Same as ‘10.1 underground zone, change this’ was in the PTR files well before it was confirmed 10.1 would be underground?
Sure, from quests in the PTR 21 days ago
That now have further data that continues those now:
But we knew a new zone was coming because they add a new zone with every first patch so that is not an error on the same level IMO.
So an elaborate 21 day set up for the ultimate gotcha moment?
Trust me, I want this to be true because a 4th role would be game changing and fun. I’m just skeptical with the timing.
Sure, I’ll just leave this here as it fits very well, and just have to agree to disagree.
All that says is they considered tank evoker in the early design, nothing more. This happens often in early game design…something is experimented with and later decided to be cancelled.
Black dragon abilities don’t strike me as very… healing.
We have red and green for that.
Apparently bronze as well, but that is convoluted.
I suppose “warding” could be the type of barrier-heal playstyle Disc priest has, but I don’t know. It would suit better as a tank.
I think it’s fair to assume that the “new evoker spec” will be melee. If it’s going to buff others around it then it’s probably going to be like an enhanced paladin-type spec with auras, enhance buffs, etc.
While I don’t mind the idea of a support spec, i don’t think it will be it’s own thing, and more likely than not this spec will still fall into either Tank, Healer, or DPS, and there’s arguments to be made for all three:
Starting with the most obvious, a healer seems to make the mose sense (but also be the least exciting to me personally), as ‘support’ in blizzard games usually (but not always) means healer. If it relies more on buffing allies than it does debuffing enemies, I could easily see healing/shield spells that also provide some sort of buff along with them. In terms of WoW, Disc Priest is what tends to come up often when talking about a support/healer hybrid.
DPS is the next most likely (though again not especially exciting to me) in the idea that debuffs could include DoTs, as well as buffs akin to PI that you put on other players, and maybe your rotation is less about doing damage and more about generating resource/reducing cooldowns to keep your buffs on your party up longer. Your Damage would mainly come from the other players being buffed by you, though it does run the problem of ‘your’ damage output being reliant on other players.
Tank is what I want the most, but I’m also most skeptical about; I feel like tank has a lot of room to slot in support abilities since (in general) tanks’ main concern is staying alive and keeping aggro, both of which don’t have to be tied to any one type of ability. Imagine if part of holding threat was a self-misdirect you can cast on other players that also gives them a crit/haste buff. Or part of your mitigation was a debuff that was tied to when the mob is targeting you. Also, tanks have had their own special debuffs since the beginning of WoW (wait for 5 sunders!), so it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine a debuff-focused tanking style.
No way imo. A whole spec, untested not even a year into the xpac. Idk why people think this is a realistic thing. Maybe they are testing interest while having the players essentially give them free creative ideas for what to with their talked about version of evoker 3rd spec for like end of xpac.
Better be a tank spec.
But this is lizzard dumbtaintment
Watch, they will screw up due to the dumbs that run the place.
That’s unprecedented, but it’s not NEARLY as game-warping as adding a fourth ROLE. It’s hard to believe that they would do that at all, let alone mid-expansion.
They knew about pure support classes in other MMOs when they created WoW and deliberately chose not to include any, probably because if you think it’s hard to find a tank or a healer, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. And that’s in games where those roles exist from day 1!
It’s possible that it could be a technically DPS spec that has strong support elements, like the ones that existed in early WoW. That’s also a bit hard to believe, because of the history of those other specs – in order to be balanced in overall contribution to the group they have to be lower on personal meters, so some players won’t be happy playing them and other players will judge them unreasonably harshly and not appreciate their indirect contributions.
Also, because they kind of tried that with things like Symbiosis and Blessing of Seasons and they were not well received. And have you seen any of the threads about Power Infusion? A true support spec would be FULL of things like Power Infusion.
Over time, high utility specs have been homogenized to have more personal output and less reliance on buffing others. So a step in completely the opposite direction would be pretty strange.
I’ll believe in dragonbards when I see them, and I don’t expect to see them.
I see this as one of two things:
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A possible support class, since the key term is “augment” and not shield or protect (which would indicate tank).
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Backstory that explains what powers from the Black Dragonflight Neltharion passed on to the Dracthyr before taking it away from them.
If it’s Neltharion’s voice, then it is likely that it is something that happened in the past, and given one of the last things Neltharian did was remove Black Dragonflight powers from the dracthyr, this is likely a scene that happens before Neltharion decides to lock away the dracthyr as a failed experiment.
That’s not to say this couldn’t lead to a support role in the future, just that the fact we’re learning about this now could just as easily be filling in the blanks, and not hinting at the future.
No Blizzard already confirmed a tank spec is not happening it’s either a healer or a dps
Agreed, I should’ve put “support” in quotations or just called it a Healer since I compared a possible third spec to Disc Priest. It would most likely be a Healer spec that functions in a similar vein as the Disc Priest where the main mechanic is centered around shields/barriers with some healing thrown in.
Blizzard has been pretty adamant that Evokers are supposed to be mid-range casters, and the descriptors used in the data-mined dialogue just don’t sound like a tank to me.
But I’m also still not convinced they would do something as risky as adding an entirely new, untested spec in the middle of an expansion. Maybe this is all a setup for adding a third spec in 11.0.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but that’s not happening quite yet. The new spec is most likely called Augmentor or something and it focuses on debuffing foes and buffing allies. It’s not by any means a tank spec or one I’d consider one despite use of black dragon magic being perhaps heavier used than other specs. What we’re getting is like discipline priests but for evokers…we may be able to deal damage or heal but we’re overall support but sadly…not yet truly getting a tank spec.
Indeed.
If we accept the premise that Blizzard is doing something unprecedented by adding a specialization midway through an expansion, we cannot rely on other precedent for predicting what form that specialization will take. Precedent becomes moot. We can only look at what is offered at face value. And on its face, the evidence is telling us that this is the second coming of the support role, unseen since Shaman and Paladin were robbed of it years past. Which, again, is absolutely wild. But that is what is being indicated.