Quick Links
Diablo 4’sDruid Class has benefited from a number of powerful uniques being added to the game since release, as well as the additional abilities added with theVessel of HatredDLC. This made Ultimate builds possible, much to the player’s delight. One such ultimate focused build, the Crit Lacerate Druid, is one of the best Pit Builds for Druid Players.
To play this fun, fast-paced Build, players will need to focus on their Runewords and Unique Items. Keep reading for a breakdown of how this build shapes up in the current meta, its' Skill Tree, BiS gear, Paragon Boards, and other build choices.
How To Play The Crit Lacerate Druid (And Why It Works)
This build utilizes Lacerate as the primary damage ability, despite its' relatively long cooldown. As a result, most of the build is focused around reducing the player’s ultimate cooldown - as well as building crit for damage purposes. The key pieces of this build are the NaguXan Runeword, andFlickerstep.NaguXan Guarantees Critical Strikes and Overpower, and is activated by keeping companion skills active.GettingFlickerstepallows the player to reduce the cooldown of their Ultimate by evading through enemies.
To play this build, players should attempt to keep six companions (from various summon abilities) active at all times, and cast Lacerate on cooldown. While waiting for their ultimate to come off cooldown, they should be evading through packs to trigger Flickerstep while using Blood Howl and Debilitating Roar to boost survivability.
How This Build Compares To Other Late Game Builds
Many Diablo 4 builds outperform the Lacerate Druid against bosses, but few can measure up against its speed when fighting groups. This makes it an excellent speed farming build for Helltides, Kurast Undercity, or Infernal Hordes. However, where it really shines is in thePit Pushing Tier List. Enemies in the pit tend to be densely packed into small spaces, making Flickerstep very effective at resetting Lacerate. Further, this tight grouping of enemies allows the Lacerate Druid to clear large packs nearly instantly due to the abilities' AoE.
Key Passive
Ursine Strength
While the main damage from this build comes from Lacerate, its Abilities are still very inflexible. Every Companion is required to successfully activate the NaguXan Runeword, and both Innate Blood Howl and Innate Debiliating Roar stack bonuses from Shapeshifting into two different animal forms.
Best Spirit Offering Choices For The Crit Lacerate Druid
The Spirit Boons available to the Lacerate Druid provide a variety of defensive and offensive benefits. Most important among them are theEagle and Wolf Spirits, which provide 40% Critical Strike Damage and 35% increased Ultimate durationrespectively. Because Lacerate continues to hit for its entire duration, and each hit can crit, this translates into a big damage buff. Other options, such as Masochistic, use the Lacerate Druid’s plentiful Critical Strikes to stay healthy.
Gift of the Stag
Eagle Spirit - Iron Feather
Paragon Boards & Glyphs For The Crit Lacerate Druid
Paragon Glyphs and Boards for the Lacerate Druid focus on Critical Strike Chance and Damage, as well as build agnostic choices that provide overall good stats. This build uses the following configuration:
The pictures above show the paragon boards as they should be when all glyphs are leveled to 15, and contain all nodes with the biggest power spike to this build. Switch out Fang and Claw to Wild later, and allocate further points as desired.
Leveling Glyphs
While leveling Paragon Glyphs for this build in the Pit, it is best to adhere to the following order:
Leveling Order to 46
Savvy players will notice thatbetween Leveling to 15 and leveling to 46, Fang and Claw is switched out for the Wild Paragon Glyph. This is because the Fang and Claw damage bonus is good early on, while Wild has a much more beneficial Legendary Ability, so it scales harder into the high Pit Levels. Make this transition anytime after leveling all glyphs to 15 to support a smooth power curve.
Gear & Stat Priority For The Crit Lacerate Druid
The Lacerate Druid Build has several key stat thresholds it needs to meet to perform - making its' gear fairly inflexible. However, it has the benefit of not requiring multiple GA items (although they are still nice when found). This makes farming that much easier.
Legendary Aspects & Uniques
This build utilizes five Unique items (six if you look at desirable Mythic Uniques likeHarlequin Crest) and what Legendary Aspects it does use are required for the build. These are Vehement Brawler, Unsatiated, and Apogeic Furor.
Lupine Ferocity Damage Bonus OR All Stats Increase
Aspect of the Unsatitated OR Malefic Crescent
Ranks to Envenom OR Ranks to Feral Aptitude
Ultimate Cooldown Reduction OR Critical Strike Damage
Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt OR Aspect of the Unsatiated
Critical Strike Damage
Notice that Aspect of the Unsatiated shows up in both the Ring and Amulet slots - it can, of course, only effect the player character once, so choosing where it will sit between the two options is desired. Players should use gear slots with multiple options to help reach key break points (described in the next section).
Highest Priority Stats
The highest priority stats for this build are the following, ranked:
Keep in mind that higher numbers often have diminishing returns inDiablo 4, so it is usually more important to reach the minimum of each stat on this list than to stack over the suggested amount.
Tempering
Tempering gear for the Lacerate Druid is fairly straightforward, as there are rarely two options which are desirable in the same slot. However, this does mean a fair few bricked items - always temper the most important stat first to avoid wasting resources. Temper the gear using the following recipes:
Ring 2
As Mythic Unique and Legendary Unique items cannot be tempered, slots where the player is using such an item can be ignored.
Masterworking
WhenMasterworkingthis build’s gear, always aim to have crits on the stat listed under “most important stat” in the above table. Triple crits are ideal, but other configurations are workable as long as stat breakpoints are reached. It can also be useful to reroll Masterwork crits at level four until getting one crit on the desired stat, as ranks are much cheaper at this level.
Socketables: Runewords & Gems
This build requires the NaguXan Runewordto function properly, as it does not natively have increased Critical Hit Chance. However, the second Runeword is somewhat more flexible. Options for this Runeword include:
Outside of Runewords, Willpower will be this build’s largest damage increase in sockets. Fill all remaining armor slots with Sapphires. Use Emeralds in the weapon to increase Critical Strike Damage, and use the Jewelry slots to fill out resistances and hit the armor cap of 1000.
Mercenary Enlistment & Reinforcement
(cover which mercenary to hire, their skill tree, and which reinforcement is selected. Explain why they are better than alternatives)
Mercenaries hired with the Lacerate build are selected because they help group up enemies to be hit by Lacerate. While this build misses out on the passive from hiring one ofthe game’s best mercenaries- Subo, it more than makes up for the difficulty in locating packs with its clear speed.
Mercenary Hired: Varyana
Varyana’s purpose is tomake enemiesVulnerablewith Recklessness, group them with No Escape, and provide a Movement Steroid with her passive. Her skill tree should be the following:
Reinforcement Enlisted: Raheir
Raheir is by far the best reinforment option for most top tier builds, so his inclusion should come as no surprise. However, rather than taking a defensive ability like Bastion, this build utilizes Crater.Players should have Raheir cast Crater when they use Lacerate, to corral enemies for its AoE.
