The hero talents seem to be a step in the right direction, but the lack of a true blademaster option after so many years is extremely disappointing. I somewhat agree that it’d be difficult to do blademasters justice with warrior hero talents, particularly regarding windwalk and mirror image, but it also felt like this was kind of a last chance to even get them in the game. I mean, it’s been almost 20 years…when is the time ever going to be right?
Further, I get that many will argue that many blademaster abilities have been spread throughout other class kits, but so what? The tank specs for both warriors and paladins are called “protection.” Surely it’s not actually a big deal to share a few concepts between classes. At the end of the day, it’s all numbers and code, and it’s the illusion created around these numbers that really differentiates anything.
I feel like there are a lot of options to make blademasters work as a class, spec, hero talent, or even a shared/legendary/hero spec between multiple classes. It’s almost 2024, and I feel like we’re only limited by creativity at this point. If the devs wanted to put blademasters in the game, they could, so I guess I’m wondering what the actual hold up has been, or still is.
I guess I have to just come out and ask and hope that we’ll get a legit blue response someday: is there a plan for blademasters beyond a couple of transmogs? I’d legit love to know!
Yeah it surprises me they’d have Mountain Thane, which is from the RTS games but not Blademaster nor Spellbreaker. Instead there is Slayer for some reason.
That’s exactly my point. They said that blademaster didn’t fit in the warrior kit because of windwalk and mirror image. Arms just happens to be where they’ve dumped a couple of named abilities, but that’s really it. But the class is not suitable for a blademaster hero talent tree? Whenever the statement was made to just “play arms warrior,” it’s now officially outdated. And honestly–and respectfully–it was kind of a copout anyway. They’ve since changed a lot of design philosophy, to the point where the community actually thinks there’s a chance for player housing again. So. Yeah. I need better than arms warrior as it currently stands.
From blizzard: Blademasters just wouldn’t be Blademasters without abilities like Wind Walk and Mirror Image , but those abilities don’t fit in a warrior’s toolkit.
Grom Hellscream says Hi Blizzard. How the heck is one of the most iconic warriors in the franchise not fit the warrior toolkit… isn’t that why its a HERO Talent tree and not part of the base toolkit?
Heck wouldnt it be fun to substitute the hero toolkit
Glad to see it addressed as well but I have to disagree with their logic, They mentioned that they would make some of our regular class talents mandatory for some of these Hero Talents to work.
They could simply make Heroic Leap mandatory and make a Hero Talent to change it to Wind Walk, it would be a fair trade if Wind Walk is a Speed Increase while invisible for a very short time like 3 sec. Heroic leap is practically a teleport you can jump on roofs and what not, it’d be a fair trade.
Mirror Image could easily be a Capstone Talent for the Tree.
AND IT WOULD INSPIRE THEM TO MAKE SINGLE MINDED FURY VIABLE
I absolutely hate that Grom was a blademaster in the RTS, and later on it seems like they’ve tried to walk it back like it was just a gameplay thing. Has a weird vibe like that the early “roleplay books aren’t canon.” I think Grom being a blademaster in the plot would have made things more interesting, and it would have given Garrosh a better backdrop for his struggles (and even a legit path to redemption pre-Theramore). Sad to see the road not taken.
Sorry I am one of those people that sees the surface layers of lore/games and thinks “wow that is awesome”, then kind of fill in the blanks for myself.
What exactly is a blademaster? I just thought it was an agility based warrior that uses wind walk, mirror image, no armor, a big 2H weapon (gorhowl or a samuari sword) and fast attacks with lots of crit.
If I was comparing to other franchises I would say Guts from Berserk or Khal Drogo from GOT- super strong, super fast but no actual supernatural abilities - its all just technique and physical attributes… like Grom is so fast on the battlefield, thats how he does mirror image/windwalk… dude friggen headshot a pitlord… twice.
It seems like they are just names for covenants 2.0 or conduits 3.0.
I think the reason why people are so disappointed with them, is in our heads as fans, we want all new classes like Blademaster and Dark Ranger, Crusader and Witch Doctor that have big fundamental visual and flavour and mechanical differences from the existing classes. That’s not what hero specs are, they are only a tree that augments our existing trees.
A lot of people ignored every single bit of information regarding hero talents. Applied their own perceived expectations. Then were disappointed when Blizzard did exactly what they said they were going to do.
Blademasters, aside from the obvious, are also known for their guile and–with the Burning Blade clan–their affinity for fire. Their flaming swords are achieved either through applying blazegrease or through (I thought) familiarity with summoning elemental fire. This is to say that many of them have lower-tier WoW-shamanic powers. In my mind there are a wide array of spec possibilities for tank, dps and healing. Healers could use a polearm and actually plant their sashimono banner like a totem (could also work as a support spec). DPS has it made concept-wise, because there’s precedent for chaos and/or fel-corrupted blademasters. There could be a stealth spec through wind walk. Maybe tanks make the best use of mirror image. I dunno. But there’s a lot more there than “warriors and monks took it all,” etc.
When they say that hero talents are for expanding class fantasy, and one of the most glaring omissions of class fantasy thus far is blademaster, and then blademaster doesn’t appear anywhere on the hero talent concept list…I think that’s a fair thing to be disappointed about.
Step in the right direction in the sense that they’re attempting to expand class fantasy. I’m not thrilled that it’s been so rigid/defined that my death knight simply does not know how to wield a dagger. That a windwalker monk uses weapons essentially as stat sticks because abilities are based on punches and kicks. It’s almost 2024, and they’ve got a new design philosophy…let’s have a plate mage or let worgen use their claws instead of weapons if they want (and like, stand up straighter and have optional tails). But I digress.
But also, since the hero talents augment existing ones just as you say, and arms warriors were supposed to be the game’s blademasters according to many, then why not do a set of blademaster hero talents to dial in that fantasy? Was a no-brainer to many.
But I 100% agree. The preference is blademaster as its own, standalone class with an awesome start zone just like DKs and DHs got.
Same. I got excited, but then I realized that probably meant they weren’t gearing up to do something bigger with blademasters for a while. When the dark ranger armor came out with red eyes for elves, same thing. Also the warden sets, so I doubt wardens as a concept will get a ton of love in the near future. These all just seem like missed opportunities.
So what is Grom then - he doesn’t have any of that… hes just a badass, with a 2H axe that is death on the battlefield… all this other fire/mystic stuff I didn’t think fit in what a blademaster is/was… I draw a parrellels between MMA and traditional martial arts, MMA (Grom) just uses what works and ditches all that phony Boloney nonsense.
They could make them similar to D4 Barb where they are just a master of different types of blades. It fits in well with what Warrior is supposed to be.
They could also do Spellbreaker so there is a Horde theme with the Alliance theme of Mountain Thane.
