Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant gave us a new, very special way to play Cataclysm Druid. By combining the Inexorable Force Heart with the Cataclysm Ultimate and the powerful Werebear skills, we can achieve a completely fresh and exciting fantasy!
Forces of Earth and Storm come together in this build that has many synergistic parts to it. The defining component of it is using Cataclysm to enable the Inexorable Force to get a long-lasting 'vacuum-cleaner' effect that is perfect for comfortable farming. Every enemy on the screen gets pulled into your proximity, where you deliver a devastating Pulverize blow.
To spike our damage we're using the Earthen Might passive in tandem with the Mighty Storm's Aspect . In addition, we transform all of our skills into either Storm or Earth, enabling many more additional multipliers that reward us for switching between these ability types.
All of this adds up to create a fun build with consistent DPS and very satisfying clear. It absolutely shines in Dungeon content! As for Bossing - while it is certainly viable, be ready for slower fights with somewhat grindy patterns.
Diablo 4 Inexorable Cataclysm Druid is a build you can level with - it requires no Uniques to work and most crucial Aspects are available through Codex of Power. However, note that it relies on Cooldown Reduction - as you progress and get higher and higher rolls on this stat the build will will better and better.
Skills Overview
Cataclysm
This is the build-around Ultimate skill of the build. Thanks to the long duration of Cataclysm, we get a nice return on the Inexorable Force Heart effect.
We want as little of a downtime between casts of our Ultimate as possible. Initially, Cataclysm comes on 60 second cooldown, but by investing into Cooldown Reduction and Storm Skill Cooldown Reduction, plus by increasing duration through passives like Endless Tempest and Calamity , we can get the downtime to about 10 seconds. What's more - Calm Before the Storm can further shorten the cooldown based on Lucky Hit procs.
Cataclysm deals significant damage, but note that most of our scaling investment has to go into Earth Skills, while Storm Skills are mostly positioned as utility. Cataclysm is a very important source of Vulnerable application, and the Lucky Hit Chance of this skill can be easily increased 100%, helping us enable the Earthen Might passive.
Pulverize
This Core skill is the main way we'll be dishing out damage. Thanks to Inexorable Force , you don't have to chase enemies down the Dungeon corridors anymore - just turn on Cataclysm , and everyone will be sucked into your close range, where you'll deliver a massive slam.
There are several important transformative Aspects that will unleash the full power of Pulverize, and we'll cover them below. Luckily, both Shockwave Aspect and the Aspect of the Ursine Horror are available from Codex this season.
You'll be heavily investing into Pulverize scaling through Ranks, skill passives and item affixes. Unfortunately, the fun of Pulverize is gated behind a relatively high Spirit cost, but there are a few tricks available to somewhat remedy that.
Trample
This is a Wrath skill, which means it has a has several offensive and defensive uses in this Diablo 4 Cataclysm Druid build. For DPS purposes, we'll be transforming it into Earth ability. It is great to deal with Elites and Bosses, though not as good as Pulverize in AOE situations. Trample crits deal heavy damage, especially when you get creative with positioning, ramming enemies into walls.
What's more, Trample has an Unstoppable attached to it, which means you get to shake off a Crowd Control effect for a break-out-of-jail-free card once in a while. In addition, Trample regenerates us some Spirit to help with the Pulverize rotations on this quite Resource-hungry build.
And remember - since we'll be getting a ton of Cooldown Reduction, you can be quite liberal with the Trample use. Druid doesn't get a lot of mobility - feel free to cast it as a pure mobility skill as you're running through Dungeon hallways!
Hurricane
Treat Hurricane as a utility skill in this build. Thanks to Inexorable Heart , enemies will all get clumped into your Hurricane's area of effect. However, the purpose of this skill is not to deal damage. First, it applies Slow with Hurricane to enable many Crowd Control damage scalers in this build. Secondly, it boosts our survivability with Hurricane . Third, it will occasionally proc Lucky Hits for various passives such as Earthen Might , Calm Before the Storm , and Energize . And fourth, with it's constantly ticking damage it enables various Aspects such as Aspect of Disobedience and Stormshifter's Aspect . And what's great is that even after the sweeping Cooldown Reduction nerfs of Patch 1.1, we will be able to get just enough to have a hundred percent uptime on the Hurricane!
Earthen Bulwark
This is a purely defensive button you'll be pressing everytime its off cooldown (and again, with proper investment it will be close to zero). Earthen Bulwark grants you Unstoppable for the duration of a Barrier, which is a must in the Nightmare Dungeon meta. In addition, it helps you to Fortify quicker, working in tandem with the Safeguard passive. If not for the Aspect of the Mending Stone , Bulwark would be very unimpressive, but luckily that one you can get from the Codex.
Storm Strike
Nothing too exciting here! In a known Diablo 4 fashion, Basic skills are just a necessary evil - a way to build up Primary Resource and fill out the rotation. To Storm Strike's credit, it has a little bit more going on for it with its innate Damage Reduction and occasional Crowd Control + Vulnerable application. You'll be weaving one Storm Strike in-between each Pulverize or Trample cast to enable the Quickshift and Resonance damage multipliers. Sometimes you'll have to cast Storm Strike two times in a row to refill Spirit, but at a high build investment that shouldn't happen too often.
Spirit Boons
- Deer: Wariness
This Spirit Animal doesn't offer anything outstanding, but the Damage Reduction against Elites is quite useful, since majority of Diablo 4 endgame right now is precisely about testing your mettle against juicy packs of Elites.
- Eagle: Avian Wrath
The Eagle has a great quality of offerings - too bad we can only take one. As much as Scythe Talons are nice to increase the Critical Strike Chance, a Critical Strike Damage multiplier is stronger with the Earthen Might.
- Wolf: Calamity
+ Energize
Calamity is key for our build - extending the duration of Cataclysm + Inexorable Force combo is priceless. Energize is a very good for Primary Resource sustain as long as you have invested into Lucky Hit Chance - and you should!
- Snake: Calm Before the Storm
This passive is great for helping with the Cataclysm cooldown. Every one of our skills is a Nature Magic skill, so with decent investment into Lucky Hit the chance to proc Calm Before the Storm becomes quite high.
Malignant Hearts
Inexorable Force
No surprise, given it's in the name of the build, this is absolutely mandatory. Good news - it is a very easy Heart to find, and will be available to you during the earliest stages of leveling. The exact stat roll on it doesn't matter that much - 30 enemies to pull close is as good as 50 in most situations. All you need is to make sure you have a Devious socket available, and regularly update your Heart with the highest Item Level version for the Armor.
Malignant Pact
There are the only two Wrathful Hearts we can effectively use, but both are very powerful. You can only run one Wrathful Heart in a build, and they are pretty rare - so pick the one you have access to currently. The first one - Malignant Heart - is mostly a utility choice and helps smooth out some of the Druid's natural constraints. Attack Speed mode helps us cycle through Storm Strike 's faster, while the Spirit restoration mode is fantastic for quality of life. However, Barrier is mostly rudimentary since we have Earthen Bulwark .
The Barber
This one is a late game-beast and works fantastically with Earthen Might . If you were lucky enough to find it by World Tier 4, just jam it and go. Note: As of Patch 1.1.1 the interaction between The Barber and Earthen Might seem to be bugged, and the damage doesn't stack as intended.
More Options
All of these Hearts below are viable inclusions to run alongside Inexorable Heart and either of the Wrathful Hearts. Pick one depending on your playstyle preferences, or simply depending on the color of the socket available in your Best-in-Slot jewellery piece:
- Prudent Heart : One of the best defensive options to prevent those out-of-nowhere one-shots. A must-have in Hardcore.
- Revenge : An additional source of Damage Reduction that adds some offensive output to our Earthen Bulwark .
- Tempting Fate : This is just an additive increase to Critical Strike Damage and you pay for it with a multiplicative decrease to your non-crits. The Earthen Might guaranteed crits make it worth it as long as you have a good roll.
- The Picana : Against trash mobs and dense Elite packs this one will feel really good. It synergizes well with how Inexorable Force clumps every monster in one spot for the Lightning charges to jump between them.
Aspects
Helm:
- Aspect of Mending Stone
As mentioned before, without this Aspect, Earthen Bulwark will feel clunky - like you never have it when you need it. With Aspect of the Mending Stone and high Cooldown Reduction rolls on Ancestral gear, it will have one hundred percent uptime.
Chest Armor:
- Ballistic Aspect
It is rarely optimal to have an Aspect that boosts your damage in the Chest slot, but in this case we can't miss the opportunity to scale Ranks of Pulverize and Trample. A defensive alternative is to go for the Aspect of Might , but given that Druid gets a ton of Damage Reduction from so many different places, it has worse returns than for other classes.
Gloves:
- Aspect of Natural Balance
One of the payoffs for integrating Storm and Earth skill into the build. You will be naturally switching between these two types constantly, boosting the damage of your rotation without even thinking about it.
Pants:
- Aspect of Disobedience
Even after its nerfs in Patch 1.1, this is still the strongest multiclass Aspect in the game. Armor is an essential stat, and thanks to the Aspect of Disobedience providing a multiplicative increase, you'll be set on Physical Damage Reduction.
Boots:
- Stormshifter's Aspect
We cheekily sneak in another damage scaling Aspect into our Boots slot. In the late game, Hurricane will be up permanently, so Pulverize and Trample will be constantly at full operating power.
Amulet:
- Shockwave Aspect
The most important Aspect for Pulverize , and it is a big win of the Season of the Malignant that we get to unlock it through a Season Journey system. You'll still need to upgrade it to the maximum roll, though, and the Amulet bonus will stretch its effectiveness even further.
Rings:
- Aspect of the Trampled Earth
By adding Nature Magic and Earth tags to Trample , we unlock new opportunities to scale our kit, making this skill a versatile damage + utility all-rounder.
- Crashstone Aspect
Thanks to Hurricane , all enemies in our proximity will be constantly slowed, so we will have no problem unlocking this massive multiplicative Critical Damage modifier.
Weapon:
- Aspect of the Ursine Horror
Once again, this is a must have Pulverize Aspect obtainable from the Codex. However, in this case the stat roll on it is not as important, since transformation into Earth is what we care about the most.
Offhand:
- Mighty Storm's Aspect
The Aspect that unlocks the whole Storm and Earth synergy, and unfortunately you will have to find it the hard way - no help coming from Codex there. Gamble for Offhands at the Purveyor of Curiosities for the best chance to get it - and start the gamble early in the leveling process.
Item Modifiers
This is a classic Diablo 4 Cataclysm Druid build in terms of how you scale offense and defense.
On the defensive side, invest into Armor and Damage Reduction. Total Armor affixes got nerfed in Patch 1.1, so sometimes you can afford to avoid in favor of some other exclusive gear mod - don't overdo it though! Damage Reduction tanked a nerf as well - but funnily enough, one of its best affixes, Damage Reduction While Injured remained untouched. It is especially good on Druid who can stay under 35% life tucked under a heavy Earthen Bulwark .
To scale offense, invest into Vulnerable Damage, Critical Chance and Critical Damage - nothing out of ordinary. However, where this build does become interesting is when you have to balance Lucky Hit Chance with Crit Chance. The former increases DPS through Earthen Might , but also cleans up your rotation with Calm Before the Storm and Energize . Lucky Hit and Crit overall are very close in value, so don't feel bad if you have a gear piece that is otherwise perfect except for missing Crit. Get Lucky Chance, and it's just as good!
And last but not the least - Cooldown Reduction. We want as much as we can get - and everywhere we can get it. For example, in the late game don't even consider an Amulet that doesn't have Cooldown Reduction and Storm Skill Cooldown Reduction.
| Equipment | Best-in-Slot | Good Stats |
| Helm | - Cooldown Reduction - Total Armor - Lucky Hit Chance While You Have a Barrier - Maximum Life | - Willpower - Life on Kill |
| Chest | - Total Armor - Damage Reduction - Damage Reduction From Close - Damage Reduction While Fortified | - Maximum Life - Damage Reduction from Distant - Willpower |
| Gloves | - Critical Strike Chance - Lucky Hit Chance - Storm Skill Cooldown Reduction - Ranks of Pulverize | - Attack Speed - Willpower - Critical Strike Damage With Earth Skills - Lightning Critical Strike Damage |
| Pants | - Damage Reduction - Damage Reduction From Close - Damage Reduction While Injured - Damage Reduction While Fortified | - Total Armor - Dodge Chance - Dodge Chance Against Close - Maximum Life - Damage Reduction from Distant |
| Boots | - Dodge Chance - Movement Speed - Damage Reduction While Injured - Willpower | - Dodge Chance from Distant - Dexterity - Strength |
| Amulet | - Cooldown Reduction - Storm Skill Cooldown Reduction - Damage Reduction While Injured - Movement Speed | - Total Armor - Ranks to Passives: Crushing Earth, Defiance, Natural Disaster, Quickshift, Resonance, Stone Guard, Wild Impulses - Damage Reduction - Damage Reduction From Close - Damage Reduction While Fortified - Lucky Hit Chance While You Have a Barrier - Willpower |
| Rings | - Critical Strike Chance - Critical Strike Damage - Lucky Hit Chance - Vulnerable Damage | - Critical Strike Damage With Earth Skills - Lightning Critical Strike Damage - Maximum Life - Resource Generation |
| Weapon | - Willpower - Critical Strike Damage - Critical Strike Damage With Earth Skills - Vulnerable Damage | - Lightning Critical Strike Damage - Core Skill Damage |
| Offhand | - Cooldown Reduction - Critical Strike Chance - Lucky Hit Chance - Lucky Hit Chance While You Have a Barrier | - Willpower - Resource Generation - Damage Reduction While Fortified |
Weapon Bases
We're going for the One-Handed Weapon + Offhand setup for two reasons: 1) We need Cooldown Reduction provided by affixes on an Offhand; 2) We can fit in one additional Aspect when compared to a Two-Handed setup, and all of the Aspects in this build are pretty essential in the late game.
In the One-Handed Weapons department, Druid has access to an Axe and a Mace. The choice falls on Axe due to a more useful implicit - Damage to Heathy Enemies. Overpower Damage bonus found on Maces falls off hard in endgame, but feel free to use a Mace through leveling. Overall, the explicit affixes and the Item Power make the most difference on a weapon, so if you've found a great Mace - use it, and disregard the question of implicit completely.
Gems
- Armor: Sapphire/Ruby
In the Armor we prefer to run Sapphire gems [3% Damage Reduction While Fortified] just because how easy it is to fulfill Fortify condition. However, given that Druid has an abundance of Damage Reduction, going for Rubies [4% Maximum Life] is also completely viable.
- Weapons: Emerald
We are a classic Vulnerable + Crit scaling build, so Emeralds [12% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies] are a no-brainer for both your Axe and your Totem.
Skill Tree
In this part of the guide we'll go over the Skill Tree choices and the recommended order of spending your points.
You can find the Skill Tree HERE (powered by D4Builds.gg). Under the “Skill Tree” tab, make sure that you have the “Leveling Path” enabled to see the recommended order of Skill Point allocation.
- We start by picking up Storm Strike and then proceed to max out Pulverize - these two skills are the core of initial rotation.
- Unlock Earthen Bulwark followed up by Earthen Bulwark upgrade that grants us an important Crowd Control break.
- Wild Impulses is the first Passive we're going to max as we develop our Skill Tree. The Spirit cost increase will hurt, but the Resource management on Druid early is bad to begin with anyway.
- Next we move our way to Wrath skills - Trample that will help with mobility and Spirit management, and Hurricane .
- Finally, unlock Cataclysm - by this time you should've found the Inexorable Force . If no luck still - farm a couple of Malignant Tunnels, you'll get there in no time.
- On the way to the Key Passive, we fully upgrade Endless Tempest for maximum Cataclysm and Hurricane duration, and Quickshift - for an easily-achievable Shapeshifting multiplier.
- Earthen Might is when our build comes online - but only if you also have the Drop-only Mighty Storm's Aspect . Remember, keep gambling for Offhands and good luck!
- After we have our Key Passive, Natural Disaster and Resonance are available to us as a payoff for switching between Storm and Earth skills.
- Max out Trample , which by now you'll be using for damage against Elites and Bosses.
- The last thing is to set up our Fortify engine - Earthen Bulwark and Safeguard will make sure you can Fortify quickly and efficiently take advantage of its innate Damage Reduction, as well as Stone Guard passive and Ballistic Aspect .
Paragon Boards and Glyphs
You can find the full Paragon setup HERE (powered by D4Builds.gg).
Starting Board
The first board is dominated by Druid's main stat - Willpower, and the best opening Glyph that can benefit from this stat is Fang-and-Claw-druid . Its additional bonus gives us an easily achievable 12% Damage Multiplier, since by nature of Inexorable Force-druid , we'll be fighting enemies in close range.
Earthen Devastation
This Willpower board is perfect for our build, so we'll be sticking around it for a while. Straight from the gate we rush to the Glyph node, where we slot in Earth-and-Sky-druid . Once again, the secondary bonus on it is very interesting for us, and the Critical Strike Damage increase we can get through the first line of text is also valuable. Earthen Devastation Legendary Node is a huge DPS spike with its Crit multiplier, and more Armor from Slayer node is also an easy grab.
Thunderstruck
Making our way into the third board, here we get a chance to help the Lightning damage component of our build. Here we don't have an amazing Willpower Glyph, so I recommend just grabbing Thunderstruck and Tempest node before proceeding straight to the next gate. We will circle around to this board later and slot in Werebear-druid as our very last Glyph.
Constricting Tendrils
Three remaining Glyphs we'll be using are all Dexterity-based, so well need suitable board with enough Dexterity in the Glyph ranges. Constricting Tendrils is one such board that can host the Exploit-druid Glyph. Even though we're not particularly interested in anything else it has to offer, the Vulnerable scaling from the Glyph is priceless since Druid doesn't get much of this multiplier.
Survival Instincts
The Shapeshifter-druid Glyph has a neat additional bonus that effectively grants us 20% Critical Strike Chance. We enable the Glyph with minimum Paragon points spent and move to the next board.
Heightened Malice
This Dexterity board is where we slot in Spirit-druid Glyph that provides a ton of additional Critical Strike Damage and a stacking 12% multiplier on top. This Glyph is the last big powerspike we achieve, since the remaining points of the Paragon will be used to go back into the Thunderstruck board and pick upa couple of relevant node there.
Gameplay Tips
- Rotation against mob packs: Trample to move in range, Cataclysm to activate Inexorable Force , next Hurricane + Earthen Bulwark once enemies are in range. Alternate between Pulverize and Storm Strike to deal with the pack, finish off remaining Elites with Trample that should be back from cooldown.
- Rotation against Bosses: Trample to get in close range, turn on Cataclysm + Hurricane + Earthen Bulwark . Alternate Pulverize and Storm Strike to methodically DPS the Boss. Track your Spirit - if it gets too low, use Trample to refresh some resource. Otherwise, time Trample around your Earthen Might window for a guaranteed massive Crit.
- Favor Dungeons with narrow layouts (ex. Blinded Burrows), where it's easy to ram down Elites into walls for Stun and increased damage.
- Because of Safeguard , you stack Fortify very quickly. Still - Fortify falls off is there are no enemies in the vicinity, and it is annoying to build it back up again, especially since several of our Offensive and Defensive multipliers rely on it. So, to keep Fortify active as you move between packs - leave a few normal mobs alive just to trail you and prevent Fortify from expiring.
- At Purveyor of Curiosities, gamble for nothing but Offhands. They have the greatest chance to yield many of the Aspects that interest us, including several Drop-Only ones.
- Beware of Fallen Lunatics! You remember those pesky demons that usually have to chase you before blowing themselves up - well in our case, the Inexorable Force delivers them straight to your door.
The Inexorable Heart Druid is a unique interpretation of this class that you'll be able to play only during Season of the Malignant.
Malignant Hearts are unlikely to stay beoynd the current Season that ends on October 18th. So, if this build looks interesting to you, consider trying it out - it's fun and affordable. Feel free to let us know what you think, and ask all the questions in our Discord!
