Season 9—Sins of the Horadrim—brings exciting mechanics and fresh build potential for Diablo 4’s Spiritborn class. If you’re eyeing a lightning-fast leveling journey, the Evade Spiritborn is a top-tier choice. This guide will help you build your Spiritborn from scratch all the way to level 60, setting you up for a powerful transition into endgame content.
Why Play Spiritborn in Season 9?
Spiritborn offers one of the smoothest leveling experiences in Diablo 4 thanks to:
- High mobility: Dash across maps at breakneck speeds.
- Zero required gear to start: One of this build’s best features is that it requires no Legendary Aspects or Uniques to get started. You can dive into Evade Spiritborn completely gear-independent as soon as you hit level 15.
- Season synergy: Spiritborn interacts beautifully with Season 9’s Horadric Spells.
Season 9 Overview: Sins of the Horadrim
This season introduces Horadric Spells, a new crafting system that lets you combine:
- Catalyst: Core spell behavior.
- Infusion: Bonus effects.
- Arcana: Three unique modifiers for your chosen spell.
For Spiritborn, you’ll often pick spells like Thunderous Particle paired with Arcana such as Bottled Wind for barrier generation and healing or Invigorating Helix for combat durability. These spells slot seamlessly into your rotation and provide massive boosts against dense packs or elite enemies.
Optional Arcana like Potent Alloy can remove enemy Barriers and knock enemies down, while Fractured Core helps bypass Damage Resistance auras on tough champions.
See also: Diablo 4 Horadric Strongrooms Guide: How to Find, Complete, and Get Rewards in Season 9
Spiritborn Leveling Path
Levels 1–15: Starter Phase
Until you unlock your class mechanic at level 15, your journey begins with a simpler kit:
- Basic Skill: Rock Splitter
- Generates resources on block and hits.
- Core Skill: Quill Volley
- Your main damage tool until level 15.
- Mobility: Soar
- Helps traverse terrain quickly.
- Buffs: Brilliance and Acceleration
- Boost resource gain and movement speed.
- Utility: The Hunter
- Adds damage, ferocity stacks, and mobility resets.
Rotation:
- Generate resources with Rock Splitter.
- Cast Quill Volley to clear packs.
- Use Soar between objectives.
- Pop The Hunter whenever off cooldown.
The Quill Volley phase lasts only briefly—once you unlock Eagle Spirit Hall at level 15, you’ll immediately transition into the Evade playstyle.
Level 15: Spirit Hall Unlocked
At level 15, the Spiritborn’s power explodes with the Spirit Hall system. Here’s what you unlock:
- Primary Spirit Hall: Eagle
- Transforms your Evade into a deadly damage dealer, firing Storm Feathers that auto-target enemies and apply Vulnerable.
- Secondary Spirit Hall: Eagle
- Grants extra Critical Strike Chance.
From level 15 onwards, Evade becomes your core gameplay loop.
Tip: At level 15, use the “Respec Mode” feature in Diablo 4 to reassign your skill points quickly and save gold. This makes shifting into the Evade Spiritborn build seamless.
During the Spirit Hall unlock quest in the Sacred Hunting Grounds, remember to use the emote wheel to perform “Help” and “Thanks” at two separate points to progress the quest. Many players miss this small step and get stuck!
The Eagle Spirit Hall’s damage scales with Dexterity, as well as with gear stats like Primary Eagle Spirit Hall Potency and Storm Feather Potency. Prioritize these stats to maximize Storm Feather damage output.
Level 15–60: The Evade Spiritborn Core Build
Key Active Skills
- Evade (Bound to Scroll Wheel):
- Every Evade launches Storm Feathers.
- Reset via Thunderspike.
- Thunderspike:
- Reduces Evade’s cooldown every third cast.
- Armored Hide / Counterattack:
- Defensive tools, crucial vs. bosses and elite packs.
- Soar:
- Maintains mobility across maps.
Don’t forget to benefit from Intricacy procs while weaving Thunderspike and Evade. Intricacy triggers effects like Unyielding Hits and Redirected Force, improving your barriers and overall survivability during tougher fights.
Skill Rotation:
- Evade → spam Storm Feathers.
- Hold “Hold Position” (usually Shift).
- Cast Thunderspike between Evades.
- Use Armored Hide / Counterattack as needed for survivability.
Always hold down “Hold Position” (Shift key by default) while casting Thunderspike. This ensures it fires even when there’s no target directly under your cursor.
Important: If you’re on keyboard/mouse, don’t hold Thunderspike down continuously. Tap it or weave it instead to keep the cooldown reduction loop optimal.
Controller players might find that Thunderspike weaving isn’t quite as smooth due to input limitations, so you may need to adapt your rotation slightly. Meanwhile, for mouse users, your scroll wheel might wear out from spamming Evade.
See also: Diablo 4 Season 9 Rogue Builds Guide: Death Mask, Azurewrath & More
Fun Fact: If you’d like to preview Thunder spike weaving, you can try it out on any existing Spiritborn from Season 8 who’s already level 15 or higher.
Stat & Gear Priorities
While leveling, always upgrade your weapon first—it’s the primary source of damage scaling. After that, prioritize:
- Dexterity: Boosts overall damage and critical chance.
- Cooldown Reduction: More Evade uptime.
- Vulnerable Damage: Storm Feathers apply Vulnerable frequently.
- Critical Strike Chance & Damage
- Storm Feather Potency
The Eagle Spirit Hall’s damage scales with Dexterity, Primary Eagle Spirit Hall Potency, and Storm Feather Potency. Gear your character toward these stats for maximum performance.
The Boots You Want
Check every city vendor for boots with:
“Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown by X seconds.”
This mod dramatically smooths out your Thunderspike weaving and lets you tackle higher difficulties earlier.
Checking one Armor vendor per city is sufficient, since vendors share the same inventory. Don’t waste time running to multiple vendors.
Horadric Spell Setup
Great options for your Horadric Spells during leveling:
- Catalyst: Cosmic Anomaly
- Steady Arcana flow.
- Infusion: Thunderous Particle
- Melts Suppressor elites.
- Arcana Options:
- Bottled Wind → Barrier + healing potions.
- Invigorating Helix → Better durability.
- Shifting Powder → Extra damage from Brilliance.
Optional Arcana like Potent Alloy can remove enemy Barriers and knock enemies down, while Fractured Core helps bypass Damage Resistance auras on tough champions.
Recommended Aspects and Uniques
Not mandatory for leveling, but nice if you find them:
- Aspects to consider:
- Disobedience → Great defensive scaling.
- Redirected Force → Barrier generation.
- Vehement Brawler’s → Offensive boost.
- Uniques:
- Loyalty’s Mantle
- Jacinth Shell
Runes & Runewords
For runes, these combinations shine:
- Cem + Ton:
- Spawns auto-aiming meteorites for extra damage.
- Cir + Gar:
- Boosts crit chance.
Alternative choices like Jah (mobility) or Que (barrier) are also useful if you haven’t unlocked the optimal combos yet.
Gems
If you get socketed weapons, insert Topazes for Basic Skill damage early on. Swap to Emeralds for crit damage once your build stabilizes. For armor:
- Emeralds → Extra Dexterity and damage
- Diamonds → Great for broad defensive stat boosts if you’re dying frequently.
Mercenaries
Spiritborn pairs well with mercenaries:
- Hired Mercenary: Raheir
- Grants fortify, stuns, armor, and a periodic lifesaver mechanic. Raheir’s key skill, Valiance, saves you from death every 30 seconds.
- Reinforcement Mercenary: Varyana
- Knocks enemies down with Earth Breaker during combat. Varyana casts Earth Breaker, repeatedly knocking enemies down during fights.
Leveling Content & Tips
Best ways to level:
- Helltides
- Tree of Whispers Grim Favors
- Strongholds after level 40
- Seasonal quests for extra rewards
- Campaign (only once if you’ve never finished it)
Extra tips:
- Don’t hoard resources. Spend gold and mats to stay powerful.
- Imprint offensive aspects on your Amulet rather than your weapon for longer usefulness.
- Push higher difficulties only when your damage comfortably clears packs.
- Keep your gear updated every few levels.
Paragon & Glyphs
As you hit level 60, Paragon boards open up huge power spikes. Invest carefully:
Glyph Leveling Order:
Level 1–15:
- Spirit
- Jagged Plume
- Talon
- Colossal
- Canny
Level 15–46:
- Jagged Plume
- Talon
- Spirit
- Canny
- Colossal
Progress slows down substantially after around Paragon 200, so plan your endgame grind with that in mind.
Endgame Transition at Level 60
Once you hit level 60:
- Refresh your gear with higher-item-power drops.
- Work on Paragon boards to unlock rare nodes and glyph sockets.
- Overcap your resistances and armor for Torment difficulties.
_**Remember that each Torment level imposes:
- -250 Armor
- -25% All Resistances
Plan your gear and defenses accordingly as you push into higher difficulties.**_
If you hit level 60 and lack high rolls on Storm Feather Potency or Primary Eagle Spirit Hall Potency, equip Wushe Nak Pa temporarily. It’s a solid bridge into higher Torment content.
Many Spiritborn players transition from Evade to Rake builds in endgame, since they share many core stats like Dexterity, Crit, and Cooldown Reduction.
See also: Diablo 4 Season 9 PTR Class Changes: All Buffs, Nerfs & Spellcraft Explained
The Evade Spiritborn build in Season 9 is fast, powerful, and satisfying to play. It requires no heavy investment to get started and scales beautifully into higher content tiers. If you love screen-filling effects, high mobility, and innovative mechanics, this is one of the best leveling builds for Diablo 4 Season 9.
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