Druid Leveling Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 10)

Introduction

This is the general guide for Druid Leveling. The page offers information on our recommended leveling builds, leveling tips, and explanations for Druid systems, including Spirit, Spirit Boons, and other Druid Mechanics.

Throughout the guide, there will be links to other relevant guides that help explain systems and content within Diablo 4.

These Druid Leveling builds are all viable and competitive, and can be chosen based on playstyle preference or Legendary Aspect drops while leveling.

Shred Druid Leveling Build

Pulverize Druid Leveling Build

Companion Druid Leveling Build

The Pulverize Druid is a mid-range Druid that deals large smashes of damage and periodic Overpowers with Pulverize.
- Favorite Legendary Aspect: Shockwave Aspect sends heavy damage waves along the path of the Pulverize.
- Favorite Unique Item: Rotting Lightbringer is a transformative Unique item, placing puddles that will splash out serious Overpowered damage.

The Shred Druid is a melee Druid with high mobility, dashing from target to target, cleaving enemies down.
- Favorite Legendary Aspect: With Stormclaw’s Aspect, Critical Strikes of Shred will cleave outbursts of Lightning damage.
- Favorite Unique Item: Waxing Gibbous guarantees Critical Strikes for Shred; a strong synergy with Stormclaw’s Aspect.

The Companion Druid embraces the pet style gameplay to summon your Companions for deadly effect. Wolves are the primary source of damage and excel at single-target.
- Favorite Legendary Aspect: Aspect of the Alpha transforms your Wolves into Werewolves, spreading Rabies and boosting their damage.
- Favorite Unique Item: Storm’s Companion electrifies your Wolves, granting them a Storm Howl and favorable Storm Tags.

If you are already Level 60, choose an endgame guide from the Druid Builds Page.

Steve’s Season 10 Leveling Start

This season, my Druid recommendation is to start with the Shred Leveling Druid! Start with these steps:

Vessel DLC players, grab your Mercenary and assign your Reinforcement.
Unlock Aspect of the Unsatiated from Tormented Ruins, Fractured Peaks.
After that, engage with the Seasonal Story.
After unlocking Chaos Perks, slot in Overabundance and Purge the Infected when you get them.
If you haven’t unlocked Stormclaw’s Aspect by now, unlock it from Anica’s Claim, Fractured Peaks. This is hidden behind clearing Malnok Stronghold.

Shred is my choice this season because Shred is the most Spirit-efficient Core Skill, and has some favorable dungeon-sourced Aspects to combine with the Seasonal Chaos Perks.

Aspect of the Unsatiated and Stormclaw’s Aspect both rely on Critical Strikes; well, good news because Purge the Infected guarantees Critical Strikes against Poisoned enemies, and even Poisons them for you. This efficient synergy with Aspect of the Unsatiated will refund a lot of Spirit, which will feed into Overabundance perk’s multiplier. We also have plenty of other Spirit sources, including Spirit Boons Gift of the Stag and Energize. These few steps should send you straight to Penitent Difficulty for breezy leveling.

After that, engage with any of your favorite Endgame Activities or Seasonal Content, and see you at level 60!

General Leveling Tips

Choosing your World Tier: The fastest experience is Adventurer. Each additional step in difficulty will increase experience and rewards, but can result in a total speed loss if things are living too long. High-value gear, like heavy multiplier Legendary Aspects, can enable you to jump up in world tiers. A Pulverize Druid that finds a Shockwave Aspect or Rotting Lightbringer could jump straight to Penitent.

For those just starting the game, you will engage with the Main Story Campaign. This slowly unlocks features of the game, such as mounts, which greatly improve exploration speed. You can gain power for your entire account by completing zone Renown.

For seasonal players looking for updates, check out our Season Checklist for start times and preparation, our Seasonal Hub for general season theme information, and the official Patch Notes for relevant changes to the game. Engaging with the seasonal reputation is often a significant boost to player power, greatly increasing leveling speed via seasonal powers or reputation caches.

The Vessel of Hatred expansion is the first Diablo 4 DLC. Players who have it can continue the story campaign to unlock features, including systems like Mercenaries and Runewords, and content like Kurast Undercity or the Dark Citadel.

Spirit, Druid’s Resource

The Druid’s primary resource is called Spirit.

This resource does not recharge passively, but is instead gained from a variety of sources, including:

Basic Attacks that generate Spirit.
Spirit Boons like the Deer’s Gift of the Stag Spirit Per Second and the Wolf’s Energize for a Lucky Hit Chance to Restore Spirit.
Gearing Affixes like Spirit Per Second or Chance to Restore Spirit.
Skills like Innate Blood Howl, Savage Trample, or Petrify.

Spirit has a natural cap of 100, but can be increased from Paragon, Spirit Boons, or Gear Affixes.

Spirit Boons, Unique Druid Class Mechanic

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. To access Spirit Boons:

Reach Level 15, accepting the quest chain beginning with Druid: Spirits of the Lost Grove.
Clear the Túr Dúlra Stronghold scenario in Scosglen.
Complete the quest chain to gain access to the Animal Spirits.

The Quest to unlock the class mechanic only needs to be completed once on the account. Once Spirit Boons have been fully unlocked for the first time, Spirit Offerings will stop dropping for Druid characters on the account, and all interactions can be completed through the Spirit Boons menu on your character sheet after reaching level 15.

Spirit	Boon 1	Boon 2	Boon 3	Boon 4
Deer	Prickleskin Deal 5% increased damage to enemies for 5 seconds after they attack you.	Gift of the Stag Gain 30 Maximum Spirit. You gain 10 Spirit every second.	Wariness Take 15% reduced damage from Elites.	Advantageous Beast 15% Movement Speed and 15% Impairment Reduction
Eagle	Scythe Talons Gain 15% increased Critical Strike Chance and 15% increased Lucky Hit Chance.	Iron Feather Gain 30% Maximum Life.	Swooping Attacks Gain 20% Attack Speed.	Avian Wrath Gain 40% Critical Strike Damage.
Wolf	Packleader Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes have up to a 30% chance to reset the Cooldowns of your Companion Skills.	Energize Lucky Hit: Dealing damage has a 15% chance to fully restore your Spirit.	Bolster Fortify for 50% of your Maximum Life when you use a Defensive Skill.	Calamity Extend the duration of Ultimate Skills by 35%.
Snake	Obsidian Slam Every 6th attack cast will cause your next Earth Skill to Overpower.	Overload Dealing Storm damage also applies an additional 20% Poisoning damage over 5 seconds. Lucky Hit: Dealing Poison damage has up to a 35% chance to summon a Lightning Bolt on the target dealing 120% damage.	Masochistic Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes with Shapeshifting Skills have up to a 75% chance to Heal you for 10% of your Maximum Life	Calm Before the Storm Lucky Hit: Nature Magic Skills have up to a 10% chance to reduce the Cooldown of your Ultimate Skill by 2 seconds.

Druid Weapons and Restrictions

The Druid may equip a Two-Handed Weapon or a One-Handed Weapon plus a Totem, the Druid-specific Offhand Weapon.

Some weapon types are preferred based on the build. For example, 2-Handed Maces are strong for builds that lean into Overpower attacks, while Daggers are good for fast builds or for the Damage to Close enemies implicit for the Thunderstruck Paragon Node.

Druid Skills and Passive Skills

This section provides an overview of the main skill categories for the Druid. For a detailed list of all Druid skills and passive skills, refer to the pages below.

Druid Skills Druid Passives

Basic Skills

Basic Skills are spammable skills whose primary purpose is to generate Spirit for skills of the Spirit category. They are often used as filler attacks or for buff maintenance, but some endgame builds use them as their primary damage.

The Basic Skills for the Druid are Earth Spike, Claw, Storm Strike, Maul, and Wind Shear.

Core Skills

Core Skills are among the main sources of damage for most Druid builds. Core Skills have no cooldown but are limited by available Spirit.

The Spirit Skills for the Druid are Stone Burst, Pulverize, Landslide, Tornado, Lightning Storm, and Shred.

Defensive Skills

Defensive Skills are Cooldown or Passive effects with a primary function for Defense, with many offering offensive value as a secondary consideration.

The Defensive Skills for the Druid are Cyclone Armor, Earthen Bulwark, Debilitating Roar, and Blood Howl.

Companion Skills

Companion Skills passively summon permanent creatures that automatically attack the enemies of the Druid. These skills also have an active component, which “orders” the summoned creatures to perform a special offensive action.

The Companion Skills for the Druid are Poison Creeper, Wolves, and Ravens. They are all good boys.

Wrath Skills

Wrath Skills provide various useful effects, and can be supplementary to a build or the primary focus with the right Unique Items or Legendary Aspects.

The Wrath Skills for the Druid are Hurricane, Trample, Boulder, and Rabies.

Ultimate Skills

Ultimate Skills are powerful and thematic skills with a cooldown to match, and can shift playstyle significantly. Only one Ultimate Skill can be equipped at a time.

The Ultimate Skills for the Druid are Cataclysm, Petrify, Grizzly Rage, and Lacerate.

Druid Dismount Skill

While mounted, the Druid has access to the unique Dismount Skill Pummel. The Druid jumps off their mount, shapeshifts into a Werebear mid-air, and slams into the ground, dealing damage to nearby enemies.

Druid Attributes

The four core attributes benefit each of the five classes in slightly different ways. Here are their effects for the Druid. Willpower is the primary attribute for the Druid, directly scaling damage.

Attribute	Effect 1	Effect 2	Effect 3
Strength	1 Armor per point
Intelligence	2.5% All Resistances per 100 points	10% Resource Generation per 100 points
Willpower*	10% Skill Damage per 100 points	10% Healing Received per 100 points	25% Overpower Damage per 100 points
Dexterity	5% Critical Strike Chance per 100 points	2.5% Dodge Chance per 100 points

Endgame Druid Builds

The leveling builds listed at the top of this page are designed to take your Druid to Level 60. Afterwards, select an endgame build guide to allocate Paragon points and equip gear with the best stats and Aspects. The following endgame builds will help you optimize your character from Level 60 and beyond.

Level 60 Endgame Druid Builds

Many builds are soft or hard-locked behind build-essential Legendary Aspects or Unique Items. Soft-locked builds gain tremendous power when a certain Aspect or Unique item is acquired, such as Shockwave Aspect for the Pulverize Druid, while other builds simply will not function without a certain item, such as Dolmen Stone and Aspect of Metamorphic Stone for the Boulder Druid. Check the Build Requirements of each build to see if you can get started on them.

Endgame Activities

While leveling or after finishing the storyline, various endgame activities in Diablo 4 will become available. Follow the yellow-marked quests to find your way through the Main Story.

After finishing the main storyline or as you wander, engage with the endgame activities of Sanctuary! The following sections provide a quick list of the activities you can do.

Tree of Whispers

The Tree of Whispers, located in Hawezar, rewards you for completing bounties found all over the game world. These are generally profitable activities that reward you with experience, gear, currencies, and Nightmare Sigils for Nightmare Dungeons. They can be completed while doing other events and activities in a zone.

Nightmare Dungeons

Nightmare Dungeons are accessed with Nightmare Sigils. These are crafted from sigil powder, looted from Tree of Whisper caches, or dropped in Nightmare dungeons.

Nightmare dungeons are one of the targeted sources for Masterworking materials.

Helltides

Helltides appear on the map for players who are in Normal Difficulty or higher, taking over large areas of land for one hour. During this time, monsters killed in the affected area drop a special temporary currency, Aberrant Cinders, that can be used to unlock chests found in the Helltide area. These chests are an excellent way to get Legendary Aspects, Unique Items, and Boss Summoning currencies.

Complete Renown in All Zones

Complete the remaining Renown stages in all of the zones.

The Renown System grants rewards for exploration and completion of quests, dungeons, and other activities throughout Sanctuary. These rewards include Skill Points, Paragon Points, increased Potion capacity, and maximum Obols. The rewards persist across characters and seasons within their difficulty. This means completing them on a Hardcore character gives all future Hardcore characters the Renown benefits.

Legion Events and World Bosses

Legion events and World Bosses are marked on the map. They are worthwhile activities to engage in, since they reward potentially good items.

Legion events are also good for crafting materials like Rawhide. Watch for timers on the world map and go to the marked area on the map, and join other players in killing the enemies.

The Pit

The Pit is a progression challenge unlocked at level 60. The format is a dungeon mobbing phase to fill a progression bar, and a final Boss fight to clear the Pit level. Use The Pit to level up your Glyphs, unlock higher Torment difficulties, and for paragon XP.

Infernal Hordes

The Infernal Hordes is a wave-based endgame activity, first introduced in Season 5. Use an Infernal Compass to enter the Realm of Hatred. These can be acquired through various endgame activities such as defeating endgame bosses, Helltides, Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons, and so on. Fight through waves to gain Aether, used to unlock currency and loot caches, or to summon greater challenges.

During Season 10, Fleeting Hordes will be available while leveling, a tuned-down version of Infernal Hordes.

Kurast Undercity

Kurast Undercity, introduced in the Vessel of Hatred expansion, is a time attack dungeon scenario where Tributes are offered and Bargains struck to target specific rewards like runes, XP, or to semi-deterministically target aspect types, gear types, or affix types. To unlock Undercity, reach Level 20, have the Vessel of Hatred expansion, and summon the Spirit Flame in the Nahantu region.

Seasonal Activities

Seasons come with various events with supplemental power systems, secondary reputation tracks, and world events. Check our updated Seasonal Hub for general season theme information every season.

Good luck on your Druid adventure!