The Xbox and Bethesda Games showcase leveraged the full power of Xbox’s growth to its advantage, showcasing a ton of Xbox Games Studio titles, a handful of Bethesda titles, and even showcased some Activision Blizzard titles—as Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition is underway. No one really expected Overwatch 2 or Diablo 4 to be there, but they were in a big way.
As confirmed at the showcase, Overwatch 2 is releasing as a free-to-play title later this fall, and Diablo 4 is releasing sometime next year. Each game also showed off a new character, with that being the new Necromancer class for Diablo 4. With all five launch classes for Diablo 4 confirmed, however, there is a notable archetype missing.
Diablo 4 Classes (And What’s Missing)
- Barbarian
- Druid
- Sorceress
- Rogue
- Necromancer
Diablo 4’s Barbarian class is pretty obvious, filling a straight-up melee DPS role, while the Druid is a hybrid class with a couple of roles: magic, melee, and pets. The Sorceress is the straight-up magic and ranged DPS of the bunch, while the Rogue class can be broken down into a sneaky melee/ranged role. The Necromancer’s exact role hasn’t been confirmed, but it seems like a magic/pets class that is a little more specialized than the Druid but not as concentrated as the Sorceress.
This puts a huge hole in the Diablo 4 class lineup, namely that of a holy sword-and-board tank style character. This slot is usually filled by a Paladin or Crusader in Diablo games, and many were expecting it to be the last class for Diablo 4. The current lineup skews heavily toward magic-oriented classes, which will be interesting in terms of gameplay, but those who prefer the beefier builds really only have the DPS barbarian to go with.
Why Diablo 4 Will Probably Fill This Character Eventually
It should be noted that most games feature this character archetype, but not always at launch. That is, if Diablo 3 is anything to go by. Diablo 2 launched with the Paladin Class and Diablo Immortal launched with the Crusader class, but Diablo 3 did not fill this archetype at launch either. It launched with the Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Wizard, Monk, and Demon Hunter, and while the balance between magic and melee/standard combat flip flops (3/2 to 2/3), it had the same hole.
Diablo 3’s Crusader class was later added as DLC, followed by the Necromancer. Many, based on the first four classes, would have pegged the Necromancer as a DLC class, not a launch class. But with its confirmation, it seems likely that the first DLC class would be some type of holy tank, either a revision of Diablo 2’s Paladin class or another Crusader. It does remain to be seen, however, but tanking is always a popular role, and it wouldn’t be wise to leave the new title without it for too long—especially given Diablo 4’s 8-player world bosses.
Diablo 4 releases in 2023.