Shifter Pulverize – Druid Build for Diablo 4

Build Introduction

Smash through the enemies of Sanctuary with the Shifter Pulverize! This is your guide for the balanced and dependable Shifter Pulverize Druid. This build is a basic builder-spender with high volume of Overpower attacks.

This guide covers everything necessary to get started on your Pulverize adventure including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates. The guide will primarily cover Endgame pushing, but will also offer alternative options and in-depth gameplay explanations.

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 are required for build functionality to get started on the Pulverize Druid:

Required Aspects

Shockwave Aspect

Aspect of the Ursine Horror

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Skill Bar Setup for Shifter Pulverize (order does not matter)

Blood Howl Petrify Poison Creeper Earthen Bulwark Claw Pulverize

Spirit Boons – The Druid Specialization

Druids unlock powerful Spirit Boon passives, giving offerings to the animal spirits to receive their blessing. Once fully unlocked, you can 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 Shifter Pulverize 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 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 setup, Dominate can be exchanged for Undaunted, and Spirit for Territorial.

Gear, Stats, Gems and Elixirs

The following are the recommended Legendary Aspects, Gear Affixes, Gems and Elixirs for the 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	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 (Defensive, 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 (Convenience 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 Chance on Hit to Restore Spirit	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 – 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
Pants – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Max Life Armor Dodge Chance	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor% Nature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration
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
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 – (Convenience 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 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 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.
Bac Ohm	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.
• (Early Gearing) While leveling and gearing before legendary Runes become accessible, many Magic and Rare runeword combinations such as MoniGar 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 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 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) 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. It will need to be well rolled to compete with an alternative Legendary Aspect ring.
• (Convenience Unique) Airidah’s Inexorable Will – This ring yoinks Distant enemies dealing physical damage to them, and groups them. Between native casts of Petrify and Runeword casts, this effect will trigger often. May be a mild damage topend loss to other options.
• (Optional Early Gearing) Banished Lord’s Talisman can be a usable Amulet while still hunting for an Amulet with Envenom and other strong affixes.

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.
• (Optional Defensive) Doombringer– Druids can now use swords! Doombringer is a chonky Damage Reduction and Max Health item. The Max Health% is a nice damage offset since it will boost our Overpowers. It may be a valid choice when pushing dangerous content where dying is punished, such as Infernal Hordes or high Pit. To use this item:
  • Move Shockwave Aspect to Amulet.
  • Move Aspect of Retaliation to Totem.
  • On the Totem, look for Willpower, Critical Strike Chance, and Max Life. Temper (Mastercrafted) Chance for Pulverize to Cast Twice and Earth Critical Strike Chance.
  • Mastercraft Damage Reduction or Max Life on the Doombringer.

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 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 a Spirit Management setup, try Raheir’s Iron Wolf’s Call for periodic free casts of Pulverize or Aldkin’s Ember’s Gift for Spirit Per Second while in Storm of Fire.

Rotation and Playstyle

1. Blood Howl to increase Attack Speed and upkeep Werewolf Shapeshifting buffs such as Heightened Senses.
2. Poison Creeper to Immobilize and apply Poison.
3. Petrify to apply Stun and a heavy Critical Strike Damage multiplier.
4. Pulverize your enemies.
5. Claw as filler for Spirit.

Use Earthen Bulwark defensively and as a source of Unstoppable to break Crowd-Control effects.

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 6: Season of Hatred Rising

The following list details the important changes in the Season 6 Patch Updates that are specific to the Pulverize Druid. For general Season 6 information, check out our Season 6 Hub.

Itemization:

• New items including Shroud of False Death and Heir of Perdition.
• Hunter’s Zenith – New Effect – 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 Shapeshifting Skills reduces this timer by 1 second, or 2 seconds if you change to a new animal form.
• Wildheart Hunger no longer usable with Ursine Strength – New Effect – Shapeshifting into a new animal form increases the value of your Bestial Rampage bonuses by 2.0-5.0%, up to 20-50%. This bonus decays by 2% per second.
• Werebear Augments now includes Chance for Pulverize to Strike Twice.
• Aspect of Retaliation increased to 35-75%.
• Shockwave Aspect increased to 80-120%.
• Aspect of the Ursine Horror – Tectonic spikes damage increased from 60-100% to 120-200% of Weapon Damage.
• Petrify – New Effect – Generates 100 Spirit. Encase all Nearby enemies in stone, Stunning them for 4 seconds.
• Prime Petrify – New Effect – You deal 30%[x] increased Critical Strike Damage to enemies affected by Petrify. Against Bosses the Critical Strike Damage bonus is increased to 50%[x] and its duration is increased to 7 seconds. Bonus Critical Strike Damage now applies to damage done by your Companions.
• Ancestral Guidance increased from 30% to 40%.

Skills and Stats

• Paragon Boards are now limited to 5 boards; the Starter Board and up to four Class Boards.
• Several Paragon Boards have shifted their nodes around.
• New Skill Passives including Backlash and Feral Aptitude.
• Ursine Strength:
  • Damage bonus while Healthy reduced from 30% to 15%.
  • Maximum Health bonus increased from 20% to 30%.
  • Overpower damage bonus increased from 30% to 45%.
• Quickshift – New Effect – Shapeshifting into a new animal form grants 1/2/3% increased damage, up to 6/12/18%. This bonus is lost after 3 seconds in Human form.
• Heightened Senses – New Effect – When Shapeshifting, Werebear grants 3/6/9% Damage Reduction and Werewolf grants 2/4/6% Movement Speed. Both bonuses persist as long as you are in either animal form and are doubled while both are active. They are lost after 3 seconds in Human form.
• Bestial Rampage – New Effect – When Shapeshifting, Werebear grants 30% increases damage and Werewolf grants 20% Attack Speed. Both bonuses persist as long as you are in either animal form, but are lost after 3 seconds in Human form.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where Insatiable Fury could grant fewer Skill Ranks than displayed on its tooltip.
• Fixed an issue where damage bonus from the Dark Dance Aspect was displayed as multiplicative instead of additive in the tooltip.

Advanced Information

It is time to get started on your Pulverize 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

Pulverize is our primary, high-damage Skill. Two Legendary Aspects modify the Skill:

• Shockwave Aspect creates a damaging wave along the path of the Pulverize. There is an overlap between the initial Pulverize and its shockwave, so enemies can be double-hit each Pulverize!
• Aspect of the Ursine Horror makes Pulverize an Earth Skill. Earth Skills are also Nature Skills, and this allows Pulverize to benefit from Nature-based modifiers like Aspect of Natural Balance and Resonance for strong multipliers.

Claw is used for Poison application, Werewolf buff upkeep like Quickshift, and to increase the cooldown rate on Hunter’s Zenith. Other Basic Skills can function with this build as well. For example, Wind Shear could be used to enable a more ranged playstyle.

Periodic Overpowered attacks will deal massive damage to enemies. We get Overpowers from several sources:

• 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.
• Provocation gives Overpowers as you remain in Bear Form. Some uptime is lost while casting any non-Werebear skills. This is a buff to watch, as it can be triggered on any non-defensive Skill. Try to only use it on Pulverize.
• Hunter’s Zenith will give periodic casts of Core Overpower Criticals.
• 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.
• If used, Xan rune can periodically give Critical Overpowers. Just be careful to only use this on Pulverize.
• A natural 3% chance for any non-channeled Skill to Overpower.

There’s several damage multipliers to Overpower, including Raging Pulverize and Ursine Strength. Max Life and Fortify amount scales the Overpower strikes further. We get Max Life from Gear and Paragon, and Fortify from Safeguard and Skinwalker’s Aspect.

Our Supporting Skills are Blood Howl, Poison Creeper, and Earthen Bulwark:

• Blood Howl gives Attack Speed and is also the method to refresh Werewolf buffs like Heightened Senses.
• Poison Creeper periodically poisons enemies, and the active Skill use Immobilizes and Poisons enemies in a wide area.
• Earthen Bulwark is another defensive layer, also applying Unstoppable.

This build uses Petrify as its Ultimate Skill. It is a welcome Crowd Control, Spirit Generator, and heavy Critical Strike Damage multiplier.

The Key Passive for this build is Ursine Strength, for the consistent damage multiplier, Overpower damage, and Max life.

Bestial Rampage can potentially be more total output in combination with Wildheart Hunger, but requires constant shapeshifting between Werebear and Werewolf to maintain the bonuses. This can be a disruptive combination.

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 with images for the Shifter Pulverize Druid are listed above. The following section goes over some explanations and descriptions for the pathing process for the Shifter Pulverize 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 Fang and Claw
  • Legendary Nodes such as Ancestral Guidance and Earthen Devastation.
  • 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 nodes like Bulwark and Nature-born.
  • Resistance Nodes increase resistance against non-physical attacks.
  • Armor goals are reached with the help of Armor nodes like Spearhead.
• Build Functionality – The paragon boards improve Spirit Generation for the build from a few sources, including:
  • Various Max Spirit and Spirit on kill Magic and Rare nodes on the Ancestral Guidance board.
  • Intelligence nodes increase Spirit Generation.

Spirit Generation

This build is a Basic Attack and Spender alternating build; cast your Basic Skill, cast your Pulverize. Spirit is managed from a variety of sources:

1. Resource Cost Reduction on 2-handed weapon, and Spirit Generation Tempers on Rings.
2. The Inner Beast Legendary Node grants discounts on Spirit cost.
3. Paragon Nodes in Ancestral Guidance for Spirit on Kill and Max Spirit.
4. The Wolf’s Spirit Boon Energize.
5. Casts of Claw.

This is generally sufficient in the Endgame to maintain the Spirit balance for an Alternator playstyle. However, if these are insufficient sources while leveling and gearing, consider using one or more of the following supplementary options:

• Use the Spirit Management Runeword Setup.
• User the Spirit Management Mercenary Setup.
• Spirit Per Second on Boots, Chest and Helm.
• Use Starlight Aspect, replacing Raw Might Aspect.
• Use Aspect of Quicksand with Aspect of the Umbral.
• Use Aspect of the Dark Dance for periodic free casts of Pulverize.

Gauntlet Optimization

The Gauntlet is disabled for season 6 while the meta settles with the introduction of the Spiritborn and all other system updates. You can still check out the Pulverize Shred Druid here:

Changelog

• 15 October, 2024: Updated for new onsite Paragon Tool.
• 27 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. Small changes to weapon type and optional unique item recommendations.
• 5 August, 2024: Updated for Patch 1.5.0 and Season of the Infernal Hordes.
• 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.
• May 6, 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. Paragon Board redesigned for better Damage Reduction and output.
• February 5, 2024: Significant changes to recommended Gear Affixes, Skill Tree, and Paragon tree, to optimize for better total damage, Max Life, Resistance, and Armor. Added separate Bossing and non-Bossing options to Construct Stone recommendations.
• January 26, 2024: Adjustments to Construct Stone recommendations. Adjustments to Legendary Power and Unique recommendations.
• January 22, 2024: Initial review and reevaluation for Season 3 and 1.3.0 balance changes has begun.
• December 7, 2023: Updates to paragon board for Abattoir of Zir.
• October 18, 2023: Update to Vampiric Power recommendations, Boon options and various tooltip updates.
• October 16, 2023: Initial review and reevaluation has begun to update the guide for Season 2 and 1.2.0 balance changes.
• August 7th, 2023: Added Patch 1.1.1 section and checked guide for accuracy.
• July 25th, 2023: Restructured Introduction.
• July 23rd, 2023: Included Malignant Heart recommendations in the Gems section.
• July 19th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1 and 1.1 balance changes.