The Plague Knight is the first new class announced for Diablo V, game director Joe Shely said at the Diablo V panel at BlizzCon 2026, moments after confirming the returning Demon Hunter and Monk. “With Diablo V, we’re also going to be bringing new classes to the game,” he said.
“This is a heavily armored class, it’s a walking death,” Shely said. “You’re going to be roaming the battlefield, spreading disease, and then consuming it for power.” Host Johanna Faries called it unsanitary; “It is,” he answered.
The concept art on screen, a black-and-white sketch, shows a figure in spiked plate armour with a horned, closed helmet and heavy pauldrons, drawn from a low angle with dark growth around its feet.
Shely also said “Diablo V is going to launch with more classes than ever before. And I don’t just mean more classes than another Diablo game at ship, I mean more classes, total.” He did not give a number. Diablo classes are “approachable, you can jump in, you can immediately have an exciting time playing them,” he said, “but there’s also deep ARPG mastery there and a multitude of builds to explore.”
The Plague Knight’s skills, resource, and weapon types were not shown, and no further new classes were named in this part of the panel.