Following last year's BlizzCon, Blizzard today… More details about the new character class coming to Diablo IV Coming this fall, Spiritborn looks like a fun and powerful mashup of several characters from previous Diablo installments. Imagine the martial arts combat of Devil 3 Monk combined with the animal abilities of the Witch Doctor from the same game plus the aesthetics of the amazon in Diablo 2It seems like a pretty tasty recipe to me.
The Spiritborn is a dexterity-based class that features four spirit guardians whose powers you can use in combat. The jaguar grants fire damage, and the eagle offers lightning damage abilities. With the gorilla, players gain defensive power and survivability. And the centipede provides poison and fear abilities for damage over time and crowd control. During the livestream, class designer Bjorn Mikkelson said the Spiritborn is “probably our fastest and most aggressive class.” Think leaping into groups of enemies to deal high burst damage with swords, staves, and polearms.
A typical rotation will see players using those short-cooldown abilities imbued with an element of a spirit’s power. But the real payoff with Spiritborn is the ultimate ability, which brings one of the Spirit Guardians to fight alongside the player. “Summoning the god into battle is the power fantasy for this class,” said Diablo IV game designer Brent Gibson.
Part of what’s always made Diablo games appealing is the ability to customize and specialize your playstyle within the broad character concept. And some of Diablo 4’s other class designs encourage players to specialize in a single skill tree, such as choosing one elemental power to use for a Warlock. With the Spiritborn, players will have the flexibility to specialize in a single Spirit Guardian skill tree if they wish, or mix and match at will without any stat loss. Things will get even more personalized with the Spirit Hall class mechanic and a whole new set of Legendary and Ancient gear for the Spiritborn to further fine-tune your preferred demon-smashing playstyle.
Today's livestream also had some good news for fans of the story, and hardcore fans will likely find it worth rewatching. to see all the world-building details that the Blizzard teams put into developing this character. Diablo IVThe Nintendo Switch expansion Vessel of Hatred, also known as 'Neyrelle and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day', is set to release on October 8, with the standard edition costing $40.
