Cataclysm – Druid Build for Diablo 4 (Season 7)

Build Introduction

Unleash the Cataclysm to drive your enemies before a storm of Lightning Bolts and Twisters! This is an Ultimate Skill build using the Druid’s Cataclysm.

This Skill is a long-duration cast that can get large stacking layers of multipliers guaranteed throughout including:

• Xan guarantees Critical Strike and Overpower for the duration of the cast.
• Qax increases the damage of the entire Cataclysm.
• Mjölnic Ryng is a high multiplier for damage while Cataclysm is active.
• Ranks to Cataclysm including sources like Stormshifter’s Aspect increase damage further.

New to Season 7 there’s new changes that will help scale Cataclysm’s damage further. These include:

• Mjölnic Ryng‘s added effect: Cataclysm receives your Lightning Bolt benefits. This means it can scale off Lightning Bolt effects like:
  • Charged Atmosphere
  • Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect
  • Electrocution Paragon Glyph
  • Aspect of Electrified Claws
  • Lightning Bolt damage Tempering
• Ancestral Guidance now increases Ultimate Damage based on Spirit when cast.

This build can be played early, but has high requirements to function smoothly in the endgame. Be sure to check the Build Requirements before diving in. Gameplay will feel similar to the Hurricane Druid.

This guide covers everything necessary to get started on your Cataclysm adventure, including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates.

Strengths and Weaknesses

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

Required Uniques

Tempest Roar

Mjölnic Ryng

Airidah’s Inexorable Will

Required Aspects

Stormshifter’s Aspect

For smoothness of play, you will need enough Cataclysm duration and cooldown reduction to keep Cataclysm running. This means:

• Enough ranks in Endless Tempest from sources like Mjölnic Ryng.
• Enough Cooldown Reduction on your Ultimate Skills from sources like Airidah’s Inexorable Will and Stormshifter’s Aspect.
• Ultimate Efficiency –  Druid – Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction on Amulet.

Target these Gear affixes for Greater Affixing and Mastercrafting.

We want to achieve full Cataclysm uptime without have to rely on inconsistent sources of Ultimate Cooldown Reduction like Calm Before the Storm boon or Flickerstep.

You will also want the right Legendary Runes of Invocation: Xan and Qax for their Guaranteed Critical Strike, Overpower, and damage multipliers. Provocation could be used while still looking for Xan, but it’s less reliable for chaining snapshots of Overpower, and does not include Critical Strike.

You will also need access to the Nature Magic Innovation Utility Manual for Tempering Hurricane Duration. This is important for Skill Ranks to Cataclysm from Stormshifter’s Aspect.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

MaulPulverizeDebilitating RoarEarthen BulwarkHurricaneCataclysm

Primal Pulverize is a flex skill, to give some Damage Reduction and maintain Werebear form for bonuses like Survival Instincts. Other options will work such as:

• Primal Shred for mobility.
• Cyclone Armor for passive Damage Reduction.
• Wolves to tank some damage for you.

For Cyclone Armor or Wolves, only one point is invested. Those points can flex to Electric Shock for damage and crowd control.

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.

Gift of the Stag is used for the Max Spirit for Ancestral Guidance multiplier. Take Wariness if you need the damage reduction vs Elites and Bosses.

Gear, Stats, Gems and Elixirs

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

Legendary Aspects

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

Slot	Gem	Aspect	Unique/Legendary Aspect Power
2 Handed Mace	Grand Ruby	Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt	You deal 25-65% increased damage while hitting a Poisoned enemy as a Werebear or a Crowd Controlled enemy as a Werewolf.
Helm	Grand Sapphire	Tempest Roar	Lucky Hit: Storm Skills have up to a 10-35% chance to grant 4 Spirit. Your base Storm Skills are now also Werewolf Skills
Chest	Grand Sapphire	Shroud of False Death Mad Wolf’s Glee	If you haven’t dealt damage in the last 2 seconds, gain Stealth and 40% Movement Speed.
Gloves	N/A	Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect	Critical Strikes with Storm Skills cause Lightning Bolts to periodically strike close enemies for 3 seconds, each dealing Lightning damage. Your Lightning Bolt damage is increased for every 100 Willpower you have.
Pants	Grand Sapphire	Skinwalker’s Aspect	When you use a Shapeshifting Skill that changes your form, Heal for 5-25% of your Maximum Life. If you are at full Life, gain the same amount as Fortify.
Boots	N/A	Stormshifter’s Aspect	While Hurricane is active, gain +5 Ranks to your Shapeshifting Skills.
Amulet	Grand Amethyst	Aspect of Electrified Claws	Shapeshifting into a new animal form causes a Lightning Bolt to strike a Nearby enemy dealing Lightning damage. Your Lightning Bolts deal 20-40% increased damage and Stun for 2 seconds.
Ring 1	Grand Ruby	Airidah’s Inexorable Will	When casting an Ultimate Skill and again 5 seconds after, you Pull in Distant enemies and deal Physical damage to them. This damage is increased by 10% per 1 point of Willpower you have.
Ring 2	Grand Sapphire	Mjölnic Ryng	While Cataclysm is active, you gain unlimited Spirit and deal 40-100% increased damage. Cataclysm receives your Lightning Bolt benefits.

The Offensive Aspect slot is competitive for this build. While Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect is locked in for the high Lightning Bolt scaling off Willpower on gloves, you have 2 other Offensive Slots, the 200% Weapon, or the 150% Amulet. There are four valid options:

• Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt is a reliable multiplier against Poisoned enemies. With the Overload Spirit Boon, Storm damage will keep the Poison up.
• Aspect of Apogeic Furor is a stacking Ultimate Damage buff, which can have higher top-end than Changeling’s Debt but is lower on average, especially when considering the rampup necessary.
• Aspect of Electrified Claws is a little weaker on damage but the Stun will be high quality of life, add survivability, stagger bosses faster, and easily activate bonuses like Bad Omen and Natural Disaster without relying on Crowd Control Tempering Manuals or other sources.
• Vehement Brawler’s Aspect is the weakest damage of all, but the Ranks in Cataclysm can give the cooldown reduction you might need to maintain Cataclysm.

These are all playable. However, defaulting to Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt and Aspect of Electrified Claws will be the smoothest gameplay.

Use a 2-Handed Mace for Overpower Damage.

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 a non-required Mythic Unique or Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power to use while still leveling and gearing.

Slot	Gearing Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Two-Handed Mace	Maximum Life Willpower Overpower Damage Critical Strike Damage	Lightning Augments – Chance for Cataclysm to deal double damage. Storm Finesse – Lightning Bolt Damage
Helm – (Required Unique)Tempest Roar	Willpower% Lightning Resistance Maximum Spirit Ranks to Wild Impulses
Chest – (Recommended Mythic Unique) Shroud of False Death	All Stats Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth Maximum Life Resource Generation
Chest – (Recommended Unique) Mad Wolf’s Glee	Maximum Life Damage Bonus to Lupine Ferocity Werewolf Attack Speed Ranks in Digitigrade Gait	Werewolf form is now your true form, and you gain 4-7 Ranks to all Werewolf Skills.
Gloves	Max Life Willpower Armor All Resistances Overpower Damage	Storm Finesse – Lightning Bolt DamageNature Magic Innovation – Hurricane Duration
Pants	Armor Willpower Max Life Dodge Chance	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor% Nature Magic Innovation – Hurricane Duration
Boots	Movement Speed Max Life Willpower All Resistances Armor	Natural Motion – Movement Speed Worldly Fortune – Chance to Immobilize or Stun
Amulet	Willpower% Ranks to Envenom Movement Speed Ranks to Quickshift	Storm Finesse – Lightning Bolt Damage Ultimate Efficiency —  Druid – Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction
Ring – (Required Unique) Airidah’s Inexorable Will	Willpower% Damage to Close Enemies Lucky Hit Chance Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
Ring – (Required Unique) Mjölnic Ryng	Willpower Critical Strike Chance Movement Speed While Cataclysm is Active Ranks to Endless Tempest
Rings – Legendary Aspect	Maximum Life Lucky Hit Chance Willpower Critical Strike Damage Overpower Damage	Storm Finesse – Lightning Bolt DamageUltimate Efficiency —  Druid – Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction

Make sure to have enough Hurricane duration Tempers to last through each cast of Cataclysm, so Stormshifter’s Aspect can always be active.

Gems and Runewords

Use these recommended Gem and Runeword setups for the Cataclysm Druid:

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Ruby for Overpower Damage	Grand Sapphire for Willpower	1 Grand Amethyst for Shadow Resistance 1 Grand Ruby for Fire Resistance 1 Grand Sapphire for Cold Resistance

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.
• Voice of the Stars – While you have an Aura active, your Ultimate Skills gain each Witchcraft tag and deal 10% increased damage.
• 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, Phantom String can be exchanged for Hungering Void for farm or quality of life.

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

Runewords

Use these Runeword combinations for the Cataclysm Druid, placed in 2-Handed Weapon and Armor slots:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Bac Xan	Bac – Gives 50 Offering. Travel 5 Meters. Xan – Requires: 700 Offering. Overflow: Cast increases damage by 1% per 10 Offering. Cooldown: 1 second. Your next Skill cast will be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower.
Igni Qax	Igni – Gain 25 Offering. Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering. Qax – Requires: 400 Offering. Overflow: Further Increased Damage. Your next non-Basic Skill cast spends all of your Primary Resource to deal up to 100% increased damage.

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.

Xan preps your Cataclysm to Critically Strike and Overpower for its entire duration. Qax gives a strong multiplier to all attacks during the cast.

While in the same area, refreshing your Cataclysm before its duration has run out will keep these Rune snapshots. When zoning or if you dropped your cataclysm, the runes will need to be rebuilt for the next cataclysm cast.

Provocation can sometimes heck up the refresh snapshot of your Overpower. If you’re using Shroud of False Death, which gives you a rank to Provocation, try to use that on other abilities such as Maul or Hurricane.

Other Runes of Ritual may be more efficient or easier to play around, depending on the content and playstyle. Feo for getting Crowd Controlled, Lith for standing still, Cir for 5 Casting Skills to Exhaustion, or Nagu if you are using Wolves can situationally be better options.

Speedfarm – In lower farm or speed content where you do not need the top-end multiplier of Qax, try out the Chac rune for even more Lightning Bolts to cover your screen!

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 Fortitude for Maximum Life. Max Life% is significant for Overpower.
• If mats are available, craft Reddamine Buzz for more Max Life.
• 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 Cataclysm 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:

• Replace Dominate with Undaunted.
• Replace Spirit with 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.

This power and gem setup activates a few high-impact combos for the Cataclysm Druid:

• Voice of the Stars gives Cataclysm the Witchcraft tags, allowing it to directly benefit from Purging Touch. Voice is a 10% damage multiplier by itself, and Purging at max rank is 41%.
• Friend of the Bog is activated from the three Growth and Decay powers, giving Willpower and Max Life which are direct scalers for Cataclysm, Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect and Overpower damage.
• Force of Will can potentially amp an entire cast of Cataclysm.
• Aura of Siphoning activates Aura Specialization for the Critical Strike Damage multiplier.

Witchcraft Powers

Unique Power

• The Cycle – 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 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 of Specialization -The size of your Aura Effects is increased. Rank 10: Increase the Critical Strike Damage by 50% against enemies inside your Aura Effects.
• Purging Touch – Eldritch Effects increased damage against Headrotten. Rank 10: This damage bonus now extends to all monsters.
• Aura of Siphoning – 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 – 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 – When you Kill an enemy, your next Overpower deals increased 6% damage, up to 100%. Rank 4: The damage bonus exteends to the next 2 Overpowers instead.
  • Note: Force of Will is a speculative choice since it was not testable on PTR and since it’s a psyche power, forces us to use The Cycle to still complete Friend of the Bog. Ideally it reads properly and we can extend its power to an entire Cataclysm cast for a very large damage multiplier. If that’s not the case, or of course in content where things are not dying in large numbers such as when Bossing, swapping this for another power might be the right play. Options like:
    • Hex of Whispers so you can swap your Unique Power to Pirahnado,
    • Hex of Shattering for survivability
    • Breath of the Coven for Attack Speed and Lucky Hit bonuses. Voice of the Stars gives Cataclysm all the tags needed to activate the bonus at full power.

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.
• Voice of the Stars – While you have an Aura active, your Ultimate Skills gain each Witchcraft tag and deal 10% increased damage.
• 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, Friend of the Bog can be exchanged for Hungering Void for farm or quality of life in lower content.

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

Unique Items

The following Unique Items are required, recommended, or optional for the Cataclysm Druid.

• (Required) Tempest Roar gives Storm spells including Cataclysm the Werewolf tag, allowing them to benefit from multipliers like Lust for Carnage.

• (Optional) Mad Wolf’s Glee – Ranks in Cataclysm and Hurricane? bet. This is meaningful damage and cooldown reduction. Not much else to speak for.

• (Required) Mjölnic Ryng gives a significant damage buff during Cataclysm, Cataclysm receives your Lightning Bolt benefits. This means all Lightning Bolt modifiers for damage, utility and other effects. The ranks in Endless Tempest will be significant for Cataclysm and Hurricane uptime. Target these ranks for Greater Affix and Mastercrafting.

• (Required) Airidah’s Inexorable Will has two important parts; it clusters enemies together, and gives significant cooldown reduction on Ultimate Skills. Target the Ultimate Cooldown Reduction for Greater Affix and Mastercrafting.

Mythic Unique Items

These Mythic Unique items are recommended for the build:

• (Recommended Mythic Unique) Shroud of False Death gives +1 to all Passives. This is a lot of damage multipliers, quality of life, and other benefits, and is generally great to use. The only hazards would be losing Mad Wolf’s Glee‘s ranks to Cataclysm could impact your Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction, and getting the rank in Provocation means another source of Overpower that might interfere with your Xan empowered Cataclysm. Just have to send that Provocation Overpower on any other skill, like Maul or 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.

Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker

• Skills: Cleave, Recklessness, Whirlwind, No Escape

Reinforcement – Raheir, the Shieldbearer

• Reinforcement Ability – Crater
• Opportunity – Maul

Both No Escape and Crater will be useful pull-ins for grouping enemies. Other Mercenaries’ powers work fine. For example, If you want Subo’s minimap tracking, go ahead.

Rotation and Playstyle

1. Maintain Hurricane for Stormshifter’s Aspect boost to Cataclysm.
2. Prep your Cataclysm by building your Xan and Qax Runes.
3. Cast your empowered Cataclysm.
4. Maintain Werebear form between casts of Cataclysm for damage bonuses like Survival Instincts:
   • Use Debilitating Roar for the damage buff and damage reduction debuffs.
   • Use Primal Pulverize for the damage reduction against important enemies.
   • Otherwise, use Maul as filler. When your Runes are or are about to be recharged, stop casting and set up for your next Cataclysm.

Use Earthen Bulwark as necessary for Barrier and Unstoppable.

With enough Cataclysm Duration and Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction, Cataclysm can be chain recast without dropping it, keeping its Runeword snapshot effects for its entire duration. If you drop your Cataclysm or leave the area via travel or portal, the Runewords will need re-prepped for your next cast of Cataclysm.

Season 7 Updates: Season of Witchcraft

For season 7, there’s new changes that will help scale Cataclysm’s damage further. These include:

• Mjölnic Ryng‘s added effect: Cataclysm receives your Lightning Bolt benefits. This means it can scale off Lightning Bolt effects like:
  • Charged Atmosphere
  • Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect
  • Electrocution Paragon Glyph
  • The new Aspect of Electrified Claws
• Ancestral Guidance now increases Ultimate Damage based on Spirit when cast.
• The new Aspect of Apogeic Furor specifically increases damage for Ultimate Skills.

The Seasonal Witchcraft Powers are also favorable for the build, offering high multipliers and some utility. This puts Cataclysm solidly ahead for Druid, but will still require heavy gear investment to play smoothly.

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

Itemization:

• Tempest Roar – Changed flat damage Willpower affix to +% Willpower affix.
• Mjölnic Ryng – New Effect- While Cataclysm is active, you gain unlimited Spirit and deal 40-100% increased damage. Cataclysm receives your Lightning Bolt benefits.
• Xan cost reduced from 800 to 700 Offerings. Overflow: Cast increases damage by 1% per 10 Offering.
• Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect – New Effect – Critical Strikes with Storm Skills cause Lightning Bolts to periodically strike close enemies for 3 seconds, each dealing Lightning damage. Your Lightning Bolt damage is increased by 15% for every 100 Willpower you have.
• New Aspect – Aspect of Electrified Claws – Offensive – Shapeshifting into a new animal form causes a Lightning Bolt to strike a Nearby enemy dealing Lightning damage. Your Lightning Bolts deal 20-40% increased damage and Stun for 2 seconds.
• New Aspect – Vehement Brawler’s Aspect – Offensive – Casting an Ultimate Skill increases your damage by 10-30% for 8 seconds. Gain 2 additional Ultimate Skill Ranks.
• New Aspect – Aspect of Apogeic Furor – Offensive – Casting an Ultimate Skill increases your Ultimate damage by 6-10%, up to 60-100%. At 10 stacks, your Cooldowns and this bonus are reset.

Skills and Stats:

• Cataclysm New Effect at Rank 5: Casting Cataclysm Slows surrounding enemies by 70% for 8 seconds.
• Hurricane Can now be cast while moving.
• Bad Omen – Lightning Bolt damage increased from 55% to 70%.
• Charged Atmosphere – New Effect – Every 14 seconds, a Lightning Bolt hits a Nearby enemy dealing 45% damage. Your Lightning Bolts deal 10% increased damage.
• Toxic Claws – New Effect – Critical Strikes with Shred and Lacerate deal an additional 16% of their Base damage as Poisoning damage over 4 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Keeper Increased the Non-Physical damage bonus from 10% to 15%.
• Undaunted Increased Damage Reduction while Fortified from 10% to 15%.

Advanced Information

It is time to get started on your Cataclysm journey!

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

Build Mechanics

The Cataclysm Druid loads its power into its Ultimate Skill Cataclysm, stacking heavy multipliers and additives to send out Twisters and Lightning Bolts against enemies.

Cataclysm Damage

Lots of parts come together to make Cataclysm do massive damage. Here’s the notable ones.

From Runes that are built and primed for Cataclysm casts:

• Xan makes the entire duration of the Cataclysm is guaranteed to Critical Strike and Overpower. If you do not have this rune yet, you can use Provocation to time and line up with Cataclysm. It will be a less efficient trigger and can have problems when chaining casts of Cataclysm, so Xan is preferred.
• Qax is also snapshot for the entire Cataclysm for 100%+ damage.

From Items:

• Tempest Roar Makes Cataclysm a Werewolf Skill, benefitting from multipliers like Lust for Carnage and other Shapeshifting bonuses.
• Mjölnic Ryng increases all damage for the duration of Cataclysm and also makes Cataclysm be affected by modifiers to Lightning Bolt. These sources like include:
  • Charged Atmosphere
  • Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect
  • Electrocution Paragon Glyph
  • Aspect of Electrified Claws
  • Lightning Bolt Damage Tempers.
• Lightning Augments gives Cataclysm a high chance to deal double damage.

From Paragon:

• All used paragon legendary nodes increase Cataclysm damage, but Ancestral Guidance is especially potent, increasing damage based on Spirit when cast. Spirit is increased from a few sources to max this power, including paragon nodes and Gift of the Stag Spirit Boon. Because of Mjölnic Ryng, we are always at full Spirit.

From other Skills:

• Hurricane is maintained for Stormshifter’s Aspect, which gives ranks to Cataclysm for more damage and more cooldown reduction. We get more duration on Hurricane from Endless Tempest and Hurricane Duration Tempers on gear. make sure you have Hurricane that lasts through an entire Cataclysm and Rune charging cycle.

Cataclysm has a short 0.5 second lockout for the Lightning Bolts to target the same enemy or area. This will slow down bossing somewhat, but is manageable.

Poisoned Condition for Envenom is applied from Overload Spirit Boon, giving all Storm Damage a 5 second Poison for 20% of damage dealt.

Cataclysm Cooldown Management

Maintaining Cataclysm is essential for output. Having enough duration and cooldown reduction means being able to chain casts before the end of the Cataclysm, which keeps snapshot effects like from Runes Xan. Do be careful however, as leaving a zone through travel or portal will mean you need to re-cast your Rune effects on your next Cataclysm!

We gain Cataclysm duration from:

• Calamity Spirit Boon gives 35% more Ultimate Duration.
• Ranks in Endless Tempest.
  • Mjölnic Ryng gives ranks in Endless Tempest, and is important to target for Greater Affix and Mastercrafting.
  • Shroud of False Death gives +1 to Passive Skill ranks, including Endless Tempest.

From the other end, there’s several ways we lower the cooldown on Cataclysm.

• Skill ranks in Cataclysm reduce cooldown. These are from Skill points and also sources like Stormshifter’s Aspect and if used, Mad Wolf’s Glee.
• Ultimate Cooldown Reduction from Tempering on Amulet.
• Ultimate Cooldown Reduction from Airidah’s Inexorable Will. This is also important to target for Mastercraft and Greater Affix.

There’s a couple less efficient ways to get some more supplemental cooldown reduction, if you are still leveling and gearing:

• (Boots) Flickerstep can give some Ultimate Cooldown Reduction when evading through enemies. Rakanoth’s Wake gives Cooldown Reduction. Rakanoth’s can also be a good source of Resistance to All Elements, but the Unique effect is bearly noticable.
• Calm Before the Storm Spirit Boon. Unfortunately Cataclysm has low Lucky Hit Chance so these triggers don’t happen often. The in game tooltip on Cataclysm indicates high Lucky Hit Chance, except it actually means that’s the chance over the entire duration of a very long Cataclysm cast.
• Vehement Brawler’s Aspect gives ranks in Ultimate Skills, which gives some cooldown reduction. However, the multiplier is short duration and weak.

Supporting Skills

The rest of the Skills are supporting skills:

• Earthen Bulwark is taken for Barrier and our sole source of Unstoppable.
• Debilitating Roar is a strong Damage Reduction debuff on enemies and a small damage buff on top.
• Maul is a filler spell to keep us in Werebear form. While in Werebear form, we benefit from the Survival Instincts buff to damage and Overpower.
• Primal Pulverize is another Werebear skill that can reduce damage of enemies. It will not cost Spirit since we have Mjölnic Ryng. This is flex point that could be swapped with other abilities or skill passives. Examples include:
  • Primal Shred for mobility.
  • Cyclone Armor for passive defense.
  • Wolves to tank hits for you.
  • Skill Passive damage amps such as Electric Shock or Nature’s Reach.
  • Defensive Passives like Iron Fur.

Key Passive

The Key Passive for this build is Ursine Strength.

• The Max life is maintained with our Werebear skills and adds to our Overpower Damage.
• The damage and increased Overpower multiplier is maintained while in the Healthy state, meaning over 80% health.

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.

The recommended Paragon boards with images for the Cataclysm Druid are listed above. The following section goes over some explanations and descriptions for the pathing process for the Cataclysm 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 Dominate and Keeper.
  • Legendary Nodes such as Thunderstruck.
  • Magic and Rare nodes such as Impel and Reclaim.
• Defense – The paragon boards help reach goals on Damage Reduction, Armor and Resistances. This includes:
  • Damage Reduction is improved from individual Magic and Rare nodes providing bonuses like Damage Reduction against Vulnerable enemies.
  • Resistances are improved from Intelligence nodes, and Magic and Rare Resistance nodes.
  • Armor goals are reached with the help of Armor nodes in Inner Beast.
• Build Functionality – The paragon boards improve total build functionality including:
  • Max Life% nodes increase Effective Health but also boost capability for total Fortify as well. This increases overall output for Overpower damage.

Changelog

16 January 2025: Build Created for Season 7 and Patch 2.1