Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred Proves It's Time for Blizzard to 'Steal' Path of Exile's Best Building Feature

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Important takeaways

  • Spiritborn is the most powerful and polished class in Diablo 4, overshadowing the base game classes.
  • Skipping new classes in future subclass expansions can add replay value and balance to the game.
  • Path of Exile's class system with subclasses, known as Ascendancy classes, offers different power-ups and build options for replayability.



Diablo 4s new Vessel of Hatred expansion has gifted fans with what is arguably one of the most polished and powerful classes in the series in the form of the Spiritborn, which has many potential combos to take advantage of and just as many great builds to make. The base game is classified in Diablo 4 gained new active and passive skills to enhance their arsenals, and while these are nice additions, they hardly shake up the status quo all that much when you consider how strong the Spiritborn are. Additionally, many players will inevitably gravitate toward the newest class. With several balance issues in the game's past and the current state of the meta, it might be a good idea too Diablo 4s next expansions to skip new classes in favor of something else.


Additional playable classes as the game progresses are a big staple Diabloso it may seem abrupt to end this tradition after one Diablo 4 expansion as the game will get more, but it might be in Blizzard's best interest to add more replay value to the title. This can be done by adding two or more subclasses for each class to specialize in instead of a separate seventh class, as that just risks overshadowing everyone else as Spiritborn do now.

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Path of Exile offers a recipe for success if Diablo 4 implements subclasses

Diablo 4's Spiritborn proves that new classes over subclasses are a double-edged sword

This might be easier said than done, and it's a big change in design philosophy that Blizzard might not be able to pull off quickly, so if it ever happens, it might need more time in the oven. Still, The path of exiles class system can be exactly what Diablo 4 needs. Namely, The path of exile uses a system called Ascendancy that has three specializations for each base class, except that Scion only has one Ascendancy.


With seven base classes and 19 ascension classes, The path of exile has tons of build diversity that makes it an interesting model when paired with tons of balance updates throughout the year, basically giving fans plenty of good reasons to come back to the game after a league ends. Since each Ascendancy class provides the base classes with new, different power-ups, and not all of them can be unlocked at once, players can potentially make the same character over and over and still have new builds to try. You can't really say about this Diablo 4s classes so much, and subclasses would solve this problem in the best possible way.

Baldur's Gate 3, Path of Exile is proof that character customization helps replayability

Like game like Baldur's Gate 3 has shown that character customization needs to be three-dimensional to fully engage fans, and RPG subclasses help in that department. The same applies to The path of exilewhich has had over 10 years of continued support to become one of the mainstays of the ARPG genre, but when it comes to subclasses it still has a lesson to teach Diablo 4. The Spiritborn builds in Diablo 4 are amazing, and they are proof that with more dedication, classes can be enough.


Path of Exile 2 also features the same system, so fans can look forward to many classes and subclasses to choose from.

However, it's difficult to completely revamp five existing classes with each expansion, and the number grows to six with Vessel of Hatred. The best way to do that would be to add subclasses that offer unique and interesting power-ups, but also force a choice on players, meaning they don't unlock everything at once. This makes for a great recipe for a live service title, and Diablo 4 already uses the model – all it needs is for some of the series' tenets to be shaken up to offer more replayability. If Diablo 4Whether the endgame Vessel of Hatred content will prove to be enough to retain players remains to be seen, but this option is something Blizzard shouldn't dismiss.


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