Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred will add a second new class to the game… but what?

The announcement of a new Diablo expansion is always exciting, and we now know that the second expansion for Diablo 4 will be Lord of Hatred, a name which plays off both the previous expansion, Vessel of Hatred, and the only expansion released for Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. But more exciting than the announcement of the game itself was the fact that you could immediately play the long-awaited Paladin class, which is available if you pre-order the expansion. But Paladin isn’t the only new class in Lord of Hatred: there will be a second class, details to be released later.

As someone with ADHD, I’m not a fan of later, so let the rampant speculation begin. While we’re waiting for an official announcement, here’s what we can glean about Diablo 4’s new mystery class.

A return to Skovos in Lord of Destruction offers class possibilities

We don’t know much, but we do know that Blizzard doesn’t like to duplicate existing skill sets too much in classes: the developers want each class to have some unique aspect to it. That means we’re looking for a class that’s distinct from other classes in Diablo 4. We also know that we’re traveling to Skovos in Lord of Hatred, and can predict that the new class likely has  its roots there, in much the same way that the Spiritborn had links to Nahantu. And that gives us some pretty good clues to start with.

According to the Book of Cain:

“Located south of the Western Kingdoms in the Twin Seas, the Skovos Isles consist of four main islands: Philios, Skovos, Lycander, and Skaratara. The isles are home to the Askari civilization. Since ancient times, the Askari have espoused a matriarchal form of government, one in which men have a lesser voice and are prohibited from holding the highest offices. In truth, political power is shared between two castes — the warrior amazons and the mystic oracles. Each caste is represented by a queen; thus both queens rule the Skovos Isles in tandem.

The isles are also the origin point of the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye, exiled rogues who struck out across the world years ago.

The core of Askari mythology revolves around Philios, a first-generation nephalem, and his lover, Lycander, an angelic follower of Inarius. The doomed lovers communicated through an artifact known as the Sightless Eye — which even today is help as one of the most sacred objects in Askari culture.”

This gives us three potential class archetypes: Amazon Warrior, Mystic Oracle, exiled Rogues.

A review of old classes that might return in Lord of Hatred… plus a new possibility

We already have a Rogue class in Diablo 4, so it’s unlikely Blizzard will cover that ground again. Even though the Rogues in D4 are not part of the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye, there’s a lot of overlap between the skillset of these two Rogues. We have seen an Assassin class in Diablo before — it was one of the expansion classes in Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction — that had some potentially Rogue-like gameplay, with a unique (at the time) focus on traps and gadgets, some of which have been incorporated into the modern Rogue class. We haven’t had an Assassin since Diablo: in addition to resembling the D4 Rogue, the class also had a strong martial arts focus that overlapped with the Diablo 3 Monk class. A new Assassin class could have a lot of overlap with the Spiritborn toolset as well. All of this means that a Rogue-like class is highly unlikely, even if it had a new name.

Amazon Warriors are a strong candidate: they’re a popular Diablo 2 class, much like the Paladin. The spear-wielding Amazon was one of the launch classes alongside Paladin, Necromancer, Sorceress, and Barbarian (both the Assassin and Druid were expansion classes), and their addition would mean D4 included all of the core Diablo 2 classes. But the Amazon could also have significant overlap with the Rogue, as it was Diablo 2’s bow-wielding class, though Amazons could also specialize in melee combat with spears, or play a melee/ranged hybrid with javelins that could be used as melee weapons or thrown as ranged weapons. While Diablo 4’s Rogues can wield bows, it tends to be played with a melee focus. It’s possible the devs could maintain a unique identity for both classes.

Mystic Oracles would likely be an entirely new type of class, depending on how Blizzard designs it skill set. As a spellcaster, Blizzard would want to keep it distinct from the current Sorcerer, the only pure caster class in the game, which has abilities heavily aligned with the elements. The Necromancer class is also substantially a caster, but it relies heavily on the summoned pets for both damage and survivability. Other Diablo caster classes have included the Witch Doctor from Diablo 3, which also had a significant pet focus, the Wizard from Diablo 3, which is extremely similar to the modern Sorcerer, and the Tempest from Diablo Immortal, which combined martial arts with magic focused on storm and sea. Given the angelic/demonic origins of the Askari and their nephalem roots, perhaps an Oracle class would lean more into light and dark powers or some kind of angelic/demonic stance. One archetype that Diablo hasn’t fully explored is a targeted support class that curses enemies and blesses allies — though Blizzard would have to make such a class tough enough to stand alone when outside of group content.

What we don’t know about the unannounced Diablo 4 class

It’s likely that the expansion’s second new class is well into development, so most core design decisions have already been made. It is likely that at this stage only cosmetic changes will be made and maybe some tweaks to how individual skills function. The new class may only be waiting for its dramatic reveal.

With the Spiritborn, Blizzard wanted to introduce a completely new class. But in Lord of Hatred, Blizzard started by adding a classic class in the Paladin. Will the devs bring back another fan-favorite, or will they want something entirely new for the second class? If so, it’s possible we’ll see something entirely left of field — in Vessel of Hatred, the Spiritborn wasn’t exactly expected. All players knew was that the class was going to be something completely new.

In Lord of Hatred, Blizzard will introduce the Horadric Cube to Diablo 4 for the first time, another lore-steeped nod to nostalgia. And we have continued to seen the Horadrim, both as a key component of the Diablo 4 campaign, and mentioned in the first expansion. Lorath is described as the last Horadrim, though it is shown that Nyrelle may be considered his successor… and Tyrael, their founder, is still in the wind. What if a small cohort of Horadrim (or Tyrael himself) had fled to Skovos and has been sheltering there?

If I had to guess at the new Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred class at this point, I would lean towards the Oracle class being the next new option in game. It’s a class we haven’t seen before, with deep ties to the new zone’s lore. But if Blizzard wants something entirely new, that we haven’t even heard about before, maybe there are other options I haven’t considered at all. What do you think Diablo 4’s newest class could be?