Stone Burst Druid for Diablo 4 (Season 6)

Build Introduction

This is a speculative guide for the upcoming Vessel of Hatred Druid Skill, Stone Burst, and cannot be played on live servers yet. Try it out on the PTR and look forward to the click cast blast with the launch of the Vessel of Hatred expansion. Expect changes as more is discovered and the meta for play shifts.

Stone Burst is a satisfyingly impactful Core Earth Skill that can be channeled and grown in size or held to pulse minor damage within its area. Blast wide groups or focus down enemies, Stone Burst does it all! With Aspect of Anticline Burst, Stone Bursts cast above 75 Spirit will be cast at full size without having to channel to grow the blast, and will be the preferred playstyle.

This guide will cover everything necessary to get started on your Stone Burst adventure, including Skill Tree points, Paragon, Gearing, and Seasonal updates. The guide will primarily cover Endgame pushing, but will also cover alternative playstyles, options during leveling and gearing, Spirit management, and offer in-depth explanations for gameplay. Hope you enjoy!

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

Build Requirements

The following Legendary Aspect is required for build functionality to get started on the Stone Burst Druid:

Aspect of Anticline Burst – Offensive – Stone Burst deals 15-35% increased damage and when Cast at or above 75 Spirit, it is immediately at its maximum size.

Aspect of Anticline Burst is a significant damage multiplier and quality of life addition, allowing Stone Burst to be cast at full radius while above 75 Spirit without having to channel and grow the cast. This lets the build send a significantly higher volume of attacks. While leveling friendly, Stone Burst should not be started without this aspect.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Earthen Bulwark Cyclone Armor Blood Howl Claw Petrify Core Skill

Skill Cluster	Skills
Basic	Claw rank 1, Enhanced Claw
Core	Stone Burst rank 5, Enhanced Stone Burst, Raging Stone Burst Heart of the Wild rank 1, Wild Impulses rank 3 Predatory Instinct rank 1, Iron Fur rank 3
Defensive	Earthen Bulwark rank 1, Enhanced Earthen Bulwark Cyclone Armor rank 1 Blood Howl rank 1, Enhanced Blood Howl, Preserving Blood Howl Backlash rank 3
Companion	Nature’s Reach rank 2, Feral Aptitude rank 3
Wrath	Mending rank 3 Crushing Earth rank 3, Stone Guard rank 3, Safeguard rank 1 Neurotoxin rank 1, Envenom rank 3
Ultimate	Petrify rank 5, Prime Petrify, Supreme Petrify Defiance rank 3 Catastrophe rank 3 Defensive Posture rank 3 Quickshift rank 3, Heightened Senses rank 3
Key Passive	Bestial Rampage

To see the Skill Tree it its entirety, CLICK HERE. Skill Tree courtesy of D4builds.gg

• Earth Spike can be taken for convenience as a Basic Spirit Builder especially while leveling and gearing. Claw is useful for shapeshifting maintenance, especially with Wildheart Hunger.
• Cataclysm with Mjölnic Ryng may be a viable Ultimate option for Spirit Management and ease of gameplay. See the Uniques section for necessary build adjustments.

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.

If self-healing is sufficient without Masochistic, use Calm before the Storm for more casts of Petrify.

Paragon Board

PTR boards may be subject to change and updates.

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

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. Pathing should prioritize placing your Glyphs and Legendary Nodes, then filling out the rest of the paths to take the Magic and Rare nodes. Total Boards placed are now limited to a max of 5; the Starter Board and four Class Boards.

To see the paragon board in its entirety, CLICK HERE. Paragon images courtesy of d4builds.gg.

Starter Board

Place the Tectonic glyph in the Starter Board.

Ancestral Guidance

Place the Ancestral Guidance board against the Starter Board, rotated once. Take the Legendary Node Ancestral Guidance, and socket the Undaunted glyph into the glyph socket.

Earthen Devastation

Place the Earthen Devastation board to the left of the Ancestral Guidance board, rotated once. Take the Legendary Node Earthen Devastation and place the Werebear Glyph.

Constricting Tendrils

Place the Constricting Tendrils board on top of the Earthen Devastation board. Take the Legendary Node Constricting Tendrils and place the Spirit Glyph.

Survival Instincts

Place the Survival Instincts board on top of the Ancestral Guidance board. Take the Legendary Node Survival Instincts and place the Headhunter Glyph.

For further info on Paragon choices, check the Paragon Information in the Additional Information Section.

• For more damage or while bossing, swap Undaunted for the Eliminator Glyph.
• For more Damage Reduction in hard-hitting content, swap Spirit for Territorial. Vulnerable status application should be covered either from Chance to Vulnerable affix on Legendary Ring or if used,Mjölnic Ryng in combination with Supreme Cataclysm.

Gear, Stats, Gems and Elixirs

The following are the recommended Legendary Aspects, Gear Affixes, Gems, Runewords and Consumables for the Stone Burst Druid.

Legendary Aspects

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

Slot	Gem/Runewords	Unique/Legendary Aspect	Unique/Legendary Power
Dagger	Grand Emerald	Aspect of Anticline Burst	Stone Burst deals 15-35%x increased damage and when Cast at or above 75 Spirit, it is immediately at its maximum size.
Unique Totem	Grand Emerald	(Recommended) Stone of Vehemen OR Accelerating Aspect	While Channeling Stone Burst, and for 2 seconds afterwards, gain 15% Damage Reduction. Stone Burst’s final explosion deals 10-15%x increased damage, further increased by 10-15%x for each size increase.
Helm	Poc Wat	(Recommended) Vasily’s Prayer OR Juggernaut’s Aspect	Your Earth Skills are now also Werebear skills and Fortify you for 2-5% of your Maximum Health.
Chest	Xol Ohm	(Recommended) Insatiable Fury OR (Recommended Mythic) Shroud of False Death	Werebear form is now your true form, and you gain +2-5 Ranks to all Werebear Skills.
Gloves		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.
Pants	Grand Sapphire	Tibault’s Will OR Skinwalker’s Aspect	You deal 10-20%x increased damage while Unstoppable and for 5 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource
Boots		(Recommended) Wildheart Hunger OR 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 Skull	Aspect of Retaliation	Your Core Skills deal up to 25-45% increased damage based on your amount of Fortify.
Ring 1	Grand Diamond	Aspect of the Dark Dance OR (Optional playstyle) Mjölnic Ryng	Every 5 seconds, your next Core Skill costs 160-40 Life instead of Primary Resource. Will only occur if you have at least 60% of your Maximum Life. Skills that consume Life deal 80%x increased damage.
Ring 2	Grand Diamond	(Recommended Mythic) Ring of Starless Skies OR Starlight Aspect	Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10%x for 3 seconds, up to 50%.

Gear Affixes and Tempering

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, and the bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. To masterwork, you will need rare materials that drop from Nightmare Dungeons and Infernal Hordes. Be sure to check our Tempering guide, our Masterworking guide.

Unique Items cannot be Tempered, but can be Masterworked. Any slot with an Optional Unique Item will include a valid alternative legendary power setup.

Slot	Gearing Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Dagger – Legendary Power	Willpower Max Life Chance on Hit to Restore Spirit Life on Hit	Earth Augments – Chance for Stone Burst to Cast Twice Natural Finesse – Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
(Recommended) Totem – Stone of Vehemen	Willpower Critical Strike Damage Chance for Stone Burst to Cast Twice Ranks to Stone Burst
Totem – Legendary Aspect	Critical Strike Chance Cooldown Reduction Lucky Hit Chance Chance on Hit to Restore Spirit	Earth Augments – Chance for Stone Burst to Cast Twice Natural Finesse – Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Helm – Vasily’s Prayer	Willpower Maximum Life Armor Ranks to Defensive Posture
Helm – Legendary Aspect	Cooldown Reduction Spirit Per Second Armor Willpower	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor% Nature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration
Chest – Insatiable Fury	Maximum Life Werebear Overpower Ursine Strength’s Bonuses Ranks to Iron Fur
Mythic Unique Chest – Shroud of False Death	All Stats Maximum Life Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth Resource Generation
Gloves – Legendary Power	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Ranks to Stone Burst Chance on Hit to Restore Spirit	Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance Worldly Fortune -Chance on Hit to Stun/Freeze
Pants – Tibault’s Will	All Stats Max Life Maximum Resource Damage Reduction While Unstoppable
Pants – Legendary Aspect	Willpower Max Life Armor Resistance to All Elements	Worldly Endurance – Total Armor% Nature Magic Innovation – Petrify Duration
Boots –Wildheart Hunger	Movement Speed Shapeshifting Attack Speed Cold Resistance Ranks to Heightened Senses
Boots – Legendary Aspect	Implicit – Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown by 1.5 seconds Movement Speed Spirit Per Second Willpower All Resistances	Druid Motion – Movement Speed Worldly Fortune – Chance to Stun/Freeze
Amulet – Legendary Aspect	Ranks to Envenom Ranks to Nature’s Reach Ranks to Quickshift Movement Speed Critical Strike Chance	Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance Ultimate Efficiency —  Druid – Petrify Cooldown Reduction OR Manual: Worldly Stability – Resource Generation
Ring – Legendary Aspect	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Chance to Make Enemies Vulnerable Lucky Hit Chance	Earth Finesse – Earth Critical Strike Chance Ultimate Efficiency —  Druid – Petrify Cooldown Reduction OR Manual: Worldly Stability – Resource Generation
Ring – Ring of Starless Skies	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Ranks in Core Skills
Ring – Mjölnic Ryng	Willpower Critical Strike Chance Movement Speed While Cataclysm is Active Ranks to Endless Tempest

Offensive Tempers can be damage to crowd-controlled enemies for Earthen Devastation. After the cap of 60% is reached on that Paragon Node, temper items for Earth Critical Strike Chance.

Gems and Runewords

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

Gems

Runewords

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

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

Once the Runeword of Ritual has supplied enough Offerings, the Runeword of Invocation will trigger its effect. Some Runewords 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.

The following are Runeword combination options for the Stone Burst Druid:

Standard

Spirit Management

Poc Lum will continually give a Spirit discount. Feo Yom will give 50 Spirit back from Prime Petrify.

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 II 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.

Unique Items

• Stone of Vehemen is a simple Damage Reduction and Damage Multiplier buff to the final explosion of Stone Burst. The Damage To Crowd Controlled Enemies instead of Lucky Hit is good for Earthen Devastation but less Lucky Hit can mean fewer Energize Spirit Boon or other Lucky Hit triggers. Use this over a Legendary Totem if your Spirit Management is good.
• Vasily’s Prayer is a strong source of Fortify and makes Stone Burst a Werebear skill. This enables the maintenance of several strong multipliers like Bestial Rampage and Quickshift and granting auras including Survival Instincts while the Form is active.
• Insatiable Fury is a strong defensive Unique Item, and grants skill ranks to Werebear skills, including Stone Burst because Vasily’s Prayer makes Stone Burst a Werebear Skill. This chest also helps to maintain shapeshifting bonuses like Heightened Senses or Quickshift by keeping the Werebear Form active between combat.
• Tibault’s Will is a tidy damage multiplier and periodic source of Spirit. Enhanced Earthen Bulwark and if used, Aspect of Metamorphosis provide sources for Unstoppable.
• Wildheart Hunger is a stacking additive buff to Bestial Rampage, requiring shifting between or to Werebear and Werewolf forms. This bonus stacks high but decays every second, requiring near-constant upkeep. This can be a disruptive item that pays off well, with a strong buff to Damage and Attack Speed well worth maintaining. In more trivial content, this Unique item can be skipped for convenience.
• Mjölnic Ryng is a viable optional playstyle variant item that can make Spirit Management less of a concern for most druid builds. For the Stone Burst Druid, this allows constant clickcast of max radius Stone Bursts while Cataclysm is active, as well as a strong damage multiplier. To play into this Unique, make the following changes:
  • Exchange ranks and passives in Petrify for their equivalent skill ranks in Cataclysm, and ranks in Catastrophe for Endless Tempest.
  • Exchange any Resource tempers on Amulet and Rings for Ultimate Efficiency — Druid – Cataclysm Cooldown Reduction.
  • Exchange Masochistic Boon for Calm Before the Storm, and Energize for Calamity.
  • Maintain Cataclysm when engaging enemies.

Mythic Unique Items

• (Recommended) Shroud of False Death – This Chest can be a strong option, offering +1 to all Skill Passives. That includes several offensive multipliers, utility choices, and defensive gains. Masterwork the All Stats.
• (Defensive Optional) Tyrael’s Might – This Mythic Unique offers high defensive capability with Damage Reduction, and increased Resistance cap, as well as and some minor damage while at full health. Masterwork the Damage Reduction.
• (Defensive Optional) Doombringer is one of the most defensive items, offering significant Max Life and sources of Damage Reduction. This is at a significant damage loss, however. move Aspect of Anticline Burst to Gloves. Masterwork the Max Life% or Damage Reduction.
• (Recommended) Ring of Starless Skies is a high value Mythic with strong Gear Affixes, high damage multiplier and Resource Cost Reduction for the Spirit Hungry Stone Burst. Masterwork the Attack Speed or Critical Strike Chance.

Rotation

Before Combat:

1. Claw in place or Blood Howl to activate Werewolf Shapeshifting buffs Bestial Rampage, Quickshift and Heightened Senses.

When Engaging enemies:

1. Maintain Shapeshifting buffs Bestial Rampage, Quickshift and Heightened Senses. Try not to be in Human form for longer than 3 seconds at a time.
2. If using Wildheart Hunger, cycle abilities like Blood Howl or Cyclone Armor that allow change between or to Werebear and Werewolf form to ramp and maintain Wildheart Stacks.
3. Petrify dangerous enemies for a large Critical Strike Damage multiplier and Stun.
4. While Above 75 Spirit, clickcast to Stone Burst enemies at full Radius. Target important enemies within the 1st radius Enhanced Stone Burst multiplier.
5. While Below 75 Spirit, build Spirit from abilities such as:
   • Earthen Bulwark for Spirit from Tibault’s Will
   • Prime Petrify to gain Spirit.
   • If used, trigger Aspect of Metamorphosis for Unstoppable for Tibault’s Will.
   • Hold and Channel Stone Burst to tick on enemies for Lucky Hits to Energize Spirit Boon
   • Build Spirit with Claw

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 of how the build works, what synergies exist, and what to look out for.

PTR and Season 6: Season of Hatred

For general PTR information, check out the Blizzard PTR post. For general season 6 information, stand by for our official Seasonal page to update!

Advanced Information

It is time to start your Stone Burst Journey!

Or see below for further information on how the build works, as well as explanations of Build Mechanics, Paragon, Spirit Management, and Gameplay.

Build Mechanics

The Stone Burst druid is a simple gameplay cycle:

• Maintain all your buffs.
• Stay above 75 Spirit.
• Click Cast spam your Stone Bursts to kill your enemies.

Stone Burst is our high-damage Core Skill, and the build is centered around it. The base form of Stone Burst is held and channeled to grow up to two times, then released to deal high-impact damage.

• Aspect of Anticline Burst allows Stone Burst to already be max radius when cast above 75Spirit
• As a channeled Skill, Stone Burst should not be able to Overpower.
• Stone Burst deals Physical Damage but as an Earth Skill, will get Nature and Earth damage modifiers.
• Enhanced Stone Burst gives Stone Burst a skill shot for a higher multiplier where the 1st radius of the Stone Burst would be. This can unfortunately get shifted when the Earth Augments double-cast triggers, placing two Stone Bursts side by side.
• With Vasily’s Prayer, Stone Burst will also be a Werebear Skill and receive Werebear and Shapeshifting modifiers as well as helping to maintain Shapeshifting buffs and bonuses such as Survival Instincts, Quickshift, Heightened Senses, and Wildheart Hunger.
• Stone Burst, as a channeled Skill, cannot Overpower by any means.

Supporting Skills

Earthen Bulwark gives Unstoppable and if used with Tibault’s Will is a means for Spirit and a damage multiplier.
Claw is a filler Basic Attack that can help maintain Werewolf buffs like Heightened Senses or Bestial Rampage. While leveling and still using a Basic for Spirit Generation, Earth Spike or Wind Shear may be preferred to accommodate Stone Burst’s ranged playstyle.
Blood Howl gives an Attack Speeed bonus, a heal for Starlight Aspect also helps maintain shapeshifting bonuses.
Cyclone Armor is a passive, low investment defensive gain. The active part of the Skill can be a supplementary method of changing Form to help maintain shapeshifting bonuses like Wildheart Hunger. Changing to Human will not give bonuses but the subsequent change back into Form will.

Petrify is our Ultimate Skill. This is a strong Spirit gain, a multiplicative layer of Critical Strike Damage and Crowd Control Stun application. If you do not need the healing from Masochistic Spirit Boon, Calm before the Storm can be a strong choice for more total casts of Petrify.

The Key Passive is Bestial Rampage for a high Damage Multiplier and Attack Speed buff. The buffs are maintained so long as you do not stay in Human Form for longer than three seconds. Wildheart Hunger can ramp these bonuses much higher, requiring near-constant shifting to beat the stack decay.

Poison for Envenom is maintained by Lucky Hits from Constricting Tendrils.

Managing Spirit

Stone Burst is a Spirit-hungry build, especially when using the skill passive multipliers Raging Stone Burst and Wild Impulses. The goal while playing is to stay above 75 Spirit when casting Stone Burst so that Aspect of Anticline Burst automatically casts Stone Burst at max radius without having to hold and channel. Spirit is manged through several means:

• Energize Spirit Boon grants a lucky hit to give Spirit
• Tibault’s Will with Enhanced Earthen Bulwark and if used, Aspect of Metamorphosis to grant Spirit on Unstoppable.
• Prime Petrify gives Spirit on cast.
• Starlight Aspect can give Spirit after healing 20% or overhealing 200% of Max life. Masochistic Boon, potions, and if used, Skinwalker’s Aspect all provide sources of healing. Willpower improves healing received.
• Aspect of the Dark Dance gives periodic free casts of Core Skills at a health expense.
• The Ancestral Guidance paragon board gives Spirit on Kill and Maximum Spirit increases.
• Gift of the Stag Spirit Boon and Tibault’s Will increase Maximum Spirit.
• Gear Affixes like Spirit per second and Chance on Hit to grant Spirit
• If used, Mjölnic Ryng maxes Spirit and makes Stone Burst free while Cataclysm is active.

In an Endgame state, these sources are sufficient for Spirit management. If these are not sufficient while leveling and gearing, consider one or more of the following supplementary options:

• Use the Spirit Management Runeword setup.
• Use a Legendary Totem over the Stone of Vehemen, for higher Lucky Hit chance and change to restore Spirit on Hit.
• Gear for Spirit Per Second gear affixes on helm, chest or boots.
• Gear for Spirit on Kill, Resource Cost Reduction, or Chance to gain Resource on Weapons
• Target Resource Generation for Tempers and Masterworking
• Use Aspect of Quicksand as a Utility Aspect and Aspect of the Umbral as a Resource Aspect.
• Use Primal Stone Burst over Raging Stone Burst.
• Take ranks from Wild Impulses and place them in Circle of Life. The extra healing will interact with Starlight Aspect.
• Worst case, use your Basic Skill as a Spirit Builder.

Paragon

The Paragon Board is a progression system unlocked at Level 50, 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. There are 330 Paragon points available; 300 from leveling paragon, and 30 from Renown and Altars of Lilith.

The recommended Paragon boards with images for the Stone Burst druid are listed above. The following section goes over some explanations and descriptions for the pathing process for the Stone Burst 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 Headhunter.
  • Legendary Nodes such as Earthen Devastation and Survival Instincts.
  • Magic and Rare nodes for Additive damage sources.
• Defense – The paragon boards help reach goals on Damage Reduction, Armor, and Resistances. This includes:
  • Damage Reduction is improved from Undaunted and Werebear secondary effects, as well as individual nodes providing bonuses like Damage Reduction from Poisoned Enemies
  • Resistances are improved from Magic and Rare Resistance nodes.
  • Armor goals are reached with the help of Armor nodes.
• Build Functionality – The paragon boards improve Spirit Generation for the build from a few sources, including:
  • Access to Resource options like Spirit on Kill or Maximum Spirit.

Changelog

• 4 September, 2024: Speculative Stone Burst Druid guide made based on PTR information for the upcoming Season 6: Season of Hatred.