There are a ton of alternatives to the Druid's builds in Diablo 4, and this Poison-oriented Werewolf setup is one of them. With all of its effects working together, players will be able to spread disease across the minions of Hell and tear through all of them like a heat-seeking missile with legs (and claws).
This build relies on having the right Aspects and gear pieces, so not everyone might be able to use it as soon as they enter Diablo 4's endgame. It might not be as strong as some of the Druid's more popular builds, but it's a fun alternative that's still capable of clearing content in World Tiers 3 and 4 with relative ease. Here's how to set it up.
Diablo 4: Poison Werewolf Druid Main Skills
Skills | Total Points |
Fierce Storm Strike | 3 |
Primal Shred | 7 |
Preserving Debilitating Roar | 7 |
Preserving Blood Howl | 7 |
Brutal Wolves | 7 |
Supreme Grizzly Rage | 3 |
Spirit Boons | |
Deer | Gift of the Stag |
Eagle | Scythe Talons, Avian Wrath |
Wolf | Energize |
Snake | Masochistic |
At its heart, this build is a Toxic Shredder Grizzly Rage build with one key difference: it uses Wolves to spread Poison among enemies (more on this later). Most of the player's damage will come from spamming Shred while in Dire Wolf form, where they can enjoy unlimited Spirit and greatly increased offensive stats.
Debilitating Roar and Blood Howl are here to provide some much-needed survivability in and out of Grizzly Rage's Dire Wolf form. Players can swap one of these out for Earthen Bulwark if they're having trouble surviving while Grizzly Rage is cooling down.
The Spirit Boon setup here is bog-standard among Werewolf builds. Scythe Talons and Avian Wrath provide crit stats while Masochistic helps keep players alive. Despite the nerfs it received in Patch 1.1.0a, it is still a useful boon to have.
Passive Skills
Skills | Points |
Heart of the Wild | 1 |
Wild Impulses | 3 |
Abundance | 3 |
Predatory Instinct | 3 |
Digitigrade Gait | 3 |
Neurotoxin | 1 |
Envenom | 3 |
Toxic Claws | 3 |
Quick Shift | 1 |
Heightened Senses | 3 |
Defensive Posture | 1 |
Thick Hide | 3 |
Unrestrained | 3 |
Lupine Ferocity | 1 |
This is a slightly altered version of the common Poison Werewolf passive skill setup. It maxes out Wild Impulses as Spirit cost becomes negligible when Grizzly Rage is active, and Unrestrained makes up for the build's lack of Unstoppable skills. The rest of the skills are self-explanatory in providing added offensive and defensive stats.
Lupine Ferocity is the best Key Passive here since players will be using Shred all the time. The guaranteed crits it grants greatly increase the consistency of Werewolf builds in general, and more Critical Strike Damage is always welcome.
Gear and Aspects
Offense | Defense | Utility |
Alpha (Gloves) | Disobedience (Helm) | Dark Howl (Boots) |
Dire Wolf (2H) | Protector (Chest) | |
Blurred Beast (Amulet) | Vigorous (Pants) | |
Accelerating (Ring) | ||
Rampaging Werebeast (Ring) |
Aspect of the Alpha turns Wolves into Werewolves that spread Rabies to enemies they attack, essentially marking them for Aspect of the Blurred Beast's auto-targeting toward Poisoned enemies. This works in conjunction with Primal Shred's dashing attacks, significantly boosting the player's mobility. These two Aspects together should make up for the build's lack of AOE skills.
Dire Wolf, Accelerating, and Rampaging Werebeast will provide the necessary damage buffs to make this build pop off. Meanwhile, the rest of the Aspects will handle the survivability side of things by providing damage reduction, Barrier when fighting Elites, and access to Debilitating Roar while in Werewolf form.
Players will want the usual host of damage affixes on their gear here (critical hit, vulnerable, Core Skill damage, etc.) as well as a ton of cooldown reduction to help reduce Grizzly Rage's downtime.
Paragon Board
The Paragon Board configuration for this build will remain more or less the same as other Toxic Werewolf builds. Consider using the following boards and Glyphs:
- Starting board - Exploit Glyph
- Heightened Malice - Territorial Glyph
- Lust for Carnage - Fang and Claw (Lvl. 15+)
- Inner Beast - Guzzler
Heightened Malice increases the player's damage when near three or more Poisoned enemies. This is most noticeable during minion-filled Elite fights, and it is completely useless in boss fights that feature no additional enemies. Still, this board features plenty of Damage vs. Poisoned and Damage vs. Elite nodes, making it worth investing a lot of points in.
Lust for Carnage is the quintessential Werewolf board that has a lot of bonuses to Werewolf skills. Fang and Claw, a Glyph that increases the damage Close enemies take while in Werewolf form, fits perfectly well here thanks to all the Willpower nodes surrounding the Glyph Socket. However, Fang and Claw needs to be at least level 15 before its radius becomes large enough to reach all the Willpower nodes it needs.
Inner Beast has a cluster of Attack Speed nodes as well as a Legendary Node that increases Spirit efficiency. Its Armor and Potion Efficiency Nodes are also very useful for boosting survivability. Insert Guzzler into this board's Glyph Socket to double-down on the potion healing bonuses while gaining more damage while Healthy.
Diablo 4 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.