During today’s Diablo 30th Anniversary Spotlight event, Blizzard announced the series’ newest class is the Warlock, and it’s coming to Diablo II: Resurrected, Diablo Immortal, and Diablo IV — each game featuring a unique interpretation of the demon-wielding archetype. While the Diablo team is holding back details of the Warlock’s class identity in Diablo IV’s Lord of Hatred expansion and Diablo Immortal, it is bringing the new character to Diablo II: Resurrected today via the new Reign of the Warlock DLC.
Diablo II’s rendition of the Warlock can summon three demons: the Tainted, the Defiler, and the Goatman. The class can also bind (read: tame) themself to almost any demon in the game, benefiting from its unique abilities. Additionally, the Warlock may choose to devour the bound demon, granting themself temporary buffs based on the consumed demon.
Watch the Diablo 30th Anniversary Spotlight:
“From the very get-go, it feels like such a natural extension of Diablo to have a character like the Warlock,” associate game director Zaven Haroutunian tells me. “From a narrative perspective, Necromancers […] are all about maintaining a balance. They’re almost neutral in tone and in how they think. […] Warlocks, however, are more ostentatious […] they’re very loud with all the things they do.”
“Mechanically, they’re actually very different from Necromancers, which are all about building up an army,” Haroutunian continues. “The Warlock doesn’t do that. […] All the stuff he’s bringing in is disposable. He doesn’t actually care about them. They are just his tools, right?”
When asked how the disparate teams are differentiating the class’s abilities across three games (while still maintaining a unified theme), Haroutunian tells me that each team did whatever it needed to to make the Warlock fit their game. The associate game director likens the process to the creation of Diablo IV’s recent Paladin class and how his team distinguished it from Diablo II’s standard.
Diablo II: Reign of the Warlock is available now on Battle.net, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.