Cataclysm Druid Endgame Build Guide
Welcome to the Cataclysm Druid Endgame Guide! While Cataclysm is present in nearly every Storm build, the Cataclysm Druid distinguishes itself by significantly boosting its destructive power through guaranteed Overpowers. This build stands out as one of the most proficient Pit Pushers for Druids, although it requires specific gear to get started and has a playstyle that takes some getting used to, especially when Bossing.
If you played this in Season 7, be aware that Cataclysm no longer snapshots its damage bonuses between successive casts. Further, the reworks to Xan and Qax severely diminish their effectiveness in this build.
On the upside, this means you're no longer beholden to extending Cataclysm's duration beyond its cooldown for the build to properly function. Guaranteeing Overpowers is still possible by synchronizing casts of Cataclysm with a fully stacked Provocation, and there's little issue capping Critical Strike Chance through Gear, Runes, and seasonal Boss Powers.
To get the build off the ground, it's imperative to first acquire its core Uniques. Mjölnic Ryng's ranks to Endless Tempest extend Cataclysm's duration while allowing for some of the build's strongest multipliers through itself, Runeworker's Conduit, Charged Atmosphere, and Electrocution. Tempest Roar enables a host of synergies, including activating the Lust for Carnage Legendary Node and enabling Changeling's Debt and Stormshifter's.
This guide will teach you all you need to know about the Cataclysm Druid. Let's get started!
Requirements for this build to function:
- Mjölnic Ryng
- Tempest Roar
- Airidah's Inexorable Will
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
- Ashava's Poison Breath - This is one of a few high-uptime, damaging Main Powers acceptable to reliably activate Belial's Eye Beams and Harbinger of Hatred's Volley.
Modifiers
- Belial's Eye Beams - Triggered by both your Main Power and Shroud of False Death, this Modifier's Stealth mechanic mitigates some incoming damage while providing a sizeable multiplier.
- Sinerat's Flames - Cataclysm deals Lightning damage, making this Modifier yet another multiplier!
- Harbinger of Hatred's Volley - The second line is an attractive multiplier, but the first line is actually a detriment. Be mindful of casting Maul too close to Cataclysm to maximize Ancestral Guidance.
Alternate Boss Powers
- Hatred's Embrace's Haste - Used in the early stages of the build as a Modifier, this Power dramatically increases Critical Strike Chance and is an effective stop gap until this stat is rounded out on gear.
- Blackmailer's Sabotage - A powerful defensive option, this Modifier allows every cast of Maul and Debilitating Roar to generate Barrier along with Fortify.
- Wandering Death's Chest Beam - This execute drastically improves clear time throughout a Pit but is ineffective against Bosses.
- Grigoire's Lightning Square / Harbinger of Hatred's Volley / Lord Zir's Blood Pool - Any of these are serviceable as Main Powers to consistently activate your Modifiers.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
- Maul is our Basic Skill of choice. It generates a small amount of Fortify and Shapeshifts you into a Werebear, which activates Survival Instincts and builds Provocation. Keeping Spirit topped before casting Cataclysm is a priority due to Ancestral Guidance.
- Earthen Bulwark is your sole source of Unstoppable and grants a respectable amount Fortify. As an Earth Skill, it also enables Resonance's triple bonus when used immediately before Cataclysm.
- Hurricane reduces the damage of nearby enemies and activates Stormshifter's, useful for both damage and Cooldown Reduction on Cataclysm.
- Blood Howl provides a reliable Heal that resets its cooldown with kills. It also activates Backlash and Vigilance. Use it liberally!
- Cataclysm is your main damage skill, and maintaining its uptime is paramount! The more densely packed mobs are, and the smaller area Cataclysm's strikes have to spread, the better. It's possible (and ideal) to overlap the strikes onto multiple enemies or focus fire down a boss.
- Pulverize rounds out the Skill bar as a means to mitigate incoming damage and remain in Werebear form while triggering the first half of Ancestral Guidance. Use it frequently between casts of Cataclysm.
Skill Passives
- Ursine Strength naturally harmonizes with the Cataclysm Druid due to its fantastic Overpower multiplier and Max Life benefits. Likewise, the Healthy damage bonus is a nice addition as this build prioritizes playing at full health.
- The Cataclysm Druid snapshots Overpowers on every cast using the Provocation Passive. Make it a point to spend enough time in Werebear form between each cast to have it ready. In early versions of the build, you need to put a point (or two) in it, but eventually you can rely only on Shroud of False Death's +1 to All Passives.
- Envenom boosts Critical Strike damage to Poisoned enemies. We achieve this condition easily with Overload.
Skill Rotation
Mobbing
- When entering a new zone, use Maul or Pulverize every few seconds to remain in Werebear form and stack Provocation. If you're in a Pit, use this downtime to gather mobs.
- Before Provocation reaches max stacks, cast Hurricane to activate Stormshifter's. You can reach permanent uptime of Hurricane through tempers, but be sure to at least have it up before every cast of Cataclysm.
- At max Provocation stacks, cast Earthen Bulwark to activate Resonance and Backlash. Follow this up with Cataclysm to snapshot these buffs for its duration.
- Once Cataclysm is active, use Pulverize often to remain in Werebear form and rebuild Provocation while promoting Mending, Ursine Strength, Ancestral Guidance, and Survival Instincts. Keep Hurricane active and cast Blood Howl as necessary to Heal and maintain Vigilance and Backlash.
Note that casting Maul, Pulverize, or Hurricane will consume Provocation when it's at max stacks. Be mindful of this as you prepare for the next Earthen Bulwark / Cataclysm combo to avoid massive DPS downtimes.
Bossing
Pit bosses can admittedly prove to be a challenge, and the optimal damage scenarios will take some practice to realize. To maximize single target damage, your goal is to lure the Boss to one of the edges of the arena, then move to a position where you are practically within their hitbox. In essence, the aim is to minimize the area that random strikes can land and attempt to concentrate as many of them as possible onto the Boss, bypassing Cataclysm's restriction of hitting the same target just once every .5 seconds. But since the arenas vary in shape, and some bosses drift backwards (Resurrected Malice / Blood Bishop) while others follow you promptly (Scourge of the Land / Den Mother), there's no one-size-fits-all tactic.
Spirit Boons
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: Gift of the Stag
Eagle Spirit: Avian Wrath
Wolf Spirit: Calamity
Snake Spirit: Overload
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.
Cataclysm Druid Endgame Paragon
Glyph Leveling Priorities
To Level 15
- Electrocution
- Earth and Sky
- Dominate
- Keeper
- Spirit
To Level 46
- Dominate
- Spirit
- Electrocution
- Keeper
- Earth and Sky
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 Cataclysm Druid focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Igni + Xal - Increased Maximum Life improves not just defense but also damage through Overpower's additive damage scaling.
- Bac / Lith + Gar - Critical Strike Chance is a new problem for the Cataclysm Druid to solve. This avenue has the lowest opportunity cost as opposed to, say, slotting Hatred's Embrace's Haste. With strong enough gear, it's possible to ditch Gar entirely for a different invocation Rune.
Alternative choices
If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Jah - Used in the Speedfarming variant for a ton of extra mobility!
- Kry - Grouping mobs together substantially improves Cataclysm damage, so this is a reasonable addition, even alongside Airidah's.
- Ohm - War Cry provides a modest increase in damage.
- Qax - It's possible to get some mileage out of this Rune, but it requires quite a bit of Offering to do so.
- Lith - A solid alternative to Bac that requires a more stationary playstyle.
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's Seeker Passive is excellent for scouting mobs, while Ready At Hand periodically boosts Movement Speed. He also provides a solid Critical Strike multiplier with Opening Fire.
Reinforcement: Raheir
Perhaps even more important than your hired mercenary is the on-demand pixel stack Raheir generates with Crater. As you cast Cataclysm, Raheir will consistently condense Airidah's initial pull into an even tighter space while Stunning those mobs in place!
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
Stat Priorities & Item Progression
To enable the Cataclysm 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
- A total of 300% from Damage vs. Close/Distant
- 95%+ Chance for Cataclysm to Deal Double Damage
- 40%+ Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
- 4+ Endless Tempest Ranks
- 130%+ Hurricane Duration
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 70%+
- 20,000+ Life
- 180%+ Movement Speed
- 4000+ Willpower
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the endgame with the Cataclysm 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 Cataclysm Druid from a fresh level 60 into the very late endgame using the three variants Starter, Ancestral and Mythic. 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 Ancestral variant trades Blood Howl for Trample and Pulverize for Shred in the interest of additional mobility while leveling. These changes are optional.
- Airidah's Inexorable Will is a strong option early on for its roll of Ultimate Cooldown Reduction and to pull together groups of enemies, concentrating Cataclysm's strikes in a smaller area and allowing them to hit multiple targets at a time. Farm this item from Echo of Varshan.
- Likewise, Mjölnic Ryng's ranks to Endless Tempest help to close the Cooldown gap by extending Cataclysm's duration while providing some of the build's strongest multipliers. It can be found from Lord Zir.
- Tempest Roar enables a whole host of synergies, activating the Lust for Carnage Legendary Node and other Shapeshifting Passives, and enabling Changeling's Debt and Stormshifter's. Both Duriel, King of Maggots, and Andariel drop Tempest Roar.
- In lieu of Shroud of False Death, Mad Wolf's Glee is a solid alternative for its high Maximum Life roll and Ranks to Cataclysm. Grab this Unique from Echo of Varshan.
- As you progress through Torment Tiers, Resistances and Cooldown are top priorities. Lord Zir offers a potential solution to both problems with Rakanoth's Wake. Though a legendary pair of boots with Stormshifter's offers much more damage, keeping your character healthy and able to maintain Cataclysm is at least as important.
- If your Cataclysm duration is lacking or you find yourself spending too much time out of Werebear form between casts, you can put additional points into Provocation to have its bonus more readily available.
- Without proper Tempers and Masterworking, your Critical Strike Chance may be lacking. Consider taking Hatred's Embrace's Haste over Sinerat's Flames in the interim. Note that Storm Critical Strike Chance and Werewolf Critical Strike Chance are functionally identical if you're trying to share gear sets.
- 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.
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
- The Mythic setup is a simple Skill tree swap to those skills described in the main portion of the guide. The only change to gear is to add Shroud of False Death. The additional ranks to Passive Skills from this chest translates to tremendous damage. It boasts even higher Maximum Life and the All Stats roll is helpful for capping Armor and Resistances, as well as activating Rare Node Bonuses in Paragon. What's more, the chest is currently bugged and adds a second instance of Calamity for a total of 70% Ultimate duration. This bonus functions as a multiplier over the top of Endless Tempest and Prime Cataclysm.
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
- The Speedfarming variant reverts its Skill Tree to resemble the Ancestral variant priority on mobility, keeping Shroud of False Death. Gameplay remains unchanged.
- Replace Gar with Jah to drastically improve mobility (and fun!). Run Hatred's Embrace's Haste over Sinerat's Flames to make up for the loss of Crit Chance.
- Note that using your Mount will reset Provocation stacks.
This setup optimizes the Cataclysm Druid to its absolute limits. We do NOT recommend you play this variant outside of Pit Pushing as it is very clunky and punishing, requiring near-perfect execution to function properly.
Gear & Skills
- This setup completely forgoes Airidah's Inexorable Will in favor of a Ring with better stats and an additional multiplier, but this necessitates several changes.
- For grouping, use Preserving Cyclone Armor, preferably just before your Earthen Bulwark/Cataclysm combo. Raheir will follow up with Crater to give you a potent damage window.
- Use Que in your helmet to receive periodic bursts of Fortify and Barriers. This enables you to stand in the middle of large pulls or the Boss safely and without losing significant Overpower damage.
- Capping your Critical Strike Chance without relying on Gar, Hatred's Embrace's Haste, or suboptimal masterworks requires multiple additional Greater Affixes.
- To help maintain Cataclysm's uptime, aim for high temper rolls on your Amulet and new Ring.
Boss Powers and Mercenaries
- Path Subo's Mercenary tree through Molotov, Share a Drink, Explosive Charge, and Thrillseeker, the last of which gives a periodic burst of Cooldown Recovery.
- For powers, swap your main to Grigoire's Lightning Square in order to precisely execute mobs with Wandering Death's Chest Beam (which replaces Belial's Eye Beams).
Paragon
With the loss of Damage to Close enemies, Earth and Sky should go on your Thunderstruck Paragon Board to maximize this Legendary Node. See below for a Board that accommodates this.
The Stone Burst setup is special for Season 8. The advantage of this setup is to incorporate an additional multiplier in Wandering Death's Chest Beam and a slightly better multiplier in Shattered Defenses. Further, because Stone Burst is a channeling skill, it cannot Overpower by default, so it cannot consume Provocation.
Gear & Skills
- Vasily's Prayer has a more desirable stat line than Tempest Roar and a Greater Affix on Armor allows you to just barely fit Tibault's Will. However, using the Werebear helm means Cataclysm is no longer a Shapeshifting skill. This precludes you from leveraging Stormshifter's and Lust for Carnage.
- Instead of Hurricane and Blood Howl, use a pair of Companion skills to overflow Xal with Nagu.
- The Aspect on your Boots and your other Runeword are related:
- To conveniently activate Tibault's Will, opt for Igni-Que and put points into Enhanced Earthen Bulwark. This frees up the Boots slot to be any of Ghostwalker, Shared Misery, or Wildbolt. However, this setup relies solely on Preserving Cyclone Armor and Raheir's Crater to gather mobs.
- If you want more frequent and controlled pulls, go for Igni-Kry. In this case, you must run Metamorphosis on your Boots and Evade often to maintain Tibault's Will.
Doombringer
Doombringer is a strong option but random. It makes you really tanky, which is great for the playstyle, but you then have a maximum of 55% chance to deal Double Damage on your Totem. Peak damage with Doombringer is roughly 35% higher, but you will be at peak damage ~77% more often with a 2-Hander. Between this issue and needing a Mythic with the right Greater Affix and triple Masterwork to be viable, it's not broadly recommended.
Skill Rotation
- Use Stone Burst to remain in Werebear form and apply Wandering Death's and Shattered Defenses.
- Cataclysm benefits from the full effect of Resonance provided your last skill cast was Stone Burst. So, rather than grouping mobs with Cyclone Armor before casting Cataclysm, use Cyclone Armor immediately after instead.
- As Raheir is packing mobs together with Crater, Evade away from the pack to promote Nature's Reach while continuing to apply debuffs with Stone Burst.
- You may need to move your Wolves between rotations to avoid them from blocking mobs. Be mindful that this active ability can consume Provocation if its at max stacks.
Boss Powers and Mercenaries
- Path Subo's Mercenary tree through Molotov, Share a Drink, Explosive Charge, and Thrillseeker, the last of which gives a periodic burst of Cooldown Recovery.
- For powers, swap your main to Wandering Death's Chest Beam for a juicy 50% multiplier.
Paragon
With the loss of Damage to Close enemies, Earth and Sky should go on your Thunderstruck Paragon Board to maximize this Legendary Node. Additionally, Lust for Carnage is no longer applicable without Tempest Roar, so take Sinister Tendrils instead. See below for a Board that accommodates this.
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.
We get a continuous overlap on Cataclysm through a combination of Cooldown Reduction and Duration:
Sources of Cooldown Reduction
- Airidah's Inexorable Will
- Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction Temper on Amulet
- Cataclysm Ranks (including those from Mad Wolf's Glee and Stormshifter's)
Sources of Cataclysm Duration
- Ranks of Endless Tempest (also available on Mjölnic Ryng)
- Calamity Spirit Boon (Shroud of False Death is bugged and giving a 2nd instance of this Boon)
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.
Druids have only two non-Ultimate sources of Unstoppable. Trample and Earthen Bulwark. If you're not subscribed to their long Cooldown, Metamorphosis is a great alternative to those skills.
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.
- With Tempest Roar equipped, Cataclysm becomes a Werewolf Skill This interaction enables several multipliers in the build, including Changeling's Debt, Stormshifter's, and Lust for Carnage.
- The act of Shapeshifting into Werewolf activates Quickshift and Heightened Senses.
- The %Willpower is great for improving skill damage and your Runeworker's Conduit multiplier. The Maximum Spirit strengthens the potential of Ancestral Guidance.
Mechanics
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.
Video Guide
Summary
The Cataclysm Druid is a maelstrom of destruction, capable of almost immediately offscreening lesser foes while standing toe-to-toe with the strongest Druid builds in terms of Pit Pushing. The initial snapshot and unintuitive boss mechanics are easy to learn but tough to master. However, the payoff for proper execution is tremendous and catapults the Cataclysm Druid into the upper echelon of Druid builds.
Credits
Written by IBoilerUp
Reviewed by Danger