This guide will contain minor spoilers for the class so if you want to experience them yourself you have been warned.
Disclaimer - I am by no means a Diablo 4 expert. This is just how I had fun leveling the Spiritborn through the new campaign and into very early endgame content.
Born of Spirits
The newest class to join the ranks of Diablo 4 for the Vessel of Hatred DLC is The Spiritborn. The Spiritborn calls on, well the spirits of 4 immensely powerful protectors.
The Jaguar, which focuses on attack speed, critical hits, combos and healing. The Jaguar also uses the element of Fire and features a new resource called Ferocity, which provides more attack speed with every stack.
The Eagle focuses on movement speed, enhancing evade, critical hits and inflicting vulnerability on enemies. The Eagles element of choice is Lightening. The Seeker is the first ultimate skill to have multiple charges.
Wumba the Gorilla is all about raw damage as well as blocking, barrier, dodge and Thorns. The Gorilla brings with them another new resource, Resolve. Resolve provides a 20% damage reduction per stack (total of 8) and taking direct damage will consume a stack.
Now I have left the Centipede Balazan until last because it is the main component of this build. The centipede revolves around crowd control, poison and damage over time. Another huge draw card to Balazan is the healing factor he brings.
Spiritborn class ability The Spirit Hall.
Before we get any further, we should talk about the Spiritborn class ability The Spirit Hall. At level 15 (like the other classes) you will be tasked with heading off and completing a short questline unlocking the Spirit Hall.
In the Spirit Hall you can choose to have 1 of the 4 spirits as a major and at level 30 you unlock the chance to choose another spirit as a minor. You can mix and match any major/minor you want to create some amazing combos. For this build I have chosen to go with Centipede for both major and minor choices.
- Major Centipede – Hitting an enemy with a Centipede Skill reduces their Damage by 2.5% and slows them by 10% for 3 seconds, stacking up to a maximum of 8 times. All Skills are now also Centipede Skills.
The part to take away from this is now all my skills are also centipede skills. This will become a common theme.
- Minor Centipede – Heal for 1% of your Maximum Life for every Nearby enemy you've Poisoned in the last 3 seconds, up to 5%.
I went with Centipede again for the heals.
Wild and Wackey Ability Combos
The Spiritborn is by far the most experimental Blizzard has been with classes in a long time. The elemental/spirit combos are almost limitless. Below I will explain my choices for the major abilities. I wont go into any detail with passives. There will be 2 ability modifiers that I found very early on from Dungeon rewards that put this together. I did not do any stat changing or upgrading, they are all default pieces of gear with Abilities imprinted.
Basic Attack.
I went with Thrash, it's a jaguar ability by default but because of our Centipede Spirit Hall it is also a Centipede attack. This is our main source of Vigor replenishment. Thrash launches you forward at an enemy slashing dealing damage. Your 3rd attack is followed by a flurry of slashes. You will also be getting stacks of Ferocity which increase attack speed with each stack. Sharp Slash grants a stack of ferocity on your 3rd slash.
Core Skill.
For our core skill I went with the Eagle's Quill Volley. Quill volley throws out 5 quills in an arc dealing damage. With Advantageous Quill you throw out a total of 8. If 3 feathers hit a single enemy said enemy becomes Vulnerable. Now what makes this skill special is the gear modifier I found in the first dungeon I came across. Quills explode at the apex of their arc and return to you at a lower damage. This does considerable damage and paired with the explosion you are hitting multiple enemies with multiple quills causing Vulnerability.
Focus Skill.
For the focus skill I have gone with Toxic Skin. Toxic skin covers you in toxic sludge that poisons enemies when they attack you. The main reason I use Toxic skin is a get out of jail free card when I'm surrounded. Not only does Toxic Skin apply poison but when activated you become Unhindered, which means you can pass through enemies and your movement speed is not affected.
Defensive Skill.
Scourge is the second major part of this build. Scourge calls forth a wave of insects that inflict fear and slow. Paired with Adaptable Scourge hitting an enemy affected by Scourge has the chance to life steal. Now what makes this special normally you cast it, and it happens once then 12 seconds later you can cast it again. There is another ability modifier from a dungeon that causes Scourge to continuously affect enemies around you for 8.7 seconds. So now when you cast it enemies are feared and slowed wherever you go with a 3 second cool down!
Potency Skill.
I have gone with Touch of Death for my potency skill. This is just a massive poison dump, to a single target, when the target dies a swarm seeks out another target for 9 seconds. Nothing too exciting, you do get some more heals with Enhanced Touch of Death.
Ultimate Skill.
The Devourer erupts from the ground dealing massive poison damage. Upgrading him to the Exalted Devourer enhances his beam to do some serious damage. Plus while The Devourer is active any non boss enemy that becomes poisoned instantly die, so because of all the poison you will be dumping out, well you get the picture. The description says The Devourer is active for 15 seconds but I felt like it was more like 20 or even 25 seconds.
Final Additions.
The last thing that makes this build special is the Mystic Circles. They are a new ability that is tied to gear pieces. There is a 25% chance an attack will trigger a Mystic Circle. When standing inside the circle something will happen. For example, casting any Jaguar skill inside Mystic Circle empowers it to keep your ferocity at maximum and increase damage. I'm currently running 3. Two Centipede and one Jaguar but remember that all my skills are Centipede. So, my Jaguar skill counts as both Jaguar and Centipede so I'm getting double use of my Mystic Circles.
As you can see the Spiritborn has got potential to be an absolute powerhouse and im going to enjoy exploring and refining this build. If you have any thoughts or improvements I can make let me know.
Below is a Nightmare Dungeon on Hard to show off the power of Balazan.
