In spite of all the hype, news around Diablo 4 has been hard to come by. There's plenty of important details about the game that remain a mystery, even though the game itself has been public knowledge for a long time. Blizzard still drops news now and again, such as its most recent showcase on character customization in Diablo 4. However, another important area of knowledge remains incomplete. After all this time, there's still one player class in Diablo 4 that Blizzard hasn't revealed, and it seems like it isn't getting revealed anytime soon.
Since Blizzard's latest quarterly Diablo 4 update focused on character customization, the reveal of the fifth class is probably months away. That means fans are left to speculate about the last class. Luckily, Diablo 4's near-complete roster of classes give a good picture of what the game already has and what the game still needs. There's one thing about the last Diablo 4 class that's looked fairly clear for a while, and seems increasingly certain now that the Rogue is public knowledge. Diablo 4 already has the Sorceress and the Druid, which mean that the last class probably isn't another spellcaster.
Diablo 4 is Rich in Magic
From the earliest days of Diablo 4, it was clear that fans would have plenty of magical options to choose from. The Sorceress is a master of fire, ice, and lightning that offers a tremendous amount of damage. Players who want to blow up hordes of demons at a moment's notice will be served well by the Sorceress' fireballs and lightning blasts. The Druid offers plenty of magical damage too, controlling elements of nature like wind and stone. Druids are also masters of shapeshifting, offering a very different school of magic from the Sorceress' raw damage.
Between these two classes, there's very little room in Diablo 4 for another spellcaster. The Sorceress fills the role of the glass cannon mage, featuring little in the way of defensive maneuvers but offering an overwhelming amount of tools for dealing damage and destroying enemies before the Sorceress gets threatened. The Druid, meanwhile, offers the alternative of a beefy spellcaster that can go toe-to-toe with tough enemies while knowing a few impressive spells for crowd control. With these categories covered, a new spellcaster isn't necessary. If anything, it'd risk giving Diablo 4 too many classes that rely on magic.
There's certainly other types of magic that Diablo 4 could include. After all, there's a few noteworthy magic users from Diablo history that Diablo 4 is willfully omitting. For instance, Diablo 3's Wizard could've introduced more arcane spells with its power over time, gravity, and other cosmic forces, but instead Diablo 4 went back to basics with the Sorceress. Similarly, the Necromancer isn't available in Diablo 4, although its blood magic and legions of undead would be very unique in the new game. The Rogue features some dark magic instead, sidelining the Necromancer's spellcasting in favor of archery and cloak-and-dagger fighting styles. Diablo 4 has other class areas to look into instead of another magical DPS class.
Diablo 4's Remaining Options
Diablo 4's last class will be decided by what the game is missing. For instance, although Diablo 4 has a Barbarian, there isn't a tanky melee fighter that uses traditional heavy protection like shields and plate armor. The Paladin or Crusader could make a comeback and play that sort of role. They'd be perfectly fitting; like just about every Diablo class, they use at least a little bit of magic, but they're focused on their martial skill and heavy-duty equipment rather than magical prowess. Lore questions about the state of Heaven are the biggest thing getting in the Paladin's way. It's possible that Blizzard instead opts for a heavily armored character with dark themes, like a Death Knight or a Blackguard. A purely martial Knight isn't off the table either.
If the last Diablo 4 class does surprise everyone by focusing on magic, it'll have to be unique in order to preserve balance. A supportive spellcaster could accomplish that. Diablo fans have been debating the odds of a Priest or another flavor of Healer class taking up the fifth slot. Although some Diablo classes can heal, there's never really been a dedicated support class. Multiplayer is much more central to Diablo's identity than it used to be, so maybe Blizzard is open to a Priest or a reimagined Bard that focuses on healing, protection, and crowd control while only offering weak damage output. On the whole, something martial seems a little more likely. Diablo 4 has two magic-focused classes already, meaning any kind of magic-user would make Diablo 4 lean really heavily on magic, causing a bit of imbalance.
What Else Does Diablo 4 Need?
The big question about Diablo 4 that might make some fans scratch their heads is what kind of class the game even needs. Barbarians and Druids have tankiness covered, Sorcerers and Druids offer spellcasting, and Barbarians and Rogues offer melee and ranged weapons mastery. There's not really any niches left that Diablo 4 needs to cover. That also means that anything is possible, so long as it's not another magical class. There's a small chance that a Monk could show up, for instance, since Monks offer healing as well as a unique melee fighting style, but they seem unlikely since they don't address the heavy armor question and also unexpectedly shift Dexterity into a major Diablo 4 stat.
In a way, the Rogue's reveal made the Diablo 4 class debate even more excited than before. So far, the game's classes suggest that Blizzard really wants to go back to basics, so it's hard to imagine a classic archetype that would also be extremely unique compared to these other classes. Diablo 4 news calls for a lot of waiting, but the enigmatic, exciting nature of features like these make the news worth waiting for.
Diablo 4 is in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
