Gorilla Crushing Hand – Spiritborn Leveling Build for Diablo 4 (Season 7)

To find out more general information about leveling as a Spiritborn in Diablo 4, you can check out our main Spiritborn Leveling Guide. Or you can go to our Spiritborn Builds page for a list of other leveling builds to choose from.

This build can easily complete the campaign on Normal difficulty. However, we recommend using the Quill Volley leveling build instead, as it is stronger and feels smoother during early leveling until you get better gear.

Once your character reaches Level 60 or is ready for harder difficulties, pick one of our Endgame Builds to continue your Spiritborn journey.

Build Introduction

This Spiritborn leveling build revolves around the Gorilla and Jaguar Spirit Guardian and focuses on high survivability. This build is efficient during leveling as it deals heavy AoE damage, allowing you to rush from one pack to the next. Crushing Hand and Rushing Claw will be your main skills and provide damage against large groups of enemies, while Rock Splitter serves as Vigor generator. In combination with The Hunter Ultimate and Ravager, this build is suitable for all types of content.  

For information on Season 7, you can check out our Season Hub.
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Allocation of Skill Points

The table below outlines the recommended order for allocating your Skill Points. At Level 60, you will have a total of 59 points available and an additional 12 points can be obtained upon completing Renown in each zone, resulting in a grand total of 71 points.

Order	Skill	Cluster
1	Rock Splitter	Basic Skill
2	Enhanced Rock Splitter	Basic Skill
3	Crushing Hand	Core Skill
4	Enhanced Crushing Hand	Core Skill
5	Rampant Crushing Hand	Core Skill
6	Sharp Rock Splitter	Basic Skill
7	Crushing Hand Rank 2	Core Skill
8	Crushing Hand Rank 3	Core Skill
9	Crushing Hand Rank 4	Core Skill
10	Crushing Hand Rank 5	Core Skill
11	Ravager	Focus Skill
12	Armored Hide	Defensive Skill
13	Enhanced Armored Hide	Defensive Skill
14	Reinforced Armored Hide	Defensive Skill
15	Enhanced Ravager	Focus Skill
16	Measured Ravager	Focus Skill
17	Rushing Claw	Potency Skill
18	Enhanced Rushing Claw	Potency Skill
19	Invasive Rushing Claw	Potency Skil
20	Vigorous	Core Passive
21	Velocity	Core Passive
22	Rock Splitter Rank 2	Basic Skill
23	Rock Splitter Rank 3	Basic Skill
24	The Hunter	Ultimate Skill
25	Harmonious Hunter	Ultimate Skill
26	Exalted Hunter	Ultimate Skill
27	Rock Splitter Rank 4	Basic Skill
28	Rock Splitter Rank 5	Basic Skill
29	Armored Hide Rank 2	Defensive Skill
30	Armored Hide Rank 3	Defensive Skill
31	Armored Hide Rank 4	Defensive Skill
32	Armored Hide Rank 5	Defensive Skill
33	The Hunter Rank 2	Ultimate Skill
34	Adaptive Stances	Key Passive
35	The Hunter Rank 3	Ultimate Skill
36	The Hunter Rank 4	Ultimate Skill
37	The Hunter Rank 5	Ultimate Skill
38	Vigorous Rank 2	Core Passive
39	Vigorous Rank 3	Core Passive
40	Velocity Rank 2	Core Passive
41	Velocity Rank 3	Core Passive
42	Focal Point	Focus Passive
43	Focal Point Rank 2	Focus Passive
44	Focal Point Rank 3	Focus Passive
45	Apex	Focus Passive
46	Apex Rank 2	Focus Passive
47	Apex Rank 3	Focus Passive
48	Diminishment	Focus Passive
49	Diminishment Rank 2	Focus Passive
50	Diminishment Rank 3	Focus Passive
51	Mirage	Focus Passive
52	Unrestrained	Focus Passive
53	Unrestrained Rank 2	Focus Passive
54	Unrestrained Rank 3	Focus Passive
55	Endurance	Defensive Passive
56	Fueled	Defensive Passive
57	Perseverance	Defensive Passive
58	Perseverance Rank 2	Defensive Passive
59	Perseverance Rank 3	Defensive Passive
60	Resilient	Potency Passive
61	Resilient Rank 2	Potency Passive
62	Resilient Rank 3	Potency Passive
63	Potent	Potency Passive
64	Potent Rank 2	Potency Passive
65	Potent Rank 3	Potency Passive
66	Furnace	Potency Passive
67	Furnace Rank 2	Potency Passive
68	Furnace Rank 3	Potency Passive
69	Resolution	Ultimate Passive
70	Resolution Rank 2	Ultimate Passive
71	Resolution Rank 3	Ultimate Passive

These are the abilities you want on your skill bar:

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Armored HideRushing ClawRavagerThe HunterCrushing HandRock Splitter

Skill Tree

Here is the completed skill tree for the build:

Spirit Hall – Spiritborn Specialization

The Specialization of the Spiritborn Class becomes available at Level 15. It is recommended to complete the “Sacred Hunt“ questline in Kehjistan as soon as possible. The quest is given by Tarka.

The Spirit Hall system allows you to choose two animal spirits as protective guardians to receive powerful passive bonuses. The first, primary Spirit Guardian can be selected at Level 15, after completing the quest. Followed by the secondary Spirit Guardian at Level 30. Each Guardian has a different primary and secondary bonus ability, and you do not have to pick the same Guardian twice!

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: Jaguar
  • Maximum Ferocity is increased by 1. Gain 1 stack of Ferocity whenever you kill an enemy or damage a Boss.

For this leveling build, we choose the Jaguar as both the primary and secondary Spirit Guardian. With the Jaguar as primary spirit guardian, we gain additional direct damage. Furthermore, since every skill will now also be identified as a Jaguar skill, passive notes such as Potent or Furnace will apply to Gorilla skills. The secondary spirit will also be the Jaguar, simply to increase Ferocity and because it synergizes very well with the rest of the build by raising maximum Ferocity stacks by 1, resulting in even more attack speed.

Keep in mind that if you select the Jaguar as your primary guardian, all of your skills will be considered Jaguar skills as well. This means that any + Rank to Jaguar skills on your gear or items will increase the rank of all of your skills, which now also count as Jaguar skills.

Witchcraft Powers

During Season 7, you can equip and rank up 6 Witchcraft Powers as you progress. These powers can be acquired at the Coven’s Altars near the Tree of Whispers. To purchase them, you will need Restless Rot, a currency earned naturally through doing Headhunts.

These Witchcraft Powers provide unique ways to strengthen your build. As you progress through the above leveling journey, consider prioritizing the following powers:

Witchcraft Power & Type	Effect
Vengeful Spirit (Unique, Psyche)	Every 19 seconds, a Vengeful spirit servant appears for x seconds. While active, all damage taken is instead taken by the spirit. Vengeful Spirit Servant deals 750% damage. At Rank 5 and above: When the Vengeful Spirit’s Life is fully depleted, it rushes towards up to 8 enemies healing 2000 Shadow damage.
Soul Harvest (Growth & Decay)	Feed upon the life force of nearby enemies whenever you use a skill with a cooldown, increasing your primary stat by 3% per monster for x seconds. At Rank 9 and above: Soul Harvest does not lose duration so long as enemies are nearby.
Aura of Misfortune (Psyche)	Enemies near you have a x% chance for their attacks to be interrupted. Does not work on bosses. At Rank 5 and above: Auro of Misfortune increases your Movement Speed by 5% and Slows enemies by 30%.
Hex of Shattering (Psyche)	Damage done by your Witchcraft Effects afflicts enemies with Hex of Shattering causing them to deal x% reduced damage for 5 seconds. At Rank 8 and above: When a Hex effect is applied to Headrotten, all damage will be guaranteed critical strikes for 5 seconds.
Wave of Woe (Eldritch)	Release a Wave of Woe when damaging an enemy with your skills. Wave of Woe deals an additional x Shadow damage and echoes this damage to all other nearby enemies of the same type. At Rank 5 and above: Damage is increased by 15% each time damage is echoed and is guaranteed to echo at least 5 times. May strike the same target multiple times.
Hex of Flames (Eldritch)	Lucky Hit: You have up to a x% chance to apply Hex of Flames. Hex of Flames deals 40% additional Fire damage each time you deal damage to the target. At Rank 7 and above: Hex of Flames explodes dealing damage to all nearby enemies when you land a critical strike.

Mercenaries

During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock different NPC Mercenaries who join you on your travels. As you level up, you can generally pick any mercenary you like, as they will not play an essential role until you optimize your build in the endgame. 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: Crater
• Iconic Passive: Iron Wolf’s Call

Varyana Reinforcement choices:

• Opportunity Skill: Crushing Hand
• Reinforcement Skill: Shockwave, then switch to Bloodthirst as soon as you unlock it, for increased Attack Speed.

Mechanics and Playstyle

The primary damage-dealing skill in this build is Crushing Hand, which is upgraded with the Unrelenting Aspect. Crushing Hand allows you to do massive AoE Damage and increase your survivability. Because Jaguar is the primary Spirit Guardian, all skills are also considered Jaguar skills, therefore Crushing Hand will be boosted by the Potent and Furnace passives. 

Rock Splitter generates vigor and knocks back enemies, while Armored Hide provides more survivability. Rock Splitter will also grant Resolve stacks, which will increase the radius of Rampant Crushing Hand. 

Ravager serves as an additional damage and mobility skill, making you dash to targets when using a Core skill like Crushing Hand and increasing your Vigor generation. 

This build relies heavily on maintaining strong Ferocity and Resolve stacks. Several aspects and skills are intended to help with that, such as the Duelist’s Aspect, Aspect of Interdiction, and Aspect of Endurance. The ultimate The Hunter also refills Ferocity stacks, allowing you to maintain the increased Attack Speed.

Damage Rotation

1. Use Rock Splitter to rush at enemies and knock them back.
2. Armored Hide to increase survivability.
3. Ravager to deal more damage and allow the next core skills to dash to the target.
4. Use The Hunter for increased damage and to fill up your Ferocity stacks.
5. Spam Crushing Hand.
6. Rock Splitter to generate Vigor whenever needed.
7. Rushing Claw to move out of difficult situations or into the next pack.

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

When picking your gear, higher Item Power generally indicates stronger gear, but you should also consider the affixes and effects that are relevant to your class and build. When making gear decisions, keep an eye on both Item Power and the specific attributes that complement the build.

Legendary Aspects

For general information on how to unlock the Codex of Power, head to our dedicated Aspects and Codex of Power guide. You can imprint Aspects onto items by visiting the Occultist.

Listed below are all the Aspects that are important for this Crushing Hand Gorilla Spiritborn leveling build. You can equip any aspect from this list in the slot it drops for, as they are all useful while leveling. 

If you want a recommendation regarding which Aspect to get first, the Unrelenting Aspect to increase the damage from Crushing Hand, which will smash an additional 10 times. You can unlock this aspect through finding it naturally, as a random drop. 

Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Source
Unrelenting Aspect (Offensive)	Every 3rd consecutive Crushing Hand smashes an additional 10 times around you dealing x% of its Base damage per hit.	Random Drop
Aspect of Redirected Force (Offensive)	Gain increased critical strike damage equal x% of your block chance. Blocking doubles this bonus for 10 seconds.	Random Drop
Accelerating Aspect (Offensive)	Critical strikes with core skills increase your attack speed by x% for 5 seconds.	Random Drop
Aspect of Interdiction (Defensive)	Gain x% Block chance per resolve stack	Random Drop
Aspect of Endurance (Defensive)	Your Resolve has a x% chance to not be lost when you are hit for each stack of ferocity you have	Random Drop
Aspect of the Umbral (Resource)	Restore x of your primary resource when you crowd control an enemy	Champion’s demise, Dry steppes
Duelist’s Aspect (Utility)	Maximum Ferocity increased by 1-5	Random Drop
Aspect of Unyielding Hits(Offensive)	Casting a Gorilla skill adds x% of your Armor to all attacks for 3 seconds	Random Drop
Aspect of Forest Power(Defensive)	Lucky hit: Up to a 25% chance to create a Mystic Circle for 10 seconds. Casting a Gorilla Skill in Mystic Circles empowers them to periodically grant you a Barrier for 25% of your Maximum Life which increases your Armor and Maximum Resistances by x% while active.	Random Drop

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

During your leveling journey, you may stumble across items with very good affixes. Tempering these items can provide you with a significant boost in character power, so make sure you understand how it works. 

Tempering is only possible if you have already found a few Tempering Manuals while leveling!

Keep an eye out for the following stats and modifiers that are particularly beneficial for this build (listed in order of importance):

Gear Slot	Important Affixes (ranked by priority)	Tempering Recipes and Affixes
Helm	1. Ranks to Rushing Claw 2. Dexterity  3. Armor	Spiritborn Endurance (Defensive): Crushing Hand Barrier Generation Gorilla Innovation (Utility): Crushing Hand Size
Chest	1. Ranks to Armored Hide 2. Resistances 3. Dexterity	Natural Schemes (Utility): Barrier Generation Spiritborn Guard (Defensive): Armored Hide Active Duration
Gloves	1. Ranks to Crushing Hand 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Attack Speed	Gorilla Innovation (Utility): Rock Splitter Size Jaguar Finesse (Offensive): Jaguar Damage
Pants	1. Dexterity 2. Ranks to Rock Splitter 3. Resistances	Spiritborn Guard (Defensive): Rock Splitter Block Chance Bonus Gorilla Innovation (Utility): Rock Splitter Size
Boots	1. Dexterity  2. Movement Speed 3. Ranks to Ravager	Natural Motion (Mobility): Movement Speed Gorilla Innovation (Utility): Crushing Hand Size
Amulet	1. Attack Speed 2. Movement Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance	Spiritborn Guard (Defensive): Rock Splitter Block Chance Bonus Jaguar Finesse (Offensive): Jaguar Damage
Rings	1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Attack Speed 3. Resistance Needed	Worldly Stability (Resource): Resource Generation Jaguar Finesse (Offensive): Jaguar Damage
Weapon	1. Damage 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Dexterity	Natural Finesse (Offensive): Damage to Close Enemies Gorilla Augments (Weapon): Chance for Crushing Hand to Extra Hit

Gems and Runewords

Listed below are the best Gems to socket into gear for each item type.

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Emerald for increased Critical Strike Damage	Emerald for Dexterity	Skull For more Armor

If you find one of the Runes listed below, you can equip them as a Runeword on your Chest or Pants.

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Cem Gar	Cem – Gain: 50 Offering — Cast Evade. Gar – Requires: 25 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%.
Noc Qua	Noc – Gain: 2 Offering — Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource. Qua – Requires: 400 Offering, Cooldown: Restore an Evade charge and gain 10% Movement Speed for 5 seconds, up to 50%.

Occult Gems

For your Jewelry sockets, you can also equip Occult Gems in Season 7. Here are some recommended Occult Gems for this build:

• Dust Stone: For each of your Auras and Hexes an enemy is afflicted by, they take 2.5% increased damage from you.
• Killing Wind: While you have three or more Eldritch Witch Powers slotted, gain 25% Movement Speed and 15% Critical Strike Chance.

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

Head to the Alchemist in any main town and craft Elixirs to boost your stats and experience gain for 30 minutes! Remember to gather the necessary crafting materials by foraging plants (to get Bundled Herbs)

Listed below are Elixirs that will be useful for you while leveling as a Spiritborn:

1. Elixir of Resourcefulness for better Resource Management.
2. Elixir of Advantage to boost Attack Speed.
3. Elixir of Iron Barbs or Elixir of Fortitude for a small defensive boost until other options become available.

Return to the Alchemist again when you reach Level 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival! You can upgrade your potion at Level 60 multiple times, depending on whether you have the required materials or not.

Season 7: Witchcraft

For a complete overview of Season 7, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activity, and other changes coming with the Season of Witchcraft, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.

Additionally, the Season of Witchcraft is the first season bringing changes to Spiritborn. Here are the changes related to this build.

• Endurance: Vigor generated increased from 5/10/15 to 10/20/30
• Velocity:
  • Previous – If you’ve dealt damage within the last 5 seconds and are moving, you generate 1/2/3 Vigor per second.
  • Now – Generate 1/2/3 Vigor per second while moving.
• The Hunter: Rank 5: The Hunter’s initial damage will Execute Injured Non-Boss enemies.

Tempering Manuals:

• Spiritborn Resolve (Defensive): Maximum Resolve Stacks replaced with Armor +X%.

Runewords:

• Qua: Movement Speed increased from 7% (up to 35%) to 10% (up to 50%). Changed from Rare to Magic.

Difficulty and Endgame

Once you hit Level 60 with this build, you will be ready to tackle harder difficulties as you transition into more challenging endgame content. Make sure to pick one of our recommended endgame builds to continue your journey! Additionally, keep your Obols until you reach maximum Level (60), then spend them on a weapon to kickstart your preferred endgame build.

Changelog

• January 23rd, 2025: Removed Lost Witchcraft Powers and replaced them with Vengeful Spirit and Hex of Shattering.
• January 18th, 2025: Updated Tempers and added Witchcraft Powers and Occult Gems for Season 7.
• October 2nd, 2024: Guide created and theorycrafted for Season 6.