When you are playing Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatethere’s a very good chance you’ve picked up the new Spiritborn class. Not only is it fresh and shiny, making it more appealing than the options we’ve had with the base RPG over the past year, but it also features the strongest builds in Season 6 right now. As we approach the midseason update, Blizzard stalwart and Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson wonders if some of the more fractured aspects need to be realigned, or if everyone is having too much fun to stop.
Personally, I had a lot of fun blasting through the Diablo 4 endgame as Spiritborn. It has many viable builds at its disposal, but almost all of the most popular ones rely on interactions that are more powerful than intended. Blizzard has already brought one of these back in line with an evasive Spiritborn nerf, which prevented animation cancellations while dodging, but it still needs to address some of the other mechanics that make the Spiritborn stand out as the dominant force in the RPG.
Without digging too deep into the numbers, these include paragon nodes and legendary aspects that don’t quite work as designed, resulting in almost every Spiritborn build looking the same regardless of skill loadout. You lean on stacking Resolve, build up high armor values to convert into bonus weapon damage with the aspect of unyielding hits, and score unspeakably large critical hits using the size and damage boost effect of Kepeleke’s Diablo 4 Rod.
Fergusson goes to He notes that this is a “non-binding poll.” I’m just curious again,” but also makes it clear that he’s only focusing on the Spiritborn for now: “No, I’m not offering ‘break the other classes’.”
Implementing these proposed changes would of course reduce the Spiritborn’s potential power level slightly – Fergusson even says this is the intention. This has led to many replies imploring the team not to “nerf” the class during Season 6, to which Fergusson responds, “Interesting [that] some people don’t recognize the difference between ‘fix’ and ‘nerf’.
“I’m not saying we’re doing anything,” he continues, “I’m just saying that a class that is absent for three weeks instead of 16 months is going to have some issues that need to be addressed. [The] The real question is when.” While the distinction between a numerical nerf and a fix for something not working as designed certainly exists, in either case the result will be a class that feels weaker.
So far the poll is only 36.8% asking Fergusson to fix the Spiritborn, with 63.2% of respondents in favor of leaving them as they are for now. Personally, I tend to agree with the majority – most players have built their characters around the current state of the game and are having fun with it, and taking that away might be the incentive for them to take a break until the Diablo 4 Season 7 Release Date.
There’s an easy comparison to Season 2’s Ball Lightning Sorcerer, perhaps the most popular build we saw during the first year of Diablo 4’s lifespan. Its power also came from a miscalculation, but Blizzard let it go for the rest of the season in place and didn’t adjust it until we went into Season 3. That felt like a good balance, and it’s probably the right move here.
Diablo community manager Adam Fletcher also notes the investments players have made, explaining that balance discussions are typically held for mid-season updates. “The Spiritborn has some very large remote bugs that are causing their numbers to exceed what they should be doing. I think the community is aware of it, as are we. We also know that a lot of people have built around that and spent time on the equipment [and] builds.”
Whatever decision Blizzard makes, including potential improvements for other Diablo 4 classes, we likely won’t see it until the next developer update, when the team will sit down to go over the midseason patch notes.
Until they arrive, make sure you have one of the best Diablo 4 mercenaries at your side as you plow through Season 6. Or, if you fancy a break, maybe try one of the best games like Diablo.
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