Tornado – Druid Build for Diablo 4 (Season 9)

Build Introduction

Embrace the tempest as the Tornado Werewolf Druid whirls through the battlefield, unleashing a storm of destruction upon the enemies of Sanctuary! Equip your Tempest Roar and send out twisting and twirling tornadoes!

Get started on your Tornado adventure with everything you need, 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

Build Requirements

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

Required Uniques

Tempest Roar

Required Aspects

Stormchaser’s Aspect

Dire Wolf’s Aspect

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

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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Skill Bar for Tornado Druid

Grizzly Rage Earthen Bulwark Blood Howl Cyclone Armor Maul Tornado

Use Key Passive Perfect Storm while leveling and gearing.

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, use the Energize Spirit Boon, replacing Swooping Attack. This will help with Spirit Management.

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 Tornado 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
Staff	Igni Xan	Aspect of the Rabid Bear	While Grizzy Rage is active, your direct damage is converted into Poison damage, you deal 40-80% more Poison damage, and you passively spread Rabies.
Helm	Lith Que	Required Unique –Tempest Roar	Lucky Hit: Storm Skills have up to a 15-35% chance to grant 4 Spirit. Your base Storm Skills are now also Werewolf Skills
Chest	Grand Sapphire	Mythic – Shroud of False Death 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		Stormchaser’s Aspect	Tornado will seek up to 1-5 targets and increases Tornado damage by 30-50%.
Pants	Grand Sapphire	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.
Boots		Unique – Wildheart Hunger Aspect of Metamorphosis	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 Amethyst	Aspect of Retaliation	Your Core Skills deal up to 35-75% increased damage based on your amount of Fortify.
Ring 1	Grand Ruby	Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast	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 5% for the duration, up to a maximum of 100%.
Ring 2	Grand Sapphire	Mythic – Ring of Starless Skies Aspect of the Unsatiated	Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10% for 3 seconds, up to 50%.

Staff is used for the faster Attack Speed over other 2-handed types. The Damage Over Time will get a small value from Overload Spirit Boon.

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
Staff	Willpower Maximum Life Spirit Cost Reduction Critical Strike Damage	Storm Augments – Chance for Extra Tornado Projectiles Storm Finesse – Storm Critical Strike Chance
Helm – Tempest Roar	Willpower% Maximum Resource Lightning Resistance Ranks to Wild Impulses
Chest –Shroud of False Death	All Stats Maximum Life Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth Resource Generation
Chest – 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	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor% Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit Chance
Gloves – Legendary Aspect	Attack Speed Ranks to Tornado Critical Strike Chance Willpower	Shapeshifting Finesse – Grizzly Rage Duration Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit Chance
Pants – Legendary Aspect	Armor Willpower Max Life Dodge Chance	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor% Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit Chance
Boots – Wildheart Hunger	Movement Speed Shapeshifting Attack Speed Cold Resistance Ranks to Heightened Senses
Boots – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Movement Speed Max Life Spirit Per Second	Druid Motion – Ranks to Digitigrade Gait OR Movement Speed Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit Chance
Amulet – Legendary Aspect	Willpower% Ranks to Envenom Ranks to Toxic Claws Ranks to Quickshift	Ultimate Efficiency —  Druid – Grizzly Rage Cooldown Reduction Shapeshifting Finesse – Grizzly Rage Duration
Ring – Ring of Starless Skies	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Ranks to Core Skills
Rings – Legendary Aspect	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Maximum Life Resource Cost Reduction Critical Strike Damage	Ultimate Efficiency —  Druid – Grizzly Rage Cooldown Reduction Shapeshifting Finesse – Grizzly Rage Duration

• Chance for Double Tornado Projectiles is priority for total output.
• Some Gear Affixes like Cost Reduction, Spirit on Kill or Spirit Per Second can be useful in early gearing or leveling.
• 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 following Unique Items are required, recommended, or optional for the Tornado Druid.

• Tempest Roar is required for the build to be considered functional; making Tornado a Werewolf Skill and providing significant Spirit Generation. This also will enable Tornado to benefit from Shapeshifting passives like Envenom, and synergize with other Uniques Mad Wolf’s Glee and Wildheart Hunger.

• (Before Mythic) Mad Wolf’s Glee is an excellent offensive Unique Item, giving movement speed, Damage Reduction and and Skill Ranks to Werewolf Skills.

• Wildheart Hunger has gear affixes and grants a stacking bonus to Bestial Rampage. For a boot slot, this is a strong offensive option. However, the stacks decay unless maintained by constant shifting. This bonus can be well worth maintaining by cycling between and to Werewolf or Werebear forms, but makes the rotation much more frenetic. Stacks will not always be maxed under normal gameplay.

Mythic Unique Items

The following Mythic Unique Items are useful to the build:

• (Recommended) Ring of Starless Skies is a powerful Resource Cost Reduction tool and damage multiplier with exellent Gear Affixes. Replaces Aspect of the Unsatiated.

• (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.

Check our Unique Item Target-farming guide for information on where to find everything you need.

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Gems and Runewords

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

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Emerald for Critical Strike Damage	Grand Sapphire for Willpower	Grand Amethyst for Shadow Resistance Grand Sapphire for Cold Resistance Grand Ruby for Fire Resistance

Poison and Lightning Resistance are covered by Paragon nodes.

Horadric Jewels

Seasonal Players can use these Horadric Jewels, placed in jewelry gear slots. Check out the Horadric Spell section for all available options.

Jewel	Description
Scornful Light	You deal 20% and take 10% more Elemental damage.
Idol From Below	You gain 6% primary stat, 6% maximum life and you are always Unhindered. However, you will be hunted in Sanctuary’s darkest places by Jewel Guardians who were entombed to protect this relic.
Elemental Brand	Your Catalytic Skill deals 33% damage of your Infusion’s element over 3 seconds. Lucky Hit: Dealing damage of your Infusion’s element has up to a 33% chance to trigger its secondary effect.

Runewords

Use these Runeword combinations, placed in the 2-Handed and Armor slot:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Igni Xan	Igni – Gain: 25 Offering. Stores Offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a Non-Basic Skill to gain the stored Offering. Xan – Requires: 300 offering. Your next attack will cause your hits to be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower for 0.35 seconds. Overflow: Increased Duration
Lith Que	Lith – Gain: 25 Offering. Stand still while fighting for 0.3 seconds. Que – Requires: 300 Offering. Overflow: Increased Duration. Cooldown: 1 second. Evoke the Druid’s Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier.

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 periodically cause your Tornado to Critically Overpower for large damage. Que will cast Enhanced Earthen Bulwark granting Barrier, Unstoppable and Fortify.

Other more offensive setups could trade Que for options such as Kry for Vortex, Gar for Critical Strike Chance, or Yom for casts of Petrify.

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Paragon Board

The following are the preferred Glyphs, Boards, and pathing recommended for making the most of the Tornado 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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Horadric Spell (Season 9)

Season 9: Sins of the Horadrim offers seasonal Powers accessed from a Powers tab on the character Sheet and Horadric Jewels placed into Jewelry slots to augment these Powers.

The Horadric Catalyst is equipped to a Skill on the Skill Bar, triggered on the Skill’s use. One Infusion adds effects and modifies the damage type of the Catalyst, and three Arcana enhance the Catalyst or provide extra effects on Catalyst trigger.

Pushing

Type	Power	Description
Catalyst, Attached to Tornado	Astral Pillar	Shape an Ethereal Column that Taunts for 3.0 seconds. Piercing waves flow from it and deal damage, until you create another one or move too far away.
Infusion	Corrosive Vapor	Your Spell Catalyst now deals Poison and or Poisoning damage. Bonus: Enemies damaged by it take 150% Poisoning damage over 4 seconds. This effect can only happen on each enemy every 3 seconds. While equipped, your Poison Damage Bonus is equal to that of your highest Damage Type Bonus. Rank 5: Deactivates monster Vampiric effects for 5 seconds.
Arcana	Fractured Core	Denial – Your Catalyst deactivates monster Damage Resistance Aura effects for 2.5 seconds, but you take 10% more stacking damage for the same time (+0.5 each rank).
Arcana	Potent Alloy	Denial – Your Catalyst destroys enemy Barriers and Knocks them Down for 1.0 seconds after the removal (+0.8 each rank).
Arcana	Bloody Charm	Denial – Your Catalyst gains a specialized Execute effect for non-Boss enemies with 10% or less Life. (+2% each rank). Astral Pillar: Will launch additional waves towards Executable non-Boss enemies to Execute them.

Most Catalysts are functional and can be played by preference. Other setups can work outside push content, such as:

• (Speedfarm) Propulsion with Floaty Bobble, Gleaming Conduit and Bloody Charm blinks to enemies, and grants movement speed on execute.

Horadric Jewels

Use these Jewels, placed in jewelry gear slots, to enhance the Horadric Spell:

Jewel	Description
Scornful Light	You deal 20% and take 10% more Elemental damage.
Idol From Below	You gain 6% primary stat, 6% maximum life and you are always Unhindered. However, you will be hunted in Sanctuary’s darkest places by Jewel Guardians who were entombed to protect this relic.
Elemental Brand	Your Catalytic Skill deals 33% damage of your Infusion’s element over 3 seconds. Lucky Hit: Dealing damage of your Infusion’s element has up to a 33% chance to trigger its secondary effect.

Thanks to Aspect of the Rabid Bear, Tornado damage will be Poison type rather than Physical, so it can benefit from Scornful Light.

There are some situationally useful Jewels to consider:

• (Resource) Spark of Creation can be useful in early gearing for Spirit.
• (Qol) While Idol From Below is powerful, If the Jeweled Guardians are bothersome, replace it with another.

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 Tornado Druid:

Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker

• Skills: Cleave, Hysteria, Bloodthirst, Bloodlust

Reinforcement – Raheir, the Shieldbearer

• Reinforcement Ability – Crater
• Opportunity – Tornado

Hysteria and Bloodlust will both give strong Attack Speed bonuses.

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

1. Build stacks of Quickshift and Wildheart Hunger by Alternating Maul and Lightning Storm.
2. Activate Grizzly Rage to enter Dire Werewolf Form.
3. Blood Howl for buff maintenance or to heal.
4. Cast Tornado to slay your foes!

Use Earthen Bulwark for Barrier and Unstoppable, as needed. It will not be available during Grizzly Rage but will still get full effect from Que triggers.

Maul does not need to hit a target for Werebear Shapeshifting buffs. Make sure you’re familiar with your Force Hold keybind to easily Maul in place.

Skills, Support and Synergies

The Tornado Druid is a simple to play and effective build. Our primary Skill is Tornado, which benefits from several interactions from Skill Passives, Legendary Powers, Gearing, and supporting Skills.

Tempest Roar makes all Storm Skills into Werewolf Skills, which allows Tornado to benefit from Shapeshifting Passives like Quickshift and Envenom.

Stormchaser’s Aspect allows cast tornadoes to seek out enemies.

Overload Boon maintains the Poisoned debuff on enemies for multipliers like Envenom and Heightened Malice.

Both the Initial Tornado and the extra Tornado from Enhanced Tornado can trigger the Weapon Temper for Chance for Tornado Projectiles to Cast twice. The means there is a chance for up to 4 Tornadoes per cast!

Supporting Skills

Maul is Werebear buff maintenance Skill to help maintain Shapeshifting skills like Quickshift, Heightened Senses, Bestial Rampage and Unique Item Wildheart Hunger. This does not need to hit an enemy, it’s just the Form change that matters. Force Hold and swipe at the air before engaging enemies for the Bestial Rampage buff. Alternatively, other Werebear abilities like Innate Debilitating Roar or Trample could be used to maintain Werebear buffs.

Blood Howl is maintained for the Attack Speed bonus and Vigilance buff.

Earthen Bulwark is used for Barrier and a source of Unstoppable.

Cyclone Armor is passive elemental defense, and the Pushback active will rarely be used.

Grizzly Rage

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 that grows over time. With Aspect of the Rabid Bear, our damage type for all attacks becomes Poison, which helps unify several multipliers.

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. Thanks to Tempest Roar, all Storm Skills will be active, including Tornado

Only one point is invested into Grizzly Rage because further points only reduce the cooldown, and we do not need the Rank 5 effect since we should always be already Armor capped without the effect.

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

• Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast gives up to 10 seconds extra duration.
• Kills extend the duration by 1 second.
• Overpowering Bosses extends duration by 5 seconds. Xan will periodically give instances of Overpower, giving easy coverage.
• Offensive Tempers on gear give more duration on Grizzly Rage.

If this is not sufficient to maintain Grizzly Rage for most of the time or your downtime becomes too disruptive, consider one or more of the following options:

• Exchange the Swooping Attacks Spirit Boon for Calm Before the Storm
• Target your Mastercrafts towards Grizzly Rage Duration or Cooldown.
• Put more Skill Points into Grizzly Rage for cooldown.

Bestial Rampage

Our Key Passive is Bestial Rampage for the high damage and attack speed multipliers. These are maintained built with Maul for Werebear and Tornado for Werewolf. Wildheart Hunger stacks give additional bonuses to Bestial Rampage. During Grizzly Rage, triggers of Que will force form to help maintain stacks.

Other Key Passives are available, such as Perfect Storm, which is a comparable damage, better Spirit Generation but at a slower pacing. To use this Key Passive:

• Change Bestial Rampage for Perfect Storm.
• Move Dire Wolf’s Aspect to Boots
• Use Tibault’s Will. Mastercraft the All Stats.

Spirit Management

We have several sources of Spirit Cost Reduction and Spirit Generation that make Spirit not a difficult issue to manage for this build.

• Gift of the Stag Spirit Boon gives 10 Spirit Per Second.
• Dire Wolf’s Aspect gives Spirit Cost Reduction during Grizzly Rage.
• Tempest Roar has a Lucky Hit Chance to restore Spirit.

If this is not sufficient for uptime, we can optionally use one or more of the following:

• Key Passive Perfect Storm. Pair this with Tibault’s Will and move Dire Wolf’s Aspect to Boots.
• Mangled Aspect or Aspect of the Umbral on ring before getting Ring of Starless Skies.
• Gear extra Resource Cost Reduction, Resource Generation, or Spirit Per Second on gear, as available.
• Use Energize Spirit Boon over Swooping Attack.
• Worst case, use Maul as an attack to build Spirit.

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.
• Upgrade your Potion as you level, increasing the instant healing of the potion!

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Season 9 Updates

Alongside the nerf to Mjölnic Ryng, Grizzly Rage is the theme of the season, with lots of buffs to related aspects, and Dire Wolf’s Aspect moving to Utility Slot, making some room for everything to fit. These are fantastic buffs and should give Tornado Druid a bit more power, though likely does not shift its Tiering.

The following list details the important changes in the Season 9 Patch Updates that are specific to the Tornado Druid. For general Season 9 information, check out our Season 9 Hub.

Itemization:

• Mjölnic Ryng – Damage bonus reduced from 40-100% to 20-40%.
• Dire Wolf’s Aspect
  • Category changed from Offensive to Utility.
  • 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.
• Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast
  • 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 5% for the duration, up to a maximum of 100%.
• Aspect of the Rabid Bear
  • Previous: While Grizzy Rage is active, Skills that Critically Strike apply Rabies and your Poison damage is increased by 60-105%.
  • Now: While Grizzy Rage is active, your direct damage is converted into Poison damage, you deal 40-80% more Poison damage, and you passively spread Rabies.
• Overpower bonus scaling is removed.

Skills and Stats:

• Maul – Damage increased from 26% to 80%.
• Vigilance – Damage Reduction reduced from 7/14/21% to 5/10/15%.
• Toxic Claws – Now: You deal 5/10/15% increased Poison damage. This is doubled while in Werewolf form and for 8 seconds after leaving it.
• Grizzly Rage Damage bonus per second in the form increased from 3% to 4%. Companion Skills are now always usable during Grizzly Rage.
• Grizzly Rage Rank 5 Bonus
  • Previous: Companion Skills can be Cast during Grizzly Rage.
  • Now: You gain 30% increased Armor while Grizzly Rage is active.
• Prime Grizzly Rage
  • Previously: Grizzly Rage makes you Unstoppable for 6 seconds.
  • Now: You are Unstoppable while Grizzly Rage is active.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where Shroud of False Death also granted bonuses to Spirit Boons.
• Fixed an issue where Aspect of the Rabid Bear would not always work for the entire duration of Grizzly Rage.

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Changelog

• 27 June, 2025: Updated for patch 2.3 and Season 9.
• 24 April, 2025: Updated to new unified format and for Season 8 Patch 2.2 changes.
• 12 Jan, 2025: Started on Season 7 and Patch 2.1 updates. Two tab paragon board introduced.
• 17 November, 2024: Minor updates for 2.0.5.
• 15 October, 2024: Updated for new onsite Paragon Tool.
• 29 September, 2024: Updated for Season 6. Changes to Paragon, Skill Tree, Skill Bar, and recommended Uniques.
• 5 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. Because of the nerf to the Resource Cost Reduction affix on weapon, now recommending Perfect Storm over Ursine Strength.
• 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.
• 11 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.