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Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Endgame Build Guide

Season 8 - Belial's ReturnEndgame

Last Updated:April 29, 2025|Changelog|FAQ

Welcome to the Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Endgame Guide! This build has an excellent mix of survivability, speed, and area damage output. While most Thorns builds require you to get hit, this one does not, because Rock Splitter applies your Thorns directly to enemies on every attack thanks to Accelerated Rock Splitter and Sepazontec.

A major plus to this build is it has no resource management as all of the damage being applied by your basic attack. With multiple defensive abilities, this is a very comfortable playstyle while dealing massive damage to easily clear all content.

One of the key items that enables the build is Sepazontec and it's recommended you acquire it from Andariel, Duriel, or Belial before transitioning. This weapon makes your basic attack always use its third attack and in this case, always applying Thorns on every hit. This weapon, while not required to function, enables this build to function in high end content. The other is Razorplate and significanly boosts your Thorns damage.

You choose Centipede Primary Spirit Hall to enable Replenishing Toxic Skin. This significantly increases all Thorns damage dealt to enemies. Jaguar Secondary Sprit Hall lets you generate Ferocity by killing enemies or hitting a Boss, keeping your Attack Speed increased as you batter your enemies. Harmony of Ebewaka futher boots your damage for having 3 Spirit Hall tags on Rock Splitter.

You need to cycle your defenses to maintain your survivability and prepare to utilize The Hunter as Bosses near the injured threshold or are injured.

Recommended items for this build

  • Sepazontec
  • Razorplate
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn
Note

This build guide assumes you have a Level 60 Character and unlocked Torment 1. To get there, level up with one of our Spiritborn Leveling Guides. To see how this Build compares against others, check out our various Build Tier Lists.

Boss Powers

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn

Season 8 is the Season of Belial's Return. It allows you to tap into Boss Powers obtained from World, Event, and Lair Bosses throughout Sanctuary. The new seasonal mechanic, Apparition Incursions, is available at any difficulty level and gives you the opportunity to unlock a subset of these powers very early on. Various Apparition Monsters appear in these special timed events throughout Sanctuary. Defeating these monsters spawns 1 of 10 Apparition Bosses to hunt you down and defeating them grants you their Boss Power. After defeating the first Boss, continue the event for a chance to fight a second Apparition Boss, after which Belial himself joins the fray.

There are 24 Boss Powers available and the first time you defeat one of these Bosses, you claim their power for yourself. Boss Powers each have Main and Modifier effects to boost your build. 13 are available in all difficulties (from Apparition Incursions and World Bosses), while 11 can only be acquired in Torment 1 difficulty or higher from Lair Bosses and Lilith. You can equip 1 Main Power and 3 Modifiers, and all powers can be upgraded up to Rank 20, increasing the potency of both the Main and Modifier effect. You use Spectral Ash to upgrade these powers, dropped from Apparition Incursions and by defeating any Bosses. Boss Powers also scale with your Paragon Level, growing stronger as you progress.

Best-in-Slot Boss Powers

Main Power

Allek's Talons - As Rock Splitter is a Basic Skill, the uptime of this Main Power is very high, allowing you to deal some additional damage to enemies you hit.

Modifiers

  • Flesh Reaper's Disruption - Provides a damage increase against Vulnerable enemies by using a Crowd Control Duration temper.
  • Torusk's Rage - Provides a massive increase to Cap 2 Attack Speed when you also have some Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies.
  • Wandering Death's Chest Beam - This execute drastically improves clear time through activities by executing enemies you hit with Allek's Talons
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Boss Powers

Alternate Boss Powers

  • Lilith's Wind of Hate Modifier - Blister Clones created when Allek's Talons hit a Boss or Elite can be hit at the same time as your primary target. They can be Crowd Controlled, enabling many additional damage multipliers and deal a large amount of damage when killed, as long as you can defeat them within 15 seconds of spawning.
  • Sinerat's Flames Main - Rock Splitter is a Mobility skill, activating this power each time you attack.

Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.

Skills & Gameplay

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn
  • Rock Splitter is your primary source of damage for this build. With Sepazontec, you constantly apply Thorns each attack while increasing Block Chance through Enhanced Rock Splitter.
  • Toxic Skin is taken to double Thorns damage through Replenishing Toxic Skin. Centipede Primary Spirit Hall applys Poison to any enemies you hit so this damage boost is always active.
  • Activate Armored Hide to replenish Resolve stacks and become Unstoppable. Reinforced Armored Hide additionally grants a large amount of Blocked Damage Reduction while active.
  • Counterattack is primarily taken to boost Thorns gained from Hubris. Use it to avoid dangerous hits. It should be activated every 3 seconds to maintain the full bonus from Hubris
  • Enhanced Scourge increases damage dealt to Crowd Controlled enemies while Adaptable Scourge allows you to heal a large amount of damage.
  • The Hunter provides a Spiritborn with exceptional mobility, use this skill to initiate combat whenever it is available. You can to go from pack to pack or close the distance to your target. Harmonious Hunter helps keep your Ferocity and Attack Speed high, giving you 8 or more stacks on cast. Exalted Hunter lets you continue casting the skill when killing enemies often, and boosts your damage thanks to Supremacy.
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Endgame

Skill Rotation

  • Cast The Hunter to initiate combat and overflow your Ferocity
  • Use Rock Splitter to deal all of your damage while dashing to your targets. This also increases your Block Chance from Enhanced Rock Splitter
  • Activate Scourge on cooldown for ongoing heals and incresed damage to Crowd Controlled enemies.
  • Cast Armored Hide to become Unstoppable and replenish your Resolve.
  • Continue weaving in other skills every 7 seconds to maintain Adaptive Stances.
  • (On Bosses) When Bosses near the Injured threshold, cast The Hunter for a 100% multiplier.

Spiritborn Spirit Hall

Primary: Centipede reduces damage taken while inflicting Poison.

Secondary: Jaguar increases your Attack Speed and maintains your Ferocity buffs.

Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Spirit Hall

Learn more details and how to unlock this system in our full Spiritborn Class Overview.

Paragon & Glyphs

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn
!
Important

Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 at level 15 and from 4 to 5 at level 46. Some of them cannot be activated before reaching these thresholds! Progress through The Pit to rank up your Glyphs.

Use the slider to see progression steps. At around Paragon 200, leveling slows down significantly and all important Rare clusters, Legendary nodes and Glyph sockets should be unlocked. Afterwards, you can min/max your build with minor tweaks and by picking up additional smaller nodes.

← Use slider for progression steps →
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn
Tip

Some Glyph position swaps, board changes and other pathing adjustments may occur as you unlock your full potential. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build before spending additional points that do not significantly impact your character's power.

Glyph Leveling Priorities

To Level 15

  1. Hubris
  2. Revenge
  3. Colossal
  4. Outmatch
  5. Turf
  6. Ritual (for Pit Push variant)

To Level 46

  1. Colossal
  2. Outmatch
  3. Turf
  4. Revenge
  5. Hubris
  6. Ritual (for Pit Push variant)

Learn more details about the Paragon System in our in-depth Paragon Boards and Glyphs guide.

Runes

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn

You can have up to two Runewords in your setup, each consisting of one Ritual and one Invocation Rune. Socket them in Two-Handed Weapons if your build calls for them, otherwise place them into your Armor pieces to replace normal gems. The Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn focuses on the following combos:

Best in Slot

  • Moni + Que - Grants consisent Barrier by casting Rock Splitter since it is a Mobility skill.
  • Cir + Kry - Pull in enemies with Vortex.

Alternative choices

As long as you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top runes, you can also benefit from these options:

  • Lith - A great way to generate Offering in extended fights
  • Bac - Consistently generates Offering in Speedfarming.
  • Mot - Generates Dark Shroud for extra defense
  • Zec - Helps reduce The Hunter cooldown
  • Ohm - Grants moderate uptime of War Cry to increase damage
  • Wat - Decrepify helps with Stagger, defense, and executes enemies at 10% HP. When combined with Xol in your other Runeword it also generates large amounts of Offering
  • Xal - For extra defense

Learn more about Runes and how they work in our dedicated Runewords Overview and Runewords Tier List.

Mercenaries

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn

Mercenaries are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and assist you in battle. There are 4 separate Mercenaries to choose from, each with their own skill trees and abilities. You can have one hired (permanent) Mercenary during solo play and a reinforcement who assist you from time to time in certain situations.

Hired: Varyana

She is primarily used to boost your Attack Speed through Hysteria, Bloodthirst, and Bloodlust. She also gives you a Movement Speed boost as you kill more and more enemies through Massacre.

Reinforcement: Raheir

Call Raheir, the Shieldbearer as your reinforcement Mercenary to when you become Injured to save you with Bastion and prevent nearly all damage dealt to you for 5 seconds.

Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Mercenary Skill Tree

Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.

Stat Priorities & Item Progression

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn

To enable the Flurry Rogue to perform optimally, hunt for these stats on your gear with good rolls and aim to Temper ⚒️ & Masterwork Crit ↑ them accordingly. The green arrow ↑ indicates which affix is most impactful to Masterwork Crit, and it does not indicate how many Masterwork Crits you need on that particular affix. Keep in mind that certain stats, such as Armor, Resistances, Extra Size Tempers, Attack Speed, and more, have caps that may affect your priorities according to the items and Paragon points available at that moment.

Recommended Endgame Stat Thresholds

  • 100%+ Attack Speed
  • 3000+ Thorns
  • 600%+ Mobility Damage
  • 2000+ Dexterity
  • 100% Block Chance
  • 80%+ Rock Splitter Size
  • Armor Capped 1,000
  • Resistance Capped 70%+
  • 6,000+ Life
  • 160%+ Movement Speed
  • 34%+ Barrier Generation
  • 15 second The Hunter Cooldown
Starter
Ancestral
Mythic
Pit Push
Starter Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn
Ancestral Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn
Mythic Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn
Pit Push Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn

Item Progression Goals

Before you dive into the Endgame with the Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn, take a look at this overview of the items used in the build. See below for further details about the different progression steps and variants. Some of your Skill Tree choices depend on what Legendary Aspects and Unique items are available to you. Keep in mind that while we can guarantee that everyone has access to the same Codex of Power Aspects, the exact progression is different for everyone.

Starter
Ancestral
Mythic
Pit Push

Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.

Build Variants

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn

This section is designed to guide your Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn from a fresh level 60 into the very late endgame using the three variants Starter, Ancestral and Mythic. At the final step, you should be fully decked out with a great all-rounder build. From there, follow the other min/max variants if you want to optimize around certain activities such as Pit Pushing, Speedfarming and more.

Starter
Ancestral
Mythic
Speedfarming
Pit Pushing

If you are fresh in Torment 1 coming from a leveling guide, this is where you begin. Since only some Aspects can be guaranteed from Dungeon unlocks for the Codex of Power, focus on acquiring the additional aspects via gambling with Murmuring Obols.

Gear & Skills

Starter Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Gear
Starter Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Skills
  • Early on in your progression, focus on armor & resistances to survive. Each Torment difficulty adds a 250 armor and 25% all res penalty and it's recommended to keep both capped (1000 armor, 70+ res) at all times. As you unlock higher power gear, masterworking levels and more paragon points, you naturally scale your character into the higher difficulties and can start replacing some of these rolls with offensive or utility stats.
  • Be mindful as you progress into the Tormented levels, each item you upgrade drastically improves your damage and survivability.
  • You do not deal as much damage without the massive damage increase from Sepazontec and the large amount of Thorns from Razorplate. These are the build defining uniques and the power you achieve from looting them can easily carry you to the next tier. Gamble all of your Obols on Quarterstaffs and Chest Armors. Fight Andariel, Duriel, or Belial for Sepazontec and Lord Zir for Razorplate.

The goal here is to progress through the Torment difficulties as you unlock Ancestrals, Paragon points, all Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and the most important Uniques to pilot this build. Some Legendary Aspects are used temporarily to fill slots that may be replaced with more Unique items later on.

Gear & Skills

Ancestral Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Gear
Ancestral Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Skills
  • As you upgrade your gear to Ancestral, start Masterworking, and reach higher paragon, you can focus more and more on replacing armor & resistance rolls with better stats, but ensure to stay capped at 1000 armor and 70%+ resistances for the difficulty you're currently in.
  • Razorplate has 4 of the same affixes. Prioritize Masterwork crits on the largest values. Note that the Greater Affix portion of the affix is not increased by Masterworking.
  • Sepazontec is a significant damage boost by allowing you to have every attack deal Thorns damage from Accelerated Rock Splitter. Prioritize Masterworking Chance for Basic Skills to Deal Double Damage.
  • Harmony of Ebewaka provides a nice damage boost since you use Centipede and Jaguar Spirit Hall effects. This gives Rock Splitter 3 skill tags and lets it benefit from additional passive skills like Potent

This is the final version of the build's progression, including all regular Unique items, Mythic Uniques, Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and Masterworking, leaving you with a great all-rounder build for all content in the game. Additional variants use this as a baseline to optimize around certain activities.

Gear & Skills

Mythic Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Gear
Mythic Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Skills
  • This build does not utilize any Mythic Uniques however, it is important to make sure you reach the appropriate stats with Greater Affixes and Masterworking ranks.

This Speedfarming variant optimizes the build for easy activities like Helltides, Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons and lower Pit Tiers after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.

Gear & Skills

Speedfarming Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Gear
Speedfarming Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Skills

There are no changes from the Mythic setup.

This setup optimizes the build to push the highest possible Tiers in The Pit after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.

Gear & Skills

Pit Push Rock Splitter Thorns Gorilla Spiritborn
Pit Push Rock Splitter Thorns Gorilla Spiritborn
  • Plains Power is slotted into your Amulet, Adaptability is moved to a Ring, and Vehement Brawler's is removed. Plains Power scales up damage significantly as Ritual is improved.
  • Swap Mobility Damage tempers for Mystic Circle Potency Tempers.
  • Change Wandering Death's Chest Beam Modifier to Lilith's Wind of Hate Modifier and ensure you hit both the Blister Clone and your primary target with Rock Splitter
  • When fighting monsters in high tiers of the Pit, remember that after crowd controlling elites for 5 seconds, they become Unstoppable for 8 seconds. This may be the right moment to start kiting them around because your damage done goes way down and they can freely retaliate.

FAQ & Mechanics

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn

Once a guide is released, many players have questions on why and how we are approaching certain choices. In this section you can find the answers to the questions that have been asked the most.

Mechanics

Video Guide

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn

Summary

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn

The Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns is a fast paced, defensive, area damage dealing machine. You utilize your basic attack to deal all of your damage with thorns, there is no resource management and no downtime in your combat.

  • Rock Splitter applies Thorns on every hit with the use of Sepazontec.
  • Incredibly defensive build. Rotate your Defensive skills to ensure maximum survivability and activate Adaptive Stances.
  • The Hunter can be used both as a mobility skill and a lethal damage skill when mobs are injured.

Credits

Season 8 - Belial's Return
Rock Spliter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn

Written by DeezyTheMonster

Reviewed by Wudijo

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