What We Know about the Diablo 4 Paladin Leak
An updated vendor build is usually very reliable in terms of predicting changes Soon(tm), but they're never perfect. Here's what we know so far:
Diablo 4 has updated vendor builds under the codename Fenris in the past, and even once the game was officially announced, vendor builds continued to use the Fenris designation.
Every season, vendor builds are updated - Season 10 is going to be Patch 2.4.0, since Season 9 is Patch 2.3.0, meaning Season 11 is almost certainly going to be 2.5.0 - or, this could be a pre-expansion patch similar to how World of Warcraft debuts prepatch events.
Whatever change this build contains would debut before a new Diablo 4 expansion - major expansions increase by whole patch numbers (i.e. 2.0.0 to 3.0.0) instead of partial numbers.
Now, the burning question - why the name Paladin? There's two possible reasons for this naming convention. The first, is that this is an internal code name and has no actual bearing on the Paladin class itself; like Fenris, it could be a red herring. The second option, however, is that this is an internal name for a patch meant to debut a brand-new class: the Paladin themselves.
Paladins in Diablo
Paladins (and Crusaders) have been an extraordinarily popular class in the Diablo franchise since their inception. While the original Diablo only had Rogue, Mage, and Fighter classes, Diablo 2 launched with the Paladin, and players immediately fell in love with the class.
Many players were extremely disappointed when the first new class announced in Diablo 4 was the Spiritborn, and instead were clamoring for the Paladin to be added - and now, finally, Blizzard might be hinting that everyone's favorite sword-and-board class is on the way.
