Diablo Immortal Hands-on Class Preview: The Tempest

Summary Diablo Immortal introduces the new Tempest class with unique abilities and a narrative focused on wind and water elements.

The Paragon System in the game has been revamped for more flexibility, allowing players to switch between classes and customize easily.

Players can expect fast and fluid gameplay with the Tempest class, featuring 16 new skills and 60 unique items upon release.

Blizzard’s Diablo Immortal is set to release a large content update, including a new class called the Tempest, on May 23rd, 2024. Screen Rant attended a preview of the class and got some behind-the-scene looks during a gameplay preview. This new update also comes with a hefty amount of new Legendary gear for the Tempest, with a roadmap of updates to introduce even more over time.

Additionally, the Paragon System in Diablo Immortal has had a major overhaul, and it is now slated to be simpler to customize with more flexibility. This should allow players to be able to test out new things and try different styles of gameplay faster and easier than before. With the arrival of the Tempest, players will also be able to swap classes as much as they want to be able to try out the Tempest and see if it’s the right class for them.

Related Diablo Immortal: The Best PvP Builds (Classes, Weapons, & Gear) To win in Diablo Immortal’s PvP mode, players will need to pick the right class, equipment, skills, and have luck with the randomized loot system.

Diablo Immortal's Tempest Class Origins

Narratively Driven & Crafted With Care

One of the key ideas that the designers had for the Tempest was to create a narrative surrounding the class from the beginning of development. They used that narrative to drive the design, rather than creating the class first. To that end, the Tempest comes from the Cold Isles, or Pelghain, and that drove the idea for the class to be characterized by the elements of wind and water.

The Tempest are the descendants of a now dwindling empire that was torn apart when the two empresses, Ksarthra and Mehrwen, disappeared after the destruction of the Worldstone. Now Pelghain is surrounded by dense fog and constant storms, resulting in harsh policies that make things worse for the people that remain. The Tempests are the ones who could not stand the corruption and were exiled from Pelghain due to their purity of heart and devotion to their religion.

Tempest Development and Design

The Intersection of Narrative, Art, and Systems Design

The last class to be introduced to Diablo Immortal was the Blood Knight, which was a very dark class characterized by their use of blood and death to achieve victory. As the developers began work on the Tempest, they strove instead to make the Tempest a light class - Warrior Priests - with the same sort of light alignment as the Crusader Class in Diablo Immortal. However, the gameplay is very different due to the fluid movement of the Tempest versus the steadfast control of the Crusader.

To complement this design, the Tempest class was given a teal and white design, which sets them apart from anything else in the Diablo franchise. For those who play Diablo Immortal on mobile devices, or other small screens, this will help them know where their playable character is at all times due to the bright coloring, which will be especially useful thanks to the class's focus on movement. However, the main design of the class is based on having the force of wind and water like a hurricane to destroy the enemies as they surround the player.

Overall, the gameplay feels like a one-to-one complement between the class's look and its mechanics, in that it is fluid, fast, stylish, and able to handle enemies fairly easily.

From an art perspective, the class was designed with the idea of that bright color palette in mind, leading to the teal and white colors but also a lot of fluidity, lightweight gear, and the chaos of storms in mind. The collaboration between the art, the narrative, and the gameplay design all came together to create this sort of warrior priest, dual-blade wielding, elemental class for players to move fast and with the power of the storm. Players can look forward to another short story coming from Ryan Quinn, the Lead Narrative Designer on Diablo Immortal, coming May 21st to help expand the lore of the new class.

Tempest Gameplay & Mechanics Work Well

The Fury of the Storm Comes to Diablo Immortal

Close

Players can expect the Tempest class to arrive with a special quest event called The Relentless Tide, which will give the players a peek at the backstory of the Tempest. They'll also be able to get a chance to learn how the class works, being able to play with some of the abilities and feel how the class moves, which is very different from every other class. It is very fast, and the passive summons allow players to create combos and trap enemies in the midst of the storm.

The Tempest class also has a trial dungeon, in the very familiar Mad King’s Breach, which has pre-builds meant to allow players to test out various styles available for the Tempest. There are two styles that the trial dungeon lets players try that are better against Monsters, and one style that is better against other players. All of them have a combination of wind and water powers, although players are free to lean into one or the other completely if they so choose, with some exciting options based on items:

There's a legendary I really like called Overflow that basically it changes Vortex so that instead of you having to hit the button every time you want to blast a bunch of enemies, you hit the button once and then there are random geysers, random little waterspouts that appear under enemies' feet and knock them off into the air. - Ryan Quinn, Lead Narrative Designer

Overall, the gameplay feels like a one-to-one complement between the class's look and its mechanics, in that it is fluid, fast, stylish, and able to handle enemies fairly easily. It can also be helpful to have as an ally in multi-player events such as Helliquaries as the passive summons can mirror any friendly player’s abilities. The Tempest is also amazingly efficient in Terror Rifts and could easily change how players approach that mode, due to how quickly they can move through enemies across the map. Upon release, the Tempest class comes with sixteen new skills and sixty new unique items for players to find and test out.

A New Paragon System Comes To Diablo Immortal

Flexible Point Distribution Makes Things Easier

In addition to the new Tempest class, there are a few other changes to the gameplay system. The Paragon System is where the biggest alterations will take place, although there are also smaller changes such as being more flexible with class switches and allowing players to save armory loadouts to swap between them easier. This can make it a little easier for both old and new players, and allow switches between PvE and PvP builds in Diablo Immortal as quickly as possible.

The flexibility to class changes is a limited-time offering to make it easier to test the new class. Players will be able to switch classes an unlimited amount of times for the duration of the offering.

The Paragon System has seen a major overhaul. Instead of being locked into a single tree, there are now five trees to choose from that players can switch between at will and distribute points as they want. There is also a level squish, bringing the max Paragon level down to 300 for the time being, in an effort to make the numbers less overwhelming for new players. Old players will not lose any progress and will retain anything they have unlocked, and they should find the new system more elegant and flexible than the previous one.

Players can look forward to the new release featuring the Tempest class in Diablo Immortal on May 23rd, 2024.

Screen Rant was invited to the Tempest class preview event by Blizzard for the purpose of this article.