Stinger – Spiritborn Leveling Build for Diablo 4

To find out more general information about leveling as a Spiritborn in Diablo 4, you can check out our main Spiritborn Leveling Guide. Or you can go to our Spiritborn Builds page for a list of other leveling builds to choose from.

This build focuses on poison damage over time and can easily complete the campaign on Normal difficulty. However, once your character reaches Level 60, pick one of our Endgame Builds to continue your Spiritborn journey.

Build Introduction

This Spiritborn leveling build revolves around Stinger as the main skill and provides massive poison damage against large groups of enemies, while Scourge serves as Vigor recovery together with Withering Fist, and further boosts our damage. Touch of Death will help with healing for more survivability, and when combined with Armored Hide provides plenty of protection, since we are going to use the Gorilla as primary Spirit Guardian in this build. And for those very dangerous situations, we can summon The Devourer to deal plenty of damage to Elites or Bosses.

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Allocation of Skill Points

The table below outlines the recommended order for allocating your Skill Points. At Level 60, you will have a total of 59 points available and an additional 12 points can be obtained upon completing Renown in each zone, resulting in a total of 71 points.

Order	Skill	Cluster
1	Withering Fist	Basic Skill
2	Enhanced Withering Fist	Basic Skill
3	Stinger	Core Skill
4	Enhanced Stinger	Core Skill
5	Advantageous Stinger	Core Skill
6	Stinger Rank 2	Core Skill
7	Stinger Rank 3	Core Skill
8	Stinger Rank 4	Core Skill
9	Stinger Rank 5	Core Skill
10	Accelerated Withering Fist	Basic Skill
11	Focal Point	Focus Passive
12	Armored Hide	Defensive Skill
13	Enhanced Armored Hide	Defensive Skill
14	Reinforced Armored Hide	Defensive Skill
15	Scourge	Defensive Skill
16	Enhanced Scourge	Defensive Skill
17	Reinforced Scourge	Defensive Skill
18	Touch of Death	Potency Skill
19	Enhanced Touch of Death	Potency Skill
20	Invasive Touch of Death	Potency Skill
21	Scourge Rank 2	Defensive Skill
22	Scourge Rank 3	Defensive Skill
23	Scourge Rank 4	Defensive Skill
24	The Devourer	Ultimate Skill
25	Harmonious Devourer	Ultimate Skill
26	Exalted Devourer	Ultimate Skill
27	The Devourer Rank 2	Ultimate Skill
28	The Devourer Rank 3	Ultimate Skill
29	The Devourer Rank 4	Ultimate Skill
30	The Devourer Rank 5	Ultimate Skill
31	Scourge Rank 5	Defensive Skill
32	Touch of Death Rank 2	Potency Skill
33	Touch of Death Rank 3	Potency Skill
34	Noxious Resonance	Key Passive
35	Antivenom	Defensive Passive
36	Nourishment	Defensive Passive
37	Nourishment Rank 2	Defensive Passive
38	Nourishment Rank 3	Defensive Passive
39	Ravenous	Potency Passive
40	Ravenous Rank 2	Potency Passive
41	Ravenous Rank 3	Potency Passive
42	Oppressive	Potency Passive
43	Oppressive Rank 2	Potency Passive
44	Oppressive Rank 3	Potency Passive
45	Touch of Death Rank 4	Potency Passive
46	Touch of Death Rank 5	Potency Passive
47	Resilient	Potency Passive
48	Resilient Rank 2	Potency Passive
49	Resilient Rank 3	Potency Passive
50	Resolution	Ultimate Passive
51	Resolution Rank 2	Ultimate Passive
52	Resolution Rank 3	Ultimate Passive
53	Spiritual Attunement	Ultimate Passive
54	Supremacy	Ultimate Passive
55	Supremacy Rank 2	Ultimate Passive
56	Supremacy Rank 3	Ultimate Passive
57	Sustenance	Ultimate Passive
58	Initiative	Ultimate Passive
59	Initiative Rank 2	Ultimate Passive
60	Initiative Rank 3	Ultimate Passive
61	Intricacy	Ultimate Passive
62	Intricacy Rank 2	Ultimate Passive
63	Intricacy Rank 3	Ultimate Passive
64	Apex	Focus Passive
65	Apex Rank 2	Focus Passive
66	Apex Rank 3	Focus Passive
67	Endurance	Defensive Passive
68	Endurance Rank 2	Defensive Passive
69	Endurance Rank 3	Defensive Passive
70	Perseverance	Defensive Passive
71	Perseverance Rank 2	Defensive Passive

These are the abilities you want on your skill bar:

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

ScourgeTouch of DeathArmored HideThe DevourerWithering FistStinger

Skill Tree

Here is the completed skill tree for the build:

Spirit Hall – Spiritborn Specialization

The Specialization of the Spiritborn Class becomes available at Level 15. It is recommended to complete the “Sacred Hunt“ questline, within the town of Gea Kul 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. You do not have to pick the same Guardian twice! 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: 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 build, we use the Gorilla as the primary Spirit Guardian for extra survivability during leveling and because it provides a Barrier, which helps us to deal more damage and worry less. Additionally, we pick the Jaguar as secondary Spirit Guardian for the increased Ferocity.

Mercenaries

During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock different NPC Mercenaries who join you on your travels. As you level up, you can generally pick any mercenary you like, as they will not play an essential role until you optimize your build in the endgame. However, if you would prefer to get a recommendation, we would advise selecting Subo as your main companion, 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. (Injured will automatically trigger when you become Injured).
• Reinforcement Skill: Provoke

Mechanics and Playstyle

The main damage-dealing skill in this build is Stinger, with Touch of Death providing a bonus to boost our attacks. These two skills work especially well with the Aspect of Infestation and Aspect of Pestilence. On top of that, Invasive Touch of Death amplifies our damage even further by applying additional poison damage to surrounding enemies for 6 seconds. The poisoned enemies will then be hit by Stinger, dealing massive damage.

Scourge helps with crowd control, increases our damage, and improves Vigor recovery through Reinforced Scourge. Armored Hide in combination with the Gorilla as primary Spirit Guardian, will provide plenty of protection for increased survivability.

Last but not least, our ultimate skill, The Devourer, provides extra damage against Elites and Bosses whenever it is off cooldown, and is the most effective ultimate for maintaining Supremacy stacks. Furthermore, because we make use of the Intricacy node in this build, it is important to cast Scourge before and again after using The Devourer. This allows us to spam Scourge multiple times to gain lots of Vigor, which we can then use for our main damage ability, Stinger.

Damage Rotation

Let’s see how this build will look in action:

1. Start the fight by engaging with Touch of Death to infect surrounding enemies.
2. Armored Hide for protection.
3. Cast Scourge for crowd control, Vigor generation, and to interact with Intricacy.
4. Use The Devourer Ultimate to spread more poison damage.
5. Scourge again to benefit from the increased Vigor regeneration rate for 6 seconds.
6. Spam Stinger as much as possible.
7. Make use of Withering Fist whenever you need Vigor.

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

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 Apsects onto items by visiting the Occultist.

Listed below are all the Aspects that are important for this Centipede Spiritborn leveling build. You can equip any aspect from this list in the slot it drops for, as they are all useful while leveling. However, when placed in your Weapon slot, the Aspect of Infestation provides an insane damage boost of +100% effectiveness. All Aspects are listed in order of priority.

If you want a recommendation regarding which Aspect to get first, the Aspect of the Umbral would be a good priority as it will help with Vigor management. You can unlock this aspect either through finding it naturally, as a random drop, or by completing the Champion’s Demise Dungeon in Dry Steppes.

Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Source
Aspect of Infestation	Lucky hit: Centipede Skills have up to a 35% chance to spawn a Pestilent Swarm from the target which deals {x} poison damage per hit. Pestilent Swarms now also deal 100% of their Base Damage as Poisoning Damage over 6 seconds.
Aspect of the Umbral	Restore {x} of your primary resource when you crowd control an enemy.	Champion’s demise, Dry steppes
Aspect of Pestilence	Stinger spawns a Pestilence swarm at its target location which deals x% of Stinger’s Base damage per hit. Pestilent swarms now last 100% longer and spiral outwards.	Hallowed Stones, Nahantu
Duelist’s Aspect	Maximum Ferocity increased by 1-5.
Aspect of Endurance	Your resolve has a x% chance to not be lost when you are hit for each stack of Ferocity you have.
Aspect of Interdiction	Gain x% Block Chance per Resolve stack.
Aspect of Unyielding Hits	Casting a Gorilla skill adds x% of your Armor to all attacks for 3 seconds.
Aspect of the Dark Dance	Every 5 seconds, your next Core skill costs {x} life instead of primary resource. This will only occur if you have at least 60% of your Maximum Life. Skills that spend life deal x% bonus damage.
Aspect of Disobedience	You gain x% increased armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage stacking up to x%.	Halls of the Damned, Kehjistan

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. Dexterity 2. Armor 3. Resistances	Spiritborn Guard (Defensive): Armored Hide Active Duration Centipede Innovation (Utility): Stinger Size
Chest	1. Armor 2. Resistances 3. Maximum Life	Natural Schemes (Utility): Crowd Control Duration or Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Total Armor
Gloves	1. Ranks to Stinger 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Damage over Time	Centipede Finesse (Offensive): Centipede Damage Centipede Innovation (Utility): Stinger Size
Pants	1. Armor or Dexterity 2. Maximum Life 3. Resistances	Natural Resistance (Defensive): Any Needed Resistance or Centipede Innovation (Utility): Stinger Size
Boots	1. Vigor Per Second 2. Movement Speed 3. Resistances, Armor	Natural Motion (Mobility): Movement Speed Increase or Centipede Innovation (Utility): Stinger Size
Amulet	1. Attack Speed 2. Ranks Ravenous 3. Resource Cost Reduction	Manual: Worldly Stability: Resource Cost Reduction / Resource Generation or Natural Finesse (Offensive): Damage / Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Rings	1. Resource Cost Reduction 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Critical Strike Chance	Manual: Worldly Stability (Resource): Resource Cost Reduction / Resource Generation or Centipede Finesse (Offensive): Centipede Damage
Weapon (Polearm)	1. Dexterity 2. Maximum Life 3. Damage Over Time	Centipede Finesse (Offensive): Centipede Damage or Centipede Augments (Weapon): Chance for Stinger to Extra Hit

Gems and Runewords

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

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

If you find some of the Runes listed below, you can equip 4 of them as two Runewords on your Chest or Pants.

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Cem Tal	Cem – Gain: 50 Offering — Cast Evade. Tal – Requires: 100 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Evoke the Spiritborn‘s Pestilent Swarm, dealing damage to enemies.
Poc Wat	Poc – Gain: 2 Offering — Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource. Wat – Requires: 100 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them.
Tam Gar	Tam – Gain: 25 Offering — Cast a non-channeled core skill. Gar – Requires: 25 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Gain 2.5% critical strike chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%.
Lith Ohm	Lith – Gain: 25 Offering — Stand still while fighting for 0.3 seconds. Ohm – Requires: 500 Offering, Cooldown: 2 Seconds — Evoke the Barbarian’s War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage dealt.

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 Centipede focused 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.

Season 6: Hatred Rising

For a complete overview of Season 6, its mechanics and theme, new game mode, and other changes coming with the Season of Hatred Rising, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.

What matters most for leveling are the Realmwalkers. Defeating the Realmwalker will open a portal to the Seeting Realm. Completing the dungeon within will reward you with various items, depending on the rewards you choose upon entering, as well as Seething opals, which are consumables you can use. They can be stacked with elixirs to increase experience gains even further. For more information on which different Opals are available, head to our Seething Opal section here. 

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.

Changelog

• October 5th, 2024: Updated Skills, Rotation, Gameplay, and Mercenary Skills.
• October 2nd, 2024: Guide created and theorycrafted for Season 6.