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 its 40+ second Hurricane durations, ensuring both the defensive and offensive capabilities of the Werebear are never compromised. What's 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. Your last two skills are Companion Skills, Poison Creeper and Ravens. 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
- Hurricane Duration Temper
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
- Lord Zir's Blood Pool - Opt for this Main Boss Power to easily trigger your Modifiers at all times with Hurricane, since the only requirement is to deal damage to enemies.
Modifiers
- Wandering Death's Chest Beam - This Power Executes low health enemies hit by your Main Boss Power, which is especially good in high Pit Tiers. Additionally, it keeps your Spirit topped off for Edgemaster's.
- Harbinger of Hatred's Volley - A straightforward damage buff that triggers on Main Boss Power activation. The added utility of applying Vulnerable to all surrounding enemies is great for when Supreme Cataclysm is on Cooldown.
- Belial's Eye Beams - Grants you unbreakable Stealth and a generous Overpower damage multiplier. The Stealth provides an additional layer of defense, as enemies are unable to target you while in Stealth.
Alternate Boss Powers
- Ashava's Poison Breath - A very strong early game Main Boss Power. It comes with the added benefit of dealing Poisoning damage, helping prolong Poison on enemies.
- Blackmailer's Sabotage - This Modifier grants a sizeable Barrier when you gain Fortify, which aids your survivability as this build generates large amounts of Fortify.
- Hatred's Embrace's Haste - As a Modifier it provides a high amount of Critical Strike Chance for the low cost of having Shadow Resistance. Use this Power early on to help you reach 100% Critical Strike Chance.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
- Your Basic Skill 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. As an Earth Skill, it also enables Resonance's damage bonus when used before casting Hurricane.
- Wolves and Ravens are your Companion Skills. These skills are used exclusively to stack Clarity, and you specifically use Wolves and Ravens for their increased Companion count, which allows you to maximize the Offering generated by Nagu. Unfortunately, the recently introduced Wolf's Rain aspect does not scale with Hurricane Duration Tempers. As a result, it deals underwhelming damage since it's applying Tempest's damage bonus for only 8 seconds.
- 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 Passives and Tempers, which in turn scales Tempest's gargantuan damage multiplier.
- Cataclysm is your Ultimate Skill by virtue of Mjölnic Ryng's massive damage multiplier. It synergizes perfectly with Hurricane as they are both duration skills that 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.
- Envenom boosts Critical Strike Damage as long as enemies are Poisoned. This damage bonus is achieved rather easily with Overload, which enables your Hurricane to Poison enemies when it deals damage.
- The Hurricane Druid also 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.
Clarity
- Clarity is your main damage passive. Utilize Clarity to snapshot large amounts of Critical Strike Chance and significantly improve your 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 any Companion Skill per Hurricane to gain the full benefit. The stacks do not have a timer and you can freely cast other Non-Core / Non-Wrath skills in-between without consuming them.
Provocation
- Provocation allows the Hurricane Druid to Overpower. You can snapshot it, granting Hurricane the ability to deal Overpower damage over its entire duration. To stack this buff you need to be in Werebear form. This is accomplished either by using Insatiable Fury's unique effect, or by casting Maul. However, Maul can and will consume your Provocation if you're not careful, so it's always safer to wait a few seconds for Insatiable Fury's effect to Shapeshift you.
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. Afterwards, return to Werebear form by using Insatiable Fury or Maul to develop 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, including Maul.
- 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 receive Nature's Reach's bonus.
- 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.
- As an example; if your Hurricane Duration is 35 seconds and your Cataclysm Duration is 15 seconds, aim to cast Cataclysm at the 20 second mark. Essentially, subtract your Cataclysm Duration from your Hurricane Duration, and that is when you should cast your Cataclysm.
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 system in our full Druid Class Overview.
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.
Hurricane Druid Starter Paragon
Hurricane Druid Endgame Paragon
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
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 Hurricane Druid focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Bac + Jah - Grants you the Sorcerer's Teleport, a fantastic Mobility Skill used to improve clear speed and to reach objectives quicker. Additionally, it activates Vigilance often.
- Nagu + Xal - Provides you with a very large multiplier to your Maximum Life that is always present. The greater your health, the larger the Overpower damage you deal.
Alternative choices
If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Igni - A strong Offering generator and good substitute for Bac, but requires casting Non-Basic Skills which can interfere with your Provocation, resulting in awkward gameplay.
- Cir - An alternative method of triggering your Runes using Maul.
- Cem - Being a Magic Rune you are more likely to find it early on and the Offering generation is serviceable.
- Ohm - War Cry provides a modest increase to damage, but it does not offer any Defensive bonuses.
- 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: Subo
Subo marks enemies and resources on your mini-map, and offers a solid damage buff while Cover Fire is active thanks to Opening Fire. He is especially good early on due to Ready At Hand, a Passive that helps you traverse the battlefield quicker when fighting Elites.
- Reinforcement: Raheir
Raheir's Bastion is a powerful defensive ability that removes all Crowd Control and grants you 90% Damage Reduction for 5 seconds. Alternatively, Raheir is always a great Hired option to help fix Armor or Resistances. However, be aware he is not available in party play.
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. 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
- 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%+
- 14,000+ Life
- 150%+ Movement Speed
- 2700+ 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 build prioritizes using Wolves and Ravens as Companion Skills.
- These skills provide a good source of Damage Reduction when paired with Spirit Bond, and grant you large amounts of Offering when paired with Nagu.
- Since you have yet to acquire Mjölnic Ryng, slot in Petrify as your Ultimate Skill to make use of its big damage multiplier. Utilize Earthen Bulwark to become Unstoppable when threatened by Crowd Control effects.
- As you acquire more Clarity ranks, replace the Critical Strike rolls on your gear in favor of Overpower damage.
- 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 Paragon and Glyphs until you begin collecting Uniques.
- 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 socketed Earth and Sky Glyph level.
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 you in Werebear form once your Hurricane Duration is greater than 20 seconds, as you can no longer cast Maul when Provocation is fully stacked without consuming it.
- 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 Reduction on your amulet and Ring to help you 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 (such as 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 socketed Earth and Sky 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, it is recommended to use 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
- A triple Companion Skill setup is much quicker to stack Clarity and get Hurricane going.
- As such, replace Earthen Bulwark with Poison Creeper and slot in Ghostwalker for additional Movement Speed.
- Invest 2 additional skill points into Provocation to reduce its timer down to 12 seconds.
- Altogether, your snapshot bonuses are available sooner and enable a faster Hurricane rotation.
The Pit Pushing variant maximizes the build's damage by replacing Armor and Resistance Affixes (where possible) with Willpower, and looks to fulfill the Armor and Resistance requirements by using Consumables and Raheir.
Gear & Skills
- Raheir provides you with +15% Armor and Fortify when he damages enemies. Select his Crater ability to allow him to pull in enemies and make them Vulnerable.
- With Raheir as your hired Mercenary, Aldkin becomes your new reinforcement, providing you with Field of Languish for more Damage Reduction and Slows.
- The Elixir of Fortitude II boosts Maximum Life, which synergizes with Overpower to significantly enhance damage output, making it the most effective Elixir for maximizing your build's potential.
- Use Soothing Spices alongside Raheir to cap your Armor, while also benefiting from +2% Maximum Resistance to All Elements.
- Blessed Guide and Reddamine Buzz provide additional Willpower and Maximum Life, helping to further increase your Overpower damage.
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 your 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 your 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.
Mechanics
- 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 Ravens casts) still contribute.
- 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 various Shapeshifting Passives such as Quickshift and Heightened Senses.
- Make use of 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