New class in 10.0? (Speculation)

Community General Discussion
201

So stating something because its “Overdue” doesn’t justify anything. It sounds more like people are bored with the classes they got and want something new entirely. That’s where adding new Specs to existing classes will help with. I can already come up with a handful that will allow Rogues to become a ranged physical spec, same with warriors, a waste of being able to use ranged weapons but no means to do so.

Because a “Class” existed due to a hero existing in WC3 doesn’t mean it also will lead to being a class, it would only mean “Potential” to be a class. Then I could state that we could be Pit Lords. I would love to be a Pit Lord! No? Okay, Dark Ranger sounds a lot more feasible than anything from the potential list of heroes that could double as a class but I have to repeat myself that if a Tinker is a choice Blizzard went, they better have a LOT to back it up and why their next expansion would make them relevant.

And with your last statement, enough reason but no point in explaining it yourself or give additional examples why. From what I am able to search (Though I’ll admit horribly, this forum doesn’t really have good filters…) But from every post after a few scrolling and loading, doesn’t bring up anything that convinces me why Tinkers are a good candidate other than what everyone else brings up, “We all want Tinkerers!” But don’t ever express why, how, and to which I again sound like a broken record, relevancy.

Just because someone brought up something, and it gained traction, doesn’t mean it what everyone wants or because it was a good suggestion. Its hard for me to agree or be as willing to accept a class that just came out of the blue when this could have been done sooner, or added at anytime. If anything, Blizzard had the MOST opportune time to do this in BFA when we ran into Mechagnomes, the significant presence of Gnomes and Goblins when fighting in Dazar’alor Raid but we aren’t given that. And yet we’re heavily invested in Shadowlands, a jump far from the usual themes and into another realm that we have NEVER crossed before (Save for the terrible story…) Though many might say that this would be done at the start of a expansion (or prepatch of the expansion). Yet they can seriously do whatever they want if given the reason.

With that said… If it ain’t going to be Necromancers, and I’m sure as hell it ain’t going to be Tinkerers but I’ll (Jokingly) eat…something stupid for comedic value if they are… The only thing that’ll best come about is that the Dragonflight would do something to supplement our new class fix and with the assumed rumors like Dragon Isles being a thing, it further expresses we’d be accompanied by our neutrally bound friendly winged reptilians. And its much better for them to be chosen because the one thing I hate Demon Hunters the most is the race choices, while understandable but could have seen orcs and Draenei become them too. With that said…I’m sorry but Tinkers just…don’t feel like they belong as of this moment or anytime soon given what we know right now. I’ll be more than happy to change my mind once we know more but from my point of view, nothing looks exciting for me to see them. They seriously missed a major opportunity to add them and doing it now would detract it and their uniqueness if they do.

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The reason we didn’t get Tinkers in BFA is because BFA wasn’t about Gnomes, Goblins or Tinkers. Gnomes and Goblins didn’t even appear in the opening cinematic. BFA was about the faction war and mainly Anduin, Jaina, Saurfang, and Sylvanas (aka the Warbringers). Later it involved Azshara and N’Zoth. Mechagon was a small subtheme that popped up in the middle of the expansion.

Why are Tinkers a good candidate for a class:

  1. They possess a theme that doesn’t exist in the current class lineup (Technology).

  2. It has the same pedigree as the previous three expansion classes.

  3. It has unique abilities that doesn’t exist in the class lineup (or professions).

  4. It fills a large, open thematic space that many races use but don’t have access to (again technology).

  5. It easily fills the perceived holes in the class lineup: Physical ranged different from Hunters, Mail armor wearer, new healing spec.

Finally, the Tinker (and the Alchemist) are the final two WC3 heroes whose abilities have never been absorbed by a class. The Pit Lord’s abilities were absorbed by Warlocks and Warriors. The Dark Ranger’s abilities were absorbed by Hunters, Priests and Warlocks. The Tinker’s and Alchemist’s abilities are wide open for class inclusion.

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203

To be fair and it’s been mentioned previously, Necromancers especially going off new Shadowlands lore and the Primus (the creator and father of Necromancy), seems to be completely different then what we think “Traditional” Necromancers would be.

Maldraxxus Necromancers are far unique in terms of skills that neither DK or Warlock have, it seems very “soul/death” oriented with most casting soul (Soul bolt seems to be a filler) and Death style magic with a little frost and shadow/frost etc, while yes in terms of damage it may be under Shadow and Shadow/shadowfrost but what we’ve learnt it’s far different from what we thought of Necromancers and Necromancy from Azeroth (Which I do agree those are similar to DKs and Locks as you said “Bones Boi”).

Let’s not also forget many classes and specs we have now overlap in types, a big example Holy Paladins and Priests but play completely different.

If Necromancers do become playable, they definitely can take on a lot of inspiration from Necrolords/Maldraxxus making the class unique aesthetically and visually.

It truely doesn’t have to step onto toes of other classes mainly DK and Warlocks, even if it comes with two specs, looking similar to DH with Tank and Dps, Necromancers (Necrolord inspired) can have Caster Dps and Healing specs to make life easier for Blizzard. Also could introduce a pet focused Healing Spec which in itself be completely unique as currently we have none in terms of gameplay. As a bonus could be the second Mail wearer healer outside of Resto Shamans.

Regardless what decision Blizzard comes up with Tinkers, Dark Rangers, Necromancers and so on, I think a Caster/Ranged should be next on the new class list and definitely a Mail wearer that can heal. We are due, we have to many Melee specs and classes.

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The problem with new classes is Blizzard kind of painted themselves into a corner.

How will they have the new class(es) go through Legion if they wanna level through it? They don’t have any artifact weapons.

Will they have to design new Artifact weapons for them?

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They might just have to implement some sort of very edited way of questing there for new classes. I don’t think it’s a huge problem, I’m sure they can solve that one.

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They could make there own class hall with a new zone and any legion quests would direct them there.

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The lost chalice band is literally musicians - bard hint with quest relating to musical instruments.

If you notice in surumar there are bards scattered around the city, in Legion dalaran too. And in the rogue order hall some bards there.

Bunch of new instruments introduced as toys. And bunch of offhand harp/instruments in the covenant class halls show instruments as transmog options. Notably Kyrian and Night Fae have the harps.

“What’s a bard? Can you eat it?”

During the Night fae world quest boggarts will say this line.

We have so many bard hints for the past expansions now.

Also if you notice many trinkets have a song theme. The castle nathria is about dancing (trinket).

Then you have ETC band npcs that were ingame since BC. Those could also be inspiration for the bard class.

In Cataclysm we had a small nook that teased demon hunters in darkshore.

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Winslow Swan: No abilities, and not a major lore character.

Mistcaller Oricana: A trinket, and in fact counters the need for Bards because we have Trinkets that already do what they would do.

Let’s now compare this to Death Knights, Monks, and Demon Hunters:

Death Knights: Tied to Arthas/Lich King who was a major lore character.

Unique abilities: Death Pact, Unholy Aura, Death Coil, Animate Dead.

Other: Players got DK runic blades, became undead, got the DK’s horse and armor.

Monks: Tied to Chen Stormstout, who was a major lore character.

Unique abilities: Breath of Fire, Drunken Brawler, Drunken Haze, SEF.

Other: Players got the Brewmaster’s staff and Hat, obtained unique Pandaren-based monk gear, and their own temple in Pandaria.

Demon Hunters: Tied to Illidan Stormrage, who was a major lore character.

Unique abilities: Immolation, Evasion, Mana Burn, Metamorphosis.

Other: players became demonic elves, and they obtained tattoos, warglaives, demonic wings, and eye wraps.

Your Bard example has none of this. The only class concept that has this are Dark Rangers and Tinkers, and Dark Rangers as a concept is pretty much DOA after Shadowlands.

That’s the difference.

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Pit Lords most thematic abilities. (Doom / Rain of fire) are on Warlock.

Dark Ranger’s key abilities, Silence and Mind Control, are on priest. And their rarely used ability Life Drain is on Warlock.

None of the Tinker’s abilities are in game yet. None of the playable classes have mechs, pocket factories, or cluster missiles.

2 easy fixes here.
Prevent the new class from using chromie time for legion.

Or: give the class a unique quest to get a weapon that scales with them through legion zones.

They don’t need artifacts, they don’t need a class hall.

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210

I think a new class is unlikely.

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There’s zero reason to believe that.

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What makes you think that?
The only way I would think a new class is unlikely, is if Blizzard announced World of Warcraft is moving into permanent maintenance.

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During the beta for Legion, they made a blue post about Demon Hunters, how originally they planned the class to have 3 specs (1 ranged dps, 1 melee dps 1 tank ) and how creating DH was risking it a little because wow already had so many classes and specs (with DH we now have 36 specs) and how giving attention to all of them is a challenge.

But they said that a expansion like legion needed to introduce a Demon Hunter class and so they went with it.

ever since that blue post i felt like blizzard is very resistent on the idea of introducing new classes and further increasing the amount of specs who they need to divide their attention with.

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I think you’re missing the biggest motivating factor for new classes.

Money.

New classes generate hype, and give Blizzard more to show on those expansion PowerPoints they love so much.

Not to mention, Tinker specifically is in a Half designed state already.

If I know anything about blizzard it’s that they will Minmax effort and money.

A Tinker class would require minimal effort and generate hype.

Rip a class straight from WC3 and generate hype in the process.

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215

Instead of new classes, I would rather see more race and class combos. Possibly even class skins to reflect some current and new race and class combos.

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216

I think that After BFA, with the large presence of Tech in that expansion, plus the bigger presence of Goblins and gnomes. That there is now a spotlight on the missing fantasy of Tinkers.

Class race combos would be great. But now Both of the Goblin and Gnome racial leaders represent a class that the players can’t play. (Gazlowe was LITERALLY the Tinker hero in the WC3 Campaign)

I get a lot of people want new options on existing races. But Goblins and Gnomes can’t be their most iconic class.
That would be like Orcs not being Shamans. Or Night Elves not being Druids.

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You act like they didn’t tease demonhunters in cataclysm and had fel trinkets and illidan show up in a dungeon.

Bards are showing up everywhere in Azeroth and shadowlands for a couple expansions now. Some song based abilities are already on some classes like Priests( hymn of prayer) and shouts - warriors. A bard could use sound magic and those previous abilities incorporate it too. It could have unique properties too like avoiding absorb shields or something.

Demonhunters were hinted at since Cataclysm took Mop, then WoD then Legion for it to happen. They started hinting at bards since Legion, BFA had them in Zandalar/Kul Tiras, and in Shadowlands there are numerous bard references and intruements as toys/transmog.

We also need a new class that is a caster spec, all previous new classes have been melee. Bard is a natural magical caster. And could incorporate a tank spec like ETC

Natural when people think of the bard they think of the support aspect, so it being a healer that buffs allies seems natural. And could be based off of some of the covenant abilities such as the night fae paladin covenant abilities. Which are best used on other classes for better results.

They could also take and rework some classic tropes like the Naga Siren unit into a dps caster bard and borrow some spells from what they have. Mainly water and electric magics. Thunder magics seems fitting for bards since thunder is huge decibals of sound of electricity ripping through the air. In fact many of the warrior abilities could be classified as sound magic instead of physical. Or maybe the bard’s sound magic could count as physical spell damage? Who knows.

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I’d rather something insanely new, like double or hybrid spec’ing. Brining back the older skill trees from Vanilla, BC, Wrath, Cata sort of thing. We can talent deep or goin a mixture. That’d be amazing.

I want to see more balance and better design of our current specs before we get new ones. New races on the other hand wouldn’t be terrible since they don’t really cause balance issues.

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Yeah, but Illidan is a major lore character. So major in fact that he appeared on the cover of an expansion. You really think they’re going to put Winslow Swan on the cover of expansion? Again, that is the difference. There are no major Bard lore heroes in WoW. Hell, I’ll go so far as to say that there are no Bard heroes in Warcraft period. They simply don’t exist. There are random Bard NPCs, but that isn’t the same thing.

Also you mention the ETC; ETC is a spoof of the Tauren Chieftain from WC3. They’re not going to base a class on that, unless you honestly believe they’re going to make a melee class based around you using an electric guitar, wearing glam rock outfits, and having abilities like Rock Star and Mosh Pit.

Which btw is ANOTHER point; Classes are HEAVILY based on their lore heroes. Monks resemble Chen, Death Knights resemble Arthas, and Demon Hunters resemble Illidan. You really think Blizzard is going to make a class where we resemble the ETC?

Further, you bringing in concepts like Naga Sirens and random Shadowland Bards just shows what a complete mess this entire class concept is. Look at Demon Hunters, Monks, and Death Knights; All three had very cohesive and concise concepts with major lore figures guiding their entry into WoW.

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Bard’s aren’t about being like a hero, they are mostly about supporting the team. They wouldn’t have limelight characters. But bards telling stories of azeroth heroes when we go back to azeroth and helping them out with buffs and song magic would be a nice way to introduce them. And add new bard npcs.

We didn’t have much monks/demonhunters. They are gradually adding new bards. Like the Lost chalice band in the EmberCourt.

Maybe powerful bards have access to first ones stuff and make them more powerful. Maybe a race has sound magic and we get introduced to them that way like pandarens.

Also blizzard has had popular bards in other of its games such as Lucio in overwatch. They tend to cross polinate with class design.