Crushing Hand – Spiritborn Build for Diablo 4 (Season 8)

Build Introduction

The Crushing Hand build offers great mobility and tankiness, with solid damage output. Its simple playstyle revolves around using skills as they come off cooldown, making it a good choice for speed farming endgame content like Helltides or Pit runs.

Starting new? Begin with our Quill Volley 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 Aspects

Duelist’s Aspect

Aspect of Interdiction

Aspect of Redirected Force

Aspect of Creeping Death

Additionally, it is strongly recommended to use Heir of Perdition Helm and Ring of Starless Skies.
Want to know more about the Uniques supporting this setup? Jump to the Uniques section.

Quick Navigation

Want to skip ahead? Use the table below to jump to the sections you are looking for.

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Armored HideCrushing HandThe HunterScourgeRavagerCounterattack

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. 

• Primary Spirit Guardian: Centipede
  • Hitting an enemy with a Centipede Skill reduces their Damage by 2%, Slows them by 10%, and deals 70% Poisoning damage over 6 seconds, stacking up to a maximum of 8 times. All Skills are now also Centipede Skills.
• Secondary Spirit Guardian: Gorilla
  • Maximum Resolve increased by 2. When you have at least 5 stacks of Resolve, you are Unstoppable.

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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	Heir of Perdition	Succumb to hatred and earn Mother’s Favor, increasing your damage dealt by 60%[x]. Slaughter enemies to briefly steal Mother’s Favor from Nearby allies.
Chest	Igni Que	Aspect of Disobedience or Tyrael’s Might	You gain [0.4 – 0.8]%[+] increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [25.0 – 46.0]%[+].
Gloves		Conceited Aspect	Deal {x}%[x] increased damage while you have a Barrier active.
Pants	Grand Emerald	Aspect of Interdiction	Gain +1% Block Chance per Resolve stack.
Boots		Duelist’s Aspect	Maximum Ferocity increased by 1-5.
Amulets(50% bonus)	Grand Skull	Aspect of Redirected Force	Gain increased critical strike damage equal {x}% of your block chance. Blocking doubles this bonus for 10 seconds.
Ring	Grand Skull	Accelerating Aspect	Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by {x}%[+] for 5 seconds.
Ring	Grand Skull	Ring of Starless Skies	Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10%[x] for 3 seconds, up to 50%[x].
Weapon (200% bonus)	Cir Ohm	Aspect of Creeping Death	You deal {x}%[x] increased damage over time to enemies for each different Crowd Control effect they’re afflicted by. Unstoppable enemies and Staggered Bosses take {x}%[x] increased damage over time from you 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 Affix	Tempering Affixes
Helm	Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Chance Movement Speed 2 to Core Skills	N/A
Chest	Damage Reduction Movement Speed Resistance To All Elements Maximum Resistance If you play with the legendary aspect: 1. Armor 2. Life 3. Resistance to All	Gorilla Innovation (Utility): Crushing Hand Size Spiritborn Recovery (Defensive): Ranks to Resilient
Gloves	1. Attack Speed 2. Dexterity 3. Critical Strike Damage	Gorilla Innovation (Utility): Armored Hide Active Thorns Bonus Worldly Finesse (Offensive): Critical Strike Damage
Pants	1. Dexterity 2. Armor 3. Maximum Life	Gorilla Innovation (Utility): Armored Hide Active Thorns Bonus Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Maximum Life
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Vigor per Second 3. Maximum Life	Natural Motion (Mobility): Movement Speed Gorilla Innovation (Utility): Crushing Hand Size
Amulet	1. Attack Speed 2. Dexterity 3. Maximum Life	Worldly Finesse (Offensive): Critical Strike Damage Jaguar Efficiency (Resource): The Hunter Cooldown Reduction
Ring	1. Lucky Hit: Up to A Chance to Make Enemies Vulnerable 2. Attack Speed 3. Critical Strike Damage	Worldly Finesse (Offensive): Critical Strike Damage Jaguar Efficiency (Resource): The Hunter Cooldown Reduction
Ring	Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Lucky Hit Change Ranks to Core Skills	N/A
Weapon	1. Quaterstaff 45% Block Chance 2. Dexterity 3. Maximum Life 4. Critical Strike Damage	Worldly Finesse (Offensive): Critical Strike Damage Gorilla Augments (Weapons): Change for Crushing Hand to Extra Hit

Prioritize capping all of your Resistances, and make sure to reach the Armor Cap of 1,000. However, certain builds that scale with armor, such as this one, benefit from having more armor in general. 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.

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

This Crushing Hand Spiritborn build does currently not require any Uniques!

Mythic Uniques

In this Crushing Hand Spiritborn build, we strongly recommend using at least 2 Mythic Uniques. You can probably play without, but it will be much smoother with the Mythic Uniques.

• Heir of Perdition (required): Succumb to hatred and earn Mother’s Favor, increasing your damage dealt by 60%[x]. Slaughter enemies to briefly steal Mother’s Favor from Nearby allies.
• Ring of Starless Skies (required): Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10%[x] for 3 seconds, up to 50%[x].
• Tyrael’s Might (recommended): While at full Life, your Skills unleash a divine barrage dealing 195 damage.
  • You can play without Tyrael’s Might. An aternative was added to the gear table above.

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
Cir Ohm	Grand Emerald For more Dexterity	Grand Diamond For Resistance OR Grand Skull For more Armor

For Jewelry Gems, simply use any gem that provides armor or the resistance you lack the most.

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 Crushing Hand endgame build of the Spiritborn:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Igni Que	Igni – Gain: 25 Offering. Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering. (Up to 500 Offering). Que – Requires: 300 Offering. Cooldown: 1 second. Evoke the Druid’s Base Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier.
Cir Ohm	Cir – Gain: 300 Offering. Cast 5 Skills then become exhausted for 3 seconds. Ohm – Requires: 600 Offering. Cooldown: 2 seconds. (Overflow: Increased duration). Evoke the Barbarian’s War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage dealt.

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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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Boss Powers (Season 8)

During Season 8, you can unlock and rank up Boss Powers using Spectral Ash earned from Apparition Incursions, which provide powerful bonuses to support your build as you level.

Slot	Boss Power & Drop Location	Effect
Main Power	Ashava’s Poison Breath  (World Boss)	Hitting an enemy affected by Damage over Time spawns a wave of acid that deals 400% Poisoning damage over 4 seconds. Applies 10% more Poisoning for each 1% of the target’s current Life affected by Damage over Time.
Modifier	Avarice’s Explosive Ore (World Boss)	Activating your Main Boss Power spends all your Primary Resource to increase its damage by 1.5%[x] per Resource point spent.
Modifier	Andariel’s Flaming Skull (Lair Boss)	Burning Enemies take 21% more damage from your Damage over Time effects. For 5 seconds after activating your Main Boss Power, all your other attacks Burn enemies for 1,800% damage over 3 seconds.
Modifier	Hatred’s Embrace’s Haste (Incursion)	Gain +5% Critical Strike Chance, increased by +0.5% for each 1% of Shadow Resistance you have, up to a maximum of +70%.

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, for the added survivability he provides, 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: Cast a Skill
• Reinforcement Skill: Shockwave, then switch Bloodthirst as soon as you unlock it, for increased Attack Speed.

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

This build is all about stacking Poison damage and triggering it through Critical Strikes. Your Crushing Hand skill itself is not what is doing the heavy lifting, it is the poison damage that follow. Thanks to your Noxious Resonance Key Passive, every time you land a crit, the poison bursts out and hits nearby enemies. That burst damage scales off your Critical Strike Damage, so stacking that stat is important.

To make this whole system work, you will need the Heir of Perdition. It gives you a flat +20% Critical Strike Chance, which helps you trigger those poison explosions way more often. More crit hits, means more poison bursts and more dead enemies.

In essence, the build works on maintaining high uptime on mobility, damage, and survivability through simple, fast-paced rotation:

1. Ravager, keep Ravager up at all times for increased damage.
2. Scourge to poison your enemies.
3. Counterattack, to continue dodging attacks, and increase your Critical Strike Damage passively.
4. Armored Hide for increased survivability.
5. The Hunter for additional damage.
6. Spam Crushing Hand

Runeword Synergy

• Igni Que: This pair creates a steady, reactive defense. Igni slowly builds Offering in the background, and once you cast a non-Basic skill, you instantly grab that stored Offering. That Offering then fuels Que, which automatically grants you Earthen Bulwark once you reach 300 Offering. Very reliable for builds that are always in motion and want passive survivability.
• Cir Ohm: Cir gives you 300 Offering every time you cast 5 skills, but then you get a short 3-second downtime (exhaustion). Once you hit 600 Offering, Ohm triggers War Cry, giving you a buff to movement speed and damage. Cast fast, stack Offering, get buffed, repeat. The overflow mechanic on Ohm means if you time it right and go over the required Offering, you get an even longer War Cry buff.

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 the Crushing Hand Spiritborn build:

• Elixir of Advantage increases your attack speed
• Elixir of Fortitude for additional survivability 

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Season 8 Updates

For a complete overview of Season 8, 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:

• Fixed an issue that allowed for snapshotting of the Resilient Passive.
• Fixed an issue where Resource Generation stats for other classes would display in character stats for Spiritborn Players.
• Fixed an issue where casting The Hunter could cause the Wanderer to get partially stuck under the ground.
• Fixed an issue where some of the text on the Que rune was displaying in the incorrect font style.

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

• April 25th, 2025: Skills and Skill Tree, Gear, Runewords, Paragon Board, Mercenaries and Rotation were updated for Season 8. Also added Boss Powers.
• January 18th, 2025: Updated Tempers and added Witchcraft Powers and Occult Gems for Season 7.
• October 22nd, 2024: Guide created for Vessel of Hatred, Season 6.