Use your favourite features in-game with our Desktop App

Diablo 4 Build

Mekuna's Payback Thorns

Spiritborn

Mekuna

Verified

End Game

Season 12

By Mekuna

LIVE

Updated on Mar 11, 2026

Mar 11, 2026

Build Overview

This is currently one of the strongest Spiritborn builds in the game for Pit Pushing. It cleared Pit 128 and can do higher. It focuses on the Spiritborn's gorilla skill, Payback, to unleash massive AoE damage.
Poised Payback turns the skill into a Core Skill, while the Rod of Kepeleke makes it a Basic Skill, letting us spam it endlessly.

🟣Follow live gameplay, meta testing & updates on Twitch
▶️Full build guide & gameplay on YouTube

This is an endgame build that requires full gear to function properly.
I recommend using the Evade build to progress through T1–T4 and farm the gear required for this build.

Records

credit: [INF] JustinFan加菲猫, [INF] Jerax and 夜未央

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strongest Build
Good Mobility
Big AoE

Can be squishy
Gear dependant

Build Variants

This is the endgame version of the build with Mythic Uniques. It’s the most versatile setup, suitable for all content!

Potion, Incenses: Elixir of Resourcefulness, Queen's Supreme, Scents of the Desert Afternoon and Soothing Spices

Assigned Skills

Primary

Secondary

Primary Spirit

Secondary Spirit

Skill Rotation

Use Payback to deal damage
Press The Protector to pull enemies
Keep all your other buff up thanks to Prodigy's Tempo

Aspect & Uniques

HelmHarmony of Ebewaka

Chest armorShroud of False Death

GlovesHesha e Kesungi

PantsTibault's Will

BootsDuelist's Aspect

AmuletAspect of Bristling Vengeance

Ring 1Aspect of Adaptability

Ring 2Ring of the Midnight Sun

WeaponRod of Kepeleke

Bloodied Affixes
Armor: % Primary Core Stat > CDR / Attack Speed > rest
Weapon: Berserking > rest
Jewels: Kill Streak XP for leveling, otherwise personal preference

Masterworking (MW) enhances an item's stats. Each MW rank increases base stats and all affixes by 1%, up to 25 ranks. At max Masterworking, one random affix receives a 50% bonus. This can include a Tempered affix or a Greater Affix. The boosted affix is highlighted in a different color.

Use the Masterworking menu at the Blacksmith. You can reset the final Masterwork, so feel free to reroll it until you hit one of the recommended stats for the extra 50% bonus.

Skill Tree

Available

0 (0)

Spent59 (12)

Leveling Path

Paragon Board

The priority is to unlock all the Legendary Nodes first, then unlock your Glyphs and their requirements. After that, spend the remaining points based on what you prefer. Nodes around the Glyph usually give more damage, while Max Life nodes are the best for toughness. Other Rare nodes can offer a bit of extra damage or toughness. The last points generally go into main stats.

Glyph leveling priority isn’t too strict:

Level all your Glyphs to 15 first, one by one.
Then take each Glyph to 46, one by one.
Once they’re all 46, level them evenly to 100, the order doesn’t matter too much.