Diablo 4 Strongholds

In the Season 10 PTR, Companion Druid received a significant buff. It's likely to become an endgame meta build, similar to Hydra Sorcerer from Season 9, as it was already a Tier S build in Season 9.

One of the main reasons many players enjoy playing Necromancer is that it's incredibly easy. You can delegate most of the work to your army, allowing you to leisurely farm Diablo 4 items like a stroll. Companion Druid build also summons armies of minions, with a maximum of 15.

Pros And Cons

Foremost, as a summoner build, this playstyle's biggest advantage is its ease. You can choose this playstyle early on. In areas with a lot of monsters, like dungeons or wilderness, your companions will handle them on their own. Even when facing bosses, Druid's superior damage makes them easy to defeat.

The obvious downside of this build is that it doesn't offer very strong survivability. This is a common problem with summon builds because you can treat your summons as your health in some ways, which leads to your own health not much. Most of the time, you can hide behind your companions, but once you encounter tough enemies like those in The Pit, you'll feel overwhelmed. However, with top-tier gear, you can reach at least 100 The Pit, as Companion Druid in Season 9 is incredibly powerful.

Horadric Spells

Catalyst

• Celestial Surge (bound to Wolves): Periodically deals area-of-effect damage.

Infusion

• Nebulous Extract: Reduces monster damage, increasing your companion's survivability.

Arcana

• Bloody Charm: Allows Celestial Surge to decimate low-health enemies.
• Fractured Core: Disables monster resistance auras, increasing your damage.
• Gleaming Conduit: Enhances Catalyst abilities.

Horadric Jewels

• Reverie Horn: Simply grants your summons a 50% (multiplier) damage boost.
• Idol From Below: Allows you to remain unstoppable and summon additional elite monsters for you to kill.
• Scornful Light: Increases your elemental damage and can increase the poison damage of Aspect of the Rabid Bear.

Companion Druid Skills

• Maul (Rank 1): Enhanced Maul
• Shred (Rank 1): Enhanced Shred and Primal Shred
• Cyclone Armor (Rank 1)
• Blood Howl (Rank 1): Enhanced Blood Howl and Innate Blood Howl
• Wolves (Rank 5): Enhanced Wolf Pack and Brutal Wolf Pack
• Ravens (Rank 1): Enhanced Ravens and Brutal Ravens
• Grizzly Rage (Rank 5): Prime Grizzly Rage and Supreme Grizzly Rage

Wolves are your core skill in Season 9. Storm's Companion (unique pants) grants your pack the ability to use Blood Howl and increases their attack speed. Moonrage Aspect, Aspect of the Stampede, and One With Nature (passive) increase your Wolves' skill levels, summon count, and damage.

Grizzly Rage is your ultimate ability, and you'll need Dire Wolf's Aspect to transform it into a werewolf ability. Shred is used for faster movement and to trigger transformation buffs. Blood Howl heals, increases damage, and triggers other passive abilities.

There are also some passive abilities you need to pay special attention to. Call of the Wild is the most suitable damage-boosting passive for this build, increasing the damage of your allies. Envenom and Toxic Claws increase your poison damage, but overall, they're not as good as Call of the Wild.

One With Nature, mentioned earlier, is a key passive, amplifying the damage boost from Shepherd's Aspect.

Druid Spirit Boons

• Deer Spirit: Wariness
• Eagle Spirit: Avian Wrath
• Wolf Spirit: Packleader
• Snake Spirit: Overload

Skill Order

In most situations, you can let your wolves handle the enemies on their own. However, when encountering elite or difficult enemies, you should actively use your skills to increase your damage.

Your skill order is as follows:

• 1. First, alternate between Maul and Shred to stack Quickshift buff.
• 2. Then activate Grizzly Rage and use Blood Howl at least once to activate its buff.
• 3. Use Shred to move closer to elite monsters or the next wave of enemies.
• 4. Use your Wolves skill to focus fire on elite or high-health targets.
• 5. Try to avoid using your allies' destructive ground-effect skills.

Glyphs

The boosts provided by Legendary Glyph nodes are also significant, so after reaching level 60, it's best to farm The Pit to upgrade your glyphs. Since glyph resets require Diablo 4 gold, it's best to plan ahead.

Level 15 Glyph

• ‍Wilds
• ‍Headhunter
• ‍Keeper
• ‍Earth and Sky
• ‍Spirit

Level 46 Glyph

• ‍Wilds
• ‍Earth and Sky
• ‍Spirit
• ‍Keeper
• ‍Headhunter

Companion Druid Equipment

Start

• Helm: Vigorous Aspect
• Chest Armor: Spirit Bond Aspect
• Gloves: Storm's Companion
• Pants: Juggernaut's Aspect
• Boots: Dire Wolf's Aspect
• Mainhand: Shepherd's Aspect
• Amulet: Aspect of the Alpha
• Left Ring: Aspect of the Rabid Bear
• Right Ring: Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast

Torment Difficulty (Ancestrals Items)

• Helm: Vigorous Aspect
• Chest Armor: Spirit Bond Aspect
• Gloves: Aspect of the Stampede
• Pants: Storm's Companion
• Boots: Dire Wolf's Aspect
• Mainhand: Shepherd's Aspect
• Amulet: Aspect of the Rabid Bear
• Left Ring: Moonrage Aspect
• Right Ring: Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast

Best Gear

• Helm: Heir of Perdition
• Chest Armor: Shroud of False Death
• Gloves: Aspect of the Stampede
• Pants: Storm's Companion
• Boots: Dire Wolf's Aspect
• Mainhand: Shepherd's Aspect
• Amulet: Aspect of the Rabid Bear
• Left Ring: Moonrage Aspect
• Right Ring: Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast

Most of this set's item requirements are relatively low, allowing you to build it early and save a considerable amount of Diablo 4 gold. Heir of Perdition and Shroud of False Death significantly increase your damage. If you need to fight bosses or push The Pit, you can adjust your gear details accordingly.

In addition, your first choice for runes is Nagu + Ceh, which summons more companions. Yul + Kry is also a good choice, which can help you gather monsters.

The above is the general outline of Season 9 Companion Druid build. You can familiarize yourself with its gameplay in advance. Season 10 strengthens Ravens' skills, so there may be some changes to Companion Druid skills in Season 10, but the core gameplay will not change much.

In Season 9, every Diablo 4 character will initially be equipped with only their starting outfit. However, as you progress through the season, you'll earn more wearable gear through combat.

This gear not only enhances your appearance but, more importantly, provides unique buffs, making your character stronger and more resilient.

However, it's important to note that often, you focus solely on powerful or attractive gear, neglecting whether it's suitable for you or whether farming it is too difficult for you, resulting in a chaotic gear build.

To this end, we'll provide a comprehensive guide to utilizing and farming gear based on Season 9 gear system.

Gear System Overview

From the very beginning, Diablo 4 has categorized all gear in the game by rarity and quality, allowing you to more intuitively understand the value of a particular piece of gear.

• Gear rarity: Common, Magic, Rare, Legendary, Unique
• Gear quality: Common, Sacred, Ancestral, Mythic, Unique

Rarity generally determines the base number of affixes on an item, and higher rarity means stronger stats. Gear quality, on the other hand, determines the item's base power and stat range.

Note that weapons in the gear category change more significantly during upgrades than other types of gear. Therefore, to increase your damage output and progress faster through the season, it's recommended to prioritize upgrading weapons.

The Difference Between Salvaging And Selling Gear

As you progress through the game, you'll gain access to new gear, but the amount you can equip is limited, so you'll eventually find yourself with a lot of unused gear in your inventory.

For items of lower rarity or quality, you can sell them directly for more Diablo 4 gold. However, salvaging rare, legendary, or unique items will yield greater returns.

To salvage gear, you need to find a blacksmith in any town - they're represented on the map by a hammer and anvil. You can salvage individual items manually, as well as salvage specific rarities and all items marked as "junk."

After salvaging, the gear is broken down into materials that can be used to upgrade other gear. These materials are far more valuable than gold.

What Is Codex Of Power?

Besides leveling up, there are many ways to enhance your gear in the game, and Codex of Power is one of them. It's essentially a collection of legendary aspects that you can imprint onto your gear at The Occultist.

This makes your rare or legendary gear more powerful, and in turn, improves your overall character's abilities. The codex is typically earned by clearing dungeons.

It's important to note that the legendary aspect roll granted by a Codex of Power is always the lowest. For example, if an inscribed legendary aspect grants you 10-20% poison damage to enemies, the final imprint value will only be 10%.

The Relationship Between Difficulty Level Settings And Gear

Once your character reaches the max level of 60, all new gear you'll receive will be at a base level of 750. At this point, it's best to completely upgrade all your gear.

Of course, reaching max level also means you can begin challenging Torment difficulty. This difficulty setting has four levels, and starting at Torment 1, you'll begin to obtain ancestral gear, while your common, magic, and rare items will automatically be salvaged.

This not only means you'll earn more powerful and rare gear through the true challenges of Diablo 4, but also allows you to automatically salvage a large amount of gear upgrade materials at once, allowing you to quickly make your new items more reliable.

How To Farm Gear?

In Season 9, there are still many ways to farm gear, primarily through clearing dungeons and bosses. The key isn't the specific method (which veteran players should already understand), but rather how to multitask and maximize farming efficiency.

Currently available gear farming channels include:

• Kurast Undercity: Killing bosses and opening chests offers a chance to farm ancestral gear. However, access to this dungeon requires DLC.
• Infernal Hordes: Unlock this dungeon with Infernal Compass as the key and enter. Kill enemies to earn Burning Aether, which can then be exchanged for Spoils of Hell chests to obtain gear.
• Nightmare and Escalating Nightmare: Completing dungeons on Torment difficulty offers a chance to get rare gear.
• Helltides: Each event lasts one hour, during which you must collect Aberrant Cinders to exchange for the final loot.
• The Pit of Artificers: As the most important endgame dungeon in D4 S9, The Pit has 150 floors. You must kill as many monsters and bosses as possible within 15 minutes.

Tree of Whispers also deserves special mention. This mechanic is essentially a bounty system. You collect Grim Favors by completing its quests, and every 10 you collect can be turned in for a reward.

Rewards typically require you to choose one of three collection options, each with a random rarity of Normal, Greater, or Ancestral. This gives you a chance to obtain rare gear through these options.

What's unique about Tree of Whispers is that some of its quests are actually required to be completed within the aforementioned dungeons or events. Therefore, you can definitely target specific Tree of Whispers quests to maximize your chances of receiving gear.

We hope that the information we've provided will help you better plan your character's gear acquisition and usage plans. In fact, this information should still be useful in Season 10!