This is a Druid Stone Burst leveling build and guide for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred (D4). Read on to learn more about the Druid Stone Burst leveling build as well as tips for leveling the Druid class in the Vessel of Hatred expansion and Season of Hatred Rising!

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Druid Stone Burst Leveling Build

Stone Burst Build Summary

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems		Mercenary		Playstyle

Build Summary
Stone Burst Leveling Build
	Focus: Leveling, Farming
High burst damage and attack speed High survivability with multiple defensive skills Low mobility

This leveling build for Season 6 uses the new druid core skill, Stone Burst, together with powerful storm skills such as Wind Shear and Cataclysm. With this build, you'll be altering between Earth and Storm skills which will compliment each other through certain aspects and passives.

Aside from good damage, the Stone Burst build also boasts high survivability through the use of 3 different defensive skills!

Leveling Guide

Stone Burst Build Skills and Passives

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems		Mercenary		Playstyle

※ More skills can be seen by scrolling vertically.

Active Skills
Basic Skill Tree ┗ Wind Shear (1/5) 　┗ Enhanced Wind Shear 　　┗ Fierce Wind Shear
Core Skill Tree ┗ Stone Burst (5/5) 　┗ Enhanced Stone Burst 　　┗ Primal Stone Burst ┗ Heart of the Wild (1/3) 　┗ Wild Impulses (3/3)
Defensive Skill Tree ┗ Earthen Bulwark (1/5) 　┗ Enhanced Earthen Bulwark 　　┗ Preserving Earthen Bulwark ┗ Cyclone Armor (1/5) ┗ Blood Howl (1/5) 　┗ Enhanced Blood Howl 　　┗ Preserving Blood Howl ┗ Ancestral Fortitude (3/3) 　┗ Vigilance (3/3) ┗ Backlash (3/3)
Companion Skill Tree ┗ Nature's Reach (3/3) ┗ Humanity (3/3)
Wrath Skill Tree ┗ Endless Tempest (3/3) ┗ Crushing Earth (3/3) 　┗ Safeguard (3/3) 　┗ Stone Guard (3/3) ┗ Neurotoxin (1/3) 　┗ Envenom (3/3)
Ultimate Skill Tree ┗ Cataclysm (5/5) 　┗ Prime Cataclysm 　　┗ Supreme Cataclysm ┗ Defiance (2/3) 　┗ Natural Disaster (3/3) 　┗ Resonance (3/3) ┗ Defensive Posture (3/3)
Key Passive ┗ Earthen Might

Stone Burst Build Skill Progression

At the early levels, focus on unlocking and upgrading your active skills, particularly Stone Burst, which will provide most of your damage. Aside from active skills, you can also get useful passives such as Backlash and Humanity to help you reach the point requirements for the latter skill trees.

Once you reach the Ultimate skill tree, prioritize maxing out Cataclysm together with Endless Tempest, as the combination of those two will significantly boost your overall damage. With those upgrades, you should be able to reach the last skill tree where you can get Earthen Might.

After unlocking your Key Passive, you can start investing on the rest of the recommended passives, depending on whether you need defenses or more damage.

Stone Burst Build Spirit Boons

Setup is available if you've bonded with the Eagle Spirit.

For Spirit Boons, you would want to get the Advantageous Beast to gain more Movement Speed, Scythe Talons and Swooping Attacks for increased Critical Strike Hit, Calamity for higher Catacylsm uptime, and Obsidian Slam for Overpowering Stone Burst.

Spirit Boons Guide

Stone Burst Build Best Aspects and Affixes

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems		Mercenary		Playstyle

※ More gear Aspects can be seen by scrolling vertically.

Gear	Aspect and Affixes
Head	Aspect of Might ・Armor ・Maximum Life ・Cooldown Reduction Temper: ・Defensive - Natural Resistance 　┗ Any Elemental Resistance ・Utility - Worldly Fortune 　┗ Lucky Hit: Chance to Immobilize for 2 Seconds
Chest	Aspect of Mending Stone ・Armor ・Maximum Life ・Willpower Temper: ・Defensive - Worldly Endurance 　┗ Total Armor ・Utility - Worldly Fortune 　┗ Lucky Hit: Chance to Immobilize for 2 Seconds
Gloves	Aspect of Retaliation ・Critical Strike Chance ・Attack Speed ・Ranks to Stone Burst Temper: ・Offensive - Earth Finesse 　┗ Earth Critical Strike Chance ・Utility - Worldly Fortune 　┗ Lucky Hit: Chance to Stun for 2 Seconds
Pants	Ballistic Aspect ・Armor ・Max Life ・Any Elemental Resistance Temper: ・Defensive - Worldly Endurance 　┗ Maximum Life ・Utility - Nature Magic Innovation 　┗ Cyclone Armor Active Size
Boots	Aspect of Slaughter ・Movement Speed ・Max Life ・Willpower Temper: ・Utility - Worldly Fortune 　┗ Lucky Hit: Chance to Stun for 2 Seconds ・Mobility - Druid Motion - Mobility 　┗ Movement Speed
Amulet	Aspect of Natural Balance ・Ranks to Envenom ・Cooldown Reduction ・Critical Strike Chance Temper: ・Resource - Ultimate Efficiency 　┗ Catacylsm Cooldown Reduction ・Offensive - Earth Finesse 　┗ Earth Critical Strike Chance
Ring	Aspect of the Calm Breeze ・Critical Strike Chance ・Willpower ・Maximum Life Temper: ・Resource - Ultimate Efficiency 　┗ Catacylsm Cooldown Reduction ・Offensive - Earth Finesse 　┗ Earth Critical Strike Chance
Ring	Aspect of the Expectant ・Critical Strike Chance ・Willpower ・Maximum Life Temper: ・Resource - Ultimate Efficiency 　┗ Catacylsm Cooldown Reduction ・Offensive - Earth Finesse 　┗ Earth Critical Strike Chance
1-Handed Sword	Aspect of Anticline Burst ・Critical Strike Damage ・Willpower ・Maximum Life Temper: ・Weapons - Earth Augments 　┗ Chance for Stone Burst to Cast Twice ・Offensive - Earth Finesse 　┗ Earth Critical Strike Chance
Totem	Aspect of Shattered Defenses ・Cooldown Reduction ・Critical Strike Chance ・Willpower Temper: ・Weapons - Earth Augments 　┗ Chance for Stone Burst to Cast Twice ・Offensive - Earth Finesse 　┗ Earth Critical Strike Chance

Stone Burst Build Best Gems

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems		Mercenary		Playstyle

Armor	Weapons	Jewelry
Sapphire	Emerald	Diamond

For gems, it's best to slot in Sapphire on armor slots to get more Willpower, Emerald on weapon slots to get Critical Strike Damage, and Diamonds on jewelry slots to get Elemental Resistance.

Diamonds can be replaced with other gems depending on which resistances you need to get 70% or close across the board.

Stone Burst Mercenary

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems		Mercenary		Playstyle

Mercenary	Reinforcement
Subo	Varyana

The best mercenary to hire for this build is Subo, since he can significantly raise your Critical Strike Damage and Slow enemies with Cover Fire Skill while providing Movement Speed with Ready at Hand passive.

On the other hand, you would want Raheir with his Bastion enlisted on your Cyclone Armor skill since this will grant you Unstoppable whenever you cast it.

List of All Mercenaries

Stone Burst Build Playstyle and Rotation

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects and Affixes
Gems		Mercenary		Playstyle

The playstyle of the Stone Burst Druid revolves around alternating Wind Shear and Stoneburst to output quick and high burst damage. The usual rotation is as follows:

1. Cast multiple Wind Shear to apply Poison through the Aspect of Calm Breeze and Slow through the Neurotoxin passive. This will trigger multiple different passives in your skill tree, giving you numerous damage buffs.
2. Channel Stone Burst for atleast 1 second to get the Attack Speed buff of Primal Stone Burst. Make sure that you cast Stone Burst with 75 Spirit or higher to activate the Aspect of Anticline Burst.
3. Activate Blood Howl and Cyclone Armor as needed for defenses. Save your Earthen Bulwark to get remove crowd control effects.
4. Cast Cataclysm for elite packs and boss encounters.

Druid Leveling Tips for Season 6

Choose to Start with Hard Difficulty Obtain the Aspect of Calm Breeze Clear Tur Dulra Stronghold at Level 14 Progress Through the Seasonal Content and Activities

Choose to Start with Hard Difficulty

We recommend starting with the Hard Difficulty to take advantage of the 75% increase in gold and experience. If you're following our leveling guide, starting at this difficult should be viable.

Once you obtain more Legendaries and you start to upgrade your build gradually, you may start to farm in higher Difficulty Tiers such as Expert or even Penitent.

Best Difficulty Tier to Start With

Obtain the Aspect of Calm Breeze

Obtain the Aspect of Calm Breeze from the Grinning Labyrinth Dungeon as soon as possible, as this is a significant Aspect to the build. This will allow you to deal significant poison damage through your Windshear, which will then allow you to take advantage of passives like Neurotoxin and Envenom.

Aspect of Inner Calm Effects and How to Get

Clear Tur Dulra Stronghold at Level 14

It's best to start clearing the Tur Dulra Stronghold since this will be a key area in unlocking your class mechanic. If you take on this Stronghold at level 14, you'll reach level 15 by the end and will be able to get the Spirits of the Lost Grove priority quest, which will unlock your Spirit Boons.

How to Beat Tur Dulra Stronghold

Progress Through the Seasonal Content and Activities

The best way to get stronger in Season 6 is by doing Seasonal Activities such as the Helltide and Hatred Rising Event as they are great ways to get the gear and the aspects you'll need in the build. If you have the Vessel of Hatred expansion, you can also participate in the Kurast Undercity to level up faster and target-farm better gear.

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Build Guides and Tier List

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