Stinger – Spiritborn Leveling Build for Diablo 4 (Season 12)

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. It can easily complete the campaign; however, we recommend using the Quill Volley leveling build instead, as it is stronger and feels smoother during early leveling until you get better gear.

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

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Allocation of Skill Points

Below is the optimal order for spending your points as you level up. 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.

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

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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

ScourgeTouch of DeathArmored HideThe DevourerWithering FistStinger

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
  • Gorilla Skill deals 150% Thorns to enemies you hit and grants a Barrier for 2.5% of Maximum Life, 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.

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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 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.

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. You can unlock this aspect through finding it naturally, as a random drop. For best results, combine these Aspects with the right stat/affix priorities.

Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Source
Aspect of Infestation (Offensive)	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 (Resource)	Restore {x} of your primary resource when you crowd control an enemy.	Champion’s demise, Dry steppes
Aspect of Pestilence (Offensive)	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.	Hallowed Stones, Nahantu
Duelist’s Aspect (Utility)	Maximum Ferocity increased by 1-5.
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.
Aspect of Interdiction (Defensive)	Gain x% Block Chance per Resolve stack.
Aspect of Unyielding Hits (Offensive)	Casting a Gorilla skill adds x% of your Armor to all attacks for 3 seconds.
Aspect of the Dark Dance (Resource)	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 (Defensive)	You gain x% increased armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage stacking up to x%.	Halls of the Damned, Kehjistan

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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. Dexterity 2. Armor 3. Resistances	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
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 Centipede Finesse (Offensive): Centipede Damage
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 Augments (Weapon): Chance for Stinger to Extra Hit

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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 increased Critical Strike Damage	Emerald For 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
Igni Tal	Igni – Gain: 25 Offering — Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering. (Up to 500 Offering). Tal – Requires: 100 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Evoke the Spiritborn‘s Pestilent Swarm, dealing damage to enemies.
Tam Que	Tam – Gain: 25 Offering — Cast a non-Channeled Core Skill. Que – Requires: 300 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Evoke the Druid’s Base Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier.

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

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Season 12 Mechanics

Bloodied Items

Season 12 adds Bloodied Items, adding an extra affix to dropped gear that allows for some extremely high-roll loot. These new items synergize with the returning Killstreak system, and can come with specific affixes that increase your overall power, or add bonuses such as gaining extra gold or obols.

Recommended Choices:

• Armor (Rampage)
  • Resource Cost Reduction per Killstreak Tier.
• Weapon (Feast)
  • Every (x) kills, gain Berserking for (x) seconds.
• Jewelry (Hunger)
  • Increased chance for Runes during your Killstreak.

Since Bloodied Items’ effects stack, you’re able to use multiple pieces with the same power.

Armor: Resource Cost Reduction is a massive multiplicative boost for our damage when using Rod of Kepeleke, and there isn’t really a comparable alternative.

Weapon: Berserking is in the same boat as our Armor; the extra multiplicative damage increase is simply too valuable. Although Restore % Maximum Resource could be used early when we’re still having resource issues.

Jewelry: This is where choices can be made, and it highly depends on the player’s needs. As a generic choice, Runes tend to be the most valuable throughout the entire season. However, it really depends on what you’re lacking and are trying to target farm.

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, 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 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.

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.

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.

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Season 12 Updates

For a complete overview of Season 12, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.

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

• Season 12 did not offer any relevant changes for leveling.

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

• December 8th, 2025: Added Divine Gifts for Season 11.
• September 22, 2025: Added Chaos Perks for Season 10.
• June 28th, 2025: Added Horadric Spell for Season 9.
• April 19th, 2025: Updated Runewords, and Boss Powers for Season 8.
• January 23rd, 2025: Removed Lost Witchcraft Power and replaced it with Vengeful Spirit.