Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build – Dire Wolf: In this Diablo 4 Druid Build, I’ll show you how to play a LvL 70+ Dire Wolf Druid that’s aimed at World Tier 4. If you are looking for a Build that focuses on shifting into a Werewolf and using the Shred Ability, which is also a continuation of the Shredder Build, then this Diablo 4 Druid Build – Dire Wolf is for you!
Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build – Dire Wolf
So to recap, this Diablo IV Build focuses on using Shred with the help of 2 aspects, namely the Stormclaw’s Aspect and Aspect of the Blurred Beast. The Stormclaw’s Aspect lets you deal huge damage upon landing crits with Shred while the Aspect of the Blurred Beast allows you to use Poison Creeper to absolutely obliterate them. But the problem is it takes some setup since Poison Creeper has a long cooldown. Additionally, you have to let Rabies spread around so your clear speed will take a hit. As such, we also use the Stormclaw’s Aspect to jump right into enemies and deal huge damage whether they’re Poisoned or not.
![Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build - Dire Wolf in Combat](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Diablo-4-Werewolf-Druid-Build-Dire-Wolf-in-Combat-640x360.jpg)
Every Druid has issues managing their Spirit, especially early on. First is by getting the Spirit Cost Reduction Stat, around 16-17% off your Amulet and 7.5-8% off Boots minimally. This significantly lowers the cost of Shred to spam it a lot more easily. Second is by taking the Energized Spirit Boon, which makes it so Lucky Hit dealing damage has up to a 15% chance to restore 10 Spirit. This is a good amount of resources and it’s going to trigger sometimes even without you knowing it.
The third is by using the Aspect of the Umbral, which makes it so that when you crowd control an enemy, you get up to 4 Spirit. This is done with Poison Creeper and also from any Poison you do because of the Neurotoxin Passive to Slow down enemies. So any time you Poison them, they’re effectively CCed. Alternatively, the Starlight Aspect would be better since it restores a huge chunk of Spirit when you heal yourself, which happens often while you’re attacking targets.
Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build – Dire Wolf
Once you hit Tier IV you’ll want to start thinking about min/maxing to get the most out of your Build, and that starts with Skills. Thanks to Paragon Boards and to the increased Equipment affixes, you’ll be able to bypass most of the restrictions you previously faced while leveling up. I also won’t get too deep into Skills, as you most probably know how they work by now.
![Shred Skill for the Dire Wolf Diablo 4 Druid Build](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Shred-Skill-for-the-Dire-Wolf-Diablo-4-Druid-Build-640x360.jpg)
LEVEL 70+ DRUID SKILLS | |
Skill | Points Spent |
Claw | 1 (+3 from Gear) |
Enhanced Claw | 1 |
Fierce Claw | 1 |
Shred | 9 (+4 from Gear) |
Enhanced Shred | 1 |
Raging Shred | 1 |
Heart of the Wild | 1 |
Wild Impulses | 3 |
Predatory Instinct | 3 |
Digitigrade Gait | 3 |
Blood Howl | 4 (+3 from Gear) |
Enhanced Blood Howl | 1 |
Innate Blood Howl | 1 |
Ancestral Fortitude | 1 |
Vigilance | 3 |
Poison Creeper | 9 (+4 from Gear) |
Enhanced Poison Creeper | 1 |
Ferocious Poison Creeper | 1 |
Nature’s Reach | 3 |
Call of the Wild | 3 |
Hurricane | 5 |
Enhanced Hurricane | 1 |
Savage Hurricane | 1 |
Rabies | 3 (+3 from Gear) |
Neurotoxin | 1 |
Envenom | 6 (+3 from Gear) |
Toxic Claws | 3 |
Grizzly Rage | 1 |
Prime Grizzly Rage | 1 |
Supreme Grizzly Rage | 1 |
Lupine Ferocity Key Passive | 1 |
Spirit Boons
- Wariness – Take 10% reduced damage from Elites.
- Scythe Talons – Gain 5% increased Critical Strike Chance.
- Avian Wrath – Gain 30% Critical Strike Damage.
- Energize – Lucky Hit: Dealing damage has up to a 15% chance to restore 10 Spirit.
- Masochistic – Critical Strikes with Shapeshifting Skills Heal you for 3% Maximum Life (150).
![Dire Wolf Druid Build - Spirit Boons like Wariness and Scythe Talons](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Dire-Wolf-Druid-Build-Spirit-Boons-like-Wariness-and-Scythe-Talons-640x360.jpg)
Diablo 4 Druid Build: Equipment, Gems, and Aspects
Equipment is the most important part of any Endgame Build, and It’s important to understand that it’s a long-term goal. You won’t have all Paragon Boards available right away, and getting all uniques will probably take a lot of farming, so try to use Legendary Aspects to adjust to your needs while you farm levels and better gear.
Legendary Aspects and Unique Powers
I’ll divide the Equipment into different slots, so it’s easier to understand what you should be using and what affixes you should be looking for. Remember that unique equipment has fixed affixes and powers, so if you are using one, you might need to re-slot a Legendary Aspect into a different piece.
Another important thing to notice is that, when looking for stats, you’ll want to make sure you are fulfilling your Paragon Rare Node requirements. Some rare nodes have very high requirements, and equipment is what allows you to fulfill them. These bonuses often double the rare node effect so, for example, getting an Equipment piece with +100 Dexterity might unlock one or more Node bonuses, giving you a massive bonus as a result.
![Diablo 4 Druid Build - Dire Wolf Vigorous Primal Bascinet to Gain Damage Reduction While Shapeshifted into a Werewolf](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Diablo-4-Druid-Build-Dire-Wolf-Vigorous-Primal-Bascinet-to-Gain-Damage-Reduction-While-Shapeshifted-into-a-Werewolf-370x640.jpg)
![D4 Dire Wolf Druid Build - Mad Wolf's Glee where the Werewolf Form is Now Your True Form](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/D4-Dire-Wolf-Druid-Build-Mad-Wolfs-Glee-where-the-Werewolf-Form-is-Now-Your-True-Form-299x640.jpg)
![Diablo IV Druid Build - Dire Wolf with Adventurer's Pants of Protector to Grant a Barrier](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Diablo-IV-Druid-Build-Dire-Wolf-with-Adventurers-Pants-of-Protector-to-Grant-a-Barrier-330x640.jpg)
Helm
Legendary Aspect
Vigorous Aspect: This makes it so that you gain up to 15% Damage Reduction while Shapeshifted, which is 99% of the time. As a result, the Vigorous Aspect considerably improves the Dire Wolf D4 Druid Build’s survivability.
Affixes
- Cooldown Reduction
- +Ranks of Poison Creeper
- +Maximum Life
- +Total Armor
Chest Armor
Affixes
- +Physical Damage
- +Poison Damage
- Damage Reduction from Enemies That Are Poisoned
- +Movement Speed
- Ranks of Werewolf Skills
Unique Equipment
Mad Wolf’s Glee: This gives +2 Ranks of Werewolf Skills as well as Damage Reduction from Enemies That Are Poisoned, which can reach as high as 20%+. That’s a huge amount of Damage Reduction so make sure to Poison targets. This is one of the reasons why you’ll use the Raging Shred upgrade to apply Poison rather than Primal Shred, which increases your Critical Strike Damage. Additionally, Claw helps keep them Poisoned, thereby allowing you to stay alive in combat.
Gloves
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of the Blurred Beast: This makes it so that when you Dash and attack with Shred, and actually teleport to a target, nearby Poisoned enemies instantly take Poison Damage, which is up to 90%. If this is slotted on an Amulet or Two-Handed Weapon, the damage would be up to 135% or 180%, respectively.
Affixes
- +Rank of Shred
- +Attack Speed
- +Lucky Hit Chance
- +Critical Strike Chance
Pants
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of the Protector: This gives a Barrier when fighting Elites and Bosses.
OR
Aspect of Disobedience: This raises your Total Armor every time you deal damage.
Affixes
- +Maximum Life
- Damage Reduction while Injured
- +Total Armor
- +Dodge Chance
Boots
Legendary Aspect
Stormshifter’s Aspect: This makes it so that while Hurricane is active, you gain +2 to Shapeshifting Skills like Claw. Hurricane is another amazing Skill that further reduces the damage you take by 20% when you gain access to the Savage Hurricane modifier, allowing you to run into a group of enemies, essentially unscathed.
Affixes
- +Dodge Chance
- +Movement Speed
- Spirit Cost Reduction
- +Movement Speed for 4 Seconds After Killing an Elite
Two-Handed Weapon
Legendary Aspect
Stormclaw’s Aspect: This lets you deal up to 30% damage when you Critically Strike as Lightning Damage to the target and surrounding enemies. When imprinted on a Two-Handed Weapon, it can be up to 60%, which is a huge amount of damage upon landing a crit, especially if you have a high Critical Strike Chance.
Affixes
- +All Stats
- +Vulnerable Damage
- +Core Skill Damage
- +Willpower
Unique Equipment
Waxing Gibbous: This is a good alternative for this Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build as it provides you with increased Critical Strike Damage, Life on Kill, and Ranks of Shred. So if you have the Waxing Gibbous equipped, then you’ll want to place the Stormclaw’s Aspect on your Amulet to still considerably raise the damage you deal by 45%.
![Diablo 4 Dire Wolf Druid Build - Accelerating Chain to Increase Attack Speed](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Diablo-4-Dire-Wolf-Druid-Build-Accelerating-Chain-to-Increase-Attack-Speed-362x640.jpg)
![Diablo IV Dire Wolf's Loop for Grizzly Rage to Shapeshift You Into a Dire Werewolf](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Diablo-IV-Dire-Wolfs-Loop-for-Grizzly-Rage-to-Shapeshift-You-Into-a-Dire-Werewolf-301x640.jpg)
![Circle of the Umbral to Restore Spirit When You CC an Enemy](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Circle-of-the-Umbral-to-Restore-Spirit-When-You-CC-an-Enemy.jpg)
Amulet
Legendary Aspect
Accelerating Aspect: This allows you to shred enemies very fast.
Affixes
- Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies
- +Ranks of Envenom Passive
- +Damage while in Human Form
- Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
First Ring
Legendary Aspect
Dire Wolf’s Aspect: This allows you to turn into a Dire Werewolf when you activate the Grizzly Rage Ultimate, which is normally a Werebear Skill. As such, your Movement Speed is improved while the Spirit cost of your abilities is reduced. The Dire Wolf’s Aspect also heals you for 10% of your Maximum Life upon killing enemies. And this synergizes very well with Starlight’s Aspect. Going back to Grizzly Rage, you have Unstoppable while it’s active, meaning you can stand in CC without this affecting you. This, combined with your Damage Reduction from Skills and gear add up to make you extremely tanky.
Affixes
- +Physical Damage
- +Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
- +Critical Strike Chance
- +Vulnerable Damage
Second Ring
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of the Umbral: Every time you CC an enemy, you gain X amount of Spirit. But it’s not that great since you’re just flying around without getting a hefty resources from each enemy, plus you need to CC a lot of them to make the Aspect of the Umbral worth it.
OR
Starlight Aspect: This makes it so that you gain up to 20 Spirit for every 25% of your Health you heal. And constantly, you’re going to heal with this Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build because of Blood Howl and Shred. You’ll jump into enemies, attack, and heal via attacks. Additionally, the Masochistic Spirit Boon restores HP every time you land crits with a Shapeshifting Skill. If you can obtain a max roll on Starlight Aspect, you’ll receive way more Spirit as compared to the Aspect of the Umbral.
Affixes
- +Physical Damage
- +Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
- +Damage to Close Enemies
- +Critical Strike Chance
Gems
For gems, you’ll want to slot:
- Weapon: Emeralds to increase Critical Strike Damage against Vulnerable enemies.
- Armor: Rubies to boost your Maximum Life.
- Jewelry: Skulls to boost your Defense value.
Paragon and Glyphs for the Druid Build
When it comes to Paragon Boards, we are mainly going to aim for Rare Nodes that increase our damage output, as well as Glyphs that synergize with our Build. Please note that the order in which I get the Nodes is just a general guideline, and you can adjust it to your current needs.
First Paragon Board – Base
The first glyph you’ll be taking for this Dire Wolf Diablo IV Druid Build is Exploit. This makes it so that when you damage an enemy, they become Vulnerable for 3 seconds. Vulnerable is a huge way to deal damage so you should have it for every Build. So when you teleport to a group of enemies with Shred and then use Poison Creeper, they’ll all become instantly Vulnerable.
![Exploit Glyph to Deal Huge Vulnerable Damage](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Exploit-Glyph-to-Deal-Huge-Vulnerable-Damage-640x360.jpg)
Second Paragon Board – Lust for Carnage
Moving over to your second Paragon Board is Lust for Carnage. This makes it so that when you critically strike with Werewolf Skills, you restore Spirit, allowing you to mitigate the resource issues for this Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build – Dire Wolf, especially since Shred is very expensive. Wild’s Call is a good Rare Node in this tree that provides you with increased Attack Speed and Maximum Spirit. You, therefore, have a bigger pool to drain. There are also other nodes that amplify your Werewolf Damage and Critical Damage so make sure to invest in those.
![Lust for Carnage Legendary Node to Improve Spirit Management](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Lust-for-Carnage-Legendary-Node-to-Improve-Spirit-Management-640x360.jpg)
For my second socket, I have the Fang and Claw Glyph so that enemies take 12% increased damage from you since you might struggle to deal damage with this D4 Druid Build sometimes. Next, this glyph boosts the Magic Nodes around it, particularly Werewolf Skill Damage, Healing Received, and additional Dexterity and Intelligence after expanding it to Level 15. Both attributes are needed to gain the extra bonuses from your Rare Nodes. There are probably other boards out there where your Dexterity-based sockets will fit but you essentially need Lust for Carnage to manage your Spirit well.
Third Paragon Board – Ancestral Guidance
Ancestral Guidance makes it so that after spending 75 Spirit, you deal 30% increased damage for 5 seconds. That’s a huge amount of damage but more importantly, there are a couple of Rare Nodes that you really need. First is Reclamation to gain Maximum Spirit and more of this resource on kill. It follows that the nearby Magic Nodes give additional Spirit on Kill so, between Lust for Carnage, Reclamation, and the node clusters around it, you’re going to receive a lot of resources from attacking and killing enemies, helping you offset the Spirit problems of this Diablo IV Druid Build – Dire Wolf.
![Reclamation Rare Node to Gain Maximum Spirit](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Reclamation-Rare-Node-to-Gain-Maximum-Spirit-640x360.jpg)
Furthermore, you’re also going to take Natural Attunement to receive Maximum Spirit and Maximum Life. You can always top yourself off before rushing into a fight to be able to trigger Shred frequently. What’s more, is that there are other nodes in the Ancestral Guidance Tree that provide you with additional Core Skill Damage as well as another glyph socket.
Final Tips
A great alternative to the Accelerating Aspect is the Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast, which makes it so that you extend the duration of Grizzly Rage by up to 5 seconds. Now if you have this on your Amulet, it’ll be 7.5 seconds. And if you have Cooldown Reduction on any of your Equipment, you’ll be able to activate Grizzly Rage more often, probably every 20 seconds.
![D4 Druid Build with Hurricane](https://fextralife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/D4-Druid-Build-with-Hurricane-640x360.jpg)
So that wraps up our Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build – Direwolf, which I enjoyed playing. This and the Rapid Fire Archer Rogue Build are probably my two favorites since I’m able to zip around the screen while dealing huge burst damage and having good survivability. You’re very tanky, especially when you pop in Direwolf.
Stay tuned for more Diablo 4 Build Guides and General Guides. Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and All Classes Overview if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!
6 responses to “Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build – Dire Wolf”
Fixed thank you!
Your link to Druid in the first paragraph takes you to necromancer instead.
Of all the builds I’ve seen this is the one I want to play the most. I just wish they would provide accurate screens of the paragon boards so I know what to do. It’s making the build unplayable, because I don’t know what I’m aiming for despite the descriptions. Hopefully, that’s something they will change. Until then, thanks for all your build crafting.
Comments by new users go on an approval queue until a moderator has time to confirm they are not spam. For your question: I don’t have the answer since this guide was written by Cas, and he is currently really busy with Baldur’s Gate 3![:(](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20210%20140%22%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Did my comment get deleted?
Hi there,
First off – thank you so much for this nice guide. REALLY helpfull for a newbies like myself![:)](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20210%20140%22%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I have a question, which I cannot find the answer to anywhere. It looks like you have using two different skill tabs – one with rabies and one with cyclone + grizly. How do you set this up?
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