Shifter Pulverize Endgame Druid Build for Diablo 4 (Season 5)

Build Introduction

Smash through the enemies of Sanctuary with the Shifter Pulverize! This is your guide for the balanced and dependable Shifter Pulverize Druid. This Human-Werebear combination build uses an Alternator style of builder-spender to create consistent gameplay and maximize available multipliers.

This guide covers everything necessary to get started on your Pulverize adventure including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates. The guide will primarily cover Endgame pushing, but will also offer alternative options, Variant Playstyles, and in-depth gameplay explanations.

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 are required for build functionality to get started on the Pulverize Druid:

Required Aspects

Shockwave Aspect

Aspect of the Ursine Horror

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Skill Bar Setup for Shifter Pulverize (order does not matter)

Blood Howl Petrify Poison Creeper Earthen Bulwark Storm Strike Pulverize

Storm Strike gives damage reduction and can apply Vulnerable. Wind Shear is also usable as our Basic Skill if a more ranged playstyle is preferred.

Spirit Boons – The Druid Specialization

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

Paragon Board

The following are the preferred Glyphs, Boards, and pathing recommended for making the most of the Shifter Pulverize Druid. All Glyphs are placed as if they are max radius (Level 15+).

Click this link to see the Paragon path in its entirety. Paragon Board images provided by d4builds.gg.

Starting Board

From the Starting Board, path up, placing the Poise Glyph into the Glyph Socket.

Heightened Malice

For the second board, choose Heightened Malice, placed against the Starting Board. Socket the Undaunted Glyph. The Legendary Node is not taken.

Earthen Devastation

For the third board, choose Earthen Devastation, placed against the right side of the Heightened Malice board, rotated once. Socket the Fang and Claw Glyph, and take the Legendary Node Earthen Devastation.

Inner Beast

For the fourth board, choose Inner Beast, placed against the bottom side of the Earthen Devastation board, rotated twice. Socket the Territorial Glyph, and take the Legendary Node Inner Beast.

Ancestral Guidance

For the fifth board, choose Ancestral Guidance, placed against the left side of the Inner Beast board. Take the Legendary Node Ancestral Guidance. We will finish this board with the Earth and Sky Glyph after placing the final board, Survival Instincts.

Survival Instincts

For the final board, choose Survival Instincts, placed against the left side of the Earthen Devastation board, rotated three times. Take the Survival Instincts Legendary Node, and socket the Werebear Glyph. Path down to the Ancestral Guidance board to socket the Earth and Sky Glyph.

For further info on Paragon choices, check the Paragon Information in the Additional Information Section.

Gear, Stats, Gems and Elixirs

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

Legendary Aspects

Gear Slots with multiple options are listed in recommended priority. Any slot with an Optional Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power.

Slot	Gem	Aspect	Unique/Legendary Power
2-Handed Mace	Royal Ruby	Shockwave Aspect	Pulverize creates a shockwave that travels forward, dealing 60-100% of its damage to targets in the path.
Helm	Royal Ruby	Recommended) Godslayer Crown OR Aspect of Might	When you Stun, Freeze, or Immobilize an Elite enemy, or damage a Boss, it Pulls In Nearby enemies. You deal 30-60% increased damage to them for 3 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 12 seconds.
Chest	Royal Ruby	(recommended) Insatiable Fury ORJuggernaut’s Aspect	Werebear form is now your true form, and you gain +2-5 Ranks to all Werebear Skills.
Gloves	N/A	Aspect of the Ursine Horror	Pulverize is now also an Earth Skill. After casting Pulverize, tectonic spikes continue to deal damage over 2 seconds.
Pants	Royal Ruby	Juggernaut’s Aspect OR Aspect of the Crowded Sage	You gain Armor, but your Evade has 100% increased Cooldown.
Boots	N/A	(Recommended) Wildheart Hunger OR (Offensive) Aspect of Concussive Strikes OR (Convenience) Wildbolt Aspect	When you Shapeshift into a Werewolf or a Werebear, you gain Wildheart for 5 seconds. Wildheart grants you 1-3% increased damage every 2 seconds, up to 20-60%
Amulet	Royal Diamond	Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt OR (optional)Banished Lord’s Talisman	You deal 25-55% increased damage while hitting a Poisoned enemy as a Werebear or a Crowd Controlled enemy as a Werewolf.
Ring 1	Royal Diamond	Aspect of Natural Balance	Casting a Storm Skill grants your Earth Skills 30-45% Critical Strike Damage for 4 seconds. Casting a Earth Skill increases the Critical Strike Chance of Storm Skills by 8-12% for 4 seconds.
Ring 2	Royal Diamond	(Recommended) Ring of Starless Skies OR Raw Might Aspect OR Blood Boiling Aspect	Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10% for 3 seconds, up to 50%.

Use a 2 Handed Mace for Overpower damage.

For the dedicated page for Gear Systems and Itemization Overview, check here.

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. 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.

Unique Items cannot be Tempered, but can be Mastercrafted. Any slot with an Optional Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power setup.

Slot	Gearing Affixes	Tempering Affixes
2 Handed Mace	Resource Cost Reduction Willpower Max Life Overpower Damage	Werebear Augments – Pulverize Size Natural Finesse – Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Helm – Godslayer Crown (optional)	All Stats Maximum Life Damage to Elites Cooldown Reduction
Helm – Legendary Aspect	Cooldown Reduction Max Life Willpower Spirit Per Second	Worldly Endurance – Max Life Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit: [Any of] Chance to Immobilize/Stun/Freeze for 2 seconds
Chest – Insatiable Fury (recommended)	Max Life Werebear Overpower Damage Ursine Strength’s Bonuses Ranks to Iron Fur
Chest – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Max Life Armor Spirit Per Second	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor OR Max Life Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit: [Any of] Chance to Immobilize/Stun/Freeze for 2 Seconds
Gloves	Critical Strike Chance Ranks to Pulverize Attack Speed Willpower	Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance OR Natural Finesse – Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit: [Any of] Chance to Immobilize/Stun/Freeze for 2 Seconds
Pants	Willpower Max Life Armor Dodge Chance	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor% Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit: [Any of] Chance to Immobilize/Stun/Freeze for 2 Seconds
Boots – Wildheart Hunger (optional)	Movement Speed Shapeshifting Attack Speed Cold Resistance Ranks to Heightened Senses
Boots – Legendary Aspect	Implicit: Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown By 1.5 Seconds Movement Speed Max Life Resistance to All Elements Spirit Per Second	Natural Motion – Movement Speed Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit: [Any of] Chance to Immobilize/Stun/Freeze for 2 Seconds
Amulet	Ranks to Envenom Ranks to Quickshift Critical Strike Chance Movement Speed Ranks to Resonance	Natural Motion – Movement Speed Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance
Amulet- (optional) Banished Lord’s Talisman	Maximum Life Attack Speed Overpower Damage Ranks to Core Skills
Ring – (Recommended)Ring of Starless Skies	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Ranks to Core Skills
Rings – Legendary Aspect	Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Maximum Life Resource Cost Reduction	Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance OR Natural Finesse – Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies Worldly Stability – Resource Generation

For pure functionality, the most important affixes for the Pulverize Druid is:

• Resource Cost Reduction on the 2-handed Weapon.
• Damage to Crowd Controlled enemies to max out Earthen Devastation. After reaching the 60% cap on the Legendary Node, take Offensive Tempers for Earth Critical Strike Chance.

Armor cap is 9230 against any enemies level 100 and above, for up to 85% Damage Reduction. This is generally reached at 925 Item Power with either one Armor Gear Affix and one Total Armor% Temper or using a Juggernaut’s Aspect.

For information on Legendary Aspects and the updated Codex of Power, see here.

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Royal Ruby for Overpower Damage	Royal Ruby For Max Life%	Royal Diamond for Resistance to all Elements

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 Precision for Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage.
• If mats are available, craft Chorus of War.
• Remember to upgrade your potion as you level, increasing the instant healing of the potion!

Unique Items

The following Uniques are recommended for the Pulverize Druid:

• (Recommended) Insatiable Fury gives Skill ranks to all Werebear Skills, including Pulverize, and the ranks to Iron Fur are a welcome defensive boost.
• (Recommended) Godslayer Crown is an effective grouping tool and strong damage multiplier. Crowd Control Lucky Hits from Tempers, Raw Might Aspect, Raging Pulverize, Immobilize from Poison Creeper and Utility Tempers for Crowd Control can trigger the effect.
• (Recommended) – Wildheart Hunger gives a stacking damage multiplier to Shapeshifting Skills. The 5 second buff will add a stack every two second. The Shifter Pulverize playstyle can upkeep this buff well. The boots are also a valuable source of Damage Reduction. However, non-unique Boots can have both movement speed as a gearing affix and as a temper, for more total movement speed. The shifter playstyle of Pulverize makes this not awful to maintain.
• (optional) Banished Lord’s Talisman was recently nerfed, so does not stand out as much as previous. However, A Legendary Amulet with ranks to Envenom, Quickshift and a high rank Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt will be overall more damage. As well, Tempers are available to the Legendary Power Amulet for more total movement speed.
• (Optional) Airidah’s Inexorable Will is still a high quality of life ring with decent affixes, including ultimate cooldown reduction. Can replace either ring slot.

Mythic Unique Items

• (Optional Defensive) Harlequin Crest is better defensively over Godslayer Crown, with strong Gear Affixes and ranks to all Skills. This can allow the build to push higher while staying safer.
• (Recommended) Ring of Starless Skies is a powerful Resource Cost Reduction tool and damage multiplier, with strong Gear Affixes.
• (Optional Defensive) Doombringer– Druids can now use swords! Doombringer is a chonky Damage Reduction and Max Health item. The Max Health% is a nice damage offset since it will boost our Overpowers. It may be a valid choice when pushing dangerous content where dying is punished, such as Infernal Hordes or high Pit. To use this item:
  • Move Shockwave Aspect to Amulet.
  • Move Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt to Totem.
  • On the Totem, look for Willpower, Critical Strike Chance (Mastercrafted), and Max Life. Temper Pulverize Size and Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies.
  • Mastercraft Damage Reduction or Max Life on the Doombringer.

Rotation and Playstyle

1. Blood Howl to increase Attack Speed and upkeep Werewolf Shapeshifting buffs such as Heightened Senses.
2. Storm Strike to upkeep buffs such like Aspect of Natural Balance and Resonance.
3. Poison Creeper to Immobilize and apply Poison.
4. Overpower setup: track when you will Overpower from Obsidian Slam boon, Enhanced Pulverize and if used,Blood Boiling Aspect. This is the best time to Petrify and trigger Godslayer Crown for the layered top-end multipliers for your Overpower Pulverize.
5. Pulverize to send out massive Critical Strikes to kill your enemies.
6. Use Storm Strike as filler for Spirit Generation.

Use Earthen Bulwark defensively and as sources of Unstoppable to break Crowd-Control effects.

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

Season 5: Season of the Infernal Hordes

The following list details the important changes in the Season 5 Patch Updates that are specific to the Pulverize Druid. For general Season 5 information, check out our Season 5 Hub.

Itemization:

• Several changes to Unique Item Gear Affixes and Unique Effects, including buffs to Insatiable Fury.
• Shepherd’s Aspect now only boosts Companion Skills, rather than Core and Wrath Skills.
• Druids can now use 1-Handed Swords, Daggers, and Polearms, allowing use of Doombringer.
• Aspect of Retaliation – Core Skill bonus damage based on Fortify increased from 15-25% to 25-40%.
• New – Wildbolt Aspect – 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.

Skills and Stats

• Gain 1% increased Skill Damage for every 8 primary Core Stat, reduced from 10 primary Core Stat.
• Pulverize damage buffed from 50 to 92.5%. Note: this line may be an error. Patch 1.4.3 put pulverize to 88% base, so either it got buffed up to 92.5% from 88 rather than 50, or will be much higher around the range to 162% if that’s a relative increase. Either way, Pulverize damage up which is great!
• Pulverize can now be cast while moving.
• Blood Howl now has the Shout tag.
• Cyclone Armor Non-Physical Damage Reduction increased from 10% to 15%.
• Vigilance Damage Reduction increased for each Skill Rank from 5% to 7%.
• Iron Fur Damage Reduction increased for each Skill Rank from 3% to 4%.
• Heightened Senses increased for each Skill Rank from 2% to 3%.
• Earthen Devastation now Capped at 60%, from 40%.
• Survival Instincts now Capped at 60%, from 50%.
• Werebear Damage increased from 6.6% to 9.9%, Damage Reduction increased from 10% to 15%.

Advanced Information

It is time to get started on your Pulverize journey!

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

Build Mechanics

Pulverize is our primary, high-damage Skill. Two Legendary Aspects modify the Skill:

• Shockwave Aspect creates a damaging wave along the path of the Pulverize. There is an overlap between the initial Pulverize and its shockwave, so enemies can be double-hit each Pulverize!
• Aspect of the Ursine Horror makes Pulverize an Earth Skill. Earth Skills are also Nature Skills, and this allows Pulverize to benefit from Nature-based modifiers like Aspect of Natural Balance and Resonance for strong multipliers.

To maintain the storm-based effects from Aspect of Natural Balance and Resonance, the Shifter Pulverize uses a Storm generator Basic Skill: either Storm Strike or Wind Shear by player preference. Storm Strike gives Damage Reduction and applies Vulnerable, while Wind Shear gives some move speed and enables a ranged playstyle.

The build will generally alternate between the Basic Skill builder and the Spender Pulverize to maintain these and keep Spirit building and spending. This also shapeshifts the player, refreshing buffs like Quickshift and Unique item Wildheart Hunger.

Periodic Overpowered attacks will deal massive damage to enemies. Enhanced Pulverize, Spirit Boon Obsidian Slam, and if used, Banished Lord’s Talisman and Blood Boiling Aspect are the sources. The build is heavy on Max Life and Fortify so Overpower hits can be deadly!

Our Supporting Skills are Blood Howl, Poison Creeper, and Earthen Bulwark:

• Blood Howl gives Attack Speed and is also the method to refresh Werewolf buffs like Heightened Senses.
• Poison Creeper periodically poisons enemies, and the active Skill use Immobilizes and Poisons enemies in a wide area.
• Earthen Bulwark is another defensive layer, also applying Unstoppable.

This build uses Petrify as its Ultimate Skill. It is a welcome Crowd Control, Spirit Generator, and heavy Critical Strike Damage multiplier.

The Key Passive for this build is Ursine Strength, for the consistent damage multiplier, Overpower damage, and Max life. Max Life is of course even more Overpower damage! Bestial Rampage can potentially be more total output. However, the Werewolf buff would need to be maintained by using Blood Howl and staying in Form for 2 seconds, which can be disruptive. Claw can also be used over Storm Strike as a convenience method, at the cost of losing synergies like Resonance.

Paragon

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 Shifter Pulverize Druid are listed above. The following section goes over some explanations and descriptions for the pathing process for the Shifter Pulverize 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 Earth and Sky and Fang and Claw
  • Legendary Nodes such as Ancestral Guidance and Earthen Devastation.
  • Magic and Rare nodes such as
• Defense – The paragon boards help reach goals on Damage Reduction, Armor and Resistances. This includes:
  • Damage Reduction is improved from Undaunted, Werebear and Territorial secondary effects, as well as individual nodes providing bonuses like Damage Reduction from Poisoned Enemies
  • Resistances are improved from Magic and Rare Resistance nodes, with Earth and Sky and Fang and Claw bonuses improving their nearby Resistance nodes.
  • Armor goals are reached with the help of Armor nodes in Inner Beast.
• Build Functionality – The paragon boards improve Spirit Generation for the build from a few sources, including:
  • Legendary Node Inner Beast.
  • Various Max Spirit and Spirit on kill Magic and Rare nodes on the Ancestral Guidance board.
  • Intelligence nodes increase Spirit Generation.

Spirit Generation

This build is a Basic Attack and Spender alternating build; cast your Basic Skill, cast your Pulverize. This maintains several shapeshifting and storm-earth multipliers. Spirit is managed from a variety of sources:

1. Resource Cost Reduction on 2-handed weapon, and Spirit Generation Tempers on Rings.
2. The Inner Beast Legendary Node grants discounts on Spirit cost.
3. Paragon Nodes in Ancestral Guidance for Spirit on Kill and Max Spirit.
4. The Wolf’s Spirit Boon Energize.

This is generally sufficient in the Endgame to maintain the Spirit balance for an Alternator playstyle. However, if these are insufficient sources while leveling and gearing, consider using one or more of the following supplementary options:

• Spirit Per Second on Chest and Helm.
• Use Starlight Aspect, replacing Raw Might Aspect.
• Use Aspect of Quicksand with Aspect of the Umbral.

Variant Playstyles

Druids generally have options available to flex between depending on game stage, gearing process, playstyle tempo, or accessibility.

Cataclysm Pulverize

New to Season 5, Mjölnic Ryng is strong for several builds. Notably any throughput builds, giving Unlimited Spirit and increased damage while Cataclysm is active.

Here’s the considerations for using this variant:

• Pulverize Druid maxes damage on layered periodic Critical Overpowers, and this plays around many multiplier aspects including Petrify. So the Cataclysm Style may not be standout from the Petrify playstyle.
• Paragon Nodes like Ancestral Guidance will not work with the effect. We also would have to trade off important Boons like Obsidian Slam or Iron Feather.
• The perks are that pulverize becomes less worry, more smashy: The Unlimited Spirit means Pulverize costs zero Spirit while Cataclysm is active. Chaining together Pulverize is chill for farm or more trivial content.
• This also opens up options like Crown of Lucion, which is normally prohibitively costly on Spirit, Even with Cataclysm active, the buffs from Crown of Lucion and Ring of Starless Skies still stack up. However, it’s not the largest increase over Godslayer Crown and the grip on Godslayer is high quality of life. Use the Crown at your discretion.

Only a few adjustments are needed to play around the Mjölnic Ryng:

• Use the Calamity and Calm before the Storm boons, replacing Energize and Iron Feather.
• Exchange Supreme Petrify with Supreme Cataclysm.
• Use Mjölnic Ryng; target Endless Tempest for Greater Affix and Mastercraft. Use alongside your Ring of Starless Skies.
• Since Ancestral Guidance will not work, try THIS PARAGON BOARD, courtesy of d4builds.gg. It rearranges the board a bit to swap out Ancestral Guidance for Heightened Malice.
• As needed, use Ultimate Efficiency  Resource Tempers for Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction. Airidah’s Inexorable Will is also a valid choice, as it has Ultimate Cooldown as well.

Gauntlet Optimization

For speed-clearing the Gauntlet, check out the Pulverize Shred Druid here:

Changelog

• 7 August, 2024: Updated for post-launch of season 5. Small changes to weapon type and optional unique item recommendations.
• 5 August, 2024: Updated for Patch 1.5.0 and Season of the Infernal Hordes.
• 17 June, 2024: Updated for mid-season patch 1.4.3.
• May 15, 2024: Small changes in gear affixes to adjust for season launch changes from PTR.
• May 6, 2024: Guide reworked for the significant 1.4.0 changes to gearing and for season 4 speculative changes. Format changed to frontload basic build information and offer extra information and options afterwards. Paragon Board redesigned for better Damage Reduction and output.
• February 5, 2024: Significant changes to recommended Gear Affixes, Skill Tree, and Paragon tree, to optimize for better total damage, Max Life, Resistance, and Armor. Added separate Bossing and non-Bossing options to Construct Stone recommendations.
• January 26, 2024: Adjustments to Construct Stone recommendations. Adjustments to Legendary Power and Unique recommendations.
• January 22, 2024: Initial review and reevaluation for Season 3 and 1.3.0 balance changes has begun.
• December 7, 2023: Updates to paragon board for Abattoir of Zir.
• October 18, 2023: Update to Vampiric Power recommendations, Boon options and various tooltip updates.
• October 16, 2023: Initial review and reevaluation has begun to update the guide for Season 2 and 1.2.0 balance changes.
• August 7th, 2023: Added Patch 1.1.1 section and checked guide for accuracy.
• July 25th, 2023: Restructured Introduction.
• July 23rd, 2023: Included Malignant Heart recommendations in the Gems section.
• July 19th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1 and 1.1 balance changes.