Although the Werebear makes for an excellent tank in Diablo 4, the damage advantage goes squarely to the Werewolf Druid. The game seems to make it the obvious melee damage alternative to the tank build but players might not know exactly how strong it is until they try the build out for themselves.
Most advantageous to the player, this build also adds damage over time and tanking elements. They say the best defense is a good offense and this proves to be quite correct in Diablo 4. The Werewolf Druid will have plenty of health potions left over after dispatching elite mobs and bosses.
Updated on June 30th, 2023 by Hodey Johns: This guide has been updated for the huge rebalance patch in 1.0.3. Many guides have remained untouched because most skills got a simple numerical buff or nerf to bring them in line with the rest of the skills in the game. Especially with Vulnerable builds becoming so powerful, this was an appropriate rebalance. However, not every skill received a small buff or nerf. Some of these were significant enough to change builds for and this build was one of those. Some of these buffs weren't to damage but to cooldown or resource reduction which alters the skill rotation entirely. The old build might still be better than it was before but this new guide gets the absolute most out of the class.
Skill Tree
Skill | Points |
Claw | 5 |
Enhanced Claw | 1 |
Fierce Claw | 1 |
Shred | 5 |
Enhanced Shred | 1 |
Raging Shred | 1 |
Heart of the Wild | 3 |
Abundance | 3 |
Predatory Instinct | 3 |
Blood Howl | 5 |
Enhanced Blood Howl | 1 |
Preserving Blood Howl | 1 |
Wolves | 5 |
Enhanced Wolf Pack | 1 |
Brutal Wolf Pack | 1 |
Call of the Wild | 3 |
Rabies | 5 |
Enhanced Rabies | 1 |
Natural Rabies | 1 |
Neurotoxin | 1 |
Envenom | 3 |
Toxic Claws | 3 |
Lacerate | 1 |
Prime Lacerate | 1 |
Supreme Lacerate | 1 |
Lupine Ferocity | 1 |
At the maximum level and with all the Renown gathered, players will have 58 skill points to invest. As becomes evident, Poison is the Werewolf Druid's bread and butter. Not only can it be applied by nearly every skill but the Wolves (after gear) will be adding stacks of poison both passively and actively.
Blood Howl provides some nice healing when potion management might be tight. Finally, players have enough leftover points to grab some extra skill nodes for spirit gains and more powerful skills. Rabid and more will have both bosses and enemies hopelessly poisoned without ever having to shapeshift.
Players that aren't interested in a damage-over-time build may enjoy the burst from a perfect Storm Druid build more and should go that route. But against Nightmare dungeon bosses and world bosses, having Poison damage going while being able to run around freely is invaluable.
Paragon Boards
Board | Paragon/Legendary Nodes | Glyph |
Start | Prime, Impel | Bane |
Lust for Carnage | Feral, Lust for Carnage, Wild's Call, Ferocity | Fang and Claw |
Heightened Malice | Heightened Malice, Overturn, Toxic Bane, Sinking Fangs | Werewolf |
Ancestral Guidance | Ancestral Guidance, Spiritual Power, Harmony | Tracker |
Inner Beast | Havoc, Nimble, Shapeshifter | Territorial |
The paragon boards and glyphs can be a bit tough to figure out. It's a matter of adjusting the boards so that they snake properly. Few players will get to the maximum 200 paragon points but those that do will find that their powers are enhanced by enormous magnitudes.
Listing all nodes would be tedious and impossible to read, but if gamers move between the major nodes listed, it shouldn't be an issue. Make sure to purchase all relevant stat bonus nodes inside the designated glyph areas.
Lust for Carnage will give players more than enough Spirit to be rotating their best skills and Heightened Malice will be a 45% damage increase in any battle with three or more opponents. Between those two boards, there's a ton of damage but go hunt around on a few more for some extra glyph slots that also provide flat damage increases.
Gear
Slot | Aspect/Piece |
Helm | Harlequin Crest |
Chest | Mad Wolf's Glee |
Gloves | Aspect of the Stampede |
Pants | Vigorous Aspect |
Boots | Wind Striker Aspect |
Amulet | Aspect of the Blurred Beast |
Ring | Aspect of the Unsatiated |
Ring | Shepherd's Aspect |
Main Hand | Waxing Gibbous |
Off-Hand | Aspect of the Alpha |
With the new aspect system, gamers have a ton of freedom to take the piece of gear they find with the best stats and then add their favorite effect to it. Increasing potion efficiency helps out a bit but these aspects are game-changing. Note that some of these aspects can be swapped in and out on other pieces of gear; which piece has which aspect is not important.
Between Mad Wolf's Glee and Harlequin Crest, players will now have over double what their skills were previously capable of. On par with this is the Aspect of the Alpha which has the Wolves become Werewolves, increasing their damage and giving them the Rabies skill.
It should be noted that this build takes a long time to farm up and some of these pieces are quite core to the overall build. For that reason, gamers should consider using an optimized Druid leveling build until acquiring some of the core equipment items listed here.
Spirit Boons
- Deer - Gift of the Stag
- Eagle (Bonded) - Swooping Attacks, Avian Wrath
- Snake - Masochistic
- Wolf- Packleader
World Tiers can get out of control when it comes to difficulty. Thankfully, Spirit Boons are a simple way to keep pace with the escalating challenge. Eagle is a good choice for bonding as Avian Wrath adds critical damage which is guaranteed to happen thanks to both the Waxing Gibbous and Supreme Lacerate.
Masochistic is a 3% maximum health lifesteal on attack which will further add to the difficulty enemies will experience trying to kill this Werewolf Druid. And Packleader will be reducing the cooldown on the Companions skills with each critical hit. Again, since this is guaranteed to happen, Wolves can now be placed in the regular rotation instead of waiting out the long cooldown.
Diablo 4 is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.