Gorilla Crushing Hand – Spiritborn Leveling Build for Diablo 4 (Season 9)

Build Introduction

This Spiritborn leveling build revolves around the Gorilla and Jaguar Spirit Guardian and focuses on high survivability. It can easily complete the campaign; 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.

Crushing Hand is your primary AoE nuke, and Rushing Claw helps you move fast between packs. Keep Vigor up with Rock Splitter, and remember: Jaguar Spirit makes every skill a Jaguar skill — boosting all your Jaguar passives. Use Elixirs and stack Ferocity for even more attack speed.

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Check our Leveling Tier List to see how this build compares to others.

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Allocation of Skill Points

Below is the optimal order for spending your points as you level up. If you are missing skill points, complete Renown Tier 1-3 in every zone.

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

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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Armored HideRushing ClawRavagerThe HunterCrushing HandRock Splitter

If you are unsure how to use these skills, read the Build Mechanics section after setting up your skill bar.

Wondering what comes after Level 60 or which Paragon boards to pick? Head to the Spiritborn Builds page and choose an endgame build to continue progressing your character even further.

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Spiritborn Class Mechanic — Spirit Hall

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.

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

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. For best results, combine these Aspects with the right stat/affix priorities.

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
Aspect of Haste(Mobility)	Every second while moving gain x%[+] Bonus Movement Speed for 1.5 seconds, up to x%[+].	Seething Underpass, Nahantu
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

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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

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Gems and Runewords

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

Gems

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

Runewords

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

Runewords are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and replace gems in gear. Improve your build by combining a trigger Rune of Ritual and an effect Rune of Invocation. You can equip up to two Runeword pairs (four Runes) at a time. For a detailed guide on Runewords, check out our Runewords Guide!

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Xol Jah	Xol – Gain: 150 Offering — Evoke power from another Class. Jah – Requires: 250 Offering, Cooldown: 2 Seconds — Replace your next Evade with the Sorcerer’s Teleport, blinking further, dealing damage, and becoming Unstoppable.
Poc Thul	Poc – Gain: 5 Offering — Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource. Thul – Requires: 300 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second. – Evoke the Sorcerer’s Mystical Frost Nova, inflicting Freeze and Vulnerable onto enemies.

Paragon starts at Level 60. So, once you reach this level, switch to one of our Endgame Builds here.

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Horadric Spell (Season 9)

During Season 9, you will unlock Horadric Spellcraft, letting you build and bind your own spell to one of your active skills. You can upgrade your spell’s power using Horadric Phials, increasing its impact on your build.

Slot	Power	Effect
Catalyst	Celestial Surge pair it with Crushing Hand	Awaken an Oracular Rune that Pulls In all surrounding enemies. A torrent of stars follow that randomly strike the area 20 times for damage each. Rank 10: Stars periodically fall around you and are guaranteed to crash around a Nearby enemy for the same damage.
Infusion	Corrosive Vapor	Enemies damaged by it take 320% Poisoning damage over 4 seconds. This effect can only happen on each enemy every 3 seconds. While equipped, your Poison Damage Bonus is equal to that of your highest Damage Type Bonus. Rank 5: Deactivates monster Vampiric effects for 8 seconds.
Arcana	Bottled Wind	Invoking your Catalyst grants a Barrier equal to 30% of your Maximum Life for 4 seconds. After it dissipates, its essence is bottled back up (+4% each rank).
Arcana	Fractured Core	Your Catalyst deactivates monster Damage Resistance Aura effects for 2.5 seconds, but you take 10% more stacking damage for the same time (+0.5 each rank).
Arcana	Reactive Ooze	After your Catalyst activates, you gain 5% Maximum Resource Generation per second for the next 10 seconds (+3% each rank).

Mercenaries

During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock Mercenaries to assist you. While you can choose freely early on, we recommend 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.

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

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.

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 Aspect of Interdiction, and Aspect of Endurance. The ultimate The Hunter also refills Ferocity stacks, allowing you to maintain the increased Attack Speed.

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.

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Season 9 Updates

For a complete overview of Season 9, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.

Here is a quick overview of seasonal changes relevant to this build:

• Harmonious Hunter:
  • Damage bonus to Injured decreased from 100%[x] to 50%[x].
  • Reduced maximum Ferocity gained from 4 to 2.
• Exalted Hunter:
  • Previous (on PTR): Killing an enemy while The Hunter is present reduces this cooldown by 5 seconds. Hitting a boss reduces its cooldown by 1 second.
  • Now: Killing an enemy while The Hunter is present has a 40% chance to instantly reset its Cooldown. This chance is halved after each consecutive reset.

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.

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Changelog

• June 28th, 2025: Added Horadric Spell for Season 9.
• April 26th, 2025: Replaced Duelist’s Aspect with Aspect of Haste. Updated runewords and Boss Powers for Season 8.
• 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.