Stormclaw – Druid Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 11)

Build Introduction

The Stormclaw Druid is a fast, simple, and tanky Basic Skill build with a melee playstyle, using Greatstaff of the Crone to deliver a high volume of Claw and Storm Strike. Speed between enemies and cleave them down.

Just starting on your Druid adventure? Check our Druid Leveling Guide for options on how to level, and swap to this one at Level 60.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Requirements

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

Required Uniques

Greatstaff of the Crone

Required Aspects

Dire Wolf’s Aspect

Get more info on the Unique items supporting this build in the Unique Items section.

Quick Navigation

This guide covers everything necessary to get started on your Stormclaw adventure, including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates.

Want to jump ahead? Find the sections you’re looking for here.

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Skill Bar for Stormclaw Druid

Grizzly Rage Cyclone Armor Hurricane Blood Howl Claw Maul

Thanks to Greatstaff of the Crone, Claw also casts Storm Strike, which is not needed on the Skill Bar.

Eternal players complete Renown events in each zone for additional Skill Points, while Seasonal Players engage with the Season Journey and Rank for these Skill points.

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.

Gift of the Stag is for the Max Spirit Multiplier to Aspect of Adaptability.

Spirit Boons are just one part of the Stormclaw druid. Check how it plays in the Build Mechanics section!

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

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

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	Aspect	Unique/Legendary Aspect Power
Weapon	Required Unique –Greatstaff of the Crone	Claw is now also a Storm Skill and also casts Storm Strike. Claw and Strom Strike deal 100-250% increased damage.
Helm	Mythic – Heir of Perdition Unique – Tempest Roar Juggernaut’s 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	Mythic – Shroud of False Death Unique – Mad Wolf’s Glee	If you haven’t attacked in the last 2 seconds, gain Stealth and 40% Movement Speed.
Gloves	Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast	Critical Strikes while in Grizzly Rage increases your damage by 3% for 60 seconds, up to 120%.
Pants	Tibault’s Will	You deal 10-20% increased damage while Unstoppable and for 5 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource.
Boots	Dire Wolf’s Aspect	Grizzly Rage is now a Werewolf Skill and Shapeshifts you into a Dire Werewolf. Dire Werewolves gain 20-40% Movement Speed and 20-40% Spirit Cost Reduction instead of Damage Reduction. In addition, kills Heal you for 10% of your Maximum Life.
Amulet	Aspect of the Rabid Bear	Deal 40-80% more Poison Damage. While Shapeshifted, your direct damage is converted into Poison damage.
Ring 1	Aspect of the Moonrise	Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining 40-60% Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
Ring 2	Aspect of Adaptability	Now: Basic Skills generate 5 additional Primary Resource, once per Skill. Basic Skills deal 0.4-0.6% increased damage for each point of Primary Resource you have.

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, with some alternatives given. The bolded affixes are the most important targets for Greater Affixes and Masterwork Critical Increases. Check the Tempering guide and Masterworking guide for more details about these topics.

Slot	Gearing Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Weapon – Required Unique Greatstaff of the Crone	Chance for Stormstrike to Hit Twice Damage to Close Enemies Storm Strike Chains to extra Targets Ranks in Basic Skills
Helm – Mythic Heir of Perdition	Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Movement Speed Ranks to Core Skills
Helm – Unique Tempest Roar	Cooldown Reduction Maximum Life Elite Damage All Stats
Chest – Mythic Shroud of False Death	All Stats Maximum Life Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth Resource Generation
Chest – Unique Mad Wolf’s Glee	Max Life Werewolf Attack Speed Lupine Ferocity’s Damage Bonus Ranks to Digitigrade Gait
Gloves – Legendary Aspect	Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Willpower Chance to make Enemies Vulnerable	Shapeshifting Finesse – Grizzly Rage Duration OR Nature Magic Innovation – Hurricane Duration
Pants – Unique Tibault’s Will	All Stats Maximum Life Maximum Resource Damage Reduction While Unstoppable
Pants – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Ranks in Basic Skills Ranks in Storm Strike All Resistances Armor	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor%
Boots – Legendary Aspect	Impicit: Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown By 1.5 Seconds Willpower Movement Speed Max Life	Druid Motion – Movement Speed Nature Magic Innovation – Hurricane Duration
Amulet	Willpower% Ranks to Envenom Ranks to Quickshift Ranks to Toxic Claws	Shapeshifting Finesse – Grizzly Rage Duration
Rings – Legendary Aspect	Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Max Life Chance to Make Enemies Vulnerable	Ultimate Efficiency —  Druid – Grizzly Rage Cooldown Reduction

• Greatstaff of the Crone makes Claw a Storm ability, benefiting from Storm Critical Strike Chance.
• You will want at least one Offensive Temper for Hurricane Duration to keep full uptime on Hurricane. This is useful for applying Poisoning to enemies via Overload Spirit Boon.

After gearing, look at progression systems like Paragon next.

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Uniques and Mythic Uniques

The following Unique Items are required, recommended, or situational for the Stormclaw Druid:

• Required – Greatstaff of the Crone is necessary for the build to function well, making Claw a Storm Skill, boosting Claw and Storm Strike damage, and doubling the amount of Basic Attacks you are able to cast at once. The Damage to Close on the Staff is sufficient to cap Thunderstruck.
• (Before Mythic) Tempest Roar makes Storm Strike, Cyclone Armor, and Hurricane into Werewolf Skills, allowing the skill to benefit from multipliers like Lust for Carnage, get ranks from Mad Wolf’s Glee, and be active during Grizzly Rage.
• (Before Mythic) Mad Wolf’s Glee is an excellent offensive Unique Item, giving movement speed and Skill Ranks to Werewolf Skills, including Claw.
• Tibault’s Will is a solid damage multiplier with strong gear affixes. The bonus will almost always be active thanks to Prime Grizzly Rage.

Mythic Unique Items

If acquired, the following Mythic Unique Items are recommended for the build.

• Heir of Perdition has Strong Gear Affixes and a steady damage multiplier. The multiplier can be stolen occasionally from others who also use this helm for a higher damage multiplier. However, this is a utility tradeoff since Storm Skills will not persist during Grizzly Rage without Tempest Roar.
• 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.

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Gems and Runewords

The following are the recommended Gem and Runeword setups for the Stormclaw Druid.

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Topaz for Basic Skill damage	Grand Sapphire for Willpower	Grand Amethyst for Shadow Resistance Grand Sapphire for Cold Resistance Grand Ruby for Fire Resistance

Poison and Lightning Resistances are covered by Paragon nodes.

Runewords

Use these Runeword combination options, placed in the 2 Handed Weapon and into one Armor slot.

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Ahu Xan	Ahu – Gain: 15 Offering Lucky Hit: Up to a 100% chance against non-Healthy enemies. Xan – 300 Offering. Overflow: Increased duration. Your next attack will cause your hits to be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower for 0.35 seconds.
Cir Zec	Cir – Gain: 300 Offering Cast 5 Skills then become exhausted for 3 seconds. Zec – Requires: 100 Offering. Overflow: Further Reduced Cooldown. Cooldown: 1 seconds. Reduce your active Ultimate Cooldown by 1 seconds.

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.

Xan will provide a high volume of periodic Critical Overpowers. Zec will help reduce Grizzly Rage downtime.

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

• Speedfarm – Use Bac Jah for mobility.
• Quality of Life / Farm – A setup including Yom with Airidah’s Inexorable Will can be easiest for content like Infernal Hordes or other farm content.

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Paragon Board

The following are the preferred Glyphs, Boards, and pathing recommended for making the most of the Stormclaw 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 a stricter pathing to take almost 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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Season 11 Mechanics

Divine Gifts

Earn Corrupted Essences by defeating the Lesser Evils in their associated content. These Essences can be transformed into Divine Gifts by Hadriel. Divine Gifts have three aspects.

1. Increased reward in the associated content
2. A purified effect
3. A corrupted effect

Slotting an Essence into the Purified slot grants double drop rewards and a boon, while slotting an Essence into the Corrupted slot grants normal drop rewards and a curse. Upgrade these gifts by engaging with their content. Leveling these Gifts increases the drop rewards while the boon and curse stay the same.

Here is a general setup for Divine Gifts:

Helltides – Duriel

• Purified: Essence of Pain – Briefly gain maximum Barrier after becoming Injured, every 20 seconds.
• Corrupted: Essence of Squallor

World Bosses – Azmodan

• Purified: Essence of Sin – Gain 20% increased Armor.
• Corrupted: Essence of Hellfire

Kurast Undercity – Andariel

• Purified: Essence of Anguish – Gain 30% Movement Speed.
• Corrupted: Essence of Screams
• Note: If you are already move speed capped or need extra defense, swap the Andariel Gifts for a 20% Resistance boost to defense.

Belial – The Pit

• Purified: Essence of Lies – Fortify for 1% of your Maximum Life a second.
• Corrupted: Essence of Shadows

These Gifts can be freely swapped based on desired rewards. For example, swap the Belial Gifts to earn more gold while in the Pit.

Sanctification

Hadriel offers a final gamble to empower items. Use the Heavenly Forge to Sanctify the item, imbuing the item with heavenly power.

Sanctifying is the final change for an item. After Sanctifying the item, it cannot be upgraded, masterworked, tempered, or otherwise altered, including its Aspect. Runes and Gems can still be swapped.

Options that can happen include:

• Apply a bonus Legendary power
• Improve an Affix into a Greater Affix
• Add a bonus Affix from a pool of special Sanctification affixes
• Replace an existing Affix with a random Sanctification affix
• Add a random amount (5-25) of bonus Quality

Some of the jackpot desirable Sanctifications include +Ranks to All Skills, Useful Affixes like Critical Strike Chance or Attack Speed, or Offensive Generic Legendary Aspects. The potential Quality Increases will be especially strong on a weapon, increasing its DPS. Other options can ruin your item, such as replacing a necessary existing affix.

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 Stormclaw Druid:

Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker

• Skills: Cleave, Hysteria, Bloodthirst, Bloodlust

Reinforcement – Raheir, the Shieldbearer

• Reinforcement Ability – Crater
• Opportunity – Claw

Hysteria and Bloodlust will both give strong Attack Speed bonuses. Other Mercenary options are valid, such as Subo for the minimap tracking, or Raheir for extra Armor.

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

1. Prebuild Quickshift by alternating Maul and Claw
2. Maintain Hurricane while engaged with enemies.
3. Enter Grizzly Rage Dire Werewolf Form.
4. Blood Howl for damage bonuses and as needed for healing.
5. Preserving Cyclone Armor to apply Vulnerable and to grip enemies.
6. Claw your enemies!

Skills, Support, and Synergies

The Stormclaw Druid has simple gameplay. Use Claw to kill your enemies. Greatstaff of the Crone boosts Claw and Storm Strike damage, makes Claw a Storm skill so it can benefit from Nature damage passives and effects, and casts Storm Strike with every Claw cast. Since Storm Strike is a triggered effect from Claw, it does not need to be on the Skill Bar.

Storm Strike can chain back to previous enemies, making it simply excellent in multitarget and completely sus in single target.

Supporting Abilities

Hurricane provides a Damage Reduction debuff on enemies and applies Poison with Overload.

Cyclone Armor grips enemies, applies Vulnerable, and gives passive elemental defense.

Innate Blood Howl is a persistent damage multiplier. We will be in Werewolf form nearly constantly.

Alternative Skills that can be flexed in can include:

• Preserving Blood Howl for Attack Speed
• Primal Shred for a strong mobility option.

Ultimate Skill

This build uses Grizzly Rage as its Ultimate Skill. With Dire Wolf’s Aspect, we become the Dire Werewolf.

Dire Werewolf Grizzly Rage grants Unstoppable for its duration, grants movement speed and healing on kill, and a damage buff.

Grizzly Rage’s cooldown cannot be reduced while Grizzly Rage is active. Any Skill not tuned to Grizzly Rage, such as Earth Skills, will be unavailable while Grizzly Rage is active. Certain Skills, like Cyclone Armor with a passive effect, will still be up, but the Skill will be unavailable for Active Use without Tempest Roar.

Grizzly Rage has a capped duration, but we gain or extend Grizzly Rage duration with:

• Offensive Tempers on gear give more duration.

Cooldown of Grizzly Rage can be reduced to minimize downtime with the following:

• Rank 5 of Grizzly Rage reduces the cooldown by 10 seconds.
• Any generic Cooldown Reduction on gear.
• If used, Zec Rune.

Key Passive

Lupine Ferocity provides a reliable Critical Damage multiplier to our primary damage sources Storm Strike and Claw. Storm Strike is a Werewolf Skill thanks to Tempest Roar.

Controller vs Keyboard and Mouse

Stormclaw can play smoother on a controller. Controllers default to allowing movement while holding Basic Attacks. Keyboard and mouse users will find some restrictions in movement while casting and may have to click a lot to retarget. Some ways to improve the quality of life on keyboard and mouse can include any of the following in combination:

• Change Keybind settings to deselect ‘Combine Move / Interact / Basic Skill slot’ along with rebinding their Basic Skill to not be left-clicked.
• Use Claw on another keybind.
• Change preset movement setting to WASD.

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 Advantage II for Attack Speed and Lucky Hit bonuses.
• 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.
  • Core Stat – Blessed Guide for Willpower.
  • Resistance – Soothing Spices for All Resist, All Resist Maximum, and Armor.

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Season 11 Updates

Note that there are lots of sweeping changes to defensive systems, gearing, masterworking, tempering, and season journey. Don’t be afraid to take a couple of extra defensive choices over previous seasons to keep things smooth.

The change to Grizzly Rage means it is stronger while up, but we have to deal with downtime. We still take it for the many benefits, including long-term Unstoppable, favorable aspects, the strong multiplier, and defensive bumps. The change to Rabid Beast makes the downtime a little more *bear*able.

The following list details the important changes in the Season 11 Patch Updates that are specific to the Stormclaw Druid. For general Season 11 information, check out our Season 11 Hub.

Itemization:

• Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast
  • Previous: The duration of Grizzly Rage is increased by 3-10 seconds. In addition, Critical Strikes while Grizzly Rage is active increase your Critical Strike Damage by 10% for the duration, up to maximum of 200%.
  • Now: Critical Strikes while in Grizzly Rage increases your damage by 3% for 60 seconds, up to 120%.
• Aspect of the Rabid Bear (Bear)
  • Previous: While Grizzly Rage is active, your direct damage is converted into Poison damage, you deal 40-80% more Poison damage, and you passively spread Rabies.
  • Now: Deal 40-80% more Poison Damage. While Shapeshifted, your direct damage is converted into Poison damage.
• Druid Motion – Ranks to Digitigrade Gait removed.

Skills and Stats:

• Defensive Posture
  • Previous: Increases the amount of Fortify you gain from all sources by 5% and you gain 3% Damage Reduction while Fortified.
  • Now: Increases the amount of Fortify you gain from all sources by 5%.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where the description for Grizzly Rage didn’t properly display the damage increase for adding additional skill points.

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Changelog

• 6 December, 2025: Updated for Patch 2.5 and Season 11.
• 6 October, 2025: Adjustments to offensive Tempers and improved readability.
• 21 September, 2025: Updated for Patch 2.4 and Season 10. Seasonal Players, please note that the Season 10 Mechanics section has setups that include the seasonal Chaos Armors.
• 15 July, 2025: Updated for Patch 2.3.1 to note the Change to Greatstaff of the Crone. No major changes to the build.
• 6 July, 2025: Updated recommendations for rune options, and updated information based on the change to how Grizzly Rage can now progress cooldown while active.
• 27 June, 2025: Updated for Season 9 and Patch 2.3.
• 24 April, 2025: Updated to the new unified format for Season 8 Patch 2.2 changes.