Druid Leveling Guide

Map Link: Diablo 4 Interactive Map | Diablo 4 Character Skill Tree Calculator, Interactive Map, Build Planner (d4planner.io)

General tips

Do enough to get at least the +1 Skill Point Renown in each area before moving on.
Unless you are leveling in an efficient party or clearing really fast don’t even consider WT2.
Consider saving well rolled important Aspects for level 30+ to aid with the Capstone Dungeon and to help with the WT2 -> WT3 transition if you are clearing fast enough with Codex Powers.
It would seem the fastest way to level is to only get a few select Codex Powers to imprint on your Jewelry and then blast through the Campaign. Updating your armor will end up in higher survivability than keeping min roll aspects imprinted on outdated gear.
Try to stay 3 levels below the enemy for maximum XP.

Leveling Route

Act 1: Fractured Peaks

You will want to rush A1 as fast as possible, mostly only killing Elites along the way.

Act 2: Scosglen

Here you also want to mainly rush through the campaign, complete the class quest and clear a select few dungeons for their Codex Powers.

Spirit Boons

At level 15 you will get the class quest to unlock Spirit Boons in Scosglen. You can head there immediately but I don’t think it will make you much stronger. It might be smarter to let the campaign take you there. You want to unlock Obsidian Slam followed by Pack Leader and then work on unlocking all the boons in the Eagle row.

Act 3: Dry Steppes

The leveling powerspike will occur here. You will unlock some very powerful Codex Powers and also start collecting enough materials and gold to imprint them.

Act 4 +

Mounts

Mounts are locked behind the priority quest "Mount: Donan's Favor". This Quest becomes available at the start of Act IV's main story. You simply have to talk to the Stable Master in Kyovashad to receive it

Keep rushing through the campaign until you complete it. Once completed, your goal becomes to clear the lvl 45 Capstone Dungeon to unlock WT3 as fast as possible. Depending on how far away you are from being able to complete the Capstone Dungeon you might want to clear Strongholds and if that’s not enough, spam Dungeons. I don’t expect that to be necessary, especially for SC.

WT3

Your priority should be Helltides > Tree of Whispers > PvP Zone/NMD

You can prioritize Renown but I expect it to take too long to get the 20 Paragon points for it to be worth it. Stopping at +2 Skills seems like a better idea to me. Get all the good Lillith Altars (Dex, Int, Willpower, Paragon points). If you’re in a party you can split farm renown which does make it worth it. Farm all your Renown in between Helltides.

Avoid running Sacred Nightmare Dungeons, they don’t level up your glyphs much.
You should be able to complete the WT3 Capstone around levels 55-65. Moving on to WT4 as fast as possible is really beneficial because upgrading from Sacred to Ancestral items is a massive power spike.

WT4

Your priority should be Helltides + Tree of Whispers when they coincide and run NMDs.

Codex Powers

A map with all the relevant Codex Powers labeled.

Phase 1: Preparing the Landslide

At the start you can choose to level with either Pulverize or Shred depending on what you like more. I chose Shred because of how efficient it is spirit-wise and the dash it provides to rush through the A1 Campaign. Pulverize is also weak vs bosses.

Once you have Clarity you want to sometimes alternate between casting Shred and Stormstrike to gain 2/4/6 Spirit every time you shapeshift into a Human. Alternating every cast is not needed since Stormstrike would be generating 20 spirit and Shred costs 35 for the entire combo.

Skill Order

Build Template

Storm Strike
Enhanced Storm Strike
Shred
Enhanced Shred
Raging Shred
Fierce Stormstrike
Shred (Rank 2)
Shred (Rank 3)
Shred (Rank 4)
Shred (Rank 5)
Blood Howl
Enhanced Blood Howl
Poison Creeper
Wolves
Clarity
Clarity (Rank 2)
Trample
Enhanced Poison Creeper
Ferocious Poison Creeper
Clarity (Rank 3)
Enhanced Trample
Savage Trample
Predatory Instinct
Predatory Instinct (Rank 2)
Predatory Instinct (Rank 3)

Phase 2: Landslide Companions

In case it’s not that clear, if you manage to get an rng drop of Aftershock, Shockwave or Stormchaser switch to the corresponding core skill. Rest of the build stays mostly the same. If you don’t get those to drop, level with Landslide.

Somewhere around levels 20-25 you will have enough materials and gold to start imprinting Codex Powers/Aspects on your jewelry. You can opt for unlocking and imprinting more aspects if you’re playing Hardcore but I wouldn’t bother for Softcore.

With this build try to cast Wind Shear every 5 seconds or less while moving to maintain the stacking movement speed buff and generate almost free spirit since your first cast has roughly 3x the attack speed of the following ones.

Skill Order

If you’re playing solo. try to keep your Poison Creeper strong enough to one shot white mobs when cast by either leveling the skill or Call of the Wild.

https://d4builds.gg/builds/e88c5da3-422c-47f4-9d08-7efa274d1774/

Wind Shear
Enhanced Wind Shear
Landslide
Enhanced Landslide
Primal Landslide
Fierce Wind Shear
Landslide (Rank 2)
Landslide (Rank 3)
Landslide (Rank 4)
Landslide (Rank 5)
Earthen Bulwark
Poison Creeper
Enhanced Poison Creeper
Ferocious Poison Creeper
Enhanced Earthen Bulwark
Ravens
Enhanced Ravens
Brutal Ravens
Wolves
Neurotoxin
Envenom
Envenom (Rank 2)
Envenom (Rank 3)
Crushing Earth
Safeguard
Safeguard (Rank 2)
Safeguard (Rank 3)
Defiance
Circle of Life
Circle of Life (Rank 2)
Circle of Life (Rank 3)
Resonance
Resonance (Rank 2)
Ursine Strength
Resonance (Rank 3)
Stoneguard (Rank 1)
Stoneguard (Rank 2)
Stoneguard (Rank 3)
Crushing Earth (Rank 2)
Crushing Earth (Rank 3)
Defiance (Rank 2)
Defiance (Rank 3)
Natural Disaster
Natural Disaster (Rank 2)
Natural Disaster (Rank 3)
Heart of the Wild
Wild Impulses
Wild Impulses (Rank 2)
Wild Impulses (Rank 3)
Abundance
Abundance (Rank 2)
Abundance (Rank 3)
Call of the Wild
Call of the Wild (Rank 2)
Call of the Wild (Rank 3)
Enhanced Wolves
Poison Creeper (Rank 2)
Poison Creeper (Rank 3)

Improvements on the build

Alternative Builds (I don’t recommend it)

Tornado

If you manage to get a 2+ Stormchaser to drop you can swap your core skill to Tornado. Stormchaser only makes it so your Tornados don’t drift off but the target selection is still random. In order to fix that weakness, you have to also solve the build’s spirit problem to be able to cover the entire field in Tornados.

If you manage to get 2+ Umbral to drop on top of Stormchaser you will be able to clear by spamming Tornado.

Pulverize

If you manage to get a Shockwave to drop you can swap your core skill to Pulverize.

[90 - 130%] of Pulverizes damage means:
-x10% to +x30% on 1h, oh and rings.
x35% to x95% on amulet.
x80% to x160% on 2H.

As you can see, the Shockwave itself is not really that strong by itself until it’s well rolled and on your amulet. For this reason, make sure to still cast Pulverize in melee range to get the Shockwave and the original Pulverize slam to land although the actual spacing can sometimes be a little bit tricky.

Phase 3: Becoming Overpowered

Grizzly Rage

The way this ability works is that when you press it it replaces your entire skill bar with Bear/Wolf skills only with 2 open slots. I know for a fact you can have Tornado/Hurricane but it’s yet to be seen what happens when you have more than 6 Werewolf skills.

Generally get Legendary Nodes before Glyphs because we will not be running many NM Dungeons in WT3.

3 Range Glyphs

Build links labeled 3R are there because from levels 1 to 15 your glyphs will only have a radius of 3 nodes around them. Once you start leveling up your glyphs to 15 you should use the endgame builds.

Rampaging Pulverize

If you happen to have found a Shockwave Aspect, around level 40 you unlock the Rampaging Warbeast and Ursine Horror Codex Powers from the Endless Gates and Belfry Zakara dungeons in Hawezar. With those 3 you can play Baby Cocaine Bear. I don’t think the build needs much explanation; big bear breaks things. Cast Hurricane before entering Grizzly Rage.

Note: This build really picks up around lvl 60-65 I would not recommend playing this until then if you have Trampleslide Aspects

3R: Diablo 4 Druid Build · D4 Builds

Trampleslide

Hopefully, sooner rather than later, you will find Symbiotic Aspect + Aspect of Trampled Earth which alongside Aspect of the Aftershock create a very powerful build called Trampleslide. The build is focused around spamming Trample with the Trampled Earth Aspect, which summons a 6x12 board of Landslides. Whenever you proc NF by spamming Stormstrike the CD of your Earth abilities (Bulwark and Trample) get reduced. Try to use the 10 kill Overpower Boon on Pulverizes to generate Terramotes, which is the limiting factor of the build.

3R: https://d4builds.gg/builds/1b46b78d-0fff-4a1b-907d-7f13ba70dc61/

Phase 4: Endgame Builds

Cocaine Bear

Endgame: Diablo 4 Druid Build · D4 Builds

Trampleslide

Note: not really an endgame build, use only if you really like the build

3R: https://d4builds.gg/builds/1ca28728-bab2-40a0-a614-2360b6d9ad5c/

Endgame: https://d4builds.gg/builds/fac413c1-5f79-4855-9590-9e318df9c2e4/

Dire Stormwolf

Dire Stormwolf is most likely the strongest Druid build in the endgame.

The goal of the build is to have permanent uptime on Grizzly Rage: Dire Wolf which, in conjunction with Rampaging Warbeast, gives a total of x(20 + 3 per second) Dmg%, x10% stacking Critical Damage per Critical Strike, 37.5% Movement Speed, 75% Spirit Cost Reduction, 8% Fortify/sec and Unstoppable. This is achieved by getting CDR on gear, and using the Calamity and Calm Before The Storm Boons.

Due to the greatly reduced spirit costs from Dire Wolf in addition to Lust for Carnage and Earthen Might, the build manages to have infinite spirit while spamming Tornados.

Grab Lust for Carnage then Heightened Malice before continuing with the rest of the Paragon Board.

Offensive Endgame: https://d4builds.gg/builds/f0643376-4375-499f-91a2-4688445262e0/

Defensive Endgame: https://d4builds.gg/builds/f4139241-53d5-4d9a-958f-4b0aced06d4e/

Echo Lillith: https://d4builds.gg/builds/84d6eaad-de4b-4989-8b74-8450eb7eae4d/

Maxroll Planner: Tornado Endgame Druid - Diablo IV Character Planner (maxroll.gg)

Defensive is better for pushing high NMD

Spreadsheet for the build: Dire Stormwolf - Google Sheets