Build Introduction
This is your comprehensive guide for building a Werewolf thunder god who smites their enemies with blasts of lightning as they cower before him. Welcome to the Lightning Storm Werewolf build. This build focuses on using the unique 
Tempest Roar helmet to summon the power of a 
Lightning Storm in Werewolf form to terrorize the hordes of hell with unending bolts of lightning.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Amazing AoE damage
- Incredible Spirit Regeneration
- Unstoppable for 6 seconds when Grizzly Rage is triggered
- Low Cooldown for Grizzly Rage
- Highly dependent on Ultimate skill
- Requires you to manage your distance
- Requires minor cooldown management
Build Requirements
Tempest Roar
Dire Wolf’s AspectLightning Dancer’s AspectMighty Storm’s AspectSeason of the Malignant
Season 1 Patch Updates
Patch 1.1.1
Wind Shear – Spirit gain increased from 13 to 14.
Malignant Hearts
Video Guide
Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar
Lightning Storm Wind Shear 
Cyclone Armor 
Grizzly Rage 
Hurricane 
Blood Howl Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 58 point build. The additional 10 skill points are completed using the Renown system.
| Priority Skills | Cluster |
|---|---|
| Wind Shear Level 1, Enhanced Wind Shear |  Basic Skill |
Lightning Storm Level 5, Enhanced Lightning Storm, Raging Lightning Storm,  Heart of the Wild Level 1,  Wild Impulses Level 3,  Predatory Instinct Level 1,  Digitigrade Gait Level 3 |  Core Skill |
Cyclone Armor Level 1, Enhanced Cyclone Armor, Preserving Cyclone Armor, Blood Howl Level 1, Enhanced Blood Howl, Innate Blood Howl,  Ancestral Fortitude Level 1,  Vigilance Level 3 |  Defensive Skill |
 Nature’s Reach Level 3 |  Companion Skill |
Hurricane Level 1, Enhanced Hurricane, Savage Hurricane,  Elemental Exposure Level 3,  Endless Tempest Level 3,  Bad Omen Level 1,  Electric Shock Level 3,  Neurotoxin Level 1,  Envenom Level 3,  Toxic Claws Level 1 |  Wrath Skill |
Grizzly Rage, Prime Grizzly Rage, Supreme Grizzly Rage,  Defiance Level 3,  Circle of Life Level 3 |  Ultimate Skill |
 Earthen Might | Key Passives |
Spirit Boons – The Druid Specialization
Boons are additional buffs provided to the Druid class as part of their specialization. To unlock your Boons, you will need to complete a simple quest on the west side of the map in the stronghold of “Tur Dulra”. This becomes available at Level 15 and should be completed as soon as possible. The Boon mechanic allows you to pick a single buff from each of the corresponding master animals and the addition of a second Boon buff from a chosen master animal you select.
Once you are in the endgame and have completed the skill tree from the previous section, utilize the following set of Boons for the best results.
| Boon Name | Master Animal | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Wariness | Deer | Take 10% reduced damage from Elites |
| Scythe Talons | Eagle | Gain +5% increased Critical Strike Chance |
| Avian Wrath | Eagle | Gain x30% Critical Strike Damage |
| Calamity | Wolf | Extend the duration of Ultimate skills by 25% |
| Calm Before the Storm | Snake | Lucky Hit: Nature Magic Skills have up to a 10% chance to reduce the Cooldown of your Ultimate Skill by 2 seconds. |
As with many other Druid builds, we are going to use the Boon Calamity to help extend our Grizzly Rage. This Boon is our first of two pillars for keeping our Cooldown on Grizzly Rage as low as possible during the endgame. We will also rely on the Boon Calm Before The Storm to drive down the Cooldown timer as much as possible. With the new balance patch changes for Season One, having Grizzly Rage up constantly might no longer be possible. We will continue testing and provide updates for the best result.
Paragon
We recommend using these Legendary Nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information listed below is for the Level 21 version.
| Name | Effect |
|---|---|
 Werewolf | – For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal +[6.24]% increased damage while in Werewolf form. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Willpower points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain 10% damage reduction while in Werewolf form. |
 Undaunted | – For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, you deal +[9.6]% increased damage while Fortified. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Intelligence points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain up to 10% Damage Reduction the more Fortify you have. |
 Spirit | – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +[10.4]% increased Critical Strike Damage. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Critical Strikes increase the damage an enemy takes from you by x2% for 20 seconds, up to x12%. |
| Exploit | – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +[3.85]% increased damage to Vulnerable targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Dealing damage to a Vulnerable enemy increases your damage by x1% for 6 seconds, up to x10%. |
| Ancestral Guidance | – After spending 75 Spirit, you deal 30% increased damage for 5 seconds. |
| Fulminate | – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +[10]% increased Lightning damage. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You deal x12% increased Lightning damage to both Healthy and Injured enemies. |
| Thunderstruck | – Storm Skills deal 30%[x] increased Critical Strike Damage against Vulnerable or Immobilized enemies. |
| Earth and Sky | – Grants +[150]% bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Willpower points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Radius Bonus: Nature Magic Skills deal x10% increased damage to Crowd Controlled or Vulnerable enemies. |
| Lust For Carnage | – Critical Strikes with Werewolf Skills restore 2 Spirit. |
Let’s break down each of these beneficial Nodes and where our Paragon Points are positioned in each of the Paragon Boards we use. This part of the build is presented in order of importance. If you do not have enough Paragon Points for use in your Paragon Board, just slowly work towards each step.
Starting Board
- Begin with by selecting the Nodes on the right hand side of the board towards the Rare Node
Prime. This will give us a Life increase and Damage. - Path through the Magic Nodes continuing upwards to the Glyph slot and insert Fulminate in the center of the Starting Board. This will give us a large damage boost Lightning Damage.
- Select the
Dexterity nodes as shown above and pick up both Rare Nodes inside the Glyph radius, Impel and 
Resolve. These two Nodes will help with a damage boost and some resistances. - Finally, head towards the top of the Paragon Board and attach the Inner Beast Board in the same position as you see in the image below.
Inner Beast (2nd Board)
- Head towards the Glyph slot and insert the Glyph Werewolf , remember to take all the Willpower nodes needed for the bonus.
- Take the two Rare Nodes in the Glyph’s radius,
Shapeshifter and 
Determination, these will increase both our Damage and our Armor. - Now take the pathway up the right hand side of the board and pick up the two Rare Nodes,
Tenacity and 
Havoc, taking the magic nodes shown above. These Nodes will boost our Damage, Maximum Life and Armor. - Complete the pathway to the connection points on both the top and right hand side of the board. We will be using these connection points later.
- Lastly, follow the pathway to the connection point at the left hand side of the board and attach the next Paragon Board Lust for Carnage.
Lust for Carnage (3rd Board)
- Head towards the open Glyph slot and insert Undaunted. This Rare Glyph amplifies our Damage while Fortified based upon the
Intelligence Nodes in the radius. - Take the
Regenerative Rare Node along your path to the Glyph slot. - Now go down and pick up the Legendary Node,
Lust for Carnage. This a major component to keeping your Spirit up and being able to spam Lightning Storm. - Head towards to the
Ferocity Rare Node, this will boost our Critical Strike Damage and Werewolf Damage. - Go to the bottom of the Paragon Board and attach our next board, Thunderstruck.
Thunderstruck (4th Board)
- Path towards the Glyph slot and insert Earth and Sky. This glyph will buff the two nearly by Rare Nodes we will select,
Stormcaller and 
Hubris. We will also receive the bonus benefit of increased Nature skill damage to Vulnerable enemies. - Follow the image above and select all the Magic Nodes around each of the two Rare Nodes. This will increase our Storm skill damage and provide us with Damage Reduction from Vulnerable enemies.
- Now follow the pathway down to the Rare Node Deluge. This will once again increase our damage output.
- Select all the surrounding Magic Nodes and then proceed to the Legendary Node Thunderstruck. This will increase our Critical Strike Damage.
- Now drop to the right hand bottom corner of the board and pick up the Rare Node Tempest as well as the surrounding Magic Nodes to increase our Critical Strike Damage once again.
- Now return to the paragon board Inner Beast and head to the top of the board. This time attach our fifth board, Heightened Malice.
Heightened Malice (5th Board)
- Head to the open Glyph slot and insert Exploit. Take all the Dexterity nodes shown above for the bonus Damage to Vulnerable Enemies.
- Now take the two Rare Nodes
Nature-born and Sinking Fangs, with their corresponding Magic Nodes. These two Nodes amplify our damage towards poisoned enemies as well as our defenses against them. - Finally, head back to the left hand side of the board and attach our final board, Constricting Tendrils.
Constricting Tendrils (6th Board)
- Head towards the open Glyph slot and insert the Spirit Glyph. This will increase our Critical Strike Damage. Be sure to take the needed Dexterity points for the bonus as well.
- Now take the Rare Node Courage for the increase to Maximum Life.
- Now return to the Paragon Board Inner Beast and take the connection point on the right hand side of the board. This time attach our final board, Ancestral Guidance.
Ancestral Guidance (7th Board)
- Head towards the Legendary Node Ancestral Guidance, picking up the Rare Node
Reclamation along the way. - This will complete your Paragon Tree with a good balance of defensive and offensive bonuses, ready to blast some enemies.
Paragon Board images courtesy of d4builds.gg.
Mechanics and Playstyle
The playstyle for the Lightning Storm Werewolf build is very similar to some of our previous builds. We start by building up our Spirit using our generator Wind Shear, which will also put them into a Vulnerable state. Once your Spirit is topped off activate your Grizzly Rage, which will trigger Vigilance and begin building up our fortified life. Additionally, your movement speed will be increase and your Spirit costs will be drastically reduced. Start spamming your core skill: Lightning Storm. Lightning Storm will quickly ramp up its AoE damage and keep your Spirit at its maximum while you melt enemies from a distance. Keep your Hurricane up and running as much as you can to keep your ranks of Lightning Storm higher.
If things get too crazy, drop your Cyclone Armor on the enemies around for a small knockback and reposition yourself. Get back to slamming enemies with Lightning Storm. If you need a top of with Life, hit your Blood Howl and the bonus increase to Attack speed will increase your damage output for a short time. Now add in a Wind Shear attack to keep the enemies Vulnerable, this is very useless for any boss battles or challenging elites.
One final note, with this build you have several layers of defenses to keep your Damage Reduction at a high level so you can tank enemies while you use Lightning Storm on top of yourself, all the while getting a bonus chunk of Life from the Dire Wolf’s Aspect with every Critical Strike.
Now that you understand the skill rotation and benefits, let’s look at some of the additional benefits our skills provide while using certain Legendary Aspects.
Blood Howl and Cyclone Armor
Both Blood Howl and Cyclone Armor are defensive skills which benefit from using the Vigilance passive in our skill tree. This passive offers us 15% damage reduction whenever we cast either of these skills. Your best strategy is to balance the use of both skills for the 6 seconds of damage reduction at rank 3. Keeping the Vigilance buff active during endgame activities will be essential to you staying alive.
Hurricane
Hurricane utilizes the 
Stormshifter’s Aspect so you can benefit from the +2 boost to all ranks of your Shapeshifting skills, which because of the Unique Helmet Tempest Roar will include your storm skills.
Grizzly Rage
This skill is paramount to the build; you cannot push endgame content with an effective setup to use with your Grizzly Rage. To create an effective setup for endgame, we will equip two specific Legendary Aspects: Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast and Dire Wolf’s Aspect.
First, Dire Wolf’s Aspect alters the Werebear-only skill to be performed as a Werewolf, offering Movement Speed instead of Damage Reduction as well as a huge amount of Spirit Cost Reduction. This reduction is one of the main keys to us being able to spam Lightning Storm.
Next, Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast focuses on not only extending the uptime for our Grizzly Rage to be active, but also builds up a staggering amount of Critical Strike Damage with each critical strike you make. By using this Aspect and focusing on Critical Strike Chance on our gear, we can effectively boost our Critical Strike Damage by over 500% – 1000%. This adds a huge damage boost for running endgame content.
Overall, the build’s playstyle is simple to follow: build up your Spirit to maximum and pop Grizzly Rage, then start the non-stop Lightning Storm spam. Use your defensive skills to keep yourself standing strong and pop Blood Howl for more Spirit to keep the pressure up. All of our boons will keep our Grizzly Rage Cooldown at a minimum. As for your Spirit, you will benefit from the reduction of Spirit costs while in Grizzly Rage but also the Key Passive Earthen Might will keep you at full Spirit constantly.
Gear Choice and Stat Priority
As you begin to farm in World Tier 3 and 4, Rare and Legendary item drops will begin to appear with some regularity depending on your luck. We recommend saving the targeted Legendary items that have the needed Legendary aspects listed below. We also recommended to keep multiple copies of the build’s Aspects in your Stash for future upgrades.
As for the Rare items, you will need to inspect each one for targeted affixes for use in each specific slot and do your best to match the recommended rolls. We have listed our targeted affixes in order of importance. Check the chart below and make note of what affixes you are searching for when you see a Rare gear piece drop.
| Gear Slot | Targeted Affixes |
|---|---|
| Helm | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Maximum Life 3. Total Armor 4. Willpower 5. Life on Kill |
| Chest | 1. Damage Reduction 2. Damage Reduction while Fortified 3. Total Armor 4. Maximum Life 5. Damage Reduction from Close Enemies 6. Willpower 7. Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies 8. Damage Reduction from Poisoned Enemies |
| Gloves | 1. Rank up Lightning Storm 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Lightning Critical Strike Damage 4. Werewolf Critical Strike Damage 5. Willpower 6. All Stats 7. Lucky Hit Chance |
| Pants | 1. Damage Reduction 2. Damage Reduction while Fortified 3. Damage Reduction while Injured 4. Total Armor 5. Damage Reduction from Close Enemies 6. Damage Reduction from Distance Enemies 7. Maximum Life 8. Willpower |
| Boots | 1. Movement speed 2. Damage Reduction while Injured 3. Willpower 4. Total armor while Werewolf 5. Spirit Reduction 6. All Stats |
| Amulet | 1. Cooldown reduction 2. Rank up Envenom passive3. Damage Reduction while Injured 4. Movement Speed 5. Damage Reduction 6. Total armor while Werewolf 7. Damage Reduction while Fortified 8. Increase % Willpower |
| Rings | 1. Vulnerable Damage 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. Lightning Critical Strike Damage 5. Critical Strike Damage with Werewolf Skills 6. Maximum Life 7. Lucky Hit Chance |
| 1-handed Weapon | 1. Damage to Vulnerable Enemies 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Willpower 4. Lightning Critical Strike Damage 5. Critical Strike Damage with Werewolf Skills 6. All Stats 7. Core Skill Damage |
| Totem | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Spirit Cost Reduction 4. Willpower 5. Basic Attack Speed 6. Damage Reduction While Fortified 7. Lucky Strike Chance |
Please note that these Affixes are the recommended picks for the blank, but that is simply our opinion. Other Affixes could certainly work instead of the ones listed above, but may not be optimal. Also, there are several very specific affixes that are required to make the build work, particularly around Spirit generation, they are as follows:
- Cooldown Reduction
- Resource Generation
- Spirit Cost Reduction
Please note the recent Season One Balance changes have lowered the amount of Cooldown Reduction found on gear by 30%. This may cause this build to feel more sluggish while Cooldowns are finishing, we plan to revisit this once Season One begins.
A final point on acquiring the right affixes, Legendary Aspects use your Obols to target farm them. Obols are awarded from many different activities in the game, you will always stockpiling them until you hit your maximum. Instead of just randomly spending them on a random pick, use them to target what you might be missing from this build. It is a great way to target a specific slot of loot and find what you need.
If you are interested in checking out a new tool for gambling Obols check out this article below from Icy Veins.
Obol Gambling Optimization ToolLegendary Aspects
Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary Items that are important for the Lightning Storm Werewolf Druid build. Aspects from the Codex of Power can be used if you cannot find the proper Legendary drops, but they have weaker effects. Extract Aspects from lower level Legendary Items and imprint them onto better Rare Items with preferred stats. The endgame itemization goal will be to imprint Aspects with the best values Ancestral Rare items with Item Power above or as close to 800, then upgrade them through the Blacksmith. Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the slot it was posted with.
| Gear Slot | Legendary Aspect | Legendary Aspect Power |
|---|---|---|
| Helm | Tempest Roar | Unique Helmet |
| Chest |  Vigorous Aspect | Gain [10.0-15.0%] Damage Reduction while Shapeshifted into a Werewolf. |
| Gloves | Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast | The duration of Grizzly Rage is increased by [1 – 5] seconds. In addition, Critical Strikes while Grizzly Rage is active increase your Critical Strike Damage by 10% for the duration. |
| Pants | Aspect of Disobedience | You gain [0.25-0.50%] increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [15.00-30.00%]. |
| Boots | Stormshifter’s Aspect | While Hurricane is active, gain +2 Ranks to your Shapeshifting Skills. |
| Amulets(50% bonus) | Dire Wolf’s Aspect | Grizzly Rage now shapeshifts you into a Dire Werewolf. As a Dire Werewolf you gain [15-25%] Movement Speed instead of Damage Reduction and a [30-50%] Spirit cost reduction bonus. In addition, kills Heal you for 10% of your Maximum Life. |
| Ring | Mighty Storm’s Aspect | The Earthen Might Key Passive also applies to your Storm Skills. |
| Ring | Aspect of Retaliation | Your Core Skills deal up to [20-40%] increased damage based on your amount of Fortify. |
| 1-handed weapon | Lightning Dancer’s Aspect | Lightning Storm Critical Strikes spawn 3 Dancing Bolts that seek enemies in the area dealing [X] Lightning damage. |
| Totem | Overcharged Aspect | Lucky Hit: Up to a [10-20%] chance when dealing Lightning damage to overload the target for 3 seconds, causing any direct damage you deal to them to pulse [X] additional damage to surrounding enemies. |
Unique Items
This build can function without the unique helmet Tempest Roar, however it will dramatically alter the damage potential as you will no longer be in Werewolf form. Therefore, we believe the helmet is absolutely mandatory.
Gems
Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.
- Weapon:
Royal Emerald for critical strike damage to Vulnerable enemies. - Armor:
Royal Sapphire for damage reduction while Fortified. - Jewelry: Exclusively using our Malignant Hearts for these slots.
Elixirs and Health Potions
Visit the Alchemist in any main town 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, or the 
Assault Elixir to increase Attack Speed.
Return to the Alchemist again when you reach Level 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80 and 90, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.
Changelog
- August 8th 2023: Added notes about Patch 1.1.1.
- August 6th 2023: Full build review and improvements in paragon tree and Affixes.
- August 4th 2023: Malignant Hearts and Paragon updated for clarity.
- July 19th, 2023: Season of the Malignant section added.
- July 18th, 2023: Reviewed and altered build with Season One Patch Notes.
