Shred – Druid Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 8)

Updated for Season 8

Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Introduction

The Shred Druid dashes and rips into the foes of Sanctuary, every strike echoing the ferocity of a werewolf under the moonlit sky. This build excels at speed, mobility, and easy clear for farm content. Gather and destroy enemies with powerful Shred and cleave bursts of lightning with your Stormclaw’s Aspect.

Just starting on your druid adventure? Try out the Shred Leveling Build and swap to this one at Level 60.

Build Requirements

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

Required Aspects

Stormclaw’s Aspect

Waxing Gibbous

Get more info on the Uniques supporting this build in the Uniques section.

Quick Navigation

This guide covers everything necessary to get started on the Shred Druid, including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates. Jump to the sections you’re looking for here:

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Skill Bar for Shred Druid

Debilitating Roar Earthen Bulwark Blood Howl Hurricane Petrify Shred

Primal Shred is excellent in speed clearing content.
Raging Shred can be used in harder push content where the extra damage is notable and enemies are living long enough for the Poison damage to matter. Seasonal Power Ashava’s Poison Breath is also buffed by this.

If you are missing skill points, complete Renown events in each zone. See how these Skills play in the Rotation and Gameplay section.

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.

While Leveling and Gearing, Gift of the Stag, Energize and Scythe Talons can all be used for easier Spirit Management.

Masochistic and Iron Feather are options for more survivability in push content. Replaces Calm Before the Storm and Swooping Attacks.

Druid’s primary resource is Spirit. See the Spirit Management Section on how to keep casting!

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

Check these sections for all important Shred gearing considerations to improve the power of your character in the endgame.

Legendary Aspects

Gear Slots with multiple options are listed in recommended priority. Any slot with an Optional Mythic Unique or Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power to use while still leveling and gearing. Combine these with the right stat priorities.

Slot	Gem	Aspect	Unique/Legendary Aspect Power
Weapon	Grand Emerald	(Recommended Unique)Waxing Gibbous	Killing an enemy with Shred grants Stealth for 2 seconds. Breaking Stealth with an attack grants guaranteed Critical Strikes for 1-4 seconds.
Totem	Grand Emerald	Aspect of the Blurred Beast	Shred deals 55-75% more damage, and Shred’s first dash lands up to 4 additional strikes based on distance travelled.
Helm	MoniXan	(Recommended Mythic) Heir of Perdition (Recommended Unique)Godslayer Crown Vigorous Aspect	Give in to hatred and earn Lilith’s Favor, increasing your damage dealt by 60%. Slaughter enemies to briefly steal Lilith’s Favor from Nearby allies.
Chest	IgniYom	(Recommended Mythic) Shroud of False Death (Recommended Unique)Mad Wolf’s Glee Juggernaut’s Aspect	If you haven’t attacked in the last 2 seconds, gain Stealth and 40% Movement Speed.
Gloves		Stormclaw’s Aspect	Critical Strikes with Shred deal 60-80% of the damage dealt as Lightning damage to the target and surrounding enemies.
Pants	Grand Sapphire	Aspect of the Agile Wolf	Shred gains a 4th Dash attack that hits all surrounding enemies, deals 20-60% increased damage, and Knocks Down enemies for 2 seconds.
Boots		(Recommended Offensive)Wildheart Hunger Stormshifter’s Aspect	Shapeshifting into a new animal form increases the value of your Bestial Rampage bonuses by 2-5%, up to 20-50%. This bonus decays by 2% per second.
Amulet	Grand Diamond	Aspect of the Unsatiated	After Critically Striking an enemy with Shred, you gain 15 Spirit. While at 100 Spirit, Werewolf Skills deal 20-40%[x] increased damage until you go below 30 Spirit.
Ring 1	Grand Diamond	(Push)Hunter’s Zenith (Farm) Airidah’s Inexorable Will  Aspect of Retaliation	Every 30 seconds you spend in an animal form, your next Core Skill is guaranteed to Overpower and Critically Strike, and deals 30-60% increased damage. Casting a Shapeshifting Skill reduces this timer by 1 second, or 2 seconds if it changes you to a new animal form.
Ring 2	Grand Diamond	(Recommended Mythic)Ring of Starless Skies (Spirit Management) Starlight Aspect	Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10% for 3 seconds, up to 50%.

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

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Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance, and some alternatives are given. 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.

Slot	Gearing Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Weapon – (Recommended Unique) Waxing Gibbous	Critical Strike Damage Blood Howl Grants Stealth for 1-4 seconds Ranks to Shred Ranks to Toxic Claws
1 Handed Dagger	Willpower Max Life Chance to Restore Resource Critical Strike Damage	Werewolf Augments – Chance for Shred to Deal Double Damage Werewolf Finesse – Werewolf Attack Speed
Totem	Cooldown Reduction Willpower Lucky Hit Chance Chance to Heal Chance to Restore Resource	Werewolf Augments – Chance for Shred to Deal Double Damage Werewolf Finesse – Werewolf Attack Speed
Helm – (Recommended Mythic) Heir of Perdition	Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Movement Speed Ranks in Core Skills
Helm – (Recommended Unique) Godslayer Crown	All Stats Maximum Life Damage to Elites Cooldown Reduction
Helm – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Max Life Cooldown Reduction Armor	Shapeshifting Endurance – Blood Howl Cooldown Reduction Worldly Fortune – Impairment Reduction
Chest – (Recommended Mythic) Shroud of False Death	All Stats Maximum Life Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth Resource Generation
Chest – (Recommended Unique) Mad Wolf’s Glee	Max Life Werewolf Attack Speed Lupine Ferocity’s Damage Bonus Ranks to Digitigrade Gait
Chest – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Max Life Spirit Per Second Armor	Shapeshifting Endurance – Blood Howl Cooldown Reduction Nature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration
Gloves – Legendary Aspect	Critical Strike Chance Ranks to Shred Attack Speed Willpower	Werewolf Finesse – Werewolf Attack SpeedNature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration
Pants	Armor Willpower Max Life Dodge Chance	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor Nature Magic Innovation – Hurricane Duration
Boots – (Recommended Unique) Wildheart Hunger	Movement Speed Shapeshifting Attack Speed Cold Resistance Ranks to Heightened Senses
Boots – Legendary Aspect	Implicit: Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown By 1.5 Seconds Willpower Movement Speed Max Life Spirit Per Second	Druid Motion – Ranks to Digitigrade Gait OR Movement Speed Nature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration
Amulet – Legendary Aspect	Ranks to Envenom Ranks to Quickshift Movement Speed Resource Cost Reduction	Nature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration Werewolf Finesse – Werewolf Attack Speed
Ring – (Recommended Mythic)Ring of Starless Skies	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Ranks to Core Skills
Ring – (Recommended Unique) Hunter’s Zenith	Willpower Ranks in Predatory Instinct Ranks in Heightened Senses Ranks in Quickshift
Rings – Legendary Aspect	Attack Speed Willpower Chance to Make Enemies Vulnerable Max Life	Werewolf Finesse – Werewolf Attack SpeedUltimate Efficiency – Petrify Cooldown Reduction OR Worldly Stability – Resource Generation

2-Handed vs Waxing Gibbous and Totem

A Waxing Gibbous/Totem setup and a 2-Handed weapon setup are about equal in power, and can be played by playstyle preference.

• The Waxing Gibbous setup is faster casting and better at speed farming. It also needs far less Critical Strike Chance investment on gear. If you are struggling to maintain the Waxing Gibbous Critical Strike buff from not killing fast enough, then that’s where the 2-Handed Weapon setup will pull ahead.
• To play the 2-Handed weapon setup, make the following changes:
  • Use Aspect of the Blurred Beast on 2-handed weapon.
  • Gear the 2-Handed weapon with for Max Life, Willpower, and Chance to Restore Resource. Temper for Chance for Shred to Deal Double Damage (Mastercrafted) and Critical Strike Damage.
  • Since Critical Strike Chance is no longer guaranteed without Waxing Gibbous, Gear and Mastercraft for Critical Strike Chance on armor pieces.

Have at least one Hurricane duration Utility Temper to maintain the Skill.

Armor cap is 1000 for up to 85% Physical Damage Reduction. This is generally reached with either one Armor Gear Affix and one Total Armor% Temper, or using a Juggernaut’s Aspect.

After gearing, look at progression systems like Paragon next.

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Uniques and Mythic Uniques

The Shred Druid has several Unique Item options to consider:

• (Recommended) Waxing Gibbous gives strong coverage of full Critical Strike Chance which allows the player to gear other affixes.
  • If you’re having trouble keeping Stealth or the Critical Strike Buff after Stealth buff covered, consider using Bold Chieftain’s Aspect on a ring for more Cooldown Reduction on Blood Howl, or tempers for Blood Howl cooldown Reduction.

• (Recommended Unique) Godslayer Crown is an effective grouping tool, as well as a strong damage multiplier. If used, triggers of stun and immobilize from sources like Crowd Control Tempers will activate the bonus.

• (Recommended) Mad Wolf’s Glee is an excellent offensive Unique Item that gives high ranks to Werewolf Skills.

• (Recommended) Wildheart Hunger gives a stacking bonus to Bestial Rampage, gaining stacks as you shift to Werebear or Werewolf forms, including from Human form. Periodic casts of your supporting Skills will help keep these Wildheart stacks high, but may not stay capped. Nevertheless, it is a strong option for its Attack Speed and Damage bonuses.

• (Recommended) Hunter’s Zenith is strong gear affixes and periodic Critical Overpowers.

• (Farm Quality of Life) Airidah’s Inexorable Will gives up some topend multipliers and Overpower volume to make farming easier with its constant grips from casts and Runeword triggers of Petrify.

Mythic Unique Items

• (Recommended) Ring of Starless Skies is a powerful Resource Cost Reduction tool and damage multiplier and can be useful for making gameplay a bit smoother.

• (Recommended) Heir of Perdition has Strong Gear Affixes and a steady damage multiplier. The multiplier can be stolen occasionally from others that also use this helm for a higher damage multiplier.

• (Recommended) Shroud of False Death gives +1 rank to all Skill Passives which means several bonuses to Damage Multipliers, Damage Reductions, Resistances, Fortify, Healing and Critical Strike Chance. The Stealth effect and gear affix synergizes well with Waxing Gibbous.

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Gems and Runewords

The following are the recommended Gem and Runeword setups for the Shred Druid:

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Emerald for Critical Strike Damage	Grand Sapphire for Willpower	Grand Diamond for All Resistance

Runewords

Use these Runeword combinations for the Shred Druid, placed in Armor slots:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Moni Xan	Moni – Gain: 100 Offering. Cast 2 Mobility Skills. Xan – 300 Offering. Your next attack will cause your hits to be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower for 0.35 seconds. Overflow: Increased Duration
Igni Yom	Xol – Gain: 150 Offering. Evoke power from another Class Yom – 500 Offering Cooldown: 5 Seconds. Overflow: Increased Duration. Evoke the Druid’s Petrify, Stunning enemies and restoring 100 Spirit.

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.

Shred is a fast attack and has the Mobility Tag, meaning Moni will work for it, and will trigger high volumes of Critical Overpowers. Periodic casts of Petrify will be a strong Stun, Critical Strike Damage multiplier and Spirit Generator. Tempering for Petrify Duration will mean significant uptime on Petrify.

Other combinations can also situationally work well; adjust to the content you are running. These can include:

• (Gathering) Kry rune for Vortex can be a strong quality of life increase.
• (Spirit Management) Lum rune can give strong Spirit Refund. A combination like MoniLum would give more Spirit than you can spend!
• (Early Gearing) While leveling and gearing before legendary Runes become accessible, many Magic and Rare runewords such as Gar for Critical Strike Chance will be viable.

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Paragon Board

The following are the preferred Glyphs, Boards, and pathing recommended for making the most of the Shred 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 give additional additive bonuses especially within the Glyph areas.

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.

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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.

Here’s a general recommendation for the Landslide Druid:

Main Power

• If using Raging Shred, Ashava’s Poison Breath. OR
• Sinerat’s Flames
  • Shred is a Mobility Skill.

Secondary Modifiers

• Belial’s Eye Beams
• Lilith’s Wind of Hate
• Wandering Death’s Chest Beams

Many boss power combinations will work and several are only situationally useful. Feel free to adjust powers to your content. For example:

• When Bossing, exchange Wandering Death’s Chest Beam for Andariel’s Flaming Skull.
• For a defensive option, use Blackmailer’s Sabotage.

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.

The following Mercenary options are recommended for the Shred Druid:

Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker

• Skills: Cleave, Hysteria, Bloodthirst, Bloodlust

Reinforcement – Raheir, the Shieldbearer

• Reinforcement Ability – Crater
• Opportunity – Shred

Hysteria and Bloodlust will both give strong Attack Speed bonuses.

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

1. Shred to approach enemies.
2. Blood Howl to trigger Stealth, activating the Critical Strike bonus for Waxing Gibbous.
3. Petrify to stun enemies, restore Spirit and apply a Critical Strike Damage debuff.
4. Maintain Hurricane for Damage Reduction and damage events for Calm before the Storm.
5. Debilitating Roar for the damage buff and maintenance of Werebear buffs including Bestial Rampage.
6. Cast Shred on enemies.
7. Killed all your enemies? Excellent work, Champion of Sanctuary. Run, Evade, or Dash with Shred to the next threat.

Use Earthen Bulwark as necessary for Fortify and as a source of Unstoppable to break Crowd Controls.

Skills, Support and Synergies

The Shred Druid groups and dashes into enemies for strong damage. Shred is a high mobility skill that is efficient for killing and then moving on.

• Stormclaw’s Aspect causes a secondary hit with Lightning damage when Shred Critically Strikes.
• If used, Waxing Gibbous will give full Critical Strike Chance, guaranteeing Stormclaw’s Aspect to deal its splash damage.

Primal Shred is taken for the extra Dash mobility, and the blanket Critical Strike Damage buff for all attacks with Shred. For farm and speed content it is the simple choice. Raging Shred has potential for higher damage depending on how long enemies are living; If it’s long enough for the Poison to get its full duration, it can be competitive. It’s worth noting that in previous seasons, Raging Shred was buggy, creating more damage events than it should have. This was not fixed yet ^.~

Supporting Skills

• Blood Howl gives attack speed, healing, and Stealth when used with Waxing Gibbous. With Waxing Gibbous and Shroud of False Death benefiting from Stealth, this means strong bursts of Shred damage.
• Debilitating Roar is a damage buff, damage debuff on enemies, source of Fortify and a way to upkeep Werebear bonuses like Bestial Rampage and Heightened Senses.
• Hurricane provides Damage Reduction and damage events to help trigger Calm Before the Storm Petrify.
• Earthen Bulwark provides Unstoppable, Fortify and Barrier as needed.

Ultimate and Key Passives

• Petrify is our Ultimate Skill. Casts will stun enemies, give Spirit and apply a Critical Strike Damage debuff. Our Runeword setup for Yom ritual of invocation will give high volume of Petrify casts, and Tempering for Petrify duration will keep the debuffs active on enemies for longer periods.
• Bestial Rampage is the Key Passive for this build, providing a Damage Multiplier from Werebear form, and Attack Speed from Werewolf form. These bonuses are lost if in Human Form for longer than 3 seconds. Use Debilitating Roar for Werebear buffs, and Shred covers Werewolf buffs.

Spirit Management

Shred does not use a Basic Attack Spirit builder, instead relying on several sources of alternative Spirit generation, including:

• Casts of Petrify.
• Lust for Carnage Critical Strikes grant resource.
• Ancestral Guidance nodes for Spirit on Kill and Max Spirit.
• Aspect of the Unsatiated granting Spirit on Critical Strike. With Waxing Gibbous, that’s all attacks while the Critical Strike Chance buff is active.

In Early Gearing and Leveling, consider doing the following for Spirit Generation and Management:

• Use Gift of the Stag, increasing Max Spirit and giving Spirit Per Second.
• Use the Wolf’s Energize Spirit Boon.
• Use the Lum Rune for Spirit Refund. Something like Moni Lum would generate more Spirit than it spends!
• Use Starlight Aspect or Aspect of the Umbral on rings. Enhanced Shred and Skinwalker’s Aspect is strong healing for Starlight, and Toxic Claws with Neurotoxin provide the Crowd Control needed for Umbral.
• Adjust Gear affixes: Chance to restore resource on Weapon, Resource Generation on Rings, Resource Temper Manuals on Jewelry, or Spirit Per Second on Helm, Chest, or Boots can all be helpful.
• Worst case in early leveling and gearing, use Maul as a Basic Attack Builder. Replace Debilitating Roar or Hurricane. Maul can be useful for upkeeping Werebear Shapeshifting buffs as well.

Controller vs Keyboard and Mouse

The Shred Druid can play smoother on a controller. When held, Shred can auto-move to the nearest enemies, or continue direction if no enemies are in range. The Dashes from casts of Shred auto-aim to the nearest enemy. Keyboard and Mouse can offer better control, allowing you to choose targets to Dash to. Both options are valid. Keyboard and Mouse can also access the auto-aim behavior by going into ESC -> Options -> Gameplay, and changing Skill Toggle Behavior to Toggle All.

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!

Season 8 Updates

Shred received some tidy gains this season. The change to Xan means far more access to Overpower Attacks. Shred as a mobility Skill means Moni will have Shred Overpowering consistently. The improved Enhanced Blood Howl means Waxing Gibbous is viable even vs bosses. The lower stack decay from Wildheart Hunger will imrpove general gameplay management. Finally, the bug fixes to Aspect of the Blurred Beast fixes the problematic damage inconsistencies.

The following list details the important changes in the Season 8 Patch Updates that are specific to the Shred Druid. For general Season 8 information, check out our Season 8 Hub.

Itemization:

• Xan –
  • Previous: Your next skill critically overpowers. Overflow: 1% damage per 10 Offering.
  • Now: Your next attack will cause your hits to be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower for 0.35 seconds. Overflow: Increase duration.
  • Duration increased from 0.25 to 0.35 seconds.
  • Offering required reduced from 700 to 300.
• Lum – Offering gained increased from 2.5% to 3.5%.
• Worldly Fortune
  • Lucky Hit: Chance to Apply Crowd Control affixes have been removed.
  • New Affixes: Lucky Hit Chance, Impairment Reduction, Crowd Control Duration.
• Wildheart Hunger – Decay rate reduced from 2% per second to 0.5% per second.

Skills and Stats:

• Enhanced Blood Howl –
  • Previous: Kills reduce the cooldown of Blood Howl Blood Howl by 1 second.
  • Now: Killing enemies reduce the Cooldown of Blood Howl by 1 second and hitting a Boss reduces its Cooldown by 0.3 seconds.
• Gift of the Stag Spirit Boon – Maximum Spirit reduced from 40 to 30. Spirit generation increased from 5 to 10.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where Hurricane damage displayed would not increase with duration bonuses.
• Stormshifter’s Aspect – Fixed an issue where the Stormshifter’s Aspect did not actually grant as many Shapeshifting skill ranks as expected in certain scenarios.
• Fixed an issue where Aspect of the Blurred Beast did not add the damage increase on all instances of Shred.

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Changelog

• April 24, 2025: Updated to new unified format and for Season 8 Patch 2.2 changes.
• 3 March, 2025: small 2.1.3 changes to Occult gem recommendations and updates for the change to Waxing Gibbous.
• 19 January, 2025: Updated for Season 7 and Patch 2.1 updates. Two tab paragon board introduced.
• 15 October, 2024: Updated for new onsite Paragon Tool.
• 27 September, 2024: Updated for Season 6. Changes to Paragon, Skill Tree, Skill Bar, and recommended Uniques.
• 7 August, 2024: Updated for post-launch of season 5. Small updates to Tempering recommendations. Improved readability and clarified case use and explanation for Waxing Gibbous.
• 3 August, 2024: Significant changes to Skills and Paragon to adjust for season 5, the change to Shepherd’s Aspect and the introduction of the Mjölnic Ryng.
• 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.
• 3 May 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.
• 8 March 2024: Guide created, fully replacing the previous guide.
  • Ownership transferred.
  • Adjusted Gear, Skills, and Paragon sections to hit defensive stats targets and improve overall damage output.
  • Improved readability, explanations, and options.