Bards don’t wear mail. Clearly a cloth class.
Personally I could go for either as long as they are done right. Both Tinkerer and Bard should have each spec feel different imo.
For Tinkerer I think the DPS should be a turret master, the tank a mechsuit and the heals/support some type of grenade chucker.
For Bard I think the DPS should be guitar, the tank a drum that is strapped to you and heals/support should be a harp or microphone.
I don’t want to see each of either of those classes specs be like hunter where they all play about the same.
To each their own.
When people say ‘bard’ they mean ‘elite tauren chieftain’… which all wear different armor sets. So they could be anything.
I miss playing support in MMOs…
That was always my chosen role, but modern MMOs seem to have abandoned it for whatever reason. My only hope, right now, is Pantheon, but that’s a slim hope indeed.
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Pantheon is no different from EQ in this regard.
I mean bard could be cool if done right.
A new class that’s a healer/ranged dps is needed.
I’d play EQ2, but that ship, for me, sailed away a long time ago. I enjoyed EQ back in the day, but that was back in the day.
Until Pantheon or something else, maybe, I’ll content myself with being a healer. I’d love to play support in this game, but I don’t see that ever happening for WoW.
Ugh, I can’t stand the new craze using the term “sus” for the word suspect. All because of a stupid game that’s beginning to die off.
Sorry not trying to attack you specifically, it’s “all the rage” to use it now. I just feel like we are going backwards in evolution. Is it really difficult for people to type just four more letters???
… are you okay? Anything you want to talk about?
It does seem like they may be laying the groundwork for a bard class.
I would be surprised if we get that instead of Tinkerer though. Tinkerer has been teased so much and would fit the iconic Warcraft flair so much better. It would also be a better pick for “jack of all trades”.
Of course, I suppose its easier to market Bard to folks outside of WoW… and get some interest that way.
How do you make an expansion that is Bard-thematic, though?
And how do you design a class that plays like a Bard without the support role?
Again, Elite Tauren Chieftain.
You can see a tank bard in HotS.
They were trying to pitch a “Bard” to outside players. Blizzard’s take on a musical class is drastically different from what a Bard is outside of Blizzard’s walls.
But that’s neither here nor there - how do you theme an expansion around ETC?
Another leather class. 
Dunno. I don’t think you need to though. It would definitely be more of a fanservice thing so I think they would just include it in a side story and be done with it. The same with Tinker really. The game is headed into the cosmological scale so there isn’t much room to have a class themed expansion anymore, unless it’s another color of demon hunter.
tauren bards dropping sick electric guitar riffs.
i thought it was coming since back when i first saw the E.T.C. card in hearthstone
I wouldn’t say an expansion needs to be designed around a new class. Iconic classes like Demon Hunters/Death Knights were added because they fit the expac theme… but Monk? I wouldn’t say MoP was Monk-themed. It was more Asian-themed overall.
I think you can swing an expac where music and/or inspiration is part of the theme, especially if they do a twist on a typical bard. For example, they could incorporate time magic into a bard’s kit… if they do an expansion around the Bronze Dragonflight, as an example.
And I never got why we got rid of the “support” role to begin with. I used to love playing a BC Shadow Priest. Sure, my damage sucked… but you weren’t bringing me for my damage and I was fine with that. Ditching it cost so much class identity. I’d like to go back to the idea of Support being OK… but if not, I suspect “Bard” could just work as a Healer/DPS hybrid.
Honestly, I hope we pull back from cosmological scale. The World of WarCraft is Azeroth, and I prefer to stay there. The stakes are more relevant, and Blizzard generally doesn’t tackle esoteric concepts well.
If we do a dragon-focused expansion, we’d be better suited to getting a dragon-based class.
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I really doubt that’ll happen. I think after Legion blizzard came up with a 10 year plan to finish WoW off and begin development on another MMO. ~2-3 more expansions from now we’ll be hatching Azeroth and come to some kind of WoW conclusion - that’ll lead us into the next thing. They’re just tackling loose ends now.