Diablo IV’s first big DLC expansion, Vessel of Hatred, arrives on all platforms later this year. The upcoming DLC is adding not only a new region to explore and loot, but also a new class—the Spiritborn—never before seen in the franchise. And according to Blizzard, the decision to add a new class came after Diablo Immortal did so successfully.
Announced back in November 2023, Vessel of Hatred is the first paid expansion for Diablo 4—which itself launched in June 2023. It arrives later this year after months and months of (mostly) well-received updates and fixes to the core game, including a massive loot overhaul in April. So the game is in a good place and it seems like the perfect time to add a fresh realm to explore and a new class to play. But we might have gotten a more traditional, pre-existing Diablo class in this expansion if Immortal—the mobile spin-off—hadn’t tried and succeeded at adding new archetypes to Blizzard’s loot-focused ARPG.
In an interview with GamesRadar+, Diablo franchise boss Rod Fergusson explained that launching the Blood Knight in Immortal in 2023 helped give him and the team the confidence to create Diablo 4's Spiritborn.
“I think I was more nervous when we did the Blood Knight for Immortal, because that was the first new class in a decade,” said Fergusson.
“And so for me, it was like, ‘Oh, wow. We’re about to do a new class in a decade,’ you know? And then when I saw how the Blood Knight went over, I was like, ‘Oh, OK. People are open to new ideas and new ways of doing this, and then we released the Tempest, and the Tempest was hugely successful, too.”
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So now, ahead of the October release of Vessel of Hatred, Fergusson told Gamesradar+ that he’s “feeling good” about adding something to the franchise that’s not “instantly understood as a classic archetype” from fantasy games and stories.
But Fergusson did confirm that he and the team at Blizzard know a lot of people (myself included) really want a Crusader or sword-and-shield-style class to play around with in Diablo 4.
“We hear very loudly the board and sword Paladin, Crusader fantasy that we are not currently fulfilling, but we wanted an opportunity to do something that was based within the region we were adding. We want to do something new that was creatively interesting and just bring a new experience.”
Hopefully, in a future update or expansion, Blizzard will bring me back my Crusader class and I can shield smash demons for hours and hours once more like I did back in Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls and Diablo Immortal.
Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred expansion arrives on October 8 for all platforms.
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