Diablo 4's highly anticipated paladin class is playable today, before its second expansion launches next year

The rumors are true: Paladins are coming to Diablo 4. It's been 25 years since the class first appeared in Diablo 2 in all its holy glory, and now it's making a return to the series with Diablo 4's Lord of Hatred expansion. But even though the expansion won't be out until early next year, paladins will be available starting today for anyone who pre-orders it.

Paladins won't be the only new class coming with Lord of Hatred, however. Blizzard says there's one more that will launch with the expansion, but it's keeping it a secret for now.

"The paladin is our knight, is our holy warrior. It's our sword and board class that is empowered by their faith," senior combat designer Dominick Sileo says in a video Blizzard provided to PC Gamer.

A blend of Diablo 2's paladin and Diablo 3's crusader, the Diablo 4 paladin has four distinct fighting styles split up into different oaths you can choose from. Juggernauts stack on defenses that can be channeled into powerful attacks, zealots strike enemies and cause those hits to repeat automatically, judicators set off explosions after marking enemies, and disciples can transform into an angelic arbiter form with unique moves you can't get otherwise, like an angelic leap.

Their abilities send out flashes of amber and gold, and monsters hit by them are singed by holy flames. Visually, paladins make the other classes look tame, and we'll know soon enough if they've got the damage to back it up. Iconic skills, like blessed hammer and blessed shield, have returned along with several new ones that help differentiate it from previous iterations.

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"I think the biggest challenge with the paladin was the fact that we have made a crusader," lead class designer Stephen Trinh says in the video. "And the crusader is awesome and is a really tough act to follow, and is an updated paladin or holy warrior in almost every way in terms of combat feel and fantasy and stuff. But we asked ourselves, 'Is there a way if you were to take the paladin and the crusader and stand them up next to each other, could we make them have similarities but also be distinct enough from one another that you can tell that they're different?'"

Trinh says paladins are "all in on their faith," while the crusader is purely a knight with an emphasis on physicality. The disciple oath and its angelic form were born out of the team figuring out where to draw the line between the two classes.

I never played Diablo 2, but I loved playing a crusader in Diablo 3. I'd probably be happy if it was a direct copy, but I'm excited to see what new stuff Blizzard has cooked up. But first I want to cleave through enemies with a tornado of hammers like the classic "hammerdin" build from Diablo 2. That will be the first thing I try with the launch of the Season of Divine Intervention, which, in addition to a new class, brings a massive list of changes to how items and crafting work in the leadup to the expansion.

Though paladins are available today for people who pre-order, they are just one of many new additions coming in the Lord of Hatred expansion when it launches on April 28.

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