Lightning Slide Druid Endgame Build for Diablo 4 (Season 5)

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, Mjölnic Ryng, and Wildheart Hunger 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 100, 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 50 and that you have access to all the aforementioned Unique items. Check the Druid Leveling Guide for a smooth path to Level 50.

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

We recommend using the following Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 21 version.

1. Starting Board

For the Starting Board path up along the right side, place Spirit in the Glyph Socket and grab just enough Dexterity to reach the bonus for it as we exit along the right side heading North and placing the Heightened Malice Board.

2. Heightened Malice

Follow the path as shown in the image above grabbing the legendary node first and skipping the nodes outside the radius heading North as we will come back for those later. Place the Territorial Glyph in the Glyph Socket and head out the Northside of the board and place the Constricting Tendrils Board.

3. Constricting Tendrils

Follow the path as shown above grabbing the Legendary Node first then head to the Glyph socket and allocate the Tectonic glyph allocating the highlighted nodes inside the radius. After that skip the western exit for now and head east and place the Earthen Devastation board.

4. Earthen Devastation

We take a quick dip into Earthen Devastation just to grab Legendary Node and the glyph socket while allocating Werebear the glyph making sure to grab just enough Willpower to enable the bonus and making sure to grab both of the rare nodes within the radius, then head back to the Constricting Tendrils Board and take the West exit and place the Lust for Carnage Board.

5. Lust for Carnage

On this board we grab the Attack Speed nodes, the Glyph Socket Allocating Undaunted and then we jump back to the Earthen Devastation Board and head out the South Exit placing Inner Beast

6. Inner Beast

We take a quick dip into Inner Beast just to grab the Attack Speed nodes and then head back over to Lust for Carnage and exit North placing Survival Instincts

7. Survival Instincts

We jump into our last board Survival Instincts to grab the legendary node, and some valuable Damage Reduction 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

The previous season (Season of Loot Reborn) brought us an incredible shift in how gear and itemization are done. It is a major and will affect the game beyond Season 5‘s confines. For further details, 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	Royal Ruby	Vasily’s Prayer	Your Earth Skills are now also Werebear Skills and Fortify you for [X]
Chest	Royal Ruby	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	Royal Ruby	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	Wildheart Hunger	When you Shapeshift into a Werewolf or a Werebear, you gain Wildheart for 5 seconds. Wildheart grants you 1-3% stacking damage every 2 seconds up to 20-60%.
Amulets(50% bonus)	Royal 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	Royal 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	Royal Diamond	Mjölnic Ryng	While Cataclysm is active, you gain unlimited Spirit and deal x(40-100%) increased damage.
1- Handed Weapon	Royal Emerald	Accelerating Aspect	Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [10 – 25%] for 5 seconds.
Offhand	Royal 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

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
Royal Emerald For increased Critical Strike	Royal Ruby For increased Maximum Life.	Royal Diamond All Resistances

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. To masterwork, you will need rare materials that only drop from The Pit. Be sure to check our Tempering guide, our Masterworking guide, as well as our guide about The Pit 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	Wildheart Hunger 1. Ranks to Heightened Senses	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.

Rotation and Playstyle

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

1. Keep Wildheart Hunger, 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
• Wildheart Hunger
• 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. Mythic Uniques can start dropping from monsters Level 55 or higher and will always drop at 925 item power. 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 5: Infernal Hordes

The following list details the changes in the Season 5 Update (Patch 1.5.0) that may pertain to Druid.

• Aspects and Uniques
  • Every Unique was changed with this Season, too many to list, we will show you the new uniques and the aspects that were changed below
  • Aftershock
    • Delay from second set of landslides slightly decreased.
  • MjÖlnic Ryng
    • Affixes
      • + [10.0%] Resistance to All Elements
      • + [10.0%] Shadow Resistance
      • + [99-135] Willpower
      • + [6.0-8.0]% Critical Strike Chance
      • + [16.0-25.0]% Movement Speed while Cataclysm is Active
      • + [1-2] to endless Tempest (Druid Only)
    • Power
      • While Cataclysm is active, you gain unlimited Spirit and deal [X] [40-100]% increased damage.
  • The Basilisk – Staff
    • Affixes
      • + 130% Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
      • + [16-25]% Earth Attack Speed
      • + [80-100]% Critical Strike Damage
      • + [125-170]% Physical Damage
      • + [21-30]% Critical Strike Chance Against Stunned Enemies
    • Power
      • When you first hit an enemy when an Earth Skill, Petrify them for 3 seconds. Petrifying an enemy additionally deals [4412-26472] Physical Damage.
  • Wildbolt
    • Every [3.5-2] seconds, Distance enemies are pulled in front of you and electrified causing them to take 10% bonus damage from all sources for 3 seconds. This effect may occur every 5 seconds per enemy.
• Landslide
  • Damage per hit of Landslide increased from 37.5% to 70%.
  • Damage area increased from 1.5 to 2.
  • Doubled the number of pillars.
  • Total damage increased from 70% to 280%.
• Cataclysm
  • Lightning Strike rate is doubled.
  • Now more consistently hits enemies with its lightning strikes.
• Iron Fur
  • Damage Reduction increased for each Skill Rank from 3% to 4%.
• Heightened Senses
  • Damage Reduction increased for each Skill Rank from 2% to 3%.
• Aftershock
  • Delay from second set of landslides slightly decreased.
• Werebear Glyph
  • Damage bonus increased from 6.6% to 9.9%.
  • Damage Reduction increased from 10% to 15%.

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 Primal Landslide and Earthen Might are taken to guarantee Crits, and talents like Crushing Earth are used to increase damage against Slowed, Stunned, Immobilized, and Knocked Back enemies.

By immobilizing or stunning enemies we gain Terramotes from Primal Landslide it causes our Landslide to cause a guaranteed Crit.

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 50, 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 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

• 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.