[VESSEL OF HATRED] Crushing Hand - Spiritborn Build for Diablo 4

Build Introduction

The Crushing Hand build offers great mobility and tankiness, with solid damage output. Its simple playstyle revolves around using skills as they come off cooldown, making it a good choice for speed farming endgame content like Helltides or Pit runs.

Of course, this endgame guide assumes your Spiritborn is Level 60 and meets all the build requirements. If you are just starting out with a new Spiritborn character, we recommend heading over to the Quill Volley Leveling Build and then switching to this endgame build when ready.

For information on Season 6, you can check out our Season Hub.
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Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Tanky
Good Mobility
Good Damage

Weaknesses

Heavy Gear and Tempering requirements
Needs 100% Vigor Regeneration
Cannot push High Pit Tiers

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Follow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the completed build. If you are missing skill points, complete Renown Tier 1-4 in every zone to get the missing additional points.

Spirit Hall Choice

The Spirit Hall allows you to combine two different Spirit Guardians or stick with just one.

Primary Spirit Guardian: Jaguar
- Every 15th time you deal direct damage to an enemy with a Jaguar Skill, unleash an additional strike dealing 15% of the damage you have dealt to them in the last 0.5 seconds. All Skills are now also Jaguar Skills.
Secondary Spirit Guardian: Centipede
- Heal for 1% of your Maximum Life, for every Nearby enemy you’ve poisoned in the last 3 seconds, up to 5%.

For this endgame build, we pick the Jaguar as the primary Spirit Guardian for additional additional damage. The Centipede is selected as secondary Spirit Guardian, to increase Healing based on Poison damage you will do using Scourge.

Paragon Board

Paragon unlocks after reaching Level 60, and is considered an endgame progression system. Leveling up your paragon greatly increases your character’s power! We recommend using the following Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to improve the build even further as you grind through the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 46 version.

Gear, Stats, Gems, Runes, and Elixirs

The following sections cover all systems that are important if you want to improve the power of your character in the endgame of Diablo 4.

Legendary Aspects

Each Aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each Aspect in the assigned slot. Remember to salvage Legendary Items with higher Aspect values to unlock them in the Codex of Power, and then imprint them onto gear pieces with the preferred affixes.

Additionally, if you are trying to farm a specific item, we recommend using your Obols to target farm them!

Gear Slot	Gems/Runes	Aspect / Unique	Legendary Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Grand Emerald	Duelist’s Aspect	Maximum Ferocity increased by 1-5.
Chest	Xol Xal	Aspect of Interdiction	Gain +1% Block Chance per Resolve stack.
Gloves		Aspect of the Moonrise	Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you {x}% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining x{x}% Basic Skill damage and {x}% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
Pants	Grand Emerald	Aspect of Binding Morass	Close enemies or those you deal indirect damage to are Slowed by {x}% for 3 seconds. You deal {x}% increased damage to Slowed enemies.
Boots		Yen’s Blessing	Casting a Skill has a {x}% chance to cast a Non-Mobility, Non-Ultimate Skill that is currently on Cooldown. Can only occur once every 8 seconds.
Amulets(50% bonus)	Grand Skull	Banished Lord’s Talisman	After you spend 275 of your Primary Resource, your next Core Skill is guaranteed to Overpower. Your Critical Strikes that Overpower deal x{x}% increased damage.
Ring	Grand Skull	Ring of the Midnight Sun	When you Critically Strike, you regain +{x}% of the Vigor you’ve spent in the last 2 seconds. Gain Counterattack’s Passive Effect.
Ring	Grand Skull	Aspect of Redirected Force	Gain increased critical strike damage equal {x}% of your block chance. Blocking doubles this bonus for 10 seconds.
Weapon (200% bonus)	Poc Que	Rod of Kepeleke	Your Core Skills are now additionally Basic Skills and free to cast, but deal up to {x}% reduced damage based on their Vigor Cost. When cast at Maximum Vigor, your Core Skills consume all Vigor to return to full damage, cast at their largest Size, and become guaranteed Critical Strikes, with x{x}% increased Critical Strike Damage for each point of Vigor spent this way.

Ring of the Midnight Sun needs to roll high to make sure you regenerate Vigor quickly. You will need 100% resource generation in total. The ring should bring you up to 50%, and you can get the rest from the Skill Tree and tempering affixes.

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Affixes on the same line are considered to be equally important. Bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. To masterwork, you will need rare materials that only drop from Nightmare Dungeons. Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides, for more details about these topics.

Slot	Targeted Gear Affix	Tempering Affixes
Helm	1. Maximum Life 2. Maximum Resource 3. Armor	Spiritborn Resolve (Defensive): Maximum Resolve Stacks Natural Schemes (Utility): Barrier Generation
Chest	1. Maximum Life 2. Armor 3. Resistance to All Elements	Spiritborn Resolve (Defensive): Maximum Resolve Natural Schemes (Utility): Barrier Generation
Gloves	1. Ranks to Crushing Hand 2. Attack Speed 3. Maximum Life	Worldly Finesse (Offensive): Overpower Damage Natural Schemes (Utility): Barrier Generation
Pants	1. Maximum Life 2. Ranks to Basic Skills 3. Armor	Spiritborn Resolve (Defensive): Maximum Resolve Eagle Innovation (Utility): Vortex Size
Boots	Movement Speed All Stats Resource Generation Resistance to All Elements	N/A
Amulet	Maximum Life Overpower Damage Attack Speed Ranks to Core Skills	N/A
Ring	Dexterity Cooldown Reduction Critical Strike Damage Ranks to Mirage	N/A
Ring	1. Implicit Stat 2. Maximum Life 3. Attack Speed 4. Lucky Hit: Up To A Chance to Make Enemies Vulnerable	Worldly Finesse (Offensive): Overpower Damage Worldly Stability (Resource): Resource Cost Reduction
Weapon	Critical Strike Damage Maximum Resource Ranks to Velocity Change For Core Skills To Hit Twice	N/A

The priority order of Resistances is Lightning > Poison > Fire > Cold > Shadow.

Make sure to reach the Armor Cap of 1,000. However, certain builds that scale with armor, such as this one, benefit from having more armor in general. Furthermore, in higher difficulties, there will be a penalty to armor and resistance, so you will need a higher amount to compensate for the loss.

Gems and Runewords

Listed below are the recommended Gems and Runewords to socket into your gear.

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Poc Que	Grand Emerald For more Dexterity	Grand Diamond For Resistance OR Grand Skull For more Armor

For Jewelry Gems, simply use any gem that provides armor or the resistance you lack the most.

Runewords

Runewords are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and can be used to strengthen or fill a build’s weaknesses. Two Runewords have to be combined to create a new effect:

A trigger Runeword of Ritual that provides Offerings when the condition is met
An effect Runeword of Invocation that costs Offerings and triggers an action.

Once the Runeword of Ritual has generated enough Offerings, the Runeword of Invocation will trigger its effect. Some Runewords of Invocation will have overflow effects, meaning that extra Offerings that have been created will be used to empower the triggered effect. For more information on how Runewords work, take a look at our comprehensive Runeword Guide.

Runewords replace Gems in gear.
Only two Runeword pairs (4 Runes in total) can be equipped at a time.

The following are recommended Runeword combination options for the Crushing Hand endgame build of the Spiritborn:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Poc Que	Poc – Gain: 5 Offering. Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource. Que – Requires: 300 Offering. Cooldown: 1 second. Evoke the Druid’s Base Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier.
Xol Xal	Xol – Gain: 150 Offering. Evoke power from another Class. Xal – Requires: 200 Offering. Cooldown: 1 second. (Overflow: Increased duration). Gain 20% Maximum Life for 6 seconds.
Xol Kry	Xol – Gain: 150 Offering. Evoke power from another Class. Kry – Requires: 300 Offering. Cooldown: 3 seconds. Evoke the Spiritborn’s Vortex, dealing damage and Pulling In enemies.

We suggest you use Xol Xal once you have already equipped Poc Que. However Xol Kry is also a good option, if you don’t have Health issues, to passively cast Vortex.

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Assault Elixir to increase Attack Speed. Some Elixirs cannot be crafted and only drop from activities like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. Additionally, make sure to keep your health potion upgraded!

The following Elixirs are useful for the Crushing Hand Spiritborn build:

Elixir of Advantage increases your attack speed
Elixir of Fortitude for additional survivability

Mercenaries

During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock different NPC Mercenaries who join you on your travels. In the early endgame, you can generally pick any mercenary you like, as they will not play an essential role until you optimize your build. However, if you would prefer to get a recommendation, we would advise selecting Raheir as your main companion, for the added survivability he provides, and Varyana as Reinforcement.

Raheir Skill Tree choices:

Core Skill: Shield Charge
Core Passive: Raheir’s Guard
Iconic Skill: Provoke
Iconic Passive: Mocking Lure

Varyana Reinforcement choices:

Opportunity Skill: Cast a Skill
Reinforcement Skill: Shockwave, then switch Bloodthirst as soon as you unlock it, for increased Attack Speed.

Rotation and Playstyle

The gameplay of this build is pretty straightforward, with almost all abilities consistently coming off cooldown, allowing you to use whatever is available at the moment.

Ravager should be maintained at all times. It grants core skills the ability to dash to enemies, offering good mobility, while The Hunter provides Ferocity stacks to increase damage.

Armored Hide guarantees 100% block chance and also adds extra damage, so use it as soon as it is available for both survivability and offense. The Ring of the Midnight Sun plays a key role in maintaining your Vigor regeneration and requires good rolled stats to make sure you can keep up a steady flow of using your skills the right way. Additionally, the ring also provides the Counterattack passive, boosting your dodge chances and adding extra layers of survivability.

Vortex is used to group enemies, making it easier to hit multiple targets with Crushing Hand. Always cast Vortex after using Scourge for maximum damage. Scourge not only amplifies your damage output but also heals you through poison, thanks to the secondary Centipede Spirit Guardian.

Crushing Hand damage is increased by the combination of the Rod of Kepeleke, as well as Overpower damage triggered by your tempers, and Banished Lord’s Talisman. It is important to hit 100% Resource Generation in total, to really empower this build.

As previously mentioned, you will want a high amount of resource generation. Ideally 50% of said generation will be covered by the Ring of the Midnight Sun, and the other 50% should come from various skill tree picks and tempers.

In essence, the build works on maintaining high uptime on mobility, damage, and survivability through simple, fast-paced rotation:

Ravager, keep Ravager up at all times for increased damage.
Scourge to poison your enemies.
Vortex to gather your enemies.
Armored Hide for increased survivability.
The Hunter for additional damage.
Spam Crushing Hand

Uniques and Mythic Uniques

Below you will find information on Uniques and Mythic Uniques that are useful and recommended for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide.

If a Unique or Mythic Unique is not listed here, it is NOT recommended and won’t benefit this specific build in any way.

Uniques

Listed below are the recommended and optional Unique Items for this build.

Yen’s Blessing (Required): Casting a Skill has a {x}% chance to cast a Non-Mobility, Non-Ultimate Skill that is currently on Cooldown. Can only occur once every 8 seconds.
Banished Lord’s Talisman (Required): After you spend 275 of your Primary Resource, your next Core Skill is guaranteed to Overpower. Your Critical Strikes that Overpower deal x{x}% increased damage.
Ring of the Midnight Sun (Required): When you Critically Strike, you regain +{x}% of the Vigor you’ve spent in the last 2 seconds. Gain Counterattack’s Passive Effect.
Rod of Kepeleke (Required): Your Core Skills are now additionally Basic Skills and free to cast, but deal up to {x}% reduced damage based on their Vigor Cost.
When cast at Maximum Vigor, your Core Skills consume all Vigor to return to full damage, cast at their largest Size, and become guaranteed Critical Strikes, with x{x}% increased Critical Strike Damage for each point of Vigor spent this way.

Mythic Uniques

This Crushing Hand Spiritborn build does currently not require any Mythic Uniques!

If you want to have a look at builds that focus on other items or spirit guardians, you can find all our Spiritborn builds listed on this page.

Obol Gambling

Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Similar to Kadala in Diablo 3, you can use Obol vendors in town to try and get any specific item that you are missing. When a Level 60 Character spends Obols, all gear from that vendor will be 750 item power, the highest non-Ancestral item power in the game, allowing you to fill out gear with the affixes or Legendary Aspects you need. There is also a small chance to receive an Ancestral piece with item power 800.

You can check out our Obol Gambling Tool Guide here!

Changelog

October 22nd, 2024: Guide created for Vessel of Hatred, Season 6.

Crushing Hand – Spiritborn Build for Diablo 4