Barbs clearly wear plate.
True, that heavy armor will just weigh you down when you’re racing the lawnmower.
TL;DR loot is core to Diablo; undifferentiated loot adds to the existing bottleneck of tedium of inspecting trash loot, and misses some of the “cool”.
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Your pushback is usually generous, but I think this one’s a miss, hear me out. 
I don’t think it’s barrel-bottom like the “cultural” stuff, because it goes to itemization. Itemization in turn, dominates gameplay. Having differentiated armor types adds layering, enhances class fantasy, and (my biggest bugaboo with D3 & D4) makes interacting with loot much more efficient & enjoyable - without employing a loot filter. Once they relent & add a loot filter, this main problem goes away, though the fantasy still suffers.
The reason D2 base itemization was so satisfying, probably without people realizing it until D3 took this away, is because you almost always knew if an item was worth picking up to inspect it, and how likely it factored into your plan… before you ever picked it up, much less read the tedious stats. So your time was rewarded… in the career of one character, those seconds become minutes become hours. The tedium itself, over those cumulative hours, is pretty atrocious (in the realm of video game interaction, which is separate from real life woes ofc).
Like with several other bad-move detours (probably influenced by a roadmap that included consoles & phones I guess?) it was probably Jay Wilson’s bad idea. It felt yucky then, and it feels yucky still. 
I currently don’t play any game as much as D4, so I’m proof this isn’t just opportunistic dumping on its flaws. I want it to be good - sadly, base armor differentiation is probably never coming back to the franchise. 
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The Paladins and Crusaders are already in D4 just not as a playable class. You can do 2 side quests with them.
i did, hence why im asking if you can help me out. my google searches lead to crap ^^
oh, it was! heck, d2 paladin was insane.
so sad that there wasnt a d3 paladin.
checking your links^^
btw, put your links between `` itll end up like text
makes it easier for people ^^
at the end of the day everyone needed a paladin in d2, no? (mostly for torch farm and annis) d3 didnt have one, and d4 doesnt have one (yea, lore aside^^)
this thread of OP is still weird, we got a STR class. is the issue that we dont have armor differencies?
I think the OP means there isn’t a Defensive “Tank” Class. It is an entire playstyle that is absent from the game to have a Defense-Forward character who appears in Plate Mail and makes use of a Shield and 2-Hander (similar to Diablo 3 Crusader). Counter-Attacks, Shield-Bashes, Retaliation etc. along the lines of Grim Dawn’s Soldier/Oathbearer.
While lore-wise Paladin’s are not in Sanctuary or in some jungle, the Knight Errants seem to be the logical choice of class. I remember seeing them towering over my Barbarian in Kyovoshad for the first time thinking “Yeah, that should be a class”.
Focusing on Defense with an extra Defensive Equipment slot that gives 2x bonus like 2H does for Offensive Weapons and promoting a “Defense as Offense” style play would win over a lot of people. Take a gander who many people are like “why does D4 not have Hack for Thorns!?”
There is just so much ripe for the picking there and having the Class mechanic be Cathedral of Light Blessings (Auras) would be very fitting.
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So your explanation makes sense, however there are a lot of changes that would need to happen for it to work in D4. I also don’t agree either.
What you claim to be a better experience in D2 comes down to also obtaining items you’d never want. D3 and D4 streamlined this process so the majority of the items you find are for your class instead. I would say the D3 and D4 experience is far more efficient then D2 by a longshot because of this. Enjoyable is subjective. However when you are only finding items for your class it’s far more efficient.
D2 on the other hand you had to wait for a particular piece to drop that you would actually use. Eventually you’d know off the bat if you wanted to use Heavy versus Light armor for example, but then you’d have to wait for those pieces to drop and then look at the stats. This added another grind to the game that’s not present in D3 or D4. It could also hinder your leveling process in a big way, if anything you would make far more compromises and sacrifices.
There’s a reason D2R has a much smaller player base at the moment. The gameplay for that game just doesn’t work for modern audiences, or even older ones. In general of course, yes there are exceptions, and there are people who still play the game, but the majority clearly don’t.
All that being said, while I disagree with your premise, I’m giving you a +1 because it’s more thought out then what the OP put forth. Coming from that perspective, it does make sense, even if I don’t agree.
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no offense, but inarus fell… (for now) the last zakarum followers cant believe in anyone, paladin orders disbanded back during D2 and DI.
i consider the story way more important than a class release myself, but yea, that might just be me 
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I mean, we’ve already had people complaining that the demons are not naked or sexual enough.
What next? They want the dude from the boys to walk in and throw his schlong about as a boss mechanic or something?
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True, but there is still a place where they can be found in a large number. Well atleast in theory. According to lore, Rakis a paladin commander, and his men during their quest established the kingdom of Westmarch where Rakis became king. So if any of the guards and the army of Westmarch survived the attack of Malthael after RoS, there should still be paladins there.
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tho those were “crusaders”. hence why i said, the zakarum suffered a lot by now. their beliefs had their problems long ago lore wise. i assume we are moving more towards the triune now ^^
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No since the “split” started in Caldeum, with Akarat leading some into the east, they become the Crusaders, the rest of the Paladins went west. Crusaders only went west when they saw the falling star and thought their Paladin brothers need backup. Westmarch was founded by Paladins, because Crusaders never set foot on the western continent untill the events of D3, and Westmarch was allready there since Leoric waged war with them for a while.
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What’s the point of your post ? Trolling for trolling, hating for the pleasure of hating… It’s 100% useless.
By the way lot of barb armors are heavy plates looking, so your post is useless and wrong…
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Pretty sure that’s a misunderstanding, albeit the OP is also trolling. They mean different armor tiers, typically base-stat-restricted. Doesn’t fit the D3/D4 mold bc in D3 they decided to get rid of base stat allocation (what was called attributes in D2). But, for example, heavy plate would require high strength to wear, etc. It’s not about appearance/skins.
Ok maybe there really is an ARPG or generational gap in gamers. To answer your Q, D2 had Paladin & Barb. Minimum str requirement in heavy armor fit the class fantasy, and correlated with higher strength allocation in the character panel. You had to choose how you spend your attribute points, and the requirements of your armor had a lot to do with it. Over time, certain uniques & runewords with lots of strength stat on them made the planning more interesting. The advantage of higher str (heavier) armor, in turn, was higher Armor stat… which in turn mainly the strength-based classes could take full advantage of via skills (but also, strength enhanced Armor rating). This sort of enhanced the class fantasy at a granular (but not tedious) level.
No.
We all know OP is salty because there is no paladin class yet. Like the dozens of other whiny babies who come here to cry about it.
Ppl will always find something to cry about. They knew d4 wasnt gonna have pala on release. However i do believe there will be a paladin/crusader or simular in d4 eventually. I wouldnt even be surprised if they working on it alrdy even though its not high prio.
Nah. Granted, their post is trollish… but not nearly as much as yours. 
Anyway… unless I’ve misunderstood OP (doubt it), an example of a “plate str” class would be Barbarian. Barbarian does exist in the game, and also in D3. But “plate str” class doesn’t…
…bc D3/D4 dumped this concept altogether.
Agreed. My hunch is Paladin next year. But it doesn’t address the OP at all & it’s a translation error for many of the replies in the thread.
Ppl refer to pally/sader etc as those are the ones who use plates. Whatever they call it doesnt matter. I would say its obv that just giving some classes plates for looks isnt what he is asking for.
I doubt he be happy if they added lets say vampires like in DI and then give them plates.
Thats what you get when you type in dog poo, suggest you try harder next time
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Alot of palas popularity came from that it was meta, strong, easy to play and pretty cheap to build. Just like blizz sorc was popular early ladder.
Also bots used pala as they were pretty quick to build while very few mobs got magic resist.
Sin grew in popularity cause of mosaic.