[VESSEL OF HATRED] Thunderspike - Spiritborn Build for Diablo 4

Build Introduction

This Thunderspike Jaguar endgame build for the Spiritborn is a straightforward, fast, and powerful basic skill build. With high mobility, good defense, and even greater attack power, you can smash through multiple enemies and bosses with ease. Furthermore, this build does not require any Mythic uniques, making it perfect for beginners, casual players, or simply as a go-to build while pushing endgame activities until you get the Mythic uniques you want for one of our other builds.

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

Great Mobility
Fast Attacks
Easy to Play

Weaknesses

Gear Reliant
Does not work without Sepazontec Unique Weapon

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: Gorilla
- Casting a Gorilla Skill deals 100% Thorns to enemies you hit and grants a Barrier for 10% of Maximum Life, up to 40%, for 3 seconds. All Skills are now also Gorilla 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 endgame build, we use the Gorilla as the primary Spirit Guardian for extra survivability and because it provides a Barrier, which helps us to focus more on dealing damage and worry less about staying alive. Additionally, we pick the Jaguar as secondary Spirit Guardian for the increased Ferocity.

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.

Keep in mind that the Paragon Boards were selected during theorycrafting, and everything is still subject to change until after the release of the Vessel of Hatred expansion.

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	XolKry	Harmony of Ebewaka	According to your secondary Spirit Hall choice, your Skills are all additionally Jaguar, Eagle, Gorilla, or Centipede Skills. Your skills deal {x}% increased damage per Spirit type they have.
Chest	LithOhm	Aspect of Disobedience Replace with Tyrael’s Might	You gain x%[+] increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to x%[+].
Gloves		Aspect of Plains Power	Lucky Hit: Up to a 25% chance to create a Mystic Circle for 10 seconds. Casting a Jaguar Skill in Mystic Circles empowers them to keep your Ferocity at Maximum and increase your damage by {x}% per stack while you remain within.
Pants	Grand Emerald	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20.0% Damage Reduction for {x} seconds.
Boots		Duelist’s Aspect	Maximum Ferocity increased by 1-5.
Amulets(50% bonus)	Grand Skull	Aspect of Unyielding Hits	Casting a gorilla skill adds x% of your armor to all attacks for 3 seconds.
Ring	Grand Skull	Aspect of Adaptability	When cast below 50% Maximum resource, Basic Skills generate 3 of your Primary Resource, once per cast. When cast at or above 50% Maximum Resource, Basic Skills deal x% increased damage.
Ring	Grand Skull	Aspect of the Moonrise	Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining {x}% Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
Weapon (200% bonus)	Grand Emerald	Sepazontec	Your Basic Skills deal x% increased damage and always use their 3rd attack. Every 3rd cast of a Basic Skill strikes three times.

The Unique Weapon, Sepazontec, is very important because it greatly increases basic skill damage. On top of that, the Harmony of Ebewaka helmet provides an incredibly powerful passive by making all attacks also count as Gorilla attacks.

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. Armor 2. Dexterity 3. Cooldown reduction	Eagle Innovation (Utility): Thunderspike Size Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Total Armor
Chest	1. Ranks to Armored Hide 2. Resistances 3. Armor	Spiritborn Resolve (Defensive): Resolve Generated Eagle Innovation (Utility): Thunderspike Size
Gloves	1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage	Sharpened Finesse (Offensive): Basic Skill Damage Eagle Innovation (Utility): Thunderspike Size
Pants	1. Ranks to Basic Skills 2. Ranks to Thunderspike 3. Resistances	Eagle Innovation (Utility): Thunderspike Size Natural Resistance (Defensive): Any Needed Resistance
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Armor 3. Dexterity	Natural Motion (Mobility): Movement Speed Eagle Innovation (Utility): Thunderspike Size
Amulet	1. Attack Speed 2. Ranks to Follow Through 3. Needed Resistance	Eagle Innovation (Utility): Thunderspike Size Sharpened Finesse (Offensive): Basic Skill Damage
Rings	1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Critical Strike Chance	Sharpened Finesse (Offensive): Basic Skill Damage Jaguar Efficiency (Resource): + Counterattack Charges
Weapon	1. Dexterity 2. Damage 3. Crit Strike damage	Eagle Augments (Weapons): Chance for Thunderspike to Deal Double Damage Sharpened Finesse (Offensive): Basic Skill Damage

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

Make sure to reach the Armor Cap of 1,000. Certain builds that scale with armor may benefit from having more of it. For instance, those that make use of the Aspect of Unyielding Hits. 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
Grand Emerald For increased Critical Strike Damage	Grand Emerald For more Dexterity	Grand Skull For more Armor

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 Thunderspike endgame build of the Spiritborn:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Lith Ohm	Lith – Gain: 25 Offering. Stand still while fighting for 0.3 seconds. Ohm – Requires: 600 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration). Cooldown: 2 Seconds. Evoke the Barbarian’s War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage dealt
Xol Kry	Xol – Gain: 150 Offering. Evoke power from another Class. Kry – Requires: 300 Offering (Overflow: None). Cooldown: 3 Seconds. Evoke the Spiritborn’s Vortex, dealing damage and Pulling In enemies.

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 most Spiritborn builds:

Elixir of Precision provides the highest damage output increase.
Elixir of Advantage increases your attack speed
Elixir of Resourcefulness helps with resource issues, if you struggle with resource management
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 Subo as your main companion, for the added survivability he provides, and Raheir as Reinforcement.

Subo Skill Tree choices:

Core Skill: Wire Trap
Core Passive: Ready At Hand
Iconic Skill: Trip Mines
Iconic Passive: Mastermind

Raheir Reinforcement choices:

Opportunity Skill: Pick “Injured” as opportunity skill (it will automatically trigger when you become Injured).
Reinforcement Skill: Provoke

Rotation and Playstyle

This build is straightforward and easy to play, especially for beginners or anyone who does not want to worry too much about resource management, thanks to the use of a powerful basic skill (Thunderspike). Counterattack and The Hunter will increase your damage dealt. During the fight, Armored Hide will provide good protection, especially since we are using the Gorilla as primary guardian. Lastly, Soar is either used for movement or to get out of dangerous situations.

Generally, you will want to use Ravager before and again one time after The Hunter for the interaction between Intricacy:

Soar to jump into the action.
Armored Hide for survivability, and to gain Unstoppable for more damage (Unrestrained Power).
Cast Ravager for increased damage as well as Ferocity and before using the Ultimate (due to Intricacy).
Use The Hunter for increased damage against Injured targets.
Ravager again to interact with Intricacy.
Spam Thunderspike!
Counterattack to dodge incoming attacks whenever necessary.

Another interesting interaction worth mentioning within this section comes from the Runewords we use in this build to trigger powerful effects.

When you Stand still while fighting for 0.3 seconds, you gain 25 Offering from Lith. Once you reach 600 Offering, Ohm automatically evokes the Barbarian’s War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage dealt. This action will trigger Xol, which activates when another class power is used. Xol grants 150 Offering and Kry then evokes the Spiritborn’s Vortex at 600 Offering, pulling in enemies and dealing damage.

This combination lets you repeatedly pull in enemies so you can continuously deal damage to them with minimal effort.

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.

Sepazontec (Required): Basic Skills deal [100 – 200]% increased damage, always use their 3rd attack, and every 3rd cast unleashes triple strikes.
Harmony of Ebewaka (Required): According to your secondary Spirit Hall choice, your Skills are all additionally Jaguar, Eagle, Gorilla, or Centipede Skills. Your skills deal {x}% increased damage per Spirit type they have.

Mythic Uniques

The Thunderspike Jaguar Spiritborn build does not require any Mythic Uniques!

Advanced Information

Detailed information about this build will be updated once Vessel of Hatred is released and the class has been thoroughly play-tested.

If you want to have a look at builds that focus on other 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 here!

Changelog

October 5th, 2024: Updated Skills, Mercenary Skills, Tempers, Runes, and Gear.
October 3rd, 2024: Guide theorycrafted and created for Vessel of Hatred, Season 6.

Thunderspike – Spiritborn Build for Diablo 4