Warlocks have taken over as Diablo 2 best class 26 years after launch

Nobody could've guessed that Diablo 2: Resurrected would get a surprise expansion with a new class in 2026, but here we are. That also means the 26-year-old game is now dealing with a major meta shake-up – warlocks have seized the throne not just as the new flavor of the month, but the most powerful one.

The Diablo 2 remaster has seen seasonal meta shifts before, but none as significant as this one. Warlocks – along with new endgame challenges added in the expansion – have handed players a ton of new toys in a game whose optimal strategies have been largely set in stone for decades. Early reports from Diablo YouTubers confirm the new demon-summoner class is easily one of the strongest around.

One build sits above the rest when it comes to shredding the hardest enemies in the game: the Echoing Strike warlock. It doesn't even rely on commanding pet demons – it's built entirely around the raw power of the Echoing Strike skill, which essentially lets you fire your weapons at enemies like a shotgun.

Pet demons are still part of the picture for supplemental damage buffs, but the core idea is just flinging ghostly weapons at everything on screen. And since Diablo 2 has monsters immune to certain elemental damage types, Echoing Strike's basic physical damage lets you largely sidestep that problem – something many other skills in the game can't claim.

The build does have a high gear requirement before it really takes off, so jumping straight into it when the new ladder season kicks off today probably isn't realistic. That said, warlocks also happen to have some of the fastest leveling builds in the game, so getting there won't take long. Blizzard built a class that's hard to go wrong with as long as you understand the basics.

The gap between warlocks and the older classes isn't as massive as new Diablo 4 classes tend to be right after launch. Sorceresses and paladins remain competitive, so if the role of an ancient demon scholar isn't appealing, you can still tear through the expansion's new terror zones and uber boss fight as any other class. But after 25 years of playing the same roster, most players will probably want to take the new guy for a spin.

Blizzard hasn't touched warlocks with any balance changes since the expansion launched. Apparently there's nothing so obviously broken that it demands an immediate fix – which is impressive for a class designed so long after the rest. The most questionable option is an immortal build floating around, but it sacrifices so much damage output for the gimmick that it's unlikely to cause any real problems.

It'll be interesting to see what balance adjustments Blizzard eventually makes. There's a scenario where nothing changes and Diablo 2 players simply have to accept warlocks at the top. More likely, Blizzard will dial them back once the initial excitement fades – rather than playing endless whack-a-mole balancing a game that was never designed as a live-service title.

Blizzard has said future expansions aren't off the table, though, so Diablo 2 might be heading toward a future where it doesn't feel quite so retro after all.