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—asMicrosoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisitionis underway. No one really expectedOverwatch 2orDiablo 4to be there, but they were in a big way.
As confirmed at the showcase,Overwatch 2is releasing as a free-to-play title later this fall, andDiablo 4is releasing sometime next year. Each game also showed off a new character, with that being the newNecromancer class forDiablo 4. With all five launch classes forDiablo 4confirmed, however, there is a notable archetype missing.
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Diablo 4 Classes (And What’s Missing)
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 theDiablo 4class lineup, namely that of a holy sword-and-board tank style character. This slot is usually filled by a Paladin orCrusader inDiablogames, and many were expecting it to be the last class forDiablo 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, ifDiablo 3is anything to go by.Diablo 2launched with the Paladin Class andDiablo Immortallaunched with the Crusader class, butDiablo 3did 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 ofDiablo 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 givenDiablo 4’s 8-player world bosses.
Diablo 4releases in 2023.
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