Make a Fourth Spec

Wyrmrest Accord
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Or fifth if we’re talking druids. I was just screwing around on my rogue alt and thought up a fourth rogue spec: The Scoundrel.

It’s a healing spec where the rogue supports allies with their sly tongue and witty commentary. Their primary means of healing is preventing damage on allies and disrupting damage from enemies.

Usually they accomplish this by making a joke that makes allies for confident, or the occasional wise crack that makes them more effective. Their lovable, roguish charms also make it hard for enemies to focus on them.

Enemies will also be demoralized by their snarky attitude that can stun them or make them vulnerable to attacks. A scoundrel can remove enemies from combat by engaging in a one on one battle of wits with them, healing allies in an AoE as their sharp prowess of wordsmithing is so impressive.

Stealthed options for a scoundrel involve utilizing their lone wolf act, and will grant allies a stacking buff of determination that increases the next healing done to them as the scoundrel arrives just in time to save the day when they realize that they really do care about the party. Most poison options come from stealth as well, as an opener that debilitates enemies while the scoundrel plays dirty.

What spec would you make? Could be anything, from silly to serious.

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Ranged Survival.

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What abilities would it have in place of the melee ones now? What would be its strengths and weaknesses? What visual fantasy do you think it would fulfill?

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How about 3rd spec for DH? Mid-range, glave throwing DPS.

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So like a blend between destruction warlock and survival hunter?

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Yeah, some mix of physical and magical attacks. Some kiting abilities. DH already have some excellent mobility.

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I’m at work and can’t handle a thread this good on my phone, but I’d love new specs.

Or class skins.

Or BOTH.

I would really love sub specs where each spec went 2-3 deep, even.

Rogues, I’d dig a legit Thief spec even though most of what I’m thinking for it has nothing to do with combat.

But, for combat, a magic thief could be real cute e.g. making chests appear that stuff pops out of, swapping armor and using disarms way more than the current pvp talents, copying spells like DKs can but more involved, e.g catching a spell in a satchel and being able to save it for as long as you want even for years

I’d dig a DPS pet spec for priests where the pets are NPCs and the priest just heals them.

I’d really dig a more occult/relic hunter spec, maybe for warlocks, where you get something like 6 extra trinket slots that always scale — perhaps stats drop off trinkets in these slots and you just use cool on-use ones… but that is my collector’s fever dream where I’d have bags of trinkets but for an actual good reason

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I have the name “Scoundrel” on Ravenholdt for my Vulpera rogue :smiley:

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I love that name so much. Also really loving these ideas, I always wanted Blizzard to open things up a little more for healers as an alternative playstyle, so that priest idea really speaks to me.

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Abjuration Mage for cloth tanking!

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It would go back to a level of MoP/WoD, where (at least end tier MoP) it was very good. DoT focused mechanics, with the old Black Arrow/Explosive Shot combo returning. And with Kill Shot returning baseline to all hunter specs in Shadowlands, it would provide that needed burst in the red zone.

Strengths obviously would be having strong DoT, like Aff locks played (if they still do idk, haven’t touched mine since leveling to 120 and forgetting its existence). Because the majority of its casts are instant, it would be a lot more mobile than MM, but probably slightly better than BM (reasoning below). Weaknesses would be weaker burst than say MM, who is all about upfront damage. Less reliance on a pet than MSV, but it would be helpful for having a wider toolkit.

Visual fantasy? Honestly, the idea of hunter as a melee class always seemed off to me. Yes, I know the history of the class (also leveling one on Classic for fun) and I know that its based off the ranger archetype from DnD that had a melee weapon proficiency. But hunters were billed (in my eyes, at least) as a physical ranged DPS as opposed to the casters. Now in current game, that role is reduced to only MM, as BM relies more on the pet’s abilities than the hunter’s.

RSV represents to me a wilderness stalker who’s learned to embrace the wilds more. They know how to make their attacks cause more damage and are masters of the hit and run. They can run a little faster than the beastmaster because they learn to rely on themselves, but can affect targets for longer because they know the world better than the barrel of a gun. Sure, as a last resort they would be forced to fight as a melee warrior (MSV), but keeping their distance is the name of their game.

And they’re in it to win it.

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Going down the list, starting with plate…

Warrior: Gladiator spec should return. Shield-using DPS spec. Maybe give them a unique ability to use polearms one-handed with a shield? Just polearms, not other two-handed weapons. For the whole, Roman centurion kind of feel.

Paladin: This one is kind of hard, but I think maybe a DPS caster spec? Big fancy lashes of holy light, that kind of stuff.

Death Knight: Bear with me here: Healer spec, Fleshcrafter. Rather than “heal” people, what you’re really doing is using necromancy to bind their dying flesh together.

Hunter: …I dunno! They’re hard. Feels like we’ve covered all the angles already. Only thing I can think of is some kind of weird spec based around fusing with your pet to do stuff and get like, bear claws or whatever, but that’s kind of wacky.

Shaman: Something Earth-based. Probably a tank spec? But I’d be fine with it being DPS or whatever. But Earth feels like the least-used element. Should be a spec focusing on it.

Rogue: Sniper! A ranged DPS spec that has the particular flavor of “fighting dirty” of just…shooting you from really far away. This would probably shake out weird in balancing, though…

Monk: Some kind of “Brawler” spec. Probably DPS, maybe tank. No kung fu, no fancy stuff - just pure street brawling.

Demon Hunter: Some kind of caster spec? I was thinking maybe base it off of Illidan’s thing with throwing down his glaives and making fire spirits come out of them. Maybe something like that? You throw down your glaives to act as “turrets” and shoot abilities out of them, or something along those lines. Probably heavy on glaive positioning.

Druid: These guys feel “done” to me, but if you had to add a new one, I’m thinking maybe something based around insects/disease? That’s a part of nature too.

Priest: These guys are tough, but I think maybe a melee spec, Shadow-based. Based around giving into the Void and becoming a shrieking lunatic who rips things apart with your hands and shredding shadow juju. Maybe give it limited stealth, based not around being sneaky, but around messing with peoples’ minds so they can’t see you? I dunno.

Mage: These guys have lots of options. Chronomancy is valid, but I personally would like a “battle mage” spec. Blood Mage is also an idea with some merit.

Warlock: You remember how in Legion there were guys called “Fel Knights”? Like Fel Paladins? That. I want that. There’d be no giving us plate armor probably, but Warlocks can already use swords - why not expand that into a melee spec? Sword in main hand, offhand item in offhand, does melee felstuff. ALTERNATIVELY, you could probably swing Blood Mage as a warlock spec too. That’d be cool as well.

…I’ve thought about this for a while. It’ll never happen! But it’d be cool.

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I’m just here to say that I’ll never understand why so many people think it’s odd that a survivalist hunter living out in the wild would use maybe a knife at times and not just a bow.

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It’s not! It’s just a little hard to spin a new spec out of that since Survival is already doing the ‘melee hunter’ thing.

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Warriors: A brawler/pugilist spec that primarily uses fist weapons. Fist weapons are pretty rad in their own right, but it seems like the monk class is the only one that has any viability actually using them.

Mages: A spec that emphasizes the conjuration of weapons - blade, axe, bow, so on and so forth. It’d be neat if it was the tank-oriented spec.

Warlocks: I feel like warlocks should lean more into the void aspect. While Shadow Priests have the general idea, I feel like a void spec for warlocks could really go all out - unique pets, more raw and superfluous void magic, the whole thing.

Paladins: If priests can get a shadowy spec, paladins should get something adjacent to that as well. Holy, Protection, Retribution, and… I don’t know, Malevolence? Conversely, if it wasn’t shadow-oriented, it would be particularly interesting since they introduced the notion that “Not all the Light is good!” in Legion.

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A Mage Healing spec based on the Leywalker concept. Primarily AoE healing through self-buffs and dps. I specifically want it to be leylines an such because I find the chronomancy concept to be terribly overrated. For some added flair I’m thinking a lot of the spells can be lightning based aesthetically. Purple lightning, arcing in all directions, hurting and healing everything it passes through.

Alternatively a spec based on Illusion; creating different types of clones for dps and utility, enhanced stealth and perhaps a snare or some de-buffs. Or just copy the Mesmer from GW2; that’s basically what I had in mind anyway.

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I just think BM should’ve been the melee spec.

Combat wise, I think a survivalist would be using traps and a ranged weapon because it’s more likely they’d survive that way… rather than standing next to two angry grizzly bears.

Surv just feels more like how melee BM would be built to me.

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Earthwarden. Shaman tanking spec. Probably self-explanatory. It baffles me that it hasn’t been implemented yet. A monk can wear skimpy leather and get SMASHED and that’s good enough to stand toe-to-toe with a dragon, but I, wearing a greater quality of armor (mail), wielding a shield, and capable of calling upon the powers of earth itself cannot?!

Frustrated paw flailing.

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as a fan of gladiator spec and of, um, those draenei npcs who use spears and shields, I approve of this.

In general it is cool to have access to the types of weaponry that were actually used in pre-gun warfare, and spear and shield is one of those historically common things that never actually shows up in faux-medieval fantasy settings.

Alternatively, I’d also like to see a blademaster warrior spec focused on mimicking the stealthy, quasi-mystic blademaster unit from WC3. Basically a two-hander wielding warrior with access to rogue/druid-like stealth mode and sneak attacks. Featuring cool banners worn on the back displaying their racial insignia (customizable to various factions through minor glyphs)

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This wouldn’t a problem so much if they used both in accord, as per hunters up until Mists.

But now everyone is relegated to one weapon (two for dual wielders). Add to that, there’s a huge melee bloat from the numerous melee specs. At the end of the day, a survivalist will use what he can to survive. But, being at a distance and dealing damage seems to me to increase the odds of survival immensely.