Stinger – Spiritborn Build for Diablo 4 (Season 9)

Build Introduction

This Stinger-focused Spiritborn endgame build will melt down any enemy by spreading massive poison damage. With the Aspect of Infestation, Stinger will spawn Pestilent Swarms, which deal additional poison damage to multiple enemies. The Gorilla as primary Guardian will provide plenty of protection, while the Ring of Writhing Moon and Ring of the Midday Hunt will increase our poison damage even further.

Starting new? Begin with our Stinger Leveling Build and switch to this one at Level 60.
Have questions or feedback about this guide? Join Ghazzy’s livestream and ask him!

Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Harmony of Ebewaka

Ring of Writhing Moon

Ring of the Midday Hunt

Jacinth Shell

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Aspect of Infestation

Aspect of Pestilence

Want to know more about the Uniques supporting this setup? Jump to the Uniques section.

Quick Navigation

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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

ScourgeToxic SkinArmored HideThe HunterRavagerStinger

Wondering what comes after Level 60? Head to the Paragon Board section to power up the build even further.

And if you want to see how everything plays out in combat, check out the Rotation and Playstyle section for a quick breakdown. If you are missing skill points, complete Renown Tier 1-3 in every zone.

Spiritborn Class Mechanic – Spirit Hall Choice

The Spirit Hall allows you to combine two different Spirit Guardians or stick with just one. For this build, we go with a mix of guardians that balance survivability and damage.

• 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.

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

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. For best results, combine these Aspects with the right stat priorities.

Gear Slot	Gems/Runes	Aspect / Unique	Legendary Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Grand Emerald	Harmony of Ebewaka	Your Skills are all additionally Jaguar, Eagle, Gorilla, or Centipede Skills based on your secondary Spirit Hall choice. Each Spirit type on a skill increases its damage by 50%.
Chest	Poc Que	Jacinth Shell	Spending Vigor heals you for x% of your Maximum Life. Every second, your active cooldowns now drain 10% of your Maximum Life to reduce their duration by 2 seconds.
Gloves		Conceited Aspect	Deal x% Increased Damage while you have a Barrier active.
Pants	Grand Emerald	Temerity	Effects that heal you beyond 100% life grant you a Barrier up to x% of your Maximum Life that lasts for 8 seconds. You may now drink your healing potion while at full life.
Boots		Duelist’s Aspect replace with Rakanoth’s Wake	Aspect: Maximum Ferocity increased by 1-5. Unique: When you cast a Skill with a Cooldown, you explode, dealing {x} Fire Damage.
Amulets(50% bonus)	Grand Skull or Luminate Eye	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.
Ring	Grand Skull or Idol From Below	Ring of Writhing Moon	A Pestilent Swarm spawns from you every 4 seconds, dealing {x} Poison damage per hit. Your Pestilent Swarms now orbit around you and generate 3 Vigor per hit.
Ring	Grand Skull or Seal of Denial	Ring of the Midday Hunt	Your Maximum Vigor is increased by 50% and every kill grants you 1-7 Vigor. While you have any Ferocity your Poisonings deal their damage in 33% of the normal duration.
Weapon (200% bonus)	Xol Kry	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 50% longer and spiral outwards.

The combination of Stinger with the Aspect of Infestation and Aspect of Pestilence, as well as both unique rings, allows you to deal powerful poison damage to multiple enemies.

If you do not have Rakanoth’s Wake, you can use the Duelist’s Aspect instead.

Curious how this build compares to other endgame options? Take a look at our Endgame Build Tier List.

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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. Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics. Want to jump back up to the gear table?

Slot	Targeted Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helm	1. Dexterity 2. Armor 3. Resistance	Spiritborn Guard (Defensive): Armored Hide Active Duration Centipede Innovation (Utility): Stinger Size
Chest	1. Ranks to Armored Hide 2. Resistances 3. Armor	Spiritborn Guard (Defensive): Armored Hide Active Duration Centipede Innovation (Utility): Stinger Size
Gloves	1. Ranks to Stinger 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Damage over Time	Centipede Finesse (Offensive): Pestilent Swarm Damage Centipede Innovation (Utility): Stinger Size
Pants	1. Dexterity 2. Armor 3. Resistances	Centipede Innovation (Utility): Stinger Size Spiritborn Resolve (Defensive): Armored Hide Resolve Generation Rate
Boots	1. Dexterity  2. Movement Speed 3. Armor / Resistance	Natural Motion (Mobility): Movement Speed Centipede Innovation (Utility): Stinger Size
Amulet	1. Attack Speed 2. Ranks to Ravenous 3. Resource Cost Reduction	Worldly Finesse (Offensive): Critical Strike Damage Jaguar Efficiency (Resource): The Hunter Cooldown Reduction
Rings	1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage	Gorilla Efficiency (Resource): – Defensive Cooldown Reduction Centipede Finesse (Offensive): Centipede Damage
Weapon	1. Dexterity 2. Damage over Time 3. Crit strike damage	Centipede Augments (Weapon): Chance for Stinger to Extra Hit Worldly Finesse (Offensive): Critical Strike Damage

Prioritize capping all of your Resistances, and make sure to reach the Armor Cap of 1,000. However, remember that in higher difficulties there will be a penalty to armor and resistance, so you will need a higher amount to compensate for the loss.

Looking for progression beyond gear? See our Paragon recommendations or Runewords Synergy next.

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Uniques and Mythic Uniques

Below, you will find information on Uniques and Mythic Uniques that are useful and recommended for this build. 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.

• Ring of Writhing Moon (Required): Every 10 seconds a Pestilent Swarm spawns from you which deals {x} Poison damage per hit. Pestilent Swarms now always spawn orbiting around you and generate 1 Vigor per hit.
• Ring of the Midday Hunt (Required): Your Maximum Vigor is increased by 50% and every kill grants you 1-7 Vigor. While you have any Ferocity your Poisonings deal their damage in 33% of the normal duration.
• Harmony of Ebewaka (Required): Your Skills are all additionally Jaguar, Eagle, Gorilla, or Centipede Skills based on your secondary Spirit Hall choice. Each Spirit type on a skill increases its damage by 50%.
• Jacinth Shell (Required): Spending Vigor Heals you for x% of your Maximum Life. Every second, your active Cooldowns each drain 10% Maximum Life from you to reduce their durations by 3 seconds.
• Temerity (Highly Recommended): Effects that heal you beyond 100% life grant you a Barrier up to x% of your Maximum Life that lasts for 8 seconds. You may now drink your healing potion while at full life.
• Rakanoth’s Wake (Highly Recommended): When you cast a Skill with a Cooldown, you explode, dealing {x} Fire Damage.

Note that the Duelist’s Aspect is a great alternative on Boots until you find Rakanoth’s Wake.

Mythic Uniques

This Stinger Spiritborn build does not require any Mythic Uniques!

If you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide. Or you can return to the Build Requirements.

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Gems and Runewords

Listed below are the recommended Gems and Runewords to socket into your gear.

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
N/A (we use Xol Kry instead)	Grand Emerald For more Dexterity.	Horadric Jewels orGrand Skull For more Armor.

In Season 9, you should rather socket Horadric Jewels in your Jewerly. These gems will give you +120 Armor, +6% Resistance to All Elements and a unique power to boost your Horadric Powers. Check out more information in this section.

Runewords

Runewords are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and replace gems in gear. Improve your build by combining a trigger Rune of Ritual and an effect Rune of Invocation. You can equip up to two Runeword pairs (four Runes) at a time. For a detailed guide on Runewords, check out our Runewords Guide!

The following are recommended Runeword combination options for the Centipede endgame build of the Spiritborn:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Poc Que	Poc – Gain: 5 Offering. Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource. Que – Requires: 300 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration). Cooldown: 1 Second. Evoke the Druid’s Base Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier.
Xol Kry	Xol – Gain: 150 Offering. Evoke power from another Class. Kry – Requires: 600 Offering (Overflow: Increased size). Cooldown: 3 Seconds. Evoke the Spiritborn’s Vortex, dealing damage and Pulling In enemies.

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Paragon Board

Paragon unlocks at Level 60 and plays a big role in endgame progression. The following Legendary Nodes and Glyphs are recommended for this build. Keep in mind that each Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 46 version.

Need a refresher on how the skills are set up? Click here to return to the Skill Tree section.

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Horadric Spell (Season 9)

During Season 9, you will unlock Horadric Spellcraft, letting you build and bind your own spell to one of your active skills. You can upgrade your spell’s power using Horadric Phials, increasing its impact on your build.

Slot	Power	Effect
Catalyst	Celestial Surge pair it with Stinger	Awaken an Oracular Rune that Pulls In all surrounding enemies. A torrent of stars follow that randomly strike the area 20 times for damage each. Rank 10: Stars periodically fall around you and are guaranteed to crash around a Nearby enemy for the same damage.
Infusion	Corrosive Vapor	Enemies damaged by it take 320% Poisoning damage over 4 seconds. This effect can only happen on each enemy every 3 seconds. While equipped, your Poison Damage Bonus is equal to that of your highest Damage Type Bonus. Rank 5: Deactivates monster Vampiric effects for 8 seconds.
Arcana	Bottled Wind	Invoking your Catalyst grants a Barrier equal to 30% of your Maximum Life for 4 seconds. After it dissipates, its essence is bottled back up (+4% each rank).
Arcana	Fractured Core	Your Catalyst deactivates monster Damage Resistance Aura effects for 2.5 seconds, but you take 10% more stacking damage for the same time (+0.5 each rank).
Arcana	Reactive Ooze	After your Catalyst activates, you gain 5% Maximum Resource Generation per second for the next 10 seconds (+3% each rank).

Horadric Jewels

Horadric Jewels can be crafted at the Wayfinder using Horadric Phials and Gem Fragments, once you have collected the Horadric Tome for this specific jewel. You can collect these recipes by doing Horadric Strongrooms in Nightmare Dungeons.

Horadric Jewel	Effect
Idol From Below	You gain 6%[x] primary stat, 8%[x] maximum life and you are always Unhindered. However, you will be hunted in Sanctuary’s darkest places by Jewel Guardians who were entombed to protect this relic.
Seal of Denial	While you have two or more Arcana from the School of Denial equipped, gain 30%[x] more Barrier, Fortify and Thorns.
Luminate Eye	Your Catalytic Skill gains 25%[+] Cooldown Reduction.

Mercenaries

During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock Mercenaries to assist you. While you can choose freely early on, we recommend Raheir as your main companion, and Varyana as Reinforcement.

Raheir Skill Tree choices:

• Core Skill: Ground Slam
• Core Passive: Raheir’s Aegis
• Iconic Skill: Bastion
• Iconic Passive: Inspiration

Varyana Reinforcement choices:

• Opportunity Skill: Any Skill
• Reinforcement Skill: Blood Surge

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

The build is rather simple, centered around Stinger as the main source of damage. Jaguar skills will provide all the mobility you need, as Ravager allows your core skills to dash to your target and increases your Vigor generation. Moreover, The Hunter boosts your damage even further when hitting Injured enemies. Lastly, Armored Hide helps with protection and increases survivability.

Stinger will greatly benefit from the Aspect of Infestation, Aspect of Pestilence, as well as both unique rings (Ring of Writhing Moon and Ring of the Midday Hunt), to deal increased poison damage and summon a Pestilence Swarm that will spiral outwards.

Furthermore, you should always use Scourge before and again after The Hunter for the interaction between Intricacy and Reinforced Scourge.

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

1. Use Ravager to start the fight.
2. Armored Hide for increased protection.
3. Cast Scourge for crowd control, Vigor generation, and to interact with Intricacy.
4. The Hunter Ultimate for even more damage, especially to Injured enemies.
5. Scourge again to benefit from the increased Vigor regeneration rate for 6 seconds.
6. Toxic Skin for increased Poison damage.
7. Spam Stinger as much as possible!

Runeword Synergy

Another interesting interaction worth mentioning within this section comes from the Runewords we use in this build to trigger powerful effects. We use Poc Que in Armor and Xol Kry in our Weapon.

When you spend 5% of your Maximum Resource, you gain 5 Offering from Poc. Once you reach 300 Offering, Que automatically evokes the Druid’s Earthen Bulwark, granting a Barrier. This action also triggers 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.

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.

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Season 9 Updates

For a complete overview of Season 9, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activity, and other changes coming with this season, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.

Here is a quick overview of seasonal changes relevant to this build:

• Harmonious Hunter:
  • Damage bonus to Injured decreased from 100%[x] to 50%[x].
  • Reduced maximum Ferocity gained from 4 to 2.
• Exalted Hunter:
  • Previous (on PTR): Killing an enemy while The Hunter is present reduces this cooldown by 5 seconds. Hitting a boss reduces its cooldown by 1 second.
  • Now: Killing an enemy while The Hunter is present has a 40% chance to instantly reset its Cooldown. This chance is halved after each consecutive reset.
• Noxious Resonance:
  • Previous: Your Critical Strikes cause your Poisoning on an enemy to burst, dealing 100% of the total Poisoning instantly to them and 20% of it to surrounding enemies before removing the Poisoning effect from the primary target. This damage is increased by 30% of your Critical Strike Damage bonus.
  • Now: Your Critical Strikes cause your Poisoning on an enemy to burst, dealing 180% of the total Poisoning instantly to them and 20% of the burst to surrounding enemies before removing the Poisoning effect from the primary target.
• Nourishment: Damage bonus now applies to all Poison damage instead of just Poisoning Damage.

Obol Gambling

Similar to Kadala in Diablo 3, the Purveyor of Curiosities lets you gamble your Obols for 750 item power gear at Level 60, making them a great way to fill in missing affixes, Aspects, or upgrades. There is also a small chance to receive an Ancestral piece with item power 800.

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Changelog

• June 28th, 2025: Added Horadric Spell and Jewels for Season 9.
• April 20th, 2025: Added Boss Powers for Season 8.
• January 18th, 2025: Added Witchcraft Powers and Occult Gems for Season 7.
• November 12th, 2024: Fixed Skill Tree embed and Rune Tooltips.
• October 15th, 2024: Removed Aspect of Plains Power from suggestion due to wrong gear slot.
• October 5th, 2024: Updated Skills, Paragon Boards, Mercenary Skills, Temper Affixes, and Gear.
• October 3rd, 2024: Guide theorycrafted and created for Vessel of Hatred, Season 6.