Pulverize Druid Leveling Guide

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.

Leveling Boss Powers

Alternate Boss Powers

• Allek's Talons - Assuming you don't have access to an applicable World Boss power, this is the most effective Main Power you can grab from Apparition Incursions.

Spirit Boons

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

Ultimate & Key Passive

To unlock the Ultimate skill wheel, focus on getting some high-priority damage passives in Feral Aptitude and Provocation, the latter of which gives us another source of guaranteed Overpower. From here, grab Cataclysm. This Ultimate deals very high damage in the early game and inflicts Vulnerable to any nearby monsters for its duration. Max out Quickshift and pick up a single point in Neurotoxin so that attacks from Wind Shear and Poison Creeper also inflict a Slow. Next up is your Key Passive, Ursine Strength. This Key Passive is tailor made for Pulverize Druids, improving Maximum Life and Overpower damage.

Envenom and Earth Synergy

As our Critical Strike Chance improves from gear and Spirit Boons, we leverage the very powerful Envenom Passive. Hopefully by this point, you've made your way to Belfry Zakara to unlock Ursine Horror, which allows you to make use of a host of handy Earth passives. A single point in Safeguard should keep you well Fortified. Max out its neighbors for some extra damage.

Tanking Up

This leg focuses on making the Pulverize Druid incredibly sturdy. First, max out both Ancestral Fortitude and Vigilance for a healthy amount of Resistances and Damage Reduction. Grab full points in Heightened Senses for a nice blend of Damage Reduction and Movement Speed. Finally, take both Iron Fur and Defensive Posture for their high-uptime Damage Reduction Bonuses.

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 Pulverize Druid, always use your highest DPS weapon available for more damage, preferring Two-handed Maces when possible. Otherwise, follow the priority list below. 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.

Must-have Dungeon unlocks

1. Calm Breeze (Grinning Labyrinth - Dry Steppes)
2. Ursine Horror (Belfry Zakara - Hawezar)
3. Retaliation (Seaside Descent - Dry Steppes)
4. Changeling's Debt (Conclave - Kehjistan)

Nice-to-have Dungeon unlocks

1. Quicksand (Ferals' Den - Scosglen)
2. Umbral (Champion's Demise - Dry Steppes)
3. Disobedience (Halls of the Damned - Kehjistan)

Great Uniques for this build

1. Insatiable Fury
2. Hunter's Zenith
3. Godslayer Crown

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. Aftershock / Subterranean (enhances the Landslide Druid)
2. Stampede / Alpha (enhances the Companion Druid)
3. Blurred Beast / Agile Wolf (enhances the Shred Druid)
4. Anticline Burst (enhances the Stone Burst Druid)

Build-defining Uniques

1. Dolmen Stone (enables the Boulder Druid)
2. Tempest Roar (enables the Tornado, Hurricane, and Lightning Storm Druids)
3. Unsung Ascetic's Wraps (enhances the Lightning Storm Druid)
4. Earthbreaker (enhances the Landslide Druid)
5. Storm's Companion (enhances the Companion Druid)
6. Stone of Vehemen (enhances the Stone Burst 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 Pulverize Druid focuses on the following combos:

Best in Slot

• Bac + Xal - The 20% maximum Health is obviously useful for defense, but also translates to a ton of extra Overpower damage.
• Igni + Xan - Xan adds another Overpower source to a build that thrives on that synergy.

Alternative choices

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

• Gar - The Crit Chance bonus is great, especially early on.
• Wat - Decrepify helps with stagger, defense and allows an execute at 10% HP. It is combined with Xol in your other Runeword to generate large amounts of offering.
• Yom - This Rune promotes uptime on Petrify and the repeated casts help keep Spirit topped off.
• Ohm - War Cry's damage bonus, though nerfed, is still useful.
• Tam - A reliable Offering generator for Core skill builds.
• Lith - A surprisingly strong Invocation, provided you can afford to stand still.
• Cem - As a Magic Rune, it's a reasonable choice that you're more likely to find.

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

Coming soon.

• The Pulverize Druid is a great all-around build, combining decent area damage at close range with incredible defenses. Single target damage is not its strong suit.
• Use your skills to stack up a ton of Fortified Life for increased survivability and Overpower damage.
• Focus on improving your 2-Handed Weapon more than any other item. Maces are best to further increase your Overpower damage.
• Look out for helpful Legendary Aspects in the Codex of Power, especially those that generate Spirit and buff your damage/damage reduction.

Written by IBoilerUp

Reviewed by Danger