Diablo 4: Best Werewolf Druid Build Guide (Patch 1.3.0)

Although the Werebear makes for an excellent tank in Diablo 4, the damage advantage goes squarely to the Werewolf Druid. The game seems to make it the obvious melee damage alternative to the tank build, but players might not know exactly how strong it is until they try the build for themselves.

Most advantageous to the player, this build also adds damage over time and tanking elements. They say the best defense is a good offense, and this proves to be quite correct in Diablo 4. The Werewolf Druid will have plenty of health potions left over after dispatching elite mobs and bosses.

Updated on November 6th, 2023, by Marc Santos: Shred and poison-based Werewolf builds have remained viable in the Season of the Construct meta, but power has been shifted more in favor of direct hits instead of DoT. Aspect of the Blurred Beast, one of the core parts of this build, received a rework — it no longer incentivizes stacking poison on targets. While this doesn’t change the build’s selection of skills and Paragon points, it will have an impact on item stat priorities. This guide has been updated to account for this change.

Skill Tree

At the maximum level and with all the Renown gathered, players will have 58 skill points to invest. As becomes evident, Poison is this Werewolf Druid build’s bread and butter. It gains a host of offensive buffs against poisoned enemies via Neurotoxin’s branch of the skill tree, which is why the build uses Poison Creeper as one of its main skills.

Storm Strike is the preferred generator thanks to its 50% chance to apply Vulnerable and high base Spirit generation. Players can swap this for Fierce Claw so they can apply even more poison and double-down on the werewolf fantasy. Most of the damage from this build comes from Shred and Hurricane; use these whenever you have the Spirit to spare.

Blood Howl provides some nice healing when potion management might be tight, and it acts similar to a Barbarian shout when its upgrades are taken. Earthen Bulwark serves as a second defensive layer, though it’s mostly here to break CC effects.

Finally, players have enough leftover points to grab some extra skill nodes for Spirit gains and more powerful skills. Players who aren’t interested in a damage-over-time build may enjoy the burst from a perfect Storm Druid build more and should go that route. But, against Nightmare dungeon bosses and world bosses, having Poison damage going while being able to run around freely is invaluable.

Paragon Boards

The paragon boards and glyphs can be a bit tough to figure out. It’s a matter of adjusting the boards so that they snake properly. Few players will get to the maximum 200 paragon points, but those that do will find that their powers are enhanced by enormous magnitudes. Listing all nodes would be tedious and impossible to read, but if gamers move between the major nodes listed, it shouldn’t be an issue. Make sure to purchase all relevant stat bonus nodes inside the designated glyph areas.

Lust for Carnage will give players more than enough Spirit to be rotating their best skills, and Heightened Malice will be a 45% damage increase in any battle with three or more opponents. Between those two boards, there’s a ton of damage, but go hunt around on a few more for some extra glyph slots that also provide flat damage increases.

Gear

With the new aspect system, gamers have a ton of freedom to take the piece of gear they find with the best stats and then add their favorite effect to it. Increasing potion efficiency helps out a bit, but these aspects are game-changing. Note that some of these aspects can be swapped in and out on other pieces of gear.

As of Season of the Construct, Aspect of the Blurred Beast no longer deals 70-100% of the Poisoning damage on an enemy. Instead, it now makes Shred deal 20-40% bonus damage to poisoned enemies while dashing. This shifts damage away from Poison and into Shred itself, which means players should now look to improve the damage they deal with direct impacts and not Poison DoT.

Once players reach the endgame, they can specialize their Druid Werewolf build by focusing on either Tornado, Grizzly Rage with Direwolf’s Aspect, or going all-in on poison by replacing Hurricane with Lacerate and Earthen Bulwark with Rabies. Helpful Uniques include Mad Wolf’s Glee, Harlequin Crest, and Waxing Gibbous.

It should be noted that this build takes a long time to farm up, and some of these pieces are quite core to the overall build. For that reason, gamers should consider using an optimized Druid leveling build until acquiring some of the core equipment items listed here.

Spirit Boons

• Deer – Gift of the Stag
• Eagle (Bonded) – Swooping Attacks, Avian Wrath
• Snake – Masochistic
• Wolf – Energize

World Tiers can get out of control when it comes to difficulty. Thankfully, Spirit Boons are a simple way to keep pace with the escalating challenge. Eagle is a good choice for bonding as Avian Wrath adds critical damage, and Swooping Attacks increases attack speed.

Season of the Construct buffed Avian Wrath by changing its crit damage bonus from additive to multiplicative. As long as your current Critical Hit Damage value is over 100%, then you’ll gain more value from this Spirit Boon.

Gift of the Stag allows for more Shred casts before running out of Spirit. Once you do run out of steam, the Wolf’s Energize boon will help you regain Spirit more quickly by restoring up to 10 Spirit on a Lucky Hit. For the Snake’s boon, this build uses Masochistic to further increase this Werewolf build’s survivability.