Boulder - Druid Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 7)

Build Introduction

Unleash an Avalanche to bury your enemies! Hurl Boulders at your foes, obliterating those that stand in your path. The Boulder Druid build uses the Unique Item Dolmen Stone and Aspect of Metamorphic Stone in combination to let your Boulders do massive damage in a large area around you.

This guide covers everything necessary to get started on your Boulder adventure including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates, variant gameplay and in-depth explanations.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Mobile gameplay
Excels at both AoE and Bossing
SPIN ROCK

Weaknesses

Resource hungry build
Gameplay can be complicated
Heavy gearing investment

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

The following Unique Items and Legendary Aspects are required for build functionality to get started on the Boulder Druid:

Required Uniques

Required Aspects

Please make sure to check the sections on Cataclysm and Spirit Management, as well as Hurricane Management to fine tune making the build work for the gear level and progression of your character.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Spirit Boons – The Druid Class Specialization

Druids unlock powerful Spirit Boon passives, giving offerings to the animal spirits to receive their Blessing. Once fully unlocked, activate the final Boon by Spirit Bonding with one of the four animal spirits to take two passives from that row.

Boon Name	Animal	Effect
Wariness	Deer	Take 15% reduced damage from Elites.
Iron Feather	Eagle	Gain 30% Maximum Life.
Avian Wrath	Eagle	Gain 40% Critical Strike Damage.
Calamity	Wolf	Ultimate Skills last 35% longer.
Obsidian Slam	Snake	Every 6th attack cast will cause your next Earth Skill to Overpower.

While leveling and gearing, use the Wolf’s Energize over Calamity and Gift of the Stag over Wariness. This is helpful for Spirit Management.

Gear, Stats, Gems and Elixirs

The following are the recommended Legendary Aspects, Gear Affixes, Gems, and Elixirs for the Boulder Druid.

Legendary Aspects

Gear Slots with multiple options are listed in recommended priority. Any slot with an Optional Mythic Unique or Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power to use while still leveling and gearing.

Slot	Gem	Aspect	Unique/Legendary Power
2 Handed Polearm	Grand Emerald	Aspect of Metamorphic Stone	Boulder is now a Core Skill and costs 40 Spirit to cast dealing 90-130% of normal damage.
Head	Grand Sapphire	(Recommended Unique) Vasily’s Prayer Juggernaut’s Aspect	Your Earth Skills are now also Werebear skills and Fortify you for 2-5% of your Maximum Health.
Chest	Grand Sapphire	(Recommended Mythic) Shroud of False Death (Recommended Unique)Insatiable Fury Aspect of Might	If you haven’t attacked in the last 2 seconds, gain Stealth and 40% Movement Speed.
Gloves		Aspect of Retaliation	Your Core Skills deal up to 35-75% increased damage based on your amount of Fortify.
Pants	Grand Sapphire	Stormshifter’s Aspect	While Hurricane is active, gain +5 Ranks to your Shapeshifting Skills.
Boots		(Recommended Unique) Wildheart Hunger Aspect of Metamorphosis	Shapeshifting into a new animal form increases the value of your Bestial Rampage bonuses by 2-5%, up to 20-50%. This bonus decays by 2% per second.
Amulet	Grand Diamond	(Required) Dolmen Stone	Casting Boulder while Hurricane is active will cause your boulders to rotate around you, up to a maximum of 10 boulders. Each rotating boulder increases their damage by 20-40%
Ring 1	Grand Diamond	(Recommended Unique) Mjölnic Ryng Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt	While Cataclysm is active, you gain unlimited Spirit and deal 40-100% increased damage.
Ring 2	Grand Diamond	(Recommended Mythic)Ring of Starless Skies (Recommended Unique) Hunter’s Zenith Accelerating Aspect	Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10% for 3 seconds, up to 50%.

For more information on Legendary Aspects and the Codex of Power, check the guide here.

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. The bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. Unique Items cannot be Tempered, but can be Masterworked. Check the Tempering guide and Masterworking guide for more details about these topics.

Any slot with an Optional Mythic Unique or Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power to use while still leveling and gearing.

Slot	Gearing Affixes	Tempering Affixes
2 Handed Polearm – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Max Life Critical Strike Damage Chance on Hit to Restore Spirit	Earth Augments – Chance for Boulder Projectiles To Cast Twice Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance
Helm – (Required Unique)Vasily’s Prayer	Willpower% Maximum Life Armor Ranks to Defensive Posture
Chest – (Recommended Mythic) Shroud of False Death	All Stats Maximum Life Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth Resource Generation
Chest-(Recommended Unique) Insatiable Fury	Maximum Life Werebear Overpower Ursine Strength’s Bonuses Ranks to Iron Fur
Gloves – Legendary Aspect	Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Ranks to Core Skills Willpower	Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance Nature Magic Innovation – Hurricane Duration
Pants – Legendary Aspect	Max Life Willpower Armor Resistance to All Elements Dodge Chance	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor% Nature Magic Innovation – Hurricane Duration
Boots- (Recommended)Wildheart Hunger	Movement Speed Shapeshifting Attack Speed Cold Resistance Ranks to Heightened Senses
Boots – Legendary Aspect	Movement Speed Ranks to Boulder Max Life Willpower Spirit Per Second	Druid Motion – Movement Speed Worldly Fortune – Lucky Hit: [Any of] Chance to Immobilize/Stun/Freeze for 2 Seconds
Amulet – (Required)Dolmen Stone	Movement Speed while Hurricane is active Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction Ranks to Wrath Skills Ranks to Crushing Earth
Ring – (Recommended)Ring of Starless Skies	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Ranks in Core Skills
Ring – (Recommended) Mjölnic Ryng	Willpower Critical Strike Chance Movement Speed While Cataclysm is Active Ranks to Endless Tempest
Ring – (Recommended Unique) Hunter’s Zenith	Willpower Ranks to Predatory Instinct Ranks to Quickshift Ranks to Heightened Senses
Ring – Legendary Aspect	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Max Life Willpower	Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance Ultimate Efficiency — Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction

Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction is the most important affix to roll high and target for Greater Affix and Mastercraft. It will help the most in maintaining both Hurricane and Cataclysm. Ranks in Endless Tempest will also be significant.
Hurricane duration tempers are useful for maintaining your Boulders.
Armor cap is 1000 for up to 85% Physical Damage Reduction. This is generally reached with either one Armor Gear Affix and one Total Armor% Temper, a well-rolled Vasily’s Prayer, or using a Juggernaut’s Aspect.

For the dedicated page on Gear Systems and Itemization Overview, check the guide here.

Gems and Runewords

The following are the recommended Gem and Runeword setups for the Boulder Druid:

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Emerald for Critical Strike Damage	Grand Sapphire for Willpower	Grand Diamond for resistance to all elements

Seasonal: Use the recommended Occult Gem Setup for Jewelry.

Moonlight Ward – For each rank in your slotted Unique Witchcraft Power, you gain 3% Damage Reduction and .5% Maximum Resistance to All Elements.
Friend of the Bog – While you have three or more Growth & Decay Witch Powers slotted, you gain 10% primary stat, 10% Maximum Life and you are always Unhindered.
Elder Sigil – Your Agility, Corpse, Incarnate, Mastery, Weapon Master, and Wrath Skills deal 25% increased direct damage to Hexed enemies.

Runewords

Use these Runeword combinations for the Boulder Druid, placed in the 2 Handed Weapon and into one Armor slot:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Bac Wat	Bac – Gain: 50 Offering. Travel 5 meters. Wat – Requires: 100 Offering Cooldown: 1 Second. Overflow: Increased Duration. Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them.
Xol Kry	Xol – Gain: 150 Offering. Evoke power from another Class. Kry – Requires: 300 Offering Cooldown: 3 Seconds. Overflow: Increased Radius. Evoke the Spiritborn’s Vortex, dealing damage and Pulling In enemies.

Runewords use a conditional Rune of Ritual to generate Offering. The Offering is consumed by the Rune of Invocation to trigger its effect. Runes replace Gems in gear with two sockets. Up to two sets of Runeword Pairs can be placed at a time.

Horrid Decrepify is an efficient way to gain offering for Xol. Casts of Vortex can help group and cluster enemies efficiently.

Other combinations can also situationally work well; adjust to the content you are running. These can include:

(Offering Efficiency) other Ritual options such as Lith for Stand Still or Cem for Evade.
(Defensive) Que Invocation for Earthen Bulwark can be strong Barrier and Unstoppable.
(Spirit Management) Poc Lum in combination can give strong Spirit Refund.
(Overpower) Xal gives higher Max Life, which makes overpower hit harder.
(Early Gearing) While leveling and gearing before legendary Runes become accessible, many Magic and Rare runewords such as Gar for Critical Strike Chance will be viable.

Elixirs, Incense and Health Potions

The Alchemist offers helpful consumables at the cost of foraged materials found throughout Sanctuary.

Craft the highest available Elixir of Advantage for Attack Speed and Lucky Hit bonuses.
If mats are available, craft Chorus of War.
Remember to upgrade your potion as you level, increasing the instant healing of the potion!

Paragon Board

The following are the preferred Glyphs, Boards, and pathing recommended for making the most of the Boulder Druid.

The road to max Paragon is long. The above Paragon tabs show the following:

The BASE SETUP tab spends 50 fewer points than the max 328 points, taking stricter pathing to take all most all Legendary, Rare and Magic Nodes, and activates all Glyph Nodes with their secondary effects.
The FULL SETUP tab completes the paragon board in its final form, filling in the rest of the board to get the rest of the Magic and Rare Nodes, as well as give additional additive bonuses especially within the Glyph areas.

Glyphs have two significant breakpoint increases. At level 15, the glyph grows in radius and gains a special effect. At level 46, the glyph grows to its max radius and gains a strong conditional damage multiplier.

Glyphs are placed as if they are at least level 15+ in radius. Total Boards placed are now limited to a max of 5; the Starter Board and four Class Boards. Rotate boards as necessary.

For a more defensive glyph setup, exchange Tectonic for Territorial.

Powers of Witchcraft and Occult Gems

Seasonal players can choose from a selection of Witchcraft powers and Occult gems to enhance their gameplay. 1 Unique and 5 Normal Witchcraft Powers can be equipped using the Witchcraft tab on the character sheet. Occult gems are placed into the jewelry sockets, and can be crafted at the Tree of Whispers. Use the following setup for the Boulder Druid:

Witchcraft Powers

Unique Power

The Cycle – Growth and Decay

Dealing any damage with your skills has a 15% chance to grow a flower from the ground. When an enemy is near, the flower deals X Poison damage to that enemy over 5 seconds. If an ally is near, the flower heals for 6% maximum Life. The flower withers away after use. A flower may grow once every 2 seconds per enemy. Frequency limited to a maximum of 3 per second.
Rank 5: The damage and healing affects all enemies or allies near the flower.

Normal Powers

Aura Specialization – Lost Power

The size of your Aura Effects is increased.
Rank 10: Increase the Critical Strike Damage by 50% against enemies inside your Aura Effects.

Hex of Shattering – Psyche

Damage done by your Witchcraft Effects afflicts enemies with Hex of Shattering causing them to deal reduced damage for 5 seconds.
Rank 8: When any Hex Effect is applied to Headrotten, all damage will be guaranteed Critical Strikes for 5 seconds.

Aura of Siphoning– Growth and Decay

Conjure an aura of decay that deals Poison damage to enemies every second.
Rank 10: Each time Aura of Siphoning deals damage, you are healed for 1% of Maximum Life.

Soul Harvest – Growth and Decay

Feed upon the life force of nearby enemies whenever you use a skill with a cooldown, increasing your primary stat by 3% per monster for X seconds.
Rank 9: Soul Harvest does not lose duration so long as enemies are nearby.

Force of Will – Psyche

When you kill an enemy, your next Overpower deals X% increased damage, up to 100%.
Rank 4: The damage bonus extends to the next 2 Overpowers instead of 1.
When bossing or in low kill content where you do not get good Overpower stacks from Force of Will, this can be exchanged for another useful power like Hex Specialization.

This is a Friend of the Bog setup that offers high Critical Strike Damage, Overpower damage, Willpower and Max Life. The Unique Power will help keep Poisoned active on enemies.

Occult Gems

Moonlight Ward – For each rank in your slotted Unique Witchcraft Power, you gain 3% Damage Reduction and .5% Maximum Resistance to All Elements.
Elder Sigil – Your Agility, Corpse, Incarnate, Mastery, Weapon Master, and Wrath Skills deal 25% increased direct damage to Hexed enemies.
Friend of the Bog – While you have three or more Growth & Decay Witch Powers slotted, you gain 10% primary stat, 10% Maximum Life and you are always Unhindered.

Optionally, for farm or quality of life in non-push content, swap Friend of the Bog for Hungering Void.

Hungering Void – While you have an Aura active, pull Nearby enemies toward you every 8 seconds.

Unique Items

Dolmen Stone causes Boulder to rotate around the player while Hurricane is active. It is required for this playstyle. Boulders caught in the Hurricane will do less knockback.
Vasily’s Prayer is a strong source of Fortify, and makes Boulder a Werebear skill. This enables maintenance of several strong multipliers like Quickshift and Heightened Senses.
Insatiable Fury is a strong defensive Unique Item, and grants skill ranks to Werebear skills, including Boulder, because Vasily’s Prayer makes Boulder a Werebear Skill.
Wildheart Hunger gives a stacking bonus to Bestial Rampage. This is naturally maintained with the Claw and Boulder rotation.
The Mjölnic Ryng gives a strong damage multiplier and makes all spenders cost zero when Cataclysm is active. This is a strong addition to our damage, and worth playing around. See the Cataclysm and Spirit Management Section for more information.
Hunter’s Zenith provides periodic Critical Overpowers.

Dolmen Stone can be target-farmed from Duriel.

Mythic Unique Items

The Boulder Druid can benefit from the following Mythic Unique items:

Ring of Starless Skies is a powerful Resource Cost Reduction tool and damage multiplier.
Shroud of False Death gives +1 to all Skill Passives. This includes strong additions to Damage multipliers, Damage Reductions, Fortify Generation and Quality of Life increases like longer Cataclysm and Hurricane.

Mercenaries

Once unlocked, Mercenaries are followers that aid the Player in combat. A main mercenary is chosen to fight alongside you, granting strong buffs or perks, and a secondary Mercenary is chosen to periodically Reinforce you under a chosen Opportunity condition.

The following Mercenary options are recommended for the Boulder Druid:

Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker

Skills: Cleave, Hysteria, Bloodthirst, Bloodlust

Reinforcement – Raheir, the Shieldbearer

Reinforcement Ability – Crater

Hysteria and Bloodlust will both give strong Attack Speed bonuses.

Rotation

Before Combat:

Claw in place for Bestial Rampage.
Maintain Hurricane.
Pre-build a few Boulders. This will also give the other half of Bestial Rampage.

When engaging enemies:

Maintain Hurricane.
Maintain Cataclysm.
Poison Creeper to apply Poison and Immobilize enemies. This can be cast while moving.
Cast Boulders, pushing against your priority enemies as they are knocked back. Up to 10 Boulders can be maintained at at time.
As needed, filler attack with Claw.

Use Earthen Bulwark as necessary for Barrier, Fortify and Unstoppable.

Claw and other Skills that change your Form do not need to hit enemies to gain the Shapeshifting benefits. It can often be beneficial to keybind and tap Force Hold to be able to cast in place.

Check out the advanced Build Mechanics section for a more in-depth description on how the build works, what synergies exist, and what to look out for.

Season 7 Updates: Season of Witchcraft

The gameplay for the Boulder druid does not change much with the new season. Damage will generally be higher thanks to changes to Paragon Nodes, and Poison is easier to apply with the new Savage Boulder applying a damage over time Poison on hit. Early Spirit Management is easier with the buffs to Gift of the Stag and Energize boons. The best part is Boulders and Hurricanes can now be cast while moving and number of Boulders active is tracked, which is lovely.

The following list details the important changes in the Season 7 Patch Updates that are specific to the Boulder Druid. For general Season 7 information, check out our Season 7 Hub.

Itemization:

Mjölnic Ryng – New Effect- While Cataclysm is active, you gain unlimited Spirit and deal 40-100% increased damage. Cataclysm receives your Lightning Bolt benefits.
Dolmen Stone – Number of active Boulders now displays on the skill bar.

Skills and Stats:

Boulder can now be cast while moving.
Savage Boulder – New Effect – Boulder now deals Poison damage and applies additional Poison damage over 4 seconds.
Hurricane Can now be cast while moving.
Cataclysm New Effect at Rank 5: Casting Cataclysm Slows surrounding enemies by 70% for 8 seconds.
Heightened Senses – New Effect – When Shapeshifting, Werebear grants 3% Damage Reduction and Werewolf grants 3% Movement Speed. Both bonuses persist as long as you are in either animal form. They are lost after 3 seconds in Human form.
- Note: This is a significant nerf, effectively killing the 17 ranks immortality cheese.
Dealing Storm damage also applies an additional 20% Poisoning damage over 5 seconds.
Snake Boon Overload – New Effect
- Dealing Storm damage also applies an additional 20% Poisoning damage over 5 seconds.
- Lucky Hit: Dealing Poison damage has up to a 1% chance to summon a Lightning Bolt on the target dealing 120% damage.
Gift of the Stag Spirit Boon – now also grants 5 Spirit Per Second.
Obsidian Slam Spirit Boon – New Effect – Every 6th attack cast will cause your next Earth Skill to Overpower.
Energize Spirit Boon – New Effect – Lucky Hit: Dealing damage has a 15% chance to fully restore your Spirit.
Heightened Malice – New Effect – While a Poisoned enemy is Nearby, you deal 35% increased damage plus an additional 5% for each additional Poisoned enemy, up to 4.
Ancestral Guidance – New Effect – After spending 75 Spirit, you deal 40% increased damage for 5 seconds. Your Ultimate Skills deal 1% increased damage per Spirit when cast.
Survival Instincts – New Effect: While in Werebear form, you deal 30% increased damage or 45% when you are at full Life. You have 1% increased Overpower damage, up to 25%, for every 1% difference in current Life percent and Fortified Life percent between you and the enemy.

Advanced Information

It is time to get started on your Boulder journey!

Or see below for further information on how the build works, as well as further explanations for Paragon, Gearing, and Gameplay, and available playstyle options.

Build Mechanics

This build has lots of moving parts that come together to make a powerful storm of abilities.

Boulder is our high-damage main Skill. When Hurricane is active, Dolmen Stone causes the Boulders will revolve around the player. Aspect of Metamorphic Stone turns Boulder into a Core Skill, removes the cooldown, and adds a Spirit Cost to the skill. Keep several of these rotating around you at a time, and refresh them as they run out. Boulder does Physical damage, but is a Nature Magic Skill, The Earth Tags will be included in anything that asks for Nature, such as Defiance. Up to ten Boulder can be maintained at a time, with a damage multiplier from Dolmen Stone for each active Boulder.

Supporting Skills

Claw is a filler Basic Attack that can help maintain Werewolf buffs like Heightened Senses or Bestial Rampage, and applies a single target Poison with Fierce Claw.

Earthen Bulwark is a defensive tool for Barrier and Unstoppable.

Poison Creeper applies wide Immobilize Crowd Control and Poison to enemies. It can be cast while moving so is not disruptive to play. It is a strong enabler for Heightened Malice.

Poison Creeper and Earthen Bulwark are flexible skill options.

Poison Creeper is a flex point for a strong immobilize and wide Poison debuff application.
Earthen Bulwark is a strong defensive and source of Unstoppable.

Other options include:

Trample as another source of Unstoppable and mobility. Insatiable Fury will let you take the skill without spending points in it. The point can go to Resonance.
Cyclone Armor for a more passive defensive option.
Preserving Blood Howl for Attack Speed. Take points from Defensive Posture or Natural Disaster to fill out the Skill.
Primal Shred as a stronger mobility tool. Take points from Defensive Posture or Natural Disaster to fill out the Skill.

Ultimate Skill and Key Passive

Cataclysm casts Tornado and Lightning Storm and makes enemies struck Vulnerable. The Unique Item Mjölnic Ryng gives a strong multiplier while Cataclysm is active, and makes all Spenders cost zero Spirit. Items like Ring of Starless Skies will still stack. Cataclysm uptime is maintained by extending the buff with skill passives like Endless Tempest and cooldown reductions like Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction on Dolmen Stone or from skill ranks like from Stormshifter’s Aspect. If these arent sufficient sources for cooldown reduction, consider changing the following:

Use Calm Before the Storm Spirit Boon, replacing Obsidian Slam.
Use Airidah’s Inexorable Will over Hunter’s Zenith. Mastercraft the Ultimate Cooldown Reduction.

Our Key passive is Bestial Rampage. We use Claw for Werewolf, and Boulder for Werebear. Vasily’s Prayer makes Boulder a Werebear Skill. This is a strong damage multiplier and attack speed buff. This is most effective in a speed farm content.

Ursine Strength Overpower Variant

Ursine Strength can pull ahead in the highest push content from large Overpower attacks. The Boulders are Overpowered for the entire duration of that boulder. However, this playstyle will require significant buffwatching of all Overpower Sources to make sure you do not clip any Overpower Boulders. To use this variant:

Change Bestial Rampage to Ursine Strength
Change Swooping Attack Spirit Boon to Iron Feather. In General Max Life gains will be desirable.
Use Legendary Boots with ranks to Boulder over Wildheart Hunger. Mastercraft the Ranks to Boulder.
Take points from Endless Tempest and Heightened Senses to take points in Provocation and Mending. Make sure you have enough Hurricane Duration and Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction to not need the ranks to Endless Tempest.
Overpower Boulders are your significant damage; sources include from Obsidian Slam Spirit Boon, Provocation and Hunter’s Zenith. Watch the timers on those.
Use the Rune Setup BacWat XolXal. Xal gives extra Max Life which is useful for Overpower damage.

Petrify Variant

Petrify as an Ultimate can be played for higher volume of Overpower casts and topend Critical Strikes. However, this means managing Spirit instead of not worrying about Spirit with Cataclysm. To play Petrify, make the following changes:

Exchange ranks in Cataclysm for Petrify.
Take Obsidian Slam boon over Calm before the storm.
Take Energize boon over Calamity.
Use Tibault’s Will and Aspect of Metamorphosis on Boots to help manage Spirit. Make sure boot implicit is Attacks reduce Evade Cooldown.
Use Ursine Strength over Bestial Rampage.
Use XolYom Runeword for periodic petrifies.
Use a Hunter’s Zenith for more Critical Overpowers, or an Airidah’s Inexorable Will for gathers on Ultimate cast.
Use Utility Tempers for Petrify Duration.
Use Resource Cost Reduction on 2-handed Weapon, preferably Greater Affixed.

Shapeshifting

There’s several Shapeshifting buffs that are maintained throughout the fight. Bestial Rampage, Quickshift, Heightened Senses. They are easily maintained with Claw and Boulder, just try not ever be in Human form for longer than three seconds. Wildheart Hunger requires shifting to Werebear and Werewolf forms to maintain stacks, which is done easily with our standard rotation.

Paragon

The Paragon Board is a progression system unlocked at Level 60, giving player power through Common stat Nodes, Magic affix Nodes, Rare leveled Glyphs, and Legendary board-exclusive Nodes. For general paragon board information, check the guide here. Paragon Points are earned from leveling, Renown and Altars of Lilith.

The recommended Paragon boards for the Boulder Druid are listed above. The following section goes over some explanations and descriptions for the pathing process for the Boulder Druid.

Broadly speaking, decisions for pathing through the Druid paragon board are divided into three categories:

Damage – The paragon boards provide a significant amount of Damage Multipliers and Additives. This includes:
- Socketed Glyphs such as Spirit and Outmatch.
- Legendary Nodes such as Earthen Devastation.
- Magic and Rare nodes such as Crushing Earth for damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies, which is beneficial for Earthen Devastation.
Defense – The paragon boards help reach goals on Damage Reduction, Armor, and Resistances. This includes:
- Damage Reduction is improved from individual nodes providing bonuses like Damage Reduction while Fortified.
- Resistances are improved from Magic and Rare Resistance nodes.
Build Functionality – The paragon boards improve Spirit Generation for the build from a few sources, including:
- Spirit on Kill and Max Spirit from the Ancestral Guidance board.

Cataclysm and Spirit Management

With the new Unique Item Mjölnic Ryng, many Druid builds will play around Cataclysm for the significant Damage Multiplier and full Spirit Cost Reduction while Cataclysm is active. We make several choices on Spirit Generation and Spirit Boons that enable or make this choice shine. This also means Downtime can be punishing, so we want to keep Cataclysm up to avoid Spirit problems.

Cataclysm Maintenance

To Maintain Cataclysm we use:

Ranks in Endless Tempest and Calamity Spirit Boon extend the duration of Cataclysm.
- Targeting the Ranks in Endless Tempest on Mjölnic Ryng and the Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction on Dolmen Stone for Greater Affix and Mastercrafting is significant for this build.
Ultimate Efficiency – Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction on the 2nd ring slot if using a Legendary Aspect.
Ranks in Cataclysm reduce cooldown, such as from Stormshifter’s Aspect.

If this is not sufficient for uptime, we can optionally:

Use Airidah’s Inexorable Will, mastercrafting Ultimate Cooldown Reduction. replaces Hunter’s Zenith.
Use Calm Before the Storm Spirit Boon for Ultimate Cooldown Reduction. Replaces Obsidian Slam.

Spirit Management

In Early Gearing and Leveling, or before using the Mjölnic Ryng with strong uptime, consider doing the one or several of following for Spirit Generation and Management:

Take the Wolf’s Energize Spirit Boon, replacing Swooping Attacks or Calamity.
Take the Deer’s Gift of the Stag Spirit Boon for Spirit Per Second.
Use Aspect of the Umbral or Starlight Aspect for Spirit.
Use Runeword setup Poc Lum for Spirit Refunds.
Mercenary – Use Raheir’s Iron Wolf’s Call Iconic Passive for periodic free casts of Boulder.
Remove points in Wild Impulses, placing them in Ancestral Fortitude, Digitigrade Gait or Vigilance.
Adjust Gear affixes: Resource Cost Reduction on Weapon, and Resource Generation on Rings. Spirit on Kill on weapon, or Spirit Per Second on Helm, Chest, or Boots can all be useful.
Use Claw as an attack to build Spirit.

Hurricane Maintenance

For the Boulder Druid to play smoothly, Hurricane should be a longer duration than its cooldown. If Hurricane Uptime is not complete, any spinning Boulder will shoot out from the relative direction and be lost, spilling all the meatballs from the plate, making a mess, and the Boulder count will restart back at zero next Hurricane. This is a significant issue for maintaining gameplay momentum. There’s a number of ways that we extend the duration, and reduce the cooldown. Sources include:

The Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction on Dolmen Stone is a large source for Cataclysm and Hurricane Cooldown Reductions. Getting these Mastercrafted and Greater Affixed are significant.
Hurricane Duration Utility Tempers on Gloves, Pants, and Amulet can make Hurricane duration more than long enough.
Ranks in Endless Tempest extend duration from Skill Points and on the Mjölnic Ryng.
Any Cooldown Reduction on gear.

Changelog

19 January, 2025: Updated for Season 7 and Patch 2.1 updates. Two tab paragon board introduced.
15 October, 2024: Updated for new onsite Paragon Tool.
28 September, 2024: Updated for Season 6. Changes to Paragon, Skill Tree, Skill Bar, and recommended Uniques.
7 August, 2024: Significant rework of the main build due to season 5 bugs. Cataclysm Boulder changed to main build and Nature’s Fury Shred Boulder retired for now.
2 August, 2024: Updated Guide for changes with Patch 1.5.0 and Season of the Infernal Horde. Shepherd Boulder variant removed. Cataclysm Boulder variant added.
17 June, 2024: Updated for mid-season patch 1.4.3. Updates to Spirit Boons, Gear Affixes and Paragon Board for better total damage.
15 May, 2024: Small changes in gear affixes to adjust for season launch changes from PTR.
5 May, 2024: Guide reworked for the significant 1.4.0 changes to gearing and for season 4 speculative changes. Format changed to frontload basic build information and offer extra information and options afterwards.
10 March, 2024: Guide created, fully replacing previous guide.
- Ownership transferred.
- Adjusted Gear, Skills, and Paragon sections to hit defensive stats targets and improve overall damage output.
- Improved readability, explanations, and options.

Boulder – Druid Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 7)