Why is there multiple variation of the same heroes

[Lord Commander Dante]

I don't get it..
Im new to the game by the way

[Lamby]

they are like ascendancies in poe. also p2w as they are a lot stronger than the base class.

[XenosTec]

Before the last season, you actually had to earn them first. You could grind enough tokens to unlock one hero per season, or you could pay real money to get them. When you started the game, you only had three heroes unlocked, each with just one variant.

[Ghostlight]

I've just downloaded the game and it is letting me pick any class.

[TeaSipper555]

Yea, they have opened up all but the latest character/variant for everyone. It was like that previous season and it looks like they kept it for this season as well.