This Druid build for Diablo 4 uses Pulverize to dish out high damage with strong Overpowering hits to defeat enemies very quickly.
This guide is up-to-date for Season 4 and Patch 1.4.0.
Check our Diablo 4 Builds Catalog of uniquely crafted builds for each class.
This Druid build guide assumes you’re at least level 50 and have completed enough of your Renown to have gained the 10 additional Skill Points available.
If you want a great leveling build to reach this point with, try our Friends of the Forest Druid Leveling Build – a Companion-focused Druid that works well into the midgame. If you want to level up as a Pulverize Druid, at the end of this guide, we have a leveling section showing you how to develop a new character from level 1 with this build.
Build Overview
The star of this build is Pulverize, which works incredibly well early-game with the Druid’s multiple sources of guaranteed Overpower. The many Aspects that work with this build also allow it to transition into a late-game powerhouse of a build. Ultimately Pulverize will be supported by three extremely powerful Unique items as well as the Petrify Ultimate Skill for high burst potential.
While Pulverize handles the offensive part of the build by itself, it’s supported by Blood Howl and Debilitating Roar for the many defensive benefits they provide.
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 skill point distribution.
Skills
These are the main skills for the build. We’ll explain what purpose each serves and how they fit the build
Wind Shear
Wind Shear is used even at endgame with this build, as we can use Fierce Wind Shear to grant bonus Movement Speed, which Werebear builds often lack. Additionally, it lets us make reliable use of the Aspect of Natural Balance.
Pulverize
Pulverize is our Main damage skill, which very heavy emphasis on Overpowering. Not only does it have its own guaranteed Overpower effect, the Aspect of Ursine Horror allows it to also make use of the Snake’s Obsidian Slam Spirit Boon for a second guaranteed Overpower.
Blood Howl
Blood Howl is a great skill that will not only heal us, but also restore a portion of our Spirit, making it very helpful while leveling.
Debilitating Roar
Debilitating Roar is a powerful defensive skill that will heavily reduce damage dealt by enemies, while also Slowing them and Fortifying us.
Trample
Trample is a great skill as it gives us mobility while also granting us Unstoppable and restoring some of our Spirit in the process.
Petrify
This is our Ultimate skill which will lock enemies in place and increase our Critical Strike Damage dealt, which helps to increase our burst potential when using Banished Lord’s Talisman in the end-game.
Passives
Here we’re only going to talk about the main passives we absolutely want as well as our Key passive. There are unfortunately a couple we will need to take to get access to these though.
Key Passive – Ursine Strength
This grants us a sizable boost to our Maximum Life while in Werebear Form. In addition to that we get a multiplicative bonus to our Damage and Overpower damage while Healthy. All of these come together to really make our Overpowers hit hard.
Wild Impulses
Wild Impulses grants us a multiplicative damage bonus to our Core Skills (like Pulverize) at the cost of increasing their Spirit Cost. We’re able to offset this fairly easily by using cooldowns to help generate spirit quicker.
Predatory Instincts
While Pulverize does hit at range with the Shockwave Aspect, Predatory Instincts will make it more likely to Critically Strike enemies that are close to us.
Iron Fur
Iron Fur increases our damage reduction while in Werebear Form. Since we’ll end up using Insatiable Fury, we’ll always have this active save for the brief moments we use Wind Shear.
Vigilance
Vigilance increases our damage reduction for a short time after using a Defensive Skill. With Blood Howl and Debilitating Roar being used fairly often, we’ll have a pretty high uptime on this.
Crushing Earth
Crushing Earth increases our Earth Skill Damage against Slowed, Stunned, Immobilized, or Knocked-back enemies. With Debilitating Roar’s Slow and Petrify’s Stun, we’ll have easy access to this bonus when we need it.
Stone Guard
Stone Guard grants a multiplicative damage bonus to Earth Skill Damage when Fortified for more than 50% of our Maximum Life. We generate Fortify very quickly thanks to various effects, meaning this will be active more often than not.
Provocation
Provocation grants a guaranteed Overpower after being in Werebear form for a set duration. Thanks to Insatiable Fury, this timer will count up constantly outside of the brief moment we use Wind Shear.
Defiance
Defiance grants us a multiplicative damage bonus to Elite enemies when using Nature Magic. With the Aspect of Ursine Horror, Pulverize will be able to benefit from this as well.
Natural Disaster
Natural Disaster grants another multiplicative Earth Skill Damage bonus against Vulnerable enemies. Thanks to the Exploit Paragon Glyph, this will be everything we hit, save for anything that can survive a Pulverize or two.
Resonance
Resonance grants a multiplicative damage bonus to Nature magic which triples in strength when an Earth Skill is cast after a Storm Skill, or vice versa. This allows Wind Shear to also be a buff to Pulvierize, though used only during burst windows.
Skill Point Distribution: Where to Assign Your Skill Points
This is an easy-to-reference table for where we’ll be placing all of our Skill points. These are listed in the order they appear on the skill tree.
| Icon | Skill Name | Skill Tree | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wind Shear | Basic | 1 |
| Enhanced Wind Shear | Basic | 1 |
| Fierce Wind Shear | Basic | 1 |
| Pulverize | Core | 5 |
| Enhanced Pulverize | Core | 1 |
| Primal Pulverize | Core | 1 |
| Heart of the Wild | Core | 1 |
| Wild Impulses | Core | 3 |
| Predatory Instincts | Core | 3 |
| Iron Fur | Core | 3 |
| Blood Howl | Defensive | 1 |
| Enhanced Blood Howl | Defensive | 1 |
| Innate Blood Howl | Defensive | 1 |
| Debilitating Roar | Defensive | 1 |
| Enhanced Debilitating Roar | Defensive | 1 |
| Innate Debilitating Roar | Defensive | 1 |
| Ancestral Fortitude | Defensive | 2 |
| Vigilance | Defensive | 3 |
| Trample | Wrath | 1 |
| Enhanced Trample | Wrath | 1 |
| Savage Trample | Wrath | 1 |
| Crushing Earth | Wrath | 3 |
| Safeguard | Wrath | 1 |
| Stone Guard | Wrath | 3 |
| Mending | Wrath | 1 |
| Provocation | Wrath | 3 |
| Petrify | Ultimate | 1 |
| Prime Petrify | Ultimate | 1 |
| Defiance | Ultimate | 3 |
| Circle of Life | Ultimate | 1 |
| Natural Disaster | Ultimate | 3 |
| Resonance | Ultimate | 3 |
| Ursine Strength | Key Passive | 1 |
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
This build uses a Staff as its weapon of choice. This allows us to boost our main damage Aspect greatly, as well as pick up huge bonuses to our stats
Ideal Stats
The table below details the ideal stats for our gear, be on the lookout for gear that matches at least three of the four rolls below.
Due to the width of the table, we highly recommend mobile users rotate their devices to view it properly.
| Slot | Stat 1 | Stat 2 | Stat 3 | Stat 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Damage against Crowd Controlled | Core Skill Damage | Willpower | All Stats |
| Helm | Cooldown Reduction | Maximum Life | Total Armor | Willpower |
| Chest (until Fury) | Maximum Life | Damage Reduction | Total Armor | Resistance |
| Gloves | Critical Strike Chance | Ranks to Pulverize | Willpower | Attack Speed |
| Pants (until Tibault) | Maximum Life | Damage Reduction | Total Armor in Werebear Form | Resistance |
| Boots | Movement Speed | Resistance | Resistance | Resistance |
| Amulet (Until Talisman) | Cooldown Reduction | Ranks to Stone Guard | Movement Speed | Resource Cost Reduction |
| Rings | Critical Strike Chance | Maximum Life | Resource Generation | Physical Damage |
Recommended Gems
This build uses Rubies in our Weapons, Rubies in our Armor, and Diamonds in Jewelry.
We opt for Rubies in our Weapons as they grant Overpower Damage, and being an Overpower-focused build generally means we want to get this where we can.
We use Rubies in our Armor, as increasing Maximum Life also increases our Fortify cap as well as our Overpower Damage.
We go with Diamonds for Our Jewelry as Resistances are worth capping out on, giving us an effective 70%+ damage reduction to all elemental damage. We can swap these to specific resistance gems as we cap them with gear or paragon.
Vampiric Powers
During the Season of Blood, we’ll have access to Vampiric Powers, which allow us to slot up to five unique powers into our Sanguine Circle to increase the power of the build. We’ll include more than the maximum in the selection below to offer alternatives, but they will be listed in order of their relative strength.
| Name | Effect | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Boil | Periodically grants a guaranteed Overpower. Core Skills that overpower create Volatile Blod Drops, that explode for physical damage on pick up. | This grants another guaranteed source of Overpower, making them very consistent. |
| Metamorphosis | When you evade, turn into a cloud of bats and gain Unstoppable for a short duration. Enemies you evade though take Physical damage and are afflicted with Vampiric Curse. | This allows us to make more frequent use of Tibault’s Will, while giving us nearly 100% uptime on Unstoppable. |
| Sanguine Brace | Defeating Enemies grants Fortify. When Fortify is greater than 50% Maximum Life, gain Critical Strike Chance. | Allows for very quick Fortify building. The additional Critical Strike Chance also works well with Banished Lord’s Talisman |
| Prey on the Weak | Increases Vulnerable Damage. Enemies afflicted with Vampiric Curse are also afflicted with Vulnerable. | Boosts the Vulnerable applied with Exploit Glyph as well as allows Meta Morphosis to apply Vulnerable. |
| Resilience | Gain Damage Reduction based on Missing life. | Great defensive power that works well while mobbing. |
| Undying | Heal for a portion of Maximum Life when casting Skills. | This allows us to make more frequent use of Tibault’s Will while giving us nearly 100% uptime on Unstoppable. |
| Hemomancy | Deal AoE Physical Damage that scales with maximum Life when casting a skill. Heal for a small amount for each enemy hit this way. | The build stacks Life and can very easily make good use of this effect. It’s great burst healing while mobbing. |
Spirit Boons
Spirit Boons help the build out a lot, letting us choose up to 5 bonuses from different Animal Spirits. This build uses Wariness, Scythe Talons, Iron Feather, Bolster, and Obsidian Slam.
From the Deer, we take Wariness. This is the best defensive Spirit Boon available, while we give up nothing thanks to the Deer’s other Boon being a fair bit weaker.
From the Eagle we’ll take Scythe Talons and Iron Feather. Scythe Talons boost our Critical Strike Chance allowing us to more frequently get value out of Banished Lord’s Taliman. Iron Feather Increases our Life, which indirectly increases our Fortify value as well as our Overpower Damage.
From the Wolf, we’ll take Bolster. This helps ensure we stay at high Fortify, which indirectly contribues to our Overpower Damage in doing so.
Finally, from the Snake we’ll take Obsidian Slam. This allows us to Overpower very frequently, especially with the Shockwave Aspect helping to defeat several enemies at once.
Aspects
We’ll cover the Aspects that are recommended for maximizing the potential of the build. We’ll also suggest which gear slot you should look to place them in.
Aspects marked with an asterisk (*) are temporary Aspects used until Unique Items fill their role or slot.
Shockwave Aspect
Shockwave allows Pulverize to create shockwaves that deal up to 100% of its damage in an area in front of the slam.
We’ll Place this on our Staff. This doubles the effect making the Shockwave deal twice the damage of our initial Pulverize.
Aspect of the Ursine Horror
Ursine Horror makes Pulverize an Earth Skill and makes it leave an AoE that deals Damage over Time in the impact area. We only care about Pulverzie being considered an Earth Skill from this, but the extra damage can be nice for a single target.
We’ll place this in one of our Rings. Since we use a 2H weapon, aspect space is a little tighter than expected.
Aspect of Natural Balance
Natural Balance increases the Critical Strike Damage of Earth Skill after casting a Storm Skill, or the Critical Strike Chance of Storm Skills after casting an Earth Skill. This allows Wind Shear to give a solid boost to Pulverize late game.
We’ll place this in one of our Rings. It’ll take the place of Umbral once we acquire Tibault’s Will.
Aspect of Retaliation
Retaliation increases the damage of our Core Skill based on our Fortify amount. We build Fortify quickly allowing this to have its maximum effect very easily.
We’ll place this in our Amulet. It’ll be nice to boost this effect until we get Banished Lord’s Talisman, where we’ll swap it to our gloves.
Aspect of the Umbral*
Umbral restores a bit of Spirit for each enemy we crowd Control. We’ll combine this with the Quicksand Aspect and Aspect of the Ursine Horror to allow Pulverize to slow everything we hit.
We’ll place this on one of our Rings. This will be great for our overall Spirit sustain until we get Tibault’s where it’s no longer needed.
Aspect of Quicksand*
Quicksand allows Earth Skills to Slow all enemies hit. We use this in combination with the Aspect of the Umbral to allow Pulverize to recoup some of its initial Spirit costs.
We’ll place this in our Gloves. We’ll eventually drop this in favor of keeping Retaliation and move it here instead once we get the Banished Lord’s Talisman.
Exploiter’s Aspect*
Exploiter is a great pairing with the Aspect of Quicksand, Debilitating Roar, and Petrify to make them last longer. If enemies become Unstoppable, we’ll also be able to finish them off faster.
We’ll place this in our Chest. This means we’ll drop it once we acquire Insatiable Fury, which gives us more damage overall.
Ghostwalker Aspect
Ghostwalker grants Movement Speed while we’re Unstoppable and a short duration after. We’ll be triggering this often enough with Trample. During Season 2, using the Metamorphosis power will also trigger this making it even more consistent.
Aspect of Disobedience
Disobedience grants us increased Armor through a stacking effect for each hit we deal. This will be stacked quickly thanks to the Shockwave Aspect and Aspect of Ursine Horror.
We’ll place this in our Helmet, so we don’t have to move it later.
Aspect of Might*
Might grant damage reduction for a short duration when using a Basic Skill. We’ll be able to maintain this with Wind Shear in the situations that we need it.
We’ll place this in our Pants. This means we’ll drop it entirely when we acquire Tiabault’s Will.
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 drop starting in Tier 3 content, but decent upgrades for the build once you get them.
Insatiable Fury
Insatiable Fury has a ton of great stats for our build and even boosts the Ranks of our Werebear Skills. But more importantly allow us to stay in Werebear Form as our default, which lets Provocation charge up outside of combat.
Tibault’s Will
Tibault’s Will works extremely well alongside Trample to activate its effects. Each time we Trample, we’ll recover all of our Spirit thanks to our Resource Generation on our Rings, but also gain a damage boost for a short duration.
Banished Lord’s Talisman
Banish Lord’s Talisman not only grants us some great stats, but another source of guaranteed Overpower, bringing us to a total of 4. (5 including the Blood Boil Vampiric Power.) On top of this, When our Overpowers Critically Strike, they’ll deal up to x120% increased damage for extremely hard hits.
Paragon Boards and Glyphs
These two endgame options are part of the Paragon System which is available starting at level 50.
Paragon Boards
Paragon Boards are a feature that becomes available at level 50. These boards allow us to spend the Paragon points we earn for leveling and Renown to strengthen our character. Each of these has a single Glyph Slot to place a glyph of our Choice.
Starter Board
Like all starter boards, this one offers generic damage and defenses.
We’ll path up the left side through Tenacity to our Glyph Node, then continue up the left side through Impel and head to the next board. We’ll also grab the Dexrity leading up to Resolve for our glyph. We can also come back later on to grab most of the Prime cluster by connecting it to our main path
Inner Beast
Inner Beast helps to offset a bit of Pulverize’s initial cost, especially when using Wind Shear occasionally to boost it further. This board also offers a lot of great offensive and defensive bonuses as well.
We’ll rotate this board so the Glyph Node is closest to the bottom. We’ll path up the right side of the board to our Glyph Node, grabbing Intelligence for it as we can. Then we’ll grab Shapeshifter for the nearby Intelligence node and the Willpower it offers as well as the Determination cluster for its intelligence.
Then we’ll path up to the Tenacity cluster, taking the full thing for its defensive bonuses. We’ll split off a path to the right gate for later boards, before continuing to head up and wrap around to Inner Beast. Then from the middle of this path, we’ll head through the top gate, pathing through the Havoc cluster grabbing only the Critical Strike nodes.
Ancestral Guidance
Ancestral Guidance boosts our damage after we spend a certain amount of Spirit, which provides a great damage boost for the build. Additionally, we get a lot of Core Skill damage and some nice defense and utility nodes here as well.
We’ll rotate this board so that Ancestral Guidance is in the upper right. We’ll path to our Glyph Node while pathing between it and the Spiritual Power cluster. We’ll pick up the Resolve cluster, its Dexterity, as well as the Dexterity along our path to our Glyph Node. Then we’ll take the Core Skill Damage offer by the Harmony cluster.
From our previous path, we’ll head up and take Spiritual Power before making our way up to Reclamation. Then we’ll head over to Ancestral Guidance and pick that up before returning to the right gate of Inner Beast for our next board.
Earthen Devastation
Earthen Devstation is the reason we opt for Damage to Crowd Controlled as an affix on our Staff, bonus is capped between the staff and this paragon board.
We’ll rotate this board so that Oppress is in the upper left of the board. We’ll path up to Oppress, picking up the Damage to Crowd Controlled nodes. Then we’ll drop down and pick up Earthen Devastation, before continuing the earlier path through Resolve to our Glyph Node. Then we’ll path through the Willpower nodes for our glyph down to Earthen Power before heading out the right side gate.
Survival Instincts
Survival Instincts is a great damage boost for the build, making pulverize deal more damage to targets with higher or lower Life than us. We’ll also get some great defensive nodes from this board.
We’ll rotate this board so that Bulwark is in the upper left of the board. We’ll path straight to our Glyph Node first by pathing through the Battleworn Hide cluster and grabbing the very nearby Dexterity nodes for our glyph. Then we’ll head up to Survival Instincts, before pathing through the Bulwark Cluster on out way to the top gate.
Constricting Tendrils
Constricting Tendrils is a board that enables us to use the last bit of our remaining point to get an additional glyph. As a bonus, we’ll get some extra Maximum Life and nature Magic Damage in the process.
Rotate the board so that the Gylph Node is in the lower left. We’ll path straight to the Glyph Node, taking as much Willpower as we can along the way. Then we’ll grab the Maximum Life from the Courage cluster as well as the Nature Magic Damage from the Nature’s Will cluster. Finally, we’ll need the Willpower node directly above the Glyph Node to fully activate our Glyph.
Glyphs
Each of our Paragon Boards has a Glyph Slot, where we can socket one of our Glyphs. These Glyphs provide powerful bonuses that can be leveled up by completing Nightmare Dungeons to increase their power. Below are the Glyphs we recommend and what board to place them on.
All Glyphs listed below are used at level 15 minimum unless mentioned otherwise.
Shapeshifter
Shapeshifter increases the bonuses of all Rare Nodes in range, which in our case means a ton of Willpower and bonuses to Damage and Elemental Resistances. With 25 Dexterity allocated in range, our attacks that cause us to shapeshift will have a 20% increase Critical Strike Chance.
We’ll place this in our Starter Board. Our starter board has a very convenient line of Dexterity nodes leading to a great defensive rare node which makes it worthwhile to place here.
Dominate
Dominate increases our Overpower Damage for every 5 Intelligence allocated in range. With 25 intelligence allocated in range, Overpowering an enemy will cause them to take increased damage for a short duration.
We’ll place this in the Inner Beast board. It has plenty of accessible Intelligence thanks to the Determination cluster.
Outmatch
Outmatch increases the effects of all Rare nodes in range, which in this case will means a ton of Core Skill Damage, Elemental Resistance, and of course Willpower. With 25 Dexterity allocated in range, we’ll deal increased Physical damage to Non-Elites and Bosses.
We’ll place this in the Ancestral Guidance board. It’s able to very easily meet the Dexterity requirement thanks to the Resolve cluster.
Werebear
Werebear increases our damage while in Werebear form for every 5 Willpower allocated in range. With 40 Willpower allocated in range, we’ll take reduced damage in Werebear form.
We’ll place this in the Earthen Devstation board. Since we path through both Rare nodes here it makes it extremely easily to reach 40 Willpower without going out of our way to do so.
Exploit
Exploit increases Vulnerable Damage for every 5 Dexterity allocated in range. With 25 Dexterity allocated in range, the first hit against an enemy will make them Vulnerable for a short duration.
We’ll place this in the Survival Instincts board. This board has a nice group of Dexterity nodes right near our Glyph Node to easily activate the full glyph.
Earth and Sky
Earth and Sky increases the effects of all Magic Nodes in range, in this case granting bonuses to Nature Magic Damage and Maximum Life. With 40 Willpower allocated in range, Nature Magic Skill will deal increased damage to Crowd Controlled or Vulnerable enemies.
We’ll place this in the Constricting Tendrils board. This gives us the most benefit while also being easy to activate thanks to the very nearby clusters and Willpower nodes.
Leveling Order
If you want to play this build from level 1, the next segment of this build guide is for you. Below you will see the exact leveling order in which you should acquire your skills and passives to maximize damage and overall performance.
| Levels | Icon | Skill | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-4 | | Wind Shear | Upgrade to Fierce Wind Shear for Movement Speed. |
| 5-7 | | Pulverize | Upgrade to Raging for early synergy with Umbral Aspect. |
| 8-10 | | Blood Howl | Upgrade to Innate Blood Howl for Spirit Generation. |
| 11-13 | | Debilitating Roar | Upgrade to Innate Debilitating Roar for Slow, which also allows it to trigger Umbral Aspect during leveling. |
| 14 | | Heart of the Wild | Taken to reach Wild Impulses. |
| 15-17 | | Wild Impulses | Increases Pulverize damage, but increases its Sprit Cost. |
| 18-20 | | Trample | Upgrade to Savage Trample for Spirit Generation. |
| 21-24 | | Pulverize | Fully Level main skill for increased damage. |
| 25-27 | | Petrify | Ultimate Skill, Full upgrade for Spirit Generation. Unspec Supreme Petrify after getting Tibault’s Will. |
| 28-30 | | Defiance | Great Damage boost while using Aspect of Ursine Horror. |
| 31 | | Circle of Life | Small bit of healing with each cast of Pulverize with Ursine Horror equipped |
| 32-34 | | Resonance | Another Damage boost that requires Ursine Horror. |
| 35 | | Ursine Strength | Key Passive, provides a huge damage boost for the build. |
| 36 | | Mending | Taken to reach Provocation. |
| 37-39 | | Provocation | A third source of guaranteed Overpower. |
| 40-42 | | Crushing Earth | Increased damage for Pulverize. |
| 43 | | Safeguard | Fortify with Critical Strikes. |
| 44-46 | | Stone Guard | Increased damage while at least 50% of Maximum Life is Fortified. |
| 47 | | Ancestral Fortitude | Taken to reach Vigilance. |
| 48-R1 | | Vigilance | Consistent Damage Reduction from Defensive Skills. |
| R2-R4 | | Predatory Instincts | Increased Critical Strike Chance vs Close. |
| R5-R7 | | Iron Fur | Increased Damage Reduction in Werebear Form. |
| R8-R10 | | Natural Disaster | Increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. |
| Respec | | Ancestral Fortitude | Move point from Supreme Petrify to Ancestral Fortitude for more Elemental Resistance |
This concludes our Diablo 4 Druid Build focusing on the Pulverize skill. You can find moreleveling and endgame Diablo 4 buildshere on VULKK.com to try new things with your characters and spice up your gameplay.
To learnhow to maximize your damage in Diablo 4, consult with our guide on that topic. Learning how to deal the highest possible damage with your build is crucial to succeeding in the Endgame and highest tiers.
