With the Vessel of Hatred expansion for Diablo 4 fast approaching, Blizzard shared the first gameplay footage and details about the new Spiritborn class during an extensive livestream.
In lore terms, the Spiritborn hails from the jungles of Sanctuary’s Nahantu and is described as “an apex predator with a deep connection to the spirit realm.” From a gameplay perspective, however, the Spiritborn is an agility-focused class built around a spirit-infused martial arts moveset – combining aspects of Muay Thai, taekwondo, karate, kickboxing, and boxing – that promises to be Diablo 4’s “fastest, most aggressive” class yet.
It has multiple gap-closers built into its basic attacks, several “very high damage” movement abilities, plus several ways to upgrade its dodges – and all of its abilities rely on four divine Spirit Guardians that it summons during battle. There’s a jaguar, which represents courage and fierceness; a massive centipede, which embodies balance and tenacity; a giant eagle, which reflects awareness and finesse, plus a gorilla, which is a manifestation of protection and strength.
Breaking this down further, jaguar skills are all about speed and constant pressure stacking, and they generate a new stacking buff called Ferocity when used. Ferocity increases the attack speed of all skills as it stacks, but also buffs jaguar skills so they can be used more often.
The Ravager ability, for example, has a passive effect that keeps Ferocity at a minimum level but can be activated to generate additional attacks whenever players hit something. Rushing Claw, on the other hand, is all about mobility, allowing the Spiritborn to dash and slash through targets over and over again, while The Hunter is an ultimate ability that summons the jaguar onto the battlefield, destroying anything in its path when it lands. It can even be upgraded for a chance to reset the cooldown after a kill to keep that kill streak growing.
As for the gorilla, it offers a tankier skill set based around protection and defense. The core mechanic is damage reduction through active blocking, all tied to the Resolve stacking buff, which reduces damage but wears off when a player is hit. Examples of skills include Crushing Hand, which is essentially two separate attacks that overlap in the middle and can shred enemies, and Payback – which deals more damage the more things a player hits. The ultimate brings in the gorilla itself, creating a large area on the battlefield that offers protection while a player is in it, with the gorilla crushing any enemies that wander into it.
Moving on to the giant eagle, its abilities are all about freedom of movement, allowing players to tactically move anywhere on the battlefield, enhance evasiveness, and even extend attacks into pseudo-ranged moves. Soar, for example, takes the Spiritborn out of combat for a moment and then has them choose a descent position, amplifying the damage dealt to anything in it upon landing. Then there’s Razor Wings, essentially a boomerang-like throwing attack, and The Seeker. This ultimate summons the eagle to a selected position, at which point it charges up and unleashes an upgradeable energy blast. It’s also the first ultimate to have multiple charges, so it can be used in succession.
And finally, there’s the Centipede. This Spirit Guardian’s abilities are built around things like damage over time, poisoning, and crowd control, combined with sustaining elements like the ability to kill enemies. Stinger, for example, is a core ability that deals a lot of damage within a small area, but that damage also echoes to poisoned enemies elsewhere on the battlefield. Scourge, meanwhile, adds fear, slowness, and poisoning to enemies, and the Devourer ultimate calls upon the Centipede to fire a massive poisonous laser beam, which can be upgraded to instantly destroy a poisoned enemy.
Notably, all of these different abilities can be mixed and matched for more flexibility – though players can also go for a single Spirit Guardian route if they’d rather specialize. This works via the new Spirit Hall class mechanic, allowing players to choose a starting Spirit Guardian as a primary perk that will enhance all abilities of that type, while also adding that spirit’s tag to their entire skill kit for added benefits. It’s possible to unlock three more perks later on, allowing players to incorporate more Spirit Guardian elements into their chosen playstyle.
And that’s just the basics. Blizzard’s deep dive also shows off a few examples of Spiritborn itemization, promising a big package of legendaries and uniques for the new class—but you’ll find a ton of extra information in the developer’s accompanying news post . Expect more details on Diablo 4’s Vessel of Hatred expansion ahead of its October 8 launch.