Diablo 4 class designer says they went a little too hard on Spiritborn and some things “didn’t make the cut,” but some “favorite” ideas may return “in the future”
Diablo 4 is getting a new class in October thanks to its upcoming DLC, Vessel of Hatred, and according to the devs, some ideas for it that “maybe didn’t make the cut” could end up returning later down the line.
Vessel of Hatred’s new DLC class, the Spiritborn, is unique since it isn’t really based on anything pre-existing, like an old Diablo or Dungeons & Dragons class, but is something entirely new. In an interview with GamesRadar+, Diablo 4 class designer Bjorn Mikkelson tells us that this was generally “very freeing” as it allowed the team to try out plenty of new things, but that also meant that some ideas ended up getting scrapped along the way.
“A good class is usually a mixture of some things that are recognizable, or some things that are new, some things that are just, like, improved. So we kind of tried to get a good mix in there,” Mikkelson says of the prototyping phase, which saw the team try out around 60 different skills for the class before narrowing things down.
“Generally, it was very freeing, very fun to kind of try some crazy stuff out,” Mikkelson continues. “Made some stuff that maybe didn’t make the cut, and were some people’s favorites, but maybe those will come back in the future. So yeah, I think it was freeing for the team as a whole to get to try new stuff.”
How mysterious. While Mikkelson understandably doesn’t go into the specifics of everything that ended up being shelved, associate narrative designer Eleni Rivera-Colon mentions the importance of every class “fitting into Diablo theme and lore” so that it “doesn’t feel like you’re breaking the fantasy of what Diablo 4 is.” Clearly, even though Mikkelson hints some ideas could make a comeback, anything that breaks this golden rule would have to be revised.