In Diablo 4, one class is currently significantly stronger than all the others. The developers are reacting and announcing nerfs.
Which class are we talking about? The Spiritborn is currently just better than all other classes in Diablo 4. In the tier list of the best builds for Vessel of Hatred, they are comfortably in first place.
The developers see it the same way. In the Diablo 4 “Campfire Chat” livestream, game designer Charles Dunn says: “We have warned from the beginning that Spiritborn is one or more steps above most other classes”.
Especially since players can use class builds to easily defeat enemies while being AFK, most players were probably expecting a nerf for the class. There are also other builds that can deal damage numbers to enemies that you can hardly pronounce.
The class is too strong in many respects, and it is not just one build that is affected. A nerf was likely foreseeable for many. Now the developers explain what they are planning.
You can watch the trailer for the current season here:
Important items are problematic
What does Blizzard have planned? In the livestream, the developers explain why they believe the Spiritborn class is so strong. This is partly due to items like the Staff of Kepelke. According to game designer Charles Dunn, it is: “[…] one of the biggest culprits, or one of the biggest power points, rather […]”.
With the next patch, it will lose a good portion of its bonus damage for critical hits. Instead of 1% – 3%, it will have only 0.1 – 0.5% bonus.
Game designer Charles Dunn explains the nerf: “We believe this will lead to a much healthier point, but still maintain the core fantasy and core effects of this build […] It just won’t deal the same billions of damage that we’ve seen before.”
Additionally, other items like the Ring of the Twisting Moon will also be nerfed. Besides item nerfs, there will also be bug fixes, for example, with the Paragon node “Tough Shield” that was previously exploited for the AFK build. This is expected to work as originally intended.
You can watch the entire livestream afterwards here:
What philosophy is behind the nerfs? Game designer Charles Dunn openly names the team’s thoughts on the nerfs:
Players are having fun, people love playing Spiritborn, who are very powerful, and we like that very much, but we have to recognize that it is important for the long-term health of the game that we have a somewhat better class parity across all born, so that one does not feel like they are doing something wrong for not playing Spiritborn.
Charles Dunn in the Campfire livestream via YouTube
It’s less about taking the joy away from playing Spiritborn but rather about being able to play the other classes without feeling like you’re missing out.
Even if many players have probably anticipated the nerfs for the class and its important items, the next patch on the test server will likely show a much weaker Spiritborn than before.
It is still unclear how the “new” Spiritborn will rank in the tier list. Currently, we have 4 builds of the Spiritborn in the top ranking of our tier list. You can find our current tier list with the best builds in Diablo 4 here: Diablo 4 Season 6 Tier List: The best builds in Vessel of Hatred
