It’s tough in hell for shapeshifters so far—we surely know that the optimal Diablo 4 Druid build is not investing all your points in ‘bear’. Instead, why not become a lightning-based storm druid capable of immobilizing adversaries by chaining together devastating Storm Strike bolts? This build is geared at the endgame, and it really shines when you acquire a bunch of storm-based passives at the Druid’s fifth skill tree node. Notably, there isn’t a lot of beast transformation—sorry, bear aficionados.
Because the Diablo 4 beta in May has a level cap of 20, be aware that many of the passive perks and crowd control stacking that this build aspires for will not be available until the final release in June. For the beta, try grabbing some older talents to enhance your setups, such as the storm skill Tornado and the werewolf skill Shred.
Storm Druid build guide
- Skills: Storm Strike, Lightning Storm, Earthen Bulwark, Blood Howl, Hurricane, and Cataclysm are all abilities.
- Spirit Boons: Prickleskin
- Legendary Aspects: Storm Beast’s Aspect, Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect, and Overcharged Aspect are all legendary aspects.
Druids haven’t gotten a lot of love in Diablo 4, but going with a storm build is one of the more popular options, at least in terms of popularity. Some storm setups incorporate beast-form abilities like werewolves and werebears. However, investing in all storm skills is the greatest approach to maximize crowd control, multi-target lightning, and stacking Vulnerability.
At node one, choose Storm Strike and its upgrade Enhanced Storm Strike, then at node two, take Lightning Storm > Enhanced Lightning Storm > Primal Lightning Storm.
For defense and healing, pick up Earthen Bulwark and Blood Howl at node three. There is a defensive storm ability available at that node, but you won’t need it because your Druid will benefit from clustered foes at melee range.
Aside from taking Nature’s Reach for damage against distant crowd-controlled adversaries to profit from all your lightning, you’ll almost fully skip past node four.
This build really takes off at node five, when you acquire Hurricane > Enhanced Hurricane > Natural Hurricane, followed by a massive group of passive storm abilities beginning with Elemental Exposure.
On D4builds.gg, I’ve laid out a skill tree path that will bring you to Hurricane by level 20 during the server slam weekend. But, once again, this is an endgame build that will profit from your later skill points being thrown into that clump of storm passives in node five.
This build really takes off at node five, when you acquire Hurricane > Enhanced Hurricane > Natural Hurricane, followed by a massive group of passive storm abilities beginning with Elemental Exposure.
On D4builds.gg, I’ve laid out a skill tree path that will bring you to Hurricane by level 20 during the server slam weekend. But, once again, this is an endgame build that will profit from your later skill points being thrown into that clump of storm passives in node five.
To play successfully with all of your storm skills, you’ll need an eye for improving lucky hit probability and vulnerability application. Fortunately, there are numerous options, so keep a lookout for these:
- Storm Beast’s Aspect: Storm skills have a chance to recover Spirit, and all storm talents are now werewolf skills.
- Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect: Critical strikes with storm talents charge the air and cause lightning strikes on a regular basis. Essentially, passive lightning.
- Overcharged Aspect: A chance when dealing lightning damage to overload a target so any damage to them pulses to surrounding enemies.
- The aspect of the Umbral: When crowd-controlling foes, this is a useful general usage aspect for recovering resources (Spirit, for Druids).
While leveling this construct, you may want to obtain Stormclaw’s Aspect, which can be obtained by finishing Anica’s Claim dungeon in Fractured Peaks. If you’ve chosen Shred as a temporary damage-dealing skill, this will do lightning damage as well.
Your goal here will be to toss a lot of lightning around with Storm Strike to develop Spirit between uses of Lightning Storm. All of the passives, skill improvements, and legendary characteristics here are designed to do as much lightning damage as possible to as many targets as possible each time you cast, so keep slinging. As needed, use your Earthen Bulwark and Blood Howl for defense and healing. Remember that your Blood Howl upgrade generates Spirit as well.
When Hurricane is available, use it to AOE slow foes around you before channeling Lightning Storm for as many hits as possible.
Finally, a shout out to Fextralife’s toxic wolf build below as a variant that focuses on crowd control as well, albeit this is built on doing poison damage over time. It just feels a lot dryer to play than hurling lightning, so take that into account.
