So, something I’ve been yapping about on my realm forums for a while was new classes, new hero classes, etc, but a dumb thought hit me.
We saw with the Evoker Class that it was possible to add a specc to a class while it was active within the game.
So rather than making yet another class when we’ve already got a huge selection, why not bump every class up to 4 speccs, and use that to fill in the ‘gaps’ for what players have been begging for for 20 years?
Necromancer:
I tossed up between making this for Warlocks, but they already have a ton of fun with pets, and the Necromancers in WoW were Mages who dabbled in dark or forbidden magical traditions, or they were the Troll followers of Loas of Death like Bwonsamdi, who were best fitted by the Priest Class.
For the sake of balance, making the Necromancer a Priest Specc that used their gifts of Light and Void to manipulate the Dead to serve them in battle, and calm the mindless Undead and guide them to a peaceful afterlife. In Combat, the Necromancer Priest raises a sturdy Skeleton Knight to defend them, and uses their Void abilities to generate Void Shards that they can spend on 1 of 4 abilities.
1st Ability puts a HoT and a small Damage Absorb Shield on their Primary Undead Pet, called ‘Rally the Servant’, and costs 1 Void Shard. Multiple castings of this ability improve the potency of the HoT and the damage absorption of the shield effect.
2nd Ability, called ‘Bound Spirits’, conjures a Wraith bound to serve the Necromancer for a short time, at the cost of 1 Void Shard, and multiple conjurations summon multiple Wraiths. These Wraiths rapidly fly across the battlefield towards their targets, clawing with insubstantial fingers through mundane armor and flesh and rapidly increase the amount of energy required to produce a Void Crystal while they are active. Targets the Wraith attacks that have both the Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain spells active on will ‘cleave’ the damage of the Necromancer’s attack spells (Mind Blast, Mind Flay/Mind Shard, Halo/Divine Star) to nearby target similar to how Hunters can ‘cleave’ targets with certain talent choices via Barbed Shot and Multi-Shot. However, the ability has a long cooldown and as a result, most Necromancers will not be able to field more than 2 Wraiths at a time for longer than a few seconds.
3rd Ability costs 3 Void Shards called ‘Swarm of Bones’ and calls forth an army of crawling claws and clattering skulls that swarm across the battlefield, attacking any target affected by the Necromancer’s Vampiric Touch Spell and afflicting them with one of 2 debuffs, chosen via talents in the Necromancy Skill Tree. Tenacious Claws slows the target’s movement speed by 5% and slows their attack-speed by 2%. Screaming Skulls slows the target’s casting speed by 15% and gnashes them for minor bleed damage over time. The damage the Swarm of Bones is split amongst all available targets that are afflicted with the Vampiric Touch Spell.
And the 4th ability is called "Phylactery’, at which point, for 4 Void Shards, the Necromancer briefly assumes the form of a Lich, vastly improving their spells and Necromancer Abilities, and gaining a vampiric aura that they extend to their allies, making every successful attack whittle away at their enemies life-force and use it to heal themselves and their companions, both the living and the dead. This ability is a double-edged sword, however, as while the Lich cannot be slain in this form, their Phylactery emerges and functions similarly to a Shaman’s Totem, its location on the battlefield dictating the area of effect of their vampiric aura, and damage done to this Phylactery, which has 1/2 the Priest Necromancer’s hit-points, will carry over to the Priest when they return to normal. Actually destroying the Phylactery kills the Priest Necromancer outright, regardless of the Player’s actual health.
Other Abilities:
All Necromancers raise a Skeleton Knight or Warrior to protect them while out on the field, but the true Necromancer is not limited to the humble Skeleton as their champion. Necromancers gain a permanent version of the Command/Control Undead Spell, and a limited ‘library’ of Undead that they can bind to their will and call forth in battle to serve them as defenders.
Skeleton Warriors/Knights/Skeletons in general and Undead Animals serve as the basic damage-sponge type of companion, dealing less damage but being more resilient.
Zombies, Abominations, Vargul and other ‘Fleshy’ Humanoid Undead serve as more noxious companions, hitting their targets with infected claws and rotting limbs, inflicting a minor DoT at the risk of being more vulnerable in turn and slower to move about the battlefield.
Liches, Crypt Fiends and spectral Undead like Ghosts, Banshees and similar Undead serve as fragile, ranged companions for when the Necromancer does not need to defend themselves, able to rain frost and shadow damage on the enemy and remove hostile magic from their masters and their allies, at the cost of being incredibly fragile when they are caught up in the melee.
Runemaster:
Shamans already have mastered three of the four Elements, Air serving as the foundation for the Elemental Specc, Fire as the Enhancement Specc, and Water serving as the foundation for the Restoration Specc, leaving Earth sadly neglected. The Runemaster Specc takes the strength and durability of the earth and, though carefully applied runes to the Shaman’s weapons, shield and armor, grants those same abilities to the Shaman, and eventually, to their abilities.
Serving as the Tank Specc for Shamans, the Runemaster relies upon buffs to enchant their weapon, shield and armor with specific abilities that evoke the Earth, and Earth-related abilities.
Leaden Weapon grants their Thunderstrike spell the ability to inflict a Sunder debuff to the primary target, while Magma Coating sprays the enemies in-front of the Runemaster with gouts of molten earth, aggroing them.
Dead Earth grants their shield an slightly increased chance to block Non-Magical attacks, but provides an Absorb Shield against Magical Damage, while Shale Storm surrounds them in a cloud of small, razor-sharp rocks and debris, and when the Runemaster blocks an attack, the storm explodes briefly, applying minor bleed attacks to targets within 10 feet and briefly granting the Runemaster a much higher % to dodge all attacks made against them within this short-lived storm.
Blessings of the Earth grants the Runemaster a greatly improved stamina score and a minor resistance to critical hits and strikes, while Fury of the Stone improves the damage of the Runemaster’s melee strikes causes the Runemaster’s Earth Shock spell to turn into a Cone-shaped AoE that taunts those it strikes.
Runemasters rely upon the following Totems in battle:
Earthbind Totem now only slows targets, but pulls them towards the Totem in compensation for no longer immobilizing them.
Stoneskin Totem also draws aggro towards the Runemaster while it is active, assuming the Runemaster has the Magma Coating spell active on their mainhand weapon.
Totem of Wrath combines the Elements of Fire and Earth together, conjuring an oppressive Lava Elemental tied to the Totem that lashes nearby enemies with tendrils of stone-studded lava. Enemies afflicted with Flame Shock explode with flames, hurting themselves and nearby enemies, while enemies hit with your Frost Shock are afflicted with [Brittle], which makes them briefly more vulnerable to the effects of your Leaden Weapon buff, so that any enemy in the area-of-effect when you apply Sunder to one [Brittle] enemy, applies the Sunder to all [Brittle] enemies.
Mudslide Totem combines the powers of Water and Earth together, generating a muddy shield over nearby allies that removes 1 disease or poison from the Runemaster and 4 nearby allies, and provides a minor Non-Magical Damage Absorption Shield. Targets hit by Lightning, Chain Lightning or Stormstrike while within the area of effect of the Mudslide Totem are taunted towards the Runemaster.
Runemasters retain their Earth Elemental Companion, and gain the Sand Elemental as a secondary Elemental, replacing the Fire/Storm Elemental. The Sand Elemental, while it is active, not only taunts targets towards itself, but automatically activates the Runemaster’s magical effects while it is active, for 30 seconds or until the Sand Elemental is dismissed or destroyed.
While the Sand Elemental is active:
Leaden Weapon deals additional damage and has a chance to briefly stun non-Boss enemies for a second. Magma Coating likewise adds fire damage to the Sand Elemental’s attacks, increasing its damage and allowing it to inflict short-lived versions of Flame Shock to targets within its area of effect.
Dead Earth applies its effect to all allied targets, up to 10 targets, within 10 feet of the Sand Elemental, while Shale Storm feeds off of the Sand Elemental’s own destructive nature, activating continuously while Runemaster is within 10 feet of the Sand Elemental.
Blessings of the Earth applies itself to up to 4 additional friendly targets within 10 feet of the Sand Elemental, while Fury of the Stone causes the Runemaster’s Earth Shock to instead affect everything within 10 feet of the Sand Elemental, taunting them off the Sand Elemental and cancelling the Sand Elemental’s Threatening Aura ability unless manually toggled back on by the Runemaster.
Deadshot:
A ranged specc for Rogues, the Deadshot applies many of the Rogue’s iconic abilities, but through bows, crossbows and guns instead, picking enemies apart piecemeal at range before delivering a mortal blow to an exposed vulnerability, or pounding poisoned arrows into their target to cause all manner of harm, ranging from sweating blood to vomiting to driving the enemy into a frenzy that attacks any nearby target, regardless of allegiance.
Eviscerate is replaced by Keen Eye, which improves damage the more combo-points the Deadshot can build up, but rather than pure damage, applies an effect dependant upon the poison the Deadshot is using.
Instant Poison causes Keen Eye to apply an improved version of the Rogue’s non-lethal poison to the target(s), with Crippling Poison temporarily stunning non-elite targets and dazing elite ones, Numbing Poison instead coating nearby hostile targets in paralytic agents that briefly reduces their attack and casting speed by 20% for 1 second per combo-point spent.
Wound Poison causes Keen Eye to inflict a haemorrhage effect, causing the target to violently cough up blood as a DoT effect for a number of seconds equal to three times the combo-points spent on the ability.
Deadshots also turn Slice and Dice into the ability Cunning Shots, reducing the attack speed of the ability to 25% instead of 50%, but enables an additional target within 10 feet of the primary target to be attacked at full strength, for every two combo-points spent on Cunning Shots.
Double Charge replaces Kidney Shot, with each combo-point spent, the damage increases by 5% and the target is pushed back 5 feet, to a maximum of 30 feet. Non-elite targets pushed back 20 feet or more are knocked prone for 1-3 seconds as the overcharged round, or enchanted arrow, punches into and through their defences.
There are more, but I think I’ve blathered on quite enough. Do you think adding another specc would work to finally add other classes into the game as a ‘specc’ and thus avoid more Balancing Hell for the devs, or is this just going to create a mess anyways?