This particular passive will give your Storm skills a 10% chance to make any enemies hit Vulnerable for one second.
Endless Tempest
For this particular build, three points added here will increase the duration of Hurricane by 15%.
Neurotoxin
We will be throwing three skill points here, thus slowing any enemies that are Poisoned by 24%.
Envenom
Three more skill points added to this passive will also ensure that Poisoned targets will take 30% more Critical Strike Damage.
Toxic Claws
The one passive that will help us activate the effects of the above two passives, Toxic Claws will need a single skill point. It will ensure that any Critical Strikes we land with our Werewolf skill will also deal 8% of their damage as Poison over four seconds.
Defensive Posture
After adding three skill points here, any Fortify effects that you get will be increased by 15%.
Nature’s Resolve
Since the correct amount of Fortify stacks is “as many as possible”, this passive will also need three skill points. It will then give you a 15% chance when struck to give you a Fortify stack worth 4% of your Base Life.
Defiance
If you add three skill points here, Elites will take 12% more damage from all your Nature Magic skills.
Aspects
Just like any other build, a big part of what makes it work are the Aspects that are needed alongside it. Here is a short rundown with a few of the more important Aspects that this build requires.
One of the strongest Aspects for this build which can sadly be found only on Legendary items is the Mighty Storm Aspect. This Aspect will also allow your Earthen Might passive to apply to your Storm skills. This is a huge boon for us, since we will be spamming a lot of Tornadoes and keeping Hurricane up as often as possible. Plus, both of these are AoE spells so they have even higher chances to proc.
Another Aspect that can only be found on Legendary gear, Dire Wolf’s Aspect will turn us into a Dire Werewolf whenever we use Grizzly Rage. We will gain 15-25% more Movement Speed instead of gaining Damage Reduction and a 30-50% Spirit cost reduction bonus for the duration. And on top of all that, any kill we land will heal us for 10% of our Maximum Life. This is a very important Aspect to have since it makes us faster as well as giving us another Spirit efficiency bonus.
Sadly for Druids, it seems like most of their great Aspects are only found on Legendary items. And Stormchaser’s Aspect is no different, giving our Tornado skill the necessary buff to seek targets out while active. This means that we can stop worrying about accurately aiming our Tornado and just let it do its thing.
Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast can be found in the Endless Gates Dungeon which is located in Hawezar. It will increase your Grizzly Rage duration by one to five seconds, depending on your Item Level. And on top of this buff, your Critical Strikes will increase your Critical Strike Damage by 10% throughout the duration of Grizzly Rage.
In order to further boost our Movement Speed, we will also be using the Ghostwalker Aspect. This Aspect can be found in the Broken Bulwark Dungeon found in Scosglen. When your character is Unstoppable and for four more seconds after, you will gain between 10 and 25% more Movement Speed and the ability to freely move through enemies. This ensures that if needed you can make a quick escape from a bad position.
Playstyle
Our core gameplay loop is fairly simple with this build. We can pretty much pop all of our cooldowns before using Grizzly Rage. Since this turns you into an Unstoppable Werewolf that also moves really fast, start tearing your opponents apart. When the effect eventually runs out, you can start spamming Tornadoes with a few Storm Strikes thrown in to regenerate your Spirit.
The build will revolve around our Earthen Might proccing and giving us 100% Critical Chance for five seconds. And due to the Aspect of Rampaging Werebeast, our Critical Strike Damage will increase exponentially, allowing us to dish out a lot of damage in a short span of time. Since Tornado is an AoE effect, any Critical Strikes it lands will also enhance our damage output even further. And it will also keep us nice and healthy due to the Masochistic boon that heals us whenever we land a Critical Strike.
This is a very solid build that can take us all the way to level 100 with no problems. While it might struggle when facing bosses, it excels in taking down packs of enemies really fast. Given the current state of the game where bosses aren’t necessarily the toughest part of a Dungeon, being able to tear Elite packs apart is great.
