I’ve gone back to Pulverize again. It’s just easy.
Same. First time druid and choose pulverize build
I just started leveling Druid alt. It’s rough leveling with companions 
. Switched to Wind sheer with calm breeze, good single target but slow for speed. Looks like I have to go with pulverise for leveling to 60 
Warning to anyone coming to this thread without prior knowledge.
Do not play Zoo Druid, it is horridly undertuned and under-developed, play anything else.
Playing the Spiritborn druid build. It’s actually pretty well fleshed out.
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Playing bear druid, pulverize. Until they nerf it… to push their stupid new “not a monk” class.
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Everyone are playing Jaguar druid build lol.
No one wanna play fat druid.
I’m playing my Zoo(ish)/Wolves screen deleter that I revamped for the new season. And it’s working great with 209 Para level and mostly 8/12 MW. Can do any content in T4 and I haven’t even picked up Ancestral Guidance leggo node yet.
General Gameplay -
Throw down a lightning/stun Ravens anywhere you feel like it. Target the middle of the birds and suck up the entire screen into a nice tight pile with Lacerate + Airidah’s, , delete them all with a couple rounds of resetting wolves with Pulverize/Claw. Wolves Active currently critting upwards of 100m on the top end.
Gear/Aspects-
- Mending Stone, Spirit Bond, Stampede, Shepard’s (2h), Alpha (Amulet), Stormcrow
- Metamorphoses on the boots, but I’m considering changing that since I’m hardly ever CC’d.
- Airidah’s and Storm’s Companion
Runes-
- NeoQue + Mending Stone + Bulwark skill levels chest keeps a 90%hp shield up 99% of the time.
*Note on NeoQue - Auto casted shields from the runeword currently do not benefit from the first upgrade (unstoppable). I’m assuming this is a bug since the second choice of upgrades do apply. - MoniCeh to make up for the companions lost by replacing moonrage.
Notes -
- One with nature Key.
- Abundence passive smooths out Claw/Pulverize rotation.
- Inner beast para tree + Thrillseeker (final passive choice under Explosive Charge skill) Subo keeps lacerate off CD.
- Raheir/Crater reinforcement keeps the piles nice and tight so all wolves’ Aoe hits all targets.
- I’m not using moonrage as I cannot afford the aspect inclusion (stun ravens replaced it).
- Bulwark and Creeper can be swapped in and out on the action bar for Boss or AoE.
I just keep bulwark on mine as I find pressing creeper just isn’t worth it most of the time, even with heightened malice. Having 3 passive creepers pretty much covers that. And the Backlash passive makes hard casting Bulwark worth it. Plus it frees up 2 skill points from creeper upgrades.
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Thats dope you have a build variant you like to play.
I’m playing pure summon druid with no shapeshifting or ults.
Can’t stand shapeshifting, just want a D2 summon druid but modernized.
Not using Aspect of Alpha because I want wolves not werewolves, I do not care if i’m losing a potential 200%+ more dmg multiplier. Immersion over damage any day
Cyclone armor for passive damage reduction
Earthen Bulkwark for Unstoppable and shield
Wind shear because its the only skill I can use as a caster with Calm breeze for poison
No spirit spender because Blizzard never put a companion skill that spends spirit in the game. Clueless devs
No runewords because the ritual runes I have so far are all annoying to trigger
Also the only one I would use is for spirit wolves, makes sense thematically.
And before anyone tells me my build is trash, I’m well aware of everything I should be using, but I’m not using the best things for different reasons
Either its gameplay or thematic issues.
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I really wish there was a pure pet druid that worked into late game. I would be playing that if it existed. I love the fantasy aspect of being a ‘one with nature’ type druid.
There’s really no way to make a thematically good summon druid in this game. Everything is based around shapeshifting. 
Ya it sucks, maybe one day
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Now you’ve got the wheels in my head turning. You could technically turn any of the companion skills into a spirit spender with the Qax rune. I wonder if I can use that to boost companion skills to usable end-game levels without alpha.
I may have to make another druid now lol. Man I love finding new ways to build things!
Ya I remember seeing that back during the PTR, but 400 offering required is quite a steep amount already.
I don’t think it will be consistent enough to outdo Alpha, plus unless the wording online is wrong, it looks like Qax is only additive damage whereas Alpha is multiplicative
If that is the case, Qax won’t come close to being equal, but it would still be a damage increase without Alpha equipped.
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OH it wont even come close … But luckily that’s not the plan. I hardly ever go looking to create the hardest hitting most efficient build. Or even builds that can do everything the game has to offer. I don’t play the efficiency game. I play the ‘can I make it through the dungeon/quest/ect’ game. If I can make it to T3 not take 5 mins to kill packs than I call it a success.
And I’ve been dying to make a raven build work.
Edit - alright I’ve made a new one and gonna level him through penitent!
LOL, I like it, I’m a big thematic guy so if something isn’t matching up, I will lose interest in playing it.
Let me know how that build works out when you play it for awhile
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Atm, i think pulverise build is the only real applicable build for druids
Shred Lacerate w/Vamp Aspects while I level. Mainly, b/c I miss Season 2 & like Underworld. Idk, what if anything I’ll do once it hits its ceiling, the more I think about this season the less I like it (but that’s OT). I use the move generator w/crit boost rune combo atm, with the dash generator and mana building combo (though I may switch to the pots generator for this if needed). At some point I think I may try pot generator & another class ability (in keeping w/Vamp & Wolf theme if possible).
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Yeah I can get that way sometimes too. Like right now I’m standing at the dummy testing stuff and I’m having a really hard time getting around the creepers wandering around in my thunderbird build (doggies will be ok with storm’s companion). But how in the world do I give up One with Nature in a companion based build? And the Envenom passive. 30%(x) crit damage is a metric ton.
All of the lightning passives are lucky hit, which passive birds wont proc.
Overcharged aspect is also lucky hit and that would be ok if I needed to proc the debuff with stormstrike or windshear or even with the raven active, “Lucky Hit: Chance to Overload the target for 3 seconds” … but once the mobs are debuffed … “any direct damage you deal causes the target to pulse” … the companion passives don’t even set off the AoE pulse. Now with enough Luckyhit/CDR i can just drop a crap ton of raven actives all over the place (or on top of each other). I guess that wouldn’t feel to bad.
The Storm Key passive only applies to casted skills. But it does look like the Mighty Storm’s aspect guarantees crits with passive companion damage. So there’s a start I guess. And since it’s a stun build retribution will go a long way. But I still have to test if retribution applies to passive pet dmg.
Runeworker’s aspect would be usable. But that leads down a lightning bolt build and away from ravens.
Need to dig through runes to find another runeword to use. Don’t like spirit wolf since it’s cold dmg.
It just seems everything I try leads me back to proccing things WITH ravens instead of using ravens as a source of dmg.
Having said all of that … Prior to my testing session at the dummy, the Qax rune does make raven active hit like a semi-truck full of semi-trucks using the basic zoo setup. It’s one shotting elites (not the full duration, just the first tick), without retribution and not using a 2h, in penitent atm. And I solo’d maiden with it. I can charge it every other active or so. I’m still working on how to get it up more often.
Pulverize is strong, but that might be more because overpower feels strong for druid. Im running a bear build with seismic shift aspect and that works also pretty well. Currently around 100 paragon on torment 2. Still much improvement possible on gear, masterworking and glyphs.
Only on tormet 1 (probably able to do t2 since stuff is already melting).
Trying something poison with true-form werewolf and One With Nature and Aspect of the Alpha, for 4 permanent werewolf buddies, 3 worms and 5 ravens. (wtb full poison conversion for everything storm/companion).
Missing the Werewolf grizzly rage aspect to spam rabies from range.