Boulder – Druid Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 11)

Build Introduction

Unleash an Avalanche to bury your enemies! Hurl Boulders at your foes, obliterating those that stand in your path. The Boulder Druid build uses the Unique Item Dolmen Stone and Aspect of Metamorphic Stone in combination to let your Boulders do massive damage in a large area around you.

This guide covers everything necessary to get started on your Boulder adventure, including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates.

Just starting on your Druid adventure? Check our Druid Leveling Guide for options on how to level, and swap to this one at Level 60.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Requirements

The following Unique Items and Legendary Aspects are required for build functionality to get started on the Boulder Druid:

Required Uniques

Dolmen Stone

Vasily’s Prayer

Required Aspects

Aspect of Metamorphic Stone

Get more info on the Unique items supporting this build in the Unique Items section.

Quick Navigation

Want to jump ahead? Find the sections you’re looking for here.

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Skill Bar for Boulder Druid

Petrify Hurricane Cyclone Armor Earthen Bulwark Claw Boulder

Boulder can also be played as a Cataclysm build! This trades off some top-end multipliers for easier gameplay without worrying about Spirit Management and can be the better option while still gearing up. Check the Variant Play section for adjustments.

Eternal players complete Renown events in each zone for additional Skill Points, while Seasonal Players engage with the Season Journey and Rank for these Skill points.

See how these Skills play in the Rotation and Gameplay section.

Druid Class Mechanic – Spirit Boons

Druids unlock powerful Spirit Boon passives, giving offerings to the animal spirits to receive their Blessing. Once fully unlocked, activate the final Boon by Spirit Bonding with one of the four animal spirits to take two passives from that row.

Make sure to check the Build Mechanics sections on Spirit Management and Hurricane Management to fine-tune making the build work for the gear level and progression of your character.

↑ Back to Navigation Table

Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

The following are the recommended Legendary Aspects, Gear Affixes, Gems, and Elixirs for the Boulder Druid.

Legendary Aspects

Gear Slots with multiple options are listed in recommended priority. Any slot with an Optional Mythic Unique or Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power to use while still leveling and gearing. Combine these with the right stat priorities.

Slot	Aspect	Unique/Legendary Power
2 Handed Polearm	Aspect of Retaliation	Your Core Skills deal up to 35-75% increased damage based on your amount of Fortify.
Head	Unique – Vasily’s Prayer Juggernaut’s Aspect	Your Earth Skills are now also Werebear skills and Fortify you for .2-.5% of your Maximum Health.
Chest	Mythic – Shroud of False DeathUnique – Insatiable Fury	If you haven’t attacked in the last 2 seconds, gain Stealth and 40% Movement Speed.
Gloves	Aspect of Metamorphic Stone	Boulder is now a Core Skill and costs 40 Spirit to cast dealing 90-130% of normal damage.
Pants	Unique – Tibault’s Will	You deal 10-20% increased damage while Unstoppable and for 5 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource.
Boots	Stormshifter’s Aspect	While Hurricane is active, gain +5 Ranks to your Shapeshifting Skills.
Amulet	Required Unique – Dolmen Stone	Casting Boulder while Hurricane is active will cause your boulders to rotate around you, up to a maximum of 10 boulders. Each rotating boulder increases their damage by 20-40%
Ring 1	Aspect of the Rabid Bear	Deal 40-80% more Poison Damage. While Shapeshifted, your direct damage is converted into Poison damage.
Ring 2	Mythic –Ring of Starless Skies Unique – Hunter’s Zenith Accelerating Aspect	Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10% for 3 seconds, up to 50%.

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

↑ Back to Navigation Table

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance, with some alternatives given. The bolded affixes are the most important targets for Greater Affixes and Masterwork Critical Increases. Check the Tempering guide and Masterworking guide for more details about these topics.

Slot	Gearing Affixes	Tempering Affixes
2 Handed Polearm – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Max Life Resource Cost Reduction Critical Strike Damage	Earth Augments – Chance for Boulder Projectiles To Deal Double Damage
Helm – Unique Vasily’s Prayer	Willpower% Maximum Life Armor Ranks to Defensive Posture
Chest – MythicShroud of False Death	All Stats Maximum Life Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth Resource Generation
Chest- Unique Insatiable Fury	Maximum Life Werebear Overpower Ursine Strength’s Bonuses Ranks to Iron Fur
Gloves – Legendary Aspect	Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Ranks to Core Skills Willpower	Nature Magic Innovation – Hurricane Duration
Pants – Unique Tibault’s Will	All Stats Maximum Life Maximum Resource Damage Reduction While Unstoppable
Pants – Legendary Aspect	Max Life Willpower Armor Resistance to All Elements Dodge Chance	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor%
Boots – Legendary Aspect	Movement Speed Ranks to Boulder Max Life Willpower Spirit Per Second	Druid Motion – Movement Speed Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit chance
Amulet – Required Unique Dolmen Stone	Movement Speed while Hurricane is active Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction Ranks to Wrath Skills Ranks to Crushing Earth
Ring – Mythic Ring of Starless Skies	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Ranks in Core Skills
Ring – Unique Hunter’s Zenith	Willpower Ranks to Predatory Instinct Ranks to Quickshift Ranks to Heightened Senses
Ring – Legendary Aspect	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Max Life Willpower	Druid Invigoration – Wrath Skills restore Resource

• Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction is the most important affix to roll high and target for Greater Affix and Mastercraft. It will help the most in maintaining Hurricane.
• Have at least one temper for Hurricane duration for easy maintenance.

After gearing, look at progression systems like Paragon next.

↑Back to Quick Navigation

Uniques and Mythic Uniques

These Unique Items are recommended or optional for the Boulder Druid

• (Required) Dolmen Stone causes Boulder to rotate around the player while Hurricane is active. It is required for this playstyle. Boulders caught in the Hurricane will do less knockback.

• Vasily’s Prayer is a strong source of Fortify and makes Boulder a Werebear skill. This enables maintenance of several strong multipliers like Quickshift and Heightened Senses.

• (Before Mythic) Insatiable Fury is a strong defensive Unique Item, and grants skill ranks to Werebear skills, including Boulder, because Vasily’s Prayer makes Boulder a Werebear Skill.

• Tibault’s Will is a reliable source of Spirit and damage boost while Unstoppable. The stats are favorable for the build.

• (Optional Quality of Life) Khassim Steppewalkers are a nice addition for Nature Magic Cooldown, Movement and Hurricane Duration from Endless Tempest ranks. They will be less damage than a good Legendary Boots with ranks in Boulder, however.

• (Before Mythic) Hunter’s Zenith provides periodic Critical Overpowers.

• (Optional Playstyle) Airidah’s Inexorable Will can be a high quality of life option to grip enemies while doing speedfarming or trivial content. Mastercraft the Willpower%. This can be combined with the Yom Rune for even more grips.

• (Optional Playstyle) Mjölnic Ryng can enable a Cataclysm playstyle for easier Spirit Management or smoother play, especially while still gearing up. Mastercraft ranks in Endless Tempest.

Mythic Unique Items

The Boulder Druid can benefit from the following Mythic Unique items:

• Ring of Starless Skies is a powerful Resource Cost Reduction tool and damage multiplier.

• Shroud of False Death gives +1 to all Skill Passives. This includes strong additions to Damage multipliers, Damage Reductions, Fortify Generation, and Quality of Life increases like longer Hurricane.

Check our Unique Item Target-farming guide for information on where to find everything you need.

↑Back to Quick Navigation

Gems and Runewords

The following are the recommended Gem and Runeword setups for the Boulder Druid.

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Emerald for Critical Strike Damage	Grand Sapphire for Willpower	Grand Diamond for resistance to all elements

Runewords

Use these Runeword combinations for the Boulder Druid, placed in the 2 Handed Weapon and into one Armor slot.

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Igni Xan	Igni – Gain Offering: 25. Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering. Xan – Requires: 300 Offering. Your next attack will cause your hits to be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower for 0.35 seconds. Overflow: Increased Duration
Bac Yom	Bac – Gain Offering: 50. Travel 5 Meters. Yom – Requires: 500 Offering. Overflow: Increase Stun Duration. Cooldown: 5 seconds Invoke the Druid’s Petrify Skill, Stunning enemies, restoring Primary Resource.

Runewords use a conditional Rune of Ritual to generate Offering. The Offering is consumed by the Rune of Invocation to trigger its effect. Runes replace Gems in gear with two sockets. Up to two sets of Runeword Pairs can be placed at a time.

Xan will provide even more Overpowers for our Boulders. Yom will give periodic casts of Petrify, stunning enemies, restoring resources, and applying a Critical Strike Damage Taken debuff.

Other combinations can also work well; adjust to the content you are running. These can include:

• Resource Management – Poc Lum, in combination, can give a strong Spirit Refund while still gearing and leveling.
• Farm – Yom can be combined with Airidah’s Inexorable Will during farm to make gathering easy.
• Push – Qax is a periodic damage multiplier, but Spirit management will need to be solid to use.
• Early Gearing – While leveling and gearing before legendary Runes become accessible, many Magic and Rare runewords, such as Gar for Critical Strike Chance, will be viable.

↑Back to Quick Navigation

Paragon Board

The following are the preferred Glyphs, Boards, and pathing recommended for making the most of the Boulder Druid.

The road to max Paragon is long. The above Paragon tabs show the following.

• The BASE SETUP tab spends 50 fewer points than the max 328 points, taking a stricter pathing to take almost all Legendary, Rare, and Magic Nodes, and activates all Glyph Nodes with their secondary effects.
• The FULL SETUP tab completes the paragon board in its final form, filling in the rest of the board to get the rest of the Magic and Rare Nodes, as well as giving additional additive bonuses, especially within the Glyph areas.

Glyphs have two significant breakpoint increases. At level 15, the glyph grows in radius and gains a special effect. At level 46, the glyph grows to its max radius and gains a strong conditional damage multiplier.

Glyphs are placed as if they are at least level 15+ in radius. Total Boards placed are now limited to a max of 5; the Starter Board and four Class Boards. Rotate boards as necessary.

↑Back to Quick Navigation

Season 11 Mechanics

Divine Gifts

Earn Corrupted Essences by defeating the Lesser Evils in their associated content. These Essences can be transformed into Divine Gifts by Hadriel. Divine Gifts have three aspects.

1. Increased reward in the associated content
2. A purified effect
3. A corrupted effect

Slotting an Essence into the Purified slot grants double drop rewards and a boon, while slotting an Essence into the Corrupted slot grants normal drop rewards and a curse. Upgrade these gifts by engaging with their content. Leveling these Gifts increases the drop rewards while the boon and curse stay the same.

Here is a general setup for Divine Gifts.

Helltides – Duriel

• Purified: Essence of Pain – Briefly gain maximum Barrier after becoming Injured, every 20 seconds.
• Corrupted: Essence of Squallor

World Bosses – Azmodan

• Purified: Essence of Sin – Gain 20% increased Armor.
• Corrupted: Essence of Hellfire

Kurast Undercity – Andariel

• Purified: Essence of Anguish – Gain 30% Movement Speed.
• Corrupted: Essence of Screams
• Note: If you are already move speed capped or need extra defense, swap the Andariel Gifts for a 20% Resistance boost to defense.

Belial – The Pit

• Purified: Essence of Lies – Fortify for 1% of your Maximum Life a second.
• Corrupted: Essence of Shadows

These Gifts can be freely swapped based on desired rewards. For example, swap the Belial Gifts to earn more gold while in the Pit.

Sanctification

Hadriel offers a final gamble to empower items. Use the Heavenly Forge to Sanctify the item, imbuing the item with heavenly power.

Sanctifying is the final change for an item. After Sanctifying the item, it cannot be upgraded, masterworked, tempered, or otherwise altered, including its Aspect. Runes and Gems can still be swapped.

Options that can happen include:

• Apply a bonus Legendary power
• Improve an Affix into a Greater Affix
• Add a bonus Affix from a pool of special Sanctification affixes
• Replace an existing Affix with a random Sanctification affix
• Add a random amount (5-25) of bonus Quality

Some of the jackpot desirable Sanctifications include +Ranks to All Skills, Useful Affixes like Critical Strike Chance or Attack Speed, or Offensive Generic Legendary Aspects. The potential Quality Increases will be especially strong on a weapon, increasing its DPS. Other options can ruin your item, such as replacing a necessary existing affix.

Mercenaries

Once unlocked, Mercenaries are followers that aid the Player in combat. A main mercenary is chosen to fight alongside you, granting strong buffs or perks, and a secondary Mercenary is chosen to periodically Reinforce you under a chosen Opportunity condition.

The following Mercenary options are recommended for the Boulder Druid:

Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker

• Skills: Cleave, Hysteria, Bloodthirst, Bloodlust

Reinforcement – Raheir, the Shieldbearer

• Reinforcement Ability – Crater
• Opportunity: Boulder

Hysteria and Bloodlust will both give strong Attack Speed bonuses. Other Mercenary options are also valid, such as Subo for minimap tracking, or Raheir for an Armor boost.

↑Back to Quick Navigation

Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

1. Maintain Werewolf buffs like Toxic Claws, bonus Poison damage with Claw.
2. Maintain Hurricane.
3. Cast Petrify against gathered enemies to Stun, Restore Spirit, and apply a Critical Strike Damage debuff.
4. Innate Cyclone Armor applies damage taken debuffs to enemies. This knock can be disruptive, so take care where it is used.
5. Cast Boulders, pushing against your priority enemies as they are knocked back. Up to 10 Boulders can be maintained at a time.
6. Restore Spirit with Petrify and Earthen Bulwark with Tibault’s Will.
7. As needed, filler attack with Claw.

Use Earthen Bulwark as necessary for Barrier, Fortify, and Unstoppable.

Claw and other Skills that change your Form do not need to hit enemies to gain the Shapeshifting benefits. It can often be beneficial to keybind and tap Force Hold to be able to cast in place.

Skills, Support, and Synergies

This build has lots of moving parts that come together to make a powerful storm of abilities.

Boulder is our high-damage main Skill. When Hurricane is active, Dolmen Stone causes the Boulders will revolve around the player. Aspect of Metamorphic Stone turns Boulder into a Core Skill, removes the cooldown, and adds a Spirit Cost to the skill. Keep several of these rotating around you at a time, and refresh them as they run out. Up to ten Boulder can be maintained at a time, with a damage multiplier from Dolmen Stone for each active Boulder.

Boulder is a Nature Magic Skill, and the Earth Tags will be included in anything that asks for Nature, such as Defiance. While Boulders usually do physical damage, with Savage Boulder, the boulders become Poison Damage and also apply Poisoned Condition, which makes checks like Envenom easy to maintain.

Supporting Skills

Claw is a filler Basic Attack that can help maintain Werewolf buffs like Heightened Senses, Toxic Claws. Primal Shred is an alternative option for when doing speedfarming, as long as your Spirit Management is sufficient.

Earthen Bulwark is a defensive tool for Barrier and Unstoppable.

Innate Cyclone Armor gives a small defensive passive, and the active use applies Vulnerable, Slow, and a small damage taken debuff on enemies.

There are several Shapeshifting buffs that are maintained throughout the fight. Quickshift, Heightened Senses. They are easily maintained with Claw and Boulder.

Ultimate Skill and Key Passive

The Ultimate Skill for Boulder is Petrify. This Stuns, Restores Spirit, and applies a Critical Strike Damage debuff to enemies.

Ursine Strength grants damage, Overpower multiplier, and Max Life. We have a high volume of Overpower attacks thanks to Xan and Obsidian Slam Spirit Boon.

Variant Play – Grizzly Rage and Nature’s Fury is a potential combination usable with the build. Nature’s Fury will upkeep Hurricane while you get to stay in Werebear form. We gain nice perks like permanent Unstoppable and higher total Werebear uptime for multipliers like Survival Instincts. To play into this style:

• Exchange Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt for Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast.
• Exchange Aspect of Retaliation for Aspect of the Rabid Bear.
• Exchange Ursine Strength for Nature’s Fury.
• Exchange Petrify Tempers for Grizzly Rage equivalent tempers, both for Duration and Cooldown Reduction

Variant Play

Cataclysm Ultimate

While Petrify is the default Ultimate for this build, Cataclysm can be a strong option, especially while still gearing, to easily manage Spirit. To adjust to a Cataclysm playstyle:

• Exchange ranks in Petrify for Cataclysm.
• Use Mjölnic Ryng, replacing Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt.
• Seasonal Plays can exchange Wild Transformations for Power Siphon.
• Exchange any Petrify Tempers for their equivalent Cataclysm Tempers

Spirit Management

Boulder can be a Spirit Hungry build. We have several ways we manage Spirit.

• Gift of the Stag Spirit Boon for Spirit and Spirit Per Second.
• Energize Spirit Boon to periodically restore Spirit.
• Tibault’s Will for periodic Spirit when gaining Unstoppable from Earthen Bulwark.
• Casts of Petrify Restore Spirit.
• Gear Affixes like Spirit Cost Reduction on Weapon.
• The Druid Invigoration – Wrath Skills restore Spirit is actually huge.
• Ring of Starless Skies grants up to 5 stacks of 10% Spirit Cost Reduction.

If this is not sufficient while leveling and gearing, consider using any of the following.

• Use a Cataclysm setup that includes Mjölnic Ryng.
• Use Aspect of the Umbral or Starlight Aspect for Spirit.
• Mercenary – Use Raheir’s Iron Wolf’s Call Iconic Passive for periodic free casts of Boulder.
• Remove points in Wild Impulses, placing them in Abundance, and Use Claw as an attack to build Spirit.
• Adjust Gear affixes: Resource Cost Reduction on Weapon, and Resource Generation on Rings. Spirit on Kill on weapon, or Spirit Per Second on Helm, Chest, or Boots can all be useful.
• Use Runeword setup Poc Lum for Spirit Refunds.

Hurricane Maintenance

For the Boulder Druid to play smoothly, Hurricane should have a longer duration than its cooldown. If Hurricane Uptime is not complete, any spinning Boulder will shoot out from the relative direction and be lost, spilling all the meatballs from the plate, making a mess, and the Boulder count will restart back at zero next Hurricane. This is a significant issue for maintaining gameplay momentum. There are a number of ways that we extend the duration and reduce the cooldown. Sources include:

• The Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction on Dolmen Stone is a large source for Hurricane Cooldown Reductions. Getting these Mastercrafted and Greater Affixed is significant.
• Hurricane Duration Utility Tempers on Gloves, Pants, or Boots can make the Hurricane duration longer than necessary.
• Ranks in Endless Tempest extend duration. If you need more ranks, take Skill Points from Provocation.
• Any Cooldown Reduction on gear.

Elixirs, Incense, and Health Potions

The Alchemist offers helpful consumables at the cost of foraged materials found throughout Sanctuary.

• Craft the highest available Elixir of Advantage II for Attack Speed and Lucky Hit bonuses.
• One of each Incense Category can be used, for a total of three active Incenses at a time. In priority:
  • Defensive – Reddamine Buzz for Max Life,
  • Core Stat – Blessed Guide for Willpower.
  • Resistance – Soothing Spices for All Resist, All Resist Maximum, and Armor.

↑Back to Quick Navigation

Season 11 Updates

Note that there are lots of sweeping changes to defensive systems, gearing, masterworking, tempering, and season journey. Don’t be afraid to take a couple of extra defensive choices over previous seasons to keep things smooth.

The following list details the important changes in the Season 11 Patch Updates that are specific to the Boulder Druid. For general Season 11 information, check out our Season 11 Hub.

Itemization:

• Aspect of the Rabid Bear
  • Previous: While Grizzly Rage is active, your direct damage is converted into Poison damage, you deal 40-80% more Poison damage, and you passively spread Rabies.
  • Now: Deal 40-80% more Poison Damage. While Shapeshifted, your direct damage is converted into Poison damage.
• Vasily’s Prayer – Fortify reduced from 2-5% to .2-.5% of Maximum Life.
• Mjölnic Ryng – Now restores 500 Spirit instead of fully restoring Spirit.

Skills and Stats:

• Preserving Earthen Bulwark – Fortify reduced from 18% to 10% of Maximum Life.
• Defensive Posture:
  • Previous: Increases the amount of Fortify you gain from all sources by 5% and you gain 3% Damage Reduction while Fortified.
  • Now: Increases the amount of Fortify you gain from all sources by 5%.
• Safeguard – Fortify reduced from 3% to .1% of Maximum Life.
• Stone Guard:
  • Previous: While you have Fortify for over 50% of your Maximum Life, your Earth Skills deal 4% increased damage.
  • Now: While Fortified, your Earth Skills deal 4% increased damage.
• Earthen Devastation:
  • Previous: Your Earth Skills deal 10% increased Critical Strike Damage, increased by 20% of your Damage vs Crowd Controlled bonus, up to 60%.
  • Now: Your Earth Skills deal 70% increased Critical Strike Damage.
• Sinister Tendrils:
  • Previous: Nature Magic Skills deal 35% increased damage to Poisoned enemies. Lucky Hit: Nature Magic Skills have up to a 40% chance to Poison the enemy for 800% damage over 4 seconds.
  • Now: Deal 40% increased damage to Poisoned enemies. Lucky Hit: Nature Magic Skills have up to a 40% chance to Poison the enemy for 1000% damage over 4 seconds.

↑Back to Quick Navigation

Changelog

• 6 December, 2025: Updated for Season 11 and Patch 2.5.
• 21 September, 2025: Updated for Patch 2.4 and Season 10. Seasonal Players, please note that the Season 10 Mechanics section has setups that include the seasonal Chaos Armors.
• 27 June, 2025: Updated for Patch 2.3 Season 9. Changed from a Cataclysm build to Petrify. Changes to Skill Tree, Paragon, Gearing, and Spirit Boons.
• 30 April, 2025: Changed build to Savage Boulder. Adjustments to Skill Points and Paragon nodes to account for the change.
• 24 April, 2025: Updated to the new unified format for Season 8 Patch 2.2 changes.