In the chaotic, bug-ridden history of Diablo 4, few things are more consistent than its tendency to let broken mechanics make it into live servers. Despite Blizzard introducing a Public Test Realm (PTR) to catch these issues early Diablo 4 Items, some of the more insidious bugs still manage to slip through the cracks, wreaking havoc on the game's balance, economy, and server performance. And right now, one class is at the center of it all: the Spiritborn.

Once considered the weakest option in the Season 9 meta, Spiritborn has been thrust into the spotlight-but not for the right reasons. Thanks to a wild combination of DOTs, server lag, and broken interactions, some players have discovered a way to literally bend time in high-tier content, allowing them to complete dungeons faster in-game than they do in real life. Let's break down what's happening, how it works, and why this might be the most broken exploit since the Vessel of Hatred fiasco.

The Spiritborn Bug: How Time Is Being Broken in Pit Runs

It starts with a pit run-a level 13 to 116 endgame dungeon designed to test both your damage and survivability under pressure. A player pulls a large pack of enemies around the 11-minute mark on the dungeon timer. Normally, you've got 15 minutes of in-game time to complete a pit run. But in this exploit scenario, despite the timer reading 11:00, real time drags on for over a minute while the player spams DOTs and poison attacks.

The result? The enemies take massive damage while the game appears to completely freeze, and the in-game timer barely ticks forward-dropping maybe 10 seconds while real-world time lapses for well over a minute. By the time the lag subsides, the enemies are dead, progress has jumped significantly, and the player still has nearly full in-game time to finish the rest of the dungeon. It's not just time-efficient; it's leaderboard breaking.

What's Causing This Time-Lag Exploit?

The core of this exploit lies in a few key elements:

·Touch of Death: This passive effect has up to a 25% chance to trigger on direct poison damage. It spawns ghostly projectiles that apply even more damage. With enough lucky hit chance and high enemy density, this quickly becomes overwhelming for the server to process.

·Bracer Gloves (Unique): These further enable excessive proccing of Touch of Death, leading to swarms of ghost projectiles that lag the game into oblivion.

·Crazed of the Dead God (Seasonal Power): This seasonal power massively boosts Touch of Death's uptime and spread. It's so potent that players don't even need to have Touch of Death on their active skill bar-just passively triggering it is enough.

·Sun Rune Synergy: This rune enables frequent Overpower attacks based on poison damage, further adding to the math overload the server has to calculate mid-combat.

·When all of this comes together, the Spiritborn can effectively overload the server's processing for so long that the game stops counting time correctly, allowing the player to continue dealing damage and progressing during what should be paused moments.

Why This Is a Problem for the Game's Health

This isn't just a one-off curiosity. As of this writing, the player who used this mechanic has the second-highest Pit clear in the world at tier 116, and the only class ahead of them is a Sorcerer abusing another snapshot exploit.

These broken clears throw the leaderboards into chaos and completely invalidate any sense of fair progression for other players. Classes like Druid, Barbarian, and Necromancer-which can't abuse lag to stretch their dungeon timers-are falling behind.

It also reintroduces a familiar issue from Diablo 3 days: server lag used as a progression tool. In D3, area damage and group synergy would lag out servers so badly that players intentionally sought that behavior for higher clears. Now, we're seeing the same thing happen in D4, except with new mechanics like Touch of Death and poison-based Overpowering.

Double-Dipping Bugs and Item Duplication Concerns

Players are also using Mystic Circles, Jack Hall, and other season-based powers to double-dip on effects-something that's been flagged before but remains unpatched as of the latest PTR. There's a real concern this lag exploit could pave the way for:

·Item duplication glitches, as seen in earlier Diablo titles.

·Server instability during high-tier play or even world events.

·Economy disruption if players can duplicate or manipulate loot spawns.

·With Spiritborn now transitioning from the weakest class to arguably the second strongest, all thanks to unintended bugs, class balance is becoming a major concern.Can Blizzard Fix It Before It Spreads Further?

With Season 9 live and a campfire chat scheduled for this Friday, there's still a chance Blizzard might hotfix the Spiritborn exploit-or at least acknowledge it. But history hasn't always been kind to swift responses. As Rob mentions, the exploit is still active in the PTR, meaning even internal testing hasn't identified it as a top priority.

The specific bug revolves around game logic failing to keep time when the server is overburdened. Fixing that requires significant backend work-not just a numerical rebalance or a stat nerf.

The Build Behind the Chaos

For those curious, here's what powers the so-called "Lagborn" build:

·Skills: Poison-based DOTs, Quill Volley for lucky hits, and indirect Touch of Death triggers.

·Key Passives: Touch of Death, Noxious Resonance, Hunter's Instinct.

·Legendary Powers: Crazed of the Dead God, Sun Rune for Overpower procs.

·Defenses: Unyielding Hits, Redirected Force, and heavy armor investment.

·Paragon Boards: Standard high-damage nodes with Ritual, Revenge, Convergence, and Sapping.

·Item Setup: Bracer Gloves (unique), Insatiable Aspect, and dual Jaguars for enhanced burst.

The full build allows the player to "stand still and win" while the server melts under the weight of its own calculations.

Final Thoughts: Fun or Fatal?

Watching a class "bend time" and melt bosses in real-time while the in-game clock barely moves is undeniably entertaining. It's the kind of wild, broken gameplay that draws clicks, laughs, and amazement from the community. But long-term? It's a disaster.

As fun as it is to see Spiritborn rise from the ashes, it's a rise tainted by technical flaws. Let's hope Blizzard puts a stop to it before the leaderboards Diablo 4 materials for sale, the economy, and the integrity of the game collapse under the weight of another "fun but fatal" exploit.