For the 30th anniversary of Diablo, Blizzard has announced a plethora of new features, not just for Diablo 4, but also for Diablo Immortal and Diablo 2: Resurrected. The supposed highlight: a new class, directly for all three games. But especially Diablo 2 has received something much more important.
After the leak, many players speculated that the Warlock would be the new class for Diablo 4, and now the rumor has been confirmed: After out of nowhere the Paladin has joined the action RPG, Diablo 4 will feature the Warlock as its second class with Lord of Hatred.
Not much is known yet, except that the Warlock wields the powers of hell and represents a stark contrast to the Paladin. Thus, Diablo 4 will soon have two classes for every “Main Stat” in the game. More importantly, the Warlock will come in three varieties.
Both Diablo Immortal and Diablo 2: Resurrected will also get the class, the latter already right now, on February 12, as a Shadow Drop, along with the expansion “Reign of the Warlock” – enough to get our veteran Karsten to reinstall Diablo 2 right away.
Right in this expansion, which is released nearly 26 years after the original release of Diablo 2, are changes that could overshadow even the Warlock (are there shadows in hell?).
Dozens of characters had to store your items in Diablo 2, but that is now over
With Reign of the Warlock, there will be the official ability to stack items in the loot stash in Diablo 2: Resurrected for the first time since the release of Diablo 2. Previously, only mods allowed this function.
Blizzard is expanding the stash functionality to store items like gems, consumables, and runes in stacks – and there are even dedicated slots for these items. This amounts to a huge expansion of the notoriously small inventory.
To illustrate the extent of this change: Diablo players previously had to create dozens of characters whose sole purpose was to carry the main hero’s stuff. These “pack mule” characters stored only items in their inventory and stash. Nothing else.
Besides the obvious necessity to continually create new characters as additional banks, this whole method obviously consumed time, as one constantly had to log in and out. In online games, one even needed a second player to trade or had to stash their items somewhere in the world and hope that they wouldn’t be stolen before the main character arrived.
A new endgame and plenty of improvements
Blizzard is constantly working on Diablo 2, although significantly slower than on Diablo 4. Recently, new runewords were added to the game in 2023, after some game mechanics had been adjusted earlier.
Now the developers are raising the bar further. Diablo 2 will not only receive the improved stash but also several quality improvements, such as:
- a loot filter that has always been missing
- a kind of “loot diary” that allows you to track which items you’ve found and where they dropped
However, the biggest change takes place in the endgame. The terror zones introduced in 2022 will become even more dangerous: new enemies will appear in hell difficulty, hunting you down.
These “heralds of terror” will grow stronger each time they appear – sounding similar to the famous Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor. If you defeat the enemies, you will receive statues that you can assemble in the Horadric Cube to face a new (and even tougher) boss battle.
If you’re waiting for the Warlock for Diablo 4, you’ll have to be a bit more patient. Information about the new class is to follow at a later date, and you will only be able to play it with the release of Lord of Hatred. You can find information about it here: Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred – All important information about release, price, trailer, and content
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