Cataclysm

The Cataclysm Druid Build Guide teaches you about Gear, Skills, Paragon, Playstyle & Seasonal Mechanics in Diablo 4 Season 11.

Cataclysm is a fully AFK build that can't die and clears everything in your vicinity.

1. Wait until Provocation stacks up to 10.
2. Cast Cataclysm.
3. Enjoy.
4. Evade to Teleport when Speedfarming

On the Speedfarm variant, use Cyclone Armor to group up Elites and Protector Mobs, as your Lightning Bolts have a small AoE component to them.

Also, cast Debilitating Roar whenever it is available to stay in Werebear Form.

Remember to cast Earthen Bulwark before Cataclysm for the Resonance Passive to triple in value.

Cataclysm Druid functions by managing to get 100% uptime on Cataclysm for damage and auto-casting Earthen Bulwark for survivability.

We use the Neo + Que combo to sustain our Earthen Bulwark and Vasily's Prayer so it doesn't shift us out of Werebear Form.

The Nagu + Zec Runeword is used early on to sustain our Cataclysm Cooldown. Later on, when we get access to better gear, it is not required and we can use Bac + Jah for mobility.

Insatiable Fury is used so that we don't turn back into Human and lose Quickshift stacks when there are no monsters to kill.

Always being in Werebear Form allows our Provocation to always be stacking and ready for our next Cataclysm. Provocation is incredibly important because it makes our entire Cataclysm Overpower.

To infinitely cast Cataclysm without having to do anything you have to bind Cataclysm to a Numpad # like THIS. Then, you will press that keybind, HOLD, and then Numlock at the same time, then release both at the same time. That should make it so you automatically cast Cataclysm every time it's off Cooldown.

The Starter and Endgame Variants are perfect for Torment 4 Content (Hordes, Undercity, Helltides, etc), but are not the best for Pit Speedfarming. You will need to upgrade to one of the Speedfarm variants for that.

Mercenaries

We use Subo with Wire Trap for Movement Speed and Cover Fire for Critical Strike Damage. In addition, Subo provides us with the invaluable ability to see Elites on our Minimap.

Our secondary Mercenary is Raheir with Provoke because why not.

Elixirs and Incenses

It's important to run Elixirs and Incenses at all times. Not only because they increase your Experience gain, but also because they provide very strong combat boosts.

For Elixirs, Elixir of Fortitude for more Maximum Life or Elixir of Resourcefulness for more Damage.

For Incenses, you will use Blessed Guide for Willpower, Song of the Mountain for Armor and Soothing Spices for All Resistances and more Armor.

Runes

We use Neo + Que to auto cast Bulwark constantly.

We also use Nagu + Zec to help recover our Cataclysm Cooldown.

In the Speedfarm Variant, we swap Nagu + Zec for Jah and Bac. Only do so if your Cataclysm duration is longer than your Cataclysm Cooldown.

Spirit Boons

Deer

• Wariness to be tankier. Gift of Stag can be used for more Damage.

Eagle

• Avian Wrath for Critical Strike Damage.
• Iron Feather for more Survivability.

Wolf

• Calamity to help with Cataclysm uptime.
• Energize can be used instead of Iron Feather when we are Speedfarming.

Snake

• We use Overload to poison enemies so that our Purge the Infected works.

Masterworking and Greater Affixes Explained

Masterworking

• Since Season 11 Masterworking no longer increases your item’s affix values. Instead, it improves the Quality of an item, which gives a bonus to the base damage, armor, or resistance of an item.
• Items can be Masterworked to a maximum Quality threshold of 20. Each time you Masterwork the item, it adds a random amount of Quality to the item (from 2-5 levels). Once at maximum Quality, you can roll it one last time for a Capstone bonus.
• This Capstone bonus upgrades a random non-greater affix on your item into a Greater Affix. You can then choose to re-roll the Masterworked Greater Affix, without resetting your Masterworking Quality. Re-rolling the current Masterworked Affix will cost Obducite and Neathiron.

Greater Affixes

Greater Affixes (GA) on an item force the affix to roll at the top of it's range of possible values and then applies a 50% increase to its value. GA increases are additive with Masterworking increases.

In this planner, the yellow star to the left of an affix denotes that is a GA.

Masterworking and Greater Affix Priority

Unless a certain amount of a stat is required and no more, like in the case of Attack Speed Breakpoints, Armor and Resistances, the Capstone Bonus is not necessary.

Guides, which follow a Starter -> Midgame -> Endgame progression, are structured such that the difficulty of the MWing outcome and amount of GAs on items also progresses as expected.

For example, a Starter variant will generally have 1GA items. A Midgame variant will generally have 2GA items. An Endgame variant will generally have 2GA/3GA items with a perfect Capstone Bonus.

From this you can derive that the GA on the starter version is the most important, the second GA added is the second most important and the third GA added is the third most important affix.

When GA and Capstone don't align you are most likely in the presence of a stat with a certain threshold you have to meet or a cap and those will be explicitly stated in the guide anyways.

In the case of Uniques GA and Capstone, progression standards are generally shifted by one as they are easier to MW because they have 4 affixes and also easier to acquire with multiple GAs.

Frequently Asked Questions

12/1/2025

• Updated for 2.5

10/09/2025

• Speedfarm updates

10/07/2025

• Updated for Patch 2.4.1

09/30/2025

• Updated Paragon Board
• Added Pit Push variant

09/27/2025

• Changed Headhunter to Electrocution
• Swapped Aspects