"What happens if we turn this up to 11?" — how the Diablo 4 developers approached their own version of the Warlock

While the Diablo community has been blasting through Diablo 2: Resurrected with the new Warlock class, let's not forget this new character is also coming to Diablo 4 with the Lord of Hatred expansion arriving on April 28.

Today, we find out more about what's in store for Diablo 4 in a developer stream. During my time at Blizzard's campus earlier this year, we had the chance to sit down and go all hands on with the Diablo 4 Warlock, and chat with developers Bjorn Mikkleson and Stephen Trill about the new class and the team's philosophy behind it.

The duality of Heaven and Hell

So, where did the idea to introduce a Warlock to the Diablo series first come from? Was it always a frontrunner when considering new additions for the expansion? The team explained that the Warlock was born from a desire to explore the "Hell" side of the Eternal Conflict alongside the Paladin which is also a new class being added (however those who have pre-ordered already have access to this class.)

"For us, the warlock kind of came from this idea that we really wanted to go back to, kind of the roots of Diablo, this total conflict right between Heaven and Hell,”

“And we knew we wanted to do the Paladin, and we thought it'd be a perfect opportunity, and really cool for us to create a class that's based on this help component, right? And that's kind of where it came from, and why we decided to release them together like this, just because in a lot of ways, like, from the gameplay perspective, they mirror each other, right? One's more of a caster, one is more martial, kind of a warrior Knight. And so we looked at this as a really cool opportunity to explore that duality of the two different realms.”

The team framed the Warlock and Paladin as narrative and mechanical foils: one leans into Hell, the other into Heaven, and together they let the expansion explore the Eternal Conflict from both sides.

A master of four disciplines

Since the Spiritborn and the Paladin, Blizzard has continued the pattern of giving new classes distinct lanes to specialize into. The Warlock follows that template with core playstyles including the Legion, Vanguard, Mastermind, and Ritualist.

“It is a sort of 'summoner first' class. It is kind of similar to Necro, but really looking to hit the key summoner type play styles that we haven't gotten to explore as much unlike other classes. And so it is very much focused on giving players that opportunity to try bringing in different demons and different kinds of entities, and using them, controlling them in different ways. And sort of like being a class that's a little bit more aggressive, a little bit more active, a little bit more brutal with their summons, for lack of a better word, so it is really focused on that. There's a couple of different play styles that we kind of tried out, being a more direct controller, versus sort of being in the fray with your summons.”

The developers emphasised that the Warlock is all demons, all the time. Every shard and fragment ties back to how you summon, command, or siphon power from demons.

More on the Ritualist and Legion playstyles...

Two shards stood out in the hands‑on and the interview because they show how different the Warlock can feel. With Ritualist, there was more of a place-and-consume rhythm to the gameplay. Sigils and rituals would siphon power back to the Warlock rather than relying on disposable bodies. Alternatively, Legion had a summon-and-recycle loop that encouraged mass spawns and frequent demon kills.

“Hey, this is the demon summoning class," Stephen Trin noted. "Most people, I'm going to go, Hey, you came here for the demons. Let me give you the demons. But if you're just really vibing with, like, the fire and brimstone or the shadows, like, I still want to give you an option for making a build that's more centered around that and still sort of can involve demons. You can still use them to kind of power you up or something. But it's less about using them for damage and sort of giving that outlet for people to still express themselves and play the way they want to"

One of the most striking mechanical reveals was that Warlocks treat demons as disposable tools, and that killing your own summons can count toward on‑kill effects.

“You are hurting demons, with demons that you hurt. It’s just like one big demon sadness party.”

That choice both reinforces the class fantasy and opens new design space: weapon affixes and rituals that trigger on kill now have a second, reliable source of kills for certain builds (notably Legion), while other shards interact with the system less frequently.

Turning the fantasy to 11

Ultimates are explicitly designed to be the mechanical peaks of each shard’s fantasy.

“When we get to the Ultimates, it's basically like, take the sort of fantasies, the play styles, the things that we're working with, and just kind of asking ourselves, like, what happens if we turn this up to 11 out of 10?”

"It's like, Hey, I'm normally summoning a demon. What if I just summon the biggest, craziest demon I can think of? Right? Like, that's the ultimate. Hey, I'm making these sigils and rituals and things, what if I just blow up the entire world with the apocalypse? Right? Like, that's ultimately, the thought process we go through for, for the Ultimates."

Ultimately... see what they did there?

Uniques will further push build identity. The team teased new items that transform movement, change projectile behavior, or otherwise rework how a skill plays, giving players new ways to experiment.

Visual clarity and feel were recurring concerns. The team iterated on an abyssal palette, chains and smoke, and spent time making recast and micro‑control mechanics feel responsive.

“We went through a couple different iterations of trying to get the colors right and like the smoke. The chains and the smoke are a huge component of the thematic aesthetic.”

New systems — killing your own pets, recast‑style abilities, and direct demon micro‑control — required more work to ensure they were both readable and rewarding in combat.

What the team is watching when Lord of Hatred launches

As with any new class, the meta is likely to get shaken up considerably as the new Warlock rolls out to millions of players, who will find interactions and bugs a-kimbo. Here's what Bjorn and Stephen told us they'll be monitoring:

• Resource management - how sustaining Wrath and Dominance actually feels in longer fights
• Fragment scaling - whether fragment choices remain meaningful into endgame
• Pet AI reliability - whether summoned demons behave predictably when precise control is required

How all these systems work at scale will determine whether the Warlock gets adopted as a long-term main or a short-lived novelty. I, for one, had a great time testing out the new class behind the scenes, and I can't wait to see how it handles true endgame content. Am I about to become a Warlock main?

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