The mainline Diablo series hasn't had a new class in a decade, and the Spiritborn, coming in the Diablo 4 expansion Vessel of Hatred on October 8, is an entirely new class in the series that fights with the power of animal spirits and is only slightly similar to its predecessor, like the Monk in Diablo 3 It bears only a slight resemblance to its predecessor, such as Diablo 3's Monk.

Blizzard intentionally created something new to keep Diablo from becoming stale, associate game director Brent Gibson told PC Gamer in a recent interview. Even if it means that fans will continue to beg Blizzard to add a paladin someday.

Instead of updating a class that has been around for some time, Blizzard began by trying to “break all boundaries and go big with the idea” of Spiritborn, Gibson said. What we can't do is say, “This is too hard, this is too dangerous, we're not going to add anything new to the game.”

“I know there are a lot of fans that when we come out and say we're going to do a whole new class, they say, 'Well, what about all the classes we've loved for 20 years? But that's not what's happening now,'” he says.

In the two hours I spent with Spiritborn at a preview event earlier this month, it was like nothing I had ever played in a Diablo game before. They can reach out into the spirit world and hurl animal guardians like lightning eagles and ground-pounding gorillas at their enemies. Even the most basic skills functioned like combos in a fighting game, with the final blow being a powerful punch.

Even Diablo 4's existing classes don't feel as dynamic as the Spiritborn. However, class designer Bjorn Mikkelson explained that the benefit of such a bold design philosophy is that the team can take what they learn back to the rest of the game.

“We've been developing Spiritborn right next to [the production development team], 10 feet away,” Mikkelson said. Sometimes they see what we're trying with Spiritborn and think, 'Oh, this is really cool,' or they get a new technique for Spiritborn that an existing class can leverage to solve their problems."

‘We've been working on a lot of things,’ he said.

In my interview, and in many other interviews over the last year, Blizzard has publicly stated that they would like to return to those old classes in Diablo 4 at some point, but they also seem confident that it is not the right time to do it yet. One reason for this may be how much development the new classes will bring to the game. So even if we do get a paladin someday, it may look quite different than it did in “Diablo 2”. On the contrary, it might even be better.

“You have to understand why we did this,” Gibson said of Spiritborn. “It definitely fills a gameplay space that I think is very fresh for what people are looking for right now.”