Welcome to the Balazan Crush Spiritborn Endgame Guide! This build focuses on scaling and dealing damage with Balazan's Maxtlatl, more specifically its Poison DoT paired with Noxious Resonance. While there are multiple possible variations including Quill Volley, Rake and Thrash, this build uses Crushing Hand as its catalyst. Compared to the others, this setup is naturally a bit more tanky and can become even noticeably more durable thanks to the barriers generated from Crushing Hand, freeing up a rune slot (Que) to potentially go for even more defense (which is a general problem on these builds), but it deals lower single target damage and resets cooldowns less consistently.
Balazan Crush Spiritborn Endgame Build Guide for Diablo IV Season 12 - Slaughter
In order to get the most out of this setup, we need several unique items. Razorplate is a natural choice that massively boosts our Thorns values to scale the pants while Loyalty's Mantle supercharges our Jaguar/Jaguar spirit hall combo, helping with cooldowns and amplifying our DPS.
With the main combo in place, the Jaguar proc becomes responsible for most of this build's damage output and we aim to trigger it multiple times per second. This leads to wild swings in damage depending on which buffs are currently active, how many times you hit each target and how many times you have been hit recently thanks to the stacking buff of Balazan's Maxtlatl.
Unfortunately, this build's great power comes at the cost of defenses since all of these slots are occupied with mandatory unique items. In addition, it has a relatively high skill ceiling due to the timing of various procs and cooldowns such as Qax, Plains Power and The Hunter, and thanks to Noxious Resonance performs much better against bosses with additional adds compared to single target encounters.
All in all, the Balazan Crush Spiritborn is an AoE powerhouse that offers a unique way to play the class and can take on the highest challenges in the game. Let's get started!
Requirements for this build:
- Balazan's Maxtlatl
- Razorplate
赛季主题与构筑适配
The Season 9 theme is the Sins of the Horadrim. This season allows you to craft unique Horadric Spells using three different components: a Catalyst, an Infusion, and three Arcana. You earn Catalysts and Infusions through the Seasonal Questline, and Arcana can be found while exploring Nightmare Dungeons. You choose a Skill as the trigger for your Horadric Spell. Once in Torment I or higher, Horadric Jewels can be crafted, which replace the Gems in your Jewelry, adding additional power to your build.
Endgame Horadric Spell
Catalyst
We use Disintegrate because it has a short cooldown and combines well with Vortex, assigned to The Hunter.
Infusion
We use Corrosive Vapor since we use the Wildfire glyph for its cooldown reduction effect, which allows us to benefit from its Fire damage for more output.
Arcana
- Reactive Ooze - Allows us to continuously attack even directly after triggering Qax.
- Fractured Core - Removes the damage resistance aura so that we can delete all packs instantly.
- Bottled Wind - Important defensive tool and great to boost our damage through Viscous Shield.
Optional Arcana
- Invigorating Helix - Can be swapped in for content without damage resistance auras such as Lair Bosses or Infernal Hordes to gain Fortify.
Best-in-Slot Horadric Jewels
- Idol From Below - Offers a great stat line and periodically spawns Elites for additional Pit progression.
- Seal of Denial - Used for the massive boost to both Thorns and Barriers.
- Luminate Eye - This helps us use The Hunter more often.
- (Pit Push) Scornful Light - Replacing Luminate Eye, we deal more damage with this.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
技能与玩法
- Crushing Hand is our main ability. While it doesn't contribute any damage, it's what we use to trigger all other effects. Compared to other options, it has the added advantage of generating tons of barrier, making the build more durable by default.
- Ravager adds extra hits against elites, which helps with triggering Jaguar.
- Armored Hide is our defensive tool and main source of Resolve. Keep an eye on your stacks and activate it as needed for powerful buffs such as Perseverance and Colossal.
- Vortex groups up packs from across the entire screen so the we can hit everything at once.
- Toxic Skin needs to be on the bar for the 100% damage boost from Replenishing Toxic Skin and can help to stack Tyrant Bane (but is never used outside of pushing).
- The Hunter is our Ultimate Ability. It's used for mobility and a range of offensive buffs: Extra Ferocity, Supremacy, Resolution and Harmonious Hunter. Thanks to Wildfire, we can reset its cooldown even without kills.
- Two points have to be added in any basic skill in order to unlock clusters further down the tree.
Skill Rotation
- Vortex enemies to group them up and knock them down to engage.
- Spam Crushing Hand at all times to deal damage and build barriers.
- Keep up Ravager and Armored Hide as much as possible.
- Activate The Hunter as often as possible for various buffs like Supremacy and Resolution or to move to the next pack.
- Focus on using Intricacy for Vortex during a run, then for Armored Hide during a boss fight.
Spiritborn Spirit Hall
Primary: Jaguar gives us a massive damage proc every 15th hit which double dips on various damage multipliers, massively amplifying our DPS.
Secondary: Jaguar adds more Ferocity for more Attack Speed and Plains Power .
Learn more details and how to unlock this system in our full Spiritborn Class Overview.
巅峰与雕文
Use the slider to see the 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.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
To Level 15
- Revenge
- Wildfire
- Ritual
- Colossal
- Hubris
To Level 46
- Wildfire
- Hubris
- Revenge
- Ritual
- Colossal
- Canny is used instead of Colossal for Pit Pushing.
Learn more details about the Paragon System in our in-depth Paragon Boards and Glyphs guide.
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 Balazan Crush Spiritborn focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Ahu + Qax - The 100% damage bonus double dips for Jaguar, giving us a massive damage buff that we can keep up near permanently after any target reaches 80% HP thanks to the high lucky hit of this build
- Poc + Ohm - War Cry adds more damage to the build and can be kept up consistently
- (Speedfarming) Igni + Jah (replacing Poc + Que) - Teleport allows us to go even faster and jump from pack to pack or over cliffs
- (Bossing) Neo + Qax - Allows us to get the effect even at the start of a boss fight
- (Pit Push) Poc + Xan - Helps with damage output for the highest tiers
Alternative choices
As long as you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top Runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Mot - Can be included for massive defense from Dark Shroud
- Xal - Another defensive choice for more HP
- Cir - Generates a large amount of offering regularly
- Tam - We spam our core skill all the time
- Kry - To group up enemies more often
- Bac - Another alternative for offering generation
- Que - Adding Earthen Bulwark grants even more defense and synergy with Viscous Shield
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 assists you from time to time in certain situations.
Hired: Raheir
He provides us with extra All Resistances, regularly applies an extra damage buff through Inspiration and prevents us from getting oneshot every 30 seconds thanks to Valiance. Beware that he's not present when playing in groups, so make sure you remain resistance capped without him.
Reinforcement: Aldkin
We choose Field of Languish for extra damage reduction.
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
Stat Priorities & Item Progression
To enable the Balazan Crush Spiritborn 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
- 157.90%+ Attack Speed*
- 2,200+ Dexterity
- 160%+ Movement Speed
- 950+ Armor
- 75%+ All Resistances
- 12,000+ Life
* This means 65% from 13 stacks of Ferocity and 92.90% from gear, Paragon and Elixir of Advantage II combined.
Recommended Consumables: Soothing Spices, Reddamine Buzz, Spiral Morning & Elixir of Fortitude II. Alternatively use Song of the Mountain or Elixir of Advantage II to cap out your Armor or Attack Speed if necessary.
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the Endgame with the Balazan Crush 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.
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
流派变体
This section is designed to guide your Balazan Crush 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.
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
- Early on in your progression, focus on Armor & Resistances to survive. Each Torment difficulty adds a penalty of -250 Armor and -25% All Resistances and it's recommended to keep both capped (1000 Armor, 75+ 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.
- "Lucky Hit: Restore Resource" (on weapon or glove) and "Lucky Hit: Apply Vulnerable" are two key rolls to shoot for.
- If you can't sustain Qax yet, use Neo + Lum to fill your resources regularly.
- Balazan's Maxtlatl is the core of the build. With it we convert Thorns into a Poison DoT every time we attack, which we then explode with Noxious Resonance. With this item you preferably get hit at least 3 times every 5sec to stack up its bonus. The actual Thorns damage is secondary.
- Razorplate gives us the biggest chunk of our damage by adding tons of Thorns.
- Loyalty's Mantle massively amplifies the bonuses of our Spirit Hall and reduces the cooldown of The Hunter to make it more easily spammable.
- Plains Power is our biggest damage multiplier, doubled on the weapon. The Mystic Circles have a massive impact on your DPS, so it's crucial to stand in them for higher end content and boss fights. Their timer is displayed on the buff bar. Paired with Mystic Circle Potency and the Jaguar hall double dip, this effect can give you up to a ~20x damage increase by itself.
- Conceited should be imprinted on the amulet for its synergy with the Jaguar main hall, even though it has the same value as Vehement Brawler's.
- Duelist's is an offensive aspect cosplaying as utility, so it goes on the boots.
- Unrelenting under perfect conditions gives you 166% extra Crushing Hand hits, roughly doubling overall Lucky Hit and Jaguar procs in real gameplay scenarios.
- Accelerating boosts our attack speed even further for even more procs.
常见问题与机制
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.
The build works really well when you decimate everything in seconds, but may get overwhelmed if fights are long against high level monsters. There are several adjustments you can make when you have trouble with more difficult content:
- Check if your Armor & Resists are capped.
- Use defensive consumables.
- Roll Maximum Life instead of offensive stats on as many pieces as possible.
- Kite enemies when they become Unstoppable.
Mechanics
- Balazan's Maxtlatl doesn't stack when dodging, but does when blocking.
- The proc triggers once per attack, twice per Rake with Wild Claws.
- Needleflare and Bristleback aspects don't help to stack the Balazan buff.
- Bane works for the Balazan DoT.
- Bitter Medicine does not work for the Balazan DoT.
- Replenishing Toxic Skin works for the Balazan DoT.
视频演示
BD 总结
The Balazan Crush Spiritborn is a highly mobile AoE powerhouse.
- Stack Thorns where you can.
- Cap arrmor & resistances and stack maximum life to survive.
- Play around Mystic Circles for maximum damage output.
- Let monsters hit you to stack up the Balazan's Maxtlatl buff.
- Focus on making large pulls for big AoE pops from Noxious Resonance.
- Enjoy the KABOOM feeling when you make large pulls!
作者寄语
Written by wudijo
