It’s not often that Blizzard adds a new class to Diablo’s ranks, but Vessel of Hatred’s Spiritborn is quickly making a case for its introduction. The martial arts-style warrior brings something seamless and new to the familiar landmarks of Nahantu, while honoring a centuries-old tradition of recklessly dropping meaty loot piñatas.
Speaking to press at Blizzard’s headquarters in California, Blizzard explained that the approach to Spiritborn lore is that angels exist in the high heavens, demons dwell deep in the fiery hells, and we humans get the spirit realm in between — essentially a spooky reflection of Sanctuary where spirits roam free. 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 largely because the Nahantu natives chose to stay out of the battle that unfolded in Diablo 4, as the memories of Mephisto still live on – his stone was, after all, held there during the events of Diablo 2. Now that Neyrelle has brought the great brute back, sitting still is no longer an option.
Born for this
This lore will determine your chosen playstyle. The Spiritborn starts with a single Spirit Guardian, but can eventually wield all four if you progress far enough through the leveling path. The eagle lends itself to a nimble, precision playstyle; the tanky gorilla is all about defense; the jaguar prizes aggression and multi-hit attacks; and the centipede is for fans of poison attacks and debuffs.
You’re free to switch abilities when you’re building your build, though each spirit is color-coded to make it easier for the less experienced. Feeling like building an eagle-focused build? Stick with blue.
While the Spiritborn are new, some of the spirits feel familiar. Playing Diablo 4 as a Rogue so far has helped me feel at home with the sort of “glass cannon” capabilities the Eagle affords. Blasting through hordes of enemies and watching them vanish in a maroon blur of lightning attacks feels the same as playing as my Rogue. It’s not just the Eagle, either – I’d wager fans of Diablo’s tankier classes will find plenty to like about the Gorilla.
Whether it’s Destiny 2’s Hunter or Diablo 4’s Rogue, I’ve always gone for the class that hits the notes I like in terms of aesthetics – cunning assassins with cool cloaks, basically. The Spiritborn doesn’t have a cool cloak, as far as I know, but capturing what some rogues do best is enough to entice me to break one of my worst RPG habits by actually making a new character who plays a different class.
Centipede head for life
Game designer Bjorn Mikkelson discusses how the Spiritborn came about, explaining that the goal was to create that familiarity, as a good class offers something new, improved, and recognizable.
“What we wanted was this one character with multiple, different fighting styles,” he says. “That’s partly just the nature of action RPGs – there’s not really that many types of fighting styles. You can only kill something in so many ways.”
Mikkelson went on to say that the team tried to approximate as many of those fighting styles as possible, and that the team was guided by the idea that “something is successful when it’s something familiar rather than something new.”
“We’ve brought out some of the slightly weird stuff in the centipede, but there’s still some recognizable elements there — if you’re used to damage over time, that kind of thing. So we’re expecting some overlap, and really we want to say, ‘Hey, you can go all in’ if that’s comfortable and fun for you. But the fun thing about Spiritborn is, ‘Maybe I can merge my Barbarian and Rogue.’ That’s the hope we have for it.”
While Blizzard wanted the Spiritborn to feel familiar, it was still an opportunity for the developers to try out some fresh ideas. Mikkelson says the centipede allowed the team to play around with some “weird and different” things. Fear debuffs are something we see in a lot of RPGs, but not much in the base game of Diablo 4.
That’s why I wonder if designing a new class is liberating, rather than remixing something we’ve seen before. While you can see a lot of Diablo 2’s Assassin and Diablo 3’s Demon Hunter in Diablo 4’s Rogue, the Spiritborn isn’t as tied to the game’s universe’s history. For Mikkelson, designing the Spiritborn was liberating, though he stresses that “freedom is sometimes a cage,” because whatever shows up has to respect the boundaries of Sanctuary.
The developer explains that the advantage of designing something like the Rogue is that most people know what it is and should be, but what the heck is a Spiritborn? Figuring it out from a gameplay perspective meant making things that “didn’t make the cut” — though Mikkelson hints that you might see some of that in the future — and fine-tuning it through experimentation, with Blizzard creating around 60 prototype skills “just to try out what feels fun and different.”
Back to Nahantu
What Blizzard had to lean on, however, was the unfolding story of Vessel of Hatred. Going to Nahantu in Diablo 4’s first major expansion means returning to a place familiar from Diablo 2 – the jungle. As such, most may have an idea of who the Spiritborn are, roughly speaking, 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 location, it’s the “perfect time” to introduce a new class that actually fits the setting — rather than bringing back something you’ve seen before that might not fit as well. The narrative team also enjoyed the sense of freedom in figuring out what that all meant, though we now know what that freedom can feel like.
“I think it was liberating for the whole team to be able to try new things,” says Mikkelson, before Rivera-Colon adds. “And all of that while still fitting into the theme and the history of Diablo. And the class that’s being created doesn’t feel like you’re breaking the fantasy of Diablo 4, right?
“Because I think that’s important to our player base,” she continues. “Even if you’re new to it, it feels jarring to throw something so far out there. And it takes you out of everything in the story that we’ve built.”
Referring to what Mikkelson said earlier about freedom being a cage, Rivera-Colon adds, “That’s the cage, right? The cage makes sure it still fits within the construct and the expectations for players at the same time.”
The story so far
With Vessel of Hatred approaching, Diablo 4 finds itself in a much healthier position than it was at launch. While the loot ’em up seemed promising at launch, the first few seasons wavered between fan expectations until season four’s loot overhaul put the game on a better footing.
While the development of the main game is largely co-located with those working on the DLC, the vibe remains positive that Diablo 4 will continue to get better the closer we get to Vessel of Hatred. And that’s good for everyone.
“The changes that have happened have obviously come from a place of learning and trying to make the game better,” Mikkelson said. “But you know, we always do that with the mindset of wanting to have the game in a good place when we’re going to add a bunch of new stuff to it. So I think with each iteration, we’re getting happier and happier with where we are.”
Rivera-Colon added: “Ultimately, we want people to want to play Seasons, but we also want them to like Vessel of Hatred and the Spiritborn class. So it’s a combination of making sure they like the game, making sure they can trust us when it comes to the expansion and introducing a new class. And they can say, ‘Okay, they finally found their groove, and now we can trust that something cool is going to happen.'”
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