1 Spec per Class - Lore Fit

Community General Discussion
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Although most specs fit their class from a Lore/Theme standpoint, there are typically one that fits best for most people (And a few that don’t really fit at all lol).

Does your list look the same?

Warrior - Fury. I just envision a Orc going crazy and raging with those red eyes and huge swords/axes. For the Horde!

Mage - Arcane. Pretty easy one. Actually, the easiest one for me.

Hunter - Marksmanship. Another easy one. I’m sure some would say BM, but to me, Hunter/Ranger lore is essentially and elf with a bow who is a sniper.

Rogue - Subtlety. Sneaky. In the shadows. Under a hood. Assassination does work well and is a close 2nd here.

Death Knight - Frost. Closer for me than I thought initially with Unholy, but ultimately the cold of Death and Arthas are just too much here.

Warlock - Affliction. Another really close one. You could easily argue either spec actually (Especially Fel Fire Destro). Ultimately, the idea of DoTs + Siphoning Health which Affliction was built on take the cake.

Druid - Feral. The hard ones continue. Although this is really a battle between Feral and guardian for me. Balance is my favorite spec but it’s not the best lore spec. I settled on Feral since it feels the most dynamic but this is probably the one I have the least conviction in.

Paladin - Protection. The ultimate Holy defender. Yea, I guess the other specs have some possibility but this one never felt close. Give me a shield and holy power and stick me in melee to protect my allies. For the Alliance!

Shaman - Elemental. Always a big lore debate in the Shaman community but I’m on team I wish they focused each spec on 1-2 elements instead of the balance. It hurts the flavor of Ele v Enh. They are too similar imo. At least Resto is focused on Water. But I’ll give the nod to Elemental on the name of the spec alone lol

Demon Hunter - Vengeance. Still the least developed class Lore/Theme wise to me. And the one I have the least emotional connection to. But Vengeance fits the most from how we were introduced to this Class (Illidan).

Evoker - Devastation. This was actually a tougher one than I imagined. Despite the headache Aug has caused gameplay wise, all 3 specs fit a theme/lore of dragons that we have had in the game going way back. But ultimately, when I think Dragon, I think fire/destruction/power so this is where we land.

Priest - Holy. When I think Priest, I think Holy Church. Somewhat simple and straightforward. I rather enjoy the flavor of Disc/Shadow, but at the end of the day, this is one of the more obvious ones for me.

Monk - Despite the fact that I LOVE the fun lore flavor of Brewmaster and Mistweaver (Even moreso if you play Panda), this is Windwalker and it’s not particularly close. It’s so clearly a martial arts focused spec and the animations are some of my favorite in all of melee land.

P.S. If you decide to factor Race into this, things will change as I actually think Race is the most critical fit for Spec. I’ll use Shaman since it’s my main. Want to play Orc or Dwarf? Enhance. Tauren or Kul Tiran? Restoration. Troll or Draenei? Elemental.

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GTFO
Demonology best encapsulates a warlock.

DoTs and nukes, summoning demons, Fel fire and shadow. (And I’m a destro saying this)

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For warlocks, I’d say demonology. I haven’t played demo in a while, but I think demons are what’s most associated with warlocks and set them apart from other classes. Curses potentially, but you had to do long quest chains for your pets originally. Also if you watch the original WoW intro cinematic, the emphasis for the forsaken warlock is on the infernal, so demo is my pick.

For monks, I would say brewmaster. Pandaren brewmasters go all the way back to the actual Warcraft RTS. Blizzard has also sold/given away pandaren brewmaster merchandise like bottle openers and things. Finally, Chen Stormstout is the most iconic monk in WoW and he’s also a brewmaster.

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Speaking of brewmasters in the RTS. I distinctly remember playing through the adventure campaign and noticing that despite having tank abilities, chen was a sub-par tank.

Take that as you will brewmaster players.

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I agree with all but DH. It’s clearly Havoc.

Warlocks to me are all about DoTs and Curses, the demon “pet” is an afterthought, and I mainly play destro too, so it’s Aff all the way.

Current demo locks play more like a Necromancer with a horde of summons than an actual warlock. Even more Necro-like than an UH DK.

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Fury is more of a berserker class
Berserker is one form of a warrior.

You would need something that represent everything and that is arms -Master of all weapons and balanced play

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Affliction isn’t the only spec to have dots though. It isn’t even the only shadow based dot spec.

There’s a reason why the burning legion is called the legion. It has virtually infinite demons to call upon. How is tapping into that limitless army not warlock like?

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Warlocks are not the legion.
Affliction/Destro is what it comes to mind when thinking of mages who decided to go darker, not slaving other races that are just called “demons” due to their fel magic binding.

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Fun thread, I’ll give it a go

Warrior: Fury
-Lorewise, not sure there’s one I like better than any other, but class fantasy wise, dual wielding 2h weapons and unleashing a rapid onslaught feels like it’s the best

Hunter: Beast Mastery
-Ranged attacks while your pet attacks and even tanks for you, this one seems obvious

Mage: Arcane
-Mage is a prototypical master of the arcane arts, even their frost and fire attacks aren’t truly rooted in the actual elements like a Shaman is, another obvious one

Rogue: Subtlety
-Another easy one, Rogue is meant to be in the shadows and rely on stealth

Priest: Holy
-Basic light using class best known for healing allies, Holy over Disc because Disc is more focused on shields/doing DPS, Holy is the most pure healing spec

Warlock: Demonology
-As much as I wanted to go Destruction here, Demo has the most emphasis on using their pets, which I think is a core tenet of Warlock, summoning demons to help do their bidding

Paladin: Retribution
-Tough one, and I might be wrong here, but when I think of Paladin, I think of using the Light to dole out justice to wrongdoers, and I think retribution essentially means justice. They’re the spec most designed to hurt their enemies using the light

Druid: Guardian
-Another tough one between Guardian and Resto, but I think of Druids as guardians of the Dream or guardians of the forest, they protect it above all else, so Guardian seems the best spec lorewise because they’re shapeshifting (another thing Resto doesn’t do) to guard their allies

Shaman: Elemental
-I might be biased here but I think Shamans harness the elements to hurt their foes with fire, lightning, earth, and I think it makes the most sense that they do it from range, so Elemental is the only spec that does that

Monk: Brewmaster
-Lorewise, it seems like big Panda Monks are the most prevalent, and brewing is also a big thing in their culture. This was another that I waffled on because Windwalker fits too, but Brewmaster just seems a tiny bit better

Demon Hunter: Havoc
-I don’t know, seems the only difference to me is they needed both a tank spec and DPS spec. Maybe I’m missing something. 6 one way, half dozen the other.

Death Knight: Frost
-Lich King, Northrend, Frozen Throne, Icecrown Citadel…Frost is the most aligned with all of that, so I’m going with that. This is the most interesting for me though, because I think a DK generally uses all three schools, most classes aren’t this well partitioned. Back when DK’s first came out, all specs still used all three schools.

Evoker: Devastation
-I don’t know again. I don’t think there’s strong enough lore to say.

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The legion sure has a lot of warlocks though because summoning demons is pretty on brand. Even though our warlocks aren’t part of the legion, we still summon demons. Literally every warlock does. Spec does not matter, you will have demons.

You can use fire, you can use shadow, you can use shadowflame, you can use felfire. Regardless, you have demons.

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Unholy. They are the antithesis of Paladins. This is like common sense thing here when you take everything into account and not just box art.

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Rogue is Assassination. Yes, they are sneaky. Yes, they are in the shadows. But they use that to sneak in and kill people without anyone else being aware. Garona comes to mind.

Warlock is Demonology. I can’t stand the play style. Ner’zhul, Gul’dan, and most other locks I can think of in lore are primarily Demo.

Paladin is Ret. Uther, Alexandros, Arthas, Tirion. All Ret. And I say that as a Paladin who can’t stand playing Ret.

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Warrior is definitely arms.
Mage is absolutely arcane. In fact, canonically, mages using fire and frost is still rooted in the arcane magic cosmology.
Hunter - MM
Rogue - Assassination. Almost all rogues are spies and about eliminating a threat. In truth though, I don’t think sub needs to be a spec either.
DK - Absolutely unholy. Everything the DK does is using necromantic magic similar to how everything a mage is doing is using arcane magic even if it manifests in a fire or frost spell.
Warlock - Demonology
Druid - Balance/Resto but purely from the overarching goal of druids to keep the balance of nature which would also mean restoring it. I see their forms/feral/guardian as more to serve that higher purpose.
Paladin - Holy. Protecting comes in many forms but ultimately rooted in the holy arts
DH - Not really a choice. Veng and Havoc are two sides of the same coin
Evoker - All. Given evokers all are imbued with the powers of all the dragonflights

Monks and priests can’t really be defined by a spec rather moreso their race.

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I disagree. Not one single major lore character uses two 2h weapons, but numerous characters use one two hander.

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The most lore-accurate Paladin spec is Ret from what I can tell, seeing as every Paladin in WC3 had a two hander and was serving out justice with the spot heal here or there on their allies.

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Evoker is augmentation to me

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Nah, frost is more iconic. Whatever they were before Arthas does not matter. Since Frozen Throne, the Warcraft III expansion, Arthas became the face of the Death Knight.

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I think it’s easier to say which specs DON’T fit with a class:

DK: They all fit pretty well.
DH: I think Veng isn’t as good a fit.
Druid: Balance is to mage-like for me.
Evoker: All…I don’t like the spec at all.
Hunter: Survival
Mage: All fit pretty well again.
Monk: Mistweaver
Paladin: Holy…Pallets do the harming, Priests do the healing
Priest: Shadow is a 'lock spec.
Rogue: Combat…my favorite but not the class fantasy.
Shammy: Again all fit pretty well but enhance is weakest to me.
Warlock: Destro is a mage spec.
Warrior: Fury, but only because it has defaulted to Titan Grip.
:see_no_evil::hear_no_evil::speak_no_evil:

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Arthas is unholy. Even the LK is unholy. Its painfully obvious.

Also Arthas was the first of the Lich Kings death knights. So yes, the 1st gens dont matter as I said.

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Thanks for the responses. Some great stuff. Certainly makes me think about a few of them.

For Warlock, I did say you can easily argue any spec (Again, assuming Destro plays with Fel Fire). It was definitely one of the harder Spec/Class combos to choose from. I discounted Demo because I view Azeroth/Draenor Warlocks different then Burning Legion Warlocks who were demons themselves. Again, I won’t argue with any Warlock spec selected.

A lot of Arms Warrior responses which makes sense. I guess I was less concerned about in-game NPC examples and tried to think more about what I think of when I think about warriors in WoW. Again, I can’t get the concept of Berserking out of my head and going Berserk makes me think of Fury.

Death Knight is another tough one. I could easily agree with Unholy and you know what, I will. This is the one I will change. RIP Arthas.

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