Diablo 4: Best Druid Leveling Build [Skills & Gear]

For the early stages of the game, Druid will undergo a bit of inactive behavior, but as the game progresses, we will observe that this class gets a massive jump along with the companions. With that said, here are my personal picks for the Druid leveling build.

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Key Takeaways

The Druid is highly effective because it has variety in the skill tree, a great tank, and dishes out damage. 

• Best Leveling Build Highlights:
  • Pulverize Skill: Emphasizes this skill for area-of-effect damage in the melee range.
  • Support Tools: Incorporates Maul for resource generation, Earthen Bulwark for protection, and Poison Creeper for continuous damage.
  • Strategic Abilities: Utilizes Grizzly Rage for increased DPS and damage reduction and Trample for improved mobility.
• Leveling Progression:
  • Early Levels: Focus on storm strike, then transition to pulverize for effective damage.
  • Mid-Levels: Introduce Earthen Bulwark for protection and Poison Creeper for crowd control.
  • Bear Form Enhancement: Refine bear forms by transitioning from Storm Strike to Maul, introducing Trample for mobility, and unlocking Grizzly Rage.
  • Ursine Strength and Beyond: Leveling prioritizes Ursine Strength for damage bonuses, followed by enhancements to pulverize damage.
• Gear and Stat Priority:
  • Weapon Choice: Opt for two-handed weapons with high damage or those with the highest DPS and significant core damage.
  • Armor Focus: Prioritize defense in armor, considering cooldown reduction and movement speed.
  • Jewelry Optimization: Choose jewelry that boosts damage, spirit, and physical damage against slowed enemies.
• Codex of Power and Legendary Aspects:
  • Aspect Prioritization: Seek legendary aspects like Aspect of Retaliation, Quicksand, and Aspect of Horror for optimal build enhancements.
  • Legendary Upgrades: Look for Shockwave Aspect, Rampaging Aspect, and Conceited Aspect to complement the Pulverizer build

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Best Skills For Druid Class

The build’s core and primes focus on Pulverize, a concentrated area of effect (AOE) that applies damage to a small circular area in the Druid’s melee range. So, getting things started, first, we will discuss the general skills you will use for the leveling build for Druid in Diablo 4.

Pulverize

Pulverize should be your primary focus because it shape-shifts into a Werebear and slams into the ground, causing 50 percent damage to nearby enemies. 

Shockwave Aspect

As discussed earlier, you will also come through the shockwave aspect during the leveling process. As a result, the Pulverized aspect creates a shock that propagates forward, damaging the enemy that crosses its forward path multiple times.

I cannot say enough how important this Aspect became to my overall Druid build.

Maul

Maul should also be added to your list because it acts like a resource generation tool that restores the losses from spamming Pulverize and greatly helps spirit management.

This also helps in utilizing the maximum ability of the procs.

Earthen Bulwark

The Earthen Bulwark acts as a protective tool for the druid class. This tool comes in very handy because of its sizable absorption of damage.

I was often surrounded by a massive crowd of enemies with a cooldown on Pulverize, and this skill saved my life. This protective cover can further be enhanced if you get the improved Earthen Bulwark, which makes you unstoppable when active. 

Poison Creeper

The Poison Creeper aims to inflict damage to enemies after regular intervals in a circular area built around your Druid.

It inflicts damage over time but proves very effective when it comes to crowd control, and the practice should be to apply it regularly or from time to time.

Grizzly Rage

For the best druid leveling build, we have Grizzly Rage. This tool will step up your game while active, increasing damage reduction and giving you additional DPS.

Primarily, it will provide a 20 percent damage reduction and 20 percent bonus damage to enemies. Remember to use this effectively because it has a large cooldown of 50 seconds.

Trample

With a cooldown of 14 seconds, its movement skill is efficient in a build like this one.

This tool has some extra utility to overcome its cooldown, such as being unstoppable while active and applying more significant damage to enemies once you get the enhanced trample mode.

Level Building

Now that you have learned all the skill sets for the Druid, we will walk you along how to level up during the skill build.

Level 2-3

For levels 2 to 3, you will get the first two skill points and spend those skill points in the basic skills section. This would be done to reach the core skills and to get the build we are looking for, so we will have to go through some temporary choices.

The first choice that we would go by is the storm strike. It has a cooldown of 14 seconds, and its purpose is to intermix damage reduction and spirit generation in one go.

So, in level 2, we have a Storm Strike; we get an enhanced one for level three.

Levels 4-7

We will focus on Pulverizing as we move the game from levels 4 to 7. Your primary goal should focus on more and more damage as per the spirit spent with it, as it has an enormous resource cost—every hit counts.

It would be best if you crowded yourself with enemies and then used a good amount of Pulverize to demolish them.

Using Storm Strike along with Pulverize will put enemies in a vulnerable state. 

So, for level 4, take Pulverize; for level 5, take Enhanced Pulverize. For level 6, take Fierce Storm Strike; for level seven, take Primal Pulverize.

Levels 8-17

From levels 8 to 17 in the game, the boons in the druid class become available for usage. Another druid staple that also gets into the list is the Earthen Bulwark.

This staple grants you a lot of health-based damage absorption with a cooldown of 16 seconds. Its protective layer is enhanced if we pick up the improved Earthen Bulwark. It is unstoppable and provides additional damage reduction in the fortified stage.

Level	Staple
Level 8	Pulverize
Level 9	Pulverize
Level 10	Pulverize
Level 11	Pulverize
Level 12	Earthen Bulwark
Level 13	enhanced Earthen Bulwark
Level 14	preserving earthen bulwark
Level 15	Heart of the Wild
Level 16	abundance
Level 17	abundance

Level 8-17 progression table.

Levels 18-27

 For these levels, your primary focus should be to refine the bear forms. For these levels, the technique you should opt for is to refund the points from the storm strike and go for the Maul.

This change is necessary because you are primarily in bear form, and the most effective staple for it is Maul.

You also get trample during these levels, your go-to mobility tool. You also get a grizzly bear for inflicting heavy damage and provocation, granting you an overpower for the next strike after spending 30 seconds in Werebear form.

In a nutshell:

Levels	Staple
Level 18	Trample
Level 19	Mending
Level 20	provocation
Level 21	Provocation
Level 22	provocation
Level 23	Abundance
Level 24	Poison Creeper
Level 25	Grizzly Rage
Level 26	Prime Grizzly Rage
Level 27	Supreme Grizzly Rage

Level 18-27 progression table. 

Levels 28-49

Now we proceed to Capstone Passive, ramping up and building towards the Strength.

The first half of our leveling will be focused on the Ursine strength. This primarily focuses on its multiplicative damage bonus sample when referring to how this build has to stay healthy.

The second half of our journey to leveling will increase the Pulverized damage inflicted on enemies. We will convolve it to Earth Sign by using the aspect of the Ursine horror and the Element of the Quicksand.

In a nutshell:

Levels	Staple
Level 28	Wild impulse
Level 29	Wild impulse
Level 30	Wild impulse
Level 31	Predatory Instinct
Level 32	Predatory Instinct
Level 33	Predatory Instinct
Level 34	Iron Fur
Level 35	Ursine Strength
Level 36	Crushing Earth
Level 37	Crushing Earth
Level 38	Crushing Earth
Level 39	Defiance
Level 40	Defiance
Level 41	Defiance
Level 42	Stone Guard
Level 42	Stone Guard
Level 44	Stone Guard
Level 45	Iron fur
Level 46	Iron fur
Level 47	Defensive Posture
Level 48	Defensive Posture
Level 49	Defensive Posture

Level 28-49 progression table. 

Renown Skill Points

I will also mention ten extra skill points you will gather using renown. You must spend these points earned according to the outline we have laid out above. After finishing that, you will have to allocate those points with the list provided below:

Renown	Allocation
Renown 1	Safeguard
Renown 2	Safeguard
Renown 3	Safeguard
Renown 4	Enhance Trample
Renown 5	Natural Trample
Renown 6	Earthen Bulwark
Renown 7	Earthen Bulwark
Renown 8	Earthen Bulwark
Renown 9	Earthen Bulwark
Renown 10	Circle of Life

Spirit Boon System

Now, while moving towards the spirit Boon Druid system, we first look at the druids who use their unique class mechanism, and the spirit Boons are the passive buns that enhance the build of your chosen Druid.

You can choose up to five boons from the four available spirits in the gameplay. The fifth Boon will only be available when you have unlocked the four boons. Alternatively, you can only select up to one Boon per spirit.

Druidic Spirit	Boon
Snake Spirit (100)	Masochistic Boon
Eagle Spirit (25)	Scythe Talon Boon
Dear Spirit (75)	Wariness Boon
Saver 150 Druidic Experience	Swooping attacks

Gear & Stat Priority

• For your weapons, you should always opt for two-handed weapons with the highest damage rate.
• Another preference can be finding a weapon with the highest DSP on your two-handed weapon and more significant core damage.
• For your equipment, you will focus on your defense part of the strategy, and the Harlequin Crest (helm) will reduce cooldown times and add ranks to your skills.
• You will have only gloves in your equipment for offense, increasing the core damage and attack speed.
• For your jewelry, you should also opt for offense-oriented stats similar to the build you have created over the different levels.

Also note that roles are much more important than the item levels because you have limited slots, and they get filled up quickly.

• Amulet will increase damage and add 12.6 percent to your werebear skill damage and imprinted pulverize, creating a shockwave that damages enemies in your path. It also provides an increase in movement speed.
• Your rings should increase the damage to closer enemies and increase the maximum spirit by 7 percent. They should also increase the physical damage and the damage against slowed enemies.

Codex Of Power

Occultist local vendors would obtain the legendary items you collected in your Codex of Power in Diablo 4. These aspects will be managed when you complete specific dungeons throughout the sanctuary’s Overworld.

When leveling, it is highly recommended that you go with offensive aspects on your amulet rather than the weapons because of the ease of not getting replaced very frequently.

For the optimum advantage, below is the list of elemental powers in order of importance:

Power	Location	Importance
Aspect of Retaliation	sunken ruins dungeon in scosglen	High Importance
Aspect of Quicksand	Feral's Den in Scosglen	High importance
Aspect of horror	Belfry Zakara	High importance
Aspect of mending stone	sealed archives in dry steppes	Medium Importance
Rapid Aspect	Burreid Steppes	Medium Importance
Aspect of Might	Dark Ravine	Medium Importance

Druid’s Codex of Power.

Any legendary item you find will always result in a compelling upgrade and complement your build as you progress through the game. For the pulverized Druid, the best legendary aspects are:

• Shockwave aspect

It turns the AOE into a shockwave, increasing damage to enemies.

• Aspect on Rampaging

This increases the time of your grizzling range.

• Conceited Aspect

It increases the damage when the barriers are active and connects nicely with earthen bulwarks and the Aspect of Mending Stone.

My Experience With Leveling Build

Even though I was new to the Druid class, I had a great time playing with one in Diablo 4. I was surprised that this class had skills for every situation and combat. However, I do recommend focussing on the AOE side of this character. Through my experience, I found this to be the most effective way of using the Druid.

Therefore, I suggest players new to this class not be overwhelmed by many skills and follow this guide to have easy level progression with your Druid. Hopefully, the set plan helps you get further in the campaign, and if you have any suggestions or feedback, drop them down in the comments below.

More Reads:

• Diablo 4 Best Barbarian Builds.
• Diablo 4 Best Druid Build.
• Diablo 4 Necromancer Build.