A while back, Blizzard said in an interview that they do actually want to open up all classes to all races for maximum flexibility in choice; but to do that, they will need to have some lore to explain classes that were previously rare and/or specific to only some races. They started this expansion by adding rogue, mage, and priest to everybody. These, along with hunter and warrior, are arguably the “core” fantasy classes, which makes sense that they’re all there with the least lore-centric explanation.
All this leads to my theory, obvious though it may be to some. So far in DF, we’ve seen human, undead, and night elf shamans on the side of the primalists, that I know of; I could have missed some. I’m betting by the time we get to the second or final patch of the expansion, the story will have us turn some of them away from the primalist movement, adopting them back into their base people and opening up shamans as an option for everybody.
This could also be the MO for future options. Light vs. void expansion? Paladins and warlocks. The return of Sargeras? Demon Hunters. The planes of life and nature? Druids. Etc.
So that’s what I’m guessing we’ll see. What do you think? Am I crazy, or does this make a plausible explanation to get shamans of every race?
I think your logic has merit, and I’d like to see Shaman playable by every race before the end of the expansion.
Ideally, I’d like every class to be available to every race before the end of the expansion, but I’ll have to wait on that a lot longer I think.
I don’t know if there’ll be a big story event or lore reason for it happening; priest and rogue becoming available to Orcs and our hooved allies kind of just happened without much ceremony, which I’m totally okay with. Either way, I think it’d be cool.
Yeah they can’t even bother to update our placeholder Ascendance model, or take away Glyph of Ascendance and not return it cuz they were too lazy to code abilities becoming talents.
If we defeat the primalists, I do believe the remaining forces will join us, after patch 9.1 they need to give us a new Glyph of Primal Ascendance.
These replies indicate pretty clearly that you aren’t paying attention to everything being said. They definitely said it will happen, I’m just saying that shaman is a great choice because of the ties to elements that exist in the storyline.
Granted, the idea of shaman could also bleed into the next expansion as refugees from the primalists; like an end of expansion push for new characters before the new story begins.
Blizzard won’t do this because it runs the risk of more people playing shaman and them no longer being able to just band aid fix the class and ignore it’s glaring issues.
In all honesty, shaman make the most sense if they are going to go by the game’s current lore.
We see primalists of nearly every race, so why wouldn’t they become available after being defeated?
However, similarly to questions like “why weren’t worgen and goblin monks prepared for the new starting experience launch since it no longer was time-locked to the past?” Blizzard makes a lot of ‘interesting’ decisions.
So who knows what they have planned…Shaman makes the most sense though based on everything we’ve seen in this xpac.
Although I would prefer they became more restrictive on race/class combos (I think there needs to be a good lore story for it)…at this point it’s clear every race will get every class in the next few tiers.
First off, gross. If you are a shaman on the alliance side you’re doing it wrong.
Second, if this does happen, Orc Paladins need to happen at the same time. If we’re perverting all things natural than you need to even the playing field.
I Lol’d at this. I mean, Kul Tirans can be Rogue, Taurens and Trolls are Paladins. I see no reason why an Orc shouldnt be a paladin at this point, outside of lore. Besides, its been a minute since ive been in Boralus Harbor, but im pretty sure there are humanoid shamans, that arent of the KT race.
There’s certainly limited gameplay reasoning for why humans couldn’t be shaman.
In the story, we’ve primordialist cults that spawned out of very little. They have been explained as being ancient orders or even just straight corruptions with old god influences. It’s not a terrible stretch to think of some eccentric whisper to the elements or committing atrocities enslaving the elements. We’ve seen it before.
The question is playable storylines, why are protagonists becoming shaman.
Only Zandalari trolls are paladins and that’s explainable due to the Loa. There’s still not great lore reasoning for how Orcs (or since we’re expanding lets say Mechagnomes) would justify being paladins at this point. The influence of The Light could be done, but it hasn’t been at this point.
I’d say goblins were shoehorned in as shaman with one of the simplest introductions; their desperate industrialization necessitated it. It received support with stories. The classic tale of reaching a low point, and the very earth toils to bring you back up.
Mechagnomes have an easier story following this when framed in this way since one could argue that goblins developed shamanism into a kind of technology, and technology can be shared.
But if we go back to the ideas of like why the draeni can use shamanism or dark iron dwarves, it’s supposed to be a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship of people with the elements. Often with the elements reaching out to help.
So far with humans, the most it’d be is someone bringing a friend to the Earthen Ring and saying, “this dude hung out with us, can we keep him?” Westfall experienced the worst of the Cataclysm and everyone journeyed into the center of the Maelstrom, but there were only grand explorers interested in figuring out what to do, but not really human shaman saying people should embrace the elements.
A story certainly can be written, a tale woven to parameters untouched here. It just hasn’t yet.
Because humans are the suck and only believe in the light.
Maybe when Yrel comes and tries to forcibly convert everything and everyone, humans will hear the cries of the elements and listen to them to become shaman to stop the tyranny of paladins.
They did open up for lightforged orcs in the game when unlocking the Mag’har Orcs we are told some orcs went to the light so that could be a new subrace. And the lore for orcs to get to be paladins.
