I was quite disappointed yesterday when the D4 developers
announced the upcoming DLC and said that the paladin won’t be in there, and that we’ll get a brand new class instead.
Based on release data from D3 (initial release March 15, 2012), it took Blizzard 2 years to release the Crusader (March 25, 2014), and another 3 years to release the necromancer (June 27, 2017). If this is any indication of the amounts of time that we’ll have to wait between additional classes, then the paladin won’t be in D4 anytime soon, and possibly no earlier than 2028!
Even considering that D4 has dedicated teams at work on seasons and DLCs, and that things may go a little faster (we are getting a new class only one year after release, compared to 2 years in D3), a D4 paladin still won’t see the light of day before another 2 years at least.
The devs surly know that the paladin is one of the most highly anticipated classes. Why add something completely new before you finish adding the classes that you know people love and work well in the game? I think adding a new class that people may or may not like in the fist DLC isn’t the smartest choice. First add the well-established classes, and then you can go off the beaten path and experiment with new things.
I have played all the Diablo games so far because of a knightly class, D1 had the warrior, D2 the paladin, and I didn’t touch D3 before the crusader was released. So I am super disappointed that the wait for the paladin will be so long and I’ll likely move to other games (e.g. PoE2) while I wait.
