Surprise, Diablo 4's new Paladin class is available to play right now

Well, what do you know, Diablo 4 is getting the long, long-awaited Paladin class, which in and of itself isn't the most surprising news. What is genuinely unexpected, however, is that the Paladin class is playable in Diablo 4 tonight, a few months ahead of the game's next big expansion, the very Diablo-y named Lord of Hatred, launching April 28.

Blizzard announced Diablo 4's Lord of Hatred expansion ahead of The Game Awards 2025, and then fully revealed the details in a press release. The expansion will see the game's Age of Hatred saga to fruition, add the new Skovos region to the map, rework skill trees, put fishing poles in players' hands, and, chiefly, add two new classes: Paladin and a second one yet to be revealed.

The big surprise, for me, is that if you pre-purchase the Lord of Hatred expansion right now, you'll immediately get access to the new Paladin class so you can channel holy light to gain access to demon-melting abilities like Blessed Hammer, Auras, Zeal, and Heaven's Fury.

Blizzard communicated to PC Gamer via a video breakdown that Diablo 4's Paladin is essentially a hybrid of Diablo 2's Paladin and Diablo 3's Crusader, giving players the choice between oaths to determine which of four different fighting styles they'll use.

There's the Juggernaut, which has stackable defensive moves that double as attacks; the Zealot, which employs automatically repeating strikes; the Judicator, with its explosives it can mark enemies with; and the Disciple, which can turn into a different, angelic form with unique abilities. All of that good stuff is available with a pre-order of Lord of Hatred right now.

In other Blizzard news, World of Warcraft devs were going to fix the MMO's floating houses, but "we all kinda immediately agreed this was way too cool to change"