Boulder Druid Endgame Build Guide
At its core, this build revolves around the Dolmen Stone Unique, which allows you to empower your Boulder to orbit around you while Hurricane is active. In addition, Dolmen Stone provides a considerable damage multiplier, which is further increased for each active Boulder you have, up to a maximum of ten. Unfortunately, because of the build-defining characteristics of this Unique, it is not recommended to play Boulder without first acquiring the Dolmen Stone.
To efficiently harness the full potential of the Boulder Druid, utilize two additional Uniques in Mjölnic Ryng and Vasily's Prayer. The former satisfies the high cost Spirit consumption and grants you permanent Vulnerable uptime, while the latter enables several Shapeshifting and Werebear bonuses. This build takes advantage of Overpower from multiple sources, including Xan, Provocation and Obsidian Slam. You further increase the damage of your Overpowers with the Key Passive Ursine Strength, while also maximizing your Life and Fortify values. By endgame, the Boulder Druid features high Maximum Life and great Mobility.
In this guide we teach you all you need to know to be successful with the Boulder Druid in Diablo 4. Let's begin!
Requirements for this build
- Dolmen Stone
- Mjölnic Ryng
- Vasily's Prayer
- Metamorphic Stone
This build guide assumes you have a Level 60 Character and unlocked Torment 1. To get there, level up with one of our Druid Leveling Guides. See how this Build compares against others with our various Build Tier Lists.
Boss Powers
Season 8 is the Season of Belial's Return. It allows you to tap into Boss Powers obtained from World, Event, and Lair Bosses throughout Sanctuary. The new seasonal mechanic, Apparition Incursions, is available at any difficulty level and gives you the opportunity to unlock a subset of these powers very early on. Various Apparition Monsters appear in these special timed events throughout Sanctuary. Defeating these monsters spawns 1 of 10 Apparition Bosses to hunt you down and defeating them grants you their Boss Power. After defeating the first Boss, continue the event for a chance to fight a second Apparition Boss, after which Belial himself joins the fray.
There are 24 Boss Powers available and the first time you defeat one of these Bosses, you claim their power for yourself. Boss Powers each have Main and Modifier effects to boost your build. 13 are available in all difficulties (from Apparition Incursions and World Bosses), while 11 can only be acquired in Torment 1 difficulty or higher from Lair Bosses and Lilith. You can equip 1 Main Power and 3 Modifiers, and all powers can be upgraded up to Rank 20, increasing the potency of both the Main and Modifier effect. You use Spectral Ash to upgrade these powers, dropped from Apparition Incursions and by defeating any Bosses. Boss Powers also scale with your Paragon Level, growing stronger as you progress.
Best-in-Slot Boss Powers
Main Power
- Grigoire's Lightning Square - Is a short Cooldown Boss Power that triggers on Core Skill cast. Metamorphic Stone adds the Core Skill tag to Boulder, allowing you to trigger this Boss Power often. This is important for setting off your Modifiers, which are all considerable damage multipliers to this build.
Modifiers
- Sinerat's Flames - Provides a sizeable damage multiplier to Boulder thanks to Savage Boulder's Poison conversion. Ensure you stack Poison Resistance to increase this Power's effect to its maximum.
- Harbinger of Hatred's Volley - A straightforward damage buff that triggers on Main Boss Power activation. The added utility of applying Vulnerable to all surrounding enemies is nice, but it is overshadowed by Supreme Cataclysm.
- Belial's Eye Beams - Grants you Stealth and a generous Overpower damage multiplier. The Stealth component synergizes with Shroud of False Death and provides an additional layer of defense, as enemies are unable to target you while in Stealth.
Alternate Boss Powers
- Flesh Reaper's Disruption - A strong, accessible, and practically permanent damage option that requires a few Crowd Control Tempers to reach its full potential.
- Wandering Death's Chest Beam - When paired with Stone Burst as a Main Boss Power, this package provides a massive damage multiplier to all your other skills.
- Ashava's Poison Breath - A very strong early game Main Boss Power. It comes with the added benefit of dealing Poisoning damage, prolonging Poison on enemies.
- Blackmailer's Sabotage - This Modifier grants a sizeable Barrier when you gain Fortify, which helps with survivability since this build generates large amounts of Fortify.
- Hatred's Embrace's Haste - As a Modifier it provides a high amount of Critical Strike Chance for the low cost of having Shadow Resistance. Use this Power early on to help you reach 100% Critical Strike Chance.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
- Claw serves as a backup Spirit generator and allows you to easily maintain Shapeshifting bonuses. Specifically, Claw is used because it is a Werewolf Skill. Note that Shred replaces your Basic Skill in the Speedfarming variant.
- Boulder is your main damage Skill, summoning powerful Earth Boulders that Knock Back enemies and deal massive AoE damage. With Metamorphic Stone, Boulder becomes a Core Skill and does even more damage as it scales with all Core Skill related multipliers. Aim to keep 10 Boulders active at once, taking advantage of the Weapon Temper that allows you to cast Boulder twice. Savage Boulder converts your Boulder's damage to Poison damage, and applies additional Poisoning damage, enabling your Poison synergies.
- Cyclone Armor applies Vulnerable to enemies it hits, and recently got a damage multiplier functionality added to Innate Cyclone Armor. This Skill also activates Vigilance and Backlash when cast.
- Earthen Bulwark provides you with Barrier and Unstoppable, which you use to break free from Crowd Control and/or activate Tibault's Will.
- Hurricane provides Damage Reduction while active, and is necessary in order for Boulder to orbit around you. Moreover, it enables Stormshifter's.
- Cataclysm is your Ultimate Skill, providing permanent Vulnerable uptime while active, and infinite Spirit thanks to Mjölnic Ryng. Use Lum to help you manage your Spirit if you do not have Mjölnic Ryng. Additionally, Zec can assist you with extra Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction if you are missing Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction on Dolmen Stone.
Skill Passives
- Ursine Strength is the Key Passive of choice, both for the added toughness and to synergize with the build's many guaranteed Overpowers.
- One of these sources comes from Provocation.
- Envenom provides a massive Critical Strike Damage bonus against Poisoned enemies.
- Circle of Life (from Shroud of False Death), Vigilance, Defensive Posture (from Vasily's Prayer) and Heightened Senses improve your defense and help keep you alive.
Skill Rotation
- Begin by casting your Hurricane to activate your AoE Damage Reduction.
- Follow up with Cataclysm for a sizeable damage buff and unlimited Spirit.
- Cast Boulder to begin damaging and Knocking Back enemies, stacking up to 10 Boulders at once. Thanks to the Boulder Cast Twice Weapon Temper, you won’t need to cast Boulder 10 times to reach its full potential. Boulder's icon on your Skill Bar displays how many Boulders are active at a give time.
- It is recommended you cast Boulder once every second to trigger your Runes, but also to maintain 10 Boulders consistently, as Boulders despawn after 9 seconds.
- Use Cyclone Armor and Earthen Bulwark often in battle as they are on a short Cooldown and trigger Vigilance, Backlash and Tibault's Will respectively.
- Ensure you have 100% uptime on Hurricane and Cataclysm, recasting them as they come off Cooldown.
- Lastly, use Claw to enable Shapeshifting synergies by turning into a Werewolf, or if necessary, to generate Spirit.
Druid Specialization
Druids can choose 5 out of 16 Passive bonuses (Boons) from 4 different spirits. You have to bond with one of the Spirits in Túr Dúlra to activate two of its Boons. The remaining Spirits can only have one Boon each. Use the following Boons:
Deer Spirit: Wariness
Eagle Spirit: Avian Wrath
Wolf Spirit: Calamity
Snake Spirit: Obsidian Slam
Bond with the Eagle Spirit and activate Iron Feather.
Learn more details and how to unlock this system in our full Druid Class Overview.
Paragon & Glyphs
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 at level 15 and from 4 to 5 at level 46. Some of them cannot be activated before reaching these thresholds! Progress through The Pit to rank up your Glyphs.
Use the slider to see the progression steps. At around Paragon 200, leveling slows down significantly and all important Rare clusters, Legendary nodes and Glyph sockets should be unlocked. Afterwards, you can min/max your build with minor tweaks and by picking up additional smaller nodes.
Boulder Druid Endgame Paragon
Some Glyph position swaps, board changes and other pathing adjustments may occur as you unlock your full potential. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build before spending additional points that do not significantly impact your character's power.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
To Level 15
- Spirit
- Dominate
- Earth and Sky
- Headhunter
- Keeper
To Level 46
- Dominate
- Earth and Sky
- Spirit
- Keeper
- Headhunter
Learn more details about the Paragon System in our in-depth Paragon Boards and Glyphs guide.
Runes
You can have up to two Runewords in your setup, each consisting of one Ritual and one Invocation Rune. Socket them in Two-Handed Weapons if your build calls for them, otherwise place them into your Armor pieces to replace normal gems. The Boulder Druid focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Igni + Wat - Grants you the Necromancer's Decrepify, slowing and executing all enemies under 10% Health. More importantly, it is the best low-cost Rune that pairs nicely with Xol for large Offering gains.
- Xol + Xan - Gives you guaranteed Critical Strikes that Overpower every two Xol activations, resulting in a high uptime on Overpowers when paired with other additional sources of Overpower such Provocation and Obsidian Slam.
Alternative choices
If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Jah - This replaces Evade with Teleport granting greater travel distance and Unstoppable, used in the Speedfarming variant.
- Ahu - A very powerful Offering generator, specifically used with Xan in the Pit Pushing variant.
- Zec / Lum - Both are relatively easy to find early on and help solve either Spirit or Cataclysm Cooldown issues as you gear up your build.
- Tam / Bac / Neo - Are all strong Offering generating alternatives if you do not have access to Igni.
- Xal - Supplies a big Maximum Life multiplier, which boosts both survivability and Overpower damage.
- Que - Investing 2 Skill Points to reach Enhanced Earthen Bulwark grants you Unstoppable and a huge Barrier without the need for Earthen Bulwark on your Skill Bar.
- Gar - Useful to reach 100% Critical Strike Chance more reliably early on.
Learn more about Runes and how they work in our dedicated Runewords Overview and Runewords Tier List.
Mercenaries
Mercenaries are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and assist you in battle. There are 4 separate Mercenaries to choose from, each with their own skill trees and abilities. You can have one Hired (permanent) mercenary during solo play and a Reinforcement who assists you from time to time in certain situations.
- Hired: Subo
Subo marks enemies and resources on your mini-map, and offers a solid damage buff while Cover Fire is active thanks to Opening Fire. He is especially good early on due to Ready At Hand, a Passive that helps you traverse the battlefield quicker when fighting Elites.
- Reinforcement: Raheir
Raheir's Bastion is great at keeping you alive and safe from Crowd Controls, thanks to its 90% Damage Reduction and Unstoppable. Alternatively, Raheir is always a great Hired option to help fix Armor or Resistances. However, be aware he is not available in party play.
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
Stat Priorities & Item Progression
To enable the Boulder Druid to perform optimally, hunt for these stats on your gear with good rolls and aim to Temper ⚒️ & Masterwork Crit ↑ them accordingly. The green arrow ↑ indicates which affix is most impactful to Masterwork Crit, and it does not indicate how many Masterwork Crits you need on that particular affix. Keep in mind that certain stats, such as Armor, Resistances, Extra Size Tempers, Attack Speed, and more, have caps that may affect your priorities according to the items and Paragon points available at that moment.
Recommended Endgame Stat Thresholds
- 100% Uptime for Hurricane and Cataclysm
- 95%+ Critical Strike Chance (including Earth Critical Strike Chance Temper)
- 250%+ Damage vs. Crowd Controlled
- 2700+ Willpower
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 70%+
- 15,000+ Life
- 60%+ Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction
- 180%+ Movement Speed
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the Endgame with the Boulder Druid, take a look at this overview of the items used in the build. See below for further details about the different progression steps and variants. Some of your Skill Tree choices depend on what Legendary Aspects and Unique items are available to you. Keep in mind that while we can guarantee that everyone has access to the same Codex of Power Aspects, the exact progression is different for everyone.
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Build Variants
This section is designed to guide your Boulder Druid into the very late endgame using the Ancestral and Mythic variants. At the final step, you should be fully decked out with a great all-rounder build. From there, follow the other min/max variants if you want to optimize around certain activities such as Pit Pushing, Speedfarming and more.
The goal here is to progress through the Torment difficulties as you unlock Ancestrals, Paragon points, all Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and the most important Uniques to pilot this build. Some Legendary Aspects are used temporarily to fill slots that may be replaced with more Unique items later on.
Gear & Skills
- The Dolmen Stone is one of three important-to-get Uniques in order to get the Boulder Druid online.
- You can find this item from Duriel, King of Maggots and/or Andariel.
- Your other two core Uniques, Mjölnic Ryng and Vasily's Prayer can be found from Lord Zir and Echo of Varshan respectively.
- If you're having difficulty defeating any Boss, remember to lower your Torment tier for an easier fight.
- Once you've acquired the core Uniques for this build, you essentially are close to the final version. The addition of other Uniques / Mythic Uniques from this point are more build-enhancing than build-enabling.
- Insatiable Fury is a very strong defensive and offensive Unique, nearly on par with its eventual Mythic replacement.
- You can acquire this item from Grigoire, the Galvanic Saint.
- Tibault's Will offers a healthy amount of stats and Damage Reduction, mainly used in synergy with Earthen Bulwark for a solid damage multiplier.
- This Unique can be farmed from Duriel, King of Maggots and/or Andariel.
- With the build is assembled, your goal is to ensure you have 100% uptime on Hurricane as soon as possible, and later on Cataclysm, through Tempers and Masterworking Nature Magic Cooldown on Dolmen Stone.
- As you upgrade your gear to Ancestrals with more Masterworking levels and reach higher Paragon, you can focus more and more on replacing Armor & Resistance rolls with better stats, but ensure to stay capped at 1000 Armor and 70%+ Resistances for the difficulty you're currently in.
- From the time you reach Earthen Devastation in your Paragon Board, be mindful of your Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies bonus.
- The target for this stat is 250%, and your personal value will depend on the nodes taken on this board and the level of your Earth and Sky Glyph.
This is the final version of the build's progression, including all regular Unique items, Mythic Uniques, Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and Masterworking, leaving you with a great all-rounder build for all content in the game. Additional variants use this as a baseline to optimize around certain activities.
Gear & Skills
- Ring of Starless Skies is a very strong item due to its large Critical Strike Chance, Core Skill Ranks, Attack Speed and powerful Unique effect.
- The All Resistance implicit is doubly good for reaching the Resistance cap.
- Shroud of False Death is an excellent addition, as its +1 to All Passive skills implicit is a massive offensive and defensive boon.
- On top of that, its All Stats roll is helpful for capping Critical Strike Chance, Armor, Resistances, and meeting Rare Node requirements in the Paragon board. In addition, this Mythic comes with a large amount of Maximum Life, aiding your survivability and granting you additional Movement Speed while invisible.
- Though not nearly as much damage, Tyrael's Might is always worth consideration as you ascend through Torment tiers to combat the Resistance penalties.
- Socket Skulls in your jewelry if you go this route, and replace any excess All Resistance affixes on gear with Willpower/Maximum Life where possible.
- At this point, ensure you have Earthen Devastation capped.
- The target for this stat is 250% Damage vs Crowd Controlled bonus, and your personal value will depend on the nodes taken on this board and the level of your Earth and Sky Glyph.
This Speedfarming variant optimizes the build for easy activities like Helltides, Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons and lower Pit Tiers after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.
Gear & Skills
- Slot in Bac + Jah to leverage the Sorcerer's Teleport for extra Mobility, on a short 2 second Cooldown.
- Replace 3 skill points from Heightened Senses with Shred, specifically Primal Shred.
- This grants you another Mobility Skill, allowing you to dash to enemies while Jah is on Cooldown.
- Trade in Wariness for Advantageous Beast to make up for the Movement Speed loss from Heightened Senses, and reach the Movement Speed cap.
- With the addition of Airidah's Inexorable Will you can pull in enemies when you cast Cataclysm, granting you the ability to group up enemies, which is especially useful in activities such as Infernal Hoards.
- A Petrify setup is also worth considering, for even more pulls thanks to Supreme Petrify's Cooldown Reduction. This setup requires you to invest in Gift of the Stag and Energize to help manage Spirit, as well as replace Mjölnic Ryng with a Legendary Ring featuring Lucky Hit Vulnerable % and Natural Balance. Additionally, in this setup, Ghostwalker replaces Stormshifter's on your Boots for more Movement Speed.
This setup optimizes the build to push the highest possible Tiers in The Pit after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.
Gear & Skills
Boss Powers and Runes
- Utilize Stone Burst to apply the Wandering Death's Chest Beam debuff. Alternate between Boulder and Stone Burst to maintain a high uptime on both debuff and boulders.
- Take advantage of Nature's Reach for extra damage against enemies you hit with Boulder at the outer edge of your Hurricane.
- Replace Wat with Xal.
- Decrepify remains a good option, but unfortunately has little impact during Boss fights. By contrast, Xal's bonus is great at all times, increasing your survivability and Overpower damage.
- Switch Xol with Ahu.
- In The Pit, the increased health of monsters helps you generate large amounts of Offering using Ahu, and consequently Overpower more often via Xan. However, be aware that Ahu requires enemies to have less than 80% health to activate, resulting in considerably fewer Overpowers during the first 20% health of a Boss.
Consumables
- The Pit Pushing variant looks to maximize damage by solving Armor and Resistances through Consumables.
- The Elixir of Fortitude II boosts Maximum Life, which synergizes with Overpower to significantly enhance damage output, making it the most effective Elixir for maximizing your build's potential.
- Soothing Spices caps both your Resistances and Armor, while also granting +2% Maximum Resistance to All Elements.
- Blessed Guide and Reddamine Buzz provide additional Willpower and Maximum Life, helping to further increase your Overpower damage.
Tips and Tricks
- When fighting monsters in high tiers of the Pit, remember that after Crowd Controlling Elites for 5 seconds, they become Unstoppable for 8 seconds. This may be the right moment to start kiting them around because your damage decreases significantly and they can freely retaliate.
- In high tier Boss fights, beware that some of your conditional damage and Damage Reduction modifiers are not active at all times. This means Bosses generally deal more damage against you than regular monsters and you have to prioritize dodging the attacks from Shadow Bosses, while you deal significantly reduced damage outside of Boss Staggers.
FAQ & Mechanics
Once a guide is released, many players have questions on why and how we are approaching certain choices. In this section you can find the answers to the questions that have been asked the most.
Between Retaliation and Metamorphic Stone, Retaliation is the superior damage multiplier. While Metamorphic Stone has a larger damage multiplier, this increase only affects the base damage of Boulder, which in practice yields lower damage than Retaliation. As a result, the Boulder Druid uses a One-Handed Weapon and Totem, since the damage from Retaliation in combination with Changeling's Debt is better than Retaliation on a Two-Handed Weapon (1.75 x 1.65 = 2.88 > 2.5).
In addition, One-Handed Weapons boast a greater Attack Speed multiplier than Two-Handed Weapons, enabling a smooth experience while casting skills, and the inclusion of a Totem frees up a Critical Strike Chance affix from your Gloves (which can be replaced with more Cooldown Reduction if your Dolmen Stone is unoptimized). Of the available options, a One-Handed Mace provides a slight advantage over the other One-Handed Weapons because of its Overpower damage implicit. Remember to prioritize Weapons with higher Item Power, specifically Ancestral.
Your main source of Unstoppable comes from investing 2 Skill Points to reach Enhanced Earthen Bulwark. Alternatively, Metamorphosis aspect on your Boots is a great option if your Nature Magic Cooldown is not enough to consistently have Earthen Bulwark available.
The build works really well when you decimate everything in seconds, but may get overwhelmed if fights are long against high level monsters. There are several adjustments you can make when you have trouble with more difficult content:
- Check if your Armor & Resists are capped.
- Use Defensive Consumables.
- Roll Maximum Life instead of offensive stats on as many pieces as possible.
- Kite enemies when they become Unstoppable.
- Invest additional points into Circle of Life for Healing.
Generally hardcore and softcore share the same builds. Outside of being more prudent in your gameplay, you can also tweak the setup slightly to raise your survivability:
- Focus more on Armor & Resists, making sure that they are always capped especially as you transition into higher Torment difficulties.
- Focus more on Maximum Life rolls, for example replacing DPS stats like main attributes, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance and additive increased damage rolls. Also Masterwork Life more than normal if no other crucial stats have priority.
- Focus on adding Defensive Skills, Passives and Paragon Nodes first as you level up.
- Play on a slightly lower difficulty than normal, don't push into difficult territory. As long as you can deal with all enemies swiftly, they can't retaliate.
- Include a source of Unstoppable if possible to get out of crowd controls.
- Use Defensive Elixirs and Incenses instead of Offensive ones.
Mechanics
- With Vasily's Prayer equipped your Earth skills also count as Werebear skills, granting up to 5% of your Maximum Health as Fortify with every cast. While the Helm offers a significant offensive/defensive boost with Armor, Life, and Willpower, its real value lies in its ability to turn Earth skills into Werebear skills. This conversion unlocks powerful offensive and defensive bonuses like Quickshift, Heightened Senses, Iron Fur, and Survival Instincts to list a few.
Bosses are immune to Crowd Control (CC) effects and instead take Stagger Damage when hit by one. The amount of stagger damage dealt depends on the type of CC and is proportional to its duration. After being hit by a CC effect, the Boss will temporarily take less Stagger Damage from a CC of the same type.
Effectively, this means that when you're just spamming one type of CC you don't need to spam any more of it than what you need to keep a normal enemy permanently CC-d. To stagger the Boss quickly you need to use as many different types of CC as possible. After the Boss is staggered it gains a certain amount of stacking Stagger Damage Reduction for the rest of the fight:
- After 1st Stagger: 20%
- After 2nd Stagger: 40%
- After 3rd Stagger: 60%
- After 4th Stagger: 90%
Bosses naturally regain 1% of their Stagger HP every second and when that regen is combined with 90% Stagger Damage Reduction it becomes borderline impossible to Stagger the Boss again unless you bring a serious amount of crowd controls.
Summary
The Boulder Druid focuses on AoE damage using Dolmen Stone and Metamorphic Stone. By combining Shapeshifting synergies from Vasily's Prayer with Mjölnic Ryng's powerful Spirit management, this build delivers devastating damage while maintaining excellent survivability.
- Maximize Damage: Use the Dolmen Stone and Metamorphic Stone to increase the damage of your Boulder. Maintain 10 active Boulders at all times. Boulder's icon on your Skill Bar displays how many are active at a time.
- Spirit Management: Aim to acquire Mylonic Ryng for infinite Spirit when Cataclysm is active, allowing you to cast Boulder freely. Alternatively, Energize and Lucky Hit Chance: Gain Primary Resource are good options.
- Shapeshifting Synergies: Equip Vasily's Prayer to transform your Earth Skills into Werebear Skills, unlocking Shapeshifting synergies for increased damage and survivability.
Credits
Written by Danger
Reviewed by IBoilerUp