Quill Volley – Spiritborn Build for Diablo 4 (Season 11)

Build Introduction

This endgame build for the Spiritborn focuses on Quill Volley in combination with the Rod of Kepeleke. 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 damage output. This combination allows you to tackle tough challenges with speed.

Starting new? Begin with our Quill Volley Leveling Build and switch to this one at Level 60.
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Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Ring of the Midnight Sun

Rod of Kepeleke

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

The HunterArmored HideCounterattackScourgeVortexQuill Volley

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 on the Eternal Realm, or Season Ranks 1-3 on the Seasonal Realm.

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 picked Jaguar as the primary and secondary Guardian for overall damage.

• Primary Spirit Guardian: Jaguar
  • Every 15th time you deal direct damage with a Jaguar Skill, unleash a Beast Strike for (100% Weapon damage), increasing all damage you deal by 3% and doubling Beast Strike’s damage, stacking 5 times. You lose all stacks when you stop attacking for 1 second. 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.

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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.

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	Grand Amethyst	Loyalty’s Mantle	While your Spirit Hall choices match: Their bonuses are 100% more potent. Skills of their Base Spirit gain {x}% Vigor Cost Reduction. Skill of their Base Spirit gain {x}% cooldown reduction.
Chest	Ahu Qax	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for {x} seconds.
Gloves		Aspect of the Moonrise	Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you +4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining x{x}% Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
Pants	Poc Xan	Aspect of Forest Power	Lucky Hit: Up to a 25% change to create a Mystic Circle for 10 seconds. Casting a Gorilla skill in Mystic Circles empowers them to periodically grant you a Barrier for 25% of your Maximum Life which increases your Armor and Maximum Resistances by {x}% while active.
Boots		Path of Emissary Unique	Every 12-4 meters you move, invoke a Core Skill from your primary Spirit Hall.
Amulets(50% bonus)	Grand Skull	Aspect of Plains Power	Lucky Hit: Up to a 25% change to create a Mystic Circle for 10 seconds. Casting a Jaguar skill in Mystic Circles empowers them to keep your Ferocity at Maximum and increase your damage by {x}% per stack while you remain within.
Ring	Grand Skull	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.
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 Topaz	Rod of Kepeleke	Your Core Skills are now additionally Basic Skills and free to cast. When cast at Maximum Vigor, your Core Skills consume all Vigor to return to full damage, cast at their largest Size, and become guaranteed Critical Strikes, with x{x}% increased Critical Strike Damage for each point of Vigor Consumed this way.

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 Greater Affix or Masterworking Capstone Bonus. 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	All Stats Movement Speed Damage Reduction Ranks to Velocity	N/A
Chest	1. Maximum Life 2. Armor 3. Resistance to All Elements	Worldly Endurance (Defensive) – Maximum Life
Gloves	1. Maximum Life 2. Lucky Hit: Up to A 15% Change to Restore Primary Resource 3. Ranks to Quill Volley	Jaguar Finesse (Offensive) – Mystic Circle Potency
Pants	1. Ranks to basic Skills 2. Maximum Life 3. Dexterity	Natural Schemes (Utility) – Barrier Generation
Boots	Movement Speed Core Skill Damage Core Skills Impairment Reduction	N/A
Amulet	1. % Dexterity 2. Attack Speed 3. Resource Cost Reduction	Jaguar Finesse (Offensive) – Mystic Circle Potency
Ring 1	1. Dexterity 2. Attack Speed 3. Maximum Life	Worldly Stability (Resource) – Resource Generation
Ring 2	Dexterity Cooldown Reduction Critical Strike Damage Ranks to Mirage	N/A
Weapon	Critical Strike Damage Maximum Resource Ranks to Vigorous Chance for Core Skills to Hit Twice	N/A

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. 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.

• Rod of Kepeleke (Required): Your Core Skills are now additionally Basic Skills and free to cast. When cast at Maximum Vigor, your Core Skills consume all Vigor to return to full damage, cast at their largest Size, and become guaranteed Critical Strikes, with x0.1-0.5% increased Critical Strike Damage for each point of Vigor Consumed this way.
• 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.
• Loyalty’s Mantle (Recommended): While your Spirit Hall choices match: Their bonuses are 100% more potent. Skills of their Base Spirit gain 20-60% Vigor Cost Reduction. Skill of their Base Spirit gain 20-60% cooldown reduction.
• Path of the Emissary (Recommended): Every 12-4 meters you move, invoke a Core Skill from your primary Spirit Hall.

Mythic Uniques

This Quill Volley build does not require any specific 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
Grand Topaz For more Basic Skill Damage	Grand Amethyst For more Barrier Generation	Grand Skull or Grand Diamond For more Armor or Resistance to All Elements

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 Quill Volley endgame build of the Spiritborn:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Poc Xan	Poc – Gain: 5 Offering. Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource. Xan – Requires: 300 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration). Cooldown: 1 Second. Your next attack will cause your hits to be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower for 0.35 seconds.
Ahu Qax	Ahu – Gain: 15 Offering. Lucky hit: 100% when hitting a non-Healthy enemy. Qax – Requires: 400 Offering (Overflow: Further Increased Damage). Cooldown: 1 Second. Casting a Skill other than a Basic or Defensive spends all your Primary Resource to increase your damage up to 100% for 1 second.

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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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Season 11 Mechanics

Divine Gifts

Divine Gifts are made up of three parts: your base Reward, a Corrupted gift, and a Purified gift. Each Gift can be placed into either an outer slot to activate its Corrupted effect or an inner slot to activate its Purified effect. No matter where you place it, slotting a Gift always grants its Reward bonus for the linked activity, though Corrupted Gifts make that activity more challenging while still providing the base bonus. Purified Gifts, on the other hand, remove the penalty, add a beneficial effect, and double the Reward. All Corrupted slots are available immediately at the start of the Season, but Purified slots have to be unlocked through the Seasonal Reputation track.

Sanctification

Sanctification gives you one final chance to upgrade an item at the Heavenly Forge. Using a Heavenly Sigil triggers a single random outcome, and once the item is Sanctified, it cannot be modified any further, so make sure all other crafting is done first. Sanctifying an item can result in:

• A bonus Legendary power
• An affix upgraded into a Greater Affix
• A bonus affix from the Sanctification pool
• An existing affix replaced with a random Sanctification affix
• A random amount of bonus Quality

Since sanctification decides the final state of your item, it is worth knowing which results are strong for your class, so you can evaluate if the item did indeed turn into a great piece of gear or not. Below, we will list the Sanctifications that are especially good for this build:

• Your amulet is usually the best place to use Sanctification on most Spiritborn builds, since extra ranks on your passive skills translate into a noticeable damage increase. Make sure you have a second amulet ready, in case the roll replaces something you needed.
• Your weapon is another good option if you want something more predictable. Extra Quality or a simple damage increase always adds value to your setup, no matter which skills you run.

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: Quill Volley
• Reinforcement Skill: Bloodthirst

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

This build is straightforward and easy to play as you heavily focus on your primary damage-dealing skill Quill Volley. The Rod of Kepeleke allows your Quill Volley to count both as Core and Basic Skill, benefiting from a wider range of buffs. Quill Volley allows you to do massive AoE Damage while making enemies Vulnerable. On top of that, Counterattack helps with your dodge chance, and increases your critical strike damage.

Furthermore, Vortex is a great skill to quickly get into the fight, gather enemies around you, and let Scourge poison them, while Armored Hide provides more survivability. Last but not least, The Hunter is a great ultimate skill that is calling the Jaguar spirit guardian to your help for additional damage.

1. Enter the fight with Vortex.
2. Scourge to poison the enemies.
3. Armored Hide for protection.
4. Counterattack for more dodge chance. It will also increase your critical strike damage before using your main skill.
5. The Hunter to immediately gain more Ferocity and to deal increased damage to Injured targets.
6. Spam Quill Volley!

Runeword Synergy

• Poc Xan: This combo is a high-risk, high-reward Runeword that feeds off resource spending. Poc builds Offering by burning 5% of your max resource, and when you hit Xan‘s 300 Offering requirement, your next attack will guarantee both a Critical Strike and Overpower, letting you spike down enemies with precise timing.
• Ahu Qax: This pairing plays into momentum. Ahu gains Offering when you trigger a Lucky Hit on non-Healthy enemies. Once you hit Qax‘s threshold, casting anything outside Basic or Defensive dumps your Primary Resource to massively boost your next damage instance by up to 100%. It is a burst window, great for closing kills or defeating elites fast.

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.

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 11 Updates

For a full overview of what is new in Season 11, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub.

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

• Primary Jaguar Hall:
  • Previous: Every 15th time you deal direct damage to an enemy with a Jaguar Skill, unleash additional slashes dealing 20% of the damage you have dealt to them in the last 0.5 seconds. All Skills are now also Jaguar Skills.
  • Now: Every 15th time you deal direct damage with a Jaguar Skill, unleash a Beast Strike for (100% Weapon damage), increasing all damage you deal by 3% and doubling Beast Strike’s damage, stacking 5 times. You lose all stacks when you stop attacking for 1 second. All Skills are now also Jaguar Skills.
• Potent
  • Previous: Hitting enemies with Jaguar Skills increases the Damage they take from you by 0.1-0.3% up to 10-30%.
  • Now: Jaguar Skills deal 6/12/18%[x] increased direct damage to up to 3 of the Closest enemies to you.
• Loyalty’s Mantle: Damage Reduction affix replaced with Dexterity affix.

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

• December 8th, 2025: Added Path of the Emissary Boots, Divine Gifts, and Sanctification information for Season 11.
• September 20th, 2025: Added Chaos Perks and Chaos Armor for Season 10.
• July 5th, 2025: Swapped active skill for the Catalyst from Quill Volley to The Hunter.
• June 15th, 2025: Updated Skills, Gear requirements, Paragon, Horadric Spell, and Jewels for Season 9.
• April 26th, 2025: Removed Overpower variant. Revamped build as Poison Quill Volley build for Season 8. Updated requirements, gear, skill tree, paragon, and added boss powers.
• January 18th, 2025: Updated Tempers and added Witchcraft Powers and Occult Gems for Season 7.