Want to know what the best Diablo 4 Druid build is? Much like the Necromancer, the Diablo 4 open beta this weekend gives players their first chance to get their grubby paws on the Druid class. They are a bestial class with dominion over the elements and spirit animals that join their cause. If all else fails, though, they can always shift into a Werebeast and tear their demonic foes to shreds. Of all the classes, 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. So far, we’ve seen only datamined information regarding the Druid’s many options for weapons, armour, and skills which will be available in the full game. The Diablo 4 Druid class skills can go 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 earth, wind, and lightning elements. The Diablo 4 Server Slam start time isn’t far away, so this is the chance to try the Druid, including all of the balance updates, in advance of potentially one of the best PC games of 2023. Here are some pointers to send you in the right direction.
Diablo 4 Druid Earth Bear build
For the best Diablo 4 Druid build, we first need to discuss which skills you should start picking upon leveling up your character. Do bear in mind that not everything is accessible during the beta, but it gives you an idea of what would work wonders for the Druid:
Basic skill: Maul
Basic upgrades: Enhanced Maul and Wild Maul
Spirit skill: Pulverize
Spirit upgrades: Enhanced Pulverize and Raging Pulverize
Defensive skills: Earthen Bulwark and Debilitating Roar
Defensive upgrades: Enhanced Earthen Bulwark, Innate Earthen Bulwark, Enhanced Debilitating Roar, and Preserving Debilitating Roar
Companion skill: Wolves
Companion upgrades: Enhanced Wolves and Ferocious Wolf Pack
Wrath skill: Trample
Wrath upgrades: Enhanced Trample, Savage Trample, Crushing Earth, Stone Guard, and Safeguard
Ultimate skill: Grizzly Rage
Ultimate upgrades: Prime Grizzly Rage and Supreme Grizzly Rage
Capstone: Earthern Might
Druid Earth Bear basic skills
Your basic skill here is Maul, transforming you into a Werebear to strike enemies. It has a decent lucky hit chance, increased to 14% as of the beta update, 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 rather than the 6% in the open beta. 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 Spirit skills
Pulverize is a hard-hitting Werebear attack that slams the ground, dealing AoE damage to any surrounding enemies. 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.
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.
Debilitating Roar is the second defensive skill you should take. It turns you into the Werebear to unleash a roar that reduces damage dealt by nearby foes by 70% for four seconds. The enhanced version of this skill Fortifies you for 8.8% of your base life, while the Preserving Debilitating Roar perk heals you for 4% of your max life each second this skill is active, acting as your primary healing source outside of potions.
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 immobilised, 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 a massive amount of bonus damage that scales down sharply for each enemy hit after the first, while Savage Trample adds a valuable spirit resource to your pool.
For the extra perks, Crushing Earth pairs well with any skill that inflicts stun, slow, immobilise, 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. Safeguard fortifies you whenever you hit a critical strike with an Earth skill, so it can be worth picking up, but not over the other two perks in this branch.
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 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.
Druid Earth Bear Capstone
Your Capstone here could be Ursine Strength, as this gives 20% additional maximum life while in Werebear form and for three seconds after leaving it. However, we actually recommend Earthen Might thanks to the 5% chance to restore all your spirit and guarantee critical strikes for ten seconds with every damage to enemies using Earth skills. The best bit is the damage increases by 10% for critical strikes but 100% if the target is suffering from stun, immobilise, or knockback.
Druid Earth Bear Spirit Boons
As for your Spirit Boons, you should spec into the following perks:
Deer: Prickleskin
Eagle: Swooping Attacks
Snake: Obsidian Slam
Wolf: Calamity
All of these boons give you additional bonuses. For example, Prickleskin gives you thorns, Swooping Attacks grant you an extra 10% attack speed, Obsidian Slam causes your next Earth skill to Overpower every so many kills, and Calamity extends the duration of Grizzly Rage by 25%.
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 armour that complements them nicely. We’ve used the datamined weapons list to find unique and legendary weapons you should hunt for.
Here is the best equipment for our Diablo 4 Druid build:
Weapon: Legendary weapon (see below)
Amulet: Legendary equipment (see below)
Boots: Storm’s Companion (Unique)
Chest: Insatiable Fury (Unique)
Gloves: Legendary weapon (see below)
Helm: Vasily’s Prayer (Unique)
Ring slot 1: Hunter’s Zenith (Unique)
Ring slot 2: Legendary equipment (see below)
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.
This leaves us with the weapon, amulet, gloves, and a ring slot to fill with Legendary equipment. Try to find gear with decent stats and at least one of these terms in the item’s name, as they can buff your skills:
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 – Pulverisze is now also an Earth skill. After casting Pulverize, tectonic spikes continue to deal damage over X seconds.
That’s the best Diablo 4 Druid build. With the Diablo 4 release date not far away, 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 perhaps you change your skills around with the Diablo 4 respec mechanic.
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