Welcome to the Lightning Storm Druid endgame guide! This build has exceptional clear thanks to very high range and area of effect. It also boasts great movement speed and solid defenses. The build is capable of the highest Nightmare Dungeon pushes and the new Unsung Ascetic's Wraps improves Lightning Storm's biggest weakness, single target.
Lightning Storm can be charged up to strike in a huge area. On top of that, it can target anywhere on screen. The combination of these two features, along with high movement speed, makes it one of the best farming builds in the game.
This version of Lightning Storm takes advantage of Petrify for a massive critical damage boost against bosses and a kick of spirit when mobbing. In addition, this build utilizes synergies between Nature's Fury and Symbiotic to allow Lightning Storm recover the cooldown of Earthen Bulwark to give the build high Unstoppable uptime.
The largest update to this build for season 3, however, is the addition of Companion skills. This build achieves up to 180% (x) more damage with Lightning Storm by having 9 Companions when using the combination of Shepherd's and Stampede. Any Spirit issues that would arise from this swap are solved by using Resource Support, massive Critical Strike Chance paired with Lust for Carnage, and constant Spirit generation with Tibault's Will.
This build guide assumes you have a Level 50+ Character and finished the Campaign. Level up with our Lightning Storm Leveling Guide.
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.
- Tempest - Since we are a lightning ranged build, we grab Tempest to synergize with our build.
- Resource - Helps us maintain our Spirit so we can cast more often.
- Efficiency - Critical Strike Chance is paramount to proc Unsung Ascetic's Wraps, Lightning Dancer's, and Lust for Carnage.
- Arcing - Improves the coverage and effective range of Tempest. Replace this with Evernight if you're lucky enough to find it.
- Flash of Adrenaline - A free damage buff to boost our character further.
- Duration Support - To improve the buff's uptime.
- Tactical Support - To improve the buff's uptime.
- Safeguard Support - An all-around solid defensive option. Replace this with Genesis if you're lucky enough to find it.
Alternative Stones
- Swap Flash of Adrenaline for Reconstruct if you need more healing.
- Use Poison Support over Resource Support prior to obtaining Tempest Roar to improve uptime of this Status effect.
Skill Tree & Gameplay
Active Skills
- Lightning Storm is our primary damage skill. Hold down Lightning Storm to build up the size of the storm.
- Wolves, Ravens, and Poison Creeper provide a bit of utility but are primarily used in this build alongside the Shepherd's and Stampede to give us 9 total companions and up to 180% additional core skill damage.
- Earthen Bulwark is our sole source of Unstoppable, provides Fortify through itself and Bolster, and gives us a kick of Spirit with its interaction with Tibault's Will.
- Petrify is used for the massive increase in bossing damage. As of Season 3, Petrify can also be used to break suppressor bubbles, which have historically caused issues for this build.
Passives
- With Tempest Roar, we Poison mobs when we Critically Strike with a single point in Toxic Claws, which is useful for both Offense and Defense.
- Envenom is a damage multiplier that's numerically higher than most, making it exceptionally powerful.
- Nature's Fury is used with Symbiotic to allow for the quick recovery of Earthen Bulwark's cooldown.
- The damage bonuses from Resonance and Quickshift (as well as the Critical Strike Chance from Shapeshifter) can be snapshotted when channeling Lightning Storm if used after one of your Earth skills.
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: Bolster
- Snake Spirit: Calm Before the Storm
Bond with the Eagle Spirit and activate Scythe Talons for increased critical chance.
Learn more details and how to unlock this class specification in our full Druid Spirit Boons Guide.
Resource & Cooldown Management
Managing your Resources and Cooldowns is crucial to the success of this build. In the endgame, we have a myriad of ways to regenerate Spirit:
- On Critical Strikes with Lust for Carnage
- On Kill with Reclamation
- On Lucky Hit with Tempest Roar
- On Cast of Earthen Bulwark thanks to Tibault's Will
- Passively from our Seneschal Construct's Resource Support
Starter (Low rolled Umbral) - Early on, we need to utilize Wind Shear and Trample for spirit generation. On top of that, we add Umbral from the Codex and pair it with Poison Creeper's AoE Immobilizing effect for a large burst of Sprit. For a more consistent stream of Spirit, we opt for Primal Lightning Storm early on.
Early Endgame - In the Early Endgame, we get Earthen Might and Energize for additional Spirit gain. We do this to make up for any low Critical Strike Chance rolls and to make up for the Spirit loss from swapping from Umbral.
Cooldown Management - We use Calm Before the Storm to get cooldown for Petrify. We use Symbiotic to recover cooldown for Earthen Bulwark on casts of Lightning Storm.
Paragon Board
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 when they reach level 15!
Level the Paragon Board by scrolling. Each step optimizes progression.
Glyphs
We need to level up our Glyphs to increase their power and activate their Additional Bonus with surrounding nodes. Glyphs have a radius of 3 by default, this increases to 4 at Glyph level 15. Complete Nightmare Dungeons to obtain Glyph experience.
Note that there are some Glyph position swaps and a few adjustments to surrounding Paragon nodes once they reach level 15. See the last two steps in the Paragon progression above for details. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build.
Placeholder Glyphs
These Glyphs are only used temporarily. Don't level these Glyphs up because you will replace them later.
- Human - Only use this if you want to play this build before having all of the necessary Werewolf gear.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
Level 15
- Fulminate
- Earth and Sky
- Territorial
- Keeper
- Spirit
- Electrocution
Level 21
- Keeper
- Earth and Sky
- Territorial
- Spirit
- Electrocution
- Fulminate
By endgame, you'll want to have additionally leveled Shapeshifter. It replaces Fulminate in our level 100 respec.
Also check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
Endgame Progression & Variants
When you start diving into the Endgame, you don't have all the tools available to achieve the final build versions. Let us guide you through different progression points to give you a smooth transition from our Leveling Guides to the final build version.
Progression Goals
Some of your Skill Tree choices depend on what Legendary Aspects and Unique items are available to you. These are listed in priority order:
- Unlock the following Aspects from Dungeons:
- Shepherd's in Bloodsoaked Crag (Dry Steppes)
- Retaliation in Seaside Descent (Dry Steppes)
- Umbral in Champion's Demise (Dry Steppes)
- Overcharged in Mariner's Refuge (Scosglen)
- Edgemaster’s in Oldstones (Scosglen)
- Disobedience in Halls of the Damned (Kehjistan)
- Might in Dark Ravine (Dry Steppes)
- Protector in Lost Archives (Fractured Peaks)
- Wind Striker in Shivta Ruins (Kehjistan)
- Find the following Legendary Aspects either as a random drop or by gambling with Obols:
- Lightning Dancer's: Gamble Totems.
- Stampede: Gamble Totems.
- Mighty Storm's: Gamble Totems.
- Juggernaut's: Gamble Pants.
- Symbiotic: Gamble Boots.
- Ghostwalker: Gamble Boots (used in the Gauntlet variant)
- Acquire the following Unique items either as a random drop or by farming specific Boss drops. Note: You cannot gamble Unique items with obols!
- Tempest Roar
- Unsung Ascetic's Wraps
- Tibault's Will
- Mad Wolf's Glee (for Bossing)
- If you're lucky enough to obtain the following Uber Uniques, they're useful for the build.
- Ring of Starless Skies - See the attached Planner to see how to incorporate this Unique
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Progression Setups
Follow the build's gearing progression from level 50 to 100, including the changes that need to be made as you obtain Legendary Aspects and Uniques.
Once you have completed the leveling guide, only the Codex of Power Aspects are guaranteed. With this setup you can farm the Legendary Aspects and Unique items you need for the next progression point.
Gear
We don't get many of our core aspects from the Codex of Power, so we need replacements until we find them.
- We use Shepherd's on a two hander weapon for maximum % damage to our core skills.
- Use Disobedience as a big damage reduction thanks to the high number of hits from this build.
- Even a minimum rolled Umbral lowers our reliance on Wind Shear to generate Spirit, especially in large packs. We proc this by using Immobilizes from Poison Creeper and Primal Lightning Storm.
- Movement Speed on your boots will significantly increase your leveling and farming speed.
- Try to cap your resistances early to significantly reduce the damage you take.
- Upgrade your weapon when you have the resources. Any other gear can wait until you find better items.
Skills
- We don't have enough Spirit generation to avoid a generator, so we use Wind Shear and pair it with Abundance to give us a lot of Spirit while also allowing us to stay in the ranged playstyle that keeps us safe.
- We use Wolves, Ravens, and Poison Creeper to fuel the damage of our Shepherd's.
- Without access to Mighty Storm's, we're unable to utilize our Early Endgame Key Passive, Earthen Might. For now we'll use Ursine Strength instead.
Gameplay
- Hold down Lightning Storm while targeting enemies to build up the size of the storm. Once it's sufficiently large, manually click quickly to increase the speed at which you cast.
- When you run out of Spirit, use Wind Shear and Trample to regenerate it.
- It is important to keep our distance on this particular setup due to the fact that we lack Defensive skills. We are using a lot of Defensive Aspects to make up for this lack of defense. The amount of damage we have from our companion boost should allow us to kill enemies very quickly.
Spirit Boons
At this point we aren't using an ultimate, so use Overload. Bond with the Eagle Spirit to grab Scythe Talons & Avian Wrath. We also grab Packleader for the resets of our Poison Creeper.
Construct
- Before we get a Tempest Roar, we don't have great Poison uptime for Envenom, so make sure to slot Poison Support over a low-level Resource Support.
In this setup, you have access to all Legendary Aspects, allowing you to pilot a much stronger version of this build.
Gear
- Replace Edgemaster’s with Mighty Storm's for more Spirit sustain and damage.
- Swap Umbral with Stampede for more damage.
- Exchange Overcharged with Lightning Dancer's for more Area of Affect Damage and a new damage multiplier with the Electrocution Glyph.
- We replace Disobedience for Juggernaut's for more consistent uptime of Armor.
Skills
- Swap from Primal Lightning Storm to Raging Lightning Storm, since we are losing Umbral
- We will also be trading Ursine Strength with Earthen Might to account for our lower critical strike chance as we most likely won't have perfect gear / over 40% base critical chance yet. This should also help make up for the Spirit sustain loss from dropping Umbral.
Spirit Boons
Switch from Packleader to Energize for even more spirit sustain.
In this setup, you have access to all Unique items and Legendary Aspects. This allows you to pilot this build at its peak efficiency. Let's take a look at the changes you need to make to implement them.
Gear
This version assumes you have best in slot rolls of Critical Strike Chance, Spirit Cost Reduction and Shepherd's.
- Tempest Roar is your forever Helmet, unlocking a number of Shapeshifting synergies across the build.
- Add Unsung Ascetic's Wraps in place of Mighty Storm's to significantly increase your Damage.
- Place Symbiotic on your Boots to reduce Earthen Bulwark's Cooldown and improve both Fortify generation and Unstoppable uptime.
- ReplaceMight with Tibault's Will for more Spirit sustain and Damage.
- Now it's time to min/max! Focus on getting all of your gear (including Uniques) to 900+ Item level with the right stats and high rolls. Get the highest rolls of Poison Soaked and Fulminating that you can.
Skills
The biggest change here is adding swapping to Nature's Fury.
- Swap from Earthen Might to Nature's Fury. Critical strike chance should no longer be a concern as with Shapeshifter and Efficiency Support, we will be at almost 85% critical strike chance.
- Grab Earthen Bulwark. Bulwark is best in slot here because it gives Unstoppable (which translates to improved Spirit generation with Tibault's Will) and Fortify.
- Add Petrify to give us a 50% multiplier against bosses, which is a massive increase for our single target damage.
- Put 1 point into Toxic Claws to activate Envenom. This is possible now because our Tempest Roar turns our Lightning Storm into a Werewolf skill.
- As we no longer use a generator, swap points from Abundance to Heightened Senses for more damage reduction.
Spirit Boons
- Switch to Bolster for more Fortify generation.
- Calm Before the Storm gives us more uptime on Petrify, a larger damage increase than Overload.
Gameplay
- Hold down Lightning Storm while targeting enemies to build up the size of the storm. Once it's sufficiently large, manually click quickly to increase the speed at which you cast. Against tough enemies, channel after casting either Earth Skill to snapshot the bonuses from Resonance, Quickshift, and Shapeshifter.
- Spam Earthen Bulwark on Cooldown for Fortify, Unstoppable, and a burst of Spirit.
- Cast Ravens on Bosses and tough Elites for additional Critical Strike Chance.
- Reserve Petrify to break Suppressor bubbles, Stun mobs that overwhelm you, or as a massive damage boost against the strongest enemies.
The Bossing setup incorporates a handful of minor but impactful changes to maximize single target damage.
Gear
- For maximum damage for bossing, we add Mad Wolf's Glee for the +Ranks to Lightning Storm.
- Slot Inner Calm over Lightning Dancer's, as the latter is relatively ineffective against bosses and we can usually afford to channel.
Skills
- Take 1 point from Circle of Life and all 3 from Heightened Senses to maximize Elemental Exposure and Charged Atmosphere, increasing our uptime of Vulnerable and Electrocution, respectively.
Spirit Boons
Opt for Overload from the Snake Spirit, as it's unlikely we'll need multiple casts of Petrify to take down a Boss.
Seneschal Construct
Replace Arcing Support with Breaking Support in single-target situations to improve Vulnerable uptime.
The Gauntlet setup doesn't deviate much from our Best-in-Slot, but fighting against T70 mobs does allow us to cheat in a little extra utility.
Gear
- Find a Defensive pair of chest with %armor. This roll, along with the Armor while in Werewolf rolls on your Boots and Amulet, should cap your Armor against T70 mobs (approx. 11,200). Slot Symbiotic here.
- Shrine Buff Duration is an amazing stat for Gauntlet. Get it on your Boots and Amulet if possible.
- This frees up our Boots to add some additional mobility in Ghostwalker.
Hardcore Adjustments
Hardcore requires you to build into more defenses. Here are some tips to successfully navigate this build through potentially dangerous situations:
- Consider taking an additional source of Damage Reduction on your Amulet over Ranks to Envenom.
- Use a quadruple Damage Reduction Chest instead of Mad Wolf's Glee and slot Vigorous.
Check out our dedicated in-depth guide to learn more survival tricks in Hardcore.
Build Scaling & Stat Priorities
Learn about the important build scaling mechanics and stat weights.
- Critical Strikes: Thanks to our Gear, Skills, and Passives we have consistently high Critical Strike Chance in this build. Our Critical Strike Damage is bolstered by Envenom, Spirit, and Avian Wrath.
- Damage to Close/Distant: After accessing Thunderstruck, these damage types scale as a huge damage multiplier. It also doesn't matter if we're close or distant from enemies for the purpose of this Legendary Node, so we take both wherever we can.
- Vulnerable: Enhanced Wind Shear and Elemental Exposure give us high Vulnerable uptime on targets. Slot Breaking Support to bolster this further.
- Attack Speed: Manually clicking Lightning Storm is by default faster than holding it down, but the skill has no perceptible difference in scaling with increases to Attack Speed.
- Envenom/Festering: We're able to take advantage of both of these large sources of damage thanks to Toxic Claws, which Poisons enemies whenever we deal Critical Strike Damage to them.
- Healing: Our Healing is generated through Circle of Life.
- Armor: A great deal of defenses comes from your Armor. We can build a ton of it thanks to Ironclaw / of the Ironclaw, Paragon Nodes and Juggernaut's.
- Defensive Multipliers: Our high uptime of Heightened Senses and Vigilance, along with our quad Damage Reduction Chest Armour add a lot of survivability to this build.
- Venomwall: We can take advantage of this powerful Defensive Multiplier thanks to Toxic Claws, which Poisons enemies whenever we deal Critical Strike Damage to them.
- Fortify: Provides 10% damage reduction while Fortified which can be increased through gear and gems. We gain Fortify in large bursts from Vigilance and Earthen Bulwark.
Stat Priorities
Choosing the right stats for your gear can make or break your build. You won't always find perfect stats (also known as affixes or modifiers) though, and you may need to make a tough choice between two good pieces of equipment. Use the following list of priorities to compare your gear and pick the best.
Put in the following Gems into your gear:
- Helmet / Body Armor / Pants: Royal Ruby
- Weapon / Off-Hand: Royal Emerald
- Jewelry: Fill with whatever Resistance you haven't capped with your gear affixes.
- Helm: Tempest Roar
- Damage while Shapeshifted
- Critical Strike Damage
- Maximum Spirit
- Poison Resistance
- Chest Armor: Juggernaut's
- Damage Reduction from Poisoned Enemies
- Damage Reduction from Close
- Damage Reduction from Distant
- Damage Reduction
- Damage Reduction While Fortified
- Maximum Life
- %Armor
- Gloves: Unsung Ascetic's Wraps
- Ranks to Lightning Storm
- Critical Strike Chance
- Ranks of the Defiance Passive
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Otherwise Look For: Overcharged
- Ranks to Lightning Storm
- Critical Strike Chance
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Willpower
- Critical Strike Damage with Werewolf Skills
- Lightning Critical Strike Damage
- Pants: Tibault's Will with a high-rolled Unique Affix
- Damage reduction from Close
- %Damage
- Maximum Resource
- Potion Capacity
- Otherwise Look For: Vigorous
- Damage Reduction from Poisoned Enemies
- Damage Reduction from Close
- Damage Reduction from Distant
- Damage Reduction
- Damage Reduction While Fortified
- Maximum Life
- %Armor
- Boots: Symbiotic
- Movement Speed
- Two of: Fire, Cold, Shadow Resistance
- Total Armor while in Werewolf Form
- Spirit Cost Reduction
- Willpower
- Dodge Chance
- Amulet: Retaliation
- Ranks to Envenom
- Spirit Cost Reduction
- Movement Speed
- Cooldown Reduction
- Armor While in Werewolf Form
- Damage Reduction From Poisoned
- Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
- Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies
- Rings: Stampede & Lightning Dancer's
- Critical Strike Chance
- Damage to Distant Enemies
- Damage to Close Enemies
- Maximum Life
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Critical Strike Damage With Werewolf Skills
- Lightning Critical Strike Damage
- Main Hand: Shepherd's
- Damage To Distant Enemies
- Damage To Close Enemies
- Willpower
- All Stats
- Core Skill Damage
- Critical Strike Damage
- Critical Strike Damage with Werewolf Skills
This build benefits a lot from the following Consumables:
- Elixirs: Elixir of Cruelty, Elixir of Combatant Fortune, Elixir of Fortitude, Elixir of Magic Resist, Elixir of Savagery, Heady Precision Elixir
- Incense: Song of the Mountain or Reddamine Buzz
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.
Why both Damage to Close and Distant enemies?
Mechanics
Learn all you need to know about how to scale this build in the endgame.
The Use of Sub Skills
Video Guide
Hungry for more Guides?
Druid Guides
General Guides
Summary
The Lightning Storm Druid is an excellent ranged build with incredible speed and clear. With this ranged playstyle you can dive deep into Nightmare Dungeons. At the late endgame the build can be played smoothly without the use of a generator, making it a highly efficient and enjoyable farming build.
Credits
Written by Moxsy
Reviewed by IBoilerUp