Earth Spike – Druid Build for Diablo 4 (Season 9)

Build Introduction

The Earth Spike Druid is a Basic Skill brawler, sending out lines of of Earth Spike with Seismic-shift Aspect. This is a Grizzly Rage Dire Werebear build that tanks as well as it kills.

Just starting on your druid adventure? Try out any of our Druid Leveling Guide and swap to this one at Level 60.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Requirements

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

Required Uniques

Shard of Verathiel

Vasily’s Prayer

Required Aspects

Seismic-shift Aspect

Several Unique Items enhance the gameplay for the build but are not required for function. Check out the Uniques section for more information.

This is a Grizzly Rage build! Read up on managing your Ultimate Skill here.

Quick Navigation

This guide covers everything necessary to get started on the Earth Spike Druid including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates. Jump to the sections you’re looking for here:

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Grizzly RageDebilitating RoarCyclone ArmorPoison CreeperClawEarth Spike

If you are missing skill points, complete Renown events in each zone. See how these Skills play in the Rotation and Gameplay section.

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Druid Class Mechanic – Spirit Boons

Druids unlock powerful Spirit Boon passives, giving offerings to the animal spirits to receive their blessing. Once fully unlocked, you can activate the final boon by Spirit Bonding with one of the four animal spirits to take two passives from that row.

Druid’s primary resource is Spirit. Check the Spirit Management Section on how to keep casting even with Shard of Verathiel!

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

Check these sections for all important Earth Spike 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.

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Slot	Gem	Aspect	Unique/Legendary Power
1 Handed Sword	Grand Emerald	Shard of Verathiel	Basic Skills deal 50-200% increased damage but additionally cost 25 Primary Resource.
Totem	Grand Emerald	Seismic-shift Aspect	Earth Spike deals 50-70% increased damage and launches 2 rows of spikes in a line.
Helm	Lith Gar	Vasily’s Prayer	Your Earth Skills are now also Werebear Skills and Fortify you for 2-5% of your Maximum Health.
Chest	Igni Xan	(Recommended Mythic) Shroud of False Death (recommended Unique) Insatiable Fury Juggernaut’s Aspect	If you haven’t attacked in the last 2 seconds, gain Stealth and 40% Movement Speed.
Gloves		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.
Pants	Grand Sapphire	Unique – Tibault’s Will Skinwalker’s Aspect	You deal 10-20% increased damage while Unstoppable and for 5 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource.
Boots		Ballistic Aspect	When you have Fortify your Earth Skills gain +2 Ranks.
Amulet	Grand Diamond	Aspect of Adaptability	Basic Skills generate 5 additional Primary Resource, once per Skill. Basic Skills deal 0.4-0.6% increased damage for each point of Primary Resource you have.
Ring 1	Grand Diamond	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 Diamond	Mythic – Ring of Starless SkiesAspect of the Changeling’s Debt	Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10% for 3 seconds, up to 50%.

See how this build compares to the rest at our Endgame Build Tier List.

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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
1 Handed Sword – Shard of Verathiel	All Stats Ranks to Basic Skills Basic Attack Speed Maximum Resource
Totem – Legendary Aspect	Cooldown Reduction Willpower Critical Strike Chance Maximum Life Resource Cost Reduction	Earth Augments – Chance for Earth Spike Projectiles to Cast Twice Shapeshifting Finesse – Grizzly Rage Duration OR Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance
Helm – Vasily’s Prayer	Max Life Willpower% Ranks to Defensive Posture Armor
Chest – Shroud of False Death	All Stats Maximum Life Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth Resource Generation
Chest – Insatiable Fury	Max Life Werebear Overpower Damage Ursine Strength’s Bonuses Ranks to Iron Fur
Chest – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Max Life Armor All Resistances Spirit Per Second	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit Chance or Crowd Control Duration
Gloves – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Max Life All Resistances	Shapeshifting Finesse – Grizzly Rage Duration Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit Chance or Crowd Control Duration
Pants – Tibault’s Will	All Stats Maximum Life Maximum Resource Damage Reduction While Unstoppable
Pants – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Ranks in Earth Spike Ranks in Basic Skills All Resistances Max Life	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit Chance or Crowd Control Duration
Boots – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Maximum Life Movement Speed Armor All Resistances
Amulet – Legendary Aspect	Willpower% Ranks to Envenom Ranks to Toxic Claws Ranks to Quickshift
Ring – Ring of Starless Skies	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Ranks to Core Skills
Ring – Legendary Aspect	Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Chance to Apply Vulnerable Maximum Life Resource Cost Reduction	Shapeshifting Finesse – Grizzly Rage Duration Ultimate Efficiency —  Druid – Grizzly Rage Cooldown Reduction

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.

For information on Legendary Aspects and the updated Codex of Power, see here.

After gearing, look at progression systems like Paragon next.

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Uniques and Mythic Uniques

These Unique Items are useful for the Earth Spike Druid:

• Shard of Verathiel is a hefty multiplier for Basic Skills, including Earth Spike. It makes it cost 25 Spirit but this is mitigated with Spirit Generators or Cost Reductions.

• Vasily’s Prayer gives Earth Skills the Werebear Tag, which gives it favorable multipliers and allows Earth Spike to be cast during Grizzly Rage.

• (Before Mythic) Insatiable Fury, thanks to Vasily’s Prayer gives Skill Ranks in Earth Spike.

• Tibault’s Will has favorable gear affixes and a permanent damage buff during Grizzly Rage thanks to Prime Grizzly Rage always providing Unstoppable.

Mythic Unique Items

• 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.

• Ring of Starless Skies is a powerful Resource Cost Reduction tool and damage multiplier, with strong Gear Affixes.

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 Earth Spike Druid:

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Emerald for Critical Strike Damage	Grand Sapphire for Willpower	Grand Diamond for Resistance to all Elements

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% more Elemental damage and take 10% more.
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 2-Handed Weapon and one 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 – 300 Offering. Overflow: Increased duration. Your next attack will cause your hits to be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower for 0.35 seconds.
Lith Gar	Lith – Gain: 25 Offering. Stand still while fighting for 0.3 seconds. Gar – Requires: 25 Offering. Overflow: Gain Multiple Stacks. Cooldown: 1 seconds. Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%.

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 provide a high volume of periodic Critical Overpowers. Gar is an easy way to access Critical Strike Chance.

Other options are available depending on level of gearing and content:

• Kry would be helpful for gathering.
• Lum could help with Spirit Management in early gearing, as necessary.

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Paragon Board

The following are the preferred Glyphs, Boards, and pathing recommended for making the most of the Earth Spike Druid.

The road to max paragon level 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 Earth Spike	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	Tendrilous Bundle	Control – Lucky Hit: Damage from your Catalyst has up to a 35% chance to Immobilize for 5 seconds (+5% 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.

Tendrilous Bundle should interact favorably with Wild Earth Spike.

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% more Elemental damage and take 10% more.
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.

There are some situationally useful Jewels to consider:

• (Resource) In Early Gearing, Spark of Creation can be useful Resource generation.
• (Qol) While Idol From Below is powerful, If the Jeweled Guardians are bothersome, replace it with another.

Mercenaries

Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker

• Skills: Cleave, Hysteria, Bloodthirst, Bloodlust

Reinforcement – Raheir, the Shieldbearer

• Reinforcement Ability: Crater
• Opportunity: Earth Spike

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.

Hysteria and Bloodlust will both give strong Attack Speed bonuses. Crater will help group enemies.

Other Mercenary Setups are viable, such as Subo’s Cover Fire and minimap tracking, or Rahier if you still need Armor or Resistance.

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

The Earth Spike Druid is a simple Basic Skill build with minor buff maintenance

1. Prebuild stacks of Quickshift with Claw and Earth Spike.
2. Enter Grizzly Rage and become the Dire Werebear.
3. Debilitating Roar for a damage gain and to apply a damage taken debuff on enemies.
4. Line up your enemies and immobilize them with Poison Creeper.
5. Send waves of Earth Spikes to kill your foes.

Cyclone Armor‘s Active use will not be available during Grizzly Rage, but you will still recieve its passive defense.

Skills, Support and Synergies

The primary damage for this build is Earth Spike.

With Seismic-shift Aspect, two waves of Earth Spike will be sent out in a medium range from the player. There’s a few modifiers to this:

• Enhanced Earth Spike gives a small chance to Stun enemies.
• Wild Earth Spike summons another Spike when hitting Stunned or Immobilized Enemies.
  • Other sources of Immobilize or Stun can include Poison Creeper or Seasonal Powers like Tendrilous Bundle.
• Earth Augments Gives a chance for Earth Spike to Cast Twice. With the two waves from Seismic already, that can be 4 lines per cast!

Shard of Verathiel adds a 25 Spirit Cost to Earth Spike. Not hitting a target can mean no Spirit Generation but still costing. Try not to get into an Out of Spirit situation. Read more on Spirit Management below.

Lining up the Shot

The line of Earth Spikes sent out can be narrow. In push, you will often find the easiest way to hit lots of enemies is Orbwalking; moving ahead of enemies and then moving or aiming back to attack behind as they trail you. This also leverages being slightly Distant from enemies for the Nature’s Reach extra multiplier.

Grizzly Rage

This build uses Grizzly Rage as its Ultimate Skill. Grizzly Rage grants Unstoppable for its duration, grants Damage Reduction, and a large Damage multiplier 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 Storm or Wolf Skills will be unavailable while Grizzly Rage is active. Certain Skills like Cyclone Armor with a passive effect will still be up, but the Skill will be unavailable for Active Use. Companion Skills are always available.

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. With Xan and other sources of Overpower like Obsidian Slam Spirit Boon and Provocation, this is handled easily.
• Offensive Tempers on gear give more duration.

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.

Earthen Might

Earthen Might is our Ultimate Skill. It is a Lucky Hit chance to Restore Spirit, guarantee Critical Strikes and increase Critical Strike Damage by 70% for 5 seconds.

The Lucky Hit Chance is increased if the attacks are Critical Strikes or if the enemy is affected by the Stun, Immobilize or Knocked Back Crowd Control conditions.

Earthen Might has a slight lockout from being able to trigger it again, but you can overlap a refresh. It is unfortunate that you gear for Critical Strike just to guarantee Critical Strike, but that’s how it is.

Our kit has various working Crowd Controls, such as the Stun Chance on Enhanced Earth Spike.

Spirit Management

With Shard of Verathiel, Basic Skills cost 25 Spirit to cast, including Earth Spike.

We gain Spirit from a number of sources:

• Gift of the Stag gives 10 Spirit Per Second
• Casting Earth Spike generates Spirit, natively and +5 from Aspect of Adaptability.
• Intelligence stat scales Resource Generation.
• Gear Affixes with Resource Cost Reduction, Resource Generation or Chance to Restore Spirit.
• Triggers of Earthen Might fully refresh Spirit.
• Tibault’s Will gives Spirit on gaining Unstoppable. Since we are perma-Unstoppable with Grizzly Rage this will not be that useful.

If this is not sufficient while leveling and gearing, consider one or more of the following:

• Use Energize Spirit Boon, replacing Swooping Attacks
• Seasonal players can use Spark of Creation for Spirit refund on casts of Earth Spike.
• Place Skill Points in Abundance, removing them from Provocation.
• Use Aspect of the Umbral for Spirit against Crowd-controlled enemies.

Elixirs, Incense and Health Potions

The Alchemist offers helpful consumables at the cost of foraged materials found throughout Sanctuary.

• Craft your Elixir:
  • (Offensive) Elixir of Advantage II For Attack Speed and Lucky Hit bonuses.
  • (Defensive) Elixir of Fortitude II For Max Life.
• 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

Earth Spike is stronger than ever, with the updated Seismic-shift Aspect sending out a second line. Which can be up to 4 with Earth Augments! It will be good to have a solid and competitive Basic Attack build out there again. It will likely not be meta on the leaderboard, but will function in all other content.

A couple or things being considered:

• Is the updated Paingorger’s Gauntlets good? probably not. It’s only one burst instance per cast of Earth Spike, which is multiple attacks at once so likely better to just scale the Earth Spike directly with multipliers.
• While Aspect of Adaptability scales with Max Resource, the Ancestral Guidance board’s other nodes are not so great compared to other boards.

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

Itemization:

• Seismic-shift Aspect
  • Previous: Earth Spike deals 50-70% increased damage and launches spikes in a line.
  • Now: Earth Spike deals 50-70% increased damage and launches 2 rows of spikes in a line.
• 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.
• Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast – Damage bonus per stack increased from 3% to 5%, up to 100% from 60%.
• Overpower bonus scaling removed.

Skills and Stats:

• Earth Spike Damage increased to 90%.
• Vigilance Damage Reduction reduced from 7/14/21% to 5/10/15%.
• Toxic Claws
  • Previously: Shred and Lacerate deals an additional 24/48/72% of their Base damage as Poisoning damage over 4 seconds.
  • Now: You deal 5/10/15% increased Poison damage. This is doubled while in Werewolf form and for 8 seconds after leaving it.
• Enhanced Debilitating Roar  Fortify amount increased from 22% to 30%.
• Innate Debilitating Roar Damage bonus increased from 15% to 25%.
• Provocation
  • Previous: When you remain in Werebear form for at least 20/16/12 seconds, your next non-Defensive Skill will Overpower.
  • Now: After 10 seconds of Werebear form, your next non-Defensive Skill will Overpower and deal 5/10/15% increased damage.
• 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 Aspect of the Rabid Bear would not always work for the entire duration of Grizzly Rage.
• Fixed an issue where Shroud of False Death also granted bonuses to Spirit Boons.

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Changelog

27 June, 2025: Build created for Season 9 and Patch 2.3.