Pulverize Shred – Druid Gauntlet Build for Diablo 4

Gauntlet Build Introduction

The Gauntlet is disabled for season 6 while the meta settles with the introduction of the Spiritborn and all other system updates.

This is the Gauntlet build for Pulverize Shred Druid. This guide features a late-game setup, focused on speeding through and obtaining the highest score on the Gauntlet Leaderboards. Check our dedicated Gauntlet Guide for more information on this activity. The Shred Pulverize Druid excels at all requirements for the Gauntlet:

• Wide, map-clearing AoEs with Pulverize and Shockwave Aspect.
• High boss damage from large multipliers and Overpowers.
• Strong mobility to navigate the encounter-space with Shred and Trample.

There are key changes from the standard endgame Pulverize setup Shifter Pulverize:

• Several sources of defensives and Damage Reductions are traded in favor of maximizing speed and damage.
• The playstyle does not use a Basic Skill, instead relying on alternative sources of Spirit Generation.

This build guide assumes your character is Level 60, Paragon Glyphs are max radius from being Level 15+, and all Paragon and Skill points from Renown have been obtained. While the build recommends some Mythic Unique Items, there are alternative options listed. The build also offers some alternative Gearing Affix recommendations as well as some Skill and Playstyle options that can be beneficial as the Gauntlet changes layout week to week.

Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to other builds on Icy Veins, you can check out our Gauntlet build tier list.

Build Requirements

The following Legendary Aspects are required for build functionality to get started on the Pulverize Shred Druid:

Required Aspects

Shockwave Aspect

Aspect of the Ursine Horror

Several Druid builds have shown to be popular and strong in the Gauntlet, and Druid has a large build diversity represented in the leaderboards. For options, check out the Gauntlet Tier List here.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Skill Bar the Pulverize Shred Gauntlet Druid

Cyclone Armor Blood Howl Petrify Trample Shred Pulverize

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.

Paragon Board

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

The road to max paragon level is long. Pathing priority should be the following:

• Path for the Legendary Node effects and the board’s Glyph Slots, filling out enough surrounding nodes to activate the Additional Bonus for the Glyph.
• Fill out Rare Nodes along the path taken for Legendary Nodes and Glyphs.
• Take the rest of the paths inside the Glyph Radius, such as filling in all Dexterity nodes for Spirit for their additive bonuses.
• Take the branching paths to the rest of the Rare Nodes.
• Fill out the remaining Magic Nodes near their Rare Nodes.
• Complete the rest of the board.

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 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.

Gear, Stats, Gems and Elixirs

The following are the recommended Legendary Aspects, Gear Affixes, Gems and Elixirs for the Shred Pulverize 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 Mace	Grand Ruby	Shockwave Aspect	Pulverize creates a shockwave that travels forward, dealing 80-120% of its damage to targets in the path.
Helm	Grand Sapphire	(Recommended Mythic) Heir of Perdition (Recommended Unique) Godslayer Crown Aspect of Might	Give in to hatred and earn Lilith’s Favor, increasing your damage dealt by 60%. Slaughter enemies to briefly steal Lilith’s Favor from Nearby allies.
Chest	Grand Sapphire	(Recommended Mythic) Shroud of False Death (recommended Unique) Insatiable FuryJuggernaut’s Aspect	If you haven’t attacked in the last 2 seconds, gain Stealth and 40% Movement Speed.
Gloves	N/A	Aspect of the Ursine Horror	Pulverize is now also an Earth Skill. After casting Pulverize, tectonic spikes continue to deal damage over 2 seconds.
Pants	Grand Sapphire	(Recommended Unique) Tibault’s Will 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	(Offensive) Ballistic Aspect (Unstoppable) Aspect of Metamorphosis	When you have Fortify your Earth Skills gain +2 Ranks.
Amulet	Grand Diamond	Aspect of Retaliation	Your Core Skills deal up to 35-75% increased damage based on your amount of Fortify.
Ring 1	Grand Diamond	(Recommended Unique)Hunter’s Zenith Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt	Every 30 seconds you spend in an animal form, your next Core Skill is guaranteed to Overpower and Critically Strike, and deals 30-60% increased damage. Casting a Shapeshifting Skill reduces this timer by 1 second, or 2 seconds if it changes you to a new animal form.
Ring 2	Grand Diamond	(Recommended Mythic) Ring of Starless Skies (Recommended Unique) Airidah’s Inexorable Will Raw Might Aspect	Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10% for 3 seconds, up to 50%.

Use a 2-Handed Mace for Overpower damage.

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

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the final column. 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 Mace	Resource Cost Reduction Willpower Max Life Overpower Damage	Werebear Augments – Chance to Cast Pulverize Twice Natural Finesse – Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies
Helm – (Recommended Mythic) Heir of Perdition	Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Movement Speed Ranks to Core Skills
Helm – (Recommended Unique) Godslayer Crown	All Stats Maximum Life Damage to Elites Cooldown Reduction
Helm – Legendary Aspect	Cooldown Reduction Max Life Willpower Spirit Per Second	Worldly Endurance – Max Life Nature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration OR Worldly Fortune – Chance to [Stun/Freeze] Enemies
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	Max Life Werebear Overpower Damage Ursine Strength’s Bonuses Ranks to Iron Fur
Chest – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Max Life Armor Spirit Per Second	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor OR Max Life Nature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration
Gloves – Legendary Aspect	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Ranks to Pulverize Lucky Hit: Chance to make enemies vulnerable	Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance Nature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration OR Worldly Fortune – Chance to [Stun/Freeze] Enemies
Pants – (Recommended Unique) Tibault’s Will	All Stats Maximum Life Maximum Resource damage Reduction while Unstoppable
Pants – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Max Life Armor Dodge Chance	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor% Nature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration OR Worldly Fortune – Chance to [Stun/Freeze] Enemies
Boots – Legendary Aspect	Implicit: Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown By 1.5 Seconds Movement Speed Max Life Resistance to All Elements Spirit Per Second	Natural Motion – Movement Speed Nature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration OR Worldly Fortune – Chance to [Stun/Freeze] Enemies
Amulet	Ranks to Envenom Ranks to Quickshift Willpower% Max Life	Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance Worldly Endurance – Maximum Life
Ring – (Recommended Mythic)Ring of Starless Skies	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Ranks to Core Skills
Ring – (Recommended Unique) Hunter’s Zenith	Willpower Ranks to Predatory Instinct Ranks to Heightened Senses Ranks to Quickshift
Ring – (Recommended Unique) Airidah’s Inexorable Will	Willpower% Damage to Close Enemies Lucky Hit Chance Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
Rings – Legendary Aspect	Critical Strike Chance Attack Speed Maximum Life Resource Cost Reduction	Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance Worldly Stability – Resource Generation

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, or using a Juggernaut’s Aspect.

For information on Legendary Aspects and the updated Codex of Power, see here.

Gems and Runewords

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

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Ruby for Overpower Damage	Grand Sapphire for Willpower	Grand Diamond for Resistance to all Elements

Runewords

Runewords are a flexible power to help strengthen a build or fill its weaknesses. Two Runes combine for the total Runeword effect:

• A conditional trigger Rune of Ritual that supplies Offerings when the condition is met.
• An effect Rune of Invocation that costs Offerings.

Once the Rune of Ritual has supplied enough Offerings, the Rune of Invocation will trigger its effect. Some Runes of Invocation will have overflow effects, where excess Offerings will spillover to empower the triggered effect.

Runewords replace Gems in gear. Up to two sets of Runeword pairs can be placed at a time. Runeword combinations are placed within 2 sockets of the same item e.g. Helm, Chest, Pants or 2-handed Weapon.

The following are Runeword combination options for the Shred Pulverize Druid, placed in 2-Handed Weapon and one Armor slot:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Moni Wat	Moni – Cast a Skill after moving. Gain: 25 Offering Wat – Requires: 100 Offering Cooldown: 1 Second. Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them.
Xol Yom	Xol – Gain: 150 Offering. Evoke power from another Class Yom – 500 Offering Cooldown: 5 Seconds. Evoke the Druid’s Petrify, Stunning enemies and restoring 100 Spirit.

Horrid Decrepify is an efficient trigger for Xol. Periodic casts of Petrify will be a strong Stun, Critical Strike Damage multiplier and Spirit Generator. Tempering for Petrify Duration will mean significant uptime on Petrify.

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, Bac for Move, Tam for Cast Core Skill, or Feo for get Crowd Controlled may trigger more often.
• (Gathering) Kry rune for Vortex can be a strong quality of life increase.
• (Spirit Management) PocLum in combination can give strong Spirit Refund.

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 Precision for Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage.
• If mats are available, craft Chorus of War.
• Remember to upgrade your potion as you level, increasing the instant healing of the potion!

Unique Items

The following Uniques are recommended for the Shred Pulverize Druid:

• (Recommended) Insatiable Fury gives Skill ranks to all Werebear Skills, including Pulverize, and the ranks to Iron Fur are a welcome defensive boost.
• (Recommended) Godslayer Crown is an effective grouping tool and strong damage multiplier. Crowd Control Lucky Hits from Tempers, Raw Might Aspect, Raging Pulverize, Immobilize from Poison Creeper and Utility Tempers for Crowd Control can trigger the effect.
• (Recommended) Tibault’s Will will give frequent Spirit from Unstoppable sources Trample and Aspect of Metamorphosis.
• (Recommended) Hunter’s Zenith – This is a ring with strong gear affix ranks to several skill passives and a strong rate of Critical Overpowers for Pulverize.
• (Optional Early Gearing) Banished Lord’s Talisman can be a usable Amulet while still hunting for a strong Amulet with Envenom and other strong affixes.
• (Recommended) Airidah’s Inexorable Will can be used for easy gathering and more frequent casts of Petrify.

Mythic Unique Items

• (Recommended) Heir of Perdition has Strong Gear Affixes and a steady damage multiplier. The multiplier can be stolen occasionally from others that also use this helm for a higher damage multiplier.
• (Recommended) Shroud of False Death gives +1 rank to all Skill Passives which means several bonuses to Damage Multipliers, Damage Reductions, Resistances, Fortify, Healing and Critical Strike Chance.
• (Recommended) Ring of Starless Skies is a powerful Resource Cost Reduction tool and damage multiplier, with strong Gear Affixes.

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. As you build Rapport with your Mercenary, you gain more access to their Skills and Perks.

The following Mercenary options are recommended for the Shred Pulverize Druid:

Main Mercenary – Varyana, the Berserker

• Core Skill: Cleave
• Core Passive: Hysteria
• Iconic Skill: Bloodthirst
• Iconic Passive: Bloodlust

Reinforcement – Raheir, the Shieldbearer

• Reinforcement Ability – Crater
• Opportunity – Pulverize

Hysteria and Bloodlust will both give strong Attack Speed bonuses.

For an alternative Spirit Management setup, Raheir’s Iron Wolf’s Call can give periodic free casts of Pulverize. Reinforcement Varyana’s Bloodthirst with Pulverize Opportunity.

Rotation and Playstyle

1. Maintain Preserving Blood Howl.
2. Shred to gap close, Poison and Slow enemies, and maintain the Attack Speed bonus of Bestial Rampage.
3. For bosses and Elite packs, use Petrify for another layered Critical Strike Damage multiplier.
4. Send out waves of Pulverize to destroy your enemies and gain Score.
5. Use Shred and Trample to get to that next pack!

Advanced Information

It is time to hit the Gauntlet!

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

Build Mechanics

The Pulverize Shred Gauntlet Druid is a zoomy and smashy bear, using map-clearing hits of Pulverize, high-mobility Skills Shred and Trample, and lots of stacked multipliers including Overpowers to destroy the enemies found within the Gauntlet.

Pulverize is our primary Skill, clearing enemies with strong, Earth-type Physical damage smashes. Shockwave Aspect creates a shockwave with a higher multiplier in a line from the Pulverize.

Key Note: There is an overlap between the Pulverize and its Shockwave, near the outer radius of the Pulverize. Line your attacks on this overlap for a huge double hit!

Supporting Abilities

Shred and Trample are our mobility tools. Use them to travel between and to packs. Shred also applies the Poison for Envenom and Slow for Crowd-Controlled multipliers, so is a useful opener.

Cyclone Armor is a passive defensive that will not interrupt play. The active portion of the skill is not used.

Blood Howl is maintained for Attack Speed.

Ultimate and Key Passive

Ultimate Skill Petrify Stuns and applies a heavy Critical Strike Damage multiplier to enemies. Stacked multipliers with Tibault’s Will, Overpower and if used, Godslayer Crown allow Bosses to be burst down quickly.

Key Passive Bestial Rampage gives both a high Attack Speed bonus and Damage Multiplier. These buffs are both easily maintained from frequent casts of Shred and Pulverize.

Overpower

Like many Werebear builds, the Pulverize Shred Gauntlet Druid has several sources of Overpower for Boss killing and map-clearing hits of Pulverize:

• Enhanced Pulverize grants an Overpower every 12 seconds while Healthy. Healthy means Life is above 80%.
• Spirit Boon Obsidian Slam causes Earth Skills to Overpower after killing 10 enemies.
• If used, Banished Lord’s Talisman grants Core Skill Overpowers after spending Spirit.
• If used, Blood Boiling Aspect will Overpower a Skill every 20 seconds. Try to only use this effect on Pulverize.
• A natural 3% chance for any non-channeled Skill to Overpower.

Playing around having Overpower to kill a boss can mean some small map route adjustments, and taking some time to gather or leash bosses, but it can be worth it when the boss takes several fewer Pulverize to kill. These delays would be small adjustments; don’t make huge delays for this!

Spirit Generation

This build does not use a Basic Attack Spirit generator; instead, it relies on several alternative sources:

• Resource Cost Reduction on 2-handed weapon, and Resource Generation on Rings.
• The Wolf’s Energize Spirit Boon.
• If used, Tibault’s Will, with Unstoppable sources Trample and Aspect of Metamorphosis.
• Ring of Starless Skies for Spirt Cost Reduction.
• Prime Petrify casts will refund Spirit.
• Paragon nodes for Spirit on Kill in the Ancestral Guidance board.

Once geared, these are sufficient sources of Spirit to keep smashing. While gearing or without access to some sources like Ring of Starless Skies or Aspect of Metamorphosis, do one or more of the following:

• Use the Spirit Management Setup for Runewords
• Use the Spirit Management Setup for Mercenaries
• Swap the Heightened Malice Board for Inner Beast, taking the Legendary Node for Spirit Cost Reduction on Shapeshift.
• Exchange the Spirit Glyph for Tectonic. More Lucky Hit will be more triggers for Wolf Spirit Boon Energize.
• Use Starlight Aspect. Enhanced Shred, Aspect of the Crowded Sage and other healing sources will keep your Spirit up.
• Use Claw over Shred.

Gauntlet Tips and Tricks

Here’s a couple tips, tricks, and observations for playing the Gauntlet:

• Overpower is a strong tool, and periodically up with trackable buffs from Enhanced Pulverize. Having these up when engaging a boss guarantees a faster kill.
• While the dungeon has fixed positioning and spawns for enemies, they can drift, be leashed or aggro’d into different positions as you do your circuits around the map.
• Variable access to Cooldown Reduction including shrines, total attack events and Lucky Hit triggers can mean mobility tool timings like Trample may not be consistent from pull to pull, or up as often.
• Sometimes stopping to pick up that key for the chests isn’t worth the time! They stay on the ground after Pillar of Proving (respawn shrines) and in subsequent laps, and may be worth delaying the pickup to even near the end of the run when several are on the ground together.
• Bear🐻 in mind that the Pillar of Glory gives a high score multiplier for its duration. It can be worth planning around having this when routing to dense packs of Elites or Bosses.
• Proofs of Might from chests have to be walked over to be collected. However, drops from slain enemies are picked up automatically, which means you can kill and move on!
• Armor is capped at 1000 for max Damage Reduction vs Physical. You should not need Armor and Resistance cap to be maxed out to succeed on the run.
• Heard about a cheat or exploit from your buddy? Don’t! That’s an easy way to have your run removed from the Leaderboard!

Changelog

• 15 Oct, 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: Updated for post-launch of season 5.
• 5 August, 2024: Updated for Patch 1.5.0 and Season the Infernal Horde
• 17 June, 2024: Updated for mid-season patch 1.4.3.
• May 15, 2024: Small changes in gear affixes to adjust for season launch changes from PTR.
• 6 May, 2024: Speculative Changes for 1.4.0 and Season 4. Page restructured to frontload relevant information.
• 12 March, 2024: Build Created.