Please someone tell me who the remaining playable classes in Diablo 4 are

Okay, look, I’m excited about Diablo 4 and I’m not ashamed of that. But as of right now, we only know about three playable classes. Granted, I love Barbarians so I’m thrilled they’re one of the three, and the Druid and Sorceress seem pretty cool as well. But with the BlizzCon announcement that we’ll see five classes in total, I am beyond curious about what those two classes are, and I’m not convinced it will end up stopping at five.

I mean, sure, Diablo 3 had five classes at launch. And so did Diablo 2. But both also ended up with two new classes, with the Crusader and Necromancer being added to Diablo 3 and the Assassin and Druid being added to Diablo 2, and I think in both cases that seven classes felt better than five. There are certain archetypes that work pretty well for the series, and while the Barbarian, Druid, and Sorceress cover three of them — brute-force melee focusing on weapons, hybrid melee/caster with a Swiss Army Knife toolkit, and raw ranged magic DPS — there are a few archetypes that we’re lacking.

What classes from older Diablo games could be in Diablo 4?

For instance, the Assassin in Diablo 2 and the Monk in Diablo 3 offer a different kind of melee, one that eschews the Barbarian’s weapon focus and raw fury for a more elegant and disciplined approach. There’s overlap here — one could compare the Rogue from Diablo with the Amazon from Diablo 2 and the Demon Hunter from Diablo 3 and say that there’s a definite niche in the Diablo setting for a class that focuses on archery and ranged combat in a non-magical way. The Paladin and Crusader each show that there’s a pretty solid tradition of holy warriors in the Diablo setting and that we have two fairly distinct ways to embody that.

But you’ll notice that I just listed three roles that the franchise has in the past made playable, and there are only a supposed two classes left to introduce. Now, I’m aware that the original Diablo did fine with only three playable classes. I mean, that was my first Diablo game, and I loved it. Warrior, Sorcerer, and Rogue worked fine, you could absolutely do a Diablo game with fewer classes than five, much less seven. But the fact is, both Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 were better and more fun than the original Diablo was and one of many reasons for that was that they let you play more varied classes.

I don’t think Witch Doctors will be in Diablo 4

I mean, there are classes I absolutely don’t expect to see. Necromancers? I’m a bit worried that those Priests of Rathma might be on the wrong side of this conflict. If we get a holy warrior, I don’t think we’ll get two, so either Crusaders or Paladins won’t make the cut, and it’s entirely possible we won’t get one at all. The Witch Doctor was the experiment of Diablo 3 and the later introduction of the Necromancer always made me feel like Blizzard threw the Witch Doctor at the wall to see if it would stick. I don’t think it will be making a comeback this time around. Sorry! I know you Witch Doctor players really love the class and it has some amazing builds. Please don’t turn me into a frog.

So for me, it comes down to this — I expect some form of ranged archer, as there’s been one in every form of Diablo ever made. We have the melee weapon master role filled — Warrior in Diablo, Barbarian in Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 and now in Diablo 4. We have the magic-based DPS which has been in every game — Sorcerer in Diablo, Sorceress in Diablo 2 and Diablo 4, and the Wizard from Diablo 3. That leaves that ranged role — the Rogue from Diablo, the Amazon from Diablo 2, and the Demon Hunter from Diablo 3 all had some focus on bows and ranged combat, with the Amazon being the most hybrid in approach. Bringing back the Rogue seems unlikely, but if they decided to bring back the Amazon they could go with the mixed/hybrid gameplay of that class and make a character who brought both archery and the more disciplined melee of a Monk or Assassin.

Playing it safe or going for broke

That doesn’t mean it will be one of the five. I just think it’s safe to bet on some kind of archer. We’ve had one in every single Diablo game. And that leaves the fifth slot, the one that’s the hardest for me to figure out. If we accept that the Druid has taken the role of “magic-based weird class” that the Necromancer filled in Diablo 2 and that both the Witch Doctor and Necro eventually dueled over in Diablo 3, that leaves the Holy Warrior role or the Assassin/Monk “dex fighter” role.

But here’s the thing. Everything I’ve said in this post is extremely safe. It’s all based on what’s happened before, the way the game has been. And I certainly think the three classes we’ve gotten so far show that the Diablo 4 team isn’t at all averse to borrowing from the past. But I also feel like they’re willing to go places Diablo, as a franchise, hasn’t been before in terms of how they’re designing the world, so I have to wonder — are we going to get brand new classes? Are we going to see anything we haven’t seen before? It’s not impossible — every class we saw in Diablo 2 was new, and aside from the Barbarian and Necromancer, five of the seven playable Diablo 3 classes were departures in one way or another. We could get both, even — a new take on the archer or the dex fighter, a whole new approach to the holy warrior, and more besides.

Basically I just really need you to tell me what they are, Blizzard. Please. I’m dying here.