Quill Volley – Spiritborn Leveling Build for Diablo 4 (Season 8)

Build Introduction

This Eagle Quill Volley build is be the best-performing leveling build for the Spiritborn in Diablo 4 and a great pick for anyone looking for a leveling build that is fast, efficient, and fun!

This Spiritborn leveling build revolves around more damage to Vulnerable targets and the Gorilla as the primary Spirit Guardian for a smoother leveling experience as you journey through Sanctuary. Quill Volley will be the main skill to damage big groups of enemies and works incredibly well with The Seeker Ultimate, the Aspect of Accursed Touch, and the Vital Strikes key passive. You will also be equipped with Measured Ravager and Soar for movement and several defense skills, such as Armored Hide, increasing your survivability. To find out more general information about leveling as a Spiritborn in Diablo 4, you can check out our main Spiritborn Leveling Guide.

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Check our Leveling Tier List to see how this build compares to others.

Quick Navigation

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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	Rock Splitter	Basic Skill
2	Enhanced Rock Splitter	Basic Skill
3	Quill Volley	Core Skill
4	Enhanced Quill Volley	Core Skill
5	Advantageous Quill Volley	Core Skill
6	Quill Volley Rank 2	Core Skill
7	Quill Volley Rank 3	Core Skill
8	Quill Volley Rank 4	Core Skill
9	Quill Volley Rank 5	Core Skill
10	Soar	Focus Skill
11	Ravager	Focus Skill
12	Armored Hide	Defensive Skill
13	Enhanced Ravager	Focus Skill
14	Measured Ravager	Focus Skill
15	Enhanced Armored Hide	Defensive Skill
16	Reinforced Armored Hide	Defensive Skill
17	Vigorous	Core Passive
18	Vigorous Rank 2	Core Passive
19	Vigorous Rank 3	Core Passive
20	Balanced Exertion	Core Passive
21	Balanced Exertion Rank 2	Core Passive
22	Balanced Exertion Rank 3	Core Passive
23	Focal Point	Focus Passive
24	The Seeker	Ultimate Skill
25	Harmonious Seeker	Ultimate Skill
26	Exalted Seeker	Ultimate Skill
27	The Seeker Rank 2	Ultimate Skill
28	The Seeker Rank 3	Ultimate Skill
29	The Seeker Rank 4	Ultimate Skill
30	The Seeker Rank 5	Ultimate Skill
31	Apex	Focus Passive
32	Apex Rank 2	Focus Passive
33	Apex Rank 3	Focus Passive
34	Vital Strikes	Key Passive
35	Diminishment	Focus Passive
36	Diminishment Rank 2	Focus Passive
37	Diminishment Rank 3	Focus Passive
38	Mirage	Focus Passive
39	Unrestrained Power	Focus Passive
40	Unrestrained Power Rank 2	Focus Passive
41	Unrestrained Power Rank 3	Focus Passive
42	Brilliance	Potency Passive
43	Brilliance Rank 2	Potency Passive
44	Brilliance Rank 3	Potency Passive
45	Acceleration	Potency Passive
46	Acceleration Rank 2	Potency Passive
47	Acceleration Rank 3	Potency Passive
48	Endurance	Defensive Passive
49	Perseverance	Defensive Passive
50	Perseverance Rank 2	Defensive Passive
51	Perseverance Rank 3	Defensive Passive
52	Patient Guard	Defensive Passive
53	Auspicious	Defensive Passive
54	Auspicious Rank 2	Defensive Passive
55	Resilient	Potency Passive
56	Resilient Rank 2	Potency Passive
57	Resilient Rank 3	Potency Passive
58	Dominant	Potency Passive
59	Enhanced Soar	Focus Skill
60	Replenishing Soar	Focus Skill
61	Armored Hide Rank 2	Defensive Skill
62	Armored Hide Rank 3	Defensive Skill
63	Armored Hide Rank 4	Defensive Skill
64	Armored Hide Rank 5	Defensive Skill
65	Resolution	Ultimate Passive
66	Resolution Rank 2	Ultimate Passive
67	Resolution Rank 3	Ultimate Passive
68	Spiritual Attunement	Ultimate Passive
69	Supremacy	Ultimate Passive
70	Supremacy Rank 2	Ultimate Passive
71	Supremacy Rank 3	Ultimate Passive

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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

RavagerSoarArmored HideThe SeekerRock SplitterQuill Volley

If you are unsure how to use these skills, read the Build Mechanics section after setting up your skill bar.

Wondering what comes after Level 60 or which Paragon boards to pick? Head to the Spiritborn Builds page and choose an endgame build to continue progressing your character even further.

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Spiritborn Class Mechanic — Spirit Hall

The Specialization of the Spiritborn Class becomes available at Level 15. It is recommended to complete the “Sacred Hunt“ questline 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. 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% 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 leveling build, select the Gorilla as the primary Spirit Guardian for extra survivability and because it provides a Barrier, which helps to focus more on dealing damage and worry less about staying alive. The secondary spirit will be the Jaguar, simply to increase Ferocity and because it synergizes greatly with the rest of the build by raising maximum Ferocity stacks by 1, resulting in more attack speed.

Keep in mind that if you select the Gorilla as your primary guardian, all of your skills will be considered Gorilla skills as well. This means that any + Rank to Gorilla skills on your gear or items will increase the rank of all your skills.

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

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 Aspects onto items by visiting the Occultist.

Listed below are all the Aspects that are important for this Quill Volley Spiritborn leveling build. You can equip any aspect from this list in the slot it drops for, as they are all useful while leveling. 

If you want a recommendation regarding which Aspect to get first, the Rebounding Aspect will be the most useful while leveling because it helps with additional damage with Quill Volley. You can unlock this aspect by finding it naturally, as a random drop. For best results, combine these Aspects with the right stat/affix priorities.

Last but not least, if possible, use a Polearm as your weapon for the increased Vulnerable damage.

Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Source
Rebounding Aspect(Offensive)	Quill Volley’s feathers explode at their apex and return to where they were cast, dealing {x}% of their normal damage both times.	Random Drop
Aspect of Redirected Force (Offensive)	Gain increased critical strike damage equal {x}% of your block chance. Blocking doubles this bonus for 10 seconds.	Random Drop
Aspect of Interdiction(Defensive)	Gain {x}% Block chance per resolve stack.	Random Drop
Aspect of Endurance(Defensive)	Your Resolve has a {x}% chance to not be lost when you are hit for each stack of ferocity you have.	Random Drop
Aspect of the Umbral(Resource)	Restore {x} of your primary resource when you crowd control an enemy.	Champion’s demise, Dry steppes
Aspect of Accursed Touch(Offensive)	Lucky hit: up to a x% chance for your skills to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies afflicted with Vampiric Curse are also Vulnerable. Vampiric curse’s stored souls deal x% increased damage.	Random Drop
Aspect of Haste(Mobility)	Every second while moving gain x%[+] Bonus Movement Speed for 1.5 seconds, up to x%[+].	Seething Underpass, Nahantu
Aspect of Unyielding Hits(Offensive)	Casting a Gorilla skill adds {x}% of your Armor to all attacks for 3 seconds.	Random Drop
Aspect of Forest Power(Defensive)	Lucky hit: Up to a 25% chance 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.	Random Drop

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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. Cooldown Reduction 2. Dexterity  3. Armor	Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Total Armor Natural Schemes (Utility): Barrier Generation
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 Eagle Finesse (Offensive): Eagle Damage
Rings	1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Vulnerable Damage 3. Resistance Needed	Worldly Stability (Resource): Lucky Hit: Up to a 15% Chance to Restore x% Primary Resource Eagle Finesse (Offensive): Eagle Damage
Weapon (Polearm)	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

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Gems and Runewords

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

Gems

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

Runewords

If you find one of the Runes listed below, you can equip them as a Runeword on your Chest or Pants.

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!

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Poc Que	Poc – Gain: 5 Offering — Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource. Que – Requires: 300 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Evoke the Druid’s Base Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier.
Xol Jah	Xol – Gain: 150 Offering — Evoke power from another Class. Jah – Requires: 250 Offering, Cooldown: 2 Seconds — Replace your next Evade with the Sorcerer’s Teleport, blinking further, dealing damage, and becoming Unstoppable.

Paragon starts at Level 60. So, once you reach this level, switch to one of our Endgame Builds here.

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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	Any World Boss power	Please refer to the listed powers here.
Modifier	Flesh Reaper’s Disruption (Incursion)	Gain 5%[x] Vulnerable Damage, increased by 0.25%[x] for each 1% of Crowd Control Duration Bonus you have, up to a maximum of 10.5%[x].
Modifier	Torusk’s Rage (Incursion)	Gain 5%[+] Attack Speed, increased by 0.25%[+] for each 1% Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies you have, up to a maximum of 10.5%[+].
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 Subo as your main companion, for extra movement speed and crowd control, 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

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

The primary damage-dealing skill in this build is Quill Volley, which is upgraded with the Rebounding Aspect. Quill Volley allows you to do massive AoE Damage while making enemies Vulnerable. The Vital Strikes key passive boosts damage to vulnerable targets while healing you, restoring Vigor, and removing the vulnerable effect after a direct hit. It pairs well with The Seeker Ultimate, which makes enemies Vulnerable again. When Seeker is on cooldown, the Aspect of Accursed Touch with the Vampiric Curse takes over, making enemies vulnerable as well. Combined, this creates a satisfying gameplay loop where you will rarely use Rock Splitter, except in cases when you want to use it as filler to restore Vigor.

On top of that, Measured Ravager will allow your Core Skills to dash to the target, providing more mobility while also increasing Vigor generation. Last but not least, Soar is a great skill to quickly get around during leveling, especially in combination with Acceleration, while Armored Hide provides more survivability.

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

1. Soar into the enemy.
2. Use The Seeker Ultimate for crowd control and to make enemies Vulnerable.
3. Armored Hide for protection.
4. Ravager to additional damage and increased Vigor generation.
5. Spam Quill Volley!
6. Use Rock Splitter as filler or to generate Vigor.

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 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.

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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:

• The Seeker: Rank 5 Bonus capped at 200%[x] damage increase.
• 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 swapping weapons would end the Jah rune’s teleport buff.
• Fixed an issue where some of the text on the Que rune was displaying in the incorrect font style.

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.

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Changelog

• April 19th, 2025: Switched Duelist’s Aspect with Aspect of Haste. Added Boss Powers for Season 8.
• January 23rd, 2025: Removed Lost Witchcraft Powers and replaced them with Vengeful Spirit and Hex of Shattering.
• January 18th, 2025: Added Witchcraft Powers and Occult Gems for Season 7.
• October 12th, 2024: Added Video Guide.
• October 8th, 2024: Changed primary Guardian to Gorilla, updated Skills, switched 2 Tempers.
  • Removal of 6 Jaguar Passives (Potent + Furnace) to put 2 points in Soar, and 4 points in Armored Hide Ranks. Replaced Jaguar Damage Tempers with Eagle Damage.
• October 5th, 2024: Updated Skill Tree and Mercenary Skills, Switched some Temper Manuals, and added one Aspect.
• October 2nd, 2024: Guide created and theorycrafted for Season 6.