This is a legacy build that is not competitive for the current version of Diablo 4 and which we do not recommend using. It only exists for documentation purposes and will not receive any further updates.
Build Introduction
Boulder Toss Druid creates a vortex of spinning stone to slam into the hordes of hell. This build focuses on dealing damage through Boulder and the unique amulet
Dolmen Stone, allowing us to swirl boulders around ourselves with
Hurricane. This build was introduced as a new Druid build within Season 2 and has since been refined to take on level 100 Nightmare Dungeons. With a great Spirit generator setup, we can summon a torrent of stone around us and crash into the enemies with
Trample. This fast action, intense brawler is a blast to play and with some strong defensives layers, handles the majority of content with ease.
This guide will cover all basic mechanics and deep dive into the optimal setup for skills, Paragon and gear for the build.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Unstoppable the majority of the time
- Sturdy defensive layers
- Good Spirit generation
- High AoE damage
- Damage takes time to build up
- Knockback can be frustrating
To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier list.
Build Requirements
![Dolmen Stone](https://wp.icy-veins.com/static/d4/latest/images/icons/2DInventory_Amulets_43.webp)
![Tibault's Will](https://wp.icy-veins.com/static/d4/latest/images/icons/2DInventory_Items_Legs_26.webp)
![Symbiotic Aspect](https://wp.icy-veins.com/static/d4/latest/images/aspects/utility.webp)
![Aspect of the Trampled Earth](https://wp.icy-veins.com/static/d4/latest/images/aspects/offensive.webp)
![Aspect of Metamorphic Stone](https://wp.icy-veins.com/static/d4/latest/images/aspects/offensive.webp)
![Aspect of Natural Balance](https://wp.icy-veins.com/static/d4/latest/images/aspects/offensive.webp)
Season of the Construct
Season 3 Patch Updates
The following list details all changes of Season 3 that may pertain to Druids.
Skills
Wind Shear
- Spirit Generation increased from 14 to 16.
- Damage increased by 10%.
Wild Wind Shear
- Additional Spirit per enemy hit increased from 3 to 4.
Aspects
Aspect of Metamorphic Stone
- Boulder Spirit Cost reduced from 50 to 40.
Aspect of Retaliation
- Bonus damage reduced from 20–40% to 20–30%.
Seneschal Construct Companion Powers
The Season 3 theme introduces a Seneschal Construct Companion that can deal damage or provide support to complement your character. Equip the Seneschal with two Governing Stones to activate their abilities, and then link them to three Tuning Stones each to augment the abilities. There are 12 different Governing Stones and 27 different Tuning Stones that can be found in Vaults scattered across Sanctuary. Fuse together duplicate stones to level them up, increasing the potency of Governing Stones or adding augments to Tuning Stones.
Listed below are the general recommended Governing Stones and their linked Tuning Stones for Druids, ranked by importance.
- Focus Fire: The Seneschal Construct channels a ray of fire onto targets dealing damage to each over time.
- Evernight: The supported Skill grants you +4 to all Skills when used for 2.0 seconds.
- Resource Support: Player gains an amount of Primary Resource when the supporting Skill first deals damage.
- Efficiency Support: When the supporting skill deals damage, you gain Critical Strike Chance to the same targets hit.
- Arcing Support: The supported Skill can hit additional enemies.
- Flash of Adrenaline: Administers a quick flash of adrenaline into the player, granting bonus damage for a duration.
- Genesis: Increase the effectiveness of the supported Skill by 150%.
- Safeguard Support: When used, the supported Skill grants Damage Reduction to you.
- Tactical Support: Decrease the cooldown of the supported Skill.
- Duration Support: Supported Skills have their durations increased.
Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar
Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 58 point build. The additional 10 skill points are completed using the Renown system.
Priority Skills | Cluster |
---|---|
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![]() | Key Passives |
Boons – The Druid Specialization
Boons are additional buffs provided to the Druid class as part of their specialization. To unlock your Boons, you will need to complete a simple quest on the west side of the map in the stronghold of “Tur Dulra”. This becomes available at Level 15 and should be completed as soon as possible. The Boon mechanic allows you to pick a single buff from each of the corresponding master animals and the addition of a second Boon buff from a chosen master animal you select.
![](https://wp.icy-veins.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/boons-boulder-1.3.jpg)
Once you are in the endgame and have completed the skill tree from the previous section, utilize the following set of Boons for the best results.
Boon Name | Master Animal | Effect |
---|---|---|
Wariness | Deer | Take 10% reduced damage from Elites |
Swooping Attacks | Eagle | Gain +10% Attack Speed |
Avian Wrath | Eagle | Gain x30% Critical Strike Damage |
Energize | Wolf | Lucky Hit: Dealing damage has up to a 15% chance to restore 10 Spirit |
Obsidian Slam | Snake | Every 20th kill will cause your next Earth Skill to Overpower |
Paragon
We recommend using these Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information listed below is for the Level 21 version.
Rare Node | Effect |
---|---|
![]() | – For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, you deal +[10]% increased damage while Fortified. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Intelligence points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain up to 10% Damage Reduction the more Fortify you have. |
![]() | – Grants +[125]% bonus to all Rare nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Intelligence points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain 10% Damage Reduction while you have an active Barrier. |
![]() | – Grants +[150]% bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Willpower points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Radius Bonus: Nature Magic Skills deal x10% increased damage to Crowd Controlled or Vulnerable enemies. |
![]() | – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +[8]% increased damage to Vulnerable targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Dealing damage to a Vulnerable enemy increases your damage by x1% for 6 seconds, up to x10%. |
![]() | – For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal +[6.5%] increased damage while in Human Form. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Willpower points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain 10% Damage Reduction while in Human Form. |
![]() | – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +[10.4]% increased Critical Strike Damage. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Critical Strikes increase the damage an enemy takes from you by x2% for 20 seconds, up to x12%. |
![]() | – Your Earth Skills deal x10% increased Critical Strike Damage, increased by x20% of your Damage vs Crowd Controlled bonus, up to x40%. |
![]() | – After spending 75 Spirit, you deal 30% increased damage for 5 seconds. |
Let’s break down each of these beneficial nodes and where our Paragon Points are positioned in each of the Paragon Boards we use. This part of the build is present in an order of importance, so if you do not have enough Paragon Points for use in your Paragon Tree, just slowly work towards each step.
Starting Board
![](https://wp.icy-veins.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/startingboard-BoulderS2.jpg)
- Begin the Starting Board by selecting the nodes on the left hand side of the pathway picking up the Rare Node
Tenacity and its Magic Nodes along the way for the Bonus Life and Armor.
- Loop to the right hand side of the board towards the Rare Node
Prime and its magic nodes for for the increase to Damage and Maximum Life.
- Path towards the open glyph slot and insert
Exploit, grants us the ability to inflict Vulnerable and increase our Damage to Vulnerable enemies.
- Inside the glyph’s radius take the two Rare Nodes
Resolve and
Impel for their bonuses to Damage and Resistances.
- Finally, head towards the top of the Paragon Board and attach Thunderstruck.
Thunderstruck
![](https://wp.icy-veins.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2Thunderstruck-BoulderS2.jpg)
- Path towards the open glyph slot, picking up the Rare node
Deluge along the way for the increase in Critical Strike Damage.
- Now go to the open glyph slot and insert
Earth and Sky. This will boost the Magic Nodes inside the glyph radius and increase our Damage Reduction.
- Take the Rare node inside the glyph radius,
Hubris, helping our Damage Reduction against Vulnerable Enemies.
- Now head to the right hand side of the board to the connection point and attach Earthen Devastation.
Earthen Devastation
![](https://wp.icy-veins.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/3EarthenDevastation-BoulderS2.jpg)
- Path towards the open glyph and pick up the Rare Node
Crushing Earth, granting us an increase in our Earth Skill Damage and increased Critical Strike Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies.
- Head to the open glyph slot and insert
Human, increasing our Damage and Damage Reduction in Human form.
- Take both Rare Nodes inside the glyph radius,
Earthen Power and
Resolve.
- Now path towards right hand side of the board and take the Rare Node
Oppress for an increase in Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies.
- Take the pathway up and around to the Legendary Node
Earthen Devastation.
- Continue right along the path to the right hand side of the board and attach Ancestral Guidance.
Ancestral Guidance
![](https://wp.icy-veins.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/4AncestralGuidance-BoulderS2.jpg)
- Take the pathway up to the open glyph slot and insert
Protector to boost the Rare Nodes in the glyph radius.
- Now take both Rare Nodes inside the glyph radius,
Harmony and
Resolve, these will increases our Core Skill Damage and Resistance.
- Take the upper pathway on the board, picking up
Natural Attunement and
Reclamation, for the bonus to Spirit.
- Now take the Legendary node
Ancestral Guidance.
- On the top connection point attach Constricting Tendrils.
Constricting Tendrils
![](https://wp.icy-veins.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/5ConstrictingTendrils-BoulderS2.jpg)
- Path to the open glyph slot and insert
Spirit increase our Critical Strike Damage.
- Now take both Rare Nodes
Courage and
Nature’s Will, this will increase our Maximum Life and Nature damage.
- Take the left hand connection point and add the Paragon Board Inner Beast.
Inner Beast
![](https://wp.icy-veins.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/6InnerBeast-BoulderS2.jpg)
- Pick up the Rare Node
Tenacity along the pathway to the glyph slot for the bonus Maximum Life.
- Head to the open glyph slot and insert
Undaunted for the added Damage and Damage Reduction while Fortified.
- Now take the Rare node
Determination, with their corresponding Magic Nodes to boost our Armor.
- This completes the Paragon Tree for this build.
Paragon Board images courtesy of d4builds.gg.
Mechanics and Playstyle
The rotation for this build starts by activating Hurricane and
Earthen Bulwark. This is followed by swinging
Boulders around yourself and charging into the enemies with
Trample. The filler for this build uses
Wind Shear to attack enemies, building your resources back up. Between Trample and Wind Shear, your Spirit should easily fill up fast and allow you recast Boulder as much as you like. Bear in mind, you want to keep Hurricane up as much as possible.
While cooldown management can be tricky, we use Nature’s Fury and
Symbiotic Aspect to lower all of our cooldowns continuously. Each of skill is going to help trigger this effect and should make all of your skills ready quickly. This build tends to have a higher APM as you charge into packs with
Trample, keeping your
Boulder and
Hurricane working together with the
Dolmen Stone. This vortex of stone essentially gives you an aura of damage constantly deals damage to enemies all around you.
Defenses
Both Cyclone Armor and
Earthen Bulwark benefit from using the
Vigilance passive in our skill tree. This passive offers us 15% Damage Reduction whenever we cast either of these skills. Your best strategy is to balance the use of both skills for the 6 seconds of Damage Reduction at Rank 3. Keeping the Vigilance buff active during endgame activities will be essential to staying alive. These should be up fairly often as they benefit from the
Nature’s Fury mechanics, just like all of our skills. We also benefit from
Aspect of Might and
Aspect of Cyclonic Force for added Damage Reduction to our character.
Gear Choice and Stat Priority
As you begin to farm in World Tier 3 and 4, Rare and Legendary item drops will begin to appear with some regularity depending on your luck. We recommend saving the targeted Legendary items that have the needed Legendary aspects listed below. We also recommended to keep multiple copies of the build’s Aspects in your Stash for future upgrades.
As for the Rare items, you will need to inspect each one for targeted affixes for use in each specific slot and do your best to match the recommended rolls. We have listed our targeted affixes in order of importance. Check the chart below and make note of what affixes you are searching for when you see a Rare gear piece drop.
Season 2 Update (1.2.0): Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage affixes are changed to be additive with other damage increases. All additive damage increases of the same amount are equal in value, as long as their conditions are active.
Gear Slot | Targeted Affixes |
---|---|
Helm | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Basic Attack Speed 3. Maximum Life 4. Needed Resistances |
Chest | 1. Total Armor 2. Damage Reduction 3. Damage Reduction While Fortified 4. Maximum Life 5. Willpower |
Gloves | 1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Willpower 4. Critical Strike Damage with Earth Skills 5. All Stat |
Pants | ![]() |
Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Spirit Cost Reduction 3. Willpower 4. Needed Resistances |
Amulet | ![]() |
Rings | 1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Resource Generation 3. Maximum Life 4. Critical Strike Damage 5. Damage to Close Enemies |
2-handed Weapon | 1. Willpower 2. All Stats 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. Critical Strike Damage with Earth Skills 5. Damage to Close Enemies |
![Dolmen Stone](https://wp.icy-veins.com/static/d4/latest/images/icons/2DInventory_Amulets_43.webp)
Please note that these affixes are the recommended picks for the build, but that is simply our opinion. Other affixes could certainly work instead of the ones listed above, but may not be optimal. There are several very specific affixes that are required to make the build work, listed below:
- Spirit Reduction Cost
- Critical Strike Chance – Lightning Strike procs only happen off Critically hits; the higher this is, the better.
- Damage Reduction
- Resource Generation
A final point on acquiring the right Affixes and Legendary Aspects, use your Obols to target farm them. Obols are awarded from many different activities in the game, you will always stockpiling them until you hit your maximum. Instead of just randomly spending them on a random pick, use them to target what you might be missing from this build. It is a great way to target a specific slot of loot and find what you need.
If you are interested in checking out a new tool for gambling Obols check out this link below from Icy Veins.
Obol Gambling Optimization ToolLegendary Aspects
Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary items that are important for the Were-Bomber Druid build. Aspects from the Codex of Power can be used if you cannot find the proper Legendary drops, but they have weaker effects. Extract Aspects from lower level Legendary items and imprint them onto better Rare items with preferred stats. The endgame itemization goal will be to imprint Aspects with the best values Ancestral Rare items with Item Power above or as close to 800, then upgrade them through the Blacksmith. Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the slot it was posted with.
Gear Slot | Legendary Aspect | Legendary Aspect Power |
---|---|---|
Helm | ![]() | Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0-6.0] seconds. |
Chest | ![]() | You gain [0.6 – 1.1%] increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [33.00 – 66.00%]. |
Gloves | ![]() | Trample now summons 6 Landslide pillars of earth during its duration that deal [70-80%] normal damage. Trample is now also a Nature Magic and Earth Skill. |
Pants | ![]() | |
Boots | ![]() | When the Nature’s Fury Key Passive triggers a free Skill, your non Ultimate Cooldowns of the opposite type are reduced by [3-5] seconds. |
Amulets(50% bonus) | ![]() | |
Ring | ![]() | Your Core Skills deal up to [20-40%] increased damage based on your amount of Fortify. |
Ring | ![]() | Casting a Storm Skill grants your Earth Skills [30-45%] Critical Strike Damage for 4 seconds. Casting an Earth Skill increases the Critical Strike Chance of Storm Skills by [8.0-12.0%] for 4 seconds. |
2-handed Mace | ![]() | Boulder is now a Core Skill and costs 50 Spirit to cast dealing [100-120%] of normal damage. |
Unique Items
This build utilizes Dolmen Stone to combine
Boulder and
Hurricane to become a vortex of swirling stone around us.
Uber Uniques
The chart below is our recommendation for Uber Uniques that will work within this build. However, all Uber Uniques are extremely powerful and can shine in different situations. Good Hunting!
Uber Uniques | Recommended(Y/N) | Replaces |
![]() | Yes (2nd) | ![]() |
![]() | Yes (1st) | ![]() |
![]() | No | |
![]() | No | |
![]() | No | |
![]() | No | |
![]() | No |
Gems
Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.
- Weapon:
Royal Emerald for the increase Damage to Vulnerable Enemies.
- Armor:
Royal Ruby for the Maximum Life.
- Jewelry:
Royal Diamond for All Resistances, however, certain bosses may require you to switch to their corresponding resistances. If capped on Resistances changes to
Royal Skull.
Elixirs and Health Pots
Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats, and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. Use an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Assault Elixir to increase Attack Speed.
Return to the Alchemist again when you reach Level 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80 and 90, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.
Changelog
- March 5th 2024: Updates for Patch 1.3.3
- February 6th 2024: Added Unique pants Tibault’s Will.
- January 20th 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
- December 10th 2023: Build Creation.