The world of Sanctuary is buzzing with anticipation as Diablo 4 moves into its next chapter. With the Lord of Hatred expansion on the horizon, Blizzard has started to roll out hints, event teasers, and roadmap details that have the community speculating about what’s next. Whether you’re gearing up for Season 12, tracking new class rumors, or eager for the next DLC, there’s a lot to unpack. Here's our preview look at what's coming to Diablo 4 in 2026, including season schedules, new classes, leaks, and Lord of Hatred expansion details.
Diablo 4 Roadmap 2026 (Season 12, Next Expansion, New Classes & Seasons)
As 2026 begins, Diablo 4’s development cycle enters a dynamic phase. The Lord of Hatred expansion is set to launch in April, and a series of events and content updates are lined up to bridge the gap between current content and the expansion. According to the latest official materials, the roadmap points to a tightly packed schedule: Season 11 wraps up in March, followed quickly by Season 12 and, soon after, the next major expansion.
One intriguing detail in the roadmap is a deliberately blurred or obscured segment for February 2026, hinting at a surprise event or reveal. The rest of the timeline makes it clear that March is slated for Season 12, with April reserved for the massive Lord of Hatred release.
Diablo 4 Season 12 Release Date (Start Date & Time)
Diablo 4 Season 12 is scheduled to kick off at 10:00 AM PDT on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, immediately following the conclusion of Season 11. This season is set to run for a shorter period than usual, serving as a bridge to the much-anticipated Lord of Hatred expansion.
Diablo 4 Season 12 PTR (Patch 2.6.0) Dates
Players eager to preview Season 12's new features had the opportunity to participate in the Public Test Realm (PTR). The PTR opened on Tuesday, February 3rd at 10:00 AM PDT and closed on February 10th at the same time, allowing a week of testing and feedback before the official season launch.
Diablo 4 Season 12 Leaks: New Content To Expect
As players get ready to jump into the new season, there’s plenty to look forward to. Season 12 may be lighter compared to massive expansion patches, but it brings some meaningful updates, impactful mechanics, and a collection of new items and challenges that will keep both veteran players and fresh recruits engaged. Blizzard has signaled that even more content could be revealed leading up to the 2.6.0 PTR launch, possibly connected to their anniversary showcase, so keep a lookout for further surprises.
This season is expected to last around seven weeks, acting as a bridge before the next expansion. While the update is not as massive as previous ones, it’s packed with some entertaining features and experimental systems guaranteed to liven up gameplay.
1. Seasonal Theme: Killstreaks
At the heart of Season 12 is the Killstreak mechanic. Drawing inspiration from classic Diablo installments and previous season features, this new system energizes every aspect of the game. The killstreak system isn’t just a counter or a minor boost — it’s directly woven into gameplay and itemization.
When you eliminate monsters in quick succession, a killstreak meter appears, tracking your ongoing rampage. The more you slay, the higher your tier, escalating from killstreak, to carnage, devastation, bloodbath, and massacre. Each tier grants greater rewards. You can keep the streak alive not only by killing but also by applying damage, including initial hits or damage-over-time effects. This makes creative strategies possible, whether you’re riding between packs on horseback, leapfrogging from group to group, or optimizing your gear and skills to maximize streak length.
Once the killstreak ends (either from timer expiration or player death), you receive experience and seasonal reputation, both of which scale with the number of monsters slain and the tier reached. These XP chunks provide a faster leveling journey and allow for speedier progression toward endgame content and paragon points.
2. Bloodied Items: New Item Quality
Season 12 introduces Bloodied Items, a brand new item quality that interacts directly with the killstreak mechanic. Bloodied items can drop as an extra qualifier on any existing item, be it ancestral, unique, or otherwise. These items come with red affixes, and their bonuses scale with your killstreak performance, adding an extra layer of reward for speedy, high-volume clearing.
There are three categories of Bloodied affixes:
Rampage (Armor only): Offers offensive stats that ramp up based on your current killstreak tier. Example: Each tier can grant percentage-based boosts like critical chance, attack speed, or resource cost reduction.
Feast (Weapons only): Grants effects based on the number of kills during your streak. For example, every 25 or 40 kills could trigger effects like gaining berserking for several seconds or resetting a skill cooldown.
Hunger (Jewelry only): Alters your reward yield, including increased chances for loot like runes or materials as your streak tier climbs.
Bloodied items are relatively frequent in the early game, often populating your gear slots as you level. Hitting the optimal combination of unique or mythical base with favorable bloodied affixes, however, presents a longer, more rewarding hunt for perfect gear. In general, the most valued bloodied effects are attack speed and critical chance, while others like periodic berserk may suit certain world or farming builds.
3. Bloodied Sigils & Challenging New Content
Season 12 also introduces Bloodied Sigils - tokens that dramatically ramp up the challenge of core endgame activities: Nightmare Dungeons, Infernal Hordes, and Layer Bosses. These sigils drop frequently during leveling, making tough content accessible right as you reach new torment levels.
Nightmare Dungeons and Infernal Hordes: Bloody sigils can turn these activities into advanced versions, featuring relentless new modifiers. For example, you may be pursued by multiple Butchers—fearsome enemies that can spawn repeatedly, presenting a real danger for anyone not geared defensively.
Layer Boss Sigils: These change the boss’s lair into a bloodied, higher-difficulty battlefield. Bosses ramp up in intensity, health pools swell, and modifiers like “Relentless Butcher” become common. The higher-risk attempt comes with the benefit of guaranteed loot, especially bloodied uniques.
Bloodied layer bosses start appearing from Torment 1 onward, but the actual challenge can mirror much higher Torment levels. Completing these special encounters helps fill your stash with bloodied items and new uniques, even giving players easier access to bosses without the usual material grind.
4. New Unique Items
A suite of new unique items arrives for Season 12, distinguished by their cross-class flexibility. Instead of being limited to specific classes or builds, these are broadly accessible and introduce effects that were previously exclusive. Notable items include:
Blood Mad Idol (Amulet): You’re always berserking but take extra damage that burns over time instead of instantly, with up to a 125% damage bonus while berserking. Defensive players willing to manage their recovery and health can benefit from both sustained offense and greater protection against one-shots.
Vendigo Brand (Ring): Every 15 kills grants stacking damage and max life buffs, stacking up to potentially 100% damage and 50% life, although keeping stacks up requires relentless speed. Suits fast-paced builds and early progression.
Rust Bitten Durk (Dagger): Delivers doubled damage to isolated enemies, shining in boss fights or against lone elites, making it an attractive choice for bosses or classes with weak single-target output.
Void Skin (Gloves): Applies vulnerability to distant foes and weaken to nearby enemies, with bonus damage to those afflicted by both. This is especially helpful in multiplayer, spreading beneficial party effects beyond current class restrictions.
Thousand Eye Reaver (1H Axe): Provides ferocity, a stat normally found only on Spiritborn, ramping up attack speed and movement speed simply by moving. This can free up stat slots elsewhere and add dynamism to Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, and Paladin builds.
All these items, while broadly available, tend to have less specialized power than previous uniques. They may feel less core to any particular build, but they bring new ways to configure gear, especially ahead of larger expansion shake-ups.
5. Game Balance and Patch Adjustments
Patch 12 is lighter on sweeping class changes, though it includes key updates:
Paladin: Several bugs have been addressed, and powerful nodes like Castle have been re-tuned, reducing explosive damage scaling from armor and making paragon adjustments. Some builds like Judgment and origin spear combinations, now require more thoughtful play, though alternatives (such as Thorns builds) are gaining strength thanks to fixed multipliers.
Other Classes: Small buffs via paragon and legendary effects, changes to how glyphs (like Ember and Guzzler) interact with potion stacking, and easier access to key effects for Necromancer and Rogue.
Quality of Life: Monster packs with special visual effects (notably in higher-level sigils) now guarantee ancestral or unique drops, encouraging players to push for higher difficulties for better rewards.
While there’s no comprehensive meta shift, these incremental tweaks smooth out progression and keep all classes competitive, particularly as Paladins lose their former edge.
Diablo 4 DLC 2 Expansion Release Date & New Content To Expect
Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred Release Timing
Looking ahead, Lord of Hatred is slated for release on April 28, 2026. While the expansion is still on the horizon, those who pre-order can already get their hands on the new Paladin class, with another new class yet to be revealed as hype for the expansion grows.
Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred Expansion Leaks
The second expansion for Diablo 4, titled Lord of Hatred, was officially revealed at the 2025 Game Awards. To many players’ surprise, the next DLC expansion release is set for April 28, much sooner than many anticipated. The story moves to the Skovos Isles, known as the homeland of the Amazons. This new region becomes the core setting for the expansion’s campaign, where the Wanderer must confront Mephisto and navigate uneasy alliances, most notably with Lilith, whose return ties back to unresolved threads from the original storyline.
New Region: Skovos Isles
The new expansion shifts the action to the Skovos Isles, the homeland of the Amazons. This region serves as the backdrop for the next chapter of the main story, where the Wanderer faces the threat of Mephisto and must navigate alliances with familiar foes, including the return of Lilith in a way that ties back to unresolved plotlines from the core campaign.
New Class - Warlock, Death Knight, or Blood Shaman?
The next new class coming in the Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred DLC appears to be a formidable wielder of dark magic, potentially blending elements from warlock, death knight, or blood shaman archetypes. Leaked concept art reveals a mysterious figure conjuring a giant claw with his right arm, suggesting mastery over blood or shadowy forces. This new class wields a massive curved sword, likely as both weapon and magical focus, and dons minimal armor reminiscent of the Spiritborn, hinting at origins in a hot, possibly infernal region like the Skovos Isles or the fiery depths of hell. If confirmed, this class will join the Necromancer in representing Diablo 4’s darker power wielders, promising a fresh playstyle centered on blood, curses, and the raw manipulation of life forces.
New Campaign Content
Players can expect about 10 hours of fresh campaign content, picking up where previous arcs concluded. The narrative centers on the escalating threat of Mephisto and the challenge of preventing hatred from consuming the world. The expansion also explores the ramifications of Lilith’s return, forcing the Wanderer into alliances that are necessary but not built on trust.
Talisman System and Set Bonuses
The Talisman system debuts as a new endgame progression feature. Talismans are items with multiple slots for charms or objects, each providing set bonuses and special effects. This system introduces another layer of build customization, allowing for unique combinations and playstyles without cluttering equipment slots. The concept draws from earlier design ideas in the franchise, now refined for Diablo 4.
Skill Tree Overhaul
A sweeping rework of the skill tree arrives with the expansion. Players will find expanded paths and more branching options, with up to twelve upgrades available per skill and the ability to morph skills into new variants. For example, a sorcerer’s Ball Lightning can now be transformed into a fiery ground-based version, offering new strategic possibilities. Early game flexibility is also improved, with all skill slots unlocked at level one.
War Plans: Custom Endgame Progression
The War Plans system offers personalized endgame content, letting players choose playlists of activities and select their preferred rewards. Unlike the static reward structure of the current game, War Plans allow for nearly complete customization of both challenges and outcomes. Each endgame activity such as nightmare dungeons or boss ladders, features its own progression tree. As players participate, they earn points to further specialize and adjust rewards, creating a more strategic and tailored endgame loop.
Runewords and Crafting Mechanics
Veterans of the Diablo series will recognize the return of runewords, a cherished mechanic from Diablo 2. Trailers have teased scenes where runes encircle a weapon, their energies fusing to create more formidable gear. The crafting system looks to build upon the current format—combining runes using a cube mechanic reminiscent of the classic Horadric Cube. This update gives new relevance to white, blue, and rare items that previously became obsolete early in the game; such items might now serve as worthy bases for powerful runeword creations. Alongside this, a confirmed loot filter is on the way, helping players identify valuable bases for these even more versatile crafting recipes.
The Return of the Haradric Cube and Crafting Upgrades
Lord of Hatred reintroduces the Haradric Cube in a reimagined form, part of a broader overhaul to crafting systems. This new approach takes cues from both the classic Haradric Cube and the Kanai’s Cube, providing new ways to extract, apply, and combine item aspects and powers. Details remain under wraps, but players can expect more depth and flexibility in item crafting.
Fishing: A Leisure Activity
Fishing arrives as a non-combat feature, available throughout Sanctuary’s waterways. Designed as a low-pressure diversion, fishing serves as a collection activity and may offer cosmetic rewards such as new appearances, mounts, or titles. Its purpose is to provide downtime content for players who want a break from combat.
Loot Filters and Quality-of-Life Improvements
Players can look forward to loot filters, which will streamline inventory management and make farming more efficient. Additional improvements include a higher level cap, more skill points, and user interface upgrades such as immediate access to skill slots and waypoints from the start.
Beyond these headline features, the expansion will also bump the level cap to 70, introduce revamped set mechanics, and extend the campaign’s story, potentially concluding Mephisto’s arc and featuring familiar faces from across the Diablo series.
Diablo 4 Next New Classes & Release Date in 2026
With the Paladin already confirmed for Season 11, speculation and evidence around the other playable class arriving with the Lord of Hatred expansion in 2026 have become a central topic in the community. Below, you’ll find a detailed look at the most discussed possibilities and the reasoning behind each, along with information on their expected release windows.
Warlock, Death Knight or Blood Shaman - April 28, 2026 (Lord of Hatred DLC)
The rumored second class coming to Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred, looks to be a dark, innovative frontline caster wielding a large two-handed weapon, possibly a sword. Leaked images, which circulated from Chinese gaming forums and social media, depict this mysterious new class as powerfully built and draped in crimson robes, with magic effects that swirl vividly in red and hints of dark purple. The class appears to channel a unique form of magic, potentially blood or demonic energy, manifested as rope-like magic around their arms and a spectral, outsized magical hand mimicking physical gestures. Rather than resembling Diablo Immortal’s vampiric Blood Knight, this character embodies a more original design, blending traditional caster elements with melee proficiency, marking them as a potential close-combat spellcaster - an archetype not yet explored in Diablo’s mainline games. Visual cues and design similarities found in earlier silhouettes from official trailers further support the authenticity of the leak. Many theorize this will be some form of demonologist, warlock, or demonic summoner class serving as a perfect thematic counterpart to the holy Paladin, harnessing hellish power and possibly subduing or summoning demons. This creative duality could bring an exciting new playstyle to Diablo IV, offering players a fresh dark spellcaster role that fights on the front lines using sorcery and brute strength alike.
Oracle - Mid-2026
A strong case has emerged for the Oracle as the next playable class launching with the Lord of Hatred expansion. The idea draws heavily from established lore about the Scovos Isles, which is where the expansion is set. Within Ascari society, Oracles serve as mystics and spiritual guides, setting them apart from the more martial Amazon caste. The Order of Seers, as they're known, is deeply involved in prophecy, spirit communion, and interpreting fate, offering a perspective that doesn’t align with either Heaven or Hell.
The Oracle archetype is supported by narrative cues from both the main campaign and side quests, such as the character Baywin the Seer, whose practices point to a tradition of divination and spiritual leadership distinct from necromancers or druids. In Lord of Hatred, the story’s focus on manipulation, endurance, and the price of knowing the future lines up with the Oracle’s thematic space. Mechanically, this addition would create a second willpower-based class, balancing out the primary stat distribution among all classes: two for strength, dexterity, intelligence, and, with the Oracle, two for willpower.
Given Blizzard’s approach to class design, anchoring each class in a cultural or institutional background, the Oracle fits naturally within the expansion’s setting and narrative direction. All signs point to the Oracle, or a class inspired by the Order of Seers, debuting with the Lord of Hatred expansion, which is slated for release in mid-2026.
Amazon - Unlikely as a Playable Class in Lord of Hatred
While the Amazon remains an iconic favorite tied to the Scovos Isles, several factors make its addition as a playable class in this expansion less probable. Traditionally, Amazons are depicted as a female-only warrior caste, and Blizzard’s current class system supports all genders for each playable class. Adapting the Amazon would require either a major lore shift or introducing the male Death Ravens, a group that historically never leaves the Isles. These complications, along with the fact that the Paladin is already a returning class, suggest that Blizzard may steer away from another classic reintroduction in the same cycle.
However, the Amazon archetype could still appear in a different form. It’s possible that Amazons, along with Oracles, will be featured as recruitable mercenaries or important narrative figures rather than as a new class. The “maiden” archetype referenced in earlier leaks aligns with the Amazon’s identity, but current evidence points to this role being filled through supporting characters rather than direct player choice in the upcoming expansion.
Other New Class Possibilities and Timing
Suggestions like Witch Doctor, Monk, Demon Hunter, Assassin, and Blood Knight have surfaced, but each comes with challenges related to lore, gameplay overlap, or recent game history. For example, the Witch Doctor’s cultural roots are tied to the Tagoni jungle, a region already covered in the previous expansion. Monk, Assassin, and Demon Hunter share mechanics or themes with existing classes, and the Blood Knight’s association with Diablo Immortal makes its introduction less likely.
Current evidence suggests that Blizzard will reveal the next playable class, likely the Oracle, at a major event ahead of the Lord of Hatred expansion’s launch. Expect the announcement to arrive a few months before the expansion’s mid-2026 release, providing plenty of time for players to learn about the class’s unique mechanics and lore before the new content drops.