This Spiritborn build for Diablo 4 focuses on the early game progression of the class, all the way through the campaign’s completion. We’ll guide you through the leveling process, including Skill Order and notable Aspects.
This guide is up-to-date for Season 4 and Patch 1.4.0.
Check our Diablo 4 Builds Catalog of uniquely crafted builds for each class.
The Spiritborn is Diablo 4’s first new class added beyond the original 5, introduced with the Vessel of Hatred Expansion. We’re going to cover a Centipede build focused on Damage over Time for stable damage output to carry you to endgame.
This Spiritborn build assumes you’re starting fresh from Level 1. We will however include the extra Skill Points earned through Renown in both the base game and Vessel of Hatred Expansion.
Table of contents
- Build Overview
- Skill and Passive Breakdown
- Skill Points Priorities for leveling
- Leveling Progress Summary
- Gearing and Stats
- Paragon Boards and Glyphs
To learn more about the availableClasses in Diablo 4, read our beginner guide. It will give you more than enough information and show you the advantages and disadvantages of each one.
Build Overview
This Spiritborn Leveling Build focuses on the Stinger and Touch of Death Skills, utilizing their Damage over Time and Pestilent Swarm effects. This allows us to easily spread Poison as well as Vulnerable to everything around us.
This is a pure Centipede build, meaning we’ll have fairly low burst, but good sustained damage. We’ll also leverage the bonus healing effects that are easier to maintain with DoT Builds to keep ourselves up and dealing damage consistently.
While Pestilence Swarms will primarily scale with the damage of our Stinger skill, we’ll be able to get Uniques and Aspects to get more value and power from them going into endgame.
Skill and Passive Breakdown
In this section, we’ll be talking about each skill we use. This is the whys and hows of how the build works, and then we’ll cover the skill point distribution.
Skills
These are the main skills for the build. We’ll explain what purpose each serves and how they fit the build.
Withering Fist
Withering Fist is our Basic Skill, which will apply Poison and reduce the damage of enemies poisoned by it. It will be our main Vigor Generation method until much later into endgame.
Stinger
Stinger is our Main DPS skill, dealing consistent damage on hit. Once upgraded it will Poison enemies, and cause them to echo its damage to all poisoned enemies giving us great AoE as well.
Soar
Soar is our only non-Centipede skill, and we’re using it strictly for Mobility and Unstoppable. It will help with some Vulnerable applications, but we’ll have easier means of doing so as we level.
Scourge
Scourge is a skill we use for its Crowd Control and additional DoT Source. Once upgraded it will provide more damage against Crowd Controlled enemies as well as help maintain our Vigor.
Touch of Death
Touch of Death is our largest source of single-target damage. It also provides consistent healing. We’ll upgrade it to a Core Skill, allowing us to use it without a cooldown at the cost of high Spirit.
The Devourer
The Devourer is our Ultimate Skill, dealing consistent damage and executing Non-Boss enemies that are fully poisoned. When executed this way, they’ll spawn additional Pestilent Swarms.
Passives
Here we’re only going to talk about the main passives for the build as well as our Key passive. These are the core passives that allow the build to function.
Key Passive – Vital Strikes
Vital Strikes gives us a huge damage boost, with the very slight downside of consuming our Vulnerable applications. In exchange for consuming the Vulnerable effect, it will replenish our Life and Vigor.
In the late game we can opt to use Noxious Resonance instead for synergy with Critical Strikes, and to shift the damage away from being dealt over time and more instantaneous.
Vigorous
Vigorous will increase our Vigor Generation any time we use a Stinger or Touch of Death. This is needed to boost Vital Strikes and our other means of generating Vigor, especially with Touch of Death consuming high amounts of Vigor.
Velocity
Velocity will help us passively maintain our Vigor by simply moving and dealing consistent damage. Being a DoT build, this is very easy to maintain.
Balanced Exertion
Balanced Exertion is the main reason we need to have high Vigor Generation. This will increase the cost of our Core Skills, but make them much stronger.
Focal Point
Focal Point will be one of our main ways to apply Vulnerable, but will demand we use a Polearm as a weapon. The other bonuses don’t benefit this build nearly as much, but this one on its own is strong enough to merit its inclusion.
Apex
Apex gives us a huge damage bonus against Vulnerable enemies. This bonus is even doubled against Elites, making it very valuable for bossing.
Diminishment
Diminishment reduces incoming damage from Vulnerable enemies. This makes it so Vulnerable is not only a damage increase, but a defense increase as well.
Nourishment
Nourishment increases our Poison Damage each time we heal, while also boosting our healing.
Ravenous
This will passively boost the damage of all of our Centipede skills. It’s effect is also double against Healthy enemies, giving us a bit more upfront damage.
Oppressive
Oppressive is another damage boost for our Centipede skills, this time being larger, but requiring enemies to be Crowd-controlled.
Sustenance
Sustenance gives us a huge amount of sustain while The Devourer is active. We’ll end up having a very low cooldown it, allowing for very consistent healing.
Skill Points Priorities for leveling
We’ll start by Picking up Accelerated Withering Fist. This gives us early Poison, Vigor Generation, and very early defensive power. This will also get us access to our Core Skills.
In Core Skills, will pick up Rampant Stinger, so it offers good AoE and single-target damage. Then we’ll pick up Vigorous, for a more consistent Vigor Generation. This allows us to move to our Focus Skills.
In Focus Skills, we’ll grab Measured Soar, for mobility and access to Unstoppable. After this, we’ll max Focal Point, Apex, and Diminishment for the damage they offer. This lets us jump straight to Potentcy Skills.
In our Potency Skills, we’ll take Invasive Touch of Death, as we don’t have the Vigor Generation to sustain using it as a Core Skill yet. Following this, we’ll max Ravenous and Oppressive for the damage they provide, and then we’ll be able to grab our Ultimate Skill, Exalted The Devourer.
Now we’ll grab Vital Strikes, our Key passive. Then we’ll fully level Stinger for more damage. With these acquired, we can focus on more passives, starting with maxing Velocity and Balanced Exertion.
Next, we’ll grab Reinforced Scourge, to help with Vigor Generation as well as max Antivenom and Nourishment. By this point, we should be able to swap to Poised Touch of Death and boost it by fully leveling it and maxing Vehement.
Then we’ll round off the build by taking one point in Resolution and Sustenance then maxing Spiritual Attunement and Supremacy. These passives will boost our Damage, Healing, and Vigor; just for Having and using an Ultimate Skill. Any remaining points will be placed into The Devourer, to lower its cooldown.
Leveling Progress Summary
This is an easy-to-reference table for where we’ll be placing all of our Skill points. These are listed in the order they are allocated.
The table might be difficult to read on a small screen. If you’re viewing this guide on a mobile phone, we recommend rotating your device to a horizontal orientation for better readability.
Levels | Icon | Skills | Purpose |
---|---|---|---|
2-4 | Accelerated Withering Fist | Necessary Basic Skill provides Damage Reduction. | |
5-7 | Rampant Stinger | Main DPS Skill. | |
8-10 | Vigorous | Boost to Vigor Generation. | |
11-13 | Measured Soar | Mobility and Unstoppable. | |
14-16 | Focal Point | Chance to Apply Vulnerable with Polearm Equipped | |
17-19 | Apex | Increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. | |
20-22 | Diminishment | Reduced incoming damage from Vulnerable enemies. | |
23-25 | Invasive Touch of Death | Provides strong damage and healing. | |
26-28 | Ravenous | Damage for Centipede Skills. | |
29-31 | Oppressive | Damage for Centipede Skill vs Crowd Controlled enemies | |
32-34 | Exalted The Devourer | Ultimate Skill, provides DPS and Execute against Non-Boss enemies. | |
35 | Vital Strikes | Key Passive, provides Vigor and Life sustain. | |
36-39 | Stinger | Fully Level Main DPS Skill. | |
40-42 | Velocity | Passive Vigor Generation. | |
43-45 | Balanced Exertion | Increases Damage at the cost of more Vigor spent. | |
46-48 | Reinforced Scourge | Provides Crowd Control and Vigor sustain. | |
49-51 | Antivenom | Free Poison Resistance. | |
52-54 | Nourishment | More Poison Damage when healing. | |
Respec | Poised Touch of Death | Swap Invasive for Poised upgrade on Touch of Death. | |
55-58 | Touch of Death | Fully Leveling Touch of Death. | |
59-R1 | Vehemence | Increases damage of Touch of Death. | |
R2 | Resolution | Damage boost when we use Ultimate. | |
R3 | Sustenance | Sustain while Ultiamte is active. | |
R4-R6 | Spiritual Attunement | Free Maximum Vigor. | |
R7-R9 | Supremacy | Good damage boost during ultimate. | |
R10-R12 | The Devourer | Reduces Cooldown, Increases damage. |
Gearing and Stats
In this section, we’ll cover all the things you’d want to keep an eye out for to enhance the final build. This includes our Recommended Weapons, Spirit Hall, Aspects, Runewords, and of course, Uniques.
Recommended Weapons
This build Uses a Polearm for its massive boost to Vulnerable Damage as well as the chance to apply Vulnerable with Focal Point. This allow the build to deal a ton of damage very reliably.
The Quarterstaff is also worth consideration for the late game as well. This would just require the Chance to Apply Vulnerable Affix on a Ring instead. This trades a bit of consistency on Vulnerable for damage Reduction.
Ideal Stats
The table below details the ideal stats for our gear, be on the lookout for gear that matches at least two of the three rolls below. We’ve also included Aspects here for easier viewing, refer to the Aspects section for additional details on why these are selected.
Affixes that are CAPITALIZED are the Ideal Affixes to get as a Greater Affix. These are not required but are a good way to push the build further. Affixes in Bold are the ideal Affixes to boost with Masterworking.
In cases where multiple Affixes are listed, the secondary option is for when another stat reaches its cap. This is most common with Armor, where you’d take Maximum Life after reaching the Armor cap.
Scroll the top row horizontally
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Affix 1
Dexterity
Affix 2
Vulnerable Damage
Affix 3
Maximum Life
Tempered Affix 1
Chance for Touch of Death Swarms to Reinfect
Spiritborn – Soil Augments (Weapon)
Tempered Affix 2
Pestilent Swarm Damage
Spiritborn – Centipede Finesse (Offensive)
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of Pestilence
Unique Item Option
Loyalty’s Mantle
Affix 1
Maximum Life
Affix 2
Armor
Affix 3
RANKS TO TOUCH OF DEATH
Tempered Affix 1
Total Armor
Shared – Worldly Endurance (Defensive)
Tempered Affix 2
Stinger Size OR Touch of Death Swarm Duration
Spiritborn – Centipede Innovation (Utility)
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of Disobedience
Affix 1
Maximum Life
Affix 2
Armor
Affix 3
Resistance to All Elements
Tempered Affix 1
Total Armor
Shared – Worldly Endurance (Defensive)
Tempered Affix 2
Stinger Size OR Touch of Death Swarm Duration
Spiritborn – Centipede Innovation (Utility)
Legendary Aspect
Raider’s Aspect
Affix 1
Maximum Life
Affix 2
Armor
Affix 3
Resistance to All Elements
Tempered Affix 1
Total Armor
Shared – Worldly Endurance (Defensive)
Tempered Affix 2
Stinger Size OR Touch of Death Swarm Duration
Spiritborn – Centipede Innovation (Utility)
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of Apprehension
Unique Item Option
Craze of the Dead God
Affix 1
Attack Speed
Affix 2
RANKS TO STINGER
Affix 3
Critical Strike Chance
Tempered Affix 1
Vulnerable Damage
Spiritborn – Eagle Finesse (Offensive)
Tempered Affix 2
Chance to Stun
Shared – Worldly Fortune (Utility)
Legendary Aspect
Insatiable Aspect
Affix 1
MOVEMENT SPEED
Affix 2
Maximum Life
Affix 3
Armor OR
Vigor per Second
Tempered Affix 1
Movement Speed
Shared – Natural Motion (mobility)
Tempered Affix 2
Chance to Freeze
Shared – Worldly Fortune (Utility)
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of Binding Morass
Unique Item Option
Ring of the Writhing Moon
Affix 1
Attack Speed
Affix 2
Vulnerable Damage
Affix 3
Critical Strike Chance
Tempered Affix 1
The Devourer Cooldown
Spiritborn – Centipede Efficiency (Resource)
Tempered Affix 2
Vulnerable Damage
Spiritborn – Eagle Finesse (Offensive)
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of Infestation
Affix 1
Attack Speed
Affix 2
Vulnerable Damage
Affix 3
Critical Strike Chance
Tempered Affix 1
The Devourer Cooldown
Spiritborn – Centipede Efficiency (Resource)
Tempered Affix 2
Vulnerable Damage
Spiritborn – Eagle Finesse (Offensive)
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of the Umbral
Affix 1
RANKS TO OPPRESSIVE
Affix 2
Ranks to Apex
Affix 3
Cooldown Reduction
Tempered Affix 1
Ranks to Vigorous
Tempered Affix 2
Stinger Size OR Touch of Death Swarm Duration
Spiritborn – Centipede Innovation (Utility)
Legendary Aspect
Aspect of Creeping Death
Gems and Runewords
This build uses Sapphires in our Weapons, Emeralds in our Armor, and Skulls in Jewelry.
We opt for Sapphires in our Weapons as most of our damage scaling is through Vulnerable.
We use Emerald in our Armor, as Dexterity increases our damage as well as other useful stats.
We go with Skulls for Our Jewelry as Armor can be hard to stack up for end game. We can substitute in any Resistance Gems we need, should we be short on REsistance anywhere.
For our Runewords, we’ve found Tam-Ohm and Bac-Tal to work well. Tam-Ohm allows us to build up Barbarian’s Warcry by casting Core Skills. Bac-Tal allows us to spawn Pentilent Swarms as we walk for passive damage and clearing.
Spirit Hall
This build uses Centipede for both the Primary and Secndary Spirit Halls.
The Centipede as Primary Spirit means all of our skills will be considered Centipede Skills. In addition, Centipede Skills will apply a stacking debuff that reduces the damage dealt and Slows enemies it is applied to.
The Centipede as a Secondary Spirit will heal us for a portion of our Maximum Life based on how many enemies we’ve poisoned recently.
Aspects
We’ll cover the Aspects recommended for maximizing the build’s potential. The Ideal Stats section above lists the recommended slots for these, but they can be arranged however necessary except for ones placed in 2H Weapons or Amulets.
Aspect of Pestilence
The Aspect of Pestilence will spawn a Pestilent Swarm each time we cast Stinger, ith it’s damage being based on that cast of Stinger. This also causes any Pestilent Swarms to Spiral out, adding to our AoE.
Aspect of Infestation
The Aspect of Infestation will allow all of ur Skills to spawn Pestilent Swarms, causing them to deal Poison Damage on hit, as well the same damage as the hit applied as a DoT effect as well.
Aspect of Creeping Death
the Aspect of Creeping Death boost your Damage over Time for each Crowd Control applied to any enemy. With easy access to Slow and Fear from our Skills and Aspects, this gives us a powerful damage boost.
Insatiable Aspect
Insatiable extends the Duration of the Touch of Death Swarms when an enemy is defeated. Additional, they will burst for high damage instead of simply disappearing when expiring or being replaced.
Aspect of Apprehension
The Aspect of Apprehension allows us to turn our Slows into Fears, while also boosting our damage toward Feared enemies.
Aspect of Binding Morass
The Aspect of Binding Morass passively Slows enemies that get close to us, or those affected by our DoTs. Additionally, it boosts our damage toward Slowed enemies.
Bruiser’s Aspect
Bruiser’s Aspect grants us Armor and Thorns per every 1% of missing Maximum Life, making us more durable against Physical Damage the lower our health gets.
Raider’s Aspect
Raider’s Aspect Heals us for a sizable chunk of our health each time we Poison a Healthy enemy. This gives us plenty of sustain while actively fighting enemies.
Aspect of the Umbral
The Aspect of the Umbral restores our Vigor each time we apply Crowd Control. Our easy access to Slow and Fear makes this a very reliable battery for generating Vigor.
Unique Items
The Unique items listed below are beneficial to the build, but not required for the build to function unless stated otherwise. Unique Items can drop in any difficulty but are more common in Torment Difficulties.
Craze of the Dead God
Craze of the Dead God is a pair of Unique Gloves that covert all direct damage taken to a Poison DoT, dealt over a short duration. The more of our Maximum Life that is poisoned, the higher chance we have to inflict Touch of Death on Enemies hit by our Skills.
These Gloves come with everything we’d need to make them exceptionally useful, including ranks to Nourishment to increase our Healing and Ranks of Antivenom to reduce Poison Damage and increase our max Poison REsistance. Additionally, it gives us Critical Strike Chance to help trigger Noxious Resonance and Ranks to Touch of Death.
Ring of the Writhing Moon
The Ring of the Writing Moon is a Unique Ring that will passively spawn Pestilent Wwarms. These Pestilent Swarms will orbit us and all of our Pestilent Swarms will generate Vigor on Hit, allowing for plenty of Vigor sustain.
Loyalty’s Mantle
Loyalty’s Mantle is a Unique helmet that boost the Effects of our Spirit Hall if they match, granting us an insane amount of Damage Reduction and Slowing, as well as more healing. Additionally, it heavily reduces the Vigor Cost and Cooldown of all Skills that match the Spirit Hall by default.
The biggest loss of this Helmet is the loss of more Ranks to Touch of Death that’d be available as an affix. The high amount of Damage Reduction an ranks of Velocity make this very worthwhile though
Paragon Boards and Glyphs
Paragon Boards and Glyphs are a feature that becomes available at level 60. Below are our recommended Paragon Boards and Glyph Choices. These are listed in the order we recommend them as well as their pathing.
With the abundance of Paragon Points we can earn, we’ve split the pathing into Initial Pathing and Additional Pathing. Initial Pathing is the clusters we pick up while pathing through the board, while Additional Pathing are ones we come back for later for additional stats once we’ve gotten all of our Glyphs socketed.
Starter Board
Starter Boards offer a lot of generic offensive and defensive stats. In this case, Damage, Elite Damage, Armor, and Maximum Life are worth picking up.
Initial Pathing
- Prime (Max Life only)
- Glyph Socket
- Spiritual
- Upper Gate
Additional Pathing
- Tenacity
- Dexterity for Glyph
- Skillful
This board offers a lot of accessible Dexterity, so we’ll socket Fester here to take advantage of this.
This Glyph grants Increased Damage with Centipede Skills Per 5 Dexterity allocated in range. With 40 Dexterity allocated, it grants additional damage with Centipede skills against Crowd Controlled enemies. At Glyph Level 45, it also grants a multiplicative bonus to Poison Damage.
Revealing
Revealing grants us a Chance to knockdown Vulnerable enemies on hit and increases our damage against Crowd-Controlled enemies. The passive also offer us plenty of Attack Speed and Vulnerable damage making it a fantastic board.
This Paragon board is rotated so that the Glyph Socket is in the Lower Left of the Paragon Board.
Initial Pathing
- Glyph Socket
- Venom Weaver (including Strength)
- Artifice (Vulnerable Only)
- Left Gate
Additional Pathing
- Strength for Glyph
- Grounded
- Haven
- Revealing
This board offers a lot of accessible Strength, so we’ll socket bane here to take advantage of this.
This Glyph grants Increased Poison Damage Per 5 Strength allocated in range. With 25 Strength allocated, it grants a 15% chance for Poison Damage to be doubled on application. At Glyph Level 45, it also grants a multiplicative bonus to Poison Damage.
Convergence
Convergence grants us a damage boost based on our two highest sources, up to a max of x30%. Additionally, the passive on this board offers us a lot of defenses and some generic offensive stats.
This Paragon Board is Rotated so that the Glyph Socket is in the Upper Right of the Paragon Board.
Initial Pathing
- Glyph Socket
- Spearhead (Rare only)
- Skillful (Intelligence included)
- Upper Gate
Additional Pathing
- Training
- Elementalist (Maximum Life Only)
- Covergence
- Ruinous
- Denial
- Intelligence for Glyph
This board offers a lot of accessible Intelligence, so we’ll socket Consumption here to take advantage of this.
This Glyph grants Pestilent Swarm Damage Per 5 Intelligence allocated in range. With 25 Intelligence allocated, it grants a Multiplicative damage bonus for each active Pestilent Swarm and Touch of Death Swarm.. At Glyph Level 45, it also grants a multiplicative bonus to Poison Damage.
Bitter Medicine
Bitter Medicine will deal damage to Close enemies, each time we recover a 100% of our Maximum Life in total. This board offers us a bit more generic offensive, and some defenses as well.
Initial Pathing
- Natural Vitality
- Bitter Medicine
- Glyph Socket
- Ambush (Including Intelligence)
- Restorative
- Right Gate
Additional Pathing
- Intelligence for Glyph
- Flash Fire (Attack Speed only)
This board offers a lot of accessible Intelligence, so we’ll socket Canny here to take advantage of this.
This Glyph grants Increased Non-Physical Damage Per 5 Intelligence allocated in range. With 25 Intelligence allocated, it grants a stackign damage bonus with Non-Physical Damage for each Non-Physical damage hit dealt. At Glyph Level 45, it also grants a multiplicative bonus to Non-Physical Damage.
Drive
Drive grants us a stacking damage increase for every 10 meters we travel. Additonally, this board grants us a nice bonus of Movement Speed and some Defenses.
This Paragon Board is rotated so that Zeyphr is the closest Rare node to the Left Gate.
Initial Pathing
- Zephyr
- Glyph Socket
- Tolerance (Including Strength)
- Piercing Gale
- Drive
Additional Pathing
- Restorative
- Strength for Glyph
This board offers a lot of accessible Strength, so we’ll socket Exploit here to take advantage of this.
This Glyph grants Increased Vulnerable Damage Per 5 Strength allocated in range. With 25 Strength allocated, it grant apply Vulnerable for a short duration when we hit enemies. At Glyph Level 45, it also grants a multiplicative bonus to Vulnerable Damage.
You can find moreleveling and endgame Diablo 4 buildshere on VULKK.com to try new things with your characters and spice up your gameplay.
To learnhow to maximize your damage in Diablo 4, consult with our guide on that topic. Learning how to deal the highest possible damage with your build is crucial to succeeding in the Endgame and highest tiers.