Diablo 4 – Druid Build Guide: Ultimate Bulwark

Season 4: Ultimate Bulwark

This is a Season 4 build that utilizes OneHand/OffHand Earthen Bulwark for creating survivability / unstoppable and tries to active an ultimate as often as possible. The basis will be to focus Petrify for the Crit Damage multiplier on bosses.

Only 1 other ultimate currently draws my interest in the build, Lacerate. But due to the pause created by Lacerate’s animation in our Claw attacks, I am unsure of utilizing it.

Anything that survives the pop of damage cause by Airidah’s Inexorable Will will be pulled to us in melee, and things that were close will be stunned by Petrify. The follow up pop will possible wipe screens. I’ve been watching this effect in helltides and noticed that I clear screens of enemies without even approaching them.

Skill Tree

Claw 5/5 -> Enhance Claw 1/1 -> Wild Claw 1/1

• Our primary cast, we will use it to activate Hectic Aspect and Symbiotic Aspect via the Nature’s Savagery Aspect to create additional cooldown of our skills.

Shred 1/5 -> Enhanced Shred 1/1 -> Primal Shred 1/1

• Purely for mobility. Cyclone Armor will knock things away, Shred will get us right back on them.

Predatory Instinct 3/3 -> Digitigrade Gait 3/3 -> Iron Fur 3/3

• Crit Chance is always a great thing. But the Movement Speed and Damage Reductions should be up very consistantly.

Earthen Bulwark 5/5 -> Enhanced Earthen Bulwark -> Innate Earthen Bulwark

• Huge barriers and an Unstoppable Buff, this is going to be how we survive long enough to cast our ultimate repeatedly. I’ve of to 5/5 ranks to increase the size of the barrier, but the additional points could go elsewhere maybe…

Blood Howl 1/5 -> Enhanced Blood Howl -> Preserving Blood Howl

• We are only here for an Attack Speed buff.

Debilitating Roar 5/5 -> Enhanced Debilitating Roar -> Innate Debilitating Roar

• The largest reduction of enemy damage I know of in the game, paired with an excelent slow.

Ancestral Fortitude 3/3 -> Vigilance 3/3

• 15% to all the resistances will free oup some stats in our gear. And with the constant casting of Defense skills that the build does, we can get 100% uptime on the 15% DR.

Neurotoxin 1/3 -> Toxic Claws 1/3 -> Envenom 3/3

• The increased Crit Damage multiplier from Envenom is great, but we won’t be spreading a whole lot of poison. This will be mostly key on bosses where we can get the Toxic Claws to poison them and then stack it with the Petrify Crit Damage multiplier.

Petrify 1/1 -> Prime Petrify 1/1 -> Supreme Petrify 1/1

• The best ultimate for the build. Combines CC with extra Boss damage and a natural cooldown mechanic. All around great for the concept.

Quickshift 3/3 -> Heightened Senses 3/3

• We may be able to stack the full 18% muliplier if we can swap fast enough. I expect we will. The DR and Movement Speed will be a bit trickier but may be always up also, good for us.

Nature’s Fury 1/1

• Combined with Symbiotic Aspect this is the backbone of casting a lot of Earthen Bulwarks. This will get us a lot of free Earthen Spikes too, although they are kind of pointless, they can proc Calm Before the Storm.

Why All the Healing

Even with the large barrier, we have a lot of healing in the build. Due to this we are not going to take advantage of Low Life DR. Blood Howl’s Attack Speed increase alone makes worth taking so Low Life is out.

• Blood Howl heals for 20% of max life on activation.
• Masochistic passive is a lucky hit on crit hit for a 5% Max Life heal from shapeshifting skills.
• Undying aspect heals for 2% life on every skill cast.
• Shred heals for 4% max life if an enemy is hit.

Primary Items

We are relying on a single unique, Airidah’s Inexorable Will. Everything else is legendary aspects.

For the weapon, an Axe seems to be the better choice as we are not focusing on Overpower damage and the initial pop from Airidah’s Inexorable Will will most likely hit Healthy enemies and get the bonus implicit damage.

For Aspects, focus getting max rolled Aspects of Hectic and Symbiotic first. Aspect of Nature’s Savagery is absolutely necessary for Claw to proc Nature’s Fury so get it in the build ASAP and then Rapid Aspect to get Claw the most attack speed. Until you have Nature’s Savagery, Storm Strike would have to do. Aspect of Accursed Touch is going to be a big deal for adding Vulnerable to the build. Finally I’d be looking to max Vigorous, of Might, Undying and Concieted.

Stat Goals

Our primary stat goals are topped with Cooldown Reduction followed by Attack Speed, Willpower and finally Max Life.

CDR is the backbone as it will assist in activating everything, we will assist our CDR of specific powers in other ways but we need Cooldowns to be at a certain level to get max value of those assists.

Attack Speed will be next in our thought process because we are going to be attempting to proc the assisting Cooldown effects via Claw.

Willpower is almost as important as Attack Speed. It will scale our primary damage from Airidah’s Inexorable Will. Every 1 Willpower is a 1% increase in the damage multiplier.

Max Life is the final piece. More life means larger barriers. Because our damage is focused on the activation of the Ultimate, we need to survive for as long as we can via barriers. Max Life is available a lot more now, so we will get a lot of it.

(All item affixes assume 12/12 masterworking. And the place to focus your 4/8/12 upgrades are noted when needed.)

Cooldown Reduction

Our primary goal here, the build is all about CDR. We are going to balance this between Global CDR, Earthen Bulwark CDR, Debilitating Roar CDR and Ultimate CDR. Our goals are getting close to 5 second CD on Earthen Bulwark and Debilitating Roar. We want to reduce our Ultimate to be able to do it as often as possible. We also have assists in some passives, aspects and powers.

• Global CDR (54.5%)
• Helm – Greater Affix w/ 4/8/12 increases (20.2%)
• Amulet – Greater Affix w/ 4/8/12 increases (20.2%)
• Offhand – Greater Affix w/ 4/8/12 increases (20.2%)
• Offhand – Implicit 10.7%

• Earthen Bulwark CDR (26.38%)
• Helm – Temper (14.2%)
• Amulet – Temper (14.2%)

• Debilitating Roar CDR (16.8%)
• Pants – Temper (16.8%)

Note: Debilitating Roar CD is reduced by ranks in skill and on the Chest we will focus getting 8 Ranks of Debilitating Roar.)

• Ultimate CDR (15.1%)
• Ring – Airidah’s Inexorable Will (15.1%)

Hectic Aspect – Amulet

Every 5 basics can reduce the cooldown of a random power by 6 seconds. This includes our ultimate.

Symbiotic Aspect – Boots

Every time Nature’s Fury procs a 5 second reduction is applied to opposite nature powers. This excludes the ultimate. The only power that will be reduced is Earthen Bulwark, but we want to be activating it as often as we can, so it should be up often. We pair Claw with the Nature’s Savagery Aspect (Offhand) to make it proc Nature’s Fury as a Storm Skill.

Calm Before the Storm

Any Nature power can lucky hit for a 2 second reduction in the cooldown of our ultimate. Our options for procing this are limited, but there are some. Earthen Bulwark can do so. Earthen Spike (procced from Claw) can also. Other options that we probably won’t see as often are Cyclone Armor (procced from Earthen Bulwark and Debilitating Roar), and Cataclysm (procced from Petrify).

Petrify

Currently an obvious favorite due to the Supreme Petrify Node. On activation, nearby trash mobs may just immediately die from and cause a 1 second cooldown reduction of Petrify from the Airidah’s Inexorable Will effect. And Activating Petrifyon a Boss just flat reduces the cooldown by 10 seconds.

Blood Howl

Every kill reduces the cooldown by 1 second.

Inner Beast Legendary Paragon Node

Every 10 shapeshifts will reduce the cooldown of your ultimate by 5 seconds. As we constantly shift back and forth from werewolf to human for Claw + Earthen Bulwark and from werewolf to werebear for Claw + Debilitating Roar, this should stack quickly.

Some CDR Math

Earthen Bulwark has a 16 second cooldown. Applying all the CDR we have to it multiplicatively comes out like this:

16 x 79.8% x 79.8% x 79.8% x 89.3% x 85.8% x 85.8% = 5.345 seconds

Going any further is futile as a 5 second reduction from Symbiotic Aspect will get us back to 0 quickly. The .345 seconds is enough to get back to using Claw for just a moment…

Debilitating Roar has at rank 13 a 14.3 second cooldown. Applying the CDR we have for it multiplicatively comes out like this:

14.3 x 79.8% x 79.8% x 79.8% x 89.3% x 83.2% = 5.399 seconds

On this one, we have actually gone further than needed as we should want to be around 6 seconds. We need to activate Claw at least 1 time to get a Hectic Aspect activation on the power, or up to 5 times. Hectic Aspect can target any of our powers on cooldown, so this is a 1 in 4 shot. Thus I don’t think 5.399 seconds is that much of a waste if we can enhance the duration to ~5 seconds with the Duration increase affix.

Blood Howl has a 15 second cooldown. Applying all the CDR we have to it multiplicatively comes out like this:

15 x 79.8% x 79.8% x 79.8% x 89.3% = 6.806 seconds

This is not exactly where I would prefer to be on this cooldown. But I prioritized Debilitating Roar over Blood Howl because of the 70% reduced damage debuff. Still, the attack speed buff is 4 seconds. We can hope to get a Blood Howl often enough with its own recharge mechanic included.

Petrify has 50 second cooldown, and a 40 second cooldown against bosses. Applying all the CDR we have to it multiplicatively comes out like this:

50 x 79.8% x 79.8% x 79.8% x 89.3% x 84.9% = 19.264 seconds
40 x 79.8% x 79.8% x 79.8% x 89.3% x 84.9% = 15.411 seconds

These are respectable considering the additional reductions that can happen from the Inner Beast paragon node, Calm Before the Storm (least likely activation ever), and the Hectic Aspect. Consider that a cast will do damage and pull enemies on cast and 5 seconds after. If we can cast again within the 7 seconds of the initial cast against a boss, we will have the Crit Multi up at all times. But it all luck based at that point for the procs to go our way.

Note, just for putting the possibility out there, Lacerate has a 35 second cooldown. Applying all the CDR we have to it multiplicatively comes out like this:

35 x 79.8% x 79.8% x 79.8% x 89.3% x 84.9% = 13.485

Against a boss, we only gain <2 seconds. The change isn’t worth it…

Attack Speed

Although not maximized, the 2 attack speed caps are important to this build. It would be possible to swap in Accelerated Aspect in place of Conceited Aspect and add a consistent Shredinto the rotation to keep it up to increase Cap 2 to a possible 90% when Blood Howl is up. Due to the natural attack speed of a 1 hand vs 2 hand, I’ve prioritized Conceited Aspect in my theory though.

• Cap 1 Attack Speed (93.6-99.4%)
• Gloves – Greater Affix (29.3%)
• Amulet – Temper Werewolf Attack Speed (13.1-16%)
• Ring – Temper Werewolf Attack Speed (13.1-16%)
• OffHand – Greater Affix (29.3%)
• Paragon – Inner Beast (8.8%)

• Cap 2 Attack Speed (65%)
• Power – Claw(20%)
• Power – Blood Howl(15%)
• Ring – Rapid Aspect (30%)

Willpower

We will stack a lot of it. It increases skill damage and healing recieved (sarcastic yay). But the increase in our damage is a big deal. The increase to the ultimate damage from Airidah’s Inexorable Will is the biggest part of this.

We will get the increases from a lot of places. I’m aiming for at least 2000 Willpower.

Gems will give 27 Willpower each in the armor, 5 of them all Sapphires.

We will also look for Willpower affix on every piece of gear. it would be nice to have Greater affixes on them all but we have other things we need to focus on for greater affixes, so this can wait.

Max Life

Our Life total will directly influece our Barrier amount. We will look for Max Life on most of our gear: Helm, Chest, Gloves, Pants, Boots and Weapon. In addition, we will take the Iron Feather passive to get an additional 14% Max Life. Increases from paragon included, hopefully we will look for >20k life. Exceeding 30k life would be a dream.

Other Affixes

Pants – Resistance to All. This should help us shore up our resistances to Cap.

Weapon – Vulnerable Damage. Things will be Vulnerable but we have focused our efforts on surviving, this is one our chances for damage.

Amulet & Ring – Crit Strike Chance. We want to crit, this is an opportunity to get some chance.

Temper Affixes

Helm – Earthen Bulwark Cooldown already noted. And Lucky Hit: CC effect.

Chest – Debilitating Roar Duration just to extend our uptime by a second. And Lucky Hit: CC effect.

Gloves – Damage to Close and Lucky Hit: CC effect.

Pants – Debilitating Roar Cooldown already noted. Barrier Generation can be added also.

Boots – Movement Speed and Barrier Generation.

Amulet – Earthen Bulwark Cooldown and Werewolf Attack speed already accounted for.

Ring – Beyond the Werewolf Attack speed temper, there are not many affixes that will be of assistance. So it would be best to leave it at 4 so that you can focus on getting your upgrades in Willpower.

Weapon and Offhand, we will look for 2 specific Tempers:

• Lucky Hit: Chance for Physical Damage
• Damage to Close Enemies

Notes:

• Luck Hit: CC Effect should be varied. More of these will help in filling blue bars on bosses.
• Lucky Hit: Chance for Physical will be helpful in Single Target damage. I focused on Physical to synergize with our multipliers.
• Barrier Generation to get us closer to a Barrier that is 100% of our Max Life. But also because this minorly will increase the damage Earthen Bulwark does.
• Damage to Close is for Bosses as we will be on top of them while using Claw.

Gems

Armor as said above for Willpower are all Sapphires. Done.

Weapon/OffHand are probably best as Emeralds. Against bosses it will add more Vulnerable Damage. Topaz would increase Claw damage, but we are not focusing on that damage.

Jewelry is straight Skulls. We lack in the ARmor department unfortunately.

Uber Uniques

I’ve been considering what could be added. It is difficult due to a lot of the affixes being pretty necessary.

Harlequin Crest – Due to the CDR on the Helm, you could utilize this and swap around to get some Earthen Bulwark cooldown on the chest instead of Debilitating Roar duration. The +4 ranks to all skills will be useful also. The helm will always be good, but you don’t need to absolutely go hunting for it.

Tyreal’s Might – We will have a less Debilitating Roar casts happening with this one. But I honestly think it may be a wonderful addition tot he build. We have a ton of healing to keep us at full along with huge barriers to avoid taking health damage. This might be the only Uber I would actually hunt to add. The explosive AoE damage would be a pretty cool addition to the build also. I might move the Might Aspect to the Helm slot though, as it is better than the Vigorous Aspect.

Link to Build

Here is a build with perfect rolls of everything… which is never going to happen…

https://maxroll.gg/d4/planner/ug2yu09o

Conclusion

Things I could hope / wish for…

An aspect that removes Cyclone Armor’s Knockback effect, or that makes it pull enemies to you… IDK. Cyclone Armor is the most frustrating part of the Druid kit IMO.

CDR affixes not being extremely rare… good luck.

No cap on CDR… cause if there is… well throw this whole build out.

Why did I choose this or that

It may not be optimal but I felt that I needed more damage over an additional Attack Speed bonus in the case of Conceited Aspect v Accelerated Aspect. A barrier will almost always be up for this build, thus it should be easy to keep a 25%x multiplier. While interrupting trying to Clawas often as possible to thrown in an unnecessary Shredat an inopportune moment just felt off.

Undying Aspect probably isn’t necessary unless you absolutely want to be keeping 100% max health (Tyreal’s Might again). So maybe there is something else here. I like this aspect and the fact that the build is rapid fire casting skills. Maybe Juggernaut Aspect is better?

Aspect of the Accursed Touch is IMO a great way to add a Vulnerable effect into the build. Although the Vulnerable Damage bonus isn’t that high, we will constantly be cursing enemies with Claw and this should help our single target damage. I don’t expect to be able to curse whole screens of enemies, and Exploit (3 sec) doesn’t last long enough for the second tick of Airidah’s Inexorable Will (5 sec) to happen. This will apply a long time Vulnerable to enemies, justa great source of the condition.