The first new class to come to a mainline Diablo game in 10 years can reach into the spirit realm and throw a giant eagle god at their enemies. The divine bird swoops in with a gust of electrified wind and then lifts off like a lightning strike in reverse. It's probably the coolest looking skill in the game and it's only one of the four guardian spirits you can wield as a spiritborn, a new class debuting with Diablo 4's first paid expansion, Vessel of Hatred, on October 8.
Blizzard didn't give us a ton of time with the spiritborn during a press preview event last week in Irvine, California, but I can already tell my friendship with rogues might be over. The spiritborn are martial artists who command four animal guardians—jaguar, gorilla, centipede, and eagle—from Sanctuary's spirit realm, a domain that Blizzard says is equivalent to the game's depictions of Heaven and Hell. Each one represents a distinct approach to combat and are meant to be mixed together to fit your playstyle. Eagle skills, for example, imbue your attacks with lightning and increase your movement speed. I settled into a build that turned me into some kind of sorceress/rogue hybrid with volleys of lightning bolts covering the screen every time I dashed toward enemies.
