A Deep Dive into the Companion Druid in Diablo 4 Season 8

The Companion Druid in Diablo 4 Season 8 offers a unique and powerful playstyle centered around commanding a pack of loyal animal companions. While the Necromancer minion build may excel at sheer speed clearing, the Druid's strength lies in its exceptional single-target damage and impressive tankiness. This guide will explore the key aspects of building and playing a successful Companion Druid, focusing on the changes and opportunities presented in Season 8.

Understanding the Companion Druid's Strengths

The Companion Druid has undergone significant evolution, particularly with the buffs introduced in Season 7. Previously, many affixes and bonuses that benefited player damage did not translate to minion damage. However, Season 7 changed this, allowing stats like lightning damage or storm skill damage to directly enhance the abilities of your wolves and other companions. While the powerful witchcrafting gems from Season 7 are gone, the core improvements to minion scaling remain.

In Season 8, the passive damage of Poison Creeper and Ravens has been further increased, adding to the overall effectiveness of the build. Adjustments to Spirit Boons also contribute to a smoother and more potent gameplay experience. While the reliance on guaranteed critical hits from nearby enemies has been reduced, this necessitates a greater focus on critical hit chance on gear.

Skill and Gear Setup

The preferred skill setup often includes Petrify for its crowd control capabilities, offering a reliable way to stun enemies. However, Cataclysm remains a viable alternative, particularly if you wish to utilize the Muolner ring for Overpower procs. Season 8 introduces new methods for triggering Overpower for minions, as detailed in Necromancer guides, but the optimal setup may require further testing.

Key Aspects and Gear:

• Storm's Companion: This Aspect is crucial for converting your wolves' damage to lightning and adding a small area-of-effect component to their attacks, addressing the build's weakness in area clearing.
• Shroud of False Death: Considered the best-in-slot chest armor, but until acquired, the Spirit Bond Aspect provides invaluable invincibility to your companions, significantly improving their survivability in the early game.

Boss Powers in Season 8:

While the boss powers have been nerfed since the PTR, they still offer utility. Uravar's Lobbed Bombs, despite reduced damage, now provide a 15% cooldown reduction. Other notable powers include:

• Flesh Reaper Disruption: Vulnerable damage multiplier.
• Beast Master's Training: Minion damage multiplier.
• Hatred's Embrace: Provides attack speed or crit chance, with crit chance being the more valuable option to help reach the crit cap.

Early Progression and Paragon Board

One of the challenges in the early game is capping your resistances. Prioritize this to ensure smoother progression through higher Torment levels. Cyclone Armor has been buffed, primarily its passive damage reduction against physical attacks. The skill tree remains largely unchanged from previous seasons, with increased passive damage from Ravens and Poison Creeper.

Remember that One With Nature provides the base passive of all the different minions, meaning you will have a Poison Creeper passively active even without investing skill points. This allows you to focus on other essential skills while still benefiting from the Poison Creeper's effects. The Shepherd's Aspect multiplies the damage of all your minions based on the number of companions you have, making it crucial to maximize your minion count.

The Paragon Board remains similar to previous seasons, with minor adjustments to nodes and bonuses. The mercenary choice now leans towards Rahier, whose abilities help mitigate the early-game resistance issues, facilitating faster progression to Torment 4.

Companion Skills