Blizzard doesn’t often add a new class to Diablo’s ranks, but the Spiritborn Vessel of Hatred is quick to introduce them. The martial arts warrior brings something new and effortless to the familiar sights of Nahant, while respecting the time-honored tradition of peeling meaty loot piñatas with ruthless devotion.
Speaking to the press at its California headquarters, Blizzard explains that its approach to the Spiritborn lore is that angels exist among the high heavens, demons dwell deep in burning hells, and we humans have a spirit realm in between—essentially a ghostly reflection . Sanctuary where ghosts roam freely. As a Spiritborn, you can manifest four of these spirits and bind them to your will.
If you’re wondering where they’ve been hiding all this time, it’s clear that the natives of Nahant chose to stay out of the fight that unfolded in Diablo 4, as memories of Mephisto still linger – he kept his stone there during the events. after all, from Diablo 2. Now that Neyrelle has brought the great brute back, staying idle is no longer an option.
Born for it
This tradition informs your chosen play style. A Spiritborn starts with one Spirit Guardian, but can eventually use all four when he’s far enough along the leveling path. Eagle lends itself to a nimble and precise play style; gorilla tanks is about defense; jaguar appreciates aggression and attacks with many blows; and centipede is for fans of poison attacks and debuffs.
You can hack and change skills as you like when building your lineup, although each spirit is color-coded to make it easier for those with less experience. Want to build an eagle-centric build? Stick to the color blue.
While the Spiritborn are new, some spirits are familiar with them. So far playing Diablo 4 as a Rogue helps me feel at home with the “glass cannon” abilities the eagle offers. Rushing into hordes of enemies and seeing them disappear in a maroon haze of blitzes scratches the same itch as my Rogue. It’s not just an eagle – I bet fans of Diablo’s tank classes will find a lot to love about gorillas.
Whether it’s Destiny 2’s Hunter or Diablo 4’s Rogue, I’ve always chosen a class that hits the notes I like aesthetically – basically sneaky assassins in cool cloaks. Spiritborn doesn’t come with a cool mantle as far as I know, but capturing what some villains do best tempts me to break one of my worst RPG habits by creating a new character that plays a different class.
Centipede main for life
Discussing how Spiritborn came to be, game designer Bjorn Mikkelson explains that the goal was to provide such familiarity because a good class offers something new, improved, and recognizable.
“We wanted this one character with several different fighting styles,” he says. “It’s partly just the nature of action RPGs – there aren’t really that many different fighting styles. There’s only so many ways you can kill something.”
Mikkelson goes on to say that the team tried to hit as many of these fighting styles as possible, guided by the idea that “what makes something successful is that it’s something recognizable versus something new.”
“In Centipede, we’ve brought some slightly weird things, but there’s still some recognizable elements — if you’re used to damage over time, that kind of thing. So we expect some overlap, and really what we’re ‘Hey, you can go all ‘ if that’s comfortable and fun for you, but the fun in Spiritborn is ‘maybe I can mix my Barbarian and Rogue.’ That’s the hope we have for it.”
While Blizzard wanted Spiritborn to feel familiar, it still left room for the developers to try some new ideas. Mikkelson says the centipede allowed the team to play with some “weird and different” things. Specifically, fear debuffs are something we see in a lot of RPGs, but there isn’t much of it in the base game of Diablo 4.
That’s why I’m asking if designing a new class is liberating rather than remixing something we’ve already seen. While you can see a lot of Diablo 2’s Assassin and Diablo 3’s Demon Hunter in Diablo 4’s Rogue, the Spiritborn aren’t tied to as much history in the game’s universe. For Mikkelson, designing Spiritborn was liberating, though he emphasizes that “freedom is sometimes a cage” because whatever emerges still has to respect the boundaries set by Sanctuary.
The developer explains that the benefit of designing something like Rogue is that most people know what it is and should be, but what the hell is a Spiritborn? Figuring it out from a gameplay standpoint meant creating things that “didn’t pan out” — though Mikkelson teases you’ll see some of that in the future — and fine-tuning through experimentation, with Blizzard creating around 60 prototype skills “just to try out what’s fun and different.”
Back to Nahant
However, Blizzard could lean on the developing story of Vessel of Hatred. Going to Nahant in Diablo 4’s first major expansion means going back to somewhere we know from Diablo 2 – the jungle. So most can have an idea of who a Spiritborn is roughly from where they live.
Associate Narrative Designer Eleni Rivera-Colon tells us that while the narrative team wanted to “restructure” what it means to return to the old setting, it’s “the perfect time” to introduce a new class that actually fits the setting — rather than bringing back something that you have already seen what could be less suitable. The storytelling team also enjoyed the feeling of freedom to find out what it all means, even though we already know what that freedom can be like.
“I think it’s been liberating for the team as a whole to try new things,” says Mikkelson, before Rivera-Colon adds, “All while fitting into the theme and lore of Diablo and making sure that whatever class is created doesn’t seem You don’t think you’d spoil the fantasy of what Diablo 4 is, do you?
“Because I think it’s important to our player base,” he continues. “Even if you’re new to it, throwing something that far away is uncomfortable. And it takes you out of everything in the story that we’ve been building.”
Referring to what Mikkelson said earlier about freedom as a cage, Rivera-Colon adds, “It’s a cage, isn’t it? The cage makes sure that it still fits the structure and the expectations of the players at the same time.”
The story so far
As Vessel of Hatred approaches, Diablo 4 finds itself in a much healthier position than it was at launch. While loot ’em up showed promise at launch, the first few seasons went back and forth between fan expectations until the fourth season’s loot overhaul put the game on a better footing.
While development on the main game is largely taking place alongside those working on the DLC, the vibe remains positive that Diablo 4 just keeps getting better and better as Vessel of Hatred approaches. And that’s good for everyone.
“Obviously the changes that have been made come from a place of learning and trying to improve the game,” says Mikkelson. “But you know, we always do it with the idea that we want the game to be in a good place when we add a lot of new things to it. So I think pretty much with each iteration, we’re happier and more satisfied with where we are.”
Rivera-Colon adds, “Ultimately, we want people to want to play Seasons, but we also want them to enjoy Vessel of Hatred and Spiritborn. So it’s a combination of making sure they enjoy the game, so they can trust us when it comes to expanding and introducing a new class, and they can say, ‘Okay, they’ve finally hit their stride, and now we can trust that something great is going to happen. it will come.”
Diablo 4 attempted to repackage Diablo 2 for the modern era, but series supervisor Rod Fergusson says that was not possible due to the “consumable nature of the live service”.