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Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build: Best Pulverize Druid skills

Discover the best Pulverize Druid build in Diablo 4

Diablo 4 image showing a Druid with swirling tattoos on their chest, stood against a grey/green backdrop.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Blizzard Entertainment

Looking for the best Pulverize Druid build in Diablo 4? The Pulverize Druid is currently one of the strongest builds in Diablo 4, thanks to its tanky nature and huge damage potential with skills such as Trample and the titular Pulverize. Oh, and you get to be a Werebear, which is very cool.

If you want to destroy demons as a Werebear, then you're in the right place! In this guide, we'll cover how to create the best Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build, breaking down the skills, Spirit Boons, Aspects, Stats, and Gems that you'll need to maximise the potential of this playstyle.

This Pulverize Druid build is fully prepared for launch and will take you through levels 1-50, so that you can beat the World Tier 2 Cathedral of Light Capstone Dungeon with ease and get onto that tough endgame content, such as Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons. We'll be back to update you on how to spend those precious Paragon Points after we've had some more time in the endgame experience ourselves.

Check out our Diablo 4 Storm Druid build, if you'd rather call down Lightning on your enemies from afar!

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Best Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build

Our Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build focuses on dealing huge damage and tanking through enemy crowds, ensuring that you're able to soak up whatever the legions of Hell throw your way.

It's one of the simpler builds that we've created, similar to the Whirlwind Barbarian in its ease of use, as you can just Trample into large crowds and spam Pulverize. This will also deal huge AoE damage if you get the Shockwave Aspect, so keep an eye out for this on Legendary drops at all times.


Best Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build skills

Below, you'll find a full list of all skills that you should get for our Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build, in order:

Level Skill Cluster
2 Maul level 1 1 (Basic)
3 Enhanced Maul 1 (Basic)
4 Fierce Maul 1 (Basic)
5 Pulverize level 1 2 (Spirit)
6 Enhanced Pulverize 2 (Spirit)
7 Primal Pulverize 2 (Spirit)
8 Earthen Bulwark level 1 3 (Defensive)
9 Enhanced Earthen Bulwark 3 (Defensive)
10 Preserving Earthen Bulwark 3 (Defensive)
11 Debilitating Roar level 1 3 (Defensive)
12 Enhanced Debilitating Roar 3 (Defensive)
13 Innate Debilitating Roar 3 (Defensive)
14 Pulverize level 2 2 (Spirit)
15 Pulverize level 3 2 (Spirit)
16 Pulverize level 4 2 (Spirit)
17 Pulverize level 5 2 (Spirit)
18 Trample level 1 5 (Wrath)
19 Enhanced Trample 5 (Wrath)
20 Natural Trample 5 (Wrath)
21 Trample level 2 5 (Wrath)
22 Trample level 3 5 (Wrath)
23 Trample level 4 5 (Wrath)
24 Trample level 5 5 (Wrath)
25 Grizzly Rage 6 (Ultimate)
26 Prime Grizzly Rage 6 (Ultimate)
27 Supreme Grizzly Rage 6 (Ultimate)
28 Heart of the Wild level 1 2 (Spirit)
29 Wild Impulses level 1 2 (Spirit)
30 Wild Impulses level 2 2 (Spirit)
31 Wild Impulses level 3 2 (Spirit)
32 Predatory Instinct level 1 2 (Spirit)
33 Iron Fur level 1 2 (Spirit)
34 Iron Fur level 2 2 (Spirit)
35 Iron Fur level 3 2 (Spirit)
36 Ursine Strength 7 (Key Passive)
37 Ancestral Fortitude level 1 3 (Defensive)
38 Ancestral Fortitude level 2 3 (Defensive)
39 Ancestral Fortitude level 3 3 (Defensive)
40 Vigilance level 1 3 (Defensive)
41 Vigilance level 2 3 (Defensive)
42 Vigilance level 3 3 (Defensive)
43 Mending level 1 5 (Wrath)
44 Mending level 2 5 (Wrath)
45 Mending level 3 5 (Wrath)
46 Provocation level 1 5 (Wrath)
47 Provocation level 2 5 (Wrath)
48 Provocation level 3 5 (Wrath)
49 Defensive Posture level 1 6 (Ultimate)
Renown Point 1 Defensive Posture level 2 6 (Ultimate)
Renown Point 2 Defensive Posture level 3 6 (Ultimate)
Renown Point 3 Crushing Earth level 1 5 (Wrath)
Renown Point 4 Crushing Earth level 2 5 (Wrath)
Renown Point 5 Crushing Earth level 3 5 (Wrath)
Renown Point 6 Stone Guard level 1 5 (Wrath)
Renown Point 7 Stone Guard level 2 5 (Wrath)
Renown Point 8 Stone Guard level 3 5 (Wrath)
Renown Point 9 Earthen Bulwark level 2 3 (Defensive)
Renown Point 10 Earthen Bulwark level 3 3 (Defensive)

Maul

Maul is your basic Generator, building Spirit and dealing a decent little chunk of damage. It won't be your big damage dealer by any means, but the Enhanced Maul upgrade will also make it Fortify for 2% of your base Life. That'll help you tank some hits while building Spirit, keeping you alive while you prepare to spam Pulverize.

Pulverize

Pulverize is the titular skill of this Druid build, shapeshifting you into a Werebear and slamming the ground for huge damage.

With upgrades, it'll also guarantee your next Pulverize hit to be an Overpower attack while you remain Healthy and cause any enemies hit by the impact to deal 20% reduced damage for 4 seconds.

With the Aspect of the Ursine Horror equipped, Pulverize will also become an Earth skill and benefit from the Earth passives listed in the skill table above. Make sure to collect this Aspect from the Belfry Zakara dungeon in Hawezar as early as possible.

Earthen Bulwark

Earthen Bulwark is a key defensive skill, granting a barrier that absorbs 54% of your base Life in damage for 3 seconds.

The really important part comes from Enhanced Earthen Bulwark, though, which also grants you Unstoppable. This ends any Crowd Control effects impacting your character, so that you can escape pesky effects such as Stun or Immobilized and keep spamming Pulverize.

Debilitating Roar

Debilitating Roar is another defensive skill, shapeshifting you into a Werebear and letting out a loud roar that reduces the damage dealt by nearby enemies by 70% for 4 seconds.

With the Enhanced and Preserving upgrades, Debilitating Roar will also Fortify your character for 22% base Life and heal you for 4% of your max Life each second for its duration. That's a whole lot of utility in one skill, making this an obvious pick for our Pulverize Druid build.

Trample

Trample is yet another Werebear skill, causing you to shift into your ursine form, become Unstoppable, and charge forward to deal huge damage to any enemies in your path. It's a skill that can have a serious impact on large packs or single targets, such as Elites and Bosses, and the Enhanced upgrade will guarantee a further 150% bonus damage.

To help with the tankiness of this Pulverize Druid build, the Natural Trample upgrade will also grant 20% of your base Life as Fortify, so that you can soak up some more of those enemy hits after charging into a crowd.

Like Pulverize, Trample becomes an Earth skill to benefit from various passives in this build when you get the Aspect of the Trampled Earth. This is an Aspect that will drop on random pieces of Legendary Gear, so make sure to equip it if you find it.

Grizzly Rage

Grizzly Rage is your ultimate for this build, causing you to, once again, shapeshift into a Werebear. It offers a powerful array of buffs for 10 seconds, including 20% bonus damage, 20% Damage Reduction, and, with the Prime upgrade, Unstoppable. With the Supreme upgrade, you'll also Fortify for 8% of your base Life per second.

If you're unsure how to use these skills effectively, follow the attack pattern below:

  1. Use Trample to charge into a group.
  2. Use Debilitating Roar once in a pack of enemies.
  3. Spam Pulverize until you're out of Spirit.
  4. Use Earthen Bulwark if you start taking serious damage (anywhere below half health).
  5. Once out of Spirit, use Maul to quickly generate more and then switch back to Pulverize.
  6. Use Grizzly Rage whenever it becomes available during combat, but especially against Elites and Bosses.
Diablo 4 image showing a close up of a Druid in full armor.

Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build: Best Spirit Boons

The Druid has access to a unique class mechanic called Spirit Boons in Diablo 4, offering a range of passives that you can equip for various boosts. There are four Spirit Boon "trees", and you can select one passive from each tree. You'll also be able to select a fifth Boon, from any tree that you prefer, after fully unlocking all four trees.

Below, you'll find the best Spirit Boons for our Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build:

  • Wariness: Take 10% reduced damage from Elites.
  • Iron Feather: Gain 10% maximum Life.
  • Bolster: Fortify for 10% of your maximum Life when you use a defensive skill.
  • Masochistic: Critical Strikes with shapeshifting skills heal you for 3% maximum Life.
  • Calamity: Extend the duration of ultimate skills by 25%.

Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build: Best Aspects

In Diablo 4, you will get Legendary Aspects on random Legendary Gear and as a reward for completing Side Dungeons around Sanctuary. Legendary Aspects are the thing that gives Legendary items their Legendary effects, and they often synergise incredibly well with specific builds to give you huge power boosts.

Below, you'll find the Aspects that we'd recommend using for this Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build:

  • Harlequin Crest (Unique Helmet - random drop): Gain 10-20% Damage Reduction. In addition, gain 4 ranks to all skills.
  • Aspect of Disobedience (Halls of the Damned - Kehjistan): You gain 0.25-0.5% increased armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to 25-50%.
  • Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast (Endless Gates - Hawezar): The duration of Grizzly Rage is increased by 1-5 seconds. In addition, Critical Strikes while Grizzly Rage is active increase your Critical Strike Damage by 10% for the duration.
  • Aspect of Mending Stones (Sealed Archives - Dry Steppes): The duration of Earthen Bulwark is increased by 6 seconds. In addition, killing an enemy with Earth skills replenishes some of your active Earthen Bulwark's Barrier.
  • Aspect of Quicksand (Ferals' Den - Scosglen): Damage from Earth skills Slow enemies hit by 25-50% for 5 seconds.
  • Aspect of the Ursine Horror (Belfry Zakara - Hawezar): Pulverize is now an Earth skill. After casting Pulverize, tectonic spikes continue to deal damage over 2 seconds.
  • Aspect of the Trampled Earth (Legendary - random drop): Trample now summons 6 Landslide pillars of earth during its duration that deal 70-80% normal damage. Trample is now a Nature Magic and Earth skill.
  • Shockwave Aspect (Legendary - random drop): Pulverize creates a shockwave that travels forward, dealing 60-100% of its damage to targets in the path.
  • Balanced Aspect (Legendary - random drop): Increase your Maximum Spirit by 30-50 and Spirit Generation by 20% while Grizzly Rage is active.
  • Mangled Aspect (Immortal Emanation - Fractured Peaks): When you are struck as a Werebear, you have a 20-30% chance to gain 1 Spirit.

Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build: Best Stats

Gear that you find throughout Diablo 4 will also have random stats that grant passive bonuses, known as Affixes. These Affixes will further bolster your build, allowing you to target certain stats that'll synergise with your skills and playstyle.

Below, you'll find the Stats that you should hunt for with this Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build:

  • Damage while Werebear
  • Damage with Earth
  • Overpower damage
  • Damage Reduction while Fortified
  • Fortify
  • Willpower (increases skill damage and Overpower damage)
  • Intelligence (increases Spirit Generation)

While it is expensive, you are able to reroll Affixes on Gear by visiting the Occultist. However, you must wait until World Tier 3 to do so, as it requires Fiend Roses that only spawn during Helltides.

It also becomes quite expensive after the first attempt on a specific piece of Gear, so we'd recommend waiting until you have late-game Gear with more longevity. Otherwise, you might find that you dump resources into a reroll for a piece of Gear and then immediately swap it out for something better.

Diablo 4 screenshot showing a Druid in Werebear form after using Trample.

Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build: Best Gems

Gear also often comes with Gem Sockets in Diablo 4, into which you can place Gems for more passive bonuses. These are similar to the Affixes that can appear on Gear, but are pre-determined boosts rather than randomly-rolled stats.

In Weapons, you should use Rubies to increase your Overpower damage, as Pulverize will frequently trigger Overpower attacks.

In Armor, we'd recommend using Sapphires to increase your Damage Reduction while Fortified. Many of the skills in this build will Fortify you for a percentage of your max Life, so using Sapphires will take advantage of that and help you tank even more hits.

For Jewelry, you should use Skulls to boost your Armor. Other Gems will boost a specific Resistance (or, in the case of Diamonds, all Resistances for a lower overall amount), but the flat boost to Armor from Skulls will ensure that you can tank more physical damage while spamming Pulverize in a crowd.

That wraps up our Diablo 4 Pulverize Druid build guide. If you'd like to try out some other classes, take a look at our Diablo 4 Bone Necromancer build, Corpse Explosion Necromancer build, Bleed Barbarian build, Twisting Blades Rogue build, Lightning Sorcerer build, and Fire Sorcerer build guides.


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About the Author
Hayden Hefford avatar

Hayden Hefford

Guides Writer

Hayden is a guides writer for RPS, having joined the team in September 2021 after a few months of freelancing for TheGamer. They're a big fan of survival games, especially those that focus on the undead. Zombies. Walkers. Shamblers. Whatever you call them, Hayden is definitely a fan.

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