The Druid is the king of Boss Brawl in Heroes vs Hordes. If you scroll the global leaderboard, it's basically Druid, Druid, Druid, Druid, with a Bunny sprinkled in for good measure.
He's a high A tier hero overall, part of the Nature faction. He shines brightest when fully built, but he's also a strong all-around hero throughout normal and hard mode thanks to his stacked cooldown.
His kit is built around a 1% chance pulse on his main weapon attacks, a built-in expose that increases damage taken, and a bear shapeshift ultimate that stuns and tanks. Add a magic main weapon and a fruit-throwing tree evolution, and you have one of the most fun hero designs in the game.
Tip: Druid is incredibly star level reliant. He takes his big jump in damage at four stars and level 150, and a massive jump again at five stars. If you don't plan on getting him there, your mileage will vary.
I'll walk through the half bear, half man, three-fingered king's optimal gear, weapons, jewels, forge, skills, and pets in this guide.
| 10 | -5% Cooldown |
|---|---|
| 20 | +200 Health |
| 30 | +200 Health |
| 40 | NATURE'S WRATH: 1% chance for enemies hit by hero weapon to create a pulse explosion, dealing 5%/20%/30%/50%/70% damage to surrounding enemies |
| 50 | All Heroes: +12.5% Damage |
| 60 | +35% Damage |
| 70 | All Heroes: -2.5% Cooldown |
| 80 | WEAKING WHISPERS: Every 10s cast an aura that causes nearby enemies to recieve 10%/20%/50%/80%/110% increased dmg, lasts for 2s |
| 90 | All Heroes that share faction: -2.5% Cooldown |
| 100 | SHAPESHIFTING: Killing enemies with the main weapon fills a meter the druid turns into a bear for 8s, stunning all enemies for 3s decreasing dmg taken by 50%. changing the base attack to a stomp that deals 120%/390%/770%/1260%/1840% damage |
| 120 | All Heroes: +12.5% Damage |
| 140 | Strong Stat Bonus: x1.2 Health (Multiplicative) |
| 160 | All Heroes: +100% Damage |
Druid's base stats are some of the best in the entire game:
Critical hit is great throughout the game as you push toward the 100% cap. Cooldown is one of the best amplifiers to damage in the game, and hitting the cooldown caps in each mode (90% in normal, hard, and arena, 40% basically everywhere else) maximizes your DPS.
That cooldown number gets bigger with each star level, which is part of why the Druid scales so hard.
At level 10, Druid gets cooldown, which is great. Combined with his base cooldown, he has a whole ton of internal cooldown that makes him strong for clearing normal and hard mode and feeds into his Boss Brawl dominance.
The health at 20 and 30 is basically nothing, and the damage at 60 isn't much either. His strong stat bonus at 140 is more health. Druid is built like a tank, but the truth is in Heroes vs Hordes, you don't take a lot of damage. So that health doesn't really pay off.
His globals are decent overall. Level 50 is more damage, which is a base C-tier global. Level 70 is cooldown, one of the better globals in the game. Level 90 is more cooldown for his faction, which buffs Druid plus other heroes like Barbarian. Level 120 is base damage. And his three-star forge is plus health, which is a nothing burger.
So he's got average globals saved by that level 70 cooldown.
His faction camp adds even more cooldown to him and to other heroes in his faction. You take that 100% of the time.
The big takeaway here is the crit in his base stats plus the cooldown stacked across his level progression, base stats, faction, and globals. That's what makes Druid really strong throughout the whole game, and it's what lets him go off in Boss Brawl.
Druid runs the HvH standard max damage per second (DPS) gear build.
| Helm: Rogue | Gloves: Rogue |
| Chest: Rogue | Necklace: Rogue |
| Boots: Ranger | Ring: Rogue |
You do this to maximize cooldown reduction and get the 4x critical strike multiplier from the rogue set. Druid already has so much innate crit and cooldown that pairing him with the rogue gear stacks the multipliers in your favor.
While that's the optimal build, you'll level up specific gear sets faster than others as you progress through the game. I recommend always using the highest level of gear for a given slot, even if you lose a set bonus.
For example, if you grab a legendary wizard chest before anything else, equip it over an epic rogue chest. The raw stat bump beats the set bonus every time in the early game.
For Boss Brawl specifically, you stick with the same max DPS rogue build. Druid's whole game in Boss Brawl is procing his Nature's Wrath skill during the vulnerability phase, and the crit and cooldown from the rogue set are exactly what feeds that.
The bonus is that with his innate crit at almost 100% before jewels, you have a lot of jewel flexibility to lean into magical projectiles instead of stacking more crit chance.
Onto the optimal weapons and tomes for the Druid.
Druid's main weapon is Nature's Scepter, a magic weapon that fires green lightning, jumping from target to target. That magic damage typing is a big deal because his Nature's Wrath skill procs off main weapon hits, and anything that increases magical projectiles doubles the chance for that skill to fire.
His weapon evolves off Duration Tome, which is one of the least likely tomes to take in most builds. That's actually a problem in modes where experience is tight (Nightmare Mode, Hard Mode Arena, Dragon's Tower) because you have to spend a pick on Duration to get the evolved Rod of Life.
This is what you came for. The Druid Boss Brawl build is built to maximize procs of Nature's Wrath during the vulnerability phase. My priority is:
Duration Tome
Fire Orbs
Bombs
Crossbow
You take Duration Tome to evolve Nature's Scepter into Rod of Life, which spawns the fruit-throwing trees. The trees are key to his Boss Brawl dominance.
Tomes to compliment the build are:
Cooldown
Damage
Duplicator
Duration
XP Tome
The slight tweak versus a normal Boss Brawl build is that you swap Critical Tome for Duration Tome (just one point) to evolve the weapon. With his innate crit so high, you don't really need Crit Tome anyway.
For everyday clearing, the standard late-game DPS build works:
Fire Orbs
Bombs
Chain Lightning
Crossbow
Druid is not great in Nightmare Mode, Hard Mode Arena, or Dragon's Tower. His kit reads like it should be a tank with stuns and shields, but you have to evolve his main weapon to get the trees, and that costs you experience you really need elsewhere in those modes.
Druid's jewel build is where his kit gets really interesting, because his stats free you up to do something different than the standard priority.
Without any jewels equipped, Druid is already at almost 100% crit chance and around 80% cooldown in his base Boss Brawl setup. That's nuts. So instead of stacking the usual Cooldown and Vulnerability priority, you can lean hard into magical projectiles, which doubles the chance of his Nature's Wrath skill procing.
For Boss Brawl specifically, the priority shifts to:
Magical Projectile
Vulnerability
Critical Strike til 100%
Cooldown
Area
Stack as much magical projectile as you can. That's the secret hidden in the Druid build, and it's what makes his damage spike so hard during the vulnerability phase.
Critical Strike jewels get you over the 100% cap when you don't have it from gear yet. Once you're capped, swap them for more Magical Projectile or Vulnerability.
For everything else, run the standard max DPS jewel priority:
Ultimate Charge
Ultimate Duration
Vulnerability
Cooldown til 60%
Projectile (P)
Area
Run cooldown jewels until it hits 60% in the detail window, since Druid already brings so much innate cooldown that you barely need any. That frees up slots for projectiles and area, which both feed his procs and trees.
Druid's forge is where he gets really interesting. The right picks are what turn him from a decent shelf hero into the king of Boss Brawl.
You either get reduced ultimate activation requirement or +area of effect. Ultimate activation is really strong if you're in a mode where you can get the bear ult firing often. Otherwise, area of effect is probably better, especially earlier in the game. Both are fine.
You get +damage to his weapon or +10% critical hit chance. Critical hit chance is better early in the game, but once you're close to the 100% cap, you want the straight damage. Crit's value comes from multiplying with the rogue gear's 4x multiplier, but that only works if you're not already capped.
A nothing burger. You take it because you have to.
This is where it gets fun. Your evolved Nature's Scepter summons a tree that throws fruit. Yes, a tree that throws fruit. Great hero design. The trees are also a major part of his Boss Brawl dominance.
This is the big one. You either get the fruit to stun enemies, or the tree turns into a dead tree that pulses damage every second.
For Boss Brawl, go Withering Curse. You get the boss to stand under a tree during the vulnerability phase, and the pulse will deal massive damage every second. This is where the Druid puts up his eye-popping numbers.
For every other mode, go Stunning Fruit. The stuns are great for clearing waves in normal and hard mode. Note that Withering Curse removes the shield generation from the trees, while Stunning Fruit keeps it, which makes Stunning Fruit your default outside of Boss Brawl.
The key to the Druid is getting star levels. He is incredibly star level reliant. Four stars and level 150 is when he takes his first big jump in damage, and he gets a massive jump again at five stars.
A 1% chance for enemies hit by Druid's hero weapon to create a pulse explosion dealing 50% damage to surrounding enemies. That doesn't sound like much, but 50% of your base damage is actually a big number, and the chance scales with cooldown.
The more cooldown you have, the more this skill fires. As you push toward the 90% cooldown cap in Boss Brawl, you stack more chances for this 1% to proc during the vulnerability phase. Each proc during that window does a tremendous amount of damage. If you watch pros run Druid in Boss Brawl, you'll see giant spikes in damage that line up with this skill firing.
Every 10 seconds, Druid casts an aura that causes nearby enemies to take 80% increased damage for 2 seconds. At skill level 5, that's 110% damage from all sources. This is Druid's built-in expose, and it's part of the reason he's so strong against the boss.
Stack the expose with the Nature's Wrath proc during the vulnerability phase, and you get the damage spikes that put Druid at the top of the leaderboard.
Killing enemies with the main weapon fills a meter. When full, Druid turns into a bear for 8 seconds, stunning all enemies for 3 seconds, decreasing damage taken by 50%, and changing his basic attack to a stomp that deals a lot more damage.
The bear damage scales really well with star levels, which is another reason Druid wants those four and five star investments before he really comes online.
On the pet side, you're looking for max DPS pets.
Main Pet. The best main pet for the Druid is your highest-level pet. Typically, that means the Pyrokraken or Emberpaw. When you get an epic pet, switch to them.
Your highest-level pet should do the most damage.
Passive Pets. I typically run my next two highest-damage pets as my passives. That means either Emberpaw or Pyrokraken, plus an elemental striker with a damage bonus.
I have a full pet guide that goes into more detail.
Main Pet. I really like the Hydro Basilisk as a main pet. The ultimate slow is great, the geysers do a ton of AoE damage, and it's ranged. A great combo across the board.
Stormshell and Storm Gryphon are both also great choices. Generally, your highest-level pet should do the most damage.
Passive Pets. I run Pyrokraken and Crystalsaurs as my passive pets. I like them for the ranged DPS that isn't limited by the Emberpaw radius.
For Boss Brawl, you want pets that pile on damage during the vulnerability phase. Hydro Basilisk as a main is great because the geysers and slow help your trees stay parked on the boss.
For passives, lean into your highest DPS options. There's no special trick here. Druid's own damage is already doing the heavy lifting, and the pets are just adding on top.
Overall, Druid earns a high A ranking. He's the best Boss Brawl hero when fully capped. He's also a strong all-around hero for normal and hard mode thanks to all that innate cooldown.
The catch is star levels. He needs at least four stars, and ideally five, to really go off. Bunny is probably better for most players because Bunny doesn't need five stars to perform.
Quick recap on what makes him tick:
He doesn't excel in any arena or in Nightmare Mode. He's not your pick for those. But if you get him, level him, forge him, and ride the Boss Brawl leaderboard. And remember, always do your adventures.
