Diablo Immortalhas entered its second year as the go-to mobile game for action RPG fans, and the game’s next big patch is perhaps its most significant to date.DiabloImmortalis introducing the Blood Knight class, a brand-new class that has never appeared in the series. All players will be able to play the Blood Knight for free as soon as it’s available, so players who want a little more blood in theirDiablogameplay can either reroll or class change to it on day one.
In an interview with Game Rant ahead of the update’s announcement,Diablo Immortal senior narrative designer Ryan Quinn and lead UX designer Chris Liao broke down some of the Blood Knight’s key features, as well as its potential strengths and weaknesses in PvP and elsewhere. Overall, it appears to be a well-rounded class with exceptional survivability and strong build variety to accommodate a range of playstyles.
RELATED:Diablo Immortal Update Introduces Fishing and More
Diablo Immortal’s Blood Knight Is A Hybrid Melee Transformation Class
Although many ofDiabloImmortal’s classespossess a mix of both melee and ranged abilities, these tend to be “one or the other” build decisions. The Blood Knight is a different case altogether, with abilities that actually morph in combat depending on the situation. One example the developers pointed to was the primary dagger attack, which turns into a ranged ability when attacking distant targets.
With the hybrid gameplay, I think there are some really unique abilities. In particular, the primary attack Shadow’s Edge is actually an attack that morphs based on proximity to the enemy. When you’re far away, it throws a ricocheting dagger, and when you’re up close, the Blood Knight slashes with the dagger. So there are a few skills where even depending on the legendary essence they morph between a ranged ability or melee ability, so there’s a lot of room for you to customize your character how you’d like and I think that there are a ton of options right now.
TheBlood Knight is alsoDiablo Immortal’s first transformation classthanks to its unique Abomination transformation ability. Blood Knights can transform into an Abomination that comes with a powerful set of skills, and maintaining this Abomination form is an important consideration for certain builds. The Blood Knight thrives most when fighting is fierce, as that’s when it can make full use of its myriad life-draining abilities as well as build up to the Abomination form as frequently as possible.
Blood Knights May Have A Special Place In Diablo Immortal’s PvP Meta
The developers noted that Blood Knight is less agile than other classes, but makes up for this with punishing crowd control abilities and gap closers. InDiablo Immortal’s PvP, opponents will want to keep their distance as much as possible to deprive the Blood Knight of opportunities to drain their life or shut them down. The class appears to have a relentless “drain tank” approach, growing in power the longer they’re kept in the fight.
It’s always hard to say how a new class is going to play out in the meta, but I can say some of their advantages are that they have a lot of crowd-control abilities. So lots of stuns, and some gap closers and mobility options. However, they are limited in their agility compared to other classes just because those gap closers are on a cooldown, whereas a Monk has a teleport punch and multiple ways to escape from a fight. A Blood Knight will need to find themselves in the thick of the fray and also be able to come out of it alive where the Life Drain abilities can help sustain them in longer engagements. I feel like they have a unique position in PvP.
Players will have plenty of ways to tailor their Blood Knight builds thanks to a full suite of newLegendary Essences coming toDiablo Immortalthat can enhance or alter the class’s behavior, and it’ll be fascinating to see what theory crafters come up with as well as how the class ultimately stacks up against its peers.
Diablo Immortalis available on Mobile and PC.
