Diablo 4 head says "we hear very loudly" that the action RPG isn't fulfilling the sword and board paladin experience fans want, but Blizzard wanted to "bring a new experience" for the DLC

Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred — (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

The Diablo 4 DLC expansion, Vessel of Hatred, finally has a release date, meaning we'll be able to dive into a brand new class in the action RPG in October. With that said, the devs are well aware that this isn't what everyone has been hoping for from Diablo 4.

Vessel of Hatred will introduce us to the Spiritborn class, described on the Diablo 4 website as an "apex predator of the jungle" which will allow us to "battle with styles and mystical synergies that could only be awakened deep beneath the jungle’s canopy." We've not been given a massive amount of details about it just yet, although that's likely to change on July 18 when Blizzard will showcase an in-depth look at it. Regardless though, it's no sword and board paladin, despite huge fan demand.

"I'm excited, but we hear very loudly the board and sword paladin, crusader fantasy that we are not currently fulfilling, but we wanted an opportunity to do something that was based within the region we were adding," Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson tells GamesRadar+ in an interview. "We wanted to do something new that was creatively interesting and just bring a new experience. So, yeah, we're excited to go deep on it in July."

Elsewhere in the interview, Brent Gibson, the game director of Vessel of Hatred, calls it a "huge honor" to be adding a completely new class to the action RPG, noting that "we delivered on the fantasies that people are used to, and now we have a little bit of room to add something new." Gibson adds: "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something like that."

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is set to release on October 8, so there's still quite a wait ahead of us for the new DLC. Hopefully though, next month's Spiritborn deep dive will give us plenty of details to pore over in the meantime.

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I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.