Given that it’s the newest class in Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, you’d be right to expect Spiritborn to be the most powerful one among the six characters. The problem was that it seemed to have gotten a little too powerful. Blizzard Entertainment is already poised to nerf the Spiritborn barely one week from its release. The word came from Adam Fletcher himself, Diablo 4 Community Director.
To put more context for those who didn’t dip their toes into the Spiritborn Evade build, a bug allowed the Spiritborn build to bypass the evade animation and effectively spam the move. This then chain-triggers one of the Spiritborn’s passive damage effects (Eagle specialization). It dealt staggeringly high damage with each evade move (while also staying invincible through dodging).
The main reason for the patch, of course, is that the evade spamming causes issues for other players in a multiplayer setting. The patch, which will be coming this week, will fix the bug. Inadvertently, it will also cut down the Spiritborn Evade build’s damage to a small fraction.
The update is technically a bug fix but in essence, a nerf, especially to those who invested their hard-earned materials in upgrading the build’s necessary gear. Unofficially, you can consider this as the first nerf to Spiritborn.
The Spiritborn Evade Build Wasn’t Even the Strongest or Most Bugged
While the nerf wasn’t entirely unexpected since the Evade build’s gameplay was ridiculous and even comical, it’s still quite surprising. The Spiritborn Evade build wasn’t even the most powerful Spiritborn build. That crown goes to the Overpower Quill Volley build. This build utilized at least three bugs to stack up trillions of damage per second.
It’s also worth noting that the Quill Volley build trivialized content and allowed players to reach The Pit Tier 140+, an area of the game that’s also now buggy because apparently, the players weren’t meant to reach that height of power or difficulty just a few days after the expansion released.
Granted, this supremacy for Spiritborn’s Quill Volley build– or the Spiritborn in general, likely wouldn’t last. It has too many exploited bugs to stay untouched. Hence, you can expect more nerfs to the Spiritborn either mid-season or in Season 7 (three months from now).
Because let’s face it, if the Spiritborn doesn’t get nerfed, the other five classes of the base game will become obsolete. And it’s certainly easier to nerf one overperforming class than to buff and balance out five other classes along with the whole game. So were I you, I’d try to enjoy Spiritborn’s current overpowered state as much as I can. Nothing gold can stay.
