Quill Volley – Spiritborn Build for Diablo 4

Build Introduction

This endgame build for the Spiritborn focuses on Quill Volley as your primary source of damage. Thanks to the double Jaguar Spirit Guardian, this build is a good option to fight bosses and bigger groups of enemies. You benefit from the Gorilla’s Armored Hide skill, giving you the survivability to withstand hits while also maintaining good mobility with Soar. This combination allows you to tackle tough challenges with speed.

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.

If you are looking for the Orange Qull Volley build, you can find all the details about it in its variant section below the base build on this page. Or simply click here.

For information on Season 6, you can check out our Season Hub.
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Strengths and Weaknesses

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

Harmony of Ebewaka

Ring of the Midnight Sun

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Rebounding Aspect

This build will also require the Mythic Unique Ring of Starless Skies.

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

RavagerSoarThe HunterQuill VolleyArmored HideRock Splitter

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: 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 endgame build, we pick the Jaguar as 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 also apply to Eagle skills. The secondary spirit will be the Jaguar as well, in order to increase Ferocity. It synergizes greatly with the rest of the build by raising maximum Ferocity stacks by 1, resulting in even more attack speed.

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 Glyphs to improve the build even further as you grind through the endgame. Note that each Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 46 version.

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	Poc Que	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{x}% increased damage per Spirit type they have.
Chest	Tam Ohm	Aspect of Endurance	Your Resolve has a {x}% chance to not be lost when you are hit for each stack of ferocity you have
Gloves		Rebounding Aspect	Quill Volley’s feathers explode at their apex and return to where they were cast, dealing {x}% of their normal damage both times.
Pants	Grand Emerald	Aspect of Forest Power	Lucky Hit: Up to a {x}% chance to create a Mystic Circle for 10 seconds. Casting a Goirilla skill in Mystic Circles empowers them to periodically grant you a Barrier for {x}% of your Maximum Life which increases your Armor and Maximum Resistances by {x}% while active.
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	Ring of Starless Skies	Spending your primary resource reduces the resource cost of your skills and increases your damage by x{x}% for 3 seconds, up to x{x}%
Ring	Grand Skull	Ring of the Midnight Sun	When you critically strike, you regain {x}% of the vigor you’ve spent in the last 2 seconds. Gain Counterattack’s passive effect.
Weapon (200% bonus)	Grand Emerald	Aspect of Redirected Force	Gain increased critical strike damage equal {x}% of your block chance. Blocking doubles this bonus for 10 seconds.

The Mythic Unique Ring of Starless Skies will help you with Vigor management. If you do not have this ring, you should use the Aspect of Accursed Touch on that slot, wear Tyrael’s Might, and use the Vital Strikes key passive.

Additionally, if you happen to get the Rod of Kepeleke unique weapon, take advantage of this and replace the Ring of Starless Skies with Aspect of the Moonrise.

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. Lastly, remember that Unique items cannot be tempered.

Slot	Targeted Gear Affix	Tempering Affixes
Helm	All Stats Movement Speed Damage Reduction Velocity	N/A
Chest	1. Ranks to Defensive skills 2. Resistances 3. Dexterity	Worldly Endurance (Defensive) – Total Armor Natural Schemes (Utility) – Barrier Generation
Gloves	1. Ranks to Quill Volley 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Attack Speed	Natural Schemes (Utility) – Barrier Generation Eagle Finesse (Offensive) – Eagle Damage
Pants	1. Dodge Chance 2. Armor 3. Resistances	Worldly Endurance (Defensive) – Total Armor Natural Schemes (Utility) – Barrier Generation
Boots	1. Dexterity  2. Movement Speed 3. Resistances	Natural Motion (Mobility) – Movement Speed Worldly Fortune (Utility) – Chance to Stun for 2 seconds
Amulet	1. Attack Speed 2. Movement Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance	Worldly Stability (Resource) – Lucky hit: up to a 15% chance to restore x% Primary resource Jaguar Finesse (Offensive) – Jaguar Damage
Rings	1. Maximum Life 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage	Worldly Stability (Resource) – Lucky hit: up to a 15% chance to restore x% Primary resource Jaguar Finesse (Offensive) – Jaguar Damage
Weapon	1. Vulnerable Damage 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Dexterity	Eagle Finesse (Offensive) – Eagle Damage Eagle Augments (Weapon) – Chance for Quill Volley Projectiles to cast twice

The priority order of Resistances is Lightning > Poison > Fire > Cold > Shadow. If you struggle to maintain ~70% Resistances in higher Torment difficulty, we recommend using either Rakanoth’s Wake or Yen’s Blessing boots until your gear and resistance stats improve enough to switch out the unique boots.

Make sure to reach the Armor Cap of 1,000. Certain builds that scale with armor, such as this one, may benefit from having more of it. For instance, any build that makes 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 Quill Volley endgame build of the Spiritborn:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Tam Ohm	Tam – Gain: 25 Offering. Cast a non-channeled core skill. Ohm – Requires: 600 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration). Cooldown: 2 Seconds. Evoke the Barbarian’s War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage dealt.
Poc Que	Poc – Gain: 2 Offering. Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource. Que – Requires: 300 Offering. Cooldown: 1 Seconds. Evoke the Druid’s Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier

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: Loaded Munitions

Raheir Reinforcement choices:

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

Build Mechanics and Rotation

This build is straightforward and easy to play as you heavily focus on your primary damage-dealing skill Quill Volley, which is upgraded with the Rebounding Aspect. Quill Volley allows you to do massive AoE Damage while making enemies Vulnerable. On top of that, Ravager increases your Ferocity and will passively stock up any healing you receive to deal additional damage upon activation of the skill. 

Furthermore, Soar is a great skill to quickly get into the fight, while Armored Hide provides more survivability. Last but not least, The Hunter is a great ultimate skill calling the Jaguar spirit guardian to your help for additional damage.

1. Enter the fight with Soar.
2. Armored Hide for protection.
3. Ravager for additional damage over 6 seconds.
4. The Hunter to immediately gain more Ferocity and to deal increased damage to Injured targets.
5. Spam Quill Volley!
6. Use Rock Splitter if you need Vigor.

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.

• 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{x}% increased damage per Spirit type they have.
• Ring of the Midnight Sun (Required): When you critically strike, you regain {x}% of the vigor you’ve spent in the last 2 seconds. Gain Counterattack’s passive effect.
• Rod of Kepeleke (Recommended for better Vigor Management): Your core skills are now additionally basic skills, free to cast, and deal up to {x}% less damage based on their cost. At maximum vigor your core skills instead deal normal damage and consume all vigor to critically strike with {x}% increased critical strike damage for each point spent.

Mythic Uniques

• Ring of Starless Skies: Spending your primary resource reduces the resource cost of your skills and increases your damage by {x}% for 3 seconds, up to x{x}%.

If you want to have a look at builds that focus on other items or spirit guardians, you can find all our Spiritborn builds listed on this page. 

Overpower Endgame Variant

The high-end version of the Quill Volley build, known as ‘Orange Quill Volley,’ has quickly become a meta favorite, created specifically for the later stages of the endgame. Originally introduced by AceOfSpades, this variant focuses on maximizing damage through Critical Overpower hits, which appear in an orange font in the game – hence the name.

While the core mechanics and playstyle still revolve around Quill Volley, there are some key differences. However, instead of repeating the basics from the original build, we will simply highlight the changes in the sections below. Enjoy seeing those orange numbers pop up and have fun!

Skill Changes

Remove:

• 4 points from The Hunter
• 3 points from Acceleration
• 1 point from Auspicious
• 1 point from Soar
• 3 points from Diminishment
• 2 points from Vigorous
• 2 points from Rock Splitter and Enhanced Rock Splitter

Add:

• 2 points in Thunderspike (instead of Rock Splitter)
• 3 points in Vortex, Enhanced Vortex, and Measured Vortex
• Switch the last node of Ravager to Measured Ravager
• 3 points in Counterattack, Counterattack Enhancement, and Reinforced Counterattack
• 3 points in Scourge, Enhanced Scourge, and Reinforced Scourge
• 2 points in Spiritual Attunement (3/3 total)
• 3 points in Follow Through

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

VortexRavagerThe HunterScourgeArmored HideQuill Volley

Paragon Boards

Starting Board: Insert the Spirit glyph instead, and take all rare nodes, as well as magic max life /damage nodes, and damage to elites.

2nd Board: Pick the Viscous Shield board, do not turn the board before attaching, and insert the Fulminate glyph. Take all rare nodes and almost all the magic nodes, as well as the legendary (board) node. Move out on the left.

3rd Board: Pick Sapping, do not turn it and attach. Insert the Revenge glyph. Take all rare and almost all the magic nodes, as well as the legendary board node. Go back to the Viscous Shield board, then head out on the right side and add Convergence.

4th Board: Turn it once and then attach the Convergence board, insert the Talon glyph. Take all rare nodes and most magic nodes, as well as the legendary board node. Then move out on the top of the board and attach Revealing.

5th Board: On the Revealing Board, turn it 3 times before attaching, so that the glyph socket is close to the starting path. Make your way to the right, insert the Colossal glyph, and then take rare and magic nodes on the way through the middle to the legendary board node top left.

Spirit Hall Choice

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: Gorilla
  • Maximum Resolve increased by 2. When you have at least 5 stacks of Resolve, you are Unstoppable.

Gear, Gems, Runes, and Stats

Gear Slot	Gems/Runes	Item/Stats	Tempering
Helm	Xol Kry	Aspect of Forest Power 1. Maximum Resource 2. Dexterity 3. Maximum Life	Spiritborn Resolve (Defensive): Maximum Resolve Stacks Natural Schemes (Utility): Barrier Generation
Chest	Grand Amethyst	Aspect of Binding Morass 1. Armor 2. Maximum Life 3. Dexterity	Spiritborn Resolve (Defensive): Maximum Resolve Stacks Worldly Fortune (Utility): Lucky Hit: Chance to Stun
Gloves		Aspect of Redirected Force 1. Ranks to Quill Volley 2. Attack Speed 3. Dexterity	Worldly Finesse (Offensive): Overpower Damage Natural Schemes (Utility): Barrier Generation
Pants	Grand Amethyst	Aspect of Interdiction 1. Maximum Life 2. Armor 3. Ranks to Basic Skills	Spiritborn Resolve (Defensive): Maximum Resolve Stacks Natural Schemes (Utility): Barrier Generation
Boots		Duelist’s Aspect 1. Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown 2. Movement Speed 3. Dexterity 4. Maximum Life	Eagle Innovation (Utility): Vortex Size Natural Motion (Mobility): Movement Speed
Amulets(50% bonus)	Grand Skull	Banished Lord’s Talisman 1. Maximum Life 2. Overpower Damage 3. Attack Speed 4. Ranks to Core Skills	N/A
Ring	Grand Skull	Ring of the Midnight Sun 1. Dexterity 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. Ranks to Mirage	N/A
Ring	Grand Skull	Aspect of the Moonrise 1. Maximum Life 2. Attack Speed 3. Dexterity	Worldly Stability (Resource): Resource Generation Worldly Finesse (Offensive): Overpower Damage
Weapon (200% bonus)	Poc Que	Rod of Kepeleke 1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Maximum Resource 3. Ranks to Velocity 4. Chance for Core Skills To Hit Twice	N/A

Build Mechanics

This is currently one of the strongest Spiritborn builds, capable of tackling any endgame activity. The combination of the Banished Lord’s Talisman, Rod of Kepeleke, overpower temperings, and Resolve stacks allows you to scale Overpower damage, turning your Quill Volley attacks into heavy critical hits that are free to cast.

For this build to function well, consistent resource generation is most important due to the increased damage interaction from the Rod of Kepeleke. This is achieved through the Ring of the Midnight Sun combined with a few temperings, to make sure you can spam Quill Volley without interruption.

Naturally, Quill Volley serves as your main damage source. To round up the build, Ravager not only provides extra damage but also lets your core skill dash to enemies via the Measured Ravager upgrade. Moreover, the Measured Ravager upgrade boosts your resource generation, enabling you to continuously use your core skills, while The Hunter improves your attack speed and critical damage through Ferocity stacks. Additionally, the Ring of the Midnight Sun unlocks the Counterattack passive, boosting critical strike damage and further improving your overpower potential.

Scourge adds damage to crowd-controlled enemies and vigor generation, while Armored Hide improves survivability and provides a damage multiplier.

Generally, you should use your skills whenever they are off cooldown, and then simply focus on using Quill Volley to annihilate your enemies.

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 Guide here!

Changelog

• November 18th, 2024: Fixed recommended Overpower variant Ring affixes.
• November 11th, 2024: Changed recommended affixes for Rings.
• October 30th, 2024: Fixed Ring affixes and tempers for Overpower Quill Volley.
• October 22nd, 2024: Updated Skill Changes information and added Paragon Board images.
• October 19th, 2024: Overpower endgame variant, Orange Qull Volley, added for Season 6.
• October 5th, 2024: Guide theorycrafted and created for Vessel of Hatred, Season 6.