General Leveling Tips
To find out more general information about leveling as a Druid in Diablo 4, you can check out our main Druid Leveling guide. You can also go to our Druid Builds page for a list of other leveling and endgame Druid builds for you to choose from.
In regard to leveling up on the seasonal realm, you might also want to check out our season checklist, as it will give you some useful tips and tricks for Season 1 of Diablo 4. Don’t miss this chance to make the most out of your leveling journey!
Season ChecklistSeason of the Malignant
Season 1 Patch Notes
The following list details the changes in the Season 1 Patch Update that are specific to this build. Check the Changelog for all the other guide updates.
Patch 1.1
Storm Strike Damage Reduction reduced from 25% to 15%
In addition to the build specific changes, multiple sources of Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage were reduced globally for all classes.
Patch 1.1.1
- Storm Strike
- Spirit gain increased from 14 to 15.
Wolves - Passive damage increased from 7.8% to 11%.
- Active damage increased from 110% to 135%.
- Enhanced Wolf Pack
- Damage bonus increased from 20% to 25%.
- Brutal Wolf Pack
- Attack Speed bonus increased from 20% to 25%.
Ravens - Passive damage increased from 13% to 20%.
- Brutal Ravens
- Additional functionality:
- Increase the passive damage of Ravens by 40%.
- Additional functionality:
Malignant Heart
Our best-in-slot Malignant Hearts for season 1 will be:
Caged Heart of the Moonrage (Vicious, Offensive): Kills have a 5% chance to summon a Wolf Companion to your side for 20-30 seconds. In addition, gain +3 to Wolves.
Caged Heart of Revenge (Brutal, Defensive): 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to Nearby enemies.
Caged Heart of The Barber (Wrathful, Super): Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within 2.0-4.0 seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 10% per second.
Many of the other Malignant hearts will provide some benefit but these are the 3 you should aim to have in your jewelry to have the greatest increase in power. Malignant Hearts will also give you a bonus to your armor based on their item power level.
With the Season 1 Journey we get early access to 
Subterranean Aspect and the Shockwave Aspects. I suggest you put them on gear as soon as possible, Subterranean for a little extra damage and Shockwave to make 
Pulverize our core skill.
For more info on Malignant hearts check out our guide on them here:
Malignant Hearts GuideOr check out our Season 1 guide here:
Season 1 GuideBuild Introduction
The Storm Strike and Companions leveling build strives to provide you with the damage and defensiveness to easily make it through the campaign and into World Tier 3 when you will be ready to jump into one of our endgame builds. We have the two best Druid Companions active, providing a good amount of passive minion damage which allows us to run two defensive skills. You have your choice of Spirit spender based on what Legendaries you pick up while leveling for a ton of flexibility.
Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar
Blood Howl Wolves 
Poison Creeper 
Cyclone Armor Storm Strike 
Tornado We will use the following skill progression until we have the points available to respec at least 1 point into each of the minion skills, which is around Level 15.
If you have skill points from Renown, we suggest these talents to get you to Level 15 faster:
| Order | Skill | Cluster |
| 14 |  Earthen Bulwark |  Defensive Skill |
| 15 | Enhanced Earthen Bulwark | Defensive Skill |
| 16 | Preserving Earthen Bulwark | Defensive Skill |
| 17 |  Heart of the Wild |  Core Skill |
| 18 |  Wild Impulses | Core Skill |
| 19 | Wild Impulses Level 2 | Core Skill |
| 20 | Wild Impulses Level 3 | Core Skill |
| 21 |  Abundance | Core Skill |
| 22 | Abundance Level 2 | Core Skill |
| 23 | Abundance Level 3 | Core Skill |
Upon reaching Level 15, your priority is to do the Druid Class quest to unlock Spirit Bonding and pick up the first bond as outlined below. Once you do that, you can do a respec into our main build as listed in the table below.
You should choose a Core skill for which you find a Legendary Item during your leveling process. For example, even though we recommend 
Landslide ability as a default choice, if you find a Legendary Item like Stormchaser’s Aspect, you should use Tornado instead, since you will see a much higher power gain this way.
At this point you will have a few options based on what you feel you need more in your build whether it is single target, AoE clearing, or defensives.
All of the following points can be taken any time during the next levels. Poison Creeper for more AoE, Wolves for more single target, and Cyclone Armor and Blood Howl for more defensiveness.
| Order | Skill | Cluster |
|---|---|---|
| 28 | Poison Creeper Level 2 |  Companion Skill |
| 29 | Poison Creeper Level 3 | Companion Skill |
| 30 | Poison Creeper Level 4 | Companion Skill |
| 31 | Poison Creeper Level 5 | Companion Skill |
| 32 | Wolves Level 2 | Companion Skill |
| 33 | Wolves Level 3 | Companion Skill |
| 34 |  Ursine Strength |  Key Passives |
| 35 | Wolves Level 4 | Companion Skill |
| 36 | Wolves Level 5 | Companion Skill |
| 37 | Cyclone Armor Level 2 | Defensive Skill |
| 38 | Blood Howl Level 2 | Defensive Skill |
| 39 | Cyclone Armor Level 3 | Defensive Skill |
| 40 | Blood Howl Level 3 | Defensive Skill |
| 41 | Cyclone Armor Level 4 | Defensive Skill |
| 42 | Blood Howl Level 4 | Defensive Skill |
| 43 | Cyclone Armor Level 5 | Defensive Skill |
| 44 | Blood Howl Level 5 | Defensive Skill |
Lastly, we clean up the last point on Storm Strike and pick up some more utility talents, keeping in mind that talents number 49-58 will be from renown rewards in each of the five zones.
| Order | Skill | Cluster |
|---|---|---|
| 45 | Storm Strike |  Basic Skill |
| 46 |  Digitigrade Gait | Core Skill |
| 47 | Digitigrade Gait Level 2 | Core Skill |
| 48 | Digitigrade Gait Level 3 | Core Skill |
| 49 |  Ancestral Fortitude | Defensive Skill |
| 50 | Ancestral Fortitude Level 2 | Defensive Skill |
| 51 | Ancestral Fortitude Level 3 | Defensive Skill |
| 52 |  Vigilance | Defensive Skill |
| 53 | Vigilance Level 2 | Defensive Skill |
| 54 | Vigilance Level 3 | Defensive Skill |
| 55 |  Quickshift |  Ultimate Skill |
| 56 |  Heightened Senses | Ultimate Skill |
| 57 | Heightened Senses Level 2 | Ultimate Skill |
| 58 | Heightened Senses Level 3 | Ultimate Skill |
Mechanics and Playstyle
This is one of the easiest builds you will play! We use Poison Creeper to clear out packs of mobs with the insane AoE damage that it provides, while our Wolves will be used as our main single target ability. We use Storm Strike as our Basic skill due to being able to apply Vulnerable up to three mobs at a time, as well as giving us damage reduction.
We use our chosen Core Skill as a bit of extra damage for both single target and AoE as a spirit dump. It will greatly help carry you until you can go full Companions with gear and proper affixes later on in the endgame.
We take Cyclone Armor for defensiveness as well as a good knock back (note: If your Poison Creeper didn’t completely kill the pack of mobs, an activation of Cyclone Armor will finish them off) and Blood Howl as a self heal and damage increase. We use 
Predatory Instinct to increase our critical strike chance and the chance of activating our Packleader Spirit Bond and 
Call of the Wild to increase the damage of our Companions.
Heightened Senses, Vigilance, and Ancestral Fortitude all help us survive even more by increasing our damage reduction and resistances.
Spirit Boons
Below is the order in which you should unlock your Spirit Boons. Only offer enough Druidic Spirit Offerings to unlock the first 4 listed Boons and then fully unlock the rest to activate the final Boon with Spirit Bonding.
| Boon Name | Animal | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Packleader | Wolf | Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes have up to a 20% chance to reset the Cooldowns of your Companion Skills. |
| Scythe Talons | Eagle | Gain 5% increased Critical Strike Chance. |
| Wariness | Stag | Take 10% reduced damage from Elites. |
| Overload | Snake | Lucky Hit: Dealing Lightning damage has up to a 20% chance to cause the target to emit a static discharge, dealing 20% Lightning damage to surrounding enemies. |
| Swooping Attacks | Eagle | Gain 10% Attack Speed. |
Gear Choice and Stat Priority while Leveling
Make sure to pick up all Rare equipment drops that may be upgrades while you are leveling Storm Strike and Companions Druid. Save Legendary items with useful aspects in your stash to be used later for extraction and imprinting onto well rolled Rare items.
When looking at weapons keep in mind that a higher level 1-handed may be better when paired with an off-hand than the 2-handed that you are using.
Listed below are the stat affixes to prioritize on gear for leveling a Storm Strike and Companions Druid, ranked by their importance. Affixes on the same level have roughly the same importance.
| Importance | Affix |
|---|---|
| 1 | DPS value of weapons and off-hands |
| 2 | Critical Strike Chance Cooldown Reduction Lucky Hit Chance Rank to Wolves and Poison Creeper All Damage Companion Damage Vulnerable Damage |
| 3 | Attack Speed and Basic Skill Attack Speed Willpower Basic Skill Damage |
| 4 | Life Damage Reduction Damage Reduction while Fortified Any Elemental Resistances Armor |
| 5 | Movement Speed Crowd Control Duration Healing Received |
Legendary Item Aspects
To unlock Aspects in the Codex of Power, you must complete the corresponding Dungeon where the specific Aspect drops. Visit the Occultist to imprint this Aspect onto an item. Aspects from the Codex of Power can be used often on weapons.
Aspects found on dropped Legendary Items have stronger effects than those applied from the Codex of Power. Additionally, it is important to know that certain Aspects can only be obtained by finding them on a legendary item, and are not accessible through the Codex of Power. Extract Aspects from unusable Legendary Items to imprint them onto well-rolled Rare Items. Avoid imprinting valuable extracted Aspects onto weapons, because weapons they get replaced often while leveling.
We have a dedicated in-depth Aspect and Codex of Power guide that you can check out for more information.
Listed below are the Aspects that are important for the Companion Druid leveling build. They are listed in order of priority.
| Aspect Name | Legendary Aspect Power | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Aspect of the Alpha | Your Wolf Companions are now Werewolf Companions. Werewolf Companions deal +[75 – 100]% additional damage and can spread Rabies. | Drop Only |
| Nighthowler’s Aspect | Blood Howl increases Critical Strike Chance by +[5 – 10]%. In addition, Blood Howl also affects Nearby Companions and Players for 3 seconds. | Forbidden City Fractured Peaks |
 Aspect of Cyclonic Force | Cyclone Armor also provides Physical Damage Reduction. In addition, Cyclone Armor will also be applied to all Nearby Allies. | Collapsed Vault Kejistan |
| Aspect of Might | Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2 – 6] seconds. | Dark Ravine Dry Steppes |
| Rapid Aspect | Basic Skills gain +[15 – 30]% Attack Speed. | Buried Halls Dry Steppes |
| Edgemaster’s Aspect | Skills deal up to x[10 – 20]% increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource. | Oldstones Scosglen |
Gems
Listed below are the best Gems to socket into gear for each slot type.
- Weapon:
Topaz for Basic Attack Damage - Armor:
Ruby for Maximum Life. - Jewelry: Use the Malignant Hearts recommended at the start of this guide, for the special effects as well as the armor bonus.
Elixirs and Health Potions
Visit the Alchemist 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, 
Iron Barb Elixir for Armor, or 
Assault Elixir for Attack Speed.
Keep in mind if you are having issues in a dungeon with a certain mob you will eventually unlock elixirs that will give you a 20% damage increase against a specific mob type.
Return to the Alchemist at Levels 10, 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80, and 90 to upgrade your Health Potions.
Changelog
- August 7th, 2023: Updated for patch 1.1.1.
- July 23rd, 2023: Updated Gems section to reflect the presence of Malignant Hearts.
- July 18th, 2023: Updated for Season 1 and added Skill Bar.
