Hurricane Druid Endgame Build Guide
Welcome to the Hurricane Druid Endgame Guide! This build features bulky Overpower numbers and guaranteed Critical Strikes, paired nicely with a robust Werebear core. The Hurricane Druid projects as one of Druid's most effective builds, but is reliant on an aspect and endgame tempers to properly scale into the endgame.
The Hurricane Druid is admittedly clunky to play, but the payoff for properly executing is tremendous. At its core, it revolves around snapshotting guaranteed Critical Strikes through Clarity and guaranteed Overpower through Provocation, then around scaling Hurricane Duration as much as possible to ramp damage with Tempest.
This build utilizes Tempest Roar to transform Hurricane into a Werewolf Skill, leveraging several big damage multipliers. Mjölnic Ryng offers a massive damage multiplier with little downside, as Cataclysm naturally synergizes with Hurricane and is capable of applying Vulnerable to enemies. With the addition of Insatiable Fury, the Hurricane Druid can maintain its Werebear form deep into 40+ second Hurricane durations, ensuring both the defensive and offensive capabilities of the Werebear are never compromised. What is more, this Unique comes with very strong offensive and defensive affixes, rivaling that of Mythics.
The Hurricane Druid takes advantage of the Ursine Strength Key Passive, a passive specifically designed to enhance Overpower builds. It casts Maul as a cheap and on-demand way to become a Werebear and to generate Fortify. To that end, Earthen Bulwark is also used for its Fortify capabilities, and provides Unstoppable for when you are Crowd Controlled. Our last two skills are Companion Skills, Poison Creeper and Ravens respectively. These skills are used to grant the Hurricane Druid Clarity stacks when cast.
This guide will teach you all you need to know about the Hurricane Druid. Let's get started.
Requirements for this build to function:
- Tempest
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
- Force of Will - This Power provides the Hurricane Druid with an extraordinarily powerful damage multiplier, able to be leveraged often thanks to Hurricane's long duration.
- Aura of Siphoning - Deals Poison damage to enemies and comes with the Growth & Decay tag which is required for Friend of the Bog, and also supplies an additional means of recovery at rank 10.
- Aura Specialization - Increases the size of your Aura of Siphoning for potentially more healing. More importantly, it offers a considerable boost to your damage against enemies present in your Aura effects at rank 10.
- Hex of Shattering - Applies Hex to enemies reliably thanks to our Aura effects, granting us substantial damage multipliers from our Occult Gems and reducing the damage our enemies deal.
- Soul Harvest - Provides a sizeable increase to your Willpower for every Cooldown Skill you use with monsters nearby. The Hurricane Druid casts Companion Skills frequently to stack Clarity, making this an excellent offensive option.
- The Cycle - This Unique Power keeps you healthy and has the added benefit of also Poisoning enemies. It is our third Growth & Decay Power.
Alternate Witchcraft Powers
- Vengeful Spirit - The intermittent immunity provided by this power is good at keeping your current Life and Fortify high, maximizing your Survival Instincts and Overpower damage.
- Aura of Misfortune - A viable alternative to Aura of Siphoning, this Power mitigates some incoming damage while boosting your Movement Speed. Unfortunately, equipping this Power loses you Friend of the Bog as it is not a Growth & Decay Power.
- Hex of Whispers - An alternative Hex Power. It supplies you with extra Fortify and Crowd Control removal at rank 7, and can be used for its tag to activate your Occult Gem.
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
- Phantom String - A simple and straightforward damage multiplier for this build.
- Elder Sigil - Offers a considerable damage multiplier at no additional cost.
- Friend of the Bog - Grants you increased Willpower and Maximum Life, improving your defense and scaling your Overpower damage. Becoming Unhindered helps you move through groups of enemies.
Alternate Occult Gems
- Hungering Void - Another method of grouping monsters together. It helps you clear large areas more efficiently, though the opportunity cost is high.
- Toadling's Wish - A good option used early on to boost our Growth & Decay Powers. However, all our Occult Gem slots are heavily contested and this Gem is the least powerful of the bunch.
- Heart of Anima + Wicked Pact - These Gems are available early on and increase the potency of your Witchcraft Powers. As you work towards unlocking higher tier Occult Gems and Witchcraft Powers, utilize the specific Gem that corresponds with your unlocked Witchcraft Powers, Eldritch, Psyche or Growth & Decay to increase their lethality.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
- Our Basic Skill of choice is Maul. It generates a small amount of Fortify, but more importantly, Shapeshifts you into a Werebear. This keeps you in Werebear form for Provocation and enables multiple Shapeshifting damage multipliers.
- Earthen Bulwark is your main source of Unstoppable and grants a respectable amount Fortify. As an Earth Skill, it also enables Resonance's damage bonus when used before casting Hurricane.
- Poison Creeper and Ravens are your Companion Skills. Your Companion Skills are used exclusively to stack Clarity; do not invest skill points into them as the skills themselves offer little value in the endgame. Wolves are not included as they require a target to cast, resulting in awkward gameplay when no enemies are around. Unfortunately, the newly introduced aspect in Season 7 Wolf's Rain does not benefit the Hurricane Druid either, as the Hurricanes from your Wolves do not scale with Hurricane Duration tempers, resulting in them being unable to leverage Tempest's massive damage bonus and dealing mediocre damage.
- Hurricane is the centerpiece of this build. This skill has a duration and functions similarly to DoT effects, dealing a tick of damage every 0.5 seconds. However, Hurricane is NOT a DoT ability, it deals Physical damage to enemies around you. Its upgrade Savage Hurricane contributes to your survivability, reducing the damage enemies deal to you. The Hurricane Druid's main source of damage comes from extending Hurricane's duration using skills and tempers, which in turn scales Tempest's gargantuan damage multiplier.
- Cataclysm is our preferred Ultimate Skill by virtue of Mjölnic Ryng's massive damage multiplier. It synergizes perfectly with Hurricane as they are both duration skills and make use of Endless Tempest. Moreover, Supreme Cataclysm applies Vulnerable while Cataclysm is active.
Skill Passives
- Ursine Strength naturally harmonizes with the Hurricane 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.
- Clarity is our main damage passive. We utilize Clarity to snapshot large amounts of Critical Strike Chance and significantly improve our damage for the duration of Hurricane. It functions on a stack basis, receiving 1 stack when you cast a Companion Skill and requiring 3 casts of Companion Skills per Hurricane to gain the full benefit.
- Provocation allows the Hurricane Druid to Overpower. You can snapshot it, granting Hurricane the ability to deal Overpower damage over its entire duration. To accomplish this, Maul is used to Shapeshift us into Werebear.
- Envenom boosts Critical Strike Damage as long as enemies are Poisoned. This damage bonus is achieved rather easily in Season 7 with Witchcraft Powers and Overload, which enables your Hurricane to Poison enemies when it deals damage.
- The Hurricane Druid leverages Quickshift and Nature's Reach for additional damage. The former activates when Shapeshifting, while the latter requires you to damage enemies with the edges of Hurricane's radius to receive its benefits.
Skill Rotation
The Hurricane Druid requires time to fully stack its passives, both when entering a new zone and between each cast of Hurricane. This requires at least 3 casts of Companion Skills before each Hurricane, as well as 20 seconds spent in Werebear form to trigger Provocation.
- Begin your rotation by casting Companion Skills in order to stack Clarity. Make sure to use Maul immediately after casting skills to return to Werebear form and continue developing Provocation. Be very mindful as you near Provocation's 20 second limit, as any damaging skill will consume the proc and severely disrupt your rotation.
- When you have 3 Clarity stacks and Provocation ready, cast Earthen Bulwark to enable Resonance, and then cast Hurricane to snapshot all the benefits. Once Hurricane is active, try to deal damage using the edges of its radius to activate Nature's Reach.
- Use Cataclysm at the tail-end of each Hurricane when Tempest is at its strongest to inflict Vulnerable and double your damage with Mjölnic Ryng. Exactly when you should use your Ultimate Skill will depend on both your Hurricane and Cataclysm durations, but aim to have it active just through the end of Hurricane's Duration.
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: Calamity
Snake Spirit: Overload
Bond with the Eagle Spirit and activate Iron Feather
Learn more details and how to unlock this class specification in our full Druid Spirit Boons Guide.
Paragon & Glyphs
Follow the appropriate Paragon setup based on whether or not you have access to Tempest Roar. 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.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
To Level 15
- Spirit
- Outmatch
- Earth and Sky
- Fang and Claw
- Dominate
To Level 46
- Dominate
- Spirit
- Outmatch
- Earth and Sky
- Fang and Claw
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 Hurricane Druid focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Bac + Xal - Grants us a large health increase every few seconds while moving. The greater our health, the larger the Overpower damage we deal.
- Cem + Qax - Provides our Hurricane with double damage. We utilize Evade to maintain control over the buff, ensuring that it is not depleted 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:
- Cir + Xal - An alternative method of triggering Xal that is activated using Maul.
- Jah - The Sorcerer's Teleport is a fantastic Mobility tool used to improve clear speed and reach objectives quicker.
- Ohm - War Cry provides a modest increase to damage, but it does not offer any defensive bonuses.
- Yom - Petrify offers an additional way to enable your Crowd Control bonuses, Stunning enemies and Staggering bosses.
- Igni - A strong Offering generator and good substitute for Bac, but requires precise execution to make the most out of the stored Offering.
- Gar - Provides a large chunk of Critical Strike Chance. Great option early on.
- Mot - Enables the Rogue's Dark Shroud, which is a strong defensive option.
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
We hire Raheir for Valiance, a Mercenary Perk that helps us remain Healthy and maintain Fortify by negating big damage. He also provides us with Raheir's Aegis, a valuable source of Resistances early on. Lastly, Inspiration grants a sizeable damage bonus when Raheir activates either Bastion or Ground Slam.
Reinforced: Aldkin
The Hurricane Druid takes advantage of Field of Languish's Damage Reduction to remain Healthy and retaliate with big Overpower hits.
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
Stat Priorities & Item Progression
To enable the Hurricane 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
- 6+ Clarity Ranks
- 5+ Endless Tempest Ranks
- 200%+ Hurricane Duration
- 50%+ Hurricane Size
- A total of 300% from Damage vs. Close/Distant
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 70%+
- 10,000+ Life
- 130%+ Movement Speed
- 2400+ Willpower
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the endgame with the Hurricane 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 Hurricane 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.
- The Hurricane Druid Starter build prioritizes using Poison Creeper and Ravens as its Companion Skills. These skills do not require targets to cast, allowing you to stack Clarity outside of combat. They also provide a good source of Damage Reduction when paired with Spirit Bond.
- Since you have yet to acquire Mjölnic Ryng, slot in Petrify as your Ultimate Skill to make use of its large damage multiplier. Utilize Accursed Touch and Metamorphosis to apply Vulnerable, or to become Unstoppable when threatened by Crowd Control effects.
- Early on, make sure to prioritize your resources. Imprint sparingly, don't exhaust your resources on rerolling perfect gear as it is very likely to get replaced later on. Focus on the major power increases from Paragons and Glyphs until you begin collecting Uniques. As you acquire more Clarity ranks, replace the Critical Strike rolls on your gear in favor of Overpower damage.
- Upon reaching Thunderstruck in your Paragon Board, be mindful of your Damage to Close and Damage to Distant bonus. The target for this stat is 300%, and your personal value will depend on the nodes taken on this board and on your gear.
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.
- During this phase of your journey, it is important to work your way up the Boss ladder to unlock powerful Uniques. Begin with Grigoire, The Galvanic Saint as he drops Insatiable Fury. This unique possesses fantastic defensive proprieties in Max Life and Iron Fur ranks, as well as strong offensive capabilities by enhancing Ursine Strength's bonuses. It is also responsible for keeping us in Werebear form once our Hurricane Duration is greater than 20 seconds, as we can no longer cast Maul when Provocation is fully stacked.
- Next, look for Tempest Roar. This Unique can be found after defeating Duriel, King of Maggots or Andariel. While this version of the build can still function without Tempest Roar, it is recommended to enable the Werewolf Shapeshifting synergies as soon as possible.
- Visit Lord Zir for the Mjölnic Ryng. At this point replace Petrify with Cataclysm and invest fully into Endless Tempest. Temper Cataclysm Cooldown on your amulet and ring to help with Cataclysm uptime.
- Prioritize improving your Hurricane Duration tempers, as these directly scale Tempest's damage. Ensure you have Hurricane size tempered to take advantage of Distant bonuses and Nature's Reach when dealing damage with the outer edges of your Hurricane.
- Upon reaching Thunderstruck in your Paragon Board, be mindful of your Damage to Close and Damage to Distant bonus. The target for this stat is 300%, and your personal value will depend on the nodes taken on this board and your Glyph level.
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
- "Mythic" is a bit of a misnomer for the Hurricane Druid, as the most comfortable to play version doesn't prefer any Mythic Uniques. For this reason, we recommend a setup very similar to the Ancestral version for general play.
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
- Swap your Runes to Igni + Xal and Bac + Jah. This combination of Runes provides you with the Sorcerer's Teleport which is used to move around faster and more efficiently, while also granting you increased Health and Overpower damage.
- A triple Companion Skill setup is much quicker to stack Clarity and get Hurricane going. As such, invest skill points into Provocation to reduce its timer down to 12 seconds. Replace Earthen Bulwark with Wolves and slot in Ghostwalker for additional Movement Speed. Altogether, your snapshot bonuses are available sooner and enable a faster Hurricane rotation.
This setup optimizes the Hurricane 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
- We remove Insatiable Fury in favor of Shroud of False Death's extra passive ranks. However, Provocation doesn't synergize well with Shroud. The inability to cast Maul once Provocation is ready restricts us from Shapeshifting back to Werebear form and refreshing our buffs. As a result, we no longer use Provocation and rely on the Lith + Xan rune combination to Overpower our Hurricane. This way we are able to cast Maul without restrictions, providing a steady stream of Fortify and refreshing our Shapeshifting bonuses.
- Earthen Bulwark provides extra damage from Resonance when cast before Hurricane, and provides a much needed source of Unstoppable.
- The major damage upgrade of this variant comes from the Feo + Qax rune combination. When Injured or Crowd Controlled, our next cast of Hurricane deals up to 250% more damage! This is a noticeable boost over Qax's un-overflowed base 100% bonus, but is very high-risk and sometimes impossible to trigger, leading to a very clunky experience.
- Aldkin's Mercenary Reinforcement is replaced with Varyana's Bloodthirst for a little more Attack Speed, helping Maul generate Fortify quicker when we injure ourselves. Raheir remains our Hired Mercenary to save us in near-death situations.
Skill Rotation
- Begin by casting your Poison Creeper and Ravens to stack Clarity. Stand still while doing so to charge Xan using Lith.
- NOTE: DO NOT ACTIVATE your Xan rune if you have either Cataclysm or Hurricane active, as it is possible to consume the rune with the old-ongoing Hurricane/Cataclysm casts and not have it available for your new Hurricane. Always make sure to prepare your Xan rune to 99% ready and only trigger it moments before you want to cast a new Hurricane, after you've made sure all your ongoing damage has stopped.
- Become Injured or Crowd Controlled to activate Qax, then use Earthen Bulwark to activate Resonance and escape the Crowd Control via Unstoppable.
- Next, cast Hurricane to snapshot everything. Replenish the Spirit consumed by Qax using Lust for Carnage and Maul.
- Activate Cataclysm halfway through your Hurricane duration to apply Vulnerable to enemies and trigger Mjölnic Ryng's damage bonus.
- Cast your Companion Skills as they come off Cooldown to stack Clarity for your next Hurricane. Practice makes perfect, take the time to master the rotation as you will have to repeat this rotation every 40 seconds (more or less depending on your Hurricane Duration).
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 significance of the Hurricane Duration temper cannot be overstated, as it is essential for amplifying our damage via the Tempest aspect. However, it is important to note that the damage bonus from Tempest stacks additively with itself, which leads to diminishing returns as your Hurricane Duration increases.
- As a result, a threshold exists beyond which Unique/Mythic items and additional bonuses, such as Hurricane Ranks and Passives, contribute more significantly to the build's damage than simply maximizing Hurricane Duration.
- Your Hurricane's duration will vary depending on your tempers and masterworks. Early on, aim for a duration of at least 20+ seconds to allow for smooth rotations while using Provocation. As you near endgame and Pit Pushing, a duration of 40+ seconds is recommended.
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 Hurricane becomes a Werewolf Skill. In addition to some Damage Reduction, this interaction enables several multipliers in the build, including Changeling's Debt, Unsatiated, and Lust for Carnage to list a few.
- The act of Shapeshifting into Werewolf activates Quickshift and Heightened Senses.
- Shroud of False Death offers many offensive and defensive benefits, but does not synergize well with Provocation.
- Simply put, Provocation prevents us from casting damaging skills once it reaches 20 seconds. In contrast, using Shroud requires us to cast Maul frequently to maintain our Werebear form. As a result, when Shroud is used with Provocation, we have to suboptimally choose between preserving Provocation at the cost of our Werebear form or maintaining the Werebear form and its associated Shapeshifting bonuses at the expense of Provocation.
- As such, the Hurricane Druid variants that use Provocation opt for Insatiable Fury due to its ability to maintain the Werebear form when not attacking.
- In order to use Shroud of False Death optimally, Provocation is replaced by Xan as the preferred method of snapshotting Overpower.
Mechanics
- We utilize Clarity to snapshot guaranteed Critical Strikes and significantly improve damage for the duration of Hurricane. It requires 3 casts of Companion Skills per Hurricane to gain the full benefit.
- You don't necessarily need to cast each type of Companion to reach max stacks - multiple casts of the same Companion Skill (i.e. 3 Poison Creeper casts) still contribute.
- Poison Creeper has the added benefit of not consuming Provocation, allowing you to stack even when Provocation is ready.
- We utilize Provocation to snapshot guaranteed Overpower for Hurricane's entire duration.
- Provocation can only Overpower one skill at a time. If you Overpower Hurricane and use Provocation again to Overpower something else, the active Hurricane will lose its ability to Overpower.
- For Hurricane durations of 20 seconds and higher, use Insatiable Fury's Unique effect to remain in Werebear form, as you are not be able to cast damage skills without overriding Provocation's existing snapshot.
- It is possible to upgrade Provocation for faster Hurricane rotations (20s-16s-12s). However, this puts a lot of pressure on your ability to stack Clarity to 3 before Provocation is ready and severely reduces the damage of Hurricane as you limit the value of Tempest.
- Note that the counter for Provocation pauses, but does not reset when you leave Werebear Form.
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 Hurricane Druid is a walking fortress that retaliates as hard as it tanks. While requiring a clunky micro-managed playstyle, the payoff of snapshotting Hurricane into a devastating AoE aura is well worth it. Few builds can complete difficult endgame content by walking around it, and the Hurricane Druid is the best at it.
- Cast Maul to stack Provocation for guaranteed Overpower on Hurricane.
- Utilize your Companion Skills to stack Clarity to 3 before casting Hurricane for guaranteed Critical Strikes.
- Acquire Tempest Roar as early as possible to enable Werewolf Shapeshifting synergies.
- For Hurricane durations of 20 seconds and higher, use Insatiable Fury's unique effect to remain in Werebear form.
Credits
Written by Danger
Reviewed by IBoilerUp