One New Diablo 4 Unique is the Clear Winner of Season 9

With Diablo 4 Season 9 kicking off, the meta for the game’s class builds is starting to come into view, and it seems to paint a familiar picture. Diablo 4‘s Spiritborn class seems to be the top choice for players looking to dig deep into endgame content, and the Spiritborn’s new Season 9 unique appears to be the key to its success. However, this isn’t a new phenomenon for the class, as the Spiritborn has a storied past with meta-defining uniques that have elevated it to the top of seasonal build tier lists.

Since its introduction in Season 6 alongside the release of the Vessel of Hatred expansion, the Spiritborn has maintained a solid place among Diablo 4‘s most consistently strong classes. With the launch of Season 9, this status largely remains unchanged, as the Spiritborn has some of the best endgame potential in Diablo 4. Players looking to run a Spiritborn build for Tormented Bosses or the highest tiers of the Pit have several great options to choose from, but nearly all revolve around the Balazan’s Maxtlatl unique pants.

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Diablo 4 Season 9’s Best DPS Build Comes at a High Price

Diablo 4 Season 9 has some standout builds due to its Horadric Spells and skill buffs, but one of the best may require some heavy player investment.

Diablo 4 Season 9’s Balazan’s Maxtlatl Unique is the Rod of Kepeleke All Over Again

The Spiritborn Dominates the Season 9 Meta with Balazan’s Maxtlatl

While the Sins of the Horadrim season’s new Horadric Spells might be the main way Diablo 4 has spiced up its builds, the uniques introduced in Season 9 are also key players in shaping its meta. Specifically, the Spiritborn’s Balazan’s Maxtlatl unique pants have the versatility and damage-scaling potential to boost several past Spiritborn builds into the upper echelons of Season 9’s endgame meta.

Although the best option for Diablo 4 Season 9 Spiritborns is still Quill Volley, each of these builds can take advantage of Balazan’s Maxtlatl to great effect. The secret to Balazan’s Maxtlatl’s power comes from its ability to scale Poison damage incredibly well in conjunction with Toxic Skin and Noxious Resistance, which causes Poisoned enemies to burst on Crits and deal 180% Poison damage to them and 20% to surrounding enemies. With Balazan’s Maxtlatl designed to maximize Poison damage output, players can essentially choose which skill they want to use as their primary catalyst and build their Spiritborn around this unique and its Poisoning potential.

Balazan’s Maxtlatl Unique Pants

160 Armor

+[10-373] Thorns
+ [1-457] Maximum Life
+ [0-121] Dexterity
+ [1-3] Bastion (Spiritborn Only)
Each attack damages Close Enemies for [200-300]% of the player’s Thorns and also deals 100% of this damage as Poisoning over 3 seconds. Each time the player retaliates with Thorns, for 5 seconds the Poisoning damage is increased by 100% up to 300%.

Spiritborn Uniques Have a History of Being Top Tier

Season 9 isn’t the first instance of a Spiritborn unique being the focal point of a top-tier Diablo 4 build. Since the Spiritborn’s addition, it has consistently thrived due to the near-universal utility of the Rod of Kepeleke unique quarterstaff. Most previous meta Spiritborn builds relied on the Rod of Kepeleke’s unique ability to change Core skills into Basic skills, making them free to cast and turning any unspent Vigor into guaranteed Crit damage. This allowed powerful Spiritborn skills like Quill Volley to maximize their damage output.

However, the Rod of Kepeleke is no longer a requirement in the Sins of the Horadrim season’s meta due to the shift away from Core skill DPS, due to the prominence of Balazan’s Maxtlatl. Instead, the season’s meta Spiritborn builds rely more on applying Poisoning passively through Thorns and a skill like Toxic Skin, leading to the wide variation of Spiritborn builds that largely just swap out Core and Basic skills based on the player’s preference. It’s unclear if this unique will remain the focal point for future Spiritborn builds since the class does get a Poison damage boost from Season 9’s Horadric Spells as well, but it’s clear that Balazan’s Maxtlatl is a more than worthy addition to Diablo 4, regardless.