Make the character
Two clicks, then you're playing.
- Pick Druid.
- Tick Seasonal Realm — that's where Season 15 content, the seasonal questline and the good loot are.
- Difficulty: start on Normal, or Hard if you've played before. Either way the rule is the same: go up when packs die quickly, and come back down if fights get noticeably longer.
The plan in one line
You're building toward a werewolf that dashes between enemies with Shred and never runs out of Spirit. Levelling is about getting Shred early and fixing your Spirit at level 15.
Your first skill bar
There is more than one way to level Shred, so this page follows a single bar from start to finish rather than blending them. The alternative is noted where it matters. You get 83 skill points in total: 69 from levels and 14 from the Seasonal Journey.
Your basic attack. It builds Spirit, and you use it as filler when Spirit runs out.
GeneratorYour damage, from level 3. Every hit dashes you to the target, so it's your movement too.
Main damageDodge, plus Spirit or healing depending on the variation. Short cooldown — press it regularly, not when you're nearly dead.
Press — on cooldownFrom level 4. A Barrier, Fortify and Resolve, and later Unstoppable. Keep it up.
Keep it upMostly passive. When your wolves land a critical strike you get attack speed.
CompanionHere mainly for its passive boost to all resistances. The active knockback is optional.
Passive defenceHow you actually play
Shred into the pack — every hit dashes, so use it to close distance and gather enemies. Keep Earthen Bulwark and Blood Howl rolling. Keep Shredding: with the Roundhouse variation every third strike is a big 360-degree hit. When Spirit runs dry, Claw until you can Shred again. Between packs, Shred toward the next one rather than walking.
Where your skill points go
Spend them top to bottom — finish one line before starting the next. Don't spread them around.
| Order | Skill | Why | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Shred | Your damage. Take the Healing upgrade at level 6, Cast Speed at 10, and the Roundhouse variation at 15. Spare points later come back here. | Rank 15 |
| 2nd | Earthen Bulwark | Take the "Fortify and Healing" side upgrade, then Travertine Bulwark for Resolve, and Unstoppable. | Upgrades first |
| 3rd | Blood Howl | Take it all the way, with Movement Speed, Spirit Howl and Healing. | Rank 15 |
| 4th | Cyclone Armor | Max it too, with Increased Radius, Resistance and Reversal. | Rank 15 |
| 5th | Claw | One point and its Ferocity side upgrade. It's filler. | Rank 1 |
| 6th | Form nodes | The Werewolf form option on each skill costs no points. Always take it. | Free |
Made a mess of it?
Respeccing is cheap at low level. Open the skill tree, refund the lot, and spend again in this order. It costs a few gold, not a new character.
Level 15: Spirit Boons
At level 15 you get the quest Druid: Spirits of the Lost Grove. It sends you to clear the Túr Dúlra stronghold in Scosglen, and at the end you meet four animal spirits — Deer, Eagle, Wolf and Snake. You feed them offerings, and take one permanent bonus from each. Do it the moment it appears. It only has to be done once per account.
Feed the Deer first — Gift of the Stag
Shred costs Spirit, and Spirit does not refill by itself. Gift of the Stag gives you +30 maximum Spirit and 5 Spirit every second — that is what lets you keep pressing Shred. After it, there are two ways to go. This bar has no ultimate, so take Swooping Attacks (Eagle, attack speed), Energize (Wolf, a chance to restore 15 Spirit) and Masochistic (Snake, a chance to go Berserk). If you level with an ultimate such as Cataclysm instead, take Calamity and Calm Before the Storm, which make that ultimate last longer and return sooner.
Once all four are unlocked you can Spirit Bond with one spirit and take a second boon from its row. Bond the Deer for Advantageous Beast (+15% movement speed); if you already reach the movement speed cap without it, bond the Eagle for Scythe Talons (+10% Critical Strike Chance and +15% Lucky Hit Chance) instead. From here on Spirit stops being a problem: eventually you generate enough that you never need your basic attack, and Claw's slot can go to something else.
The road to 70
What changes, and when.
Make a seasonal character on Normal, and make sure a late-game loot filter is not switched on before you start levelling.
Start your first War Plan (favour Helltide activities), pick a mercenary, activate your pet and check the Horadric Cube. Shred arrives at level 3 and Earthen Bulwark at 4.
Do the class quest immediately. The same level unlocks Shred's Roundhouse variation. If packs are dying quickly, try Hard; drop back to Normal if fights get noticeably longer.
The Undercity opens up in War Plans. Choose it, or Helltide farming, as your main route — and once a route works, stick with it.
Most key synergies are unlocked and the loop is nearly finished. From here, fill ranks on your main skills and spend leftovers on utility. Try the first Capstone Dungeon between 30 and 40 if you can clear it quickly — it gives extra skill points.
There are two ways to play this. Storm Shred unlocks here: it adds bonus Lightning damage, makes Shred a Storm skill, and is what the endgame build uses. Roundhouse keeps the big 360-degree third hit. Swap if you own the Overcharged or Great Storm aspect, which Storm Shred switches on; otherwise Roundhouse is fine until 70.
Check your Season Rank. The second Capstone Dungeon plus the rank objectives unlock the Pit and more skill points. Around 60, clear every Stronghold — a lot of experience for little time.
Paragon opens. Complete Pit Tier 10 to enter Torment 1, then move across to Storm Shred, which opens with a Shred bar that needs no uniques at all.
Gear rules for beginners
You don't need to understand affixes yet. These rules cover it.
- Upgrade your weapon first. Its damage is the base for every other damage calculation. Druids use a two-hander, or a one-hander with a Totem. Both work.
- Craft Insight early. Put a Common Staff or Polearm in the Horadric Cube with the runes Ral, Tir, Sol and Tal. Its stats last well into the midgame, and what matters most is the Spirit it hands back.
- Look for: Willpower, Maximum Life, Armour, then Resource Generation (your Spirit). Movement speed on boots and amulet.
- Higher item power usually wins. A much higher-power item beats an older one with slightly better stats. Don't over-optimise — pace matters more.
- Aspects to keep: Crushing (45–65% more damage while Fortified, and Earthen Bulwark Fortifies you), Followed Path (45–60% damage for skills cast in their own form), Accelerating (attack speed after a Core-skill crit) and Vigorous (20–30% damage reduction as a Werewolf). Put your best offensive one on the amulet — you replace it least often.
- If Waxing Gibbous drops, wear it. Shred deals 45–60% more damage and has a 33% chance to land an additional strike, up to 4 times. It's also a good moment to try a higher difficulty.
- Gems: Skull in the weapon (Topaz if you've gone Storm Shred), Sapphire in armour. Be careful with Soul Splinters while levelling — their drawbacks are heavy. Hellfire removes your crits, which stops your Wolves granting attack speed.
- Spend your gold and materials. Tempering low-level gear is cheap and makes a real difference. Defensive tempers are strong while levelling.
- Leoric's Crown: the seasonal questline guarantees one, plus a Stone of Jordan. One approach is to leave that questline until 70, so both arrive at 850 item power.
Mercenary
There are two ways to set this up. Hire Varyana, whose Hysteria and Bloodlust give strong attack speed bonuses, with Raheir as reinforcement. Or do the reverse: hire Raheir, because Valiance blocks large hits and makes you briefly Unstoppable, with Varyana reinforcing. Take Varyana for speed, Raheir if you're dying.
Words the game doesn't explain
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Spirit | The bar your skills spend. It does not refill by itself — it comes from basic attacks, Spirit Boons, gear and some skill upgrades. It caps at 100 unless something raises it. |
| Forms | Skills put you in Human, Werewolf or Werebear form, and you stay there until you cast a skill of a different form. Werewolf gives +15% movement speed and +15% attack speed on the tooltip; in play the attack speed is 20%. |
| Form node | A free choice on a skill that changes which form it's cast in. It costs no skill points. |
| Spirit Boons | The Druid's class mechanic: one passive bonus from each of four animal spirits, unlocked with offerings from level 15. |
| Spirit Bond | Bonding with one spirit lets you take two boons from its row instead of one. |
| Basic / Core | Basic skills are spammable filler that build Spirit. Core skills are your main damage with no cooldown, limited only by Spirit. Shred is a Core skill. |
| Variation | A version of a skill you pick in the tree. Roundhouse makes Shred's third hit a big 360-degree strike; Storm Shred adds bonus Lightning damage and makes Shred a Storm skill. |
| Berserking | A temporary damage buff. From the Masochistic boon it's worth 10% more Shapeshifting damage. |
| Codex of Power | Your library of legendary aspects. Salvaging a legendary adds its aspect, or upgrades it if the roll was higher, and the Occultist imprints it onto other gear. |
| War Plans | Chains of activities (Helltide, the Pit, Undercity, Infernal Hordes, Nightmare Dungeons) with their own bonuses. You start them in Temis. |
Mistakes new Druids make
- Delaying the Spirit Boons quest. It's where your Spirit problems end. Don't assume it has completed itself.
- Pushing difficulty too early. More experience per kill, but a total speed loss if enemies live too long.
- Saving Blood Howl for emergencies. Its cooldown is short. Use it regularly.
- Neglecting defence. Shred constantly sends you straight into enemy packs. Keep Life, Armour and Resistances up.
- Walking between packs. Shred's dash is faster than running.
- Leaving a late-game loot filter on.
- Hoarding gold and materials. Use everything to speed up the road to 70.
At 70 you're done levelling — move across to an endgame build: Storm Shred · Landslide · Wolf Companion.