An S-Tier Diablo 4 Season 9 Build Won’t Be for Everyone

With Diablo 4 Season 9 coming into view, players are already getting a taste of what to expect when the season starts thanks to the current build available on the PTR. While things could still change before Diablo 4 Season 9 officially goes live on July 1, the current meta points towards a few builds standing out from the crowd in the upcoming season. The addition of a powerful new unique makes the Spiritborn a top contender, but the build may not be ideal for every Diablo 4 player.

Since its debut in the Vessel of Hatred expansion, Diablo 4‘s Spiritborn class has maintained a healthy presence atop the game’s meta. The clear winner among the Spiritborn’s builds has typically been Quill Volley since it boasts the highest DPS potential of all the Spiritborn’s Core Skills. However, the new Horadric Spells seasonal power for Season 9, along with this season’s new unique for Spiritborn, seems to prime the class’s Poison Thorns build to rise to the top of the meta—but the number of players who can capitalize on this build is limited.

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Diablo 4 Season 9 Makes Poison Thorns Spiritborn a Top Tier Build, But With an Asterisk Attached

Skill	Effect Description
Vortex	Create a cyclone that pulls enemies inward, followed by a crushing downdraft that deals 35% damage to them.
Toxic Skin	Passive: Enemies that attack the player are Poisoned for 36% damage over 3 seconds. Active: Applies the Poisoning in a trail and makes the player Unhindered for 5 seconds.
Armored Hide	Passive: Players gain 1 Resolve every 5 seconds. Active: The player becomes Unstoppable and gains 100% Block Chance for 3 seconds.
The Hunter	Players bound across the battlefield with the Jaguar Spirit, dealing 50% damage upon landing and then rapidly slashing enemies in the area for 200% total damage over 7 strikes.
Scourge	Calls forth a wave of insects that bite enemies, Fearing and Slowing them for 3 seconds and applying 100% Poisoning damage over 6 seconds.
Rock Splitter	Rushes at a target and clobbers enemies in front of the player, dealing 20 damage. The third attack strikes enemies around the player, dealing 38 damage.

The core of this build follows the standard Poison Thorns Spiritborn setup that seeks to pull enemies in close with skills like Vortex while poisoning them with skills like Scourge and Toxic Skin when they attack the player. At the same time, having gear with high Thorns damage also hurts enemies that attack the player, creating a playstyle where players can passively defeat enemies who get close to them. Since this playstyle puts Spiritborn players at risk of enemy attacks, having a skill like Armored Hide can help mitigate some of this danger.

Players should choose the Gorilla Spirit Guardian for both their primary and secondary options to increase the Thorns damage they deal to enemies.

Diablo 4 Season 9 Gives the Spiritborn a Fantastic New Unique

The new Season 9 unique for the Spiritborn, the Balazan’s Maxtlatl pants, seems tailor-made for the Poison Thorns build. This new unique allows players to deal 200-300% of their Thorns and 100% Poison damage to close enemies with each attack, with the Poison damage rising to 300% for 5 seconds after dealing retaliatory Thorns damage. These pants work in tandem with some of the other gear typically found on Poison Thorns Spiritborn builds, like the Razorplate chest piece and Wound Drinker ring, to drastically increase the damage output from Thorns and Poisoning.

Diablo 4’s Poison Thorns Spiritborn Gets New Tools from Season 9’s Horadric Spells

On top of a new unique geared towards boosting damage from Poison and Thorns, Diablo 4‘s new seasonal powers for Season 9 include a variety of Horadric Spells that could benefit this Spiritborn build as well. Each spell is broken down into its Catalyst, Infusion, and Arcana, with a wide range of choices for each component for players to mix and match. For this build, players will want to combine the Disintegrate Catalyst to damage nearby enemies with the Corrosive Vapor Infusion to turn that damage into Poison damage, and the Jagged Bramble Arcana rounds off this combo by adding a Lucky Hit change to deal 250% of the player’s Thorns damage.

The Spiritborn Class is Locked Behind Diablo 4’s Vessel of Hatred Expansion

The major drawback of this build, aside from opening players up to attacks from enemies at close range, is the fact that players who haven’t purchased the Vessel of Hatred expansion are locked out of it since the Spiritborn class isn’t available to them. With how dominant the Spiritborn has been within Diablo 4‘s meta in the seasons since its addition, the new toys Season 9 is giving the class to play with make a strong case for those sitting on the fence to finally pick up the expansion. Since Diablo 4‘s next expansion won’t be out until 2026 at the earliest, Season 9 marks the perfect time to finally pull the trigger on Vessel of Hatred.