It's tough in hell for shapeshifters so far—we definitely know that the best Diablo 4 Druid build is not putting all your points in 'bear'. Instead, why not try becoming a lightning-based storm druid who can immobilize enemies by chaining together shocking Storm Strike bolts? This build leans towards the endgame, really coming into its power when you unlock a huge slew of storm-based passives at the Druid's fifth skill tree node. Notably though it doesn't involve a ton of beast transformation—sorry, bear fans.
The Diablo 4 beta in May has a level cap of 20, so be warned that a lot of the passive benefits and crowd control stacking this build aims for won't be unlockable until the full launch in June. For the beta, try snagging a few earlier skills to supplement your build like storm skill Tornado and werewolf skill Shred.
Storm Druid build guide
- Skills: Storm Strike, Lightning Storm, Earthen Bulwark, Blood Howl, Hurricane, Cataclysm
- Spirit Boons: Prickleskin
- Legendary Aspects: Storm Beast's Aspect, Runeworker's Conduit Aspect, Overcharged Aspect
Druids have not gotten a lot of love in Diablo 4 thus far, but going with a storm build is one of the more popular choices, relatively speaking. You'll see some storm builds mixing in beast form skills for werewolves and werebears. But going full storm skill investment is the best way to maximize crowd control, multi-target lightning, and stacking Vulnerability.
Grab Storm Strike and its upgrade Enhanced Storm Strike at node one and Lightning Storm > Enhanced Lightning Storm > Primal Lightning Storm at node two.
Pick up Earthen Bulwark and Blood Howl at node three for defense and healing. There's a defensive storm skill available at that node but you won't want the knockback effect it applies as your Druid will benefit from grouped enemies at melee range.
You'll skip over node four almost entirely aside from grabbing Nature's Reach for damage against distant crowd-controlled enemies to benefit from all your lightning.
This build really takes off at node five where you grab Hurricane > Enhanced Hurricane > Natural Hurricane, and then the huge group of passive storm abilities beside it starting with Elemental Exposure.
I've plotted out a skill tree course on D4builds.gg that will get you to Hurricane by level 20 in the server slam weekend. But again, be warned that this is more of an endgame build that will benefit from your later skill points being dumped into that clump of storm passives in node five.
As for Legendary Aspects, you'll want an eye for increasing lucky hit chance and vulnerability application to play well with all your storm skills. Fortunately, there are actually a lot of choices, so keep your eyes peeled for these:
- Storm Beast's Aspect: Chance for storm skills to restore Spirit and all storm skills are now also werewolf skills.
- Runeworker's Conduit Aspect: Critical strikes with storm skills charge the air and cause periodic lightning strikes. Basically passive lightning.
- Overcharged Aspect: A chance when dealing lightning damage to overload a target so any damage to them pulses to surrounding enemies.
- Aspect of the Umbral: A good general use aspect for restoring resource (Spirit, for Druids) when crowd-controlling enemies.
While you're leveling this build, you may want to grab Stormclaw's Aspect as well, which you can find guaranteed by completing the Anica's Claim dungeon in Fractured Peaks. If you've taken Shred as a temporary damage-dealing skill, this will make part of its damage lightning damage also.
Your goal here is going to be tossing around a hell of a lot of lightning initially with Storm Strike to build Spirit between uses of Lightning Storm. All the passives, skill upgrades, and legendary aspects here are aimed at passing along that lightning damage to as many targets as possible each time you cast so just keep slinging. Throw in your Earthen Bulwark and Blood Howl for defense and healing as needed. Remember that your upgrade on Blood Howl also generates Spirit.
As available, use Hurricane to AOE slow enemies around you and follow up with channeling Lightning Storm for as many hits as possible.
Lastly, a quick shout to Fextralife's toxic wolf build below as an alternative that also focuses on crowd control, though this is based on doing poison damage over time. It just seems a lot drier to play than slinging lightning, so consider your personal taste.
