Tornado Druid Leveling Guide

Season 5 - Infernal Hordes

In Season 5, the Season Theme brings your hero back into the bowels of Hell, in the Infernal Hordes endgame activity. You're first introduced to Hellbreach Dungeons, miniature Horde-like micro-dungeons that teach you the new mechanics and rewards systems. As you slay more powerful Demons and Bosses, you're rewarded with the new Reputation progression that comes with amazing rewards. These include Crafting Materials, unlocking Season's Journey tiers and even the coveted Resplendent Spark, needed to craft a Mythic Unique.

Follow the seasonal questline until you unlock the Reputation system, check which rewards suit you most and then follow your regular leveling path. To learn more, check out our full Season 5 guide for more information.

In Season 5 you keep all previously unlocked temper manuals. This lets you get absurdly strong in the early game. As soon as you find a handful of Rare items, go to the Blacksmith and temper the following:

• Elemental Surge on all your weapons
• Maximum Life on Chest, Pants, Helmet, and Amulet
• (Optional) Damage or Close/Distant Damage on your Rings and Gloves

If you hit all of these tempers, you'll be in a good position to go into WT3 early. If a temper fails, try again - early game tempering is very cheap!

Skill Tree & Gameplay

Replace Blood Howl with Maul

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

Now it is time to max Heightened Senses and then replace Blood Howl with Maul. Consider unlocking Skinwalker's aspect by finishing the dungeon Fading Echo. We will put points into Iron Fur and Ancestral Fortitude for extra defenses.

The Final Passives

In this section, we exhaust most of the remaining offensive options on this build until we find new Legendary Aspects. Now we can finish with Wild Impulses, Defiance, Abundance, Clarity, and Nature's Reach. Take ranks out of Rabies to grab one Circle of Life and max Resonance, take points out of Poison Creeper to max Digitigrade Gait or leave them if you don't want the temporary movement speed.

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 Tornado Druid Endgame Build Guide:

Druid Spirit Boons

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.

Gear Progression & Stat Priorities

Upgrading with the highest available item power two handed weapon is preferred as you level, a staff would be ideal for faster attacks that feel more fluid. Prioritize Spirit on Kill first, then Health and Willpower.

Armor is your most important defensive stat in World Tier 2, getting it on every slot you can will allow you to easily tank the first capstone dungeon at an early level. Resistances are very important once you reach World Tier 3 if you want to shrug off the most deadly elemental attacks. Armor and Resistances continue to be very important defensive stats until they are capped in World Tier 4.

Socket Weapons with Topaz or Sapphire gems. Socket Armor with Ruby gems. Socket Jewelry with Skull gems in World Tier 2 or with gems that correspond to your lowest Elemental Resistance in World Tier 3 and above.

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 significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them:

Codex Leveling Aspects in Order of Priority:

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

Helpful Legendary Aspects

Here are all helpful Legendary Aspects for the Tornado Druid that can either be found in the Codex of Power or Extracted from an item drop. Note that all Legendary Aspects can be found from item drops, and that these can roll better and often significantly better than ones sourced from the Codex of Power.

• Stormchaser's Offensive Aspect
  • With this you won't have to hope your Tornadoes go where you want, they will more reliably destroy the demons.
  • Gamble Totems

• Moonrise
  • Major damage increase to your Wind Shear while giving you great mobility and attack speed.
  • Gamble Totems
• Adaptability
  • This aspect will help with resource and provide a major damage increase to Wind Shear.
  • Gamble Rings or Amulets
• Accelerating Offensive Aspect
  • More attack speed!
  • Gamble Totems
• Blood Boiling
  • When Tornado overpowers it will spawn a ridiculous amount of these orbs, this aspect can be very good for efficiently clearing events for optimal experience.
  • Gamble Totems

How To Level

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

Campaign Leveling

• For your first character in Diablo 4, completing the Campaign provides the best gameplay experience and gives you access to key unlocks like your Mount.
  • If you don't have your Mount, you MUST progress the Campaign until you complete the quest Donan's Favor at the start of Act 4.
  • After obtaining your Mount you can skip the remainder of the campaign at any time.
  • The Campaign is the slowest way to level, but it's worth experiencing the Campaign and Diablo 4's storyline at least once.
  • To play Seasonal Content you need to have completed or skipped the Campaign.

Seasonal / Alt Leveling

• Complete the Seasonal questline, progress your Seasonal Journey to unlock Legendary Aspects and work on your Seasonal powers.
• If your account is below Rank 5 Renown in each zone, focus on completing your Renown.
  • This only needs to be done once per realm (Softcore / Hardcore).
• Complete the Dungeons needed for any Legendary Aspects from your Codex of Power.
• From level 1-50 you should focus on getting experience in Helltides by combining Helltide activities with Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers or complete Gathering Legion Events.
• After level 50 you need to balance leveling up, Glyph Experience and participating in Endgame activities like Helltide, Tree of Whispers and Bosses. The fastest experience possible after reaching World Tier 3 is completing Nightmare dungeons with monsters exactly 30 levels above your current level. Check out our Nightmare Dungeon Tier List for the best Nightmare Dungeon layouts!
• Around level 30-45 you should move to World Tier 3.
• Around level 50-65 you should move to World Tier 4.
• Alternatively: Get boosted by a friend to World Tier 4 then leech experience/loot and Glyph exp (post 50), in Nightmare dungeons.
• Find the most efficient way of leveling your character in detail in our Speed Leveling Guide.

Leveling Tips and Tricks

Let's look at some tips and tricks to remember when leveling up!

• Level Up Your Potion. 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 Elixir recipes!
• 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.
• Don't Imprint Your Best Aspect Onto Your Weapon. The most critical piece of gear while leveling up is your weapon, which gets replaced constantly.
  • It is a better idea to put your best Offensive Aspect on your Amulet, which can be used for a long time.
• Sacred is just better. Between level 30 and 50 you're able to beat the Capstone Dungeon and enter World Tier 3, you gain access to powerful Sacred items which have higher item power and better stats. Getting a Sacred weapon significantly improves your farming speed.
  • The same happens with World Tier 4 and Ancestral gear at level 55.

Summary

• The Tornado Druid is a great all-round build, combining decent area damage at range with healthy defenses. Poison Creeper and helps quickly clear large groups. Stormchaser's Offensive Aspect will be the main aspect you want to look out for to make the experience better.

Credits

Written by pandaglassjaw
Reviewed by iBoilerUp