Lightning Storm Druid Leveling Guide

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

Alternate Witchcraft Powers

• Breath of the Coven - This Power can be used to gain a sizeable Attack Speed increase when combined with Witching Hour, however, the more Attack Speed you have the weaker the impact of this Power.
• Aura of Siphoning An alternative option to Aura of Misfortune, allowing you to Poison nearby enemies and heal yourself. Replace Overload with Iron Feather if you opt for this Aura effect.

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

• Witching Hour - This Gem enables powerful damage multipliers from your Witchcraft Powers by granting Lightning Storm the Eldritch tag, on a very short Cooldown.
• Moonlight Ward - Grants you straightforward defenses as Damage Reduction and Maximum Resistance to All Elements based on your Unique Witchcraft Power rank.
• Killing Wind - Offers a good amount of Critical Strike Chance and Movement Speed for simply having three Eldritch Powers.

Alternate Occult Gems

• Heart of Anima + Toadling's Wish + 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.
• Hungering Void - Another way, albeit not as effective, of pulling monsters together. A decent choice if you do not have access to Kry.

Spirit Boons

At this stage, you gain access to Spirit Boons - the Druid's unique class mechanic. Check out the Spirit Boon Progression below!

Companion Skills & Trample

Invest points into maximizing Lightning Storm's ranks for damage. Next, unlock Iron Fur's Damage Reduction to progress to the Companion Skills. Here, put a point into Poison Creeper, Wolves and Ravens respectively. At this point we'll pick up max ranks of Clarity, which is a vitally important passive for this build. Upgrade Poison Creeper with Ferocious Poison Creeper to increase its Poison damage and Poison duration by a considerable amount. Likewise, spend a point for Enhanced Ravens's bonus Critical Strike Chance. Lastly, unlock Trample and its upgrade Savage Trample. This skill innately grants you Unstoppable, a nice burst of Spirit, and is generally used as a Mobility tool.

Clarity is a crucial passive for this build. It functions on a stack basis, receiving one stack after casting a Companion Skill. You can only have a maximum of 3 stacks at a given time, but the stacks do not have a timer. Because Lightning Storm is a Channeled Skill, when cast with Clarity stacks, the Critical Strike Chance and damage bonuses persist throughout the entire duration of the channel. This is known as snapshotting, offering a large amount of Critical Strike Chance and damage to your Lightning Storm. As such, the best way to use Lightning Storm is to tap it when clearing easy content, and to fully channel it with maximum stacks of Clarity snapshotted against Elites and Bosses.

Early on, use the active components of Companion Skills for a burst of damage against Elites and Bosses. Poison Creeper deals very potent Poison damage and can single-handedly clear packs. As monsters become increasingly difficult to kill, stack Clarity by casting all your Companion Skills and channel Lightning Storm for as long as possible. Make sure to NOT cast Trample after stacking Clarity, as it is a Wrath Skill and will consume all your stacks.

Key Passive

Perfect Storm is our choice of key passive. It offers a substantial damage multiplier and a small amount of Spirit when you cast Lightning Storm. To reach this key passive, maximize your points in Wild Impulses and Electric Shock. Alternatively, if you cannot sustain the increased Spirit costs from Wild Impulses and have unlocked the Overload Druid Boon, spend your points on Neurotoxin and Envenom to increase your Critical Strike Damage against Poisoned enemies.

Defenses

The Lightning Storm Druid makes use of its ranged capabilities to stay away from danger. However, in certain situations taking damage is unavoidable. As such, invest into Circle of Life to keep your Life topped off. As you near max level, pick up Heightened Senses and Defensive Posture for some added Damage Reduction and Fortify. Backtrack and claim Ancestral Fortitude as you reach Torment difficulty for some extra Resistances.

Final Journey to Level 60

At this point, most of the key synergies are unlocked and the gameplay loop is almost complete. As you level up, you unlock a lot of extra points that go into various offensive and defensive passives or max out certain skills. Check out the skills progression above to see where to put your points as you go, but feel free to deviate from the order displayed as necessary.

Druid Spirit Boons

Unlocking Specializations

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 Druidic Spirit Offerings to unlock your first Boon when you complete the questline.

Each Spirit has 4 Boons that are unlocked with 15 Druidic Spirit Offerings each. On 3 of the Spirits, they unlock in a specific order (from left to right as displayed above). The outlier is the Snake Spirit - You have to unlock all his Boons simultaneously, meaning you need to collect 60 Druidic Spirit Offerings to gain access to its Boons. Once all Spirits have been completely unlocked, you can choose one to Bond with and select an additional Boon from that Spirit.

To get started as a Lightning Storm Druid, always use your highest DPS weapon available for more damage, preferring 2H Polearms when possible. While you don't have all of the desired temper manuals available, simply try to get anything useful on your gear until you get the right ones. For example, % Damage, Damage to Close, Vulnerable Damage, etc. all work as long as you activate their conditions. Likewise, you can temper multiple defensive options such as Resistances, Life, Armor to fill gaps in your survivability. Tempering low level gear is relatively cheap and the results can be very impactful.

Tip: For the early game, Elemental Surge Weapon Tempers are very powerful due to their high base damage, especially if you are twinking. If you find these, you may want to keep imprinting them on your weapons for an easy time.

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 or salvaging items with these powers. Check out our Map Tool to locate these Dungeons.

For leveling, there are a few powers that can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them. In addition, keep an eye out for powerful Unique items you may find for this or other builds.

Nice-to-have Dungeon unlocks

1. Retaliation (Seaside Descent - Dry Steppes)
2. Inner Calm (Raethwind Wilds - Scosglen)
3. Overcharged (Mariner's Refuge - Scosglen)
4. Skinwalker's (Fading Echo - Kehjistan)
5. Voracious Rage (Hallowed Ossuary - Fractured Peaks)
6. Umbral (Champion's Demise - Dry Steppes)
7. Might (Dark Ravine - Dry Steppes)
8. Disobedience (Halls of the Damned - Kehjistan)
9. Ghostwalker (Broken Bulwark - Scosglen)

Great Uniques for this build

1. Unsung Ascetic's Wraps
2. Tempest Roar
3. Mjölnic Ryng

Jackpot Drops

As you level up, you may get lucky and find some great random drops. Some of these can massively amplify your power and speed up the leveling by switching to another build. Keep in mind that there are many more Aspects and Uniques that can be useful to multiple builds; this just lists some of the most impactful ones. While we usually recommend starting with Endgame Builds at level 60, you often can make them work earlier with these drops:

Build-defining Aspects

1. Shockwave (enables the Pulverize Druid)
2. Aftershock / Subterranean (enables the Landslide Druid)
3. Stampede (enables the Companion Druid)
4. Moonrise / Adaptability (enables the Wind Shear Druid)

Build-defining Uniques

1. Dolmen Stone (enables the Boulder Druid)
2. Tempest Roar (enables the Tornado, Hurricane, and Lightning Storm Druids)
3. Earthbreaker (enables the Landslide Druid)
4. Storm's Companion (enables the Companion Druid)

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 Lightning Storm Druid focuses on the following combos:

Best in Slot

• Igni + Wat - Decrepify helps stagger Bosses, provides Damage Reduction and Executes enemies at 10% HP. When combined with Xol in your other Runeword it also generates large amounts of Offering.
• Xol + Kry - Vortex is used to group up enemies. Lightning Storm deals considerably more damage when enemies are grouped up, as our lightning strikes miss less often and each strike can hit multiple enemies if they are close enough together.

Alternative choices

As long as you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top Runes, you can also benefit from these options:

• Cir + Tec - Equips the Druid with hard hitting Earthquakes after casting a few skills. Earthquakes are particularly strong in Season 7 and a great option for leveling.
• Cem + Qua - Grants a considerable bump of Movement Speed on Evade activation. Use this combination early on when your Movement Speed is low to help you navigate through content more quickly.
• Lith - A less effective but still excellent alternative to Igni.
• Yom - Petrify offers Stun capabilities and a huge resource refund when activated.
• Ohm - War Cry offers a respectable damage bonus for a moderate duration.
• 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.

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

Raheir provides you with an additional source of Healing, extra Resistance to All Elements, and grants you a substantial damage boost while his abilities (Ground Slam and Bastion) are active via Inspiration. His Mercenary Perk Valiance prevents you from dying against bigger hits on a 30 second Cooldown.

Reinforcement: Aldkin

Select to summon Aldkin's Field of Languish when you cast Lightning Storm for additional Slows and Damage Reduction while channeling Lightning Storm.

In Diablo 4, you can level by completing the Campaign, collecting Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers, completing Helltide activities, grinding Dungeons, clearing Strongholds, fighting in the Undercity of Kurast or interacting with the Seasonal Mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are equal.

Paragon & Glyphs

Use the slider to see 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

The Lightning Storm Druid excels at obliterating packs of enemies with its large AoE attacks. Unfortunately, toward the middle of the leveling experience it begins to struggle with single target damage against healthier enemies such as Bosses.

• Quick and easy build to get going.
• Invest into Spirit per second affixes on gear to help with resource management.
• SnapshotClarity to greatly improve Lightning Storm's damage. Make sure to look out for Clarity ranks on Amulets to make the most of this mechanic.
• Utilize Primal Lightning Storm to keep enemies Immobilized for bonus damage and apply Poison to monsters to enable Envenom.

Written by Danger

Reviewed by IBoilerUp