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. Season 6 introduced 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. Season 7 brings a revelation for the build, as the Werewolf and Storm tags granted by Alpha and Storm's Companion have been patched to work with their many applicable bonuses. Among these are Lust for Carnage, Thunderstruck, Defiance, and Natural Disaster. They also more consistently proc Lucky Hits, meaning your Wolves can now refresh their own Cooldown with Pack Leader!
Petrify is incorporated for its Critical Strike Multiplier and to evoke Grow. We use a pair of Shapeshifting generator/spenders to help trigger Pack Leader and related bonuses like Quickshift, Ring of Starless Skies, and Iron Fur.
This guide teaches you all about how to reach 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.
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 Kry.
- Grow - This power grants your minions a hefty multiplier after casting our Ultimate. The size increase is a neat feature, too!
- Aura of Siphoning - The Poison and Healing effects are nice touches, but we use this Aura primarily to activate Hex of Shattering, Friend of the Bog, and the bonus from Aura Specialization.
- Aura Specialization - The AoE is useful but the Critical Damage Multiplier that comes with levels is even better.
- Hex of Shattering - The Damage Reduction is a potent addition but this is here to activate Pointed Finger.
- The Cycle - Further ensuring the spread of Poison, the main strength of this Power is to consistently Heal you and your Companions, especially the temporary ones created by Ceh and Moonrage.
Alternate Witchcraft Powers
- Piranhado - This power can be used as an alternative way to group mobs in lieu of Kry or Airidah's.
- 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.
- Wave of Woe - With as many Pets as we have, this build hits a lot. If the damage from this Power proves meaningful, it could prove a very strong AoE clear.
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
- Pointed Finger - A simple and straightforward damage multiplier for this build, provided you apply a Hex.
- Friend of the Bog - Extra Core Stats improve skill damage. Maximum Life improves defense. Becoming Unhindered helps you move through groups of mobs.
- Toadling's Wish - We use a number of Growth & Decay Powers in this build, and bolstering the effects of Grow is extremely powerful.
Alternate Occult Gems
- Moonlight Ward - As the Companion Druid is on the squishier side of things, this defensive layer may prove useful.
- Hungering Void - Yet another way to pull mobs together. It's less effective than the alternatives, though, and the opportunity cost is high.
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 (and sometimes Moni).
- 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 Aspects. 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, the Wolves will 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 with your Witchcraft Powers.
- In between Companion casts and packs, 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.
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: Calm Before the Storm
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 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.
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
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 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 new 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 - Used in the Pit Push setup, 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.
- Cem - As a Magic Rune, it's a reasonable choice that you're more likely to find.
- Ur - Though the Offering generated is on the low side, this rune should be easy to acquire and activate frequently.
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: Varyana
We utilize Varyana's Ancient Harpoons for a periodic grouping effect.
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. 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 (including Wolves temper)
- 2700+ Willpower
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 70%
- 5,000+ 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 when we engage.
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.
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 overstatted Critical Strike Chance and Attack Speed rolls. The Resource Cost Reduction allows for much more liberal use of Shred as well.
- Note that Werewolf Attack Speed does not improve Wolves, even with Alpha equipped. We take it to improve the speed of Shred for faster resets. If you prefer, you can take Critical Strike Damage in place of this temper.
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. We 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.
Gear & Skills
- The Pit Push setup focuses on maximizing the active damage of Wolves at the cost of area of effect coverage and spammability.
- 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 instead prioritize Attack Speed in your Spirit Boons and other pieces of gear. However, you need to make up a considerable amount of Armor on your boots and Amulet, and your damage relies almost solely on your ability to reset Wolves with Pack Leader.
- In your weapon, swap Yul with Moni. With near max Cap 1 and Cap 2 Attack Speed and in an environment where you're more likely to set up on mobs, spamming Shred will typically result in more Spirit Wolves.
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.
What can I do to improve survivability?
What is the best weapon choice?
Mechanics
Attack Speed Caps
Stagger
Video Guide
Coming soon!
Summary
- The Companion Druid brings a swarm of allies to the party, and enhances all of their damage with Shepherd's.
- Wolves will destroy most targets and the cooldown will be short. Use it repeatedly on the targets that somehow survive.
- We are very resilient and even have invincible allies to soak up some attacks. Very kind of them.
Credits
Written by IBoilerUp
Reviewed by Danger