Druids are a versatile class in Diablo 4 because they have a ton of options in how they’re built. Today, I invite you to join me on the road to Werebear, presenting my Bear Bender Druid build.
Fortify & Overpower
This Bear Bender builds fuses of Werebear’s Fisticuffs from Werebear with Earth Magic for more critical damage on enemies. In order to understand the power that Bear Bender Druid builds on, we first need to grasp two key concepts: Fortify and Overpower.
Fortify is a mechanic introduced in Diablo 4. You can think of it as a second life bar. When you spawn Fortify, you’ll see a red layer form around your Health Orb. Once you have more Fortify than your current life bar, you actually get stronger.
You’ll know you’ve got Fortify when the spikey iron ring surrounds your Health Orb. While in this state, you take 10% less damage.
However, defense decays quickly when out of combat. So the attack speed buff becomes crucial to maintaining that all-important buffer. This is where the power of Overpower comes into play. Blue text identifies Overpower attacks and deals with bonus damage based on your current life plus Fortify’s life.
So it’s important to keep our health in top shape and melee to generate more Fortify value. We can achieve insane DPS with those huge blue Overpower numbers. Or you can choose Diablo 4 Boosting Service to achieve a rapid upgrade and achieve higher damage output of Druid Build.
Skills
Next, let’s take a look at what skills our Werebear has while running. Starting with our base skills, we’ll use Maul and Wild modifiers to increase our knockdown chance on hit. While it’s nice to have extra range and radius, you can effectively lock down most enemies in the game by constantly knocking them down.
Our core skill range is Pulverize, a primal modifier that lasts for four seconds and reduces damage by 20%. That’s a no-brainer for me, since four seconds builds up enough Spirit to deal damage like this in a row. Pulverize is also a serious damage-dealer when Overpower builds up.
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Also, with the higher Overpower damage, we can use another core skill, Landslide. Adding the primal modifier can maintain a high crit rate, especially for bosses. Therefore, Landslide is our main single target damage dealter.
Our defensive and only Werebear ability is Blood Howl. In addition to being a secondary healer in a pinch, Blood Howl also provides an attack speed buff for more damage. This is another process that takes passive synergy further into Druid skill tree.
Of course, for our ultimate, we’ll go with Grizzly Rage. It does bonus damage while taking less damage and Fortifies every second.
The skill I tried but didn't feel quite right here is Boulder. While very interesting visually, we used it for AOE damage. As for our passives, I won’t delve into each one, but focus on a few groups of passives.
For Spirit Boons, I went with more max Spirit, healing on Critical Strikes. This extends the ultimate duration and combines with Eagle for an attack speed buff and extra max life.
Legendary Aspect
As far as Legendary Aspect goes, I highly recommend grabbing Aspect of Retaliation for the offensive slot. This is unlocked by completing Seaside Descent Dungeon. Pulverize and Landslide do massive damage increases if you’re struggling to keep up your online defenses.
A short stroll west of Ked Bardu, Seaside Descent is spooky, full of scrawny boys and ghosts who deal with lightning damage. So make sure you stockpile enough Elixirs with Diablo 4 Gold before then to avoid accidental death.
For defense, Aspect of The Protector in Lost Archives Dungeon in Fractured Peaks. It’s an excellent choice for any class looking for more survivability.
What I can tell you for sure about Bear Bender is that it’s a pretty solid build. Especially when you get into Nightmare Dungeon, Bear Bender Druid build can cruise the challenge. Overall, Druid is a very flexible class. I enjoy playing it and will try out other versions again in the future.