Updated for Season 8
Build Introduction
The 
Companion Druid leveling build embraces the pet druid gameplay. Unleash your 
Wolves, 
Poison Creeper and 
Ravens to speed through leveling. Companions get several high multipliers from Legendary Aspects like 
Shepherd’s Aspect and Key Passive 
One With Nature that boost damage significantly.
After progressing through the Main Story and reaching level 60, continue your Companion adventure with the Companion Druid Endgame Guide, or choose any of our Endgame Builds.
For general tips and information about leveling a Druid in Diablo 4, check out our Druid Leveling Page.
Seasonal: Looking for the right Boss Powers for the build? Check them out here.
Quick Navigation
This guide covers everything necessary to get started on the Companion Leveling Druid, including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates. Jump to the sections you’re looking for here:
Allocation of Skill Points
The table below outlines the recommended order for spending Skill Points. 59 Points are gained from leveling, and the remaining 12 are from completing Renown events in each zone, for a total of 71 Skill Points.
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Lacerate 
Wolves 
Poison Creeper 
Ravens 
Claw 
Pulverize The Build Mechanics section helps explain how these Skills play and interact. Head there after setting up your skill bar.
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. To access Spirit Boons:
- Reach Level 15, accepting the quest chain beginning with Druid: Spirits of the Lost Grove.
- Clear the Túr Dúlra Stronghold scenario in Scosglen.
- Complete the quest chain to gain access to the Animal Spirits.
| Boon Name | Animal | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Gift of the Stag | Deer | Gain 15% Movement Speed and 15% Impairment Reduction. |
| Scythe Talons | Eagle | Gain 15% increased Critical Strike Chance and 15% increased Lucky Hit Chance. |
| Swooping Attacks | Eagle | Gain 20% Attack Speed. |
| Pack Leader | Wolf | Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes have up to a 30% chance to reset the Cooldowns of your Companion Skills. |
| Masochistic | Snake | Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes with Shapeshifting Skills have up to a 75% chance to Heal you for 10% Maximum Life. |
Prioritize your first Spirit Offerings to unlock the Wolf’s Pack Leader; Companion Active Skills are a significant source of our damage so cooldown resets go a long way! After that, take Scythe Talons for the increased Critical Strike chance for more Pack Leader resets.
Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes
The following sections cover the Legendary Aspects, Gear Affixes, Gems, and Runewords important for your character’s progression while leveling.
Legendary Aspects
The Codex of Power updates and improves the quality of the Aspects by salvaging Legendary Powers. Legendary Items with Aspect powers can be found across all content in Diablo 4. Randomly dropped Legendary Aspects can have a specific range of power on them. For example, Shepherd’s Aspect can roll between 5% and 13% for the effect. Salvaging a higher rank will improve the Aspect’s rank within your Codex from then on.
Aspects gained from Dungeons will enter the Codex of Power at rank 1. This makes Dungeons a great way to get started when putting together a build without relying on random drops. For example, to access Shepherd’s Aspect directly without needing a random drop, you can clear Bloodsoaked Crag in the Dry Steppes.
The following are the build-defining Aspects for the Companion Leveling Druid found in dungeons:
| Aspect Name | Aspect Type | Legendary Aspect Power | Source | Preferred Slot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shepherd’s Aspect | Offensive | Companion Skills deal an additional 5-13% damage for each active Companion. | Bloodsoaked Crag, Dry Steppes | 2-Handed Weapon |
While leveling, look out for these randomly-dropped Legendary Aspects that are strong for the Companion Leveling Druid:
| Aspect Name | Aspect Type | Legendary Aspect Power |
|---|---|---|
| Aspect of the Alpha | Offensive | Your Wolf Companions are now Werewolf Companions. Werewolf Companions deal 100-140% additional damage and can spread Rabies. |
| Aspect of the Stampede | Offensive | Gain 1 additional Companion. In addition, your Companion Skills deal 15-35% bonus damage. |
| Stormcrow’s Aspect | Offensive | Ravens now deal Lightning damage which is increased by 60-100%. Ravens Active deals its full damage in half the time, and enemies inside it are Stunned. |
| Moonrage Aspect | Offensive | Kills have a 5% chance to summon a Wolf Companion to your side for 20-35 seconds. This effect is a Lucky Hit against bosses. Maximum 3 additional wolves. In addition, gain +3 Ranks to Wolves. |
 Spirit Bond Aspect | Offensive | 10.0-17.5% of the damage you would take is redirected across your Companions. Your Companions cannot die. |
 Aspect of the Rushing Wilds | Mobility | Casting a Companion Skill grants you 5-20% Movement Speed for 5 seconds, up to 15.0-60%. |
Finally, here are dungeon-sourced aspects that will be beneficial while leveling:
| Aspect Name | Aspect Type | Legendary Aspect Power | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aspect of Inner Calm | Offensive | Deal 5-13% increased damage. Triple this bonus after standing still for 3 seconds. | Raethwind Wilds, Scosglen |
| Aspect of Might | Defensive | Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for 2–10 seconds. | Dark Ravine Dry Steppes |
| Skinwalker’s Aspect | Defensive | When you use a Shapeshifting Skill that changes your form, gain 5-25% Life. If you are at full Life, gain the same amount as Fortify. | Fading Echo, Kehjistan |
| Aspect of Disobedience | Defensive | You gain 0.4-.8% increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to 25-40%. | Halls of the Damned, Kehjistan |
Druid can adjust to what drops or to playstyles they enjoy when they level. See what flex choices are available in the Druids Have Options! section.
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Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
Below are the recommended Gear Affixes for each slot for the Pulverize Leveling Build. Gear Affixes are listed by importance. Affixes in Bold are the most important for the build, and alternatives are added as well.
| Slot | Gem | Stats |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Handed Polearm |  Emerald | Willpower Max Life Critical Strike Damage |
| Helm |  Sapphire | Ranks to Wolves Cooldown Reduction Armor All Resistances Willpower |
| Chest | Sapphire | Willpower Max Life Armor Spirit Per Second |
| Gloves | N/A | Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Willpower Armor All Resistances |
| Pants | Sapphire | Willpower Armor Maximum Life All Resistances |
| Boots | N/A | Movement Speed Willpower Dodge Chance Spirit Per Second All Resistances |
| Amulet |  Diamond | Ranks to  Call of the WildRanks to  EnvenomCritical Strike Chance Willpower% Movement Speed |
| Rings | Diamond | Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Maximum Life Chance on Hit to makes enemies Vulnerable Willpower |
- Critical Strike Chance and Attack Speed are important for total Critical Strike event for Spirit Boon Pack Leader resets of Companion Skills.
- Cooldown Reduction is beneficial when hitting periods of no resets on Pack Leader Spirit Boon.
Tempering manuals are found across Sanctuary. The Blacksmith applies Tempering affixes on items. Manuals are divided by types; a Resource manual like 
Worldly Stability has Resource type tempers, and can only be placed on rings and amulet.
When tempering, the item will select one of the affixes from the chosen Manual. Temper rerolls to get the desired affix are limited. Unique Items cannot be Tempered.
Here’s a list of useful tempers to look out for, sorted by type.
| Manual Type | Manual Name | Manual Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Companion Augments | Chance for Wolves to deal double damage |
| Utility | Companion Innovation | Wolves Attack Speed |
| Resource | Companion Efficiency | Wolves Cooldown Reduction Companion Cooldown Reduction |
| Defensive | Worldly Endurance | Max Life Total Armor% |
| Offensive | Worldly Finesse | Critical Strike Damage |
| Offensive | Worldly Finesse | Damage to Close Enemies Damage to Distant Enemies Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies |
| Mobility | Natural Motion | Movement Speed |
Our endgame builds are designed for gameplay after level 60, including interactions and systems found in Torment difficulty and beyond. Check the Druid Builds page to progress your character further.
Uniques
The following are useful Unique Items for the Companion Druid to look out for while leveling:
Storm’s Companion grant Wolves the Storm tag and have incredible Gear Affixes to boost your wolves and their damage.
Gems and Runewords
See below for the best Gems and Runes to socket into your gear for each category:
Gems
- Weapon: Emerald for Critical Strike Damage.
- Armor: Sapphire for Willpower.
- Jewelry: Diamonds for All Resistances
Runewords
Use these Runeword combinations for the Companion Leveling Druid. These leveling recommendations are limited to Magic and Rare quality runes, and are placed in 2-Handed Weapon and one Armor slot:
| Runeword Combination | Runeword Effects |
|---|---|
| Feo Ceh |  Feo – Gain: 1,000 Offering. Become Injured or Crowd Controlled. (Cooldown: 10 seconds) Ceh – Requires: 100 Offering (Overflow: Summon Multiple Wolves) Cooldown: 1 secondsSummon a Spirit Wolf to attack enemies for 8 seconds. |
| Noc Gar |  Noc – Gain: 5 Offering. Inflict a Crowd Control, gain double offering if it isn’t a Slow or Chill. Gar – Requires 25 Offering. Overflow: Gain Multiple Stacks. Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%. |
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.
The Spirit Wolves from Ceh are counted as Summons, and will gain most modifiers for companions, as well as count towards Shepherd’s Aspect. Other trigger runes of ritual will also be effective; adjust to what drops for you while leveling.
Noc Gar will be a consistent Critical Strike Chance additive that helps reset Pack Leader spirit boon. Crowd Controls to trigger Noc include Poison Creeper immobilize, and 
Neurotoxin.
Boss Powers (Season 8)
Season 8: Belial’s Return offers Boss Powers, equipped from the Boss Power tab of the character sheet. One Main Power is chosen, and three modifier powers boost the Main Power or offer smaller bonuses.
Leveling Power recommendations will be limited to dungeon, incursion or world boss powers. Here’s a general recommendation for the Companion Leveling Druid:
Main Power
- Ashava’s Poison Breath
Secondary Modifiers
- Hatred’s Embrace’s Haste
- Wandering Death’s Chest Beam
- Beastmaster’s Training
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. As you build Rapport with your Mercenary, you gain more access to their Skills and Perks.
The following Mercenary options are recommended for the Companion Leveling Druid:
Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker
- Core Skill:
Cleave, 
Hysteria, 
Bloodthirst, 
Bloodlust
Reinforcement – Raheir, the Shieldbearer
- Reinforcement Ability –
Crater - Trigger – Any Skill
Hysteria and Bloodlust will both give strong Attack Speed Bonuses.
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
Lacerate to engage enemies, gaining Werewolf based bonuses and the Supreme Lacerate damage multiplier.- Poison Creeper on gathered enemies for lethal Poison Damage.
- Ravens against Elites and Bosses for increased Critical Strike Chance.
- Wolves against strong single target enemies.
Pulverize and 
Claw as filler, and to fish for Pack Leader Resets.
Skills, Support and Synergies
The Primary Sources of damage for the Companion Druid are your Wolves for single target, and Poison Creeper for multitarget.
Wolves are Companions that are out and active; they attack and can be attacked and tank for you. Their Active Skill grants them Unstoppable and make them leap onto your target for high damage. Each active Wolf makes a separate attack. Wolves becomes Werewolves and apply 
Rabies with Aspect of the Alpha, and become Storm wolves with Storm’s Companion.
Poison Creeper is a Companion that passively attacks to apply a small Poison. The Active Skill deals significant Poison damage over time in a wide area around the player and Immobilizes enemies.
- Enhanced Poison Creeper increases the Immobilize duration.
- Ferocious Poison Creeper increases the duration of the active cast Poison, increasing total damage appropriately.
The active cast of Poison Creeper, especially in early levels, is lethal damage to all but the toughest enemies, making it very efficient to use on most leveling builds. We take Pack Leader boon to reset the Companion Active Skill.
Ravens are used to apply a Critical Strike Chance debuff on enemies within their area. With Stormcrow’s Aspect they will also stun enemies and deal high Lightning damage.
Shepherd’s Aspect scales Companion damage for each active Companion. This includes
- One Poison Creeper
- Two Wolves
- Three Ravens with Brutal Ravens.
- One more of each type with One With Nature.
- One more of each type with Aspect of the Stampede.
- Up to three more Wolves with Moonrage Aspect.
- Spirit Wolves summoned from the Ceh Rune. They are Summons so will get most minion-based multipliers.
Companions inherit all your Stats; your attack speed bonuses will improve your pet’s attack speed. Even in odd ways like Werewolf Attack Speed; if you are in werewolf form from casts of 
Shred, your wolves attack faster because of the Werewolf Attack Speed modifying the player, and being shared to the wolves. However, Werewolf Attack Speed would not directly affect Aspect of the Alpha Werewolves. Several modifiers like this will not directly help your wolves, including storm modifiers like 
Thunderstruck with Storm’s Companion.
Supporting Skills
- Lacerate is an Ultimate Skill that deals dashes to deal a series of strikes, heals, and gives a stacking damage buff when you critically strike with it. You are Immune while attacking with Lacerate so this can also be used to avoid damage.
- Pulverize is taken as a filler Core Skill between Companion abilities to fish for Pack Leader Resets. It is the default Core Skill because it is a strong Area of Effect cast and activates Werebear buffs on top. Wolves are strong Single Target but this build can be lacking on multitarget.
- Claw is our basic attack, used to build Spirit. This Skill activates Werewolf form for bonuses like
Quickshift.
Druids Have Options!
Any of the Supporting Skills can be substituted for another desirable supporting Skill depending on looted Legendary Aspects, leveling content, or by playstyle preference. For example:
- Any Core Skill can be usable as they’re largely just supplements to the Companion Skills. If you find a favorable drop-only aspect for another Core Skill, try that combination out. One example would be Aspect of Shattered Defenses; then you could swap Pulverize to
Primal Stone Burst for the attack speed bonus and damage multiplier against the target. - For a more mobile playstyle, Primal Shred could be taken over Pulverize. You would still want a Werebear skill in your kit for the Shapeshifting bonuses like
Heightened Senses, so you might swap in 
Maul as your Basic Skill. - If you wanted to play with a different Ultimate Skill like
Cataclysm or 
Petrify, try either out. Cataclysm deals strong damage in early leveling, and if you found Blood Boiling Aspect, line casts with the Aspect to deal large Overpower damage for the duration of the cast. Petrify stuns enemies and debuffs them to take extra Critical Strike Damage.
Which Elixirs Should You Use?
The Alchemist offers helpful consumables at the cost of foraged materials found throughout Sanctuary.
- Craft the highest
Elixir of Precision for Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage and bonus Experience. Or 
Iron Skin Elixir can help push the Capstone Dungeons earlier and easier. - Remember to upgrade your potion as you level, increasing the instant healing of the potion. Upgrades are available when you reach Level 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60.
Season 8 Updates
Several buffs including to Ravens and Poison Creeper is a welcome increase for this build.
The following list details the important changes in the Season 8 Patch Updates that are specific to the Companion Leveling Druid. For general Season 8 information, check out our Season 8 Hub.
Skills and Stats:
- Lacerate Rank 5 Bonus capped at 200% damage increase.
- Poison Creeper
- Passive damage over 2 seconds increased from 47% to 65%.
- Active damage over 2 seconds increased from 126% to 180%.
- Ravens – Passive Damage increased from 31% to 90%.
Bug Fixes:
- Claw – Fixed an issue where the description for Enhanced Claw displayed its Attack Speed bonus as additive instead of multiplicative.
Difficulty and Endgame
Choosing your World Tier: The fastest experience is Adventurer. Each additional step in difficulty will increase experience and rewards; but can be at a total speed loss if things are living too long, extending the leveling process. If you find a high value Legendary Aspect multiplier like Aspect of the Alpha, try out higher difficulties!
Once you’re ready at level 60 or even sooner it’s time to start those Endgame Activities.
After Level 60, you gain no more Skill Points and instead start progressing in the Paragon Board. Allocate Paragon Points into nodes along the path to gain further power. Rare Glyphs start at 3 Radius, growing by 1 Radius at level 15, and then at level 46. Level up your glyphs by running The Pit. Early Investment might prioritize Companion buffs in the 
Untamed board and damage multipliers from 
Heightened Malice.
This will get you ready for that transition to the Wolves Companion Endgame Guide or other Endgame Druid Builds.
Thanks so much for reading and good luck on leveling!
Changelog
- April 24, 2025: Updated to new unified format and for Season 8 Patch 2.2 changes.
- January 22, 2025: Adjusted recommended Witch Powers. This accounts for Lost Powers and Occult Gems being hard to get while leveling.
- January 16, 2025: Updated for season 7 and Patch 2.1.
- November 17, 2024: Minor updates for patch 2.0.5.
- October 17, 2024: Ownership of page transferred, replacing previous guide.
- page restructured for improved readability, explanations and options.
- Changes to recommended Skill Bar and Skill Tree, Legendary Aspects, Gearing, and Mechanics.
- October 3rd, 2024: Updated for Season 6 (Patch 2.0.2)
- August 3rd, 2024: Updated for Season 5 (Patch 1.5.0)
- June 17th, 2024: Updated for Season 4 Midseason (Patch 1.4.3)
- May 10th, 2024: Updated for Season 4 (Patch 1.4.0)
- January 22nd, 2024: Updated for Season 3 (Patch 1.3.0)
- October 17th, 2023: Updated for Season 2 (Patch 1.2.0)
- August 7th, 2023: Updated for patch 1.1.1.
- July 23rd, 2023: Updated Gems section to reflect the presence of Malignant Hearts.
- July 18th, 2023: Updated for Season 1 and added Skill Bar.
