So I’ve been sitting on this since they announced that we’d finally be getting Dracthyr who could be other classes, and a few other brain worms that have refused to stop wriggling for months.
Let’s start off with the silly ones first and work our way up to the Dracthyr.
Where is our Moo Deng cash-shop pet already? We have hippos in-game now, or if that’s an issue due to licensing, give us the Riverbeasts from Draenor. A cute, chubby, toothless little avatar of bloodlust and sleepies to wobble after us on our adventurers into the War Within.
Seriously, where is it?
The Boar Within.
Seriously, we have mages in the fight now. Dalaran is down and we lost a lot of magical knowledge and magical macguffinites, but we do have other magical schools and knowledge everywhere else, it is just going to be getting them to all work together,
Why are we not able to open short-lived portals between our farms and Hallowfall? Lets give these people some real food and not the kitchen-based war-crimes that they’ve been eating thus far. I want to see Orc ranchers herding a sounder of pigs in, some Human and Dwarven farmers herding a flock of sheep, the Trolls of Darkspear and Zandalari and the Humans of Kul’tiras rolling up with barrels of deep-sea fish, squid and crabs, and it just being a ‘hey, let’s have a feast’ and watch Arathai who may not have had ‘normal’ food in over a decade just hoe into it, while the younger ones are just in a food coma because there’s so much food, and its so good, and then the Pandaren roll in and they have brought SO. MUCH. BEER.
Let’s make it a fun, bi-weekly event where you have to go around your Mega-Faction and buy, beg, wrangle or earn supplies to help the Arathai get back on their feet and deal with food shortages caused by their primary farmlands being constantly benighted by dint of being out of Beledar’s light so often.
Build-A-Boat
We’ve got the Zeppelin in the War Within, why not give us an boat/underwater boat for funsies as a ‘between patch’ bit of content.
Start off with a standard frame, but you can modify it based not just on what you can buy from vendors, but also what can be made via professions.
Goblin engineering grants a more steam-punk vibe, while Gnomeish engineering grants a more sleek and elegant hull. Blacksmithing can provide either a far more reinforced, and spiky, hull or a roll-cage-like hull. Leatherworking could allow you to fit various underwater monster parts to the hull, or herbalism could grant a wood-reinforced hull from which undersea ‘plants’ such as coral, kelp or other things could be applied to add camouflage.
Alchemy could add a steam-engine like feel to the propulsion system, while Enchanting could make it look like arcane-tech. Inscription might just straight up replace the engine with a magical device.
Further fun could be added with a modular system that allows the submarine to provide some QoL improvements. Arms crafted via a combination of Engineering, Blacksmithing and Enchanting could allow one to harvest herbs and ore at the bottom of the ocean, or access underwater archaeology sites, even finding and recovering treasure chests and sunken relics from the ocean floor. Alternatively, a combination of Alchemy, Engineering and Inscription could turn the submarine into a mobile micro-base wherein the player can disembark, the sub will remain in place for a very short period of time and the player can hop out and mine, gather herbs or perform the same archaeology/collection mini-game directly.
Heck, add a PvP Modular Devices and engage in underwater dog-fights against other players similar to aerial jousting in World PvP, or a PvE version similar to the World Quest, Titanic Failsafe.
Torpedo Mods might allow you to launch a devastating attack if you can maintain the lock and use the other player hasn’t used their three-point ability to break said lock. Various hulls might have special uses or defences, such as a hull with barbs and spikes might be slower due to drag, but they might also be able to survive a ramming attack and deal significant damage in return. A more armored hull might be able to shake off even a torpedo hit once or twice, or be charged with arcane energy to deflect attacks or shock anything that comes too close. Mechanical arms refitted for combat might wield circular saws, crushing claws or mining drills that can gouge at armor and engine alike in close combat for that personal touch.
Now, onto the meat of this dish, the Dracthyr who will not (or cannot?) be Evokers.
I’m not sure how Blizzard is going to pull this off considering a lot of the Dracthyr starting zone is built around learning to use your Evoker abilities and escaping the island. Does this mean there’s going to be tweaks to the quests there that allow the Non-Evokers to progress, or are we going to see a Death Knight-like situation where the original starting quest-zone gets replaced with just a ‘you’re here, you are a Sexy Beast Furry Awakening for Some People Draconic Twink Dracthyr who either lost the ability to Evoker or never had it in the first place, I am Scale Commander Emberthal, and this is 
!’ kind of moment where you’ve made your character, you get basic gear, and then you’re thrown into the leveling content without much preamble?
How are they going to explain this? I mean, I love a lot of classes, but there’s also the fact that, power-wise, being a Non-Evoker is a direct loss of offensive and restorative power in the setting. Its also a loss of the whole reason for their peoples’ existence, and possibly a social status that might haunt them, even if the majority of the other Dracthyr do not hold it against them, or even see it as an issue.
Imagine being born to do one thing, and it is the one thing you cannot do. What kind of a gut-punch would that be?
Or is Blizzard going to go the route of “No, you totally could be an Evoker, but you wanted to get close enough to hit them with a sword instead.”, which just seems … weird. Even by the standards of Azeroth.
What are your thoughts?