Today is a blessed day for Diablo fans. Since the gruesome Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase, we've been eagerly waiting for the teased Spiritborn stream.
The Spirtborn will be the first new class added to Diablo 4, and will be introduced to the game when Vessel of Hatred launches on October 8, 2024. Today, during the live stream, the public got their first look at the class in action and some finer details on what to expect from the playstyle, weapons and lore of the class.
Luckily for me, I got to sit down with Brent Gibson (Game Director for Vessel of Hatred) and Eleni Rivera-Colon (Associate Narrative Designer) earlier this week to talk about everything Spiritborn. We discussed how the class fits into the current roster, their expectations for balancing, and what kind of playstyles we can expect.
Please note that this interview took place before the public live stream, so some answers were intentionally vague to avoid ruining any reveals.
There will not be a PTR or open beta for the expansion, or Spiritborn class
My first question to Brent and Eleni was about plans for a public beta. Multiple public betas took place before the launch of Diablo 4, and of course, following this from Season 4 onwards, the implementation of a Public Test Realm (PTR) to be used on a case-by-case basis when huge changes are added to the game. For now, though, the Diablo team is going to keep all expansion content under wraps.
"In this case, we're not going to be doing a PTR for the expansion content specifically. We feel that PTRs are terribly important. And we're going to continue to do them. But when it comes to the expansion content, as we're developing it, we are going to keep that just a little closer to our chest." — Brent Gibson
Speed demon or tank? Adapt the Spiritborn to your playstyle
As a Rogue main, I'm primarily interested in the movement speed of this new class. From what I've seen so far behind the scenes, it rivals and surpasses the Rogue in speed, would Brent and Eleni agree?
"It's definitely pushing the envelope. And it also depends on the build. I had this really interesting moment, two nights ago Bjorn did an interview where he's like, Hey, if you want to be really tanky do gorilla centipede. So I built a version of that class, and it slowed it down. But it made me super resilient and tanky. So depending on how you spec, it will be how fast the class plays. But I would have to say, every class has its own kind of thing that it owns. And it's different flow and feel, this one is on that side of the category. Where it really pushes the speed envelope as far as we can before things start to break." — Brent
it really pushes the speed envelope as far as we can before things start to break
Brent Gibson
"It’s fast. And even if you want to be tanky by using something like Gorilla, you still have a decent amount of speed, but it's really based off of what you want your build to be. Because sometimes, you know, speed might not be what you want. It’s definitely speedy. But there are ways to maximize it and then ways to just be really comfortable with it without feeling like you're zooming past and zooming through, and you can't enjoy your build or enjoy the screen and like enjoy the game in general." — Elini
Blending elements of classic classes and forging something entirely new
When a new class launches, players inevitably try to compare to what has come before, the most common comparison we've seen so far is that the Spiritborn is a Druid/Monk combination. Or even it’s the Diablo 2 Amazon who’s got lost in the jungle, and it’s taken until Diablo 4 for her to get out... I asked Brent and Elini's thoughts on these comparisons and what they see the Spiritborn most closely aligned to.
"Mechanically, we know what works for the game. And so when you look at the spirit born, it has four different combat styles that are built into each of the Spirit guardians here. You can see inspirations from other classes as you're playing. But it's the combination of all of those that really makes it unique. And that was a pretty big challenge for us, Like, how do you make something that's hybrid, that's taking inspirations from multiple things that work, and bring them together with an identity? Like for us, a martial arts identity? We had talked about the spirits themselves — do we do something really abstract? Something really different? No, we want the Spiritborn to manifest their spirits from the things that they value, the things that they know. So it should be things from the jungle. It’s the crafting of these parts that I think everybody who has a passion for those old classes, are going to want to try to project something on this, because this is the one class that you can't go to like a tabletop gaming manual and find a version that fits this perfectly. So it definitely is kind of carved out its own space." — Brent
This is the one class that you can't go to like a tabletop gaming manual and find a version that fits this perfectly
Brent Gibson
"Yeah, in terms of narratively the difference between a lot of these, specifically, Druid — it's really cool, because the Spiritborn class isn't necessarily like turning into these creatures. What they're doing is they're channeling to a Spirit Guardian that is in the Spirit Realm. They’re saying, I really need this power of hunting. So then they bring down an element that manifests itself looking as a Jaguar. So it takes a creature that you would be familiar with from the jungle, and that's the manifestation. Versus Druid becoming sort of the essence of what this is. I feel like Druid is more connected to the actual, like group and animal that they're connecting to, they actually become the bear, whereas Spiritborn are just channeling a guardian, and pulling down these spirits. A spirit that's helping them with the power." — Eleni
How the Spiritborn experiences Nahantu
It's clear from the snippets we've seen so far that the Spiritborn has been designed very specifically in theme with the expansion. In this brand new area that we're going to be going into, the Spiritborn is very much a part and product of that zone. Will there be any slightly different interactions that we might experience as a Spiritborn when playing through the Vessel of Hatred expansion?
"That’s the fun part. If you want to play the Spiritborn and you want to play through the campaign, you do the original campaign of Diablo 4 all the way to expansion you can. You can start as a Spiritborn class, and you can see the world as sort of this outsider in Sanctuary. And I think that's really cool. I think it just helps with world-building. It gives the players this ability to say “Oh, I played through Spiritborn in the expansion, and then I played through my necro, and then my Rogue and we all got the chance to see Nahantu in a different way." As a local versus being an outsider, and then vice versa. But the same goes with Sanctuary. And generally if you're in Scosglen and you’re Spiritborn, it will feel different than when you're in Nahantu." — Eleni
Play Vessel of Hatred from any starting point
How will starting Season 6 function once the expansion is added in October? Currently, we can ‘skip campaign’ and go straight into the open-world activities, but will there be a ‘skip campaign and play DLC’ option so we can start Vessel with a level 1 Seasonal Spiritborn?
"We have taken great care. And it was a tremendous lift, but I think it's totally worth it. It doesn't matter where you are in your progression; you can play. So, if you want to start over from the base campaign and play through with a level 1, you can. If you've only gotten through half of the base campaign and your friends want to get to Vessel of Hatred we will let you skip forward. So you can start Vessel of Hatred right away. If you've got a capped character, and you want to play as your capped character, go ahead and start playing that right away, as well. So we've accounted for every level, every entry point, every exit point, and you can just play the way that you want to play." — Brent
Balancing the Spiritborn with the existing meta
The existing classes have gone through a number of balance patches already, with even more to come in Season 5, where do the developers anticipate the Spiritborn fitting within the current meta and on the tier list?
"There’s two ways to answer that. So first off, the Spiritborn has really had a huge advantage that as we've been harmonizing, I shouldn't even say balance, because balance is something you're constantly chasing. But as you're harmonizing each of the classes throughout live, we've had to continually do the same thing with the Spiritborn. It's not like it's being developed in isolation.
We know that there's going to be emergent builds out there that we're going to have to take a look at right, once it goes out to you know, millions of people.
Brent Gibson
All those changes that we've been making season to season have been tightening up the foundation that the Spiritborn is built upon. And so seeing the benefit of all the testing from the original classes. The other thing that's really interesting about this class is that it's so customizable, there's so many permutations of build types that you can do with this class. We know that there's going to be emergent builds out there that we're going to have to take a look at right, once it goes out to you know, millions of people. They're gonna find things that we didn't find. I'm actually really excited about that. A game like this is a constant process of harmonizing. We've got staff dedicated to this. And so, you know, once we launch, we're going to be throwing the Spiritborn into that pool. But the goal is that we are harmonizing it so it can sit right next to these other classes. And that we haven't done that blindly." — Brent
Other classes will get some love for the new expansion too
The Spiritborn might be an all new class for Vessel of Hatred, but existing classes have stuff to look forward to, and we've got a peek already at some new Uniques. New abilities have been teased. Will there be enough attractive changes made to base classes to entice people to play through Vessel of Hatred with them rather than 99% of people starting Season 6 as a Spritborn?
"We’re constantly trying to improve on and upgrade the existing classes. But nothing is going to hold the torch to a whole new class. Right? We’re definitely making sure that all the classes get some love. And we are hyper-focused on making sure that the new classes are as fun as they possibly can be." — Brent
Toxic tactics for Spiritborn mains
Anyone who's fought Duriel in Diablo 4, you'll know how... overtuned those poison pools can feel, as they are in some of the spider dungeons, too. Will the poison that the Spiritborn uses be as unforgiving as it feels when our enemies use it?
"I think there's a way to really enhance what your ability does, especially when you choose the centipede. The poison is very similar to other poisons. You know, you don't want to be in it." — Eleni
"There are some skills that make you quite toxic. Literally. Whether it's you deploying the toxin or the characters who are attacking you ending up in your poison pool. We actually have mechanics that the poison is related to healing as well. And so like we really focus on that, like the Centipede [Spirit Guardian] has this vibe of the ‘cycle of life’, where you can like poison and kill something, its decay and fall back to earth is going to provide health back to you. That's something we haven't experimented a whole lot with. This class is actually going to start digging into that." — Brent
New lore book will add depth to the content without spoilers
• Best Xbox headsets / PC headsets
• Best Xbox controllers
• Best Xbox accessories
• Best small gaming PCs
• Best gaming laptops
The Diablo lore is richer than even what is told in game, whether it be on item descriptions or in the books themselves. Discussing the Book of Lorath specifically, the latest book which launched alongside Diablo 4, this gave a lot of insight into Lorath and Neyrelle's journeys and in fact if you'd have read it before finishing the base campaign, some spoilers. There is a new book, the Book of Prava, launching alongside Vessel of Hatred. Will this be directly related to the expansion or give us teases of what's to come afterwards, as the Book of Lorath did?
"Prava is still tied to the player. So I think, regardless, you can probably read in for some interesting points but I don't know if there's going to be anything in there that's necessarily spoiling anything. I think, if anything, it's just giving players ammo to say, I cannot wait to play expansion and see what happens." — Eleni
We don't release a book without thinking about its impact on the canon
Brent Gibson
"I'm a hyper lore nerd, and I will bow to our writing staff, they create way more lore than we'll ever expose in just the game. Especially with Spiritborn, it's a class that we want to see have life after the expansion, right? So we develop the lore in a way that can be used for more things like books and novelettes, and blog posts and merchandise and all these other things. The lore is integrated, you know, we don't release a book without thinking about its impact on the canon and how that's gonna build out to everything else. And obviously, a lot of the material we're releasing right now has to do with the time period that we're dealing with right now. So definitely check it out. If you're a lore person it will definitely be worth it." — Brent
Kurast awaits us in the expansion
To close out my time with Brent and Elini, I asked more about specific content we can expect from the new map area of Nahantu, including the new Stronghold, and if we can expect a new World Boss. Understandably they remained elusive on specific details, some of which may be revealed on today's stream, but they left me with this.
"We’re not doing a new world boss. The new zone has a lot of the same content types expanded upon, in the region and they're all themed specific to the region. So we have the stronghold available, new dungeons, new sellers, new biomes and looks, new capital city Kurast, and so yeah, the you'll definitely see new content for the activity types that we have in the game." — Brent
Will you be choosing the path of the Spiritborn?
Following my chat with the Diablo 4 devs and what I've seen so far of the Spiritborn, I've no doubt in my mind that I will be playing this class. Vessel of Hatred launches October 8, 2024, and coincides with the start of Season 6, so I'll be one of thousands of other Spiritborns waiting at the bridge into Nahantu. I'm a tad disappointed in the lack of PTR for the release but it does mean there's plenty to be excited about come October.
To play the expansion, and the new class, you'll need to own the Vessel of Hatred expansion on your preferred platform. The base DLC costs $39.99 and comes with Alkor the Snow Leopard Pet, which, if you pre-order now, you can use in your game today ahead of the expansion. If you're not ready to get the expansion yet, don't worry, there is already a free dog available in the game for everyone, here's how to claim your free Diablo 4 pet. If you've yet to play through Diablo 4, you can find Diablo 4 on Xbox Game Pass and decide if you enjoy the campaign enough to purchase the DLC.
