Diablo 4 Druid Leveling Build Guide: Friends of the Forest

This leveling build for the Druid in Diablo 4 focuses on the early game progression of the class, all the way through the campaign’s completion. We’ll guide you through the leveling process, including Skill Order and notable Aspect from dungeons.

The Druid suffers from a little bit of a sluggish early game, but once they start getting companions, they start to take off. This build focuses entirely on their companions, offering a small army with plenty of damage.

This leveling build will assume you’re starting fresh from Level 1. However, since they carry over from season to season, we have included bonus skill points earned from Reputation sources, including those from Vessel of Hatred.

To learn more about the available Classes in Diablo 4, read our beginner guide. It will give you more than enough information on each one and show you the advantages and disadvantages of each one.

Build Details

Almost all of the damage of this build will be coming from our Companions when we get them, so to start we’ll use Storm Strike and Tornado for the early levels. Both of these will get replaced for the final build.

We’ll end up using Cataclysm over Storm Strike for applying Vulnerable.

We’ll have two Defensive Skills, as well as Storm Strike’s passive Damage reduction helping us out. Which two you use is totally up to you, but we’ll share our recommendations in the details below.

Of note with this build, is that it does not use a Key Passive, but the use of one can be done later on, as it requires both a Unique and a specific Aspect to enable the bonus to remain active.

Skill and Passive Breakdown

In this section, we’ll be talking about each skill we use. This is the whys and hows of how the build works, and then we’ll cover the general leveling order.

Skills

These are the final skills for the build, though others may be used early on and are not mentioned here.

Storm Strike

Storm Strike is a great skill that chains and will apply Vulnerable fairly often, making it a great utility skill. We’ll upgrade it to Fierce Storm Strike for that Vulnerable effect and the chance to Immobilize as well.

Blood Howl

Blood Howl is the first of our Defensive Skills, offering burst healing every so often to help keep us topped off. When it get upgraded to Preserving Blood Howl, it’ll also give a short boost to Attack Speed.

Earthen Bulwark

Earthen Bulwark is our second Defensive Skill. This will grant us a short-duration Barrier that scales off our Base Life. We’ll eventually upgrade this to Innate Earthen Bulwark for a bit of added damage, as we get some easy-to-obtain Aspects to help with this.

Wolves

Wolves are one of your three Companion Skills, which summons two Wolves to fight with us. These Wolves periodically attack nearby enemies, but can also be commanded to attack for heavy damage with the Active portion of the skill. They’ll be upgraded to a Brutal Wolf Pack to increase their potential damage.

Ravens

Ravens will summon a single raven to fight alongside us. The active portion of the skill creates a flock of crows that deal exceptionally high damage over time to a decent-sized area. These will be upgraded to Brutal Ravens, increasing the number of Ravens we have following us to three.

Poison Creeper

Poison Creeper summons a Poison Creeper that will emerge and passively poison an enemy. When it’s active skill is used, it’ll instead Immobilize and poison foes in a larger area. We’ll upgrade it to Brutal Poison Creeper to act as an on-demand buff for our other summons.

Cataclysm

Cataclysm is great after its previous update. So we’re swapping this in over Storm Strike for easy Vulnerable late game and making Wolves our primary attacking skill. It will provide fairly consistent damage and with enough Critical Strike Chance help to frequently reset out Companion Skills.

Passives

Here we’re only going to talk about the main passives for the build as well as our Key passive. These are the core passives that allow the build to function.

Key Passive – One With Nature

Companions have a very powerful Key passive of their own as of Season 6. This gives our Companions a massive damage boost, as well as granting an additional Companions. This works very well to boost some of our best aspects on top of this.

Call of the Wild

Call of the Wild increases the damage of our Companion Skills. Since they make up the majority of our damage, there’s no reason to not pick this up. As an added bonus, it’s even a multiplicative bonus making it even stronger.

Envenom

Envenom increases Critical Strike Damage against poisoned Enemies. This is more for our Companions than us, but it helps a ton with bossing. Since Poison Creeper will keep enemies poisoned, it allows this passive to work well enough. Once we get Aspect of the Alpha, our Wolves will also spread poison via Rabies for mobbing.

Humanity

Humanity gives us bonus damage while in Human Form, and since we’re never shapeshifting this is a considerable boost of damage for us and our Companions.

Feral Aptitude

Feral Aptitude gives us yet another significant damage bonus, this time split between two conditions: Being Healthy and Above 100% Movement Speed. With our Wolves often taking the brunt of the enemy aggression and Earthen Bulwark making us Unstoppable, both of these conditions are easily met.

Leveling Order: Where to Assign Your Skill Points

To start, we’ll take Storm Strike and upgrade it to Fierce Storm Strike. This gives us very early Vulnerable applications. Then we pick up Tornado and upgrade it to Primal Tornado. This helps keep enemies in the Tornado for longer to take more damage.

Next, we’re on to our Defensive Skills, where we’ll grab Blood Howl and upgrade it to Preserving Blood Howl. Additionally, we’ll also grab Earthen Bulwark as well and upgrade to Enhanced Earthen Bulwark.

Next, we’ll pick up and max Predatory Instincts. After maxing this, we’ll take the points out of Tornado and allocate them to pick up Poison Creeper, Ravens, and Wolves all at the same time.

From here we’ll just be mostly upgrading our Companions. Start by Upgrading Ravens to Brutal Ravens as this gives us additional passive damage. Then our Wolves get upgraded next, taking them to Brutal Wolf Pack. Finally, our Poison Creeper gets upgraded to Brutal Poison Creeper.

Next, we’ll max Call of the Wild, Humanity, and Feral Aptitude. Then we’ll grab one point in Neurotoxin and max Envenom. This allows us to grab our Key Passive, One with Nature.

With our Key Passive picked up, we’ll start maxing our Companions. We’ll fully level Ravens then Wolves. Ravens contribute a lot to our early DPS, especially with the Stormcrow Aspect. Wolves are our burst Damage, so we max them second. We don’t upgrade Poison Creeper as we’re only using it for the passive poison and Crit Chance not necessarily the active damage.

It’s at this point we can now pick up our Ultimate Skill, Cataclysm. We’ll pick up Cataclysm and upgrade it to Supreme for Vulnerable Application. We’ll also max Endless Tempest to extend its duration. Now we’ll focus on grabbing useful passives to boost our damage and defenses.

We’ll pick up a point of Ancestral Fortitude to be able to max Vigilance. Then we’ll max Backlash. Since our companions and Cataclysm will be defeating enemies frequently, Blood Howl will allow us to constantly maintain Backlash and Vigilance.

Next, we’ll fully level Cataclysm to reduce its cooldown and start investing more into Storm and Nature Magic Passives.

Druid Leveling Progress Summary

This section sums up the Leveling process in an easier-to-reference format.

Levels	Icon	Skills	Purpose
2-4		Storm Strike	Upgrade to Fierce Storm Strike for early Vulnerable Access
5-7		Tornado	Temporary skill used for leveling, Upgrade to Primal Tornado
8-10		Blood Howl	Upgrade to Preserving Blood Howl for reset potential and Attack Speed.
11-12		Earthen Bulwark	Upgrade to Enhanced for Unstoppable effect.
13-15		Predatory instincts	Take this to prepare for our swap to Companions.
Unspec		Tornado	We’re no longer going to use this after this point.
Allocate		Poison Creeper	Using points from Tornado to get our Companions.
Allocate		Ravens	Using points from Tornado to get our Companions.
Allocate		Wolves	Using points from Tornado to get our Companions.
16-17		Brutal Ravens	Upgrading Ravens to increase passive damage.
18-19		Brutal Wolves	Upgrading Wolves to increase active damage.
20-21		Brutal Poison Creeper	Upgrading Poison Creeper for buffing potential.
22-24		Call of the Wild	Increase damage of all Companions.
25-27		Feral Aptitude	Another Damage boosting passive.
28-30		Humanity	More damage for us and our Comapnions
31		Neurotoxin	Needed to reach Envenom, but Poison now Slows.
32-34		Envenom	Increases Critical Strike Damage to Poisoned Target.
35		One With Nature	Key passive for a huge boost to Companions.
36-39		Ravens	Maxing our DPS Companion.
40-43		Wolves	Maxing our Burst Damage Companion.
44-46		Supreme Cataclysm	Our Ultimate Skill, replaces Storm Strike for more passive damage and Vulnerable.
47-49		Endless Tempest	More duration for Cataclysm.
50		Ancestral Fortitude	Free Elemental Resistance.
51-53		Vigilance	Incoming Damage Reduction when we cast Blood Howl or Earthen Bulwark.
54-56		Backlash	Damage increases when we cast Blood Howl or Earthen Bulwark.
57-60		Cataclysm	Lowers the Cooldown of Cataclysm and increases its damage.
R1-R3		Defiance	More Nature Magic Damage to Elites. Affects Ravens with Aspect and Wolves with Storm’s Companion
R4-R6		Natural Disaster	More Storm Damage to Stunned, Immobilized, or Knocked Back enemies. Affects Wolves with Storm’s Companion.
R7		Elemental Exposure	Chance for Wolves to apply Vulnerable with Storm’s Companion.
R8-R10		Electric Shock	More Lightning Damage to Immobilized Enemies.
R11-R12		Earthen Bulwark OR Ancestral Fortitude	Dump extra points into Earthen Bulwark for a stronger Barrier, or Ancestral Fortitude for more resists if needed.
Respec		Digitigrade Gait	Reduce Basic Skill to Enhanced and move the extra point to Digitigrade Gait for a bit of extra Movement Speed from Blood Howl.

Gearing and Stats

In this section, we’ll cover all the things you’d want to keep an eye out for to enhance the final build. This includes our Recommended Weapons, Spirit Boons, Aspects, and of course, Uniques.

Recommended Weapons

For weapons, this build prefers a Polearm as its weapon. The bonus Vulnerable Damage is a great boost for the build, in addition to the 2H Weapon bonus for Aspects.

Ideal Stats

The table below details the ideal stats for our gear, be on the lookout for gear that matches at least two of the three rolls below. We’ve also included Aspects here for easier viewing, refer to the Aspects section for additional details on why these are selected.

Affixes that are CAPITALIZED are the Ideal Affixes to get as a Greater Affix. These are not required but are a good way to push the build further. Affixes in Bold are the ideal Affixes to boost with Masterworking.

In cases where multiple Affixes are listed, the secondary option is for when another stat reaches its cap. This is most common with Armor, where you’d take Maximum Life after reaching the Armor cap.

Gems and Runewords

This build uses Sapphires in our Weapons, Rubies in our Armor, and Skulls in Jewelry.

We opt for Sapphires in our Weapons as we’re focusing on Vulnerable mainly. Emerald are a decent option too, but less consistent early.

We use Sapphires in our Armor, as Willpower is easily the best bonus we can get here. We’ll use these to fill any space left over after Runewords.

We go with Skulls for Our Jewelry as Armor is a bit harder to cap out in Season 6. If we get enough through Gear or Paragon, we can use Resistance Gems instead.

We’ll use Bac-Zec and Yul-Qax Runewords to support the build.

Bac-Zec will passively reduce the cooldown of Cataclysm, allowing us to skip over the Calm Before the Storm Spirit Boon.

Yul-Que will give us higher uptime on our Earthen Bulwark, keeping us protected by a Barrier, and allowing us to hold the manual cast for emergencies.

Spirit Boons

Druid’s Spirit Boons grant them additional passive effects in combat that can improve most builds. This build uses the following Boons: Wariness, Scythe Talons, Avian Wrath, Packleader, and Overload.

Deer’s Wariness is a great defensive Boon, and one run by nearly every Druid build. Scythe Talons and Avian Wrath from the Eagle offer us some much-needed Critical Strike Chance and Damage which gets passed down to our Companions. The last one we care about is Wolf’s Packleader, which gives us a chance to reset our Companion Skills on Critical Strike. We use Snake’s Overload to give our companions a bit of extra AoE damage, as despite having the Storm Magic tag on them, our companions will be unable to trigger Calm Before the Storm.

Aspects

We’ll cover the Aspects recommended for maximizing the build’s potential. The Ideal Stats section above lists the recommended slots for these, but they can be arranged however necessary except for ones placed in 2H Weapons or Amulets.

Shepard’s Aspect

Shepard’s Aspect is the strongest boost we have available to this build, giving up to a x26% Damage bonus per Companion when slotted in a 2H Weapon. With the Aspect of the Stampede and One with Nature, we’ll have a total of 12 companions, making this by far our largest damage boost.

Nighthowler’s Aspect

Nighthowler’s Aspect allows us to apply the effects of Blood Howl to our Companions, healing them and boosting their Attack Speed. Since our Wolves pretty heavily rely on Attack Speed for their damage, this is a great way to give them a boost alongside Tempered Affixes.

Aspect of Mending Stone

Aspect of Mending Stone extends the maximum duration of Earthen Bulwark. This is useful to have more uptime on the Barrier. This also allows our Skills to replenish Barrier per enemy defeated, making it overall a consistent defensive skill for most content.

Spirit Bond Aspect

Spirit Bond grants us Damage REduction by passing a portion of incoming damage to our Companions. This will also make our Wolves unable to be killed, so it’s great quality of life too.

Aspect of Disobedience

The Aspect of Disobedience helps with any Armor issues we may have. With our Poison Creeper (and Aspect of the Alpha’s Werewolves) constantly keeping enemies Poisoned, this will remain a very consistent bonus for us to take advantage of until we start getting unique and have to drop it.

Aspect of the Alpha

The Aspect of the Alpha is an extremely potent upgrade for our Wolves, turning them into Werewolves (granting the Werewolf Skill Tag) that can also inflict Poisoning with Rabies. If you want to focus purely on Wolves, this is a good option to place in your Amulet over Aspect of the Stampede.

Aspect of the Stampede

This powerful Aspect grants an additional companion of each type, meaning we’ll have 3 Poison Creepers, 5 Ravens, and 4 Wolves in total. Additionally, they all deal more damage, making this a must-have for the build. The damage bonus is pretty good and worth boosting.

Aspect of the Rushing Wilds

Aspect of the Rushing Wilds is a great Aspect, giving us a ton of mobility just for using our Companion Skills. With how often we can use the active skill of our Wolves, we’ll have high uptime on it as long as we have something to target.

Stormcrow’s Aspect

Stormcrow’s Aspect converts our Ravens’ Damage to Lightning and increases their damage. It also condenses the active skill damage into a shorter window while also stunning enemies. This also grants them the Nature Magic Skill Tag, allowing them to scale with bonuses to Nature Magic.

Alongside Storm’s Companion, this allows the build to more effectively scale with Lightning Damage increases which opens some extra possibilities for Paragon choices going into the late game.

Unique Items

We’re only going to talk about the few that offer the strongest effects on the build. While others help, these are the ones you want to slot into your build if you get the chance. These will become available starting in World Tier 3.

Storm’s Companion

With much of our consistent damage coming from Wolves or Werewolves, Storm’s Companion is a great way to buff them and allow for more frequent use of their active skills thanks to the Lucky Hit Chance for Packleader added in Season 5.

This unique Item also grants them the Storm and Nature Magic Skill Tags, allowing them to scale with bonuses to those.

To learn how to maximize your damage in Diablo 4, check out our dedicated guide. It breaks down all of the ways to scale your Damage, including getting the biggest numbers possible, and what factors play into achieving that.

This concludes our guide to the Druid Leveling Build in Diablo 4. Check out more Diablo 4 Builds here on VULKK.com.

Check out our Endgame Storm Druid Build guide. It focuses on a post-campaign Endgame Tornado build that functions without too many Aspects, but becomes much more potent with the completed build!