Welcome to the Companion Druid Leveling Guide. If you're excited about using Companions as your main damage dealers, even if it means a slower pace, this guide is your key to success.
Poison Creeper deals widespread poison damage, locking down enemies in the process. Trample steps in to amplify this poison damage via Aspect of the Changeling's Debt. Meanwhile, Ravens weaken foes by applying Vulnerable, while the Wolves focus on strong single-target attacks. Storm Strike fills in the gaps between all these cooldown heavy skills and has a chance to completely reset all of their cooldowns!
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 takes you through the Campaign and Early Game up to Level 50. Check out Endgame Guides in our Druid Guides section.
- Good AoE
- All Companions
- No Resource Cost
- Decent Single Target
- Slow Pace
- Low Mobility
- Cooldown Heavy
- Inconsistent Damage
Season 3 - Season of the Construct
In Season 3, you obtain the Seneschal Construct through the Season Questline, then collect Governing Stones or Tuning Stones to add attacks and augment them to support your build. Only certain Tuning Stones work with a particular Governing Stone. Look at the bottom of any Tuning Stone tooltip to see if it is compatible with your Construct's currently equipped Stones. Lastly, they can be leveled up by getting duplicates to max out their power. Check out our full Season 3 guide for more information.
Recommended Stones
- Reconstruct - Helps keep your survivability high by providing more Healing.
- Tactical Support - Less cooldown will provide more uptime
- Safeguard Support - Further increase your survivability by providing Damage Reduction
- Duration Support - Prolongs all benefits from Reconstruct.
- Lightning Bolt - Good way to hit many monsters at once
- Breaking Support - Breaking barriers is a powerful tool. Having more Vulnerable uptime is also a net benefit.
- Efficiency Support - Provides a solid increase to your Critical Strike Chance, improving your chance to proc Packleader.
- Gripping Support - Since we are Cooldown heavy, using our Skills on as many monsters as possible is great.
Alternative Stones
- Mockery Support - Good defensive option to keep monsters off of you.
- Arcing Support - Affect more enemies by improving AoE.
- Voluminous Support - Again, improving the coverage will affect more monsters.
If you are lucky enough to get either Evernight or Genesis from Uber Malphas, you want to swap them in on your Construct for their powerful effects.
Skill Showcase
Skill Tree & Gameplay
Generator
First, you need to unlock your primary Basic Skill and its first enhancement. Your preference is Storm Strike due to its significant damage reduction effect and its ability to apply Vulnerable. Use it as a filler attack between Cooldowns. Remember, it has the chance to reset your Companion's Cooldowns via Packleader.
Lightning Storm
Channel Lightning Storm as your early damage dealer until you can fully invest in Companions. Maintain Lightning Storm's size by channeling it and attacking at least every 6 seconds! By tapping your hotkey instead of holding it, you can bypass the channeling speed and attack even faster!
Blood Howl
Use Blood Howl on Cooldown to benefit from its Attack Speed Buff, or situationally to heal when needed. It also lets you benefit from Digitigrade Gait's Movement Speed Buff.
Companions & Trample
Ravens boost your chance of landing Critical Strikes and provide a reliable method for applying the Vulnerable status. Engage with them to secure additional damage through the Vulnerable status. Use Poison Creeper and then Trample to get the most out of Changeling's Debt. Finish off any remaining target with Wolves.
Use the slider on the bottom to see the Skill progression
Key Passive
Unlocking Ursine Strength Key Passive increases your damage and tankiness overall on this build. While you don't get much out of the Overpower Damage, you will gain a 25% damage multiplier while Healthy. You also benefit from the additional Maximum Life after using Trample.
Check out our Renown Guide to unlock all your additional rewards efficiently.
Druid Spirit Boons
Packleader is used to reset Poison Creeper, Wolves and Ravens. This is the bread and butter of the Companion build. Scythe Talons, Overload and Swooping Attacks provide some extra damage, while Wariness is there for defense. Your main focus is to unlock Packleader as soon as Level 15.
Unlocking Spirit Boons
Once you reach level 15, you have to complete a short questline starting in Túr Dúlra, Scosglen. To gain access to the Priority Quest, you first have to defeat the Stronghold of evil forces that has overrun Túr Dúlra. You receive 25 Druidic Spirit Offerings to unlock your first Boon when you complete the questline.
Each Spirit has 4 Boons that are unlocked with 25 Druidic Spirit Offerings each. On 3 of the Spirits, they unlock in a specific order. The outlier is the Snake Spirit - You have to unlock all his Boons simultaneously, meaning you need to collect 100 Druidic Spirit Offerings to gain access to its Boons.
Learn more details in our full Druid Spirit Boons Guide.
Gear Progression & Global Stat Priorities
Ultimately, the best weapon for a leveling Companion Druid is an Axe and Totem for as much attack speed as possible. Always go for higher DPS over the rest of a weapon's stats during leveling.
If you have multiple weapons with the same DPS, prioritize these stats:
- Weapon: Pref. Axes, Damage to Close Enemies, Willpower, Vulnerable Damage, Sockets
- Totem: Critical Strike Chance, Basic Skill Attack Speed, Cooldown, Lucky Hit Chance
Upgrade only your Weapon and Totem at the Blacksmith and fill their sockets with Emeralds.
Armor
Armor pieces typically grant us Defense and Utility stats, except the Gloves which offer a tidal wave of Offense. Here are the important stats to look for:
- Helm: Ranks to Poison Creeper, Wolves, Ravens, Cooldown Reduction, Basic Skill Attack Speed
- Armor: Companion Skill Damage, Life, Damage Reduction
- Gloves: Critical Strike Chance, Attack Speed, Lucky Hit Chance, Willpower
- Pants: Life, Damage Reduction, Armor, Willpower
- Boots: Movement Speed, Willpower
Jewelry
Jewelry provides powerful Offensive stats that help us on our leveling journey. Pay close attention to the rolls as higher leveled pieces aren't always better:
- Amulet: Movement Speed, Companion Skill Damage, Cooldown Reduction, Ranks to Companion Skills, Ranks to Call of the Wild
- Rings: Critical Strike Chance, Damage to Close Enemies, Vulnerable Damage, Life
Do not upgrade Armor or Jewelry while leveling. Socket Armor with Rubies and Jewelry with Diamonds.
Read more about itemization in our Damage Explained, Defense Explained, and Stats Explained articles.
Legendary Aspects
The Codex of Power is a collection of Legendary Aspects you can imprint onto Rare or Legendary items at the Occultist. They unlock after completing specific Dungeons located around Sanctuary. For leveling, there are a few Aspects that are particularly impactful on this build and should be obtained as soon as possible:
Top Codex Legendary Aspects
| Aspect | Dungeon |
| Edgemaster’s Aspect | Oldstones - Scosglen |
| Rapid Offensive Aspect | Buried Halls - Dry Steppes |
| Aspect of the Changeling's Debt | Conclave - Kehjistan |
| Nighthowler's Aspect | Forbidden City - Fractured Peaks |
| Aspect of Might | Dark Ravine - Dry Steppes |
| Aspect of the Protector | Lost Archives - Fractured Peaks |
| Aspect of Disobedience | Halls of the Damned - Kehjistan |
| Ghostwalker Aspect | Broken Bulwark - Scosglen |
Warning: DO NOT imprint your Weapons as they are constantly replaced while leveling. Put Offensive Aspects on your Amulet, Rings, or Gloves instead.
Learn everything about the Codex of Power here.
Helpful Legendary Powers
Here are all helpful Legendary Aspects for the Companion Druid that can either be found in the Codex of Power or Extracted from an item drop. Note that all Legendary Aspects can be found from item drops, and that these can roll better and often significantly better than ones sourced from the Codex of Power.
- Subterranean
- Gamble Totems
- Excellent at proccing Packleader. Should you find it, imprint it instead of Edgemaster’s Aspect.
- Mighty Storm
- Gamble Totems
- Drastically improves your chances to reset all of your Companion Skills Cooldowns via Packleader. Should you find it, imprint it and switch your Key Passive to Earthen Might.
- Stampede is yet another damage multiplier for your Wolves, as well as all of your Companion Skills.
- Gamble Totems
- Another damage multiplier for your Wolves, as well as all of your Companion Skills.
- Alpha
- Gamble Totems
- Massive damage increase for your Wolves.
How To Level
You level in Diablo 4 by completing the Campaign, collecting Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers, grinding Dungeons, or interacting with Seasonal mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are made equal.
Campaign Leveling
- For your first character in Diablo 4, completing the Campaign provides the best gameplay experience and gives you access to key unlocks like your Mount.
- If you don't have your Mount, you MUST progress the Campaign until you complete the quest Donan's Favor at the start of Act 4.
- After obtaining your Mount you can skip the remainder of the campaign at any time.
- The Campaign is the slowest way to level, but it's worth experiencing the Campaign and Diablo 4's storyline at least once.
- To play Seasonal Content you need to have completed or skipped the Campaign.
Seasonal/Alt Leveling
- Complete the Season questline, progress your Seasonal Journey to unlock Legendary Aspects, and work on your Seasonal powers.
- If your account is below Rank 5 Renown in each zone, focus on completing your Renown.
- This only needs to be done once.
- Complete the Dungeons needed for any Legendary Aspects from your Codex of Power.
- From level 1-50 you should focus on getting experience, by completing dungeons with high monster density like the Domhainne Tunnels, or Sirocco Caverns.
- If you get bored of the dungeon grind, you can farm Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers or complete Gathering Legion Events.
- After level 50 you need to balance leveling up, Glyph Experience, and participating in endgame activities like Helltide, and Bosses.
- The fastest experience possible is completing Nightmare dungeons with monsters up to 10 levels above your current level.
- Check out our Nightmare Dungeon Tier List for the best layouts!
- Around level 45-50 you should move to World Tier 3.
- Around level 60-70 you should move to World Tier 4.
- The fastest experience possible is completing Nightmare dungeons with monsters up to 10 levels above your current level.
- Alternatively: Get boosted by a friend to World Tier 4 then leech experience/loot and Glyph exp (post 50), in Nightmare dungeons.
Leveling Tips and Tricks
Let's look at some tips and tricks to remember when leveling up!
- Level Up Your Potion. You need to farm materials to upgrade your character's potion.
- Make sure you collect all materials as you explore Sanctuary, especially Gallowvine which is used in many Elixir recipes!
- Compare your Items... Literally. Press Shift over an item in your inventory to compare it to what you're wearing.
- This makes it easy to determine what is and isn't an upgrade.
- Don't Imprint Your Best Aspect Onto Your Weapon. The most critical piece of gear while leveling up is your weapon, which gets replaced constantly.
- This makes imprinting a Legendary Aspect that CANNOT be found in the Codex of Power onto your weapon a bad idea in the long run.
- While leveling, only imprint Legendary Aspects from the Codex of Power onto your weapon if any at all.
- It is a better idea to put your best Offensive Aspect on your Amulet, which can be used for a long time.
- Sacred is just better. Between level 45 and 50 you're able to beat the Capstone Dungeon and enter World Tier 3, you gain access to powerful Sacred items which have higher item power and better stats. Getting a Sacred weapon significantly improves your farming speed.
- There's little point to entering World Tier 3 before 45 because that's the minimum level where you can equip Sacred items.
- The same happens with World Tier 4 and Ancestral gear at level 60.
Next Steps
Druid Guides
Summary
- The Companion Druid Leveling Build revolves around the fantasy of powering up Companions: Wolves, Poison Creeper and Ravens.
- Engage with Ravens to apply Vulnerable, then Poison Creeper and Trample. Finish off any remaining monsters with Wolves.
- Focus on getting as much Critical Strike Chance and Attack Speed to trigger Packleader as much as possible.
- Look out for helpful Legendary Aspects in the Codex of Power, especially those that buff your damage & damage reduction.
Credits
Written by Binashole
Reviewed by IBoilerUp