Meet the Spirit Guardians powering the skills of Diablo 4’s newest class, the Spiritborn

Coming in the Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred expansion, the Spiritborn is an entirely new class to the Diablo franchise, but these newcomers stand on the shoulders of giants. Start with a foundation of Diablo 3’s Monk, add heaping doses of D3 Witch Doctor and D4 Druid, and serve over a large serving of “raised in Nahantu,” and you’ve got the Spiritborn.

But what makes the Spiritborn unique rather than just being a new Monk-like class? It’s no shock that the Spiritborn is all about the spirits, and from concept to gameplay, the class is closely tied to its Spirit Guardian companions. So let’s talk about these spirits, and the Spiritborn skills that interact with them.

The four Spirit Guardians are the foundation of a Spiritborn’s powers. Each has its own specialty — the strength of the Gorilla, the speed of the Jaguar, the vigil of the Eagle, and the decay of the Centipede combine into a unique skillset combination that’s specific to the natural wilderness of Nahantu. The Spiritborn embodies these traits when they call upon that specific Guardian to champion their powers:

• Rezoka the Jaguar, relentless and violent, is all about fast, brutal, chaotic attacks.
• Wumba the Gorilla, resilient and vengeful, represents the defensive, tanking playstyle.
• Kwatli the Eagle, lethal and precise, positions you around the battlefield for pinpoint strikes.
• Balazan the Centipede, controlling the battlefield, relies on the strength of the enemies around you to sustain.

Spirit Guardians are key to Spiritborn gameplay

The Spirit Guardians give Spiritborn a cool flavor, but how do they show up in gameplay? The Good news is that our new spirit friends are literally everywhere.

Each Spirit Guardian is a skill keyword, so can create builds devoted to each Guardian (or hybridize between them). This is more than just flavor text, as many of your abilities are heavily themed to match their associated spirit: there’s the the rapid mobility of Soar (Eagle), fiery claws of Rake (Jaguar), shockwave of Concussive Stomp (Gorilla), and poisoned area of Stinger (Centipede). Each of these abilities really embodies the Spirit guardian its connected to.

This Guardians really come alive in Ultimate skills, each of which summons an avatar of the specified Spirit Guardian:

• The Devourer (45s Cooldown) — The Centipede Spirit emerges, blasting enemies in a line for 140% damage and splitting at others for 40% damage. Lasts for 15 seconds. (Poison)
• The Hunter (45s Cooldown) — Bound across the battlefield with the Jaguar Spirit, dealing 50% damage upon landing and then rapidly slashing enemies in the area for 200% total damage over 7 strikes. (Fire)
• The Protector (45s Cooldown) — The Gorilla Spirit protects an area for 6 seconds, continuously smashing surrounding enemies for 80% damage and granting you Barrier for 15% of your Maximum Life every 1.5 seconds. (Physical)
• The Seeker (3 charges, 30s Cooldown) — The Eagle Spirit swoops down and deals 20% damage. After a short delay it blasts off dealing 300% damage. (Lightning)

Harness the power of the spirits in the Spirit Hall

The Spiritborn’s unique class feature is the Spirit Hall, which allows you to select a primary and secondary spirit. Both slots grant powerful boons based on the spirit you select, and the Primary slot also assigns the Spirit’s skill tag to all skills.

In practice, this can translate into significant buffs! For example, imagine you have a Passive skill that grants 5% additional damage to Centipede skills and select Centipede as your Primary skill. Now all your active skills will benefit from that 5% damage increase. This is a pretty simplified example but gives an idea of how picking your Guardian Spirit could completely change up gameplay.

The buffs a spirit gives as a primary or secondary slot are different. For example, the current iteration of Gorilla as your Primary Spirit grants the following bonus: Casting a Gorilla Skill deals 100% Thorns to enemies you hit and grants a Barrier for 10% of Maximum Life, up to 40%, for 3 seconds. All Skills are now also Gorilla Skills.

But selecting Gorilla as a Secondary Spirit as well grants a different bonus — and that means you can stack the same Guardian for both Primary and Secondary. That said, experiment with different combinations — you never know what you’ll love best until you try it.

The jungle-raised Spiritborn of Nahantu are mobile powerhouses, and they’re ready to dominate, with options to brutally defend, deal chaotic damage, rapidly relocate, and control the battlefield with poisonous clouds. Stay tuned for more details, and prepare to play your own Spiritborn when Vessel of Hatred releases on October 8.