Diablo II: Reign of the Warlock (Feb 11, 2026)

You guys already know what a fan I am of the Diablo series from Blizzard Entertainment. This is a series that came out in 1996 and forever changed the landscape of games, thanks to creating a new genre: the action role-playing game. When Diablo II came out, I personally did not like it, because it focused more on the action and real-time and you couldn’t save. Every relaunch of the game resets the monsters, requiring you to keep the game running all the time.

Since Diablo II was remastered in Sep 2021 as Diablo II: Resurrected, I’ve largely come around to hating Diablo II. Since the remaster, I feel it’s a great game, thanks to the new HD graphics (with the ability to play the low-resolution version) and quality of life (automatically picking up gold) and the ability to play the game offline. The game has become of my favorite Diablo games.

Then, out of nowhere, on February 11, 2026, we got a new playable class: The Warlock. I had no idea Blizzard was still working on Diablo II, especially since the last major update to the game was 25 when Blizzard released Lord of Destruction.

Along with the new character, Blizzard also added a new “stash tab”, which includes a new tool to manage and organization for gems and runes (including new runes). The Horadric Cube is also built into the stash… many of these new updates seemed to be inspired from Path of Exile, in my opinion.

My only complaint is that the new game update and Warlock class costs $25. I feel like you are not getting enough for the price, especially when you consider that Path of Exile (one and two) are free… and I recently bought Titan Quest II (a full game currently in development) for $30. If you don’t own Diablo II, you can get the “Infernal Edition”, which includes the Warlock, for $40.

Having said that, I will have to admit that playing a new character in Diablo II was exciting. This is a powerful character with three branches you can go into: weapons summoning, chaos magic, or demonic minion. I’m currently focusing on demonic and a little chaos magic (the exploding fireball is super useful), but dabbing points in various other spells (just to play around). I think eventually, I’ll have to restart a new character and just focus on one area of expertise.

It’s been somewhat understated, but I feel the ability to “float” a weapon, is overpower. What this means is that you can “hold” a two-handed weapon and also a shield or grimoire in the other hand.

Anyway, I can’t believe that I’m playing Diablo II with a new character, with new stash, in 2026. I am hoping with the success of the Warlock class, that Blizzard will create new classes (or introduce Diablo III or Diablo IV characters into Diablo II!) The future looks bright for Diablo II.