Diablo 4 is getting a Warlock! In a major livestream, Blizzard reveals the second new class for Lord of Hatred. And so much more.
The leaks have been confirmed: the Warlock will indeed be joining the Paladin as a new class in Diablo 4. Blizzard confirmed this in a Spotlight livestream on the night of February 11-12, 2026. And there’s more: the Warlock will not only appear in Diablo 4, but also in Diablo: Immortal and the 25-year-old Diablo 2! So, for the first time in the series’ history, we’re getting a new class more or less simultaneously in three different Diablo games.
That was reason enough for us to travel to Irvine, California, directly to Blizzard headquarters, to take a look at all the new features in conversation with the developers. In this context, we played the Warlock in Diablo 2 in detail, for example.
But here and now, we’re going to focus on Diablo 4, so let’s first clarify what the new warlock is all about – and what else is changing with the upcoming Lord of Hatred add-on.
Who is the new warlock?
The Warlock fits into the dark world of Diablo like a gem in its setting: Of course, in a cosmos full of dark magic, there would also be those who fight fire with fire and enslave the demons of hell to make them fight against their own brood.
The fact that the warlock now appears in three Diablo games spanning 70 in-game years naturally gives the developers a convenient opportunity to integrate the new class quite organically into the existing backstory: Warlocks are generally ostracized for their dark magic.
In Diablo 2, we witness the beginnings of demon magic, while in Diablo 4 – 70 years later – the warlock stands at the pinnacle of his own dark power. Similar to Diablo 2, you can expect a mix of summoner and mage, who not only unleashes demons on enemies, but also simply rains down hellfire.
What else is happening in Diablo 4?
Blizzard has also revealed various new features for Diablo 4 that go beyond Season 12. Here’s a quick summary:
- New endgame feature “War Plans”: With the new war plans, you can basically build your own playlists from endgame activities such as Pit Dungeons and Helltides. By grinding, you also unlock modifiers that enable even more interesting playlists, creating a kind of meta game around the endgame grind.
- New mode “Echoing Hatred”: Collecting the very rare echo traces unlocks the Echo of Hatred mode. This is basically a horde mode consisting of endless waves of increasingly difficult enemies. The further you get, the better the loot.
- Just like Diablo 2, Diablo 4 will also feature a loot filter! You can customize which items are displayed to you. The days of useless drops are over!
- The Talisman and Horadric Cube have already been announced, but Blizzard emphasizes once again how much more endgame variety the new set combinations will bring.
And last but not least, all skill trees in Diablo 4 will be radically revamped. This brings the game noticeably closer to the possibilities offered by Path of Exile or Last Epoch: you’ll get more than 80 new and 40 revamped skill options per class.
Many of the passive bonuses from the current skill trees will be moved to late-game items as affixes or properties. In return, you will now have the opportunity to customize your character in more exciting ways with the new skills before the endgame, for example by radically changing the elemental properties of a skill. The spotlight also shows Temis, the capital of the Skovos Islands, stronghold of the Amazons, and central hub of the Lord of Hatred add-on. From there, you will travel through different landscapes – much more than that has not been seen yet. But that should change on March 5, 2026, when the Warlock is set to be introduced in Diablo 4 via Blizzard’s Deep Dive. Until then, you can try it out in Diablo 2.
