The July 20 Diablo Immortal update brought the much-requested class change feature to the RPG game, but now class-locked cosmetics are leaving players feeling tied to the class they have already bought microtransactions for. Diablo Immortal’s class change mechanic allows players to change their character class once per week for free, with the option to revert to your previous class if you are unsatisfied with the change.
In the update, Blizzard does include a warning: “Some class-specific cosmetics and gear will not carry over when you change classes. Any cosmetics owned for a class will be retained on that class and will be available when changing back to it.” On the face of things, this makes sense – if a cosmetic only exists for one class, then it can’t transfer over to a different one.
However, some players are reporting that paid cosmetics and the ones unlocked from the battle pass are locked to the class they were initially unlocked on, even though the cosmetic in question has an equivalent version for all classes in the game. Reddit user Z_Zircon says, “All cosmetics I paid for, none of which should be class locked (they even show up as the proper armour when previewing them in my inventory) are unavailable to use on a new class.”
Furthermore, because battle pass cosmetics can only be unlocked once, it seems like there is no way for a player to re-earn cosmetics that they have already unlocked on a new class. This means that, were someone to change classes midway through the battle pass, they might end up with the weapon cosmetic tied to one class and the armour cosmetic on another, leaving no way to equip the full set at once.
Another player, eXpG_Aroes, confirms that they tested this and found that “Skins bought for €25 [EUR] are bound to the class… Imagine you have to pay €150 for all six classes for one skin!”
While there was some warning provided, it certainly comes as a surprise that cosmetics which do have a clear equivalent version on other classes won’t necessarily transfer over to your new class. As Z_Zircon puts it, it’s potentially “$20-30 [USD] down the drain unless I want to be stuck playing Wizard for the rest of my time playing.” We have reached out to Blizzard for comment and will update with any additional news.
Recently, community site Maxroll discontinued its Diablo Immortal branch in protest of the fantasy game’s microtransaction model.