Diablo Immortal's first new class, the Blood Knight, is also the first new character class introduced into the wider Diablo universe since the release of Diablo III's Reaper of Souls expansion in 2014, when the franchise first added the Crusader into the mix.

Blizzard revealed the new class via a cinematic trailer as part of a developer update livestream focused on Diablo IV Season 1. Diablo Immortal is free-to-play, and the class will be arriving in Blizzard's mobile ARPG on July 13 as a free update. The class has long been teased, with a datamine from as early as last year offering clues as to what the game's first new class would be.

The Blood Knights are a supernatural, melee-hybrid class that are vampiric in nature. Blood Knights are warriors that have been bitten by vampires, but through using an ancient ritual, haven't been fully consumed by the vampire's curse. They don't age, can smell blood from miles away, and have supernatural strength and agility.

As shown in the trailer, Blood Knights can transform into powerful vampiric beasts to slay their foes. It's a transformative skill that requires players to kill enemies to keep the transformation going, and grants players new skills to boot. When not transformed, Blood Knights also wield halberds alongside blood and shadow magic.

Diablo Immortal does have a class-change feature where players can convert an existing character into another class and keep all their levels and stats. Whereas normally there is a longer cooldown associated with changing classes, for the Blood Knight's release, players will be able to swap to and from the new class freely in order to more easily take the class for a spin.

The update will additionally introduce new items and events. Diablo Immortal recently celebrated its one-year anniversary as well as the launch of Diablo IV. Meanwhile, Diablo IV's first season, Season of the Malignant, starts on July 20.