Lightning Storm Druid Endgame Build Guide

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.
• As you move up in Torment difficulty, a few skills are going to change. Firstly, we are going to remove Trample in favor of an Ultimate Skill. Cataclysm is an early game powerhouse and has the added utility of making enemies Vulnerable. To compensate the loss of Trample, Metamorphosis takes on the role of providing us with Unstoppable.
• Replace Wind Shear with Maul and pick up Skinwalker's on your pants. This allows you to generate a healthy amount of Fortify by casting Maul. Equip your 2H Staff with Retaliation to convert all your Fortify into an immense damage multiplier.
• Early on, make sure to prioritize your resources. Imprint sparingly, don't exhaust your resources with tempering or 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.
• 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 The Beast in the Ice as it drops Unsung Ascetic's Wraps, a powerful and crucial tool to improving Lightning Storm's single target damage.
• Next, set your eyes on claiming Tempest Roar. This Unique can be found after defeating Duriel, King of Maggots. 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. Upon acquiring this item, your Spirit concerns are a thing of the past. Between Energize, Lust for Carnage and Tempest Roar, Spirit per Second is no longer needed on your gear.
• Visit Lord Zir for Wildheart Hunger. This pair of boots got reworked to boost Bestial Rampage's bonuses by a considerable amount. Moreover, Mjölnic Ryng also drops from this Boss.
• As you begin obtaining more and more Uniques, your Starter build is going to shift away from utilizing Companion Skills. This is primarily due to the inconsistencies of standing still in endgame content, where the Starter variant begins to struggle with damage and survivability. Eventually this build will drop all Companion Skills in favor of Defensive Skills and Shapeshifting bonuses.
• 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.

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

• The Mythic version of the Lightning Storm Druid is more than capable of handling the Open World content in a timely manner. However, in order to maximize speed a few changes have to be made:
  • Firstly, change your runes to Bac + Kry and Xol + Yom. You now pull in enemies while moving and, every so often, cast Petrify, which additionally Stuns and pulls in monsters.
  • Replace Mjölnic Ryng with Airidah's Inexorable Will and swap out Cataclysm for Lacerate. Use Lacerate for even more pulls while Kry and Yom are charging.
  • Replace the no longer needed Cataclysm Cooldown temper on your amulet with an additional Movement Speed temper.
  • Swap Iron Feather with Swooping Attacks, and Calamity with Bolster, for a little more Attack Speed and Fortify generation.
  • Replace Earthen Bulwark with Trample and use it as a Mobility tool or to grant yourself Unstoppable.
  • Lastly, focus on tapping a max-size Lightning Storm instead of fully channeling to reduce the amount of time spent standing still.

The Pit Pushing variant is optimized around maximizing damage, requiring specific gear and gameplay adjustments. Therefore, it is NOT recommended you play this version outside of Pit Pushing.

Gear & Skills

• Heightened Senses is the key component that enables this variant.
  • At 17 ranks this passive makes you invulnerable as long as you retain your Shapeshifting bonuses.
  • Note that you are NOT invulnerable by default. Entering a new area, riding mounts, climbing ladders and any other Human-only interactions will remove your Shapeshifting bonuses and thereby make you vulnerable to damage.
  • Your Resistances and Armor are no longer important to cap. However, don't fully discard them in the eventuality that you lose your invulnerability and require some backup defenses.
  • Additionally, remove skill points from various defensive passives in favor of offensive ones. For more details check the Skills above.
• Snapshot Clarity as an addition source of damage and Critical Strike Chance, as you are no longer threatened by enemies while standing still and can channel Lightning Storm for long durations.
  • Utilize Wolves and Poison Creeper alongside Pack Leader to stack Clarity.
  • Ravens is not included as it can unintentionally consume your Qax buff.
• You drastically increase your damage by utilizing the following Runes.
  • Feo + Qax grants Lightning Storm up to 250% more damage after being Crowd Controlled. Mjölnic Ryng ensures you can continue channeling Lightning Storm even after Qax consumes your Spirit.
  • Neo + Kry is used to group up enemies. This helps concentrate Lightning Storm's lightning strikes, resulting in less lightning strikes missing and an overall damage per second increase.
• Earthen Bulwark is essential to ensuring that you do not get disrupted while channeling Lightning Storm.
  • Temper Earthen Bulwark Duration and use Mending Stone to prolong the Unstoppable effect granted from Enhanced Earthen Bulwark.
  • Casting Earthen Bulwark before Lightning Storm also snapshots Resonance for additional damage.
• Replace your Mercenaries
  • Subo is your hired mercenary as you no longer make use of Raheir's defensive capabilities. Opt for Ready At Hand, Cover Fire and Opening Fire.
  • Varyana is the preferred reinforcement thanks to Bloodthirst granting you additional Attack Speed.

Skill Rotation

1. Begin by cycling between Maul and Lightning Storm to enable your Shapeshifting bonuses, invulnerability, and stack Wildheart Hunger.
2. Use Maul to build up Fortify for Retaliation.
3. Cast Cataclysm and refresh its duration in between Lightning Storm channels. Aim to have Cataclysm always active to receive the benefits from Mjölnic Ryng.
4. Group up monsters using Kry and ensure you become Crowd Controlled to overflow Qax.
5. Cast Poison Creeper and Wolves to stack Clarity. Use Maul to refresh your Companion Skills via Pack Leader as Maul does not consume your Clarity stacks.
6. Use Earthen Bulwark to trigger Unstoppable and enable Resonance.
7. Cast Lightning Storm after Earthen Bulwark to snapshot all the buffs, and continue channeling until your Earthen Bulwark expires.
8. Repeat the rotation as necessary: stack Wildheart Hunger, get Crowd Controlled for Qax, stack Clarity and cast Earthen Bulwark for Unstoppable, all before finally casting Lightning Storm.