then a at last year’s BlizzCon, today’s Blizzard more details on the upcoming new character class Diablo IV this fall. Spiritborn looks like a fun, powerful mix of several characters from past Diablo entries. Imagine the battles of martial arts Diablo 3 The monk combined with the beastly abilities of the same game’s Witch Doctor and the aesthetic of the Amazon. Diablo 2. This sounds like a very tasty recipe to me.
The Spiritborn is an agility-based class with four Spirit Guardians whose powers you can use in battle. Jaguar deals fire damage and eagle offers lightning ability. With Gorilla, players gain defensive power and survivability. And the centipede provides poison and fear skills for damage over time and crowd control. During the live stream, Class Designer Bjorn Mikkelson said that the Spiritborn are “probably our fastest, most aggressive class.” Think leaping into groups of enemies to deal massive burst damage with glaives, quarterstaffs and polearms.
A typical rotation will see players using short cooldown skills infused with a spirit power element. But the real payoff with Spiritborn is the ultimate ability, which brings one of the Spirit Guardians into battle alongside the player. “Challenging a god to battle is a power fantasy for this class,” said Diablo IV’s Game Designer Brent Gibson.
Part of what has always made the Diablo games so appealing is the ability to customize and specialize your playstyle within a broad character concept. Some of the other Diablo 4 class designs encourage players to specialize in an ability tree, such as choosing an elemental power to use for a mage. With Spiritborn, players will have the flexibility to specialize in a single Spirit Guardian’s skill tree if they wish, or mix and match as they see fit without losing stats. Things will get even more personalized with the Spirit Hall class mechanic and an all-new set of legendary and ancient equipment for the Spiritborn to further refine the playstyle you choose to destroy demons.
Today’s live stream also has some good bits for lore buffs, and die-hard fans will find it worth a repeat watch. To see all the world-building details the Blizzard teams put into this character’s development. Diablo IVThe Ship of Hate expansion, also known as Neyrelle and the Terrible, Terrible, Good, Very Bad Day, will launch on October 8th and will cost $40 for the standard edition.
