Concept: be a leader of your own troop. Summon up to 4 guards (think footmen) to assist you in battle via your “Call to Arms” ability (you start with 4 charges of this ability). A portion of the damage you take is shared “spirit link” style with these guards. Additionally, each new guard is like another stack of Ironfur, reducing your overall damage. Your guards, visually, are “city guard” variants depending on your race, such as Silvermoon city guards with those awesome shields if you’re a Blood Elf, Stormwind guards if you are human, or Sentinels with glaives if you are a Night Elf.
Order your guards to perform various actions with Shouts, Formations, and “Double Tech” abilities unique to your Commander spec. This spec trades a bit of mobility for unique defensive and utility options, such as a ranged interrupt, ranged knockbacks, a “deathgrip” ability, and more.
Shouts
- Sweeping Shout is your “death grip” ability. Your shout orders a guard to charge from your side toward a distant unit and, upon arrival, knock them 20 yards backward toward you or 3 yards in front of you, whichever is closer.
- Sound the Charge is like your basic Charge, except all your guards charge with you to the target. Spend an additional talent point for each of your guards to pick a different target to knock down upon your guards coming in contact with the pack. Replaces Heroic Leap.
- Interrupting Shout will order a guard to charge a caster and interrupt their spell. Replaces Pummel.
- Intervening Shout orders a guard to rush to an ally and hold their shield aloft, reducing the damage they take by a % or an amount.
- Invigorating Shout increases the damage of your guards and is one of your main DPS cooldowns.
- Sound the Retreat is your personal kiting ability on a choice node. Choice 1: order all active guards to taunt all mobs within 10 yards of you and run them toward the ground-targeted area. Threat will return to you after 5 seconds of a mob arriving at the area. Choice 2: order your guards to taunt and focus on slowing opponents for 10 seconds while giving you a speed boost, allowing you and your party members to make your escape while the mobs are held at bay. The guards will return to your side when the effect ends.
Formations
Each formation summons four new guards who join with your currently-active guards to perform special abilities. For balance reasons, the new guards do not increase your personal “ironfur” stacks.
- Staggered Formation summons 4 new guards and orders all active guards to spread 5 yards apart from other guards and raise their shields to the heavens for 5 seconds, reducing the damage you, your guards, and your allies standing near them take from area of effect spells by a % (think Power Word: Barrier but for warriors). Each active guard increases the amount reduced.
- Shield Wall Formation becomes a literal shield wall. Summons 4 new guards and orders all currently-active guards to line up side by side and brandish their shields before them. Like a mage’s Ice Wall PVP ability, opponents cannot target anything behind the wall. Useful for both blocking damage and LOS’ing to draw ranged units closer.
- Flank Formation is a damage cooldown. Summons 4 new guards and orders half of your active guards to get behind the mobs you currently have aggro on, increasing the damage they deal to mobs they attack from behind by an amount.
That’s all I had for now. Feel free to submit some additional ideas!
