Our Lightning Storm Druid leveling build makes lightning strike twice, and sometimes much more often… with a bit of luck. Call down the thunder in a paralysing display of elemental fury that will leave your enemies in shock, awe, and ashes.
Introduction
The Lightning Storm Druid build is a highly RNG-dependent build that aims to deliver many hits of Lightning damage with 
Lightning Storm to repeatedly trigger its many important offensive procs — notably Primal Lightning Storm, 
Electric Shock, and 
Bad Omen. With little in the way of defense, but many ways to Immobilize, the Lightning Storm Druid relies on careful positioning, kiting, control, and timing to thrive.
It should be noted that Lightning Storm must be channeled for a few seconds to reach its full potential, which requires Druid to stand still. While this slower stop-and-go playstyle may not be for everyone, Lightning Storm compensates for this with a good balance of high single-target and AoE damage.
Lightning Storm Druid Skill Tree Points
The following table shows the order in which to allocate your skill points for the Lightning Storm Druid build. You gain 19 points from level 2 through 20 and 2 additional points from completing Renown in Fractured Peaks, for a total of 21.
| Order | Skill | Cluster |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Storm Strike | Basic |
| 2 | Enhanced Storm Strike | Basic |
| 3 | Lightning Storm | Spirit |
| 4 | Enhanced Lightning Storm | Spirit |
| 5 | Primal Lightning Storm | Spirit |
| 6 | Fierce Storm Strike | Basic |
| 7 |  Earthen Bulwark | Defensive |
| 8 |  Blood Howl | Defensive |
| 9 | Lightning Storm Level 2 | Spirit |
| 10 | Lightning Storm Level 3 | Spirit |
| 11 | Lightning Storm Level 4 | Spirit |
| 12 |  Vine Creeper | Companion |
| 13 |  Wolves | Companion |
| 14 | Lightning Storm Level 5 | Spirit |
| 15 | Enhanced Blood Howl | Defensive |
| 16 | Innate Blood Howl | Defensive |
| 17 |  Hurricane; replace Wolves with Enhanced Earthen Bulwark | Wrath |
| 18 |  Elemental Exposure | Wrath |
| 19 |  Charged Atmosphere | Wrath |
| 20 | Electric Shock | Wrath |
| 21 | Bad Omen | Wrath |
Key Build Mechanics
The two following mechanics — Lucky Hit and Immobilize — are important parts of the build and should be understood well. Lightning Storm will also be discussed further.
Lucky Hit and Lucky Hit Chance
In Diablo 4, a Lucky Hit refers to any effect that has a certain chance to trigger when an enemy is hit by a skill. In many games, such effects are colloquially known as procs.
For example, the first part of the Electric Shock passive skill reads: “Lucky Hit: Dealing Lightning damage to enemies has a 5% chance to Immobilize them for 3 seconds.” This may be misleading however, as every skill has its own Lucky Hit Chance (or proc coefficient) to consider as well, which represents a chance to trigger a Lucky Hit. In other words, the Lucky Hit Chance is a chance for a chance.
Storm Strike for instance, has a 25% Lucky Hit Chance. To get the final chance of triggering an Electric Shock Lucky Hit with Storm Strike, one would multiply 25% by 15%, for an actual trigger chance of 3.75% per cast. In general, skills which hit many targets or hit many times typically have a lower Lucky Hit Chance than single-target or single-hit skills.
Immobilize
Immobilize is a debuff that prevents the target from moving temporarily. This effect is often known as root or pin in other games. Immobilize does not prevent the target from attacking, but does render melee foes unable to attack a target that is too far away.
How Does Lightning Storm Work?
Lightning Storm has unique mechanical quirks that are only vaguely referred to as “a growing lightning storm” in its description. This is best illustrated using several abstract stages that represent this “growth.”
When Lightning Storm is first channeled, it begins at stage 0. Subsequent stages are reached by maintaining the channel further. Here is a breakdown of the effects of each stage:
- Stage 0: 1 lightning strike conjured at the location of your cursor.
- Stage 1: 2 lightning strikes conjured over a tiny area.
- Stage 2: 3 lightning strikes conjured over a small area.
- Stage 3: 4 lightning strikes conjured over a medium area.
- Stage 4: 5 lightning strikes conjured over a large area.
Continuing to channel Lightning Strike at stage 4 simply repeats its stage 4 effects. Given the significant increase in damage represented by each subsequent stage, you should always try to channel Lightning Strikes for as long as possible.
When Lightning Storm is interrupted (e.g., by moving, casting another non-instant skill, running out of Spirit, being hit by crowd control that prevents casting, or dying), the current stage is reset to 0.
The growth rate of the storm is based on your Attack Speed; an Attack Speed of 1.0 translates to a growth rate of 1 per second. It would therefore take 4 seconds to reach the last stage. Accordingly, doubling your Attack Speed would also double the growth rate of the storm and halve the delay between lightning strikes.
Two passive skills are also worth noting due to their impact on Lightning Storm.
Enhanced Lightning Storm allows Lightning Storm to keep its current growth stage for 4 seconds when interrupted. This notably allows you to perform other actions such as moving or generating Spirit to maintain a fully-grown storm for a long time. The importance of this skill for this build cannot be understated.
Raging Lightning Storm adds 1 additional lightning strike conjured at every stage. Stage 0 would therefore conjure 2 strikes instead of 1, stage 1 would conjure 3 strikes instead of 2, and so on.
Playstyle
The primary goal of the Lightning Storm Druid build is to trigger Lucky Hits for its many offensive random effects: Primal Lightning Storm, Electric Shock, and Bad Omen. Skills that quickly hit multiple targets — Lightning Storm and Hurricane — over their duration are used to maximize the chance of triggering many such Lucky Hits.
Apart from the filler Storm Strike, the skills of the Lightning Storm Druid are most effective from a medium range, just outside the melee range of enemies. Exploiting Immobilize and proactive movement are the primary way of maintaining this distance.
Rotation
- Cast Hurricane whenever it is available.
- Cast Earthen Bulwark if you are about to take damage or need to remove Crowd Control through Enhanced Earthen Bulwark.
- Cast Vine Creeper to Immobilize enemies.
- If you have enough Spirit, cast Lightning Storm, your main damage skill.
- If you do not have enough Spirit for Lightning Storm, cast Storm Strike to generate Spirit until you do.
- Cast Blood Howl as soon as you need to heal.
Legendary Item Aspects
Listed below are the Aspects found on Legendary items that are important for the Lightning Storm Druid build. They are listed in order of priority.
| Aspect Name | Legendary Aspect Power |
|---|---|
| Overcharged Aspect | Lucky Hit: Up to a X% chance when dealing Lightning damage to overload the target for 3 seconds, causing any direct damage you deal to them to pulse X additional damage to surrounding enemies. |
| Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect | Critical Strikes with Storm Skills charge the air around you for X seconds causing a Lightning Strike to periodically hit an enemy in the area for X Lightning damage. This duration can be extended by additional Critical Strikes. |
| Storm Beast’s Aspect | Lucky Hit: Storm Skills have up to a X% chance to grant 10 Spirit. Your base Storm Skills are now also Werewolf Skills. |
| Aspect of Shared Misery | Lucky Hit: When you hit a Crowd Controlled enemy, there is up to a X% chance for that Crowd Control effect to spread to another unaffected enemy. |
| Aspect of the Umbral | Restore 1 of your Primary Resource when you Crowd Control an enemy. |
| Aspect of Inner Calm | Deal x3.0% increased damage for each second you stand still, up to 30%. |
Gems
Listed below are the best Gems to socket into gear for each slot type.
- Weapon: Emerald, for +#% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies.
- Armor: Ruby, for +#% Maximum Life.
- Jewelry: Whichever Gem provides the Resistances you lack.
Elixirs and Health Potions
Visit the Alchemist in Kyovashad as soon as possible to craft helpful Elixirs that increase certain stats and Experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world and are sometimes given as quest rewards. Both the Weak Iron Barb Elixir and Weak Third Eye Elixir provide defense before level 20. At level 20, use the Weak Assault Elixir instead, which increases Attack Speed.
Also make sure to visit the Alchemist upon reaching level 10 and 20 to upgrade your Health Potions. The extra healing is essential to survival.
