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 Critical Strikes and 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.
The Cataclysm Druid is centered around the strategy of snapshotting, specifically snapshotting the Xan Rune for guaranteed Critical Strikes and Overpowers, as well as the Qax Rune for a substantial damage bonus. It's similar to the Hurricane Druid in these respects but with one key difference. Unlike with Hurricane, these snapshots can be sustained indefinitely through a zone, provided you have sufficient overlap on Cataclysm's Cooldown and cast it quickly off Cooldown.
For the build to function, it's imperative to first acquire its core Uniques. Airidah's Inexorable Will is essential for its roll of Ultimate Cooldown Reduction and plays a key part in gathering packs of monsters tightly together, thereby enabling Cataclysm to strike multiple monsters simultaneously. Similarly, Mjölnic Ryng's ranks to Endless Tempest extend Cataclysm's duration while providing some of the build's strongest multipliers through itself, Runeworker's Conduit, Charged Atmosphere, and Electrocution. Finally, Tempest Roar enables a host of synergies, including activating the Lust for Carnage Legendary Node and other Shapeshifting Passives 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:
- Airidah's Inexorable Will
- Mjölnic Ryng
- Tempest Roar
- Xan (and ideally both Runewords)
- Enough Cataclysm Cooldown to recover it within its duration
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.
Witchcraft Powers
Season 7 is the Season of Witchcraft. It features two separate borrowed power mechanics in the forms of Witchcraft Powers and Occult Gems. Both Seasonal mechanics are unlocked and improved by new NPCs found at the Tree of Whispers after collecting resources from Headhunt Zones, Seasonal areas similar to Helltide that appear across Sanctuary.
There are 25 Witchcraft Powers, 6 of which can be equipped at a time. Each Power belongs to one of three Schools (Eldritch, Growth & Decay, and Psyche), tags that promote synergies within themselves and with Occult Gems. Each School has a single Unique Witchcraft Power, only one of which can be equipped at a time. These Unique Powers max out and gain an additional effect at rank 5, while the other Powers max at rank 20 and gain their bonus effects at various levels. To unlock and improve Witchcraft Powers, defeat Headrotten or complete Whispers within the Headhunt Zones to collect Restless Rot. Lost Powers are an exception, requiring you to randomly encounter a Forgotten Altar in Dungeons to unlock them.
Best-in-Slot Witchcraft Powers
- Soul Harvest - This Power dramatically increases Core Stats based on monster density and is a reliably strong choice, especially for builds which can group mobs together as with Airidah's Inexorable Will.
- Purging Touch - Similarly, Cataclysm becomes an Eldritch effect thanks to Voice of the Stars. So, this Power starts off powerful against Headrotten then becomes a multiplier against all enemies once leveled.
- Force of Will - While this Power should require 2 snapshots to benefit from, in reality its stacks carry over between zones, in town, and even through load screens. They can even be built up in the overworld and brought into the Pit. Until fixed, this is easily Best-in-Slot.
- Aura of Siphoning - You must equip one of the three available Witchcraft Auras to enable Voice of the Stars. Aura of Siphoning is preferred for its Healing effect.
- Aura Specialization - The AoE is nice but the Critical Damage Multiplier that comes with levels is even better.
- The Cycle - Assists in the spread of Poison while rounding out our third Growth & Decay Power for Friend of the Bog.
Alternate Witchcraft Powers
- Aura of Misfortune - A viable alternative to Aura of Siphoning, this Power mitigates some incoming damage while boosting your Movement Speed. Unfortunately, it's ineffective against Bosses.
- Hex of Shattering - The Damage Reduction is great and it is the most consistent way to apply a Hex when paired with Voice of the Stars.
Occult Gems
Rarely, Headrotten Bosses appear with a still-attached Fugitive Head stolen from the Tree of Whispers. Slay these enemies and return the Heads to Gelena to unlock and upgrade Occult Gems. These Gems are socketable in Jewelry and each provide +160 Armor and +8% Resistance to All Elements. More importantly, each Occult Gem grants a unique effect that synergizes with your equipped Witchcraft Powers to provide a variety of Offensive, Defensive, and Utility-based bonuses.
Best-in-Slot Occult Gems
- Voice of the Stars - This Gem enables multiple powerful synergies from our Witchcraft Powers by granting Cataclysm all applicable tags. These synergies include consistent Hex Application and two separate damage multipliers!
- Friend of the Bog - Core Stats improve both skill damage and your Runeworker's Conduit multiplier. Maximum Life improves defense and Overpower damage. Becoming Unhindered helps you move through groups of mobs.
- Wicked Pact - Boosts the effect of Purging Touch, resulting in a little over 7% more damage.
Alternate Occult Gems
- Hungering Void - Used in the "Flickerless" setup, this is yet another way to pull mobs together. It's slightly less effective than Airidah's, though, and the opportunity cost is high.
- Phantom String - A straightforward damage multiplier. Note that you need a Hex applied to activate and, while better than Wicked Pact for Bossing, the uptime of Curses is rather low in density.
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 but, more importantly, Shapeshifts you into a Werebear, important for activating Survival Instincts and some Passive skill bonuses. Keeping Spirit topped off is doubly important now given the buffs 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 before casting Cataclysm.
- Hurricane reduces the damage of nearby enemies and activates Stormshifter's, useful for both damage and Cooldown Reduction on Cataclysm.
- Debilitating Roar provides a burst of damage and Damage Reduction in a pinch.
- 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 liberally 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.
- Envenom boosts Critical Strike damage as long as enemies are Poisoned. This damage bonus is achieved rather easily vis your Witchcraft Powers, but you can opt for Overload for some additional coverage.
Skill Rotation
Start of Zone Snapshot
- As you enter a new zone, alternate between Maul and any non-Werebear skill to begin stacking Quickshift. Be sure to include Hurricane as part of this process to activate Stormshifter's.
- Prime your Xan Rune to be nearly full with Igni, then refrain from using any skill besides Maul for 6 seconds to store the maximum Offering, aiming to Overflow Xan with the next non-basic cast.
- Move forward until your Bac Rune triggers Qax. When it does, immediately cast Earthen Bulwark to activate Resonance and Backlash and to expend Igni. Follow this up with Cataclysm as soon as possible. Hurricane has the potential to consume Xan when it deals damage, so a quick cast is essential.
Visually, that looks like:
Mobbing
- Good news! The hard part is over. This initial snapshot will persist for the rest of the zone provided you don't re-cast Cataclysm too late in its cycle. Cataclysm will trigger Airidah's to pull in the mobs that aren't instantly evaporated and Raheir will follow up with Crater to pack them even tighter. Stay on this clump until the majority of mobs become Unstoppable or are cleared, then move forward to start preparing the next pull.
- During your ultimate, be sure to keep Hurricane active and stay in Werebear form by using Pulverize to promote Survival Instincts and Ancestral Guidance.
- Evade through mobs as needed to recover Cataclysm's Cooldown via Flickerstep. Repeat this tactic to quickly accelerate Apogeic Furor's stack count. Slow down and spend more time in its later stages to maximize damage.
- There are some potential pitfalls with the Runes. In the unlikely event that a cast of Cataclysm lines up with the Provocation granted to you by Shroud of False Death, it will unfortunately override Xan (evidenced by blue damage numbers signifying non-critical Overpowers). Additionally, one or both of your invocation Runes have the potential to fall off if you cast Cataclysm too late in its duration. For this reason, it's important to have a generous overlap on its cooldown and to cast it as quickly as you can when it comes off cooldown. If, for either reason, you lose Xan or Qax, you need to let Cataclysm expire and start from the top of this rotation to regain the snapshots.
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 virtually on top of them. 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: Masochistic
Bond with the Eagle Spirit and activate Iron Feather. For lower level content, Overload is worth consideration over Masochistic for improved Poison coverage.
Learn more details and how to unlock this class specification in our full Druid Spirit Boons Guide.
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
There are a total of 328 Paragon Points. After reaching level 60, you gain up to 300 Paragon Levels, 24 from Renown and 4 from Altars of Lilith. Check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
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 + Xan - Capping critical strike chance through gear has a high opportunity cost for the Cataclysm Druid, so this Rune slots perfectly to cover both Critical Strikes and Overpowers.
- Bac + Qax - Provides our Cataclysm with double damage (or more!). Move carefully to maintain control over the buff, ensuring that it is not consumed by other skills.
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.
- Mot - Enables the Rogue's Dark Shroud, which is a strong and affordable defensive option.
- 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. 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
- 30%+ Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
- 7+ Endless Tempest Ranks
- 100%+ Hurricane Duration
- A total of 300% from Damage vs. Close/Distant
- 95%+ Chance for Cataclysm to Deal Double Damage
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 70%+
- 15,000+ Life
- 160%+ Movement Speed
- 3300+ 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 Debilitating Roar for Trample and Pulverize for Shred in the interest of additional mobility while leveling. These changes are optional.
- Airidah's Inexorable Will is essential for its roll of Ultimate Cooldown Reduction, but it's also crucial for pulling together groups of tough enemies and concentrating Cataclysm's strikes in a smaller area, 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, including 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.
- Rakanoth's Wake is an excellent midgame option to cover Resistances and assist with Cooldown Recovery. Farm these boots in the Infernal Hordes.
- 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.
- Flickerstep is great for accelerating Apogeic Furor to its later stages and closing any gaps in Cooldown you may have. Acquire it from Duriel, King of Maggots, or Andariel. Feel free to continue using Rakanoth's Wake if you need additional Resistances or naturally overlap Cataclysm's Cooldown.
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 Qax with Jah to drastically improve mobility (and fun!)
- Note that using your Mount will cancel Cataclysm and cause your existing snapshot to break.
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
- Swap Bac for Feo. The latter is much more finnicky to activate, but when it does, it grants a 250% damage bonus via Qax instead of the usual 100%! If you see it activate while Xan is still charging, try to avoid casting Maul, Hurricane, or any other damaging skill as they will consume the proc. Of course, if you weren't set up properly for the snapshot, you can always wait out Feo's 10 second Cooldown and catch it on the next cycle.
- Before entering the Pit, build stacks of Force of Will in the Overworld. Avoid expending these stacks with Enhanced Pulverize or Provocation until you've executed your first snapshot during the run. I know, this isn't fun or engaging gameplay, but until the Power is fixed to lose its stacks when entering a new zone, this is the best way to play it.
The "Flickerless" setup ditches Flickerstep in pursuit of more damage. There are pros and cons, and while both setups have cleared Pit 150, the Flickerless setup seems to be preferred among the top pushers at this time. See below:
Pros
- 2 additional rolls of Willpower
- 1 additional roll of Maximum Life
- Exploiter's
- Better initial pull for Soul Harvest
Cons
- Less effective at grouping / moving mobs
- Cannot manipulate Apogeic Furor stacks
- Loss of Wicked Pact on Purging Touch
- Loss of Flickerstep Damage Reduction
Gear & Skills
- Exchange Flickerstep with a pair of Legendary Boots with Attacks Reduce Evade's Cooldown and Exploiter's. You have the option to take Movement Speed here over All Resistance or Willpower for lower-level content.
- Trade Wicked Pact with Hungering Void. This Gem allows for higher potential stacks of Soul Harvest on your initial setup and serves as a way to group and move mobs between casts of Cataclysm.
- All previously discussed Rune combinations in Weapon are valid in this setup depending on your target content: Bac-Qax for general play, Bac-Jah for Speedfarming, and Feo-Qax for Pushing.
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)
- Rakanoth's Wake (Midgame) or Flickerstep (Endgame)
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
As is the case with other Druid builds like Lightning Storm and Hurricane, the Cataclysm Druid is capable of capturing a number of damage bonuses over an extended duration, including but not limited to:
- Xan
- Qax
- Quickshift
- Resonance (triple damage)
- Backlash
However, unlike other Druid builds, Cataclysm can perpetually maintain these buffs under certain conditions. Namely, you must have a Cooldown on Cataclysm that sufficiently undercuts its duration, and you need to be prompt about recasting it when it comes off Cooldown.
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