Diablo 4’s new Spiritborn class lets you become an animal martial artist
Blizzard fully revealed Diablo4‘s new class — the Spiritborn — via a livestream on thursdayThe Spiritborn is the first all-new class to come to a numbered Diablo game in over a decade, and will arrive in Sanctuary as part of the Ship of hate extension on October 8.
The developers behind Spiritborn describe it as a martial arts lesson, and it has clear ties to the Monk in Diablo3. The theming is very different, however. While the Diablo3 Monk took on more of the Buddhist stereotypes, the Spiritborn are all about the jungle and different jungle cultures.
As a Spiritborn, you manifest your power from four Spirit Guardians, who also serve as your central mechanics. The Guardians manifest as part of your core abilities, each offering a unique playstyle. Jaguar attacks deal fire damage and increase your attack speed—the idea is pure chaos. The Gorilla takes things in a more defensive direction, allowing you to deal physical damage and shield yourself from big hits. The Eagle is all about speed and lightning damage, offering you more ranged moves. And finally, the Centipede lets you poison and terrify your enemies with powerful crowd control abilities.
When building your Spiritborn build, you can stick to a single Spirit Guardian identity or spread out and use multiple ones. Customization is further enhanced via the Spirit Hall, which is your unique class mechanic. In the Spirit Hall, you can select one Spirit Guardian to dedicate yourself to. This gives you a primary passive that matches that Guardian’s playstyle. You can then choose a secondary Guardian, giving you another advantage. If you really like the playstyle of one Guardian, you can even dedicate yourself entirely to one of them to gain both bonuses.
In terms of weapons, you’ll wield glaives, polearms, and quarterstaffs as the Spiritborn. A full set of Ancient and Legendary items will also be available at launch for the Spiritborn, including Tempering recipes.
The Spiritborn is exclusively available at the Diablo4: Ship of Hate expansion, which costs $39.99 for the standard edition.