Diablo 4 leads know you want a sword-and-board Paladin, but after 5 classic classes they wanted to go big on something new: "It's not just about rehashing old content"

Aug. 23, 2024

“We could do that, but the team wanted the opportunity to go big”

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Diablo 4’s leads know you want a sword and shield-based class, but they’re really happy with the feedback to Vessel of Hatred’s new Spiritborn class.

If you didn’t already know, the newDiablo 4 DLCreleasing later this year in October is introducing the Spiritborn, which will be the action RPG’s sixth class. Since Diablo 4 launched last year, though, there have been legions of fans asking Blizzard to make a class using a sword and shield. In other words, your archetypical ‘Paladin’ character.

GamesRadar+ spoke to Diablo 4 game director Brent Gibson and systems designer Aislyn Hall about the fan demand for a Paladin class in the wake of the new Spiritborn class in Vessel of Hatred. “It was really important to us that, after delivering five classic classes, we continue to grow the number of classes you can see in geography, right? It’s not just about rehashing old content all the time,” Gibson says of the new DLC class.

Despite this, Gibson says Blizzard has heard its fans “loud and clear. But, you know, bringing something new, this was the time to do it, right? Five originals. It’s like doing a sixth original. We could do that, but the team wanted the opportunity to go big,” the game director continues, explaining the philosophy behind Vessel of Hatred’s Spiritborn.

For her part, systems designer Hall believes the Spiritborn was a “wonderful choice” and one that accurately reflects the jungle environments of the Vessel of Hatred expansion. “With the theme of the jungle of Nahantu, the class ties in so well to the vibe of Vessel of Hatred, and that just serves to immerse you even more in the campaign,” Hall explains.

For what it’s worth, Gibson points out that a class for a new expansion like Vessel of Hatred should reflect the environment it’s arriving in, otherwise “it just doesn’t feel right.” This is why Blizzard’s developers have conceptualized a big cat as a new mount in Vessel of Hatred - because it “felt really natural in the jungle,” Gibson explains.

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

Elsewhere, Blizzard also spoke to GamesRadar+ about the"layer of additional pressure" in designing the Spiritborn. It turns out it’s really hard to design a brand new Diablo 4 class when it can’t be defined “by a classic tabletop RPG archetype,” as Gibson put it, meaning Blizzard had to get creative for the new DLC class.

Diablo 4 devs will “learn a whole bunch” from Vessel of Hatred feedback, and pledge to be “very reactive to the community.”

Diablo boss gets ratio’d for saying we should “normalize ‘Diablo-like’ for ARPGs that follow the Diablo formula,” “much like ‘Souls-like’ and ‘Rogue-like’”

Diablo 4 is finally getting an armory to swap between builds in season 7 PTR, which is Witchcraft-themed and also bad news for Spiritborn builds

Todd Howard “rolled his eyes” at the idea of Troy Baker playing Indiana Jones in the Great Circle, but the Bethesda boss later told him “you’re doing a hell of a job”