Lightning Slide – Druid Build for Diablo 4

Build Introduction

The Lightning Slide Druid build is based around using Legendary aspects to increase the damage Landslide deals while also automating casting Lightning Storm to immobilize our enemies by filling the screen with lightning bolts with Nature’s Fury. This is your guide to building a character for endgame activities in Diablo 4, with the optimal setup for skills, gear, and Paragon points.

Landslide is the highest base damage Core Skill that Druid has access to and we do everything we can to make it stronger. Aspect of The Aftershock makes our Landslide hit twice per cast and deal increased damage per hit. We use multiple Uniques like Earthbreaker and Mjölnic Ryng, to increase the damage that our Landslide will do.

These Aspects and Uniques, combined with the Skill Tree, and Paragon Boards will make you capable of clearing full packs with the press of one button. This build is capable of taking you into the endgame, achieving Level 60, and beyond.

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

Required Uniques

Earthbreaker

Vasily’s Prayer

Insatiable Fury

Required Aspects

Aspect of The Aftershock

Aspect of Natural Balance

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Blood Howl Lightning Storm Trample Cataclysm Earth Spike Landslide

This endgame build guide assumes your character is at least Level 60 and that you have access to all the aforementioned Unique items. Check the Druid Leveling Guide for a smooth path to Level 60.

Spirit Boons – The Druid Specialization

Below is the order in which you should unlock your Spirit Boons. Only offer enough Druidic Spirit Offerings to unlock the first 4 listed Boons and then fully unlock the rest to activate the final Boon with Spirit Bonding.

Paragon

Starting Board

Place Werebear into the glyph socket and grab the rare nodes placing Constricting Tendrils board as you exit north

Constricting Tendrils

Grab the Legendary and Rare nodes and place Tectonic into the glyph socket and head out the North exit placing the Earthen Devastation board

Earthen Devastation

Grab the Legendary and Rare nodes and place the Territorial glyph in the glyph socket then head back to the Constricting Tendrils board and Exit out the West side placing the Heightened Malice Board

Heightened Malice

Grab the Legendary and Rare nodes placing the Undaunted glyph into the glyph socket exiting the west side of the board placing the Survival Instincts board

Survival Instincts

Grab the Legendary and Rare nodes placing the Headhunter glyph into the glyph socket. Use any excess points to fill in the normal nodes within the glyph radius to gain stats you need to get the bonuses on your Rare nodes.

Paragon Board images courtesy of d4builds.gg.

For an in-depth analysis of each board and our particular node choices, please see the detailed Paragon section here.

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

For details on Tempering and Masterworking make sure to read our Tempering and Masterworking section below.

Legendary Aspects

Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the assigned slot. Additionally, if you are trying to farm a specific item, we recommend using your Obols to target farm them!

Gear Slot	Gems	Aspect / Unique	Legendary Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Grand Sapphire	Vasily’s Prayer	Your Earth Skills are now also Werebear Skills and Fortify you for [X]
Chest	Grand Sapphire	Insatiable Fury	Werebear form is now your true form, and you gain +2 – 5 Ranks to all Werebear Skills.
Gloves	N/A	Aspect of The Aftershock	Landslide’s earth pillars each strike a second time and deal an additional [6 – 12]% bonus damage per hit.
Pants	Grand Sapphire	Wildbolt Aspect	Every 3.5-2 seconds, Distant enemies are Pulled in front of you and electrified causing them to take 30% bonus damage from all sources for 3 seconds. This effect may occur every 5 seconds per enemy.
Boots	N/A	Rakanoth’s Wake	When you cast a Skill with a Cooldown, you explode, dealing [X] Fire damage.
Amulets(50% bonus)	Grand Diamond	Aspect of Natural Balance	Casting a Storm Skill grants your Earth Skills [30 – 45%] Critical Strike Damage for 4 seconds. Casting an Earth Skill increases the Critical Strike Chance of Storm Skills by [8 – 12%] for 4 seconds.
Ring	Grand Diamond	Earthbreaker	Landslide causes the ground to erupt in tectonic spikes which continue to deal 0.6-0.9 damage over 2 seconds. Casting Landslide in this area has a 20-30% chance to cause additional Landslide pillars to spawn within.
Ring	Grand Diamond	Mjölnic Ryng	While Cataclysm is active, you gain unlimited Spirit and deal x(40-100%) increased damage.
1- Handed Weapon	Grand Emerald	Accelerating Aspect	Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [10 – 25%] for 5 seconds.
Offhand	Grand Emerald	Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt	You deal x [25 – 55%] increased damage while hitting a Poisoned enemy as a Werebear or a Crowd Controlled enemy as a Werewolf.

Gems and Runewords

See below for a more detailed explanation of the best Gems to socket into your gear for each category.

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Emerald For Increased Critical Strike Damage	Grand Sapphire For increased Willpower.	Grand Diamond Or Whatever Resist you need

Runewords are a flexible power to help strengthen a build or fill its weaknesses. Two Runes combine for the effect:

• A conditional trigger Runeword of Ritual that supplies Offerings when the condition is met
• An effect Runeword of Invocation that costs Offerings.

Once the Runeword of Ritual has supplied enough Offerings, the Runeword of Invocation will trigger its effect. Some Runewords of Invocation will have overflow effects, where excess Offerings will spillover to empower the triggered effect.

Runewords replace Gems in gear. Up to two sets of Runeword pairs can be placed at a time.

Runeword Combination	Effects
Lith Wat	Gain: 25 Offering. Stand still while fighting for 0.3 seconds. Requires: 100 Offering Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them.
Xol Yom	Gain: 150 Offering. Evoke power from another Class. Requires: 500 Offering Evoke the Druid’s Petrify, Stunning enemies and Granting 100 Primary Resource

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Elixir of Advantage II to increase Attack Speed. Some Elixirs cannot be crafted and only drop from things like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. Additionally, make sure to keep your health potion upgraded!

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Below are the affixes to prioritize on gear. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Affixes on the same line are considered to be equally important, but their benefits may vary depending on how much is stacked or other character stats. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the second column, and the bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.

Additionally, there are several very specific affixes that are required to make the build work, they are as follows:

• Ultimate Efficiency —  Druid:: [8-12.5%] Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction

Slot	Targeted Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helm	Vasily’s Prayer 1. Ranks to Defensive Posture	Mandatory Unique
Chest	Insatiable Fury 1. Ranks to Iron Fur	Mandatory Unique
Gloves	1. Ranks to Landslide 2. % Attack Speed 3. Willpower	Earth Finesse: [41.5 – 55%] Earth Damage Worldly Fortune: Lucky Hit: Up to a [13.5 – 22.5%] Chance to Immobilize for 2 Seconds
Pants	1. Willpower 2. Maximum Life 3. % to any Resistance	Natural Resistance: 36.5-50% to any Resistance Worldly Fortune: Lucky Hit: Up to a [13.5 – 22.5%] Chance to Immobilize for 2 Seconds
Boots	Rakanoth’s Wake 1. Cooldown Reduction	Mandatory Unique
Amulet	1. Ranks to Heightened Senses/Quickshift 2.% Attack Speed	Earth Finesse: [41.5 – 55%] Earth Damage Ultimate Efficiency —  Druid: [8-12.5%] Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction
Rings	Earthbreaker 1. Ranks to Landslide and Mjölnic Ryng 1. Ranks to Endless Tempest	Mandatory Unqiues
1h-Weapons	1. Willpower 2. Vulnerable Damage 3. % Critical Strike Damage	Earth Augments: [13 – 17.5%] Chance for Landslide Projectiles to Cast Twice Earth Finesse: [41.5 – 55%] Earth Damage
Offhand	1. Willpower 2. % Lucky Hit Chance 3. % Cooldown Reduction	Earth Augments: [13 – 17.5%] Chance for Landslide Projectiles to Cast Twice Earth Finesse: [41.5 – 55%] Earth Damage

Keep in mind that the maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources.

Mercenaries

Defensive

Main Mercenary – Raheir, The Shieldbearer

• Core Skill: Shield Charge
• Core Passive: Raheir’s Guard
• Iconic Skill: Provoke
• Iconic Passive: Mocking Lure

Reinforcement – Subo, The Drunken Archer

• Reinforcement Ability – Wire Trap
• Opportunity: TBD

Offensive

Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker

• Core Skill: Cleave
• Core Passive: Hysteria
• Iconic Skill: Bloodthirst
• Iconic Passive: Bloodlust

Reinforcement – Subo, The Drunken Archer

• Reinforcement Ability – Wire Trap
• Opportunity: TBD

Rotation and Playstyle

Our damage rotation is actually a priority system and it is the same for AoE and Single Target situations:

1. Keep Heightened Senses, Quickshift, up by using Blood Howl and Landslide
2. Use Landslide to cast Lightning Storm with Nature’s Fury procs causing our lightning storm to rapidly fill the screen with lightning bolts based on attack speed.
3. Keep Cataclysm up as much as possible due to the Mjölnic Ryng buff.

Make sure to check out the advanced Build Mechanics section for a more in-depth description of how the build works, what synergies exist, and what to look out for.

Uniques and Mythic Uniques

Below you will find information on Uniques and Mythic Uniques that are useful for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide.

Uniques

Listed below are the recommended and optional Unique Items for this build.

• Vasily’s Prayer
• Insatiable Fury
• Earthbreaker
• Rakanoth’s Wake
• Mjölnic Ryng

Mythic Uniques

The information below lists our recommendations for which Mythic Uniques will work best with this build and which Aspects they should replace. If a Unique or Mythic Unique is not listed here, it is NOT recommended and won’t benefit this specific build in any way.

• Doombringer – Replace Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt and put Accelerating Aspect on the offhand
• Tyrael’s Might – Replace Insatiable Fury to gain more tankiness and fill your screen with more bolts

Season 6: Vessel of Hatred

The following list details the changes in the Season 6 Update (Patch 2.0.2) that may pertain to Druid.

• Fixed an issue where the Druid Legendary Nodes Devastation and Thunderstruck did not function.
• Uniques:
• Tempering:
  • Lightning Augments
    • +X% Chance for Stormstrike to Hit Twice
    • +X% Chance for Lightning Storm to Deal Double Damage
    • +X% Chance for Cataclysm to Deal Double Damage
• Gem stat updates, starting with Chipped, ending with Grand:
  • Ruby (+ Strength), Emerald (+ Dexterity), Topaz (+ Intelligence), Sapphire (+ Willpower): +25/50/75/100/150.
  • Amethyst (+% Barrier Generation): +2/4/6/8/12.
  • Diamond (+ All Stats): +8/16/24/32/50.
  • Skull (+% Healing Received): +4/6/8/10/15.
• Passives/Skill:
  • Heightened Senses
    • Previous: When Shapeshifting into an animal form, Werebear grants 3/6/9% Damage Reduction and Werewolf grants 2/4/6%[+] Movement Speed for 6 seconds. Bonuses are doubled while both are active.
    • Now: When Shapeshifting, Werebear grants 3/6/9% Damage Reduction and Werewolf grants 2/4/6%[+] Movement Speed. Both bonuses persist as long as you are in either animal form and are doubled while both are active. They are lost after 3 seconds in Human form.
  • Quickshift
    • Previous: When Shapeshifting into a new animal form, you deal 1/2/3%[x] increased damage for 8 seconds, up to 8/16/24%[x].
    • Now: Shapeshifting into a new animal form grants 1/2/3%[x] increased damage, up to 6/12/18%[x]. This bonus is lost after 3 seconds in Human form.
  • Petrify
    • Previous: Encase all Nearby enemies in stone, Stunning them for 3 seconds. You deal 30%[x] increased Critical Strike Damage to enemies affected by Petrify. Against Bosses the Critical Strike Damage bonus is increased to 50%[x] and its duration is increased to 6 seconds.
    • Now: Generates 100 Spirit. Encase all Nearby enemies in stone, Stunning them for 4 seconds.
  • Perfect Storm
    • Storm Skill damage bonus increased from 40%[x] to 45%[x].
  • Nature’s Fury
    • Fixed an issue where the Passive incorrectly triggered from skills other than Casts.
  • Cataclysm
    • Lightning Strike damage increased from 95% to 115% Weapon Damage.
    • Lightning Strikes now cannot hit the same target more than once every 0.5 seconds.
  • Innate Debilitating Roar reworked
    • Previous – Debilitating Roar also slows enemies for 65% for its duration.
    • Now – Debilitating Roar increases your damage by 15%[x] for its duration.
  • One With Nature
    • Key Passive: Your Companion Skills each gain 1 additional companion and deal 60 50%[x] increased damage. Gain the Passive Effect of Ravens, Wolves and Poison Creeper.
  • Humanity
    • You deal 5/10/15%[x] more damage while in Human form.
  • Feral Aptitude
    • You deal 3%[x] increased damage while Healthy and 3%[x] increased damage while above 100% Movement Speed. These bonuses can stack.
  • Backlash
    • You deal 4%[x] increased damage for 5 seconds after casting a Defensive Skill.
• Aspects:
• Paragon:
  • Legendary Node
    • Untamed: Casting a Companion Skill grants 20%[x] increased Companion damage for 5 seconds, stacking up to 80%[x].
  • Ancestral Guidance Board
    • Resolve (replacing Recuperate)
      • Previous: +4% Potion Healing / +10 Life per Second
      • Now: (Resolve) +3% Resistance to All Elements / 4% Maximum Life
    • Ancestral Guidance
      • Damage bonus after spending 75 Spirit increased from 30%[x] to 40%[x].
    • Guidance (replacing Resolve)
      • Previous: +3% Resistance to All Elements / +10 Willpower
      • Now: (Guidance) +10% Damage / +10 Willpower
  • Lust for Carnage Board
    • Ripper (replacing Regenerative)
      • Previous: +4% Healing Received / +10 Willpower
      • Now: (Ripper) +15% Critical Strike Damage / +10 Willpower
    • Ferocity
      • Previous: +10% Werewolf Damage / +15% Critical Strike Damage
      • Now: +3% Resistance to All Elements / 4% Maximum Life
    • Lust for Carnage
      • Previous: Critical Strikes with Werewolf Skills restore 2 Spirit.
      • Now: Critical Strikes with Werewolf Skills restore 2 Spirit and deal 50%[x] increased damage.
  • Thunderstruck
    • Concentrated (replacing Hubris)
      • Previous: 4% Damage Reduction from Vulnerable Enemies / +10 Willpower
      • Now: (Concentrated) +16% Damage to Elites / +10 Willpower
    • Hubris (replacing Restorative)
      • Previous: +4% Potion Healing / 4% Maximum Life
      • Now: (Hubris) 4% Damage Reduction from Vulnerable Enemies / +4% Healing Received
    • Concentrated
      • Elite Damage changed to Damage to Close Enemies.
    • Deluge
      • Critical Strike Damage changed to Damage to Distant Enemies.
    • Tempest
      • Critical Strike Damage changed to Critical Strike Chance.
  • Rare Nodes
    • Apex: +25% Companion Damage, +10 Willpower 6.5% Damage Reduction from Elites
    • Ferocity: +2.5% Companion Cooldown Reduction, +20 Armor
    • Fortune: +25% Companion Damage +5.0% Lucky Hit Chance, +10 Willpower
    • Resolve: +3% Resistance to All Elements, +10 Willpower
    • Lucky Winds: +5% Lucky Hit Chance, +10% Vulnerable Damage
    • Eminence: +6.5% Damage Reduction from Elites, 4% Maximum Life

Advanced Information

Below, you will find every additional piece of information you need to know for a more in-depth look at this build.

Build Mechanics

The Lightning Slide Druid Druid build utilizes multiple Legendary Aspects that work together to allow us to quickly and safely destroy any enemies in our way. If you can get them, Vasily’s Prayer and Insatiable Fury will increase our damage and defensiveness immensely.

The build is centered around making Landslide as strong as possible and using it and Nature’s Fury to cast Lightning Storm; to do this we try and get as many ranks of Landslide as possible to increase its base damage. Talents like Raging Landslide are taken to generate more Pillars, and talents like Crushing Earth are used to increase damage against Slowed, Stunned, Immobilized, and Knocked Back enemies.

Keep in mind that Nature’s Fury makes our triggered spell casts count as both Earth and Storm skills so Lightning Storm benefits from a large number of things as well.

We poison and immobilize enemies with our Nature skill by taking the Constricting Tendrils Legendary Paragon Node.

There is one more way we scale all of our Earth skills; Fortified. Due to our Legendary Aspects, Uniques, and some of our skill choices, we should almost always have the Fortified status active.

Defenses

The multilayered defenses of this build start with the damage reduction nodes we take on our skill tree and in our paragon board. By being in Werebear Form as much as possible we have a very large amount of DR thanks to Iron Fur and Heightened Senses.

Fortify

Fortify is generated through all of our Earth Skills. Once the Fortify amount is greater than or equal to your current life, you become Fortified and gain a starting default of 15% Damage Reduction.

Paragon Information

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

The recommended Paragon boards with images for the Lightning Slide Druid are listed above. The following section goes over some explanations and descriptions for the pathing process for the Lightning Slide 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 Werebear, Spirit, and Territorial
  • Legendary Nodes such as Constricting Tendrils and Survival Instincts
  • Magic and Rare nodes such as Impel and Prime
• Defense – The paragon boards help reach goals on Damage Reduction, Armor and Resistances. This includes:
  • Damage Reduction is improved from nodes likeWerebear, Undaunted, and Territorial
  • Resistances are improved from Magic and Rare Resistance nodes Resolve
• Build Functionality – The paragon boards improve our build functionality by including the following nodes:
  • The Legendary Nodes Constricting Tendrils combined with Heightened Malice and Survival Instincts

Obol Gambling

Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Check out the new tool from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below:

Changelog

• October 3rd, 2024: Updated for Season 6 (Patch 2.0.2)
• August 10th, 2024: Changed Paragon, Updated Skills, and Made Changes due to current bugs.
• August 4th, 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 added Malignant Hearts, changed Aspects, updated Skill Tree and Skill Bar.