The Entire Case for Paladin coming in S11 šŸ›”

PC General Discussion
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Lets go over the entire evidence locker [some better than others] for the paladin as its spread across several threads. This gets all the evidence in one location. I am proposing that the paladin will release as a preorder expansion 2 reward. It will be playable in S11 and then on official release of expansion.

Post a reply if I left some evidence out. Some of this is highly speculative so keep that in mind.

1] Flail cosmetic. This is not a mount trophy. Too big and 2 other weaps are next to it.

Scroll wheel directly above this post to see the cosmetic.

2] Dev campfire had a part where they show pets and the new one says supports 7 classes. There is an extra barb placeholder in there. This is not a photoshop. This is directly from dev campfire chat.

Timestamp from video is 32:18 or so.
[Diablo IV Developer Update - Season 11 Season of Divine Intervention | December, 2025] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVHjgCsanBE&t=1938s

Another hint: Season 11 showcase pet supports - PC General Discussion - Diablo IV Forums] Another hint : season 11 showcase pet supports

3] Season name is divine intervention. That is a paladin WoW skill.

4] Rhykker and Slaydra are popular streamers and think its coming.

Rhykker = https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5VXvU8exi0c
Slaydra = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMzpcJo9rew&t=3s

5] Season start was mysteriously moved. This was done maybe to be directly after Game awards. IF they game awards has a paladin reward as a preorder bonus that would be extreme FOMO for S11. They moved it because I think the team said a workable version of pally was ready if they delayed two days.

6] Mystery content referenced on the china version of game.
CN Official Teaser: An Ultimate Surprise: Brand new content
is promised on December 12th for premium bundle buyers for the Chinese release of the game, so this could possibly be an expansion pre-order bonus. Copied from Icyveins.

7] They said on campfire video they want to fight fire with fire. Fire could be paladin to fight the fire of POE 2 druid. I lost timestamp but its near the end.

8] They are begging us to watch game awards. Something big is going down. You dont do this for a new cosmetic or pet. Its got to be huge.

9] This discovery by a redditor and posted by Annihilation. TLDR is that armor reliquary shows 10 rewards.

Yes why indeed is it offering 10???

10] PCgamer and other publications are convinced its coming.
PC Gamer = http ://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/there-are-too-many-hints-at-a-diablo-4-shadow-drop-at-the-game-awards-to-convince-me-paladins-wont-be-playable-next-week/

Icy Veins] = http ://www.icy-veins.com/d4/news/is-paladin-about-to-drop-for-diablo-4-season-11-at-the-game-awards/

11] Paladin is already referenced in the game code.
Xpaladinā€ strings were found in older Patch 2.5 builds, plus recent cosmetic that did not match any current class. Copied from IcyVeins.

12] Wowhead now has a S11 paladin section outline. They are getting ready at WoWhead. Do they know something we dont or are just convinced?
Paladin Class Overview - Season 11 Diablo 4 - Wowhead

13] WoW preorders in the past have given early access to new heroes so the precedent is there for this to happen in D4.

14] Jez Cordon D4 reinstall hidden message
Jez Corden, a reputable journalist [hes executive editor] from Windows Central, tweeted a cryptic message about the TGA teaser, suggesting it was for a Diablo 4 expansion, and also mentioned ā€œmoreā€. He previously told people it was ā€œtime to reinstall Diablo 4ā€ in a way that implied significant new content was coming.
Source = [UPDATED] Paladin Class is coming - Top Reasons Why (Speculation) - PC General Discussion - Diablo IV Forums

15] Leaked Paladin skill bar information show it looks like its ready to go. It showed the skill symbols in categories.
Possible Paladin Class leak?? NOT CONFIRMED LEAK : r/diablo4

16] Early access or Beta access to paladin as a reward for preorder lets them ship paladin in a rough state to then fix and tweak later on expansion official release. We would be in essence doing the PTR work for them on paladin. This also lets the paladin save S11 and sell a zillion preorders from FOMO as its about 30 min from gamewards end to S11 start.

Pretty big list of evidence so I dont think we can say those supporting this are nuts or crazy. Even Columbo would be coming back to ask one more question on this!

What you think about all of this?

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no way Blizzard can be this low key if indeed Paladin will drop on S11, this is just simply not Blizzard way. no Paladin in S11, period!

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The weird thing to me despite all of that is why in the world would they move the entire expansion release date to the 11th to align with the game awards and start after its over?

Thereā€™s no reason to do this if itā€™s just an announcement with preorders for the expansion. Unless they just wanted to do that for the cosmetic bonuses of the preorder? Even then why? Stay up all night to get some cosmetic bonuses for a very late season start?

Also Paladin spelt backwards is Nidalap which sounds interesting. Why did I say that though? Do I know something? Or not? :smiley:

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The Entire Case Against paladin ā€¦ Case Closed.

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anyone would accept if the devs changed the naming of ā€œPaladinā€ into templar or crusader?

i donā€™t. it immediately kills off my hype by like -80 percent. i never played the crusader class in my Diablo 3.

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I have more evidence. Rod said weā€™d have an expansion every year. And VOH was already ready almost a year before it was released.

-Since we donā€™t have an expansion this year, itā€™s possible that some of the content is being made available. We donā€™t have seasonal powers, system changes (like we had in VOH), a new world boss (the first time since the gameā€™s launch). It seems like different content from past seasons.

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Iā€™m not sure it counts as evidence, but didnā€™t Blizz host the streamers / partners for hush hush meetings not too long ago? Did we ever hear what that was all about? (Just trying to help a creative soul out :laughing:)

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The most unique detail is Blizzard now being owned by Microsoft. A company known for unique offerings to gain purchases. Example, MS offered Office for $50 just giving them proof of license to Word Perfect (their competition at the time)ā€¦ Then just like that, $300 for officeā€¦

Paladin (not my choice, I just want a frost hydra), class sold as a bonus to the ultimate pre-order of expansion fits the Microsoft mold for marketing to gain salesā€¦ In D4 it would work well for many want a Paladin and would pay Thursday before midnight to be the first to play it.

(Edit)
Well we also know it is Blizzard so I will wait until Friday morning to find out what did or did not happen. Too many letdowns with D4 already to get too high of hopes.

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For me, itā€™s a great marketing strategy. Iā€™d pay whatever it takes to play as a Paladin. Nobody really cares much about the story and all that. Iā€™d even do more with the next expansion launch, adding a new class to increase sales from those who havenā€™t bought it yet.

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17] Urza says so.

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You didnā€™t play the Diablo 3 paladin because they didnt call it ā€˜Paladinā€™? Thats pretty strange

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new level of Stupid unlocked.

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So you think they are going to release paladin with an intentionally janky skill tree just so they can give them a revamped skill tree in another 6 months? Why?

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Ga dang it Urza just Stawwwwp!! :weary:

Lol.

Seems to me IMO your more Hype about The Paladin then the Druidā€¦ā€¦.

LMFAO!!! :rofl:

I know we donā€™t like each other but that was too funny!

sorryā€¦

>_<

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Yes Urza, this is indeed the pally skill in WoW. It is often being referred to as DI , or bubble.

I played WoW for over 12 years , considered myself a WoW vet, only stopped halfway through shadowland.

Not sure if this has anything to do could be just a nice name the devs thought of using, or maybe they chose this name on purpose lol.

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Not nice. I made a pretty good case I think. Why u have to be a meanie?

Why starless have to celebrate insults to me?

To make a couple hundred millions dollars.

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Maybe Iā€™m trying to be nicey nicey to past enemiesā€¦.

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Iā€™ll take this opportunity to mention a 2nd timeā€¦ DI = dead Paladin. :rofl: Self-sacrifice. Kaput. Finito.

I can imagine it sounding superficially cool to the writersā€™ room, as a wink to the Paladin specificallyā€¦ but hopefully in the seasonal (& expansion) story it refers to other characters. Akarat is an obvious one.

But who else, hmm? Whoā€¦ elseā€¦ :baby_angel:ā€¦ :eyes:

(Then again, I look at the fugly ā€˜cinematicā€™ portions of the recent reveal trailer, and Hadriel also fits the billā€¦ so meh.)

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Oh, and itā€™s time to resurrect that original (vanilla) leak - the famous Displate with the mysterious shield-and-spear-wielding ā€˜knightā€™ with wings:

https://i.ibb.co/j94J4GrP/IMG-3841.png

A ā€˜Paladinā€™ who is a veritable fallen angel? Why shouldnā€™t angels take Tyraelā€™s example & sacrifice something of their essence to join the struggle alongside mortals? (ā€œDivine interventionā€.) And why shouldnā€™t they in fact join the order of the Paladins?

And recall: it was basically confirmed in a live-stream that they were working on a ā€˜Paladinā€™ since before SBā€¦ so the fact that it may have showed up on Displate in 2022 isnā€™t at all implausible. Full circle?

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Spiritborn came out with modernized ultimates and the other classes followed suit.

Paladin could do the same.

I also honestly hate how much power people want in the skill tree and much prefer a lot of the power being in the items. Weā€™re playing an ARPG, the items being the biggest source of that power is better to me than corpse explosion getting different modifiers.