Potent poison, pals, and plants: three reasons why Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred hooked me

Like an animal

Features By Rob Dwiar published 4 October 2024

The Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred expansion and its new Spiritborn class have got their hooks in me.

On the one hand, this expansion from Blizzard is just ‘more Diablo 4’ which is great news for fans, returning and new. On the other, this story-based downloadable content (DLC) for one of the recent best RPGs has a particular mix of elements that could prove just as moreish for you as they have for me.

Set directly after the end of the main Diablo 4 campaign, you begin pursuit of the character Neyrelle deep in the jungles of Natanyu in an attempt to uncover Mephisto’s plans. While you can re-embrace the long haul and start a whole new Diablo 4 adventure with the new Spiritborn, you can also, as I did, jump straight into the Vessel of Hatred campaign as a level one Spiritborn character and see all the content it has to offer.

I’ve spent many hours with Vessels of Hatred now, devouring its side quests, hoovering up new loot, and really getting to know the Spiritborn class, and here are some of the best bits that I’ve experienced. 

 1. The pace and poison of the Spiritborn 

The main attraction of the DLC is arguably its new character class, the Spiritborn. This class and people are natives of the Jungles of Nahantu - more on that below - and almost trade in their human self for a spirit realm version based on animals of the jungle. 

The Spiritborn are built around agility, mobility, and speed. The Spiritborn’s deployment of long weapons like glaives or polearms as a direct extension of themselves makes for some acrobatic and athletic attack moves. All the movements and attacks are incredibly fast and brilliantly fluid. Other Diablo 4 classes and builds like my rogue can, of course, be quick as well, but there’s a satisfying fluidity I’m finding with the Spiritborn, darting from target to target, and executing multi-stab attacks, that’s a fantastic change of pace. 

The Spiritborn class channels four jungle ‘spirit guardian’ animals that its skills and abilities are based around: Gorilla, Eagle, Jaguar, and Centipede. Admittedly the latter doesn’t sound quite as exciting as the other three, but I’ve found that it is the source of my current favorite way to play.

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