How to change classes in Diablo Immortal using the Shifting Flames brazier

Diablo Immortal has a variety of classes you can choose to play as, from the embodiment of fury known as the Barbarian to the calm, focused, and spectacularly deadly Monk, as well as the usual Diablo stalwarts like the Crusader, Demon Hunter, Wizard, and Necromancer. But perhaps you’ve decided the class you chose isn’t for you, or you decide you’d like to explore a new class. The road to level 60 and Paragon is a long one, and if you don’t feel up to leveling a bunch of alts, Diablo Immortal has just introduced a class change feature that lets you swap if you tire of your current class.

With class changes, you can take your leveled character and simply change them into a different class, with an appearance customization included so your new Monk can be as distinctive as your current Necromancer is. And what’s more, if you decide it’s not a class you’re enjoying? You can switch back.

Let’s take a look at exactly how class changes work in Diablo Immortal.

How to change your class in Diablo Immortal

First, you have to stare at a fire for a while.

No, really. But not just any fire, of course: you have to find the Shifting Flame Brazier. (Before we get too into this, I pronounce it like “Frasier.”)

The Shifting Flames Brazier is located in Selynne’s Basilica, to the north and east of Westmarch — you can see the navigation point on the above map. Once you arrive, the flames in question do seem to be shifting around a fair bit, and clicking on the brazier will open a menu explaining the rules of class changes. There’s no fee for the feature: you just have to head to the brazier and configure your new class.

To see how this plays out in the game, I went and changed one of my characters to a different class. Here’s the process of changing class, step-by-step.

First, you have to select your new class. Once you’ve picked an option, you can choose your new appearance, and  complete character customization options are available, just like you started a new character. You can choose male or female as well as the various options for skin tone, facial features, hairstyle and color, eye color, and so on. You’ll notice the little head and shoulders icon on the top diamond for the Barbarian class, telling you which class this character currently is.

Next, you have to confirm your choice, after which you are engulfed in flames in a rather cool (if terrifying) scene. Then you’re returned to Westmarch, now a member of whatever class you chose.

But perhaps you immediately regret that your decision to change. Or you play for a while and realize that nope, this wasn’t the class for you after all. Worry not, because it’s not hard to change back: just go back to the brazier and repeat the process. There’s a one-time reset that you can choose to immediately return to your original class.

But after that first time, there’s a seven-day cooldown on class changes, which is because it isn’t something the devs want people to feel like they have to do to make progress or min-max progression, which makes a lot of sense to me. Wyatt Cheng had this to say about the cooldown:

We implemented a 7-day cooldown on the feature because we don’t want players to feel like it is something they need to do to min-max for efficiencies sake. Class choice is meaningful, and we expect most players will stick with the class they find most fun but would appreciate an option to try out something new without having to start from scratch. When you change your class, you maintain your progress and gear ranking with placeholder equipment, but you still have the journey of collecting new legendaries and experimenting with builds that feel good for your new class. Having a one-week cooldown is essentially a way to make sure players don’t feel trapped in their original class choice. In addition, when you do Class Change there is a one-time revert option to immediately take you right back to the class you came from if you realize you prefer your previous class. Once players find a class they love, we expect they will tend to stick with it for a while.

The one-time reversion is just that — you get one oh snap, I don’t want to do this to fix a mistake, and after that, you will have to wait a week to change back. But when you do, all your old gear will be waiting for you and your character will have the same appearance that it did before you made the switch, so don’t be too anxious about it.

However, be aware that special cosmetic items and appearances are locked to the character and the class you pick them up for — so if you have a special cosmetic appearance on your Barbarian and you switch to Crusader, you won’t have access to it. But if you switch back to Barbarian? You’ll get the appearance back. There’s also talk of making cosmetic appearances work for every character of the same class on your account, but that’s not something they have any update for whether or not it’s coming to the game.

What kind of gear do you get when you change classes?

Changing your class immediately replaces any class-specific gear you had equipped with placeholder items that are roughly the same power level. But these items definitely aren’t as good as items you earned through gameplay, especially not the legendary items.

But don’t worry about your old gear: if you decide to swap back, your original gear is still in your bags, and if you decide to swap back everything is still there, waiting for you.

And that’s the basics on class changes in Diablo Immortal. The feature isn’t here to make you pick what everyone sees as the flavor of the month, but to let you try something new out and decide if maybe you like it better.