As Diablo 4’s Vessel of Hatred expansion draws ever closer, Blizzard shared the first gameplay and details of its new Spiritborn class during a lengthy live stream.
In the lore, the Spiritborn hails from the Sanctuary’s Nahantu jungle and is described as an “apex predator with a deep connection to the spirit realm”. In terms of gameplay, however, the Spiritborn is an agility class built around a spirit-infused martial art—combining aspects of Muay Thai, taekwondo, karate, kickboxing, and boxing—which promises to be Diablo 4’s “fastest, most aggressive” class yet.
He has several gap closers in his basic attacks, several “very high damage” movement skills, and various ways to improve his evasions – and all of his abilities are themed around the four divine spirit guardians he summons during battle. There is a jaguar representing courage and fury; a massive centipede embodying balance and endurance; a giant eagle reflecting awareness and gentleness, plus a gorilla that represents protection and strength.
To break it down further, jaguar skills are all about speed and constant pressure, and when used create a new stacking buff known as Ferocity. Ferocity increases the attack speed of all skills as they stack, but also further improves jaguar skills so they can be used more often.
For example, the Ravager skill has a passive effect that keeps Ferocity at a minimum, but can be activated to generate additional attacks when players hit something. Rushing Claw, meanwhile, is all about mobility, allowing the Spiritborn to attack and slice through targets over and over again, while The Hunter is the ultimate skill that summons a jaguar onto the battlefield and destroys everything in the vicinity once it lands. This can even be upgraded to give you a chance to reset its cooldown after a kill to keep your kill streak going.
As for gorillas, it offers a tanking skill set based on protection and defense. Its core mechanic is damage reduction through active blocking, all tied to the Resolve stacking buff, which reduces damage but drops whenever the player is hit. Examples of skills include Crushing Hand, essentially two separate attacks that overlap in the middle and can crush enemies to pieces, and Payback – which deals more damage the more something hits the player. His final form brings out the gorilla himself and creates a large area on the battlefield that provides protection while the player is in it, with the gorilla smashing enemies that wander in.
Moving on to the giant eagle, his skills are all about freedom of movement, allowing players to tactically move anywhere on the battlefield, increasing evasion abilities, even expanding attacks into pseudo-ranged style moves. Soar, for example, takes the Spiritborn up and out of battle for a second, then allows them to choose a drop position and boosts the damage of anything in it when they land. Then there’s Razor Wings, basically a boomerang-style throwing attack, and The Seeker. This ultimate will summon an eagle to a selected position, then charge up and release an upgradable burst of energy. It’s also the first ultimate with multiple charges, so it can be used back to back.
And finally there is the centipede. This Spirit Guardian’s skills are built around things like poison over time and crowd control, combined with sustain elements like the ability to drain life from enemies. For example, Stinger is a basic skill that deals a lot of damage in a small area – but that damage is also reflected on poisoned enemies elsewhere on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Scourge adds fear, slow and poison to enemies, and the ultimate Devourer summons a centipede to unleash a massive poison laser beam – which can be upgraded to instantly destroy a poisoned enemy.
Notably, all of these different skills can be mixed and matched for more flexibility – although players can go the single Spirit Guardian route if they want to specialize. This works through the new Spirit Hall class mechanic, which allows players to choose a starting Spirit Guardian as a primary bonus to boost all skills of that type, while also adding that spirit’s mark to their entire skill set for additional benefits. Three additional bonuses can be unlocked later, allowing players to bring more Spirit Guardian elements to their chosen playstyle.
And that’s just the basics. Blizzard’s deep dive also showcases several examples of the Spiritborn item and promises a large set of legendaries and uniques for the new class – but plenty more information can be found in the accompanying developer news post. Expect more details on Diablo 4’s Vessel of Hatred expansion before it launches on October 8th.