Landslide Druid Leveling Guide

Last Updated: October 28th 2023

Season 2 - Blood

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Welcome to the Landslide Druid Leveling Guide! Landslide will use the earth to smash your enemies to dust! This build has solid single target, but lacks in AoE until you have access to Poison Creeper.

Landslide is a ranged build that calls up pillars of earth to crush your enemies. Your AoE is small, so you have to target enemies right next to each other to get the most out of it.

Wind Shear generates Spirit and inflicts Vulnerable to make enemies take extra damage, as well as grants movement speed. Blood Howl and Trample provide you with Spirit to continue using Landslide.

This guide teaches you all about how to reach the endgame in Diablo 4 with the Landslide Druid. Let's get started!

Landslide Druid Leveling Gear

This build guide takes you through the Campaign up to Level 50. Endgame guide Trampleslide is in our Druid Guides section. Go check it out!

Ranged Combat
Decent Single Target ✔

Easy To Understand
Healing and Unstoppable ✔

Low Mobility
Slow Start
Small Area of Effect
❌ Intensive Spirit Management

Season 2 - Season of Blood

Diablo 4 Season 2 introduces a new questline to hunt down the Shadow Vampire forces of Lord Zir across Sanctuary. With Lilith's blood still residing within our bodies, the infliction put upon us is harnessed throughout our leveling, granting access to new Vampiric Powers. Completing the seasonal questline, partaking in the seasonal Blood Harvest event and collecting Potent Blood are the main ways of obtaining and empowering these abilities. Check out the full Season 2 Guide from Chewingnom to learn more!

Mechanics

  • There are 22 Vampiric Powers, separated into 2 different types:
    • 15 Minor Vampiric Powers - Require 1 to 3 Pacts to be activated.
    • 7 Major Vampiric Powers - Require 6 Pacts to be activated.
  • There are 3 different types of Pacts:
    • Ferocity Pact have a Crown icon.
    • Divinity Pacts have a Chalice icon.
    • Eternity Pacts have a Skull icon.
  • Pacts can roll only on Armor pieces (Helm, Chest Armor, Gloves, Pants, Boots).
  • Helms & Boots can have up to 3 Pacts, Pants can have up to 4, Chest & Gloves can have up to 5. This gives you 20 Pacts max!
  • You can use Cleansing Acid - All to remove all Pacts from a piece of Armor and place new Standalone Pacts to meet your Powers requirements to activate. Cleansing Acid can be altered at the Alchemists to target 1 of the 3 Pacts only.
  • Once you have equipped the right Pact Armor pieces, you can activate Vampiric Powers in the Sanguine Circle through the character screen. Powers require varying amounts of different types of Pacts, pay attention.
  • You can use Potent Blood acquired from Blood Seekers to upgrade your Vampiric Powers from Level 1 to Level 3.

With this in mind, let's look at the top 5 best Vampiric Powers and how they impact this build:

Best-in-Slot Vampiric Powers

  1. Hemomancy - Even though this only can occur once every 4 seconds, the Landslide Druid doesn't have many tools for dealing with enemies coming in from all sides.
  2. Prey on the Weak (Minor) - Our best source of Vulnerable.
  3. Metamorphosis (Major) - Evade becomes a powerful tool for clear speed and ignoring crowd control. It also synergizes well with Prey on the Weak.
  4. Ravenous (Minor) - A Massive Attack Speed increase for more Packleader procs. Fierce Wind Shear pushes this bonus even higher.
  5. Domination (Minor) - A damage increase for the majority of skills in our build.
Landslide Druid Vampiric Powers

Alternative Vampiric Powers

  1. Accursed Touch - A powerful Vampiric Power that stores souls, which can be released by using Blood Howl causing them to explode on impact with the enemy.
  2. Hectic - The Druid in the early leveling stages struggles with Spirit which means you need to use your basic attack quite often to generate the resource back, so restoring cooldowns at the same time is beneficial.
  3. Sanguine Brace (Minor) - Critical Strike Chance is tough to come by early, so for proc'ing Packleader more often, any increase we can get is welcomed.

Skills

Landslide is the Spirit consumer and primary damage dealing skill. It's a ranged skill but suffers from a small AoE.

Getting Started

To start off, we have to put 2 points into Basic Skills to unlock the Core Skill section. Wind Shear is our choice because it is a ranged skill that generates Spirit. Enhanced Wind Shear increases your damage output significantly by making enemies Vulnerable.

Point 1: Wind Shear
Point 2: Enhanced Wind Shear

Skill Tree Progression

Unlocking Landslide

Landslide is our main ability. It deals massive damage in an area around your target location. It deals damage on a slight delay, so you may need to lead your target. The Spirit costs are pretty high, so make sure that you hit as many targets with it as possible. With the Primal Landslide node we gain a Terramote when Stunning or Immobilizing enemies, which guarantees a critical strike. Fierce Wind Shear increases our movement speed, allowing us to reposition or travel to the next group of enemies.

Point 3: Landslide
Point 4: Enhanced Landslide

Point 5: Fierce Wind Shear
Point 6: Primal Landslide

Healing & Poison

Blood Howl grants us an additional way to heal other than our potion and provides more casts of Landslide with the Spirit we gain from Innate Blood Howl. Poison Creeper is the Druid's highest damage ability in the early game, Poisoning and Immobilizing enemies in a massive area of effect around you! But to get there we need to level up Landslide a couple of more times.

Point 7: Blood Howl
Point 8: Enhanced Blood Howl
Point 9: Innate Blood Howl

Point 10-11: Landslide
Point 12: Poison Creeper
Point 13: Enhanced Poison Creeper
Point 14: Ferocious Poison Creeper

Mobility & Damage

Trample is the only real mobility Skill on the Druid. To be able to reach it on the Skill Tree, we finish leveling our main ability: Landslide. Now we can acquire Trample and the incredible 40 Spirit per cast through the Savage Trample rune! We also boost our Poison Creeper skill to really make it sting!

At level 15, you gain access to Spirit Boons - the unique class mechanic of the Druid. Check out the Spirit Boon Progression below!

Point 15-16: Landslide
Point 17: Trample
Point 18: Enhanced Trample

Point 19: Savage Trample
Point 20-23: Poison Creeper

Ultimate & Key Passive

Now we can obtain our Ultimate skill, Petrify. This skill stuns enemies and with the Supreme Petrify node we gain massive amounts of Spirit back on enemies who are killed while petrified. This Ultimate doesn't unlock the Key Passive, so we need a few passives to help get us there. Resonance provides the highest amount of damage of our passives when we alternate between Wind Shear and Landslide. This back and forth usage of Earth and Storm skills works well with our Key Passive: Nature's Fury.

Point 24: Petrify
Point 25: Prime Petrify
Point 26: Supreme Petrify
Point 27: Defiance

Point 28: Natural Disaster
Point 29-31: Resonance
Point 32-33: Defiance
Point 34: Nature's Fury

Improving Landslide Damage

As an Earth and Core skill, Landslide has many passives that improve its damage, so lets take a look at some more of those. A direct increase in our damage comes from Wild Impulses, but it does increase the Spirit cost, so it's good that we have most of our generators at this point. There's a whole cluster of passives that improve Earth skills starting with Crushing Earth, and we'll grab all of these. Then finish off with Natural Disaster naturally.

Point 35: Heart of the Wild
Point 36-38: Wild Impulses
Point 39-41: Crushing Earth

Point 42-43: Safeguard
Point 44-46: Stone Guard
Point 47-48: Natural Disaster

Spending Renown

After gathering all Renown in Diablo 4, you have 10 extra Skill Points to spend on every character. Your first priority is to spend them toward the leveling progression we've shown above. Once you've reached the end, put them into these nodes to build toward the Trampleslide Druid Endgame Build Guide. Some of these skills may not be reflected in the Endgame build because certain legendary affixes are required which aren't obtainable through the Codex of Power.

Point 49: Safeguard
Point 50-52: Ancestral Fortitude

Point 53-55: Abundance
Point 56-58: Circle of Life

Check out our Renown Guide to unlock all your additional rewards efficiently. 

Druid Spirit Boons

The Druid Spirit Boons allow you to select a total of 5 Boons from 4 Spirits that act as a Passive buff to your character. You can select 1 Boon per Spirit by default. The 5th Boon can be allocated once ALL Spirit Boons have been unlocked. This requires you to bond with one of the Spirits by interacting with it in Túr Dúlra.

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.

Spirit Boon Progression

  1. Spend the first 25 Druidic Spirit Offerings to unlock the Wolf Spirit Boon Packleader, which grants a chance to completely reset the cooldown of Poison Creeper.
  2. The next 25 Druidic Spirit Offerings go to the Eagle Spirit to activate Scythe Talons.
  3. Save up to 100 Druidic Spirit Offerings to unlock Obsidian Slam from the Snake Spirit.
  4. Collect another 75 Druidic Spirit Offerings to unlock Wariness from the Deer Spirit.
  5. Stay away from Túr Dúlra until you have gathered the final 175 Druidic Spirit Offerings to unlock the remaining Spirit Boons. Bond with the Eagle Spirit, and activate Swooping Attacks.

Learn more details in our full Druid Spirit Boons Guide.

Gear Progression & Global Stat Priorities

Leveling up in Diablo 4 is similar to most other ARPGs and MMOs - we're at the mercy of what drops. For the most part this means replacing Rares with better Rares all the way up to 50. If you're lucky enough to find some Legendaries or Uniques they can provide a significant power boost (discussed in the next sections). Assuming you don't find any of those, let's look at some key stats to look for along the way:

Hint: Press SHIFT over an item to compare it to what you're wearing!

Weapons

Always use your highest DPS 2-Handed Weapon available for more damage.

  • 2-H Weapon: Preferably Staves, prioritizing Weapon Damage, then Core Skill Damage, Damage to Stunned, Willpower, Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage

Only upgrade your Weapon at the Blacksmith and fill weapon sockets with Sapphire.

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: Life, Cooldown Reduction, Willpower, Ranks to Poison Creeper
  • Armor: Life, Physical Damage, Earth Skill Damage, Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
  • Gloves: Ranks to Landslide Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage with Earth Skills
  • Pants: Life, Ranks to Trample, Damage Reduction while Fortified, Damage Reduction from Close Enemies, Willpower
  • Boots: Movement Speed, Spirit Cost Reduction, 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: Spirit Cost Reduction, Cooldown Reduction, Damage, Earth Skill Damage, Movement Speed
  • Rings: Life, Critical Strike Chance, Vulnerable Damage, Damage to Stunned Enemies, Physical Damage, Critical Strike Damage

Do not upgrade Armor or Jewelry while leveling. Socket Armor with Rubies and Jewelry with Skulls.

Read more about itemization in our Damage Explained, Defense Explained, and Stats Explained articles.

Codex of Power

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 can help us significantly if we have the Gold to imprint them and take the time to unlock them.

Codex Leveling Aspects in Order of Priority:

AspectDungeon
Offensive Aspect of RetaliationSeaside Descent - Dry Steppes
Crashstone AspectStockades - Scosglen
Rapid AspectBuried Halls - Dry Steppes
Ballistic AspectWhispering Pines - Scosglen
Aspect of the ProtectorLost Archives - Fractured Peaks
Aspect of DisobedienceHalls of the Damned - Kehjistan
Defensive Aspect of MightDark Ravine - Dry Steppes
Utility Aspect of QuicksandFeral's Den - Scosglen

Warning: DO NOT imprint your Weapons unless you have the materials, as they are constantly replaced while leveling. Put Offensive Aspects on your Amulet, Rings, or Gloves instead.

Learn more details in our article covering the Codex of Power.

Helpful Legendary Aspects

If you're lucky enough to find a Legendary while leveling, chances are it'll be an upgrade for you and you should equip it immediately. However they are not all created equal, and some of them can accelerate your journey tremendously. Let's look at additional Aspects you could find and how to take advantage of them:

  1. The Aspect of the Trampled Earth is the jackpot for this build! It causes Trample to fill your screen with Landslides when used.
  2. Another affix that utilizes the Landslide ability is the Subterranean Aspect as if your Poison Creeper wasn't doing enough!
  3. To be able to use your Trample ability at nearly all times, the Symbiotic Aspect provides massive cooldown reduction. However, this requires having Aspect of the Trampled Earth first.
  4. Aspect of The Aftershock Doubles your Landslide casts and increases its damage!

Discover every Druid Legendary Aspects in our Druid Overview.

Leveling Tips and Tricks

Before we end this leveling guide, let's look at some general tips and tricks to remember for all classes and specs!

Complete the Campaign or follow our Leveling Guides. Follow the Campaign if you haven't completed it yet. If you have, use our Alt Leveling Guide and Renown Speedrun Guide to progress your character quickly!

Level Up Your Potion. Many players don't know that 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 recipes!

Alchemist location in Kyovashad

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.

Renown is your Friend. While exploring the different zones, take time to gather Renown along the way. It has long-term benefits for your entire account, including more Skill/Paragon points and Potion charges. Renown is gained by activating Waypoints, finding Altars of Lilith, completing Side Quests/Dungeons and rescuing Strongholds.

Be Careful with Gold. A lot of endgame processes, like extracting and imprinting Legendary Aspects, are extremely expensive for a brand-new character. Don't spend all of your Gold along the way!

Don't Imprint Your Weapon. The most critical piece of gear while leveling up is your weapon, which gets replaced constantly. This makes imprinting a Legendary Aspect on it a waste of resources. Instead, put your best offensive Aspect on your Amulet, which can be used for a long time.

Next Steps

Summary

  • The Landslide Druid is a fun build, combining decent single target damage with incredible crowd control. Area of Effect is not its strong suit until after finding a few key aspects.
  • Use your skills to balance your Life, Spirit, and cooldowns.
  • Focus on improving your 2-Handed Weapon more than any other item. Make sure it is always a Staff to increase your Crowd Control damage.
  • Look out for helpful Legendary Aspects in the Codex of Power, especially those that generate Spirit and buff your damage/damage reduction.

Credits

Written by Jymnasium
Reviewed by IBoilerup

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