Welcome to the Companion Druid Endgame build guide!
This build shows you the power of friendship. Most of it's damage comes from Wolves in the end game and even get it's own unique in Storm's Companion.
We get the entire squad to join us thanks to an updated Shepherd's and get to add extra friends with the new addition of Moonrage. On top of this there is the new aspect Spirit Bond to keep the party going.
In this guide we teach you all you need to know to be successful with the Companion Druid in Diablo 4. Let's dive into it!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 50 Character and finished the Campaign. Level up with our Landslide Druid Leveling Guide. If you are looking for a different Druid playstyle, check out all of our Druid Guides.
Season 5 - Infernal Hordes
In Season 5, the Season Theme brings your hero back into the bowels of Hell, in the Infernal Hordes endgame activity. You're first introduced to Hellbreach Dungeons, miniature Horde-like micro-dungeons that teach you the new mechanics and rewards systems. As you slay more powerful Demons and Bosses, you're rewarded with the new Reputation progression that comes with amazing rewards. These include Crafting Materials, unlocking Season's Journey tiers and even the coveted Resplendent Spark, needed to craft a mythic unique.
Follow the seasonal questline until you unlock the Reputation system, check which rewards suit you most and then follow your regular leveling path. To learn more, check out our full Season 5 guide for more information.
Skill Tree & Gameplay
Active Skills
- Wolves is your primary damage skill and has a small radius when upgraded with Storm's Companion.
- Claw is used to shapeshift for Heightened Senses, Quickshift, Digitigrade Gait, Skinwalker's, and Wildheart Hunger.
- Pulverize is used as a support skill to reduce the damage of enemies and provide a fast animation for shapeshifting for similar reasons as claw but also includes Iron Fur.
- Poison Creeper will help out area of effect and apply poison for Envenom.
- Ravens can be used at will for extra critical strike chance.
- Earthen Bulwark provides us with emergency button with a way to break crowd control along with a barrier to absorb some damage.
Passives
- Call of the Wild increase the damage of our Companions.
- Envenom is a big damage increase behind Call of the Wild.
- Quickshift is a third source of damage from our passives and requires us to shift every 8 seconds, this is longer than most shapeshift requirements.
- Heightened Senses is a great source of constant damage reduction and movement speed as we will be constantly shapeshifting to maintain Wildheart Hunger.
- We also get Iron Fur for damage reduction, Ancestral Fortitude for resistances, and Digitigrade Gait for movement speed.
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: Iron Feather
- Wolf Spirit: Packleader
- Snake Spirit: Masochistic
Bond with the Eagle Spirit and activate Avian Wrath
Learn more details and how to unlock this class specification in our full Druid Spirit Boons Guide.
Resource & Cooldown Management
We won't need much resource generation as the majority of our damage doesn't require it. Rotating between Claw and Pulverize should keep you topped off. Extra Spirit per Second or Spirit on Kill while leveling can feel good.
We use our companion skill whenever available for extra damage before they reset from Packleader. Wolves is our priority and we won't need Packleader because of our tempers. Earthen Bulwark can be saved for breaking crowd control or any burst of damage you can't avoid.
Buff Management
We will need to spend time managing our buffs as well. Quickshift, Heightened Senses, Iron Fur, Digitigrade Gait, and Wildheart Hunger will all require active shapeshifting, the most important being Wildheart Hunger. You must shift at least every 5 seconds to maintain Wildheart.
Paragon Board
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 when they reach level 15!
Level the Paragon Board by scrolling the bar at the bottom to the right. Each step optimizes progression.
Glyphs
We need to level up our Glyphs to activate their Additional Bonus with surrounding nodes. For some Glyphs, we max our bonuses by allocating every relevant node in range, while on others we take the minimum required for the Additional Bonus only. Because Glyphs at level 15 increase their radius, we need to prioritize leveling them by completing Nightmare Dungeons. After that, we prioritize leveling our strongest glyphs to level 21.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
Note we use exploit early in the board since Keeper can not be activated in the first board until its level 15, hence why leveling Keeper to 15 is our first priority.
Level 15
- Wilds
- Spirit
- Exploit
- Shapeshifter
- Keeper
Level 21
- Wilds
- Spirit
- Exploit
- Shapeshifter
- Keeper
There are a total of 225 Paragon Points. Starting with level 50 you gain 4 Paragon Points per level, plus 20 from Renown, and 4 from Altars of Lilith.
Endgame Progression & Variants
When you start diving into the Endgame, you don't have all the tools available to achieve the final build versions. Let us guide you through different progression points to give you a smooth transition from our Leveling Guides to the final build version.
Progression Goals
Many of your Skill choices depend on what Legendary Aspects and Unique items are available to you. These are listed in priority order:
- This build relies on drop-only Aspects to function well:
- Inevitable Fate gives us much needed area coverage on any poison.
- Alpha sends our wolves to the gym.
- Stampede more friends means a better party.
- Moonrage can never have too many friends.
- Wildrage that's a lot of damage and attack speed.
- Spirit Bond keeps the party going.
- Metamorphosis to give us a reliable source of Unstoppable.
- Unlock the following Aspects from Dungeons:
- Calm Breeze in the Grinning Labyrinth in Dry Steppes
- Rapid in the Buried Halls in Dry Steppes
- Might int the Dark Ravine in Dry Steppes
- Shepherd's in the Bloodsoaked Crag in Dry Steppes
- Wind Striker in the Shivta Ruins in Kehjistan
- Disobedience in the Halls of the Damned in Kehjistan
- Skinwalker's in Fading Echo in Kehjistan.
- Inner Calm in Raethwind Wilds in Scosglen
- Edgemaster's in Oldstones in Scosglen
- These Unique can be found as a random drop or by killing the appropriate boss
- Storm's Companion - The Beast in the Ice
- Wildheart Hunger - Lord Zir
- If you are lucky enough, maybe you will find a Mythic Unique.
- Tyrael's Might would give ridiculous defenses. Using only one mythic in our defensive slots is advised so we can keep our wolves alive in the Endgame with Spirit Bond.
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Progression Setups
Once you have completed the leveling guide, only the Codex of Power Aspects are guaranteed. That means we won't immediately have access to some Legendary Aspects that really make this build shine, but we can still play a modified version of it until we find them.
Gear
- In this setup, we don't have access to Alpha, Stampede, Wildrage, or Moonrage. This means we have to lean more into Pulverize and Wind Shear to supplement our companion damage. We can still pick up Shepherd's.
- We use Wind Shear paired with Calm Breeze for a large damage source from Dungeon Aspects. Next we can pick up extra damage aspects until we find companion aspects. Rapid as a priority, then Inner Calm, Edgemaster's.
- Use Might for extra Damage Reduction, Disobedience provides needed Armor, and Skinwalker's for good sustain and fortify.
Skills
In the starter version we put extra points into Pulverize and Poison Creeper to help with our clear speed. We use Wind Shear for mobility and extra damage on bigger targets. Wolves provides great single target damage and Ravens can help Packleader resets.
We use Earthen Bulwark for an emergency button that breaks crowd control and provides a large barrier to absorb a hit.
With all companion skills we get great usage of Clarity which allows our Pulverize to crit more often.
Try to keep progressing forward into enemies to maintain Quickshift.
Consider swapping Pulverize for Shred if you have more fun with the extra mobility. If you do then replace Claw with Maul.
Gameplay
Wind Shear as you approach to gain movement speed. Pulverize when you get close enough.
Poison Creeper should be use on cooldown. Ideally we will get resets on it for each group of enemies. Follow up with Ravens for extra critical strike from Enhanced Ravens and Vulnerable.
Wolves should be used on anything with more health but can be used to snipe ranged enemies also. You can also use it liberally to stack Clarity.
In this setup, you have access to all Legendary Aspects, allowing you to pilot a much stronger version of this build. Additional Legendary Aspects are used to fill slots that may be replaced with Unique items later on.
Gear
With all Aspects available and no Uniques used in the build, we can now run our desired setup:
- Alpha goes on our amulet so we can utilize all the companion aspects and supplement our area coverage with Inevitable Fate as an extra aspect.
- Moonrage, Wildrage, and Stampede are new additions to our collection and can join Shepherd's in any combination.
- Metamorphosis means we can give up Earthen Bulwark for Rabies while having a reliable unstoppable.
In this version we now are fully committing to the companions with our aspects and finally dropping Wind Shear for Claw which gives us access to more mobility and very easy uptime on Quickshift. We also replace Earthen Bulwark with Rabies to get area coverage with Inevitable Fate.
Consider swapping Pulverize for Shred if you have more fun with the extra mobility. If you do then replace Claw with Maul.
Gameplay
- We replace Wind Shear with Claw but continue to use Pulverize for Primal Pulverize and easy access to Ancestral Guidance. Our movement speed should start feeling good with tempers of Digitigrade Gait.
- Our companions will now tear everything apart, once they get there. With Inevitable Fate we will get area coverage with Claw and Rabies to clear the weaker groups.
- Use your companion skills every time they are available. Prioritize elites and champions with Wolves and use Ravens to apply vulnerable to bosses or take out ranged enemies and champions.
In this setup, you have access to all Unique items and Legendary Aspects. This allows you to pilot this build at its peak efficiency. Let's take a look at the changes you need to make to implement them.
Gear
- Storm's Companion gets added to the build and powers up our Wolves even further.
- Wildheart Hunger will prove to be an amazing buff if you can keep it stack. You must shapeshift at least every 5 seconds to maintain it, this works out with our Heightened Senses already being at 6 seconds for rotation.
- Put Alpha on a two handed slot, put Shepherd's on your amulet and drop Inevitable Fate.
- We replace Rabies with Earthen Bulwark now that we don't have Metamorphosis or Inevitable Fate.
- We change to Brutal Ravens once we have enough Lucky Hit Vulnerable and add extra leftover points to Vigilance. You can drop Vigilance for ranks to another companion skill also.
Speedfarm
Consider replacing Pulverize with Shred and Claw with Maul if you want to prioritize speed over defense and damage. Make sure to get Primal Shred.
- We replace our chest with Tyrael's Might. Not much else changes in this setup besides replacing our gems since our resists are now solved with this powerful mythic. We changed a few skills, moving points out of Ancestral Fortitude and into our Fortify options since we are dropping Skinwalker's.
Hardcore Adjustments
Hardcore requires you to build into more defenses. Always cap your armor and resistances, prioritize Maximum Life over Willpower until you are ready to push your desired content. Temper whatever stat is most needed between Armor, Resistance, then Health.
Build Scaling & Stat Priorities
The answer to many questions can be found in the following section.
- Critical Strike Chance: Our most important stat to improve our damage endgame and activate Packleader.
- Attack Speed: We will easily cap our Wolves attack speed while still getting some for ourselves on our gear to make maintaining buffs easier.
- Companion Damage: We are drastically increasing our additive companion damage with the new tempers. We can get this on our rings, gauntlets and weapon for huge damage increases.
- Fortify: Skinwalker's and Natural Fortitude will help keep this topped off.
- Damage Reduction: Spirit Bond, Wildheart Hunger, and Storm's Companion from gear. Nature-born and Hubris from Paragon. Territorial as a Glyph. Iron Fur and Heightened Senses also from our skill tree when shifting into a Werebear.
- Armor: A great deal of defenses comes from your Armor. We can build a lot of it thanks to Armor temper rolls and Paragon Nodes. We are looking for 9,230 armor to be capped. This is a priority.
- Resistance: Should be capped to 70% as soon as possible. Use tempers and priority on rolls until you reach cap. Ancestral Fortitude helps with this along with additional resistance in paragon.
- Unstoppable: Enhanced Earthen Bulwark provides us with an emergency unstoppable or Metamorphosis while leveling.
Stat Priorities
To enable your build to perform optimally, you need to reach certain Stat "Breakpoints". Some examples are reaching 100% Chance to Critically Strike, or 20 Resource per second. Since there are many values of these stats on different pieces of gear, read the checklist below and refer to the recommended Tempered Affixes ⚒️ and Masterwork Crits ↑. Desirable Greater Affixes will always be the top three recommended Affixes.
- 50% Critical Strike Chance
- Wolve Attack Speed 100%
- Armor Capped 9230
- Resistance Capped 70%
- >35,000 Life
- 60% Wolves Cooldown
Put in the following Gems into your gear:
- Helmet / Body Armor / Pants: Royal Ruby
- Weapon / Off-Hand: Royal Emerald
- Jewelry: Fill with whatever Resistance you haven't capped with your gear affixes.
Refer to the table below to see the best rolls for every slot ranked in order of importance:
- Helmet: Spirit Bond
- Ranks of Wolves ↑
- Willpower
- Cooldown Reduction
- Maximum Life
- ⚒️Maximum Life
- ⚒️Poison Creeper Duration
- Chest Armor: Skinwalker's
- Armor ↑
- Willpower ↑
- Maximum Life
- ⚒️Wolves Attack Speed
- ⚒️Maximum Life
- Gloves: Wildrage
- Critical Chance ↑
- Attack Speed
- Willpower
- Maximum Life
- ⚒️Wolves Attack Speed
- ⚒️Companion Damage
- Pants:Storm's Companion
- Ranks to Wolves ↑
- Damage Reduction
- Lucky Hit Packleader
- Wolves Attack Speed
- Otherwise Look For: Might
- Willpower ↑
- Maximum Life
- Dodge
- Armor if needed
- ⚒️Wolves Attack Speed
- ⚒️Maximum Life
- Boots: Wildheart Hunger
- Heightened Senses ↑
- Movement Speed
- Shapeshifting Attack Speed
- Cold Resistance
- Otherwise Look For: Metamorphosis
- Movement Speed ↑
- Willpower
- Spirit per Second
- Maximum Life
- ⚒️Wolves Attack Speed
- ⚒️Digitigrade
- Amulet: Shepherd's
- Call of the Wild ↑
- Envenom ↑
- Quickshift ↑
- Critical Strike Chance
- Cooldown Reduction
- ⚒️Wolves Cooldown Reduction
- ⚒️Wolves Damage
- Rings: Stampede
- Critical Chance ↑
- Lucky Hit Chance to Vulnerable
- Attack Speed
- Willpower
- ⚒️Wolves Cooldown Reduction
- ⚒️Wolves Damage
- Ring 2: Moonrage
- Critical Chance ↑
- Lucky Hit Chance to Vulnerable
- Attack Speed
- Willpower
- Weapon: Alpha
- Willpower ↑
- Maximum Life
- Critical Strike Damage
- Vulnerable Damage
- ⚒️Wolves Damage ↑
- ⚒️ Pulverize Size
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.
Why Pulverize and Claw instead of Shred and Maul?
Summary
- The Companion Druid brings a lot of friends to the party that know how to party.
- Wolves will destroy most targets and the cooldown will be short, use 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.
- If you believe in the power of friendship, this could be the build for you.
Credits
Written by pandaglassjaw
Reviewed by IBoilerUp