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Diablo 4 Build

Payback - Revengeborn

presentationSpiritborn
Verified
Season 11
Boss Killer
Dungeon Push
Item Reliant
Pit Pusher
Speed Farm
End Game
Updated on Dec 5, 2025
Dec 5, 2025

Build Overview

This Gorilla Endgame Build focuses on optimising the Thorns Damage from Payback whilst staying tanky enough to beat all end game content.

Check the How It Works Section below for further details.

If you've just started your character check out these LEVELLING GUIDES which will help you get from Level 1 - 60 and head to the TIER LIST for all other available endgame builds.

I'l be live streaming most evenings (GMT) on Twitch, YouTube, Kick or X. This is a great time to come ask me questions directly or contact me offline via my Discord.

Strengths and Weaknesses

  • High Damage Output
  • High Defensive Capabilities
  • Thorns Damage Build
  • Gear Dependant
  • Base Thorns Hard To Scale
  • Hard To See Thorns Damage Numbers

Build Variants

This is designed to get you started towards getting to T4 Content straight from Levelling.

For this build to function it is Mandatory to have the Aspect of Bristling Vengeance and preferably a High Roll.

You will ideally have a Rod of Kepeleke, Ring of the Midnight Sun, Harmony of Ebewaka, Hesha e Kesungi and Temerity by this point which makes the build functional.

Everything else is Optional but very nice to have.

Assigned Skills

Primary
1
1
Secondary
1
1
1
1
Primary Spirit
Secondary Spirit

Eagle (Primary)

  • We take the Eagle Primary Spirit Hall to help Cap Movement Speed as well as provide Vulnerable Application.

Jaguar (Secondary)

  • We take the Jaguar Secondary Spirit Hall for the Spirit Synergy and Ferocity Generation.

Aspect & Uniques

HelmHarmony of Ebewaka
Chest armorRazorplate
GlovesHesha e Kesungi
PantsTemerity
BootsDuelist's Aspect
AmuletAspect of Bristling Vengeance
Ring 1Aspect of Adaptability
Ring 2Ring of the Midnight Sun
WeaponRod of Kepeleke

Aspects

You can acquire the following Aspects from World Map Dungeons and Drops Only:

Drops Only

  • Aspect of Bristling Vengeance
  • Duelist's Aspect
  • Aspect of Adaptability

Unique Items

If you happen to come across any of the following Unique Items whilst levelling they will greatly boost the build:

Rod of Kepeleke

    • Boss Drops: Duriel + Harbinger of Hatred
    • Converts Core Skills to Basic Skills
    • Big Critical Damage scaled by Maximum Resource

Ring of the Midnight Sun

    • Boss Drops: Grigoire + Urivar
    • Allows Rod of Kepeleke to activate every attack when 100% Resource Generation is attained.
    • Cooldown Reduction
    • Grants the Counterattack passive

Razorplate

    • Boss Drops: Lord Zir
    • Pure Thorns Damage
    • Synergises well with Payback + Aspect of Bristling Vengeance

Harmony of Ebewaka

    • Boss Drops: The Beast In The Ice
    • Big damage
    • Unlocks Triple Spirit Hall Tech

Hesha e Kesungi

    • Boss Drops: Grigoire + Urivar
    • Big damage on using The Protector
    • Can use The Protector at range
    • The Protector Cooldown
    • Gorilla Skill Ranks

Temerity

    • Boss Drops: Lord Zir
    • Solves Barrier
    • Allows Barrier Overheal
    • Armour

Runes

Poc + Xan

    • Unlocks Critical Strikes and Overpower for Payback + Aspect of Bristling Vengeance.
    • Synergises well with the Rod of Kepeleke and Ring of the Midnight Sun.

Ahu + Qax

    • 100% Damage from the Qax Rune on Activation and we don't use our Resource for anything else so this gives it purpose on the build.

Elixirs

  1. Elixir of Advantage II
  2. Elixir of Resourcefulness II (If attack speed is capped)

Incenses

  1. Queen's Supreme
  2. Reddamine Buzz
  3. Soothing Spices

Notes To Self For Future Updates (Remove before season start)

  • Ring 1 4th Affix -> Cooldown Reduction

Divine Gifts

Andariel
CorruptedEssence of Anguish
PurrifiedEssence of Screams
Azmodan
CorruptedEssence of Hellfire
PurrifiedEssence of Sin
Belial
CorruptedEssence of Shadows
PurrifiedEssence of Lies
Duriel
CorruptedEssence of Squalor
PurrifiedEssence of Pain

Divine Gifts

Purified

The best in slot Divine Perks for most Spiritborn Builds as follows:

Essence of Screams

    • 20% Increased Resistances
    • Double Chance for an Extra Salvage Materials in the Undercity

Essence of Sin

    • 20% Increased Armour
    • Double Chance for Activity Keys from World Bosses

Essence of Lies

    • Fortify for 1% of your Maximum Life per Second
    • Double Chance for an Extra Upgrade in the Pit

Essence of Pain

    • Briefly Gain Maximum Barrier after becoming Injured, every 20 Seconds.
    • Double Chance for an Extra Socketables in the Helltide

Corrupted

Only socket these if you are feeling strong enough for the Extra Challenge and are looking to Target Farm the related Rewards they offer:

Essence of Screams

    • Double Chance for an Extra Salvage Materials in the Undercity

Essence of Sin

    • Double Chance for Activity Keys from World Bosses

Essence of Lies

    • Double Chance for an Extra Upgrade in the Pit

Essence of Pain

    • Double Chance for an Extra Socketables in the Helltide

Skill Tree

Available0 (0)
Spent59 (12)

Payback

    • Converts skill to Core Skill
    • Fires Forward when Aspect of Bristling Vengeance is equipped
    • Scales damage when Enemies Attack You (20% per enemy attack / Max 200%)
    • Scales Damage from Maximum Resource

Armored Hide

    • Grants 100% Block Chance
    • Grants Unstoppable
    • Enhanced Armored Hide Grants Thorns Damage
    • Enhanced Armored Hide Grants Maximum Resolve
    • 5% Block Damage Reduction per Nearby Enemy (Maximum 20%)

Toxic Skin

    • Grants Unhindered
    • Poisons enemies
    • Grants 100%[x] Thorns Damage

Ravager

    • Grants Minimum Ferocity passively (+5% Attack Speed per stack)
    • Multiple Hits on Elites

Counterattack

    • Grants Dodge Chance passively
    • Close Enemy Critical Damage (+5% per enemy / Max 30%)

The Protector

    • Grants Barrier in area
    • Deals Thorns Damage at Rank 5
    • Reduces enemy damage
    • Increases Damage for 6 Seconds
    • Grants Unstoppable for 6 Seconds
    • Slows Enemies & Projectiles in area

Key Passive Info

Prodigy's Tempo

    • Gain +4 Skill Ranks
    • Reduce Skill Cooldown on attacks

Paragon Board

Points Spent0

No Glyphs Installed

Stats

  • Str:99
  • Int:99
  • Dex:99
  • Will:99
  • Paragon

    Focus on rushing the Legendary Nodes on your Paragon Boards to start with as these will grant Huge Immediate Bonuses:

    • Viscous Shield
    • Spiney Skin
    • Sapping

    Glyphs

    Rank 15 Priority

    • Revenge
    • Hubris
    • Colossal
    • Spirit
    • Outmatch

    Rank 46 Priority

    • Hubris
    • Revenge
    • Spirit
    • Colossal
    • Outmatch

    Rank 46+ Priority

    • Hubris
    • Revenge
    • Spirit
    • Colossal
    • Outmatch

    Mercenary

    Raheir (Primary)

    We take Raheir as our Primary for the Extra All Resistance and Bonus Damage from Inspiration.

    Aldkin (Secondary)

    We take Aldkin as our Secondary for the 40% Slow Movement and 20% Damage Reduction on affected enemies.

    How it Plays

    The main focus here is to apply attacks as Fast as Possible so that the Thorns Damage from the Aspect of Bristling Vengeance will Overpower on activating the Xan which is currently the only way to successfully Overpower Thorns Damage.

    The Rod of Kepeleke allows us to Critical Strike on demand as long as we have full resource whilst allowing us to hit much harder at the same time and synergises nicely with the Payback Resource Consumption Mechanic on Poised Payback.

    The following steps are the recommended Build Rotation for skill usage:

    • Cast Ravager grant additional Jaguar Attacks.
    • Cast Armored Hide for 100% Block Chance.
    • Cast Counterattack for 100% Dodge Chance.
    • Cast Toxic Skin to apply Poison to surrounding enemies as well as boost your Thorns Damage.
    • Cast The Protector for Barrier Generation, Unstoppable and Immense Damage Output.
    • Cast Payback liberally around the other skills.

    Repeat each step as necessary

    How it Works

    Build Overview

    This Payback Spiritborn focuses on optimising the Thorns Damage from the Aspect of Bristling Vengeance whilst staying tanky enough to beat all End Game Content.

    It does this through the following:

    • Use of the Thorns Tech from the Aspect of Bristling Vengeance.
    • The Rod of Kepeleke allows Payback to be a Basic, Core and Potency skill.
    • Utilising the Three Spirit Halls, Gorilla, Jaguar and Eagle via the Harmony of Ebewaka.
    • Unlocking Critical Damage and Overpower Damage from the Xan Rune.
    • Maximising the base Thorns Damage.
    • Counterattack for 100% Dodge Chance in combat.
    • 100% Block Chance using Armored Hide.
    • The Protector for incredible Utility including the Pull In from the Hesha e Kesungi.
    • Maxing Attack Speed through Aspects and Equipment.
    • Various Thorns Damage Multipliers.
    • Barrier for extreme tankiness.

    Check out the In-Depth Explanations below for further details on the build.

    Extra Details

    This build went to Pit 95+ in the Season 11 PTR. This was achieved at Paragon Level 200 - 220 with Decent Equipment, Maxed Glyphs and Zero Sanctifications.

    We have been told the Pit Scaling will be reduced when Season 11 drops and that All Builds will go about 5 - 10 Pit Levels higher so this build should get to Pit 100+ easily enough.

    With the correct gear this build should easily beat all the Hardest Content In The Game without issue.

    FAQ

    If you have any questions about this guide feel free to reach out to me whilst live on Twitch, YouTube, Kick or X or contact me offline via my Discord.

    How much Resource Generation Do I need?

    With the introduction of Season 11 and the reduction of Resource Generation Sources across the board it has now become very difficult to enable you to activate the Rod of Kepeleke on Every Single Hit which is where our Big Damage comes from.

    The Easiest way to achieve this is to use the Ring of the Midnight Sun which escaped the Resource Source Nerfs and can still Restore 50% Resource Spent in the Last 2 Seconds on a Critical Strike. The pairs excellently with the Rod of Kepeleke because this will spend 100% when at Maximum Resource to guarantee a Critical Strike.

    This means that we need to achieve 100% Resource Generation on the build along with a Maximum Rolled Ring of the Midnight Sun at 50% to enable a 100% Activation Rate when attacking with the Rod of Kepeleke.

    You can obtain the Resource Generation required from various sources including:

      • Intelligence
      • Resource Generation Tempers
      • Vigorous
      • Measured Ravager
      • Shroud of False Death
      • Melted Heart of Selig

    How do I make my Thorns Critical Strike and Overpower?

    The only way that is available to allow your Thorns Damage to Critical Strike or Overpower right now is by using a Xan Rune which when paired with the Poc Rune and the Rod of Kepeleke it will have near 100% Uptime granting an Enormous Damage Boost to our Thorns Damage.

    How Much Attack Speed Do I Need?

    You will want as much Attack Speed as possible since the faster you attack, the more often your Rod of Kepeleke will invoke the Poc Rune which in turn will activate the Xan Rune more often.

    Aim for 100% Attack Speed on Equipment, Aspects, Paragon, Mercenaries and Elixirs.

    You can only attain Attack Speed in Attack Speed Bucket 2 via Ferocity which we are stacking through the user of the Jaguar Secondary Spirit Hall.

    Why Use The Melted Heart of Selig?

    In the Sanctification Variant we swap to using the Melted Heart of Selig which makes us potentially Extremely Glass Cannon but it grants us some pretty Ridiculous Damage Scaling due to Doubling Our Resource which in conjunction with Ring of the Midday Hunt we can reach the heights of around 750+ Maximum Resource.

    The reason this is Insane is because Payback has access to 3 Resource Damage Scalers:

      • Rod of Kepeleke
      • Poised Payback
      • Aspect of Adaptability

    The Rod of Kepeleke Consumes All Resource on Activation whilst the Ring of the Midnight Sun allows us to Fully Restore Our Resource due to the Melted Heart of Selig granting us upwards of 100% Resource Generation.

    It's the Short Window between attacks where you will be at Minimum Resource that you can likely be One Shot so this will be a problem to look into on the live server as there may be some new tools we aren't aware of yet to help solve this problem.

    The Damage however would be pretty crazy!

    Changelog

    5th December 2025 / v4.0

    • Updated for Season 11.

    October 10th 2025 / v1.0

    • Added build for Season 10

    Table of Contents

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