Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Leveling Guide
Last Updated:February 1, 2025|Changelog
Welcome to the Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn Leveling Guide! This is a melee build that leverages the Rock Splitter Basic attack to apply a massive amount of Thorns directly as Basic Skill damage. Your main skill, Rock Splitter, applies Thorns directly on every third attack. When paired with Scourge, Counterattack, and Armored Hide, you have a good amount of defenses and sustain allowing you to easily progress through the leveling experience.
You start with Gorilla Primary Spirit Hall to make use of Thorns you gain from Accelerated Rock Splitter and Bastion. If you find Sepazontec, swap to 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.
While Razorplate is the most important part of getting this build online, there are alternatives to get things going in the early game. Tormentor's and Needleflare are both found in Dungeons and get you well on your way to dealing Thorns damage reliably. Might is an incredible aspect to get early to provide a great boost to survivability as Rock Splitter ensures you always have this defense boost. Rapid gives you a leg up on the damage side early on by increasing your Attack Speed.
There are more things to unlock later down the line, which are explained in the Rock Splitter Thorns Gorilla Spiritborn Endgame Guide. Until then, this guide teaches you all about how to reach the endgame in Diablo 4 with the Rock Splitter Thorns Spiritborn. Let's get started!
This build guide takes you up to level 60 and gets you started for the early Endgame on Torment 1 difficulty. If you're looking for in-depth Endgame guides, check out our Spiritborn Guides section!
Check out our Leveling Builds Tier List to see how this build compares to others.
Witchcraft Powers
Season 7 is the Season of Witchcraft. It features two separate borrowed power mechanics in the forms of Witchcraft Powers and Occult Gems. Both Seasonal mechanics are unlocked and improved by new NPCs found at the Tree of Whispers after collecting resources from Headhunt Zones, Seasonal areas similar to Helltide that appear across Sanctuary.
There are 25 Witchcraft Powers, 6 of which can be equipped at a time. Each Power belongs to one of four Schools (Eldritch, Growth & Decay, Psyche, and Lost), tags that promote synergies within themselves and with Occult Gems. Each School has a single Unique Witchcraft Power, only one of which can be equipped at a time. These Unique Powers max out and gain an additional effect at rank 5, while the other Powers max at rank 21 and gain their bonus effects at various levels. To unlock and improve Witchcraft Powers, defeat Headrotten or complete Whispers within the Headhunt Zones to collect Restless Rot. Lost Powers are an exception, requiring you to randomly encounter a Forgotten Altar in Dungeons to unlock them.
Best-in-Slot Witchcraft Powers
- Soul Harvest - This Power dramatically increases Core Stats based on monster density and is a reliably strong choice for the Rock Splitter Spiritborn, which can group mobs together with Vortex from Kry.
- Twilight Warding - Significantly reduces the amount of Barrier Generation needed for Viscous Shield. At Rank 20, the effect cooldown matches the duration so it is always active.
Use Hex of Shattering until it is reactivated.
- Aura of Siphoning - Can provide some healing in place of Hex of Whispers.
- Aura of Misfortune - Mitigates some incoming damage while boosting your Movement Speed and enabling the Psyche portion of It also activates Breath of the Coven.
- Hex of Whispers - Synergizes well with Friend of the Bog as you gain more Fortify when it ends and increase your Damage Reduction.
- The Cycle - This is primarily used to activate Friend of the Bog however it is a good source of healing and another source of Poison damage for Replenishing Toxic Skin.
Alternate Witchcraft Powers
- Piranhado - This power can be used as an alternative way to group mobs.
- Breath of the Coven - This gives you a large amount of Cap 1 Attack Speed (see Attack Speed Mechanics for more details) when casting an Ultimate skill thanks to Voice of the Stars.
- Hex of Shattering - The Damage Reduction is great and it is the most consistent way to apply a Hex when paired with Voice of the Stars.
Occult Gems
Rarely, Headrotten Bosses appear with a still-attached Fugitive Head stolen from the Tree of Whispers. Slay these enemies and return the Heads to Gelena to unlock and upgrade Occult Gems. These Gems are socketable in Jewelry and each provide +160 Armor and +8% Resistance to All Elements so be sure to slot them in for the defensive stats even if they don't synergize with your chosen Witchcraft Powers. More importantly, each Occult Gem grants a unique effect that synergizes with your equipped Witchcraft Powers to provide a variety of Offensive, Defensive, and Utility-based bonuses.
Occult gems seem to be extremely hard to create on your first character and you likely will not be able to use any. If you can, check the recipe to ensure it feeds into one of the Best-In-Slot gems.
Best-in-Slot Occult Gems
- Cornucopia - Increases Barrier Generation and Thorns, both vital stats for this build.
- Voice of the Stars - Activates all 3 portions of Breath of the Coven when you cast an Ultimate.
- Friend of the Bog - Extra Core Stats improve skill damage, Armor, and Resistances, Maximum Life improves defense, and becoming Unhindered helps you move through groups of mobs while also activating Unrestrained Power. This is a great all rounder gem.
Alternate Occult Gems
- Hungering Void - Helps pull in enemies if you do not have a better source.
- Heart of Anima - Boosts the 2 selected Psyche powers
- Toadling's Wish - Boosts the 4 selected Growth and Decay powers.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
Getting Started
To start off you are going to put one point into Rock Splitter, which is our primary damage source, one into Enhanced Rock Splitter and, one into Accelerated Rock Splitter. Spamming this ability applies Thorns on each third attack. No Core skill is taken, but points are put into Follow Through to further boost Rock Splitter damage.
Focus Skills
In the Focus tree you learn Toxic Skin which is vital to the Rock Splitter Spiritborn. Replenishing Toxic Skin is always active once the skill is learned and equipped, doubling all Thorns damage dealt to Poisoned enemies. Ravager hits enemies each time you attack with any other skills, and each initial hit applies Thorns from Gorilla Primary Spirit Hall. Activate it when approaching large groups since Enhanced Ravager lets kills extend the duration.
Defensive Skills and Passives
Here you pick up Armored Hide, Scourge, and Bastion, all offering key Defensive, Utility, and Offensive features to the build. Armored Hide provides a large amount of Thorns on cast and refills Resolve, increasing your Damage Reduction. Enhanced Scourge increases damage dealt to Crowd Controlled enemies while Adaptable Scourge allows you to heal a large amount of damage. Bastion gives you a nice boost to your Thorns while you have a Barrier active which is most of the time.
Ultimate Skill
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 stacks on cast. Exalted Hunter lets you continue casting the skill when killing enemies often, and boosts your damage thanks to Supremacy.
Spirit Hall
At level 15, you can unlock your class mechanic called Spirit Hall. There you may choose one out of the four spirit guardians for both the primary and secondary slots. You start with Gorilla Primary Spirit Hall to make use of Thorns you gain from Accelerated Rock Splitter and Bastion. If you find Sepazontec, swap to 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.
Key Passive
Adaptive Stances is your key passive of choice. Since you utilize all four spirits, we are frequently gaining all of the bonuses from this passive. Movement speed, Damage Reduction, Attack Speed, and Life per Second. With the swaps happening frequently, you have a very high uptime on the Core Stat increase as well. Since Rock Splitter is the skill used most often, you generally gain 30% Damage Reduction from Adaptive Stances.
Final Journey to Level 60
At this point, most of the key synergies are unlocked and the gameplay loop is almost complete. As you level up, you unlock a lot of extra points that go into various offensive and defensive passives or max out certain skills. Check out the skills progression above to see where to put your points as you go, but feel free to deviate from the order displayed as necessary. For example, you can pick up Auspicious earlier for extra defense or leave out some of the Ultimate passive cluster nodes until later if you find yourself rarely using The Hunter. Once you find Hubris, swap Ravager to Counterattack to significicantly boost your Thorns.
Harmony of Ebewaka Swap
If you manage to find it, Harmony of Ebewaka allows you to add the skill tag corresonding to your Secondary Spirit Hall choice to all skills. This makes Potent a more reliable damage boost as Rock Splitter gains the Jaguar tag. The Unique effect of the helmet also increases skill damage dealt for each skill tag on the skill and gives Rock Splitter a third tag.
More info in the Endgame section below.
Check out our Renown Guide to unlock all your additional Skill Points efficiently.
Spirit Hall
Primary: Gorilla lets you apply Thorns to all your various attacks. When you find Sepazontec, swap to Centipede to inflicting Poison and boost Thorns damage.
Secondary: Jaguar increases your Attack Speed and maintains your Ferocity buffs.
Unlocking the Spirit Hall
Once you reach level 15, you have to complete a short questline starting in Gea Kul, Kehjistan. A Priority Quest leads you there to help out Tarka. After a few stops outside of town you have to enter the Sacred Hunting Grounds and defeat the Spirit Beast. While inside this dungeon you have to use the emote wheel at two separate stops, once for "Help", once for "Thanks" in order to progress. The boss fight is relatively long and difficult for low level characters, so it's recommended to do this quest on normal. After finishing the quest your secondary Spirit Hall unlocks automatically at level 30.
Learn more details in our full Spiritborn Spirit Hall Guide.
Gear & Stat Priorities
To get started as Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn, focus the most on upgrading your weapon as its damage is the base for all further damage calculations. Otherwise, follow the priority list below. While you don't have all of the desired temper manuals available, simply try to get anything useful on your gear until you get the right ones. For example, % Damage, Damage to Close, Vulnerable Damage, etc. all work as long as you activate their conditions. Likewise, you can temper multiple defensive options such as Resistances, Life, Armor to fill gaps in your survivability. Tempering low level gear is relatively cheap and the results can be very impactful.
Tip: For the early game, Elemental Surge Weapon Tempers are very powerful due to their high base damage, especially if you are leveling an alt. If you find these, you may want to keep tempering them on your weapons for an easy time.
Legendaries & Uniques
The Codex of Power is a collection of Legendary Aspects you can imprint onto Rare or Legendary items at the Occultist. They unlock after completing specific Dungeons located around Sanctuary or salvaging items with these powers. Check out our Map Tool to locate these Dungeons.
For leveling, there are a few powers that can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them. In addition, keep an eye out for powerful Unique items you may find for this or other builds.
Must-have Dungeon unlocks
- Rapid
Nice-to-have Dungeon unlocks
- Bristleback
- Tormentor's
- Might
Other useful Aspects (drop/gamble)
- Moonrise
- Adaptability
- Conceited
- Duelist's
- Binding Morass
- Menacing
- Apprehension
What to Gamble
| Offensive | Gloves |
| Defensive | Helm, Chest, Pants |
| Utility, Mobility | Boots |
| Resource | Rings |
Great Uniques for this build
- Sepazontec
- Razorplate
- Harmony of Ebewaka
Jackpot Drops
As you level up, you may get lucky and find some great random drops. Some of these can massively amplify your power and speed up the leveling by switching to another build. Keep in mind that there are many more Aspects and Uniques that can be useful to multiple builds; this just lists some of the most impactful ones. While we usually recommend starting with Endgame Builds at level 60, you often can make them work earlier with these drops:
Build-defining Uniques
- Jacinth Shell (amplifies multiple Endgame Builds)
Learn more details in our articles covering the Codex of Power and Unique Items.
Runes
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.
- Igni + 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:
- Tec - Barbarian Earthquakes deal a large amount of damage in a massive area.
- Cir - Generates offering by spamming Rock Splitter
- Poc - Another way of generating offering
- Mot - Generates Dark Shroud for extra defense
- Lith - A great way to generate Offering in extended fights
- Zec - Helps reduce The Hunter cooldown
- Ohm - Grants moderate uptime of War Cry to increase damage
- Bac - Consistently generates Offering in Speedfarming.
- 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
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.
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
How To Level
In Diablo 4, you can level by completing the Campaign, collecting Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers, completing Helltide activities, grinding Dungeons, clearing Strongholds, fighting in the Undercity of Kurast or interacting with the Seasonal Mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are equal.
Campaign Leveling
- For your first character in Diablo 4, completing the Campaign provides all the background lore information but is not necessary.
- The Campaign is the slowest way to level, but it's worth experiencing the Campaign and Diablo 4's storyline at least once.
- To play Seasonal Content you need to have completed or skipped the Campaign.
- If your account is below Rank 4 Renown in each zone, focus on completing your Renown.
- This only needs to be done once per realm (Softcore / Hardcore).
- After finishing the campaign, you should focus on earning experience in Helltides by combining Helltide activities with Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers or completing Gathering Legion Events.
- Strongholds provide a big boost of experience for little time investment. Make sure to clear all of them after around level 40.
Seasonal / Alt Leveling
- Complete the Seasonal Questline in order to progress your Seasonal Journey to unlock additional Legendary Aspects and work on your Seasonal Powers.
- If your account is below Rank 4 Renown in each zone, focus on completing your Renown.
- This only needs to be done once per realm (Softcore / Hardcore).
- Complete the Dungeons needed for any Legendary Aspects from your Codex of Power.
- From level 1-60 you should focus on earning experience in Helltides by combining Helltide activities with Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers or completing Gathering Legion Events.
- Strongholds provide a big boost of experience for little time investment. Make sure to clear all of them after around level 40.
- If you're playing an Alt, make sure to use Tempers and Leveling Caches crafted from the Alchemist to speed up your progression.
- Find the most efficient way of leveling your character in detail with our Speed Leveling Guide.
Tips and Tricks
- Don't Imprint Your Weapon
- It is a better idea to put your best Offensive Aspect on your Amulet, which usually is not replaced as often as your Weapon.
- Compare Your Items
- Press Shift to activate item comparison. Use this build guide's Stat Priorities section to identify potential upgrades.
- Choose an Easy Difficulty
- Ideally, start on Hard difficulty for the extra XP modifier, then try to go higher when it's way too easy. If that slows you down noticeably, it's better to stay on a lower difficulty.
- Use Your Materials
- There's no point in holding on to your gold or materials for later. Use everything to speed up your journey to 60. If you're twinking, make sure to craft the Allowance Caches from the Alchemist at level 20 and if available, equip your Mythic Uniques at level 35 to make the leveling a breeze.
Speedrun Route
- If you're looking to min/max your time spent on the way to 60 instead of following a generic guideline, you need to use a specific strategy.
- This usually includes farming certain activities up to a specified level and then switching to other tasks while gathering XP in high density areas and pushing the difficulty as high as you can.
- We update this strategy seasonally in our Speed Leveling Guide.
Endgame Transition
As you approach level 60 with the Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn, you unlock higher item power gear that represents a massive jump in character power. This is a good time to refresh your setup with new tempers and imprints.
At level 60, Paragon Levels and The Pit unlock. Work towards Tier 20 to enter Torment 1, where the Endgame begins. Focus on overcapping your Armor (1000+) and Resistances (70%+) as you receive some penalties to your character's stats:
- -250 Armor per Torment difficulty
- -25% All Resistances per Torment difficulty
At this point, your setup should look roughly like this before you dive into min/maxing with Uniques, Mythics & Masterworking. With better gear, more levels and Glyphs, you can push further and eventually unlock higher difficulties for increased rewards.
This step marks the end of the leveling guide. Below is the Paragon setup to get you started in Torment difficulty, but ideally, you should now transition towards the endgame version of this build or choose another of your liking.
Paragon & Glyphs
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.
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
- Hubris
- Revenge
- Colossal
- Outmatch
- Turf
To Level 46
- Colossal
- Outmatch
- Turf
- Revenge
- Hubris
There are a total of 328 Paragon Points. After reaching level 60, you gain up to 300 Paragon Levels, 24 from Renown and 4 from Altars of Lilith. Check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
Video Guide
Coming soon.
Summary
- The Rock Splitter Gorilla Thorns Spiritborn is a fast, fun to play leveling build that scales very well into the lategame.
- Utilizing the Life Steal of Scourge, you have great sustain paired with your nonstop onslaught of damage with Rock Splitter. Weaving in Armored Hide for more defense and The Hunter to deal massive damage and bound across the battlefield, you are an unstoppable force with this build.
- Make sure you are getting Thorns damage, Attack Speed, and defenses on your gear.
Credits
Written by DeezyTheMonster
Reviewed by wudijo