Diablo IV Preview: Lord of Hatred's Warlock might be our new favourite class

It's been a really busy start to the year for Blizzard Entertainment, who in a space of just four months, will have essentially rebooted Overwatch, launched the first major content update for Diablo II in 25 years, debuted a sweeping expansion for Hearthstone, launched Housing and the Midnight expansion in World of Warcraft, and also, by the time April ends, delivered Diablo IV's second expansion known as Lord of Hatred. So yes, busy is perhaps underselling it.

If you have been following Gamereactor throughout February, you'll be aware that we've been keeping close ties on all things Blizzard, partly down to our recent visit to the massive developer's Irvine campus just outside of Los Angeles at the end of January. Through this, we've shared tons of impressions and thoughts on Overwatch, Diablo II: Resurrected, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and now the time has come for Diablo IV to join the fray. Albeit with a catch...

You see, I've played Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred in one manner of speaking but then also not had a chance to touch it in another. A tad confusing? Understandable. I've been hands-on with the Warlock class, which technically fully launches alongside the Paladin with the arrival of Lord of Hatred, even if you can access the latter class today by pre-ordering the expansion. The issue is that the hands-on experience with the Warlock didn't actually allow me to travel around the new area of Skovos at all, hence why this is a very peculiar preview as I can talk a fair bit about the Warlock but not really at all about Lord of Hatred. With limited talking points, let's keep this a tad briefer than usual.

As you can see in the gameplay that we captured above, with action happening in Vessel of Hatred's Nahantu region, the Warlock is an absolute power-fantasy class, a formidable option that will appease players of all kinds. It's described as Diablo's most "heavy metal" class to date and you can see that in the setup and structure of the class and how it's designed to dive head-first into combat and to leave nothing but blood and bones in its wake.

There are a handful of key class archetypes to follow with the Warlock that sees it massively play differently. I found myself trending towards the Legion option, a class-type that is all about summoning demonic legions and using your army of thralls to cut through anything that Hell throws at you. In a way, it's similar to the Necromancer but with an added caveat that you don't need corpses to reanimate to make Legion work, you can simply summon demons from beyond and force them to enact your will.

The other options include Vanguard, which is more of a fast-pace option, an archetype that is all about riding a hellhound into battle and then turning into a demon yourself to turn Hell's wrath against it. Is it perhaps a tad hypocritical to resort to the darkness to win this war? Perhaps. But that doesn't detract from its entertainment value. The same can somewhat be said about Ritualist, an archetype that revolves around using demonic energy to unleash hellfire and abyss on those that stand in your way. If Legion is Necromancer-like and Vanguard is more Barbarian, then Ritualist is the Sorcerer alternative that is all about using spells to unleash chaos on the battlefield. Finally, we have Mastermind, which is in a way similar to the Legion archetype and the Necromancer class, as it's all about binding demons to your will and then having them fight your battles while you oversee the destruction from the safety of the abyss.

As you can see, regardless of the gameplay style you choose, the Warlock is looking to offer immense variety and from what I've experienced at least, excellent potential that will make this class an absolute force of nature capable of going toe-to-toe with Mephisto in an effort of saving Sanctuary from complete and utter devastation.

Beyond this, while the Diablo IV Developer Update has shared more information about what to expect from Lord of Hatred and Skovos as a region, I can't comment on how it plays and functions as I didn't get to see any of this in action. What I can briefly touch upon are some of the wider updates and changes to Diablo IV as a whole, including the restructuring of the skill tree.

Essentially, the skill tree has been simplified and refined, so instead of popping multiple points into one perk to improve it time-and-time-again, you now only spend one skill point per perk option. There's still an element of improving a core perk by spending more points in its respective branch, but now there are more options to select, which should make buildcrafting all the more interesting in the long haul. Blizzard promises more than 40 reworked choices, over 80 additional options, and 20+ additional skills, meaning it could feel like an entire reboot of the feature and something for players to learn almost from scratch again.

The skill tree adjustment is also coming in-line with built-in loot filters to more easily find the gear you need, the Horadric Cube crafting tool to make unique items that better fit your style of play, and the Talisman to add further buildcrafting by re-introducing the Charms mechanic that adds extra bonuses to your build. These should all make Diablo IV buildcrafting less rigid and also perhaps a tad more intuitive to crack for newer and less experienced players, so a win-win in many respects.

Beyond this, Lord of Hatred will add further streamlined endgame elements like the playlist feature known as War Plans and a very challenging, almost pinnacle endgame activity called Echoing Hatred. Matching this up with the rather stunning land of Skovos and the sprawling capital city of Temis, locations that are untouched by the darkness as of yet, even if this will change as the story expands, Lord of Hatred is looking to be a great next chapter of Diablo IV and a fine endpoint for this portion of the wider narrative that began with the base game's story. But is it actually any good? Again, I can't add anything on this topic as of yet, even if you can see a bunch of images of Skovos below.

What we do know is that Lord of Hatred launches on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox on April 28, so stay tuned for more.