Cataclysm – Druid Build for Diablo 4 (Season 7)

Build Introduction

Unleash the Cataclysm to drive your enemies before a storm of Lightning Bolts and Twisters! This is an Ultimate Skill build using the Druid’s Cataclysm.

This Skill is a long-duration cast that can get large stacking layers of multipliers guaranteed throughout including:

• Xan guarantees Critical Strike and Overpower for the duration of the cast.
• Qax increases the damage of the entire Cataclysm.
• Mjölnic Ryng is a high multiplier for damage while Cataclysm is active.

New to Season 7 there’s updates that will help scale Cataclysm’s damage further. These include:

• Mjölnic Ryng‘s added effect: Cataclysm receives your Lightning Bolt benefits. This means it can scale off Lightning Bolt effects including
  • Charged Atmosphere
  • Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect
• Ancestral Guidance now increases Ultimate Damage based on Spirit when cast.

This build can be played early, but has high requirements to function smoothly in the endgame. Be sure to check the Build Requirements before diving in. Gameplay will feel similar to the Hurricane Druid.

Known Bugs:

• Some additive lightning bolt damage sources such as Lightning Bolt Tempers and Electrocution are not properly scaling Cataclysm damage.
  • Overpower additive Worldly Stability replaces the lightning bolt Storm Finesse.
  • Electrocution glyph is still taken for its working multipliers.
• Shroud of False Death is giving another instance of Calamity Spirit Boon, giving extra duration on Cataclysm 🙂

This guide covers everything necessary to get started on your Cataclysm adventure, including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates. Navigate straight to hot topics here:

Strengths and Weaknesses

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

Build Requirements

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

Required Uniques

Tempest Roar

Mjölnic Ryng

Airidah’s Inexorable Will

Required Aspects

Stormshifter’s Aspect

You will also need:

• Xan rune to guarantee Overpower and Critical strike for your Cataclysm
• Ultimate Efficiency —  Druid for Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction
• Nature Magic Innovation for Hurricane Duration, important for Stormshifter’s Aspect.

For smoothness of play, you will need enough Cataclysm duration and cooldown reduction to keep Cataclysm running. Recasts of Cataclysm before duration runs out carries several buffs into the next cast, which is high convenience. This means:

• Enough ranks in Endless Tempest from sources like Mjölnic Ryng.
• Enough Cooldown Reduction on your Ultimate Skills from sources like Airidah’s Inexorable Will and Stormshifter’s Aspect.

There’s more info on this in the Cataclysm Cooldown Management section, including extra options.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

MaulPulverizeDebilitating RoarEarthen BulwarkHurricaneCataclysm

Primal Pulverize is a flex skill, to give some Damage Reduction and maintain Werebear form for bonuses like Survival Instincts and spending Spirit for Ancestral Guidance. Other options will work such as:

• Primal Shred for mobility during speed farming.

Spirit Boons – The Druid Class Specialization

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.

Gear, Stats, Gems and Elixirs

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

Legendary Aspects

Gear slots with multiple options are listed in recommended priority. Any slot with an non-required Mythic Unique or Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power to use while still leveling and gearing.

Slot	Gem	Aspect	Unique/Legendary Aspect Power
2 Handed Mace	Grand Ruby	Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt	You deal 25-65% increased damage while hitting a Poisoned enemy as a Werebear or a Crowd Controlled enemy as a Werewolf.
Helm	Grand Sapphire	Tempest Roar	Lucky Hit: Storm Skills have up to a 10-35% chance to grant 4 Spirit. Your base Storm Skills are now also Werewolf Skills
Chest	Grand Sapphire	Shroud of False Death Mad Wolf’s Glee	If you haven’t dealt damage in the last 2 seconds, gain Stealth and 40% Movement Speed.
Gloves	N/A	Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect	Critical Strikes with Storm Skills cause Lightning Bolts to periodically strike close enemies for 3 seconds, each dealing Lightning damage. Your Lightning Bolt damage is increased for every 100 Willpower you have.
Pants	Grand Sapphire	Damage/Cooldown – Stormshifter’s Aspect Defensive– Aspect of Fevered Mauling	While Hurricane is active, gain +5 Ranks to your Shapeshifting Skills.
Boots	N/A	Push/Damage Reduction – Flickerstep Cooldown Reduction/Resistances – Rakanoth’s Wake Push/Damage – Exploiter’s Aspect	Each enemy you Evade through reduces your active Ultimate Cooldown by 2-4 seconds, up to 10 seconds.
Amulet	Grand Amethyst	Aspect of Electrified Claws Aspect of Apogeic Furor	Shapeshifting into a new animal form causes a Lightning Bolt to strike a Nearby enemy dealing Lightning damage. Your Lightning Bolts deal 20-40% increased damage and Stun for 2 seconds.
Ring 1	Grand Ruby	Airidah’s Inexorable Will	When casting an Ultimate Skill and again 5 seconds after, you Pull in Distant enemies and deal Physical damage to them. This damage is increased by 10% per 1 point of Willpower you have.
Ring 2	Grand Sapphire	Mjölnic Ryng	While Cataclysm is active, you gain unlimited Spirit and deal 40-100% increased damage. Cataclysm receives your Lightning Bolt benefits.

The Offensive Aspect slot is competitive for this build. While Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect is locked in on gloves for the high Lightning Bolt scaling off Willpower, you have 2 other Offensive Slots; the 200% Weapon or the 150% Amulet. There are four valid options:

• Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt is a reliable multiplier against Poisoned enemies. With the Overload Spirit Boon or the Seasonal Decay Augmentation, poisoned condition is fully covered.
• Aspect of Apogeic Furor is a stacking Ultimate Damage buff, which can have higher top-end than Changeling’s Debt but is lower on average, especially when considering the rampup necessary.
• Aspect of Electrified Claws is a little weaker on damage but the Stun will be high quality of life, add survivability, stagger bosses faster, and easily activate bonuses like Bad Omen and Natural Disaster without relying on Crowd Control Tempering Manuals or other sources.
• Vehement Brawler’s Aspect is the weakest damage of all, but the Ranks in Cataclysm can give the cooldown reduction you might need to maintain Cataclysm.

These are all playable.
A smooth general gameplay setup would be Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt and Aspect of Electrified Claws.
In High Push Content, Aspect of Electrified Claws can disrupt gathering and stacking enemies, and the topend of Aspect of Apogeic Furor may be preferred.

Boots is also a competitive slot, and can be played according to need:

• Rakanoth’s Wake covers early gearing resistances and cooldown for Cataclysm
• Flickerstep‘s unique ability is unreliable in most content, but the Damage Redution vs Close Enemies is high value for protecting your Life and Fortify, which is important for Overpower damage
• If your defenses and cooldown are sufficient, a well rolled Willpower and Max Life Legendary Boots with Exploiter’s Aspect can be the highest topend damage.

Use a 2-Handed Mace for Overpower Damage.

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. The bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. Unique Items cannot be Tempered, but can be Masterworked.  Check the Tempering guide and Masterworking guide for more details about these topics.

Any slot with a non-required Mythic Unique or Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power to use while still leveling and gearing.

Slot	Gearing Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Two-Handed Mace	Maximum Life Willpower Overpower Damage Critical Strike Damage	Lightning Augments – Chance for Cataclysm to deal double damage. Worldly Finesse – Overpower Damage
Unique Helm Tempest Roar	Willpower% Lightning Resistance Maximum Spirit Ranks to Wild Impulses
Mythic Chest Shroud of False Death	All Stats Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth Maximum Life Resource Generation
Unique Chest Mad Wolf’s Glee	Maximum Life Damage Bonus to Lupine Ferocity Werewolf Attack Speed Ranks in Digitigrade Gait	Werewolf form is now your true form, and you gain 4-7 Ranks to all Werewolf Skills.
Gloves	Max Life Willpower Armor or All Resistances Overpower Damage	Worldly Finesse – Overpower DamageNature Magic Innovation – Hurricane Duration
Pants	Willpower Max Life Armor or All Resistances Dodge Chance	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor% Nature Magic Innovation – Hurricane Duration
Unique Boots Push/Damage Reduction Flickerstep	Movement Speed Lightning Resistance Damage Reduction from Close Enemies Ultimate Damage
Unique Boots Cooldown/Resistances Rakanoth’s Wake	Movement Speed Cooldown Reduction Resistance to All Elements Non-Physical Damage
Legendary Boots	Movement Speed Max Life Willpower All Resistances Armor	Natural Motion – Movement Speed Worldly Fortune – Chance to Immobilize or Stun
Amulet	Willpower% Ranks to Envenom Ranks to Quickshift Ranks to Resonance	Worldly Finesse – Overpower DamageUltimate Efficiency — Druid – Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction
Unique Ring Airidah’s Inexorable Will	Willpower% Damage to Close Enemies Lucky Hit Chance Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
Unique Ring Mjölnic Ryng	Willpower Critical Strike Chance Movement Speed While Cataclysm is Active Ranks to Endless Tempest

Make sure to have enough Hurricane duration Tempers to last through each cast of Cataclysm, so Stormshifter’s Aspect can always be active.

Gems and Runewords

Use these recommended Gem and Runeword setups for the Cataclysm Druid:

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Ruby for Overpower Damage	Grand Sapphire for Willpower	1 Grand Amethyst for Shadow Resistance 1 Grand Ruby for Fire Resistance 1 Grand Sapphire for Cold Resistance

Seasonal: Use the recommended Occult Gem Setup for Jewelry.

• Hungering Void: While you have an Aura active, pull Nearby enemies toward you every 8 seconds.
• Voice of the Stars – While you have an Aura active, your Ultimate Skills gain each Witchcraft tag and deal 10% increased damage.
• Friend of the Bog – While you have three or more Growth & Decay Witch Powers slotted, you gain 10% primary stat, 10% Maximum Life and you are always Unhindered.

Runewords

Use these Runeword combinations for the Cataclysm Druid, placed in 2-Handed Weapon and Armor slots:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Bac Xan	Bac – Gives 50 Offering. Travel 5 Meters. Xan – Requires: 700 Offering. Overflow: Cast increases damage by 1% per 10 Offering. Cooldown: 1 second. Your next Skill cast will be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower.
Igni Qax	Igni – Gain 25 Offering. Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering. Qax – Requires: 400 Offering. Overflow: Further Increased Damage. Your next non-Basic Skill cast spends all of your Primary Resource to deal up to 100% increased damage.

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 preps your Cataclysm to Critically Strike and Overpower for its entire duration. Qax gives a strong multiplier to all attacks during the cast.

Snapshotting

This build runs BacXan IgniQax. Snapshotting means preparing multipliers to be built into the entire length of the Skill; in this case, our Cataclysm. Refreshes of Cataclysm before the duration runs out, will keep all these buffs at their initial values, so this only needs done once in a while. Don’t worry, it’s a lot to read but not a lot to manage in game.

What are we snapshotting into our Cataclysm:

Power	Effect	Trigger
Xan	Guarantees Critical Strike and Overpower	Bac by Travelling
Qax	Heavy damage multiplier	Igni by waiting and casting a non-Basic Skill
Resonance	Earth Skills empower your next Storm Skill	Earthen Bulwark will ignite Igni and Resonance
Quickshift	Damage Multiplier from Shapeshifting	Shifting from form to form
Hurricane	Cooldown for the Cataclysm thanks to Stormshifter’s Aspect	Casting Hurricane
Force of Will	Kills grant overpower damage to your next overpower	Killing enemies

For the BacXan IgniQax setup, here’s the order for snapshotting:

1. Prebuild your six Quickshift stacks by swapping from form to form until max stacks. This can be done easily by casting Maul then emoting or town portal cancelling to force Human Form. Then build your next stack with Maul.
2. In order for your Qax to overflow, you want to Pulverize or Hurricane in place until your Qax buff icon is just about full. With Stormshifter’s Aspect, Hurricane will lower the entire cooldown of your next Cataclysm.
3. Wait a bit. Do not cast a non-Basic Skill for at least 6 seconds. This guarantees the max Offering Overflow extra damage to the Qax multiplier. This wait sets up the Igni for your next non-basic Skill to ignite the Qax for your Cataclysm.
4. Travel enough to prepare your Xan. The Xan Rune offering tracker will glow, and a buff will appear showing your Xan is ready.
5. With both your Qax and Xan prepared, quickly cast Earthen Bulwark into Cataclysm. Your cataclysm will now have the Runeword, Quickshift and Resonance effects on it!

Messed up the timing and it isnt showing those glorious Orange Critical Overpower numbers? Wait for the whole duration of Cataclysm to end before trying to re-rune the next cast. Missed some effects like a full stack of Force of Will or Quickshift? No worries, take some time to re-prep your runes and go next.

There’s a few things that can make the Xan buff drop or the Cataclysm drop its snapshotted powers:

• Clipping the recast too close to the end of duration. Try to have at least a couple second of grace on your Cataclysm duration vs your cooldown.
• Provocation can sometimes heck up the refresh snapshot of your Overpower. If you’re using Shroud of False Death, which gives you a rank to Provocation, try to use that on other abilities such as Maul or Hurricane.
• Mounting up on your steed.
• Leaving a zone. However, this does not include taking portals inside the Pit or the Undercity; those are all considered one zone!
• Excessive lag or very high MS can un-Xan your Cataclysm.
• Sometimes your Hurricane ticks can eat the Xan. that’s why we very quickly want to Earthen Bulwark into Cataclysm as soon as your Xan is ready!

Other rune setups can function, by preference or content:

• BacQax IgniXan can be easier to set up Overflows with, at a different build tempo.
• FeoQax IgniXan can give the absolute highest Overflow potential to both runes, but setup involves getting crowd-controlled or Injured. Look for low impact Crowd Controls like Chill Winds or Knockbacks. This is more work and only really pays off in very high pit push.
• Jah can replace Qax for extra mobility during speedfarming.

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 Fortitude for Maximum Life%. Max Life% is significant for Overpower.
• 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, or Song of the Mountain if you need the Armor, up to 1000 armor cap.
  • Core Stat – Blessed Guide for Willpower.
  • Resistance – Soothing Spices for All Resist, All Resist Maximum, and Armor.
• Upgrade your Potion as you level, increasing the instant healing of the potion!

Paragon Board

The following are the preferred Glyphs, Boards, and pathing recommended for making the most of the Cataclysm 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 stricter pathing to take all most 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, filling out Glyph additives, and then spending the rest of the points on sweet sweet Willpower for Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect.

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.

For a more defensive glyph setup:

• Replace Dominate with Undaunted.
• Replace Spirit with Territorial.

Powers of Witchcraft and Occult Gems

Seasonal players can choose from a selection of Witchcraft powers and Occult gems to enhance their gameplay. 1 Unique and 5 Normal Witchcraft Powers can be equipped using the Witchcraft tab on the character sheet. Occult gems are placed into the jewelry sockets and can be crafted at the Tree of Whispers.

This power and gem setup activates a few high-impact combos for the Cataclysm Druid:

Witchcraft Powers

Unique Power

The Cycle – Growth and Decay

• Dealing any damage with your skills has a 15% chance to grow a flower from the ground. When an enemy is near, the flower deals Poison damage to that enemy over 5 seconds. If an ally is near, the flower heals for 6% maximum Life. The flower withers away after use. A flower may grow once every 2 seconds per enemy. Frequency limited to a maximum of 3 per second.
• Rank 5: The damage and healing affects all enemies or allies near the flower.

Normal Powers

Aura Specialization – Lost Powers

• The size of your Aura Effects is increased by X.
• Rank 10: Increase the Critical Strike Damage by 50% against enemies inside your Aura Effects.

Purging Touch – Eldritch

• Eldritch Effects deal increased damage against Headrotten.
• Rank 10: This damage bonus now extends to all monsters.
• With Voice of the Stars, this power directly scales the damage of your Cataclysm!

Aura of Siphoning – Growth and Decay

• Conjure an aura of decay that deals Poison damage to enemies every second.
• Rank 10: Each time Aura of Siphoning deals damage, you are healed for 1% of Maximum Life.
• This power activates your Voice of the Stars and Hungering Void.

Soul Harvest – Growth and Decay

• Feed upon the life force of nearby enemies whenever you use a skill with a cooldown, increasing your primary stat by 1% per monster for X seconds.
• Rank 9: Soul Harvest does not lose duration so long as enemies are nearby.
• This is a stacking power that heavily scales our damage. In push content, this means gathering a very large pack at the beginning of the run to get the highest Soul Harvest stacks available, then keeping that stack to the end of the run.

Force of Will – Psyche

• When you kill an enemy, your next Overpower deals X% increased damage, up to 100%.
• Rank 4: The damage bonus extends to the next 2 Overpowers instead of 1.
• This is a heavy multiplier stack to your Cataclysm overpowers. The stacks are snapshot into the cast so a new stack number may not carry over into a cast refresh. Snapshotting a full 40 stack is the way to go.

Occult Gems

• Hungering Void – While you have an Aura active, pull Nearby enemies toward you every 8 seconds.
• Voice of the Stars – While you have an Aura active, your Ultimate Skills gain each Witchcraft tag and deal 10% increased damage.
• Friend of the Bog – While you have three or more Growth & Decay Witch Powers slotted, you gain 10% primary stat, 10% Maximum Life and you are always Unhindered.

Hungering Void is preferred over other damage multiplier powers because stacking enemies well means better splash for lightning bolts and easier stacking for Soul Harvest.

Unique Items

The following Unique Items are required, recommended, or optional for the Cataclysm Druid, as well as where each can be Target-farmed.

• (Required) Tempest Roar gives Storm spells including Cataclysm the Werewolf tag, allowing them to benefit from multipliers like Lust for Carnage. Drops from Duriel and Andariel.

• (Optional) Mad Wolf’s Glee – Ranks in Cataclysm and Hurricane? Max life and Speed? bet. This is meaningful damage and cooldown reduction. Drops from Varshan.

• (Required) Mjölnic Ryng gives a significant damage buff during Cataclysm, Cataclysm receives your Lightning Bolt benefits. This means all Lightning Bolt modifiers for damage, utility and other effects. The ranks in Endless Tempest will be significant for Cataclysm and Hurricane uptime. Target these ranks for Greater Affix and Mastercrafting. Drops from Lord Zir.

• (Required) Airidah’s Inexorable Will has two important parts; it clusters enemies together, and gives significant cooldown reduction on Ultimate Skills. Target the Ultimate Cooldown Reduction for Greater Affix and Mastercrafting. Drops from Varshan.

• A Couple Unique Boots can be effective for the build –
  • Flickerstep is valuable for its high Damage Reduction from Close enemies. The Evade through enemies for Ultimate Cooldown Reduction is variable value; sometimes things die too fast, and you would rather just have enough Duration and Cooldown Reduction on your Cataclysm to not need to rely on this. Drops from Duriel and Andariel.
  • Rakanoth’s Wake is a much more reliable source of Cooldown Reduction, and the resistances are a strong early gearing perk. Drops from Infernal Hordes.

Mythic Unique Items

These Mythic Unique items are recommended for the build:

• (Recommended Mythic Unique) Shroud of False Death gives +1 to all Passives. This is a lot of damage multipliers, quality of life, and other benefits, and is generally great to use. The only hazards would be losing Mad Wolf’s Glee‘s ranks to Cataclysm could impact your Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction, and getting the rank in Provocation means another source of Overpower that might interfere with your Xan empowered Cataclysm. Just have to send that Provocation Overpower on any other skill, like Maul or Hurricane.

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.

Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker

• Skills: Cleave, Recklessness, Whirlwind, No Escape

Reinforcement – Raheir, the Shieldbearer

• Reinforcement Ability – Crater
• Opportunity – Maul

Both No Escape and Crater will be useful pull-ins for grouping enemies. Other Mercenaries’ powers work fine. For example, If you want Subo’s minimap tracking, go ahead.

Rotation and Playstyle

1. Maintain Hurricane for Stormshifter’s Aspect boost to Cataclysm.
2. Prepare your Quickshift Stacks. Shift form to form or use Emotes or Town Portal Cancel to force human form, then Maul or Pulverize to stack this quickly.
3. Prep your Cataclysm by building and preparing your Xan and Qax Runes.
   • Wait long enough for your Igni to charge, at least 6 seconds.
   • Travel enough for Bac to prepare your Xan.
   • Cast Earthen Bulwark to prepare the Qax for your Cataclysm.
4. Cast your empowered Cataclysm.
5. Maintain Werebear form between casts of Cataclysm for damage bonuses like Survival Instincts:
   • Use Debilitating Roar for the damage buff and damage reduction debuffs.
   • Use Primal Pulverize for the damage reduction against important enemies.
   • Otherwise, use Maul as filler. When your Runes are or are about to be recharged, stop casting and set up for your next Cataclysm.

Use Earthen Bulwark as necessary for Barrier and Unstoppable.

With enough Cataclysm Duration and Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction, Cataclysm can be chain recast without dropping it, keeping its Runeword snapshot effects for its entire duration. When zoning, mounting or if you dropped your cataclysm, the runes will need to be rebuilt for the next cataclysm cast.

Season 7 Updates: Season of Witchcraft

For season 7, there’s new changes that will help scale Cataclysm’s damage further. These include:

• Mjölnic Ryng‘s added effect: Cataclysm receives your Lightning Bolt benefits. This means it can scale off Lightning Bolt effects like:
  • Charged Atmosphere
  • Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect
  • The new Aspect of Electrified Claws
• Ancestral Guidance now increases Ultimate Damage based on Spirit when cast.
• The new Aspect of Apogeic Furor specifically increases damage for Ultimate Skills.

The Seasonal Witchcraft Powers are also favorable for the build, offering high multipliers and some utility. This puts Cataclysm solidly ahead for Druid, but will still require heavy gear investment to play smoothly.

The following list details the important changes in the Season 7 Patch Updates that are specific to the Cataclysm Druid. For general Season 7 information, check out our Season 7 Hub.

Itemization:

• Tempest Roar – Changed flat damage Willpower affix to +% Willpower affix.
• Mjölnic Ryng – New Effect- While Cataclysm is active, you gain unlimited Spirit and deal 40-100% increased damage. Cataclysm receives your Lightning Bolt benefits.
• Xan cost reduced from 800 to 700 Offerings. Overflow: Cast increases damage by 1% per 10 Offering.
• Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect – New Effect – Critical Strikes with Storm Skills cause Lightning Bolts to periodically strike close enemies for 3 seconds, each dealing Lightning damage. Your Lightning Bolt damage is increased by 15% for every 100 Willpower you have.
• New Aspect – Aspect of Electrified Claws – Offensive – Shapeshifting into a new animal form causes a Lightning Bolt to strike a Nearby enemy dealing Lightning damage. Your Lightning Bolts deal 20-40% increased damage and Stun for 2 seconds.
• New Aspect – Vehement Brawler’s Aspect – Offensive – Casting an Ultimate Skill increases your damage by 10-30% for 8 seconds. Gain 2 additional Ultimate Skill Ranks.
• New Aspect – Aspect of Apogeic Furor – Offensive – Casting an Ultimate Skill increases your Ultimate damage by 6-10%, up to 60-100%. At 10 stacks, your Cooldowns and this bonus are reset.

Skills and Stats:

• Cataclysm New Effect at Rank 5: Casting Cataclysm Slows surrounding enemies by 70% for 8 seconds.
• Hurricane Can now be cast while moving.
• Bad Omen – Lightning Bolt damage increased from 55% to 70%.
• Charged Atmosphere – New Effect – Every 14 seconds, a Lightning Bolt hits a Nearby enemy dealing 45% damage. Your Lightning Bolts deal 10% increased damage.
• Toxic Claws – New Effect – Critical Strikes with Shred and Lacerate deal an additional 16% of their Base damage as Poisoning damage over 4 seconds.
• Heightened Senses – New Effect – When Shapeshifting, Werebear grants 3% Damage Reduction and Werewolf grants 3% Movement Speed. Both bonuses persist as long as you are in either animal form. They are lost after 3 seconds in Human form.
  • Note: This is a significant nerf, effectively killing the 17 ranks immortality cheese.
• Snake Boon Overload – New Effect
  • Dealing Storm damage also applies an additional 20% Poisoning damage over 5 seconds.
  • Lucky Hit: Dealing Poison damage has up to a 1% chance to summon a Lightning Bolt on the target dealing 120% damage.
• Ancestral Guidance – New Effect – After spending 75 Spirit, you deal 40% increased damage for 5 seconds. Your Ultimate Skills deal 1% increased damage per Spirit when cast.
• Survival Instincts – New Effect: While in Werebear form, you deal 30% increased damage or 45% when you are at full Life. You have 1% increased Overpower damage, up to 25%, for every 1% difference in current Life percent and Fortified Life percent between you and the enemy.
• Keeper Increased the Non-Physical damage bonus from 10% to 15%.
• Undaunted Increased Damage Reduction while Fortified from 10% to 15%.

Advanced Information

It is time to get started on your Cataclysm journey!

Or see below for further information on how the build works, as well as further explanations for Paragon, Gearing, and Gameplay.

Build Mechanics

The Cataclysm Druid loads its power into its Ultimate Skill Cataclysm, stacking heavy multipliers and additives to send out Twisters and Lightning Bolts against enemies.

Cataclysm Damage

Lots of parts come together to make Cataclysm do massive damage. Here’s the notable ones.

From Runes that are built and primed for Cataclysm casts:

• Xan makes the entire duration of the Cataclysm guaranteed to Critical Strike and Overpower. If you do not have this rune yet, you can use Provocation to time and line up with Cataclysm. It will be a less efficient trigger and can have problems when chaining casts of Cataclysm, so Xan is preferred.
• Qax is also snapshot for the entire Cataclysm for 100%+ damage.

From Items:

• Tempest Roar Makes Cataclysm a Werewolf Skill, benefitting from multipliers like Lust for Carnage and other Shapeshifting bonuses.
• Mjölnic Ryng increases all damage for the duration of Cataclysm and also makes Cataclysm be affected by modifiers to Lightning Bolt. These sources like include:
  • Charged Atmosphere
  • Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect
  • Aspect of Electrified Claws
• Lightning Augments gives Cataclysm a high chance to deal double damage.

From Paragon:

• All used paragon legendary nodes increase Cataclysm damage, but Ancestral Guidance is especially potent, increasing damage based on Spirit when cast. Spirit is increased from a few sources to max this power, including paragon nodes and Gift of the Stag Spirit Boon. Because of Mjölnic Ryng, we are always at full Spirit.

From other Skills:

• Hurricane is maintained for Stormshifter’s Aspect, which gives ranks to Cataclysm for more damage and more cooldown reduction. We get more duration on Hurricane from Endless Tempest and Hurricane Duration Tempers on gear. make sure you have Hurricane that lasts through an entire Cataclysm and Rune charging cycle.

Cataclysm has a short 0.5 second lockout for the Lightning Bolts to target the same enemy or area. This will slow down bossing somewhat, but is manageable.

Poisoned Condition for Envenom is applied from Overload Spirit Boon, giving all Storm Damage a 5 second Poison for 20% of damage dealt.

Cataclysm Cooldown Management

Maintaining Cataclysm is essential for output. Having enough duration and cooldown reduction means being able to chain casts before the end of the Cataclysm, which keeps snapshot effects like from Runes Xan. Do be careful however, as leaving a zone through travel or portal will mean you need to re-cast your Rune effects on your next Cataclysm!

We gain Cataclysm duration from:

• Calamity Spirit Boon gives 35% more Ultimate Duration.
• Ranks in Endless Tempest.
  • Mjölnic Ryng gives ranks in Endless Tempest, and is important to target for Greater Affix and Mastercrafting.
  • Shroud of False Death gives +1 to Passive Skill ranks, including Endless Tempest. This is also bugged and gives another instance of Calamity Spirit Boon.

From the other end, there’s several ways we lower the cooldown on Cataclysm.

• Skill ranks in Cataclysm reduce cooldown. These are from Skill points and also sources like Stormshifter’s Aspect and if used, Mad Wolf’s Glee.
• Ultimate Cooldown Reduction from Tempering on Amulet.
• Ultimate Cooldown Reduction from Airidah’s Inexorable Will. This is also important to target for Mastercraft and Greater Affix.
• If used, Rakanoth’s Wake has general Cooldown Reduction.

There’s a couple less efficient ways to get some more supplemental cooldown reduction, if you are still leveling and gearing:

• Replace the Qax rune with Vex to give several seconds off each Cataclysm cast.
• Vehement Brawler’s Aspect gives ranks in Ultimate Skills, which gives some cooldown reduction. However, the multiplier is short duration and weak.
• Calm Before the Storm Spirit Boon. Unfortunately Cataclysm has low Lucky Hit Chance so these triggers don’t happen often. The in game tooltip on Cataclysm indicates high Lucky Hit Chance, except it actually means that’s the chance over the entire duration of a very long Cataclysm cast.
• (Boots) Flickerstep can give some Ultimate Cooldown Reduction when evading through enemies. The trouble is being in content where things are dying slowly enough to actually get the evade off.

Supporting Skills

The rest of the Skills are supporting skills:

• Earthen Bulwark is taken for Barrier and our sole source of Unstoppable. It also
• Debilitating Roar is a strong Damage Reduction debuff on enemies and a small damage buff on top.
• Maul is a filler spell to keep us in Werebear form. While in Werebear form, we benefit from the Survival Instincts buff to damage and Overpower.
• Primal Pulverize is another Werebear skill that can reduce damage of enemies. It will not cost Spirit since we have Mjölnic Ryng, but still counts as spending for Ancestral Guidance. This is flex point that could be swapped with other abilities or skill passives. Examples include:
  • Primal Shred for mobility in farm.
  • Skill Passive damage amps such as Electric Shock or Nature’s Reach.
  • Defensive Passives like Iron Fur.

You may find that in trivial content, these supporting abilities are surplus to requirement. You are right. Enjoy the game with fewer things to worry about. Eventually with strong gear, world content or nightmare dungeons or Hordes or bosses only need Cataclysm and a breezy walk through, murdering all things in your way.

Key Passive

The Key Passive for this build is Ursine Strength.

• The Max life is maintained with our Werebear skills and adds to our Overpower Damage.
• The damage and increased Overpower multiplier is maintained while in the Healthy state, meaning over 80% health.

Paragon

The Paragon Board is a progression system unlocked at Level 60, giving player power through Common stat Nodes, Magic affix Nodes, Rare leveled Glyphs, and Legendary board-exclusive Nodes. For general paragon board information, check the guide here.

The recommended Paragon boards with images for the Cataclysm Druid are listed above. The following section goes over some explanations and descriptions for the pathing process for the Cataclysm Druid.

Broadly speaking, decisions for pathing through the Druid paragon board are divided into three categories:

• Damage – The paragon boards provide a significant amount of Damage Multipliers and Additives. This includes:
  • Socketed Glyphs such as Dominate and Keeper.
  • Legendary Nodes such as Thunderstruck.
  • Magic and Rare nodes such as Impel and Reclaim.
• Defense – The paragon boards help reach goals on Damage Reduction, Armor and Resistances. This includes:
  • Damage Reduction is improved from individual Magic and Rare nodes providing bonuses like Damage Reduction against Vulnerable enemies.
  • Resistances are improved from Intelligence nodes, and Magic and Rare Resistance nodes.
• Build Functionality – The paragon boards improve total build functionality including:
  • Max Life% nodes increase Effective Health but also boost capability for total Fortify as well. This increases overall output for Overpower damage.

Changelog

• 12 February 2025: 2.1.2 updates
  • Adjusted Witch Powers to adjust for the change to Decay Augmentation.
  • Adjusted Tempers to account for Known bugs involving Lightning Bolt additives not working with cataclysm.
  • Clarified some sections.
• 27 January 2025: Adjusted several sections:
  • Skill tree swapped Bad Omen for Catastrophe. Uptime better than expected.
  • Paragon changed pathing, replacing Earth and Sky for Headhunter for more Runeworker’s scaling.
  • Gearing options for the boot slot, and Aspect options for Pants.
  • Dedicated section to explaining Snapshotting.
  • Various cleanups of sections for clarity or (haha steve) brevity.
• 24 January 2025: Adjusted recommended witch powers, clarified applying Runes in both Rotation and Runeword Sections.
• 16 January 2025: Build Created for Season 7 and Patch 2.1.