Companion Druid Endgame Build Guide
Welcome to the Companion Druid Endgame Guide! If you're looking to flood the screen with minions and make short work of endgame Bosses, this build is for you! While Wolves serve as the centerpiece of the build, the AoE clear from Ravens play an integral role while leveling, and all Companions buff each other thanks to Shepherd's.
Boasting as many as 15 pets (more if you count Ceh), the build shines in single target situations but is limited in speedfarming by its Cooldowns and small area of effect. Core to the build are One With Nature, an awesome Companion-focused Key Passive, and the Untamed paragon board, which is teeming with useful bonuses.
In Diablo 4, Companions inherit 100% of your character's stats, so scaling things like Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, and Willpower plays a role. The Companion Druid leverages the Werewolf and Storm tags granted by Alpha and Storm's Companion to evoke a number of applicable bonuses. Among these are Lust for Carnage, Thunderstruck, Defiance, and Natural Disaster. Companions also proc Lucky Hits, meaning your Wolves can refresh their own Cooldown via Pack Leader!
Petrify is incorporated for its Critical Strike Multiplier. We use a pair of Shapeshifting generator/spenders to trigger Pack Leader and related bonuses like Quickshift, Storm's Companion, and Ring of Starless Skies.
This guide teaches you all about how to combat the endgame in Diablo 4 with the Companion Druid. Let's get started!
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 Maindeals relatively high damage, maintains Poison, and activates Harbinger of Hatred's Volley.
Modifiers
- Beastmaster's Training - A no-brainer for any Summon build, this Modifier is a direct multiplier of up to 150%!
- Sinerat's Flames - Wolves augmented by Storm's Companion deal primarily Lightning damage, making this Power another multiplier!
- Harbinger of Hatred's Volley - This assists minimally with applying Vulnerable but is used primarily for the multiplier in the second line.
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, essential for Pack Leader.
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 activate Harbinger of Hatred's Volley.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
- Wolves is your primary damage skill and gains a small AoE on its active ability when upgraded with Storm's Companion. Alpha gives them a massive damage boost and Moonrage improves their count.
- Maul supplements Fortify generation and maintains Shapeshifting bonuses from Heightened Senses, Iron Fur, and Quickshift.
- Shred provides excellent mobility while activating the other half of our Shapeshifting bonuses, as well as Ring of Starless Skies.
- Blood Howl is incorporated for its Healing and Attack Speed, and to leverage Backlash and Vigilance.
- Use Ravens at will for another decent AoE and to improve Critical Strike Chance. The active is dropped in later setups to make room for better multipliers. Debilitating Roar takes its place for a burst of damage and defense in a pinch.
- Petrify stuns enemies in a large AoE and provides a massive Critical Strike multiplier.
Passives
- Call of the Wild is easily our strongest Passive skill.
- Envenom is the clear #2, provided we maintain Poison and have reasonable Critical Strike Chance.
- Our key passive, One With Nature, bolsters Companion damage and adds to our minion total, buffing Shepherd's.
Skill Rotation
- Target Elites and other high health targets with your Wolves. With maximum Cooldown Reduction, Wolves recover at least every 2.75 seconds. Continue spamming them on Cooldown, as they deal the most damage.
- Shred into the center of the pack to activate Envenom and Heightened Malice via Toxic Claws. Poison Creeper's Passive effect helps further spread Poison.
- In between Companion casts, regularly alternate between Maul and Shred for a chance to recover Companion cooldowns with Pack Leader and activate and maintain bonuses from Quickshift, Heightened Senses, Iron Fur, Digitigrade Gait, and Ring of Starless Skies.
- Leverage Petrify's low Cooldown to inflict Stuns and buff Companion damage in density. It additionally groups mobs together when playing with Airidah's Inexorable Will.
- Use Blood Howl and Debilitating Roar liberally to Heal and improve Damage, Damage Reduction, and Attack Speed, as well as to promote Backlash and Vigilance.
- Avoid Plagued Elites and other damaging ground effects, as these will drastically reduce your minion count.
Druid 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: Wariness
Eagle Spirit: Avian Wrath
Wolf Spirit: Packleader
Snake Spirit: Masochistic
Bond with the Eagle Spirit and activate Swooping Attacks. Iron Feather is an option here for additional toughness.
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.
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
- Wilds
- Keeper
- Spirit
- Headhunter
- Earth and Sky
To Level 46
- Wilds
- Spirit
- Headhunter
- 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 Companion Druid focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Yul + Ceh - The more pets, the merrier right? These pets gain most bonuses that your main Wolves do, in addition providing a Freeze and Vulnerable on hit.
- Nagu + Kry - All endgame variants utilize either the periodic grouping effect from Vortex or Airidah's Inexorable Will to concentrate mobs into Wolves' small area of effect. With the overflow mechanic associated with Kry, this build uses Nagu to maximize its size!
Alternative choices
As long as you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top Runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Gar - The Crit Chance bonus is great, especially early on.
- Wat - Decrepify helps with stagger, defense and allows you to execute at 10% HP. When combined with Xol in your other runeword, it also generates large amounts of offering.
- Mot - Dark Shroud is a strong and affordable defensive option.
- Moni - Shred counts as a Mobility skill and can be used to generate a ton of Offering in certain situations.
- Lith - A surprisingly strong Invocation, provided you can afford to stand still.
- Ahu - With this build's many AoE hits, this Rune generates offering at a rapid pace during clear. However, on Bosses, it may be ineffective for a large chunk of the fight.
- Cem - As a Magic Rune, it's a reasonable choice that you're more likely to find.
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: Raheir
Raheir provides us with passive All Resistance, an area of effect Slow which increases our damage, a 90% damage reduction bubble that also increases damage, and prevents us from getting one shot every 30 seconds thanks to Valiance. Beware that he's not present when playing in groups and make sure you remain resistance capped without him.
- Reinforcement: Aldkin
Field of Languish provides a high-uptime Damage Reduction that helps keep our Wolves alive.
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
Stat Priorities & Item Progression
To enable the Companion 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
- 2.75 Wolves Cooldown
- 95%+ Chance for Wolves to deal Double Damage
- 80%+ Critical Strike Chance
- 80%+ Attack Speed
- 2700+ Willpower
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 70%
- 7,000+ Life
- 160%+ Movement Speed
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the Endgame with the Companion 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 Companion 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.
If you are fresh in Torment 1 coming from a leveling guide, this is where you begin. Since only some Aspects can be guaranteed from Dungeon unlocks for the Codex of Power, focus on acquiring the additional aspects via gambling with Murmuring Obols.
Gear & Skills
- Early on in your progression, focus on Armor & Resistances to survive. Each Torment difficulty adds a penalty of -250 Armor and -25% all Res and it's recommended to keep both capped (1000 Armor, 70+ Res) at all times. As you unlock higher power gear, masterworking levels and more Paragon points, you naturally scale your character into the higher difficulties and can start replacing some of these rolls with offensive or utility stats. In this Starter version, you can supplement your Armor with Disobedience over Spirit Bond if necessary.
- The Starter version of this build has most of the core Aspects it uses through endgame and plays largely the same, with a couple of notable exceptions.
- Without Storm's Companion, Wolves have no area of effect on use and will only damage one target at a time. Aim carefully!
- While we drastically improve the uptime of Wolves with Tempers, the other Companions will be available much less frequently without Harlequin Crest. Pack Leader helps mitigate this to an extent.
- For now, Stormcrow's improves clear and inflicts Crowd Control on mobs as we engage.
- Early on, slot Hatred's Embrace's Haste over Sinerat's Flames to promote Pack Leader and leverage this build's many Critical Strike multipliers. Sinerat's Flames does not act as a multiplier for Wolves until you acquire Storm's Companion.
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
- 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.
- The only real change to this variant is the addition of Storm's Companion, which gives our Wolves amazing stats and a small AoE splash on use, as well a significantly improved chance to activate Pack Leader. The additional tag enables Defiance and Natural Disaster, so we make room for those.
- Stick with Hatred's Embrace's Haste until you can acquire better top-end Masterworks and Ring of Starless Skies.
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
- Harlequin Crest makes it much easier to hit your Armor cap. It's also the largest source of Cooldown Reduction available in the game, allowing you to spam all Companions and Petrify frequently.
- 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, and Resistances and meeting Rare Node requirements in the paragon board. Though not nearly as much damage, Tyrael's Might is always worth consideration as you ascend through Torment Tiers to combat the Resistance and Armor penalties. Socket Skulls in your jewelry if you go this route.
- Ring of Starless Skies is a popular choice in many builds for its dual All Resist implicit and overstatted Critical Strike Chance and Attack Speed rolls. The Resource Cost Reduction allows for more liberal use of Shred as well.
- With no room left for Stormcrow's, drop Ravens in favor of Debilitating Roar for a burst of Damage or Damage Reduction in a pinch.
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
- With Shred on the bar and decently high movement speed, there aren't a ton of adjustments to be made. Take Trample over Debilitating Roar for some mobility between packs and swap Iron Fur with Digitigrade Gait.
- Over Moonrage, slot Airidah's Inexorable Will for a much larger pull. Change the runes in your helm to include Yom and proc this pull more frequently.
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. It varies considerably from other portions of the guide, with the main differences being the incorporation of the Xan Rune to inflict Overpowers and the Grizzly Rage Ultimate to promote certain Shapeshifting bonuses in Mending, Changeling's Debt, and Survival Instincts.
On the other hand, this variant is less mobile and has no mechanism to group mobs and pack them closer together, and so it is not recommended for general play.
Gear & Skills
- In place of Harlequin Crest, slot Heir of Perdition. In addition to its sizeable multiplier, you also gain a ton of extra Critical Strike Chance, allowing you to prioritize other stats across your gear. Take Grizzly Rage Duration as an Offensive temper where possible, filling in any Critical Strike Chance gaps with Storm Critical Strike Chance.
- This variant takes Flickerstep primarily for its massive Damage Reduction from Close enemies, which benefits your Companions and gives the temporary minions from Ceh and Moonrage some extra staying power. If your personal defenses (Armor/Resistance) are lacking, you can opt for either Rakanoth's Wake or Yen's Blessing instead.
- The Pit Push variant deals the vast majority of its damage with Overpowers generated by Xan. As such, it prefers a Two-handed Mace and prioritizes Maximum Life wherever possible.
Skills & Rotation
While in Grizzly Rage, your skill bar is replaced entirely by Werebear skills (and also Companion skills with a rank 5 Grizzly Rage). However, any non-Werebear Basic Skill will transform into Maul, any non-Werebear Defensive skill turns into Debilitating Roar, and so on. So, by taking Claw, you can more easily stack Quickshift before entering Grizzly Rage and still have access to Maul during. By taking Cyclone Armor, you benefit from its passive damage reduction during Grizzly Rage while still having access to Debilitating Roar.
Rotation
- Before entering Grizzly Rage, alternate between Claw and a non-Werewolf skill to fully stack Quickshift. (Example: Claw -> Trample -> Claw -> Poison Creeper -> Claw -> Cyclone Armor -> Claw -> Grizzly Rage)
- Once in Grizzly Rage, focus on dispensing as much damage as possible with Wolves. When possible, keep distance from your main target to promote Nature's Reach.
- Weave in Poison Creeper for an extra proc of Yul and to Immobilize enemies, evoking damage bonuses from Nature's Reach and Electric Shock.
- Use Debilitating Roar on Cooldown for a slight damage boost and to temporarily increase the survivability of your Companions.
- Trample as necessary to prevent or remove Crowd Controls.
Boss Powers and Mercenaries
- No changes necessary to Mercenaries.
- Replace Sinerat's Flames with the higher damage Belial's Eye Beams. Go for Varshan's Life Steal as a Main for some personal Healing, since you lose Masochistic in the exchange.
Paragon
Without Alpha, Lust for Carnage doesn't function. Since you're also permanently in Werebear form, instead leverage Survival Instincts. Replace Wilds with Dominate, as you don't care to improve Companion's Passive damage and the additive damage it otherwise provides is diminished in the face of Overpower scaling.
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.
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.
We need to use a 2-hander, as the damage multiplier from Shepherd's is absurdly high. Of the available options, a 2-handed Polearm provides the most consistently applicable bonus.
Mechanics
- While all the exact mechanics are much more nuanced, there are two separate Attack Speed Bonus caps of +100% that apply to all builds for a total potential of +200%. For Druids, these two caps are distributed in the following way:
Cap 1
- Gear rolls
- Paragon nodes
- Elixirs
- Nimble
- Wild's Call
- Moonrise
- Artillery Shrine
- Wolves Attack Speed (Tempering)
Cap 2
- Accelerating
- Rapid
- Preserving Blood Howl
- Bestial Rampage
- Enhanced Shred
- Werewolf Attack Speed (Tempering)
- Earth Skill Attack Speed
- Basic Attack Speed (Gear Affix)
Read up more on Attack Speed in our dedicated guide by Ava.
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 Companion Druid brings a swarm of allies to the party, and enhances all of their damage with Shepherd's.
- Summons inherit 100% of the players stats, so stacking Willpower, Critical Strike Chance, and Attack Speed is important!
- Wolves are your primary damage dealer and have their cooldown reset frequently thanks to Pack Leader.
- Use either Kry or Airidah's Inexorable Will to group mobs into your Wolves' small AoE.
Credits
Written by IBoilerUp
Reviewed by Danger