Build Introduction
Unleash an Avalanche to bury your enemies! Hurl Boulders at your foes, obliterating those that stand in your path. The Boulder Druid build uses the Unique Item
Dolmen Stone and
Aspect of Metamorphic Stone in combination to let your Boulders do massive damage in a large area around you.
This guide covers everything necessary to get started on your Boulder adventure, including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates.
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
- Mobile gameplay
- Excels at both AoE and Bossing
- Resource hungry build
- Heavy gearing investment
Build Requirements
The following Unique Items and Legendary Aspects are required for build functionality to get started on the Boulder Druid:



Get more info on the Unique items supporting this build in the Unique Items section.
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Want to jump ahead? Find the sections you’re looking for here.
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Boulder can also be played as a Cataclysm build! This trades off some top-end multipliers for easier gameplay without worrying about Spirit Management and can be the better option while still gearing up. Check the Variant Play section for adjustments.
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.
Boon Name | Animal | Effect |
---|---|---|
Gift of the Stag | Deer | Gain 30 Maximum Spirit. Gain 10 Spirit Per Second. |
Swooping Attack | Eagle | Gain 20% Attack Speed. |
Avian Wrath | Eagle | Gain 40% Critical Strike Damage. |
Energize | Wolf | Lucky Hit: Dealing damage has up to a 15% chance to fully restore your Spirit. |
Obsidian Slam | Snake | Every 6th attack cast will cause your next Earth Skill to Overpower. |
Make sure to check the Build Mechanics sections on Spirit Management and Hurricane Management to fine-tune making the build work for the gear level and progression of your character.
Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes
The following are the recommended Legendary Aspects, Gear Affixes, Gems, and Elixirs for the Boulder Druid.
Seasonal Players, please check out our Season 10 Mechanics Section for information on Chaos Armors and ideal Chaos Armor setups.
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 Power |
---|---|---|
2 Handed Polearm | ![]() | Your Core Skills deal up to 35-75% increased damage based on your amount of Fortify. |
Head | Unique – ![]() ![]() | Your Earth Skills are now also Werebear skills and Fortify you for 2-5% of your Maximum Health. |
Chest | Mythic – ![]() ![]() | If you haven’t attacked in the last 2 seconds, gain Stealth and 40% Movement Speed. |
Gloves | ![]() | Boulder is now a Core Skill and costs 40 Spirit to cast dealing 90-130% of normal damage. |
Pants | Unique –![]() | You deal 10-20% increased damage while Unstoppable and for 5 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource. |
Boots | ![]() | While Hurricane is active, gain +5 Ranks to your Shapeshifting Skills. |
Amulet | Required Unique – ![]() | Casting Boulder while Hurricane is active will cause your boulders to rotate around you, up to a maximum of 10 boulders. Each rotating boulder increases their damage by 20-40% |
Ring 1 | ![]() | You deal 25-65% increased damage while hitting a Poisoned enemy as a Werebear or a Crowd Controlled enemy as a Werewolf. |
Ring 2 | Mythic –![]() ![]() ![]() | 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.
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. Check the Tempering guide and Masterworking guide for more details about these topics.
Slot | Gearing Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
---|---|---|
2 Handed Polearm – Legendary Aspect | Willpower Max Life Resource Cost Reduction Critical Strike Damage | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Helm – Unique ![]() | Willpower% Maximum Life Armor Ranks to ![]() | |
Chest – Mythic![]() | All Stats Maximum Life Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth Resource Generation | |
Chest- Unique![]() | Maximum Life Werebear Overpower Ursine Strength’s Bonuses Ranks to ![]() | |
Gloves – Legendary Aspect | Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Ranks to Core Skills Willpower | ![]() ![]() |
Pants – Unique![]() | All Stats Maximum Life Maximum Resource Damage Reduction While Unstoppable | |
Pants – Legendary Aspect | Max Life Willpower Armor Resistance to All Elements Dodge Chance | ![]() ![]() |
Boots – Legendary Aspect | Movement Speed Ranks to ![]() Max Life Willpower Spirit Per Second | ![]() ![]() |
Amulet – Required Unique![]() | Movement Speed while ![]() Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction Ranks to Wrath Skills Ranks to ![]() | |
Ring – Mythic![]() | Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Ranks in Core Skills | |
Ring – Unique![]() | Willpower Ranks to ![]() Ranks to ![]() Ranks to ![]() | |
Ring – Legendary Aspect | Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Max Life Willpower | ![]() ![]() |
- Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction is the most important affix to roll high and target for Greater Affix and Mastercraft. It will help the most in maintaining
Hurricane.
- 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, a well-rolled
Vasily’s Prayer, or using a
Juggernaut’s Aspect.
After gearing, look at progression systems like Paragon next.
Uniques and Mythic Uniques
These Unique Items are recommended or optional for the Boulder Druid
- (Required)
Dolmen Stone causes
Boulder to rotate around the player while
Hurricane is active. It is required for this playstyle. Boulders caught in the Hurricane will do less knockback.
Vasily’s Prayer is a strong source of Fortify and makes
Boulder a Werebear skill. This enables maintenance of several strong multipliers like
Quickshift and
Heightened Senses.
- (Before Mythic)
Insatiable Fury is a strong defensive Unique Item, and grants skill ranks to Werebear skills, including
Boulder, because
Vasily’s Prayer makes Boulder a Werebear Skill.
Tibault’s Will is a reliable source of Spirit and damage boost while Unstoppable. The stats are favorable for the build.
- (Before Mythic)
Hunter’s Zenith provides periodic Critical Overpowers.
- (Optional Playstyle)
Airidah’s Inexorable Will can be a high quality of life option to grip enemies while doing speedfarming or trivial content. Mastercraft the Willpower%. This can be combined with the
Yom Rune for even more grips.
- (Optional Playstyle)
Mjölnic Ryng can enable a
Cataclysm playstyle for easier Spirit Management or smoother play, especially while still gearing up. Mastercraft ranks in
Endless Tempest.
Mythic Unique Items
The Boulder Druid can benefit from the following Mythic Unique items:
Ring of Starless Skies is a powerful Resource Cost Reduction tool and damage multiplier.
Shroud of False Death gives +1 to all Skill Passives. This includes strong additions to Damage multipliers, Damage Reductions, Fortify Generation, and Quality of Life increases like longer
Hurricane.
Check our Unique Item Target-farming guide for information on where to find everything you need.
Gems and Runewords
The following are the recommended Gem and Runeword setups for the Boulder Druid.
Gems
Weapon Gems | Armor Gems | Jewelry Gems |
---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Runewords
Use these Runeword combinations for the Boulder Druid, placed in the 2 Handed Weapon and into one Armor slot.
Runeword Combination | Runeword Effects |
---|---|
Igni Xan | ![]() ![]() |
Bac Yom | ![]() ![]() Invoke the Druid’s Petrify Skill, Stunning enemies, restoring Primary Resource. |
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 even more Overpowers for our Boulders.
Yom will give periodic casts of
Petrify, stunning enemies, restoring resources, and applying a Critical Strike Damage Taken debuff.
Other combinations can also work well; adjust to the content you are running. These can include:
- Resource Management –
Poc
Lum, in combination, can give a strong Spirit Refund while still gearing and leveling.
- Farm –
Yom can be combined with
Airidah’s Inexorable Will during farm to make gathering easy.
- Push –
Qax is a periodic damage multiplier, but Spirit management will need to be solid to use.
- 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.
Paragon Board
The following are the preferred Glyphs, Boards, and pathing recommended for making the most of the Boulder 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 get the rest of the Magic and Rare Nodes, as well as giving 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.
Season 10 Mechanics
Chaos Perks
Chaos Perks are the latest flavor of seasonal power, offering a selection of one Unique and three other powers of any combination. Perks are acquired from Seasonal Reputation or from Bartuc in Infernal Hordes. Here is the recommended setup for the Boulder Druid.
Power | Description |
---|---|
![]() | Gain the following: 100-200% Maximum Life +50-100% Healing Received 75-125% Overpower Damage However, your Maximum Resistances are reduced by 25%, and your damage reduction from Armor is capped at 60%. |
![]() | Your Core Skills also apply 100-200% of their Base damage as Poisoning over 4 seconds. Dealing direct damage to a Poisoned enemy spends 5 Spirit to be a guaranteed Critical Strike that deals 30-60% increase damage. |
![]() | Every 100 Spirit you generate above your Maximum increases your damage by 50-100% for 5 seconds. This bonus stacks up to 3 times, but does not refresh. |
![]() | Shapeshifting into a new form uses a free Skill and grants an additional bonus for 5 seconds: Werewolf uses Blood Howl, 10-20%[x] Critical Strike Damage Werebear uses Debilitating Roar, 10-20% Damage Reduction Human uses Cyclone Armor, 10-20%[x] Attack Speed |
If playing a Cataclysm playstyle with
Mjölnic Ryng, exchange
Wild Transformations for
Power Siphon.
Chaos Armors
Chaos Armors are a selection of generic and class Unique Items that can drop as empowered versions in any Armor Slot besides their native slot. For example, a ChaoticFists of Fate could drop as a helm, chest, pants, and boots. These items open many possibilities, but have a very large pool of items with low drop rates and are untradable, meaning a perfect setup may take a while, and many combinations will be effective in the meantime.
The best Chaos Armor for the Boulder Druid is Dolmen Stone, maxing the Unique Affix and opening up the Amulet Slot.
The following is a recommended Chaotic setup for the Boulder Druid. Recommended Masterworks will be in Bold.
Slot | Aspect | Gearing Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
---|---|---|---|
2 Handed Mace | ![]() ![]() ![]() | Willpower Max Life Resource Cost Reduction Critical Strike Damage | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Helm | ![]() ![]() ![]() | Lucky Hit Chance Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Lucky Hit: Chance to make enemies Vulnerable | |
Chest | ![]() (Replace with ![]() | Willpower Damage to Close Enemies Lucky Hit Chance Ultimate Skill Cooldown Reduction | |
Gloves | ![]() | Maximum Life Overpower Damage Attack Speed Ranks to Core Skills | |
Pants | ![]() | Willpower% Maximum Life Armor Ranks to ![]() | |
Boots | ![]() | Movement Speed while ![]() Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction Ranks to Wrath Skills Ranks to ![]() | ![]() ![]() |
Amulet | ![]() | Willpower% Ranks to ![]() Ranks to ![]() Ranks to ![]() | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Ring | Ring – Unique![]() (Replace with ![]() | Willpower Ranks to ![]() Ranks to ![]() Ranks to ![]() | |
Ring | ![]() | Attack Speed Max Life Willpower | ![]() ![]() |
Other Chaotic Considerations
- Use
Song of the Mountain if you are not armor-capped.
- Farm –
Airidah’s Inexorable Will with
Yom can be an acceptable setup. Yom will also help keep Overabundance capped.
- Purge the Infected is fantastic for the tidy multiplier and guaranteed Critical Strikes. If you are struggling on Spirit to maintain Overabundance, swap this out for something like Crazy Brew until Spirit Generation is good.
- It may be worth keeping
Tibault’s Will in very high push for the high Damage Reduction while Unstoppable.
Vasily’s Prayer would stay on the helm in that case.
- Make sure to keep at least one temper for
Hurricane Duration active for the smoothness of play.
- If playing a
Cataclysm playstyle, a
Mjölnic Ryng (Pants) can be swapped in.
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 Boulder Druid:
Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker
- Skills:
Cleave,
Hysteria,
Bloodthirst,
Bloodlust
Reinforcement – Raheir, the Shieldbearer
Hysteria and Bloodlust will both give strong Attack Speed bonuses.
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
- Maintain Werewolf buffs like
Toxic Claws, bonus Poison damage with
Claw.
- Maintain
Hurricane.
- Cast
Petrify against gathered enemies to Stun, Restore Spirit, and apply a Critical Strike Damage debuff.
Innate Cyclone Armor applies damage taken debuffs to enemies. This knock can be disruptive, so take care where it is used.
- Cast
Boulders, pushing against your priority enemies as they are knocked back. Up to 10 Boulders can be maintained at a time.
- Restore Spirit with
Petrify and
Earthen Bulwark with
Tibault’s Will.
- As needed, filler attack with
Claw.
Use Earthen Bulwark as necessary for Barrier, Fortify, and Unstoppable.
Claw and other Skills that change your Form do not need to hit enemies to gain the Shapeshifting benefits. It can often be beneficial to keybind and tap Force Hold to be able to cast in place.
Skills, Support, and Synergies
This build has lots of moving parts that come together to make a powerful storm of abilities.
Boulder is our high-damage main Skill. When
Hurricane is active,
Dolmen Stone causes the Boulders will revolve around the player.
Aspect of Metamorphic Stone turns Boulder into a Core Skill, removes the cooldown, and adds a Spirit Cost to the skill. Keep several of these rotating around you at a time, and refresh them as they run out. Up to ten
Boulder can be maintained at a time, with a damage multiplier from
Dolmen Stone for each active Boulder.
Boulder is a Nature Magic Skill, and the Earth Tags will be included in anything that asks for Nature, such as
Defiance. While Boulders usually do physical damage, with
Savage Boulder, the boulders become Poison Damage and also apply Poisoned Condition, which makes checks like
Envenom easy to maintain.
Supporting Skills
Claw is a filler Basic Attack that can help maintain Werewolf buffs like
Heightened Senses,
Toxic Claws.
Primal Shred is an alternative option for when doing speedfarming, as long as your Spirit Management is sufficient.
Earthen Bulwark is a defensive tool for Barrier and Unstoppable.
Innate Cyclone Armor gives a small defensive passive, and the active use applies Vulnerable, Slow, and a small damage taken debuff on enemies.
There are several Shapeshifting buffs that are maintained throughout the fight. Quickshift,
Heightened Senses. They are easily maintained with
Claw and
Boulder.
Ultimate Skill and Key Passive
The Ultimate Skill for Boulder is Petrify. This Stuns, Restores Spirit, and applies a Critical Strike Damage debuff to enemies.
Ursine Strength grants damage, Overpower multiplier, and Max Life. We have a high volume of Overpower attacks thanks to
Xan and Obsidian Slam Spirit Boon.
Variant Play – Grizzly Rage and
Nature’s Fury is a potential combination usable with the build. Nature’s Fury will upkeep Hurricane while you get to stay in Werebear form. We gain nice perks like permanent Unstoppable and higher total Werebear uptime for multipliers like
Survival Instincts. To play into this style:
- Exchange
Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt for
Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast.
- Exchange
Aspect of Retaliation for
Aspect of the Rabid Bear.
- Exchange
Ursine Strength for
Nature’s Fury.
- Exchange Petrify Tempers for Grizzly Rage equivalent tempers, both for Duration and Cooldown Reduction
Variant Play
Cataclysm Ultimate
While Petrify is the default Ultimate for this build,
Cataclysm can be a strong option, especially while still gearing, to easily manage Spirit. To adjust to a Cataclysm playstyle:
- Exchange ranks in
Petrify for
Cataclysm.
- Use
Mjölnic Ryng, replacing
Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt.
- Seasonal Plays can exchange
Wild Transformations for
Power Siphon.
- Exchange any Petrify Tempers for their equivalent Cataclysm Tempers
Spirit Management
Boulder can be a Spirit Hungry build. We have several ways we manage Spirit.
- Gift of the Stag Spirit Boon for Spirit and Spirit Per Second.
- Energize Spirit Boon to periodically restore Spirit.
Tibault’s Will for periodic Spirit when gaining Unstoppable from
Earthen Bulwark.
- Casts of
Petrify Restore Spirit.
- Gear Affixes like Spirit Cost Reduction on Weapon.
- The
Druid Invigoration – Wrath Skills restore Spirit is actually huge.
Ring of Starless Skies grants up to 5 stacks of 10% Spirit Cost Reduction.
If this is not sufficient while leveling and gearing, consider using any of the following.
- Use a
Cataclysm setup that includes
Mjölnic Ryng.
- Use
Aspect of the Umbral or
Starlight Aspect for Spirit.
- Mercenary – Use Raheir’s Iron Wolf’s Call Iconic Passive for periodic free casts of
Boulder.
- Remove points in
Wild Impulses, placing them in
Abundance, and Use
Claw as an attack to build Spirit.
- Adjust Gear affixes: Resource Cost Reduction on Weapon, and Resource Generation on Rings. Spirit on Kill on weapon, or Spirit Per Second on Helm, Chest, or Boots can all be useful.
- Use Runeword setup
Poc
Lum for Spirit Refunds.
Hurricane Maintenance
For the Boulder Druid to play smoothly, Hurricane should have a longer duration than its cooldown. If Hurricane Uptime is not complete, any spinning Boulder will shoot out from the relative direction and be lost, spilling all the meatballs from the plate, making a mess, and the Boulder count will restart back at zero next Hurricane. This is a significant issue for maintaining gameplay momentum. There are a number of ways that we extend the duration and reduce the cooldown. Sources include:
- The Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction on
Dolmen Stone is a large source for Hurricane Cooldown Reductions. Getting these Mastercrafted and Greater Affixed is significant.
- Hurricane Duration Utility Tempers on Gloves, Pants, or Boots can make the Hurricane duration longer than necessary.
- Ranks in
Endless Tempest extend duration. If you need more ranks, take Skill Points from
Provocation.
- Any Cooldown Reduction on gear.
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, 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.
- Defensive –
- Upgrade your Potion as you level, increasing the instant healing of the potion!
Season 10 Updates
The Temper change from Chance to Cast extra boulders to Boulders dealing double damage will mean a bit more maintenance, but some more top-end damage. Several strong Chaos Armor options will let Boulder do some good damage this season, but since we want to make room for the Chaos Armors, we have swapped from Wildheart Hunger and
Bestial Rampage to
Ursine Strength.
The following list details the important changes in the Season 10 Patch Updates that are specific to the Boulder Druid. For general Season 10 information, check out our Season 10 Hub.
Itemization:
Earth Augments
- Previous: Chance for Boulder to Cast twice.
- Now: Chance for Boulder to deal Double Damage.
Earth and Sky Damage bonus increased from 10% to 18%.
Skills and Stats:
- N/A
Changelog
- 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.
- 27 June, 2025: Updated for Patch 2.3 Season 9. Changed from a Cataclysm build to Petrify. Changes to Skill Tree, Paragon, Gearing, and Spirit Boons.
- 30 April, 2025: Changed build to
Savage Boulder. Adjustments to Skill Points and Paragon nodes to account for the change.
- 24 April, 2025: Updated to the new unified format for Season 8 Patch 2.2 changes.
- 19 January, 2025: Updated for Season 7 and Patch 2.1 updates. A two-tab paragon board is introduced.
- 15 October, 2024: Updated for the new onsite Paragon Tool.
- 28 September, 2024: Updated for Season 6. Changes to Paragon, Skill Tree, Skill Bar, and recommended Uniques.
- 7 August, 2024: Significant rework of the main build due to season 5 bugs. Cataclysm Boulder changed to the main build, and Nature’s Fury Shred Boulder retired for now.
- 2 August, 2024: Updated Guide for changes with Patch 1.5.0 and Season of the Infernal Horde. Shepherd Boulder variant removed. Cataclysm Boulder variant added.
- 17 June, 2024: Updated for mid-season patch 1.4.3. Updates to Spirit Boons, Gear Affixes, and Paragon Board for better total damage.
- 15 May, 2024: Small changes in gear affixes to adjust for season launch changes from PTR.
- 5 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.
- 10 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.