Diablo IV’s newest expansion, Lord of Hatred, is diving deep into the timeless rivalry of light and darkness. The Paladin class has already returned to the game, serving as a bastion of divine retribution – but from the shadows there steps another, more calamitous addition to the roster. The Warlock is a heavy metal album cover come to life, a brutal convergence of shadow, flame and demonic subjugation.
For longtime fans of Blizzard properties, the idea of a Warlock would likely paint a pretty complete picture in your mind well before you saw any examples of it in action, but somehow, the twisted class designers of Diablo IV have managed to find new ways to slather their insane vision upon the game’s canvas. Disembodied heads scream fire, shadowy worms erupt from the Earth and even the most impressive of Hell’s damned lieutenants find themselves at your beck and call. It’s downright cool stuff.
To get some insight on this abyssal effort, I was permitted the chance to sit down in a Church-flavoured room at Blizzard Headquarters, and pick the unhinged minds of Diablo IV staff members Bjorn Mikkelson, Senior Game Designer and Stephen Stewart, Associate Class Designer. They painted a wondrous picture of brutality – but most importantly, they agreed with me that the Warlock ability names would make great Heavy Metal song titles.
Far from being just another caster, the Warlock is a “demon-first” class designed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the franchise by returning to the core conflict between Heaven and Hell. While players might initially compare the Warlock to the Necromancer, the developers are quick to point out a fundamental shift in philosophy. The Warlock doesn’t make “pacts” with the dark side, they exert pure domination. Unlike “helper pets,” the Warlock views demons as disposable tools. As Mikkelson puts it, “You are hurting demons with demons that you hurt. It’s just like one big demon sadness party”.
It is this distinction that helps to distance that assumption that all summoning classes are equal – the class is intended to be a little bit more aggressive, a little bit more active, a little bit more brutal with their summons. One minute you will be summoning a wall made of squabbling impish demons, the next you will be drawing forth a gibbering horde of dudes that want nothing more than to explode at your command. You can easily lean deeply into a mass summoning playstyle, flooding the screen with demons and “recycling” them for constant “on-kill” bonuses. There are no friends here, only fire …and fuel.
One thing that was observed in my hands-on time with the class was how the game approached the concept of “killing demons” as a class that is more than capable of actually friendly-firing their own demonic minions. This actually allows players to trigger “on-kill” bonuses even during boss fights without additional chaff to cut through. “The Warlock actually doesn’t like these pets,” the developers explained. “He’s killing them… pulling them back out, and killing them again”.
Curiously, the question was asked as to what happens if a player doesn’t really want to be a demon-summoning fanatic. The team mentioned that they approached this as somewhat of a challenge, a simple query of “Can we make that cool?” – leading to the Ritualist playstyle that focuses on fire and brimstone and drawing power from demons instead. It’s easy enough to understand (pet management can feel like a real pain in the arse for some), so expressing themselves through high-impact spells is infinitely more agreeable.
The playstyle is heavily centred around placing sigils on the ground to control the battlefield, with my developer chums explaining that this style gives players that same Warlock-flavour of dominance through their ability to reshape the play space. During my time fiddling with the Ritualist I did note that their ability to chain enemies in place seemed incredibly strong, especially when you turn a narrow corridor into a fiery killbox.
On the other side of this coin are the sickos that desperately want ALL the demons ALL of the time. At this point, your desire to micromanage all manner of toothy baddies actually facilitates a requirement to be left alone while you are playing the game like a Real Time Strategy title, and the shocking truth is that the devs have thought of this too. The Mastermind style of Warlock gameplay actually has methods to allow a player to make use of a Shadow Form to stealth while focusing on battlefield positioning – phasing out of harm’s way to act like a shadowy overseer. It means that the fantasy of the Warlock is happy for ALL of the Demons, NONE of the Demons, and every creamy in-between you can get out of a mixed bikkie assortment.
All of this is elevated by the usual critical care that Blizzard puts into its sound and visual design, easily accepting that Heavy Metal will be the core identity of the class’s aesthetic. “When we talk about like oh Necro’s kind of like goth emo,” Mikkelson noted, “Warlock is absolutely metal”. This brutality extends to core skills like Blazing Scream, where the player is literally ripping a demonic thing’s head off and dragging it around the battlefield to belch fire. It’s clear the team conducted huge brainstorming sessions for the craziest ability names they could think of – and given my impressions, I can only imagine there is a whiteboard deep within Blizzard that has some questionable stuff written on it.
Approaching the Warlock as “just another caster” could have been an easy avenue for the team, but the thumping impacts and fleshy carnage on display do a great deal to make sure you understand that this is Diablo IV’s Warlock. Demons, be they fodder or larger “friends” all have their own diabolical identity – a personal favourite of mine is a desiccated idiot who serves no other purpose than to be a battery for your own resources meters, his poor ravaged form locked up in a medieval pillory to add insult to injury. This is in clear contrast to the Fiend of Abaddon, an absolutely massive summon that can’t even fully enter the mortal realm – happy to instead sit waist deep in the ground, wielding a giant sword to clear the screen.
You are hurting demons. With demons. That you hurt.
Even something as mundane as fire magic is given a whole new lease on life when the impact of a lobbed fire bomb hits the ground with a kickdrum-like THUMPF. You haven’t truly lived until you have seen the pulsing wind up of the Apocalypse reach its Earth-shaking crescendo, showing you precisely why the ability deserves its namesake. The Warlock even introduces Abyssal magic, a thematic element characterised by purple chains and smoke, giving a hint to even stranger things that exist in the hellish realms beyond crimson skinned Fallen and their ilk. I won’t say it’s Lovecraftian, but I have a feeling many will. You stare too long into the abyss, you’ll be surprised by what stares back.
Ultimately, the Warlock represents a pointed example of how intrinsic class identity can be. Brutality, heavy metal, subjugation – these were the ingredients chosen to create a truly impressive new Diablo class. The mark of success that I often run off is how much I want to get my hands back on a gameplay experience, and I have spent a difficult two months trying to tell myself that my Paladin is every bit as cool as my Ritualist Warlock. As the game celebrates its 30th anniversary, the Warlock stands as a testament to the team’s desire to dial things up to 11 and ensure that those who choose to fight fire with hellfire have the most bombastic tools at their disposal. A huge thank you to both Stephen and Bjorn for letting me have a laugh with them, and for giving me all the bloodsoaked insight into the biggest demon sadness party yet.
The Warlock class drops as part of Diablo IV’s newest expansion, Lord of Hatred, on April 28, 2026.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
