by theygamesDiablo 4’s Vampiric Powers have shaken up the metagame in a big way, with many becoming staple additions to a range of new and established builds. This is no different for the Druid class, which may just be one of the highest beneficiaries of the new tools on offer.
Druid has a wide selection of viable builds, both for leveling and endgame purposes, and the new Vampiric Powers Season 2 brings let many of them shine even brighter than usual. If you’re unsure on how to fill those five sanguine slots, then read on for our list of the best Vampiric Powers for Druids, in Diablo 4, ranked by their overall usefulness.
The most potent Vampiric Powers for Druid in Diablo 4, ranked
Anticipation
Effect: Your Ultimate Skills gain 20% Cooldown Reduction. Your Ultimate Skills gain 12% increased damage for each nearby enemy affected by your Damage Over Time effects.
Pacts Needed: 1 Divinity
The vast majority of Druid builds in Season of Blood rely heavily on the Grizzly Rage Ultimate Skill as a damage and defense booster. The Anticipation Vampiric Power provides a chunky reduction in cooldown for that crucial Skill, and any other Ultimates you may want to slot in instead. 20% is a huge number, reducing the time it takes to recharge down to 40 seconds, 15 of which will likely be covered by the Skill itself, provided you can kill enemies consistently.
This would be good enough on its own to warrant Anticipation’s inclusion in every Druid build this Season, but it also provides a nice damage boost if you’re using damage over time effects, such as Poison or Bleed. Finally, it only requires a single Divinity Pact to function, making it easy to slot in without adding or removing too many Pacts from your gear.
Hectic
Effect: For every 5 Basic Skills you cast, one of your active Cooldowns is reduced by 2 seconds.
Pacts Needed: 3 Divinity
Whether it’s Claw, Storm Strike, or Wind Shear, Basic Skills form the foundation of nearly every viable Druid build in Season of Blood. This is doubly true for the mega-popular Storm Claw build, which leverages the Greatstaff of the Crone: a Unique that’s easier to find than ever thanks to the ability to target-farm it from Echo of Varshan, the easiest of the game’s new Endgame Bosses.
Since most Druids plan to be using their Basic Skills near-constantly, Hectic is a staple inclusion in the Vampiric Powers slot for the class. It provides 2 seconds of cooldown reduction for every 5 Basics used, which can pair up with increases to attack speed (more on that shortly) to burn through your cooldowns at a rapid rate. We discussed the importance of Ultimate Skills like Grizzly Rage above, and Hectic gives you another way of keeping those key abilities up as often as possible.
Ravenous
Effect: Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your Attack Speed by 40% of your Total Movement Speed for 6 seconds.
Pacts Needed: 3 Ferocity
Ravenous quickly established itself as one of the best Vampiric Powers for all five classes in the game, and it’s not difficult to see why. Ignoring the complexity around Lucky Hit chance and Movement Speed, you can boil its effect down to this: it increases your overall Attack Speed.
This is excellent for all classes, since more Attack Speed means more attacks, means more damage, but it’s particularly good for classes that rely heavily on quick-fire Basic Skills, such as Druid. With this Power in tow, builds like Storm Claw and Shapeshifter get a considerable power boost, and can dish out their particular brands of claw-based violence far more efficiently than they would be able to otherwise.
Prey On The Weak
Effect: You deal 16% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. Enemies are Vulnerable while affected by a Vampiric Curse from your other Vampiric Powers.
Pacts Needed: 2 Ferocity
Another multi-class all-star, Prey on the Weak is good in any build that utilizes the Vulnerable status. In short: most of them. While it isn’t the only real route to success it was pre-Season of Blood, Vulnerable is still incredibly useful, and Prey on the Weak provides a straightforward blanket damage boost to any enemy afflicted by it.
In addition, this Power also makes enemies affected by the new Vampiric Curse status Vulnerable too, which gives a lot of extra value to the likes of Metamorphosis and Accursed Touch, should you slot them in too. Druid doesn’t have as many synergies with the Vulnerable status as the likes of Rogue or Barbarian, so it should speak to the sheer power of the status that Prey on the Weak makes this list regardless.
Metamorphosis
Effect: When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 4 seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse.
Pacts Needed: 2 Ferocity, 2 Divinity, 2 Eternity
Let’s round things out with a classic. Metamorphosis was the Vampiric Power that caught most player’s eyes when it was revealed prior to the launch of Season of Blood, and its placement as a reward for defeating Lord Zir and finishing the new seasonal storyline served as a carrot that tempted many to blazed through the new content as quickly as possible. Was all of that hype warranted? Absolutely.
Metamorphosis is the perfect example of a Vampiric Power that’s useful for every class in every situation, regardless of specific build choices. It supercharges your evades, making you unstoppable during them and also letting them deal a sizable chunk of damage, turning an already useful tool into a potent weapon: particularly useful for the less agile among the game’s classes, the Barbarians and Druids of the world. It’s also the best possible source of the Vampiric Curse status, which means it’s a shoe-in on any build running Prey on the Weak: a Power we’ve already discussed as being one of the very best in the game.
And there you have it: a full guide to the best Vampiric Powers for Druids in Diablo 4, ranked by their usefulness. This new system brings a welcome layer of customisation and complexity that really opens up options for each class, but these are the five you’ll want to bring along with you on most of your journeys into nature.