Stormclaw Druid Endgame Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 4)

Build Introduction

The Stormclaw Druid is a fast, simple, and tanky Basic Skill build with a melee playstyle, using Greatstaff of the Crone to deliver a high volume of Claw and Storm Strike. Speed between enemies, grouping packs, and cleaving them down.

This guide covers everything necessary to get started on your Stormclaw adventure including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates. The guide will primarily cover Endgame pushing, but will also cover alternative options, in-depth gameplay information as well as Gauntlet considerations.

Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

The following Unique Items are required for build functionality to get started on the Stormclaw Druid:

Required Uniques

Greatstaff of the Crone

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Skill Bar for Stormclaw Druid

Earthen Bulwark Blood Howl Trample Petrify Claw Poison Creeper

Spirit Boons – The Druid Class Specialization

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

Alternative Boons

• In hard-hitting push content where more health is necessary, change the Eagle’s Scythe Talons for the Eagle’s Iron Feather.
• If the Fortify generation is sufficient, change Wolf’s Bolster to the Wolf’s Packleader for more coverage of Brutal Poison Creeper.

Paragon

The following are the preferred Glyphs, Boards, and pathing recommended for making the most of the Stormclaw Druid. All Glyphs are placed as if they are max radius (Level 15+).

Starting Board

Click this link to see the paragon board in its entirety! Paragon Board images are courtesy of d4builds.gg.

From the starting board, path up, placing the Territorial Glyph into the Glyph Socket.

Inner Beast

For the second board, choose Inner Beast, placed against the Starting Board. Socket the Werewolf glyph. The Legendary Node is not taken.

Thunderstruck

For the third board, choose Thunderstruck, placed against the right exit of the Inner Beast board. Socket the Spirit glyph, and take the Thunderstruck Legendary Node.

Ancestral Guidance

For the fourth board, choose Ancestral Guidance, placed against the bottom exit of the Thunderstruck board. Socket the Fang and Claw Glyph. The Legendary Node is not taken.

Heightened Malice

For the fifth board, choose Heightened Malice, placed against the right exit of the Ancestral Guidance board. Socket the Undaunted glyph. The Legendary Node is not taken.

Constricting Tendrils

For the sixth board, choose Constricting Tendrils, placed against the top exit of the Inner Beast board. Socket the Exploit Glyph. The Legendary Node is not taken.

Survival Instincts

For the final board, choose Survival Instincts, placed against the bottom side of the Heightened Malice board, rotated once. take the Bulwark Rare node and surrounding Damage Reduction to Fortify Magic nodes.

For further info on Paragon choices, check the Paragon Information in the Additional Information Section.

Gear, Stats, Gems and Elixirs

Itemization has received significant changes with the Season 4 1.40 patch, and will affect the game going forward.

Legendary Aspects

Below are the recommended Legendary Aspects for each gear slot. Gear Slots with multiple options are listed in recommended priority. Any slot with an Optional Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power.

Slot	Gem	Aspect	Unique/Legendary Aspect Power
Weapon	Royal Topaz	(Required) Greatstaff of the Crone	Claw is now a Storm Skill and also casts Storm Strike at [120 – 150]% normal damage.
Helm	Royal Ruby	(Recommended) Godslayer Crown OR Juggernaut’s Aspect	When you Stun, Freeze, or Immobilize an Elite enemy, or damage a Boss, it Pulls In Nearby enemies. You deal [30 – 60]%[x] increased damage to them for 3 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 12 seconds.
Chest	Royal Ruby	Hectic Aspect OR (optional) Mad Wolf’s Glee	After casting 5 Basic Skills, one of your active Cooldowns is reduced by [1.0 – 2.0] seconds.
Gloves		Rapid Aspect	Basic Skills gain [15 – 30]%[+] Attack Speed.
Pants	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0 – 6.0] seconds.
Boots		Aspect of Concussive Strikes	Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy has up to a 20% chance to Daze them for 2 seconds. You deal 5-20%[x] increased damage to Dazed enemies.
Amulet	Royal Diamond	Aspect of the Moonrise	Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining [40 – 80]%[x] Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
Ring 1	Royal Diamond	Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect OR (Optional) Airidah’s Inexorable Will OR (Optional) Hunter’s Zenith	Critical Strikes with Storm Skills that you cast charge the air around you for [1.0 – 2.0] seconds causing a Lightning Bolt to periodically hit an enemy in the area for 9,652 Lightning damage. This duration can be extended by additional Critical Strikes.
Ring 2	Royal Diamond	(single target) Aspect of Adaptability OR (multitarget) Overcharged Aspect	When cast below 50% Maximum Resource, Basic Skills generate 3 of your Primary Resource, once per cast. When cast at or above 50% Maximum Resource, Basic Skills deal [40 – 80]%[x] increased damage.

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Affixes and Tempers are listed in priority with the desired three Gearing Affixes at the top, but alternatives are also added. Affixes in Bold are the most important to target with the Masterworking quality upgrades. Tempering affixes have their associated Tempering Manuals listed. Unique Items cannot be Tempered, but can be Mastercrafted. Any slot with an Optional Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power setup.

Slot	Gearing Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Weapon – Greatstaff of the Crone (Required)	Damage to Close Enemies Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies Non-physical Damage Ranks to Claw
Helm – Godslayer Crown (Recommended)	Cooldown Reduction Maximum Life Damage Crowd Control Duration
Helm – Legendary Aspect	Max Life Willpower Cooldown Reduction Lucky Hit Chance	Worldly Endurance – Max Life OR Total Armor% Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit: Chance to Immobilize for 2 Seconds
Chest – Mad Wolf’s Glee (Optional)	Max Life Poison Damage Damage Reduction from Enemies that are Poisoned Movement Speed
Chest – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Max Life Armor Ranks to Defensive Skills	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit: Chance to Immobilize for 2 Seconds
Gloves	Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Willpower Lucky Hit Chance	Natural Finesse – Damage to Close Enemies Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit: Chance to Immobilize for 2 Seconds
Pants	Ranks to Claw OR Storm Strike Ranks to Basic Skill Willpower Max Life Armor	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor% Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit: Chance to Immobilize for 2 Seconds
Boots – Legendary Aspect	Impicit: Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown By 1.5 Seconds Willpower Movement Speed Max Life	Natural Motion – Movement Speed Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit: Chance to Immobilize for 2 Seconds
Amulet	Ranks to Envenom Critical Strike Chance Movement Speed Resource Cost Reduction	Natural Motion – Movement Speed Natural Finesse – Damage to Close Enemies
Ring – Hunter’s Zenith (optional)	Damage While Shapeshifted Critical Strike Chance Ranks in Heightened Senses Ranks in Quickshift
Ring – Airidah’s Inexorable Will (optional)	Damage to Close Enemies Willpower% Lucky Hit Chance Ultimate Skill Cooldown Reduction
Rings – Legendary Aspect	Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Maximum Life Critical Strike Damage	Natural Finesse – Damage to Close Enemies Worldly Stability – Resource Generation

No gear affixes are required for build functionality. However, the most important affixes for the Stormclaw druid are:

• Ranks to Basic Skills, Ranks to Claw or Storm Strike.
• Damage to Close or Distant for Thunderstruck.
• Attack Speed and Critical Strike Chance

Armor cap is 9230 against any enemies level 100 and above, for up to 85% Damage Reduction. This is generally reached at 925 Item Power with either one Armor Gear Affix with one Total Armor% Temper, or a maxed Juggernaut’s Aspect.

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Royal Topaz for Basic Skill damage	Royal Ruby For Max Life%	Royal Diamond for Resistance to All Elements

Elixirs, Incense and Health Potions

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

• Craft the highest available Elixir of Advantage for Attack Speed and Lucky Hit bonuses.
• If mats are available, craft Chorus of War.
• Remember to upgrade your potion as you level, increasing the instant healing of the potion!

Unique Items

The following Unique Items are required, recommended or situational for the Stormclaw Druid:

• (Required) Greatstaff of the Crone is necessary for the build to function well, making Claw and Storm ability, boosting Claw damage, and doubling the amount of Basic Attacks you are able to cast at once. Unfortunately this means no Weapon tempers, but there are not any Claw or Storm Strike specific ones anyways!
• (Recommended) Godslayer Crown is a strong multiplier and grouping tool, triggered when Elite enemies are stunned, frozen, or immobilized, or when dealing any damage to a Boss. This build uses both Petrify, the active cast of Poison Creeper, and Immobilization Tempers on gear to trigger this effect.
• (Optional) Mad Wolf’s Glee is an excellent offensive Unique Item, giving movement speed, Damage Reduction and and Skill Ranks to Werewolf Skills, including Claw.
• (Optional) Airidah’s Inexorable Will is a powerful screenwide damage and grouping tool, triggered from casts of Petrify. Hectic Aspect allows for more casts of Petrify to trigger this Unique’s effect. If used, swap to the Calm Before the Storm boon on the Snake.
• (Optional) Hunter’s Zenith can be a strong defensive option, giving resets to Werebear skills and better coverage to passives like Heightened Senses. If used, replace Earthen Bulwark with Debilitating Roar.

The downside of using either Hunter’s Zenith or Airidah’s Inexorable Will is less damage multipliers from a Legendary Aspects like Overcharged Aspect or Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect, and Ring Tempers like Damage to Close Enemies giving a stronger Thunderstruck multiplier.

Uber Unique Items

If acquired, the following Uber Unique Items are recommended for the build:

• (High Value)Harlequin Crest is better defensively over Godslayer Crown, with strong Gear Affixes and ranks to all Skills. This can allow the build to push higher while staying safer.

Rotation

1. Maintain Shapeshifting Buffs such as Bestial Rampage and Heightened Senses. Use Trample for Werebear buffs and Blood Howl or Claw for Werewolf buffs.
2. Apply Crowd Controls and Poison to packs with Poison Creeper. The immobilize can trigger Godslayer Crown.
3. Use Petrify against Elites and Bosses for heavy Critical Strike Damage Multipliers.
4. Use defensives as needed; Earthen Bulwark and Trample provide Unstoppable sources. If used, maintain Debilitating Roar.
5. Claw your enemies!

Check out the advanced Mechanics and Playstyle section for a more in-depth description on how the build works, what synergies exist and what to look out for.

Season 4: Loot Reborn

Patch 1.4.0 and Season 4 bring significant changes. The following list details the important changes in the Season 4 Patch Updates that are specific to the Stormclaw Druid. For general Season 4 information, check out our Season 4 Hub.

Itemization:

• Tibault’s Will damage reduced from 20-40% to 10-20%.
• The Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown affix has been increased from .8 to 1.5 seconds.
• Physical Damage against Damage Reduction now caps at level 100. Note: this means Armor only needs to be 9230 to cap Armor against enemies level 100 and above.
• Hectic Aspect Cooldown Reduction reduced from 2-4 seconds to 1-2 seconds.

Stats and Skills:

• Damage Reduction from Fortify is now 15%, from 10%.
• Wariness Spirit Boon damage reduction from Elites increased to 15%.
• Masochistic Critical Strike Healing increased from 3% to 5%.
• Claw – Damage increased by ~10%.
  • Enhanced Claw Attack Speed increased from 15% to 20%.
• Debilitating Roar is now a Shout skill.
  • Prime Petrify now grants 50 Spirit when cast and its effect durations are increased by 1s.
  • Supreme Petrify – Killing an enemy affected by Petrify reduces its Cooldown by 1 second. Hitting a Boss with Petrify reduces its Cooldown by 10 seconds.
• Quickshift redesigned. When Shapeshifting into a new animal form, you deal 1% increased damage for 3 seconds, up to 6%.
• Heightened Senses redesigned – When Shapeshifting into an animal form, Werebear grants 2% Damage Reduction and Werewolf grants 2% Movement Speed, each for 6 seconds. Bonuses are doubled while both are active.
• Digitigrade Gait Movement Speed increased from 3% to 4%.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where Storm Strike and Claw could attack in place instead of attempting to path the player.

Advanced Information

Time to get started on your Stormclaw journey!

Or see below for further information on how the build works, as well as further explanations for Paragon, Gearing, and Gameplay, and available playstyle options.

Mechanics and Playstyle

The Stormclaw Druid has simple gameplay. Use Claw to kill your enemies. Greatstaff of the Crone boosts Claw damage, makes it a Storm skill so it can benefit from Nature damage passives and effects, and casts Storm Strike with every Claw cast. Since Storm Strike is a triggered effect from Claw, it does not need to be on the Skill Bar.

Supporting Abilities and Effects

Trample and Earthen Bulwark provide defensive benefits and give Unstoppable. Trample will also help refresh buffs from Bestial Rampage, Quickshift, and Heightened Senses.

Blood Howl is a strong attack speed addition, and along with Earthen Bulwark activate defensive passives like the Bolster Spirit Boon and Vigilance.

Poison Creeper poisons enemies, applies Immobilize in a large area, and increase Critical Strike Chance against them with Brutal Poison Creeper. This Immobilize can trigger effects for Godslayer Crown and activate multipliers like Natural Disaster.

Petrify is our Ultimate ability, Stunning and applying a heavy Critical Strike Damage multiplier to our enemies. This also activates the effects of Godslayer Crown to group enemies to be cleaved down. Hectic Aspect will help reduce Petrify’s cooldown.

The Key Passive Bestial Rampage has been buffed several times to give both a high damage multiplier and a strong Attack Speed bonus, and both buffs are well worth maintaining. we will naturally keep up the Werewolf buff, and we maintain the Werebear buff by using Trample and waiting two seconds until the buff shows up.

For a more passive playstyle, Ursine Strength can also be used. The damage multiplier is active in any form, so long as you are Healthy. Healthy means current Life is above 80%

We benefit from several layered Attack Speed buffs, including Paragon nodes, Bestial Rampage, Aspect of Moonrise, Rapid Aspect, and Blood Howl.

Put together, we engage enemies with Basic Attacks. Get buffs, Unstoppable, and damage with your supporting abilities Earthen Bulwark, Blood Howl, and Trample. Apply Poison Creeper and Petrify to crowd control and group enemies, then cleave them down.

Paragon Information

The Paragon Board is a progression system unlocked at Level 50, giving player power through Common stat Nodes, Magic affix Nodes, Rare leveled Glyphs, and Legendary board-exclusive Nodes. For general paragon board information, check the guide here.

The recommended Paragon boards with images for the Stormclaw Druid are listed above. The following section goes over some explanations and descriptions for the pathing process for the Stormclaw Druid.

Broadly speaking, decisions for pathing through the Druid paragon board are divided into three categories:

• Damage – The paragon boards provide a significant amount of Damage Multipliers and Additives. This includes:
  • Socketed Glyphs such asFang and Claw, Spirit and Territorial.
  • Legendary Nodes such as Thunderstruck.
  • Magic and Rare nodes such as Shapeshifter for Willpower and Shapeshifting Skill Damage or Havoc for Critical Strike Damage and Physical Damage
  • Debuff application such as Exploit to apply Vulnerable.
• Defense – The paragon boards help reach goals on Damage Reduction, Armor, and Resistances. This includes:
  • Damage Reduction is improved from Werewolf, Undaunted, and Territorial secondary effects, as well as individual nodes providing bonuses like Damage Reduction against Vulnerable enemies.
  • Resistances are improved from Magic and Rare Resistance nodes, with Fang and Claw bonuses improving their nearby Resistance nodes.
  • Armor goals are reached with the help of Armor nodes in Inner Beast.
• Build Functionality – While some other Druid builds can benefit directly from utility nodes like Max Spirit, Spirit on Kill, or Spirit on Critical, the Stormclaw Druid does not use Spirit spenders so does not need these things.

Name	Effect
Territorial	For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [9.6%] increased damage to Close targets. Bonus (25 Dexterity): You gain 15% Damage Reduction against Close Enemies.
Werewolf	For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal + [6.24%] increased damage while in Werewolf form. Bonus (40 Willpower): You gain 10% Damage Reduction while in Werewolf form.
Thunderstruck	Storm Skills deal increased damage equal to 20%[x] of your Damage vs Close and Damage vs Distant bonuses.
Spirit	For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +4.0% increased Critical Strike Damage. Bonus (25 Dexterity): Critical Strikes increase the damage an enemy takes from you by 2%[x] for 20 seconds, up to 12%[x].
Fang and Claw	Grants +50.0% bonus to all Magic Nodes within range. Bonus (40 Willpower): While in Werewolf or Werebear form, Close Enemies take x12% increased damage from you.
Undaunted	For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, you deal + [7.7%] increased damage while Fortified. Bonus (25 Intelligence): You gain up to 10% Damage Reduction the more Fortify you have.
Exploit	For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [3.85%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets. Bonus (25 Dexterity): When an enemy is damaged by you, they become Vulnerable for 3 seconds. This cannot happen more than once every 20 seconds per enemy.

Codex of Power and Gearing Affixes

With the release of Season 4 and Patch 1.4.0, Gearing has changed significantly. For the dedicated page, see the updated Gear Systems and Itemization Overview guide here.

The Codex of Power has changed. Extracting any aspect now upgrades it in the Codex of Power. All Aspects now exist in the Codex of Power. For example, extracting a Aspect of Might of a higher rank than you currently have in your codex improves the Codex. All future applications of Aspect of Might will have that higher value. This also means Gambling Obols can be a significant method of improving your Codex of power. Aspects in the Codex can be favorited.

Check our Legendary Aspect and Codex of Power Guide to see which slots can have which legendary powers. For example, Rings can have either Offensive or Resource powers.

Ancestral Legendary items can drop with Greater Affix, indicated with a special icon * both in Inventory and on the ground. Items can have multiple Greater Affixes. Greater Affixes have a 1.5 multiplier to the base Affix.

For Gearing Affixes, Normal Items have no affixes, Magic Items have 1 affix, Rare Items have 2 affixes, Legendary Items have 3 affixes, and Unique Items keep their 4 affixes. Applying Legendary Aspects from your Codex will not improve the amount of Affixes on items. In the Endgame, this means Legendary Items are desirable and the rest are largely going to be just salvaged without much inspection. Many available affixes and their ranges have been changed.

Tempering and Masterworking

Tempering manuals are found across Sanctuary. The Blacksmith is able to apply extra affixes on items, up to two on Ancestral quality items. This would bring an Ancestral Legendary item up to a total of 5 affixes. When tempering at the Blacksmith, an item will randomly select one of the listed affixes from the chosen Tempering Manual. There is a limit to the number of times a temper can be rerolled to try to get the desired affix. This means the item can get ruined for the build, and you must try again with a new item. Unique Items cannot be Tempered.

Legendary Ancestral Items and Ancestral Unique Items can then be upgraded in quality via Mastercrafting using materials from The Pit of Artificers. This increases affix, with special increases at levels 4, 8, and 12 that upgrade the Quality of a randomly chosen affix or temper by 25%. The same affix or temper can be chosen multiple times, further increasing the quality from Magic, to Rare, and finally to Legendary.

Unfortunately, this new system does not favor the Stormclaw druid: Unique items cannot be tempered, and we use Greatstaff of the Crone in the weapon slot, which is a strong Tempering slot for many other builds. There are no Claw or Storm Strike specific Tempers anyways. Further, Offensive manuals for Werewolf-specific tempers for Critical Strike Chance and Attack Speeds compete with Offensive Manuals for Damage to Close Enemies, which we use for its multiplier to Thunderstruck.

Other Considerations

Hectic Aspect‘s Cooldown Reduction effect can be triggered without hitting a target. Cast your Basic Skill while moving between packs for some extra Cooldown off your abilities!

Controller vs Keyboard and Mouse

Stormclaw can play smoother on a controller. Controllers default to allowing movement while holding Basic Attacks. Keyboard and mouse users will find some restrictions in movement while casting and may have to click a lot to retarget. Some ways to improve quality of life on keyboard and mouse can include any of the following in combination:

• Change Keybind settings to deselect ‘Combine Move / Interact / Basic Skill slot’ along with rebinding their Basic Skill to not be left clicked.
• Use Claw on another keybind.
• Change Preset movement setting to WASD.

Gauntlet Optimization

The Gauntlet is a Trial event dungeon that changes weekly. The format is a point score system over 8 minutes, and players will compete in weekly Leaderboards for fame and prize.

The enemies are level 124, which is the equivalent to Tier 70 nightmare dungeons. Compared to a Tier 100 Nightmare dungeon, the enemies will hurt less, but speed counts even more!

Stormclaw is a fast and competitive build that can speed through content. However, it lacks in the multitarget and AoE map clearing that may show up in the Gauntlet.

The Gearing and Paragon setups for Gauntlet will take less Armor, Max Life, Damage Reductions, and top-end multipliers, and instead tune for speed, uptime, and efficiency. The following recommendations are for generic Gauntlet play, and considerations may change week to week as new maps are shown.

Gearing and Legendary Affixes for Gauntlet

Use the same Legendary Aspects and Unique Items for the Gauntlet.

Gauntlet Skills

To make the most of the Stomclaw Druid inside the Gauntlet, a few changes are made to the build for more output and mobility.

• For active abilities, swap Poison Creeper for Shred, Enhanced Shred and Primal Shred. Shred will be used as a gap closer and mobility tool to keep you moving through the Gauntlet.
• Since the content needs less defense, remove the following Skills
  • 3 ranks in Vigilance, and 1 point in Ancestral Fortitude
  • Enhanced Trample and Natural Trample
• Take the following Skills
  • Elemental Exposure rank 1, Charged Atmosphere rank 1, Electric Shock rank 1, Bad Omen rank 3

Gauntlet Paragon Board

The Paragon Board has a similar layout, but gives up some Armor and Max Life nodes to take some more damage nodes. CLICK THIS LINK to see the Paragon Board in its entirety. Paragon Board is courtesy of d4builds.gg.

Changelog

• 5 May, 2024: Guide reworked for the significant 1.4.0 changes to gearing and for season 4 speculative changes. Format changed to frontload basic build information and offer extra information and options afterwards.
• 9 March 2024: Guide Created, fully replacing previous guide.

• Ownership transferred.
• Adjusted Gear, Skills, and Paragon sections to hit defensive stats targets and improve overall damage output.
• Improved readability, explanations, and options.