With only Farseer having been elaborated on so far. I hope that one of the remaining specs (Stormbringer or Totemic) has a chance to be backpedaled into Witch Doctor. Witch Doctor has been a timeless Blizzard classic across multiple games. Evoker’s Ruby Adept was changed to Flameshaper, so I can only hope it isnt too late for Shaman.
With all the love that Elves are getting (Sentinel, Dark Ranger, San’layn, Elune’s Chosen, Druid of the Claw, Sunfury, and I will not count the demon hunter specs because it is obligatory that they are elf themed) Dwarves are getting Mountain Thane, and Pandaren are getting Shado-pan. I would just like to appeal that Trolls also get a little something. In a perfect world every race would get a spec that caters to the race’s lore and background, but I understand that they have limited resources and time.
The favoritism for both classes and races shows however as Elves have 6 dedicated hero talent trees for their various fantasies across 4 races. As for classes you can feel that there is very little inspiration behind the ones the devs must not play or enjoy, rather they feel like generic stereotypes tossed in willy-nilly. Gap fillers, rather than something designed with passion and joy and admiration for a class’ fantasy. Trickster Rogue? Totemic Shaman? I feel like there are a ton of great and exciting backgrounds we could draw on for shaman but one that really strikes a cord with me is Witch Doctor. It definitely leans more towards a troll theme, but it if we theme it around the more fleshed out Loa Worship (Which has been shown to be a power that all races can draw from, not just Trolls) than we could have a little something for troll enjoyers as well.
TL;DR - I want troll players to get a shiny new spec too!
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The go to hero trees should have been Farseer, Spiritwalker, and Witchdoctor.
And in my opinion, focusing on:
Farseer: Ele, Enhance - focused on Lightning spells, feral spirit, and earthquake
Spiritwalker: Ele, Resto - focused on ghost/ancestral/astral spells.
Witch doctor: Resto, Enhance - focusing on chain heal(possible chain harvest return), hexing, and totems (wards as they were called)
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Yall are way over stating what hero talents are.
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I kind of wish they’d divorce cultural classes from the hero class talents. I’m a Draenei; why would I want to be a witch doctor which only trolls have?
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That is totally understandable. But then if you do that, I’m not sure what the point of hero talents are. Some of the most boring hero talent trees that they have revealed so far are the trees that don’t have a particular cultural background, like ‘Pack Leader’ or ‘Slayer’. Those might be functional but they sure aren’t interesting. Mountain Thane, Dark Ranger could be mechanically bland but they still add a cool and unique flavor to your character and fulfill archetypes I imagine a lot of players want to play.
I thought hero talents were supposed to be similar to hero classes… in the sense that they take a popular / lore rich archetype from the Warcraft universe and apply that to be available for current classes.
Obviously shaman was a horde class and so are all the units that it is based on from the beginning. So most races of shaman will have a tough time identifying with popular archetypes of shaman lore units. I guess that’s why they have generic hero talents planned like stormbringer and totemic, even though both of those sound incredibly boring.
This is a no-win situation that Blizzard keeps putting itself into with systems like Hero Paths and Covenants, where they keep binding aesthetic and lore choices together with consequential power systems.
It doesn’t matter how lore-rich or mechanically powerful Dark Ranger is if the entire aesthetic of summoning undead is one a hunter player has no desire to attach to their character. Best case in that scenario is that the only other path available to them is one they’re excited enough by to not care about Dark Ranger being DOA for them, while the worst case is that the alternative path is so weak they feel forced to play a path with major aesthetic consequences they hate despite how much it impacts their enjoyment of their character.
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Witch Doctor being Enchance? What? I don’t think the fantasy tracks with the playstyle there. Maybe resto and ele but not the melee spec. Either way, Shadowhunter would have been a better pick in my mind.
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Exactly. A Dark Ranger is specifically an undead archer who serves Sylvanas. Sylvanas is gone, and 2/3 of hunters are eligible to take that hero path. I guess it’s bringing back Black Arrow from the old Survival spec, but I have no desire on my hunter to have anything to do with undead minions.
Shadow Hunter is what I was thinking of. It focuses on chain heal (or chain harvest since its a popular ability that benefits dps as well and was especially useful to enhance), hex, and serpent ward (although just totems in general would work). Big bad voodoo I dont think theres any way to bring that to wow.
No.
They are only additional talents given in such a way that won’t interfere with current builds. They have very little impact in anything else.
At most they might slightly change the visual of a single spell.
I would argue that there are no major aesthetic consequences.
The largest aesthetic consequence is the text on the menu that only you can see, which will let you know which hero talent you have equipped.
I would argue there are. Some hero trees like Farseer, Riders of the Apoc, and Conduit of the Celestials will all be summoning stuff all over the place on classes that normally don’t. There is a very good chance that there will either be players that want to play that but can’t, or people that don’t want to play that and are forced to.
This has a very real chance to be covenants part two unless Blizzard manages to get better at balancing than they have been since… ever.
There are also trees that revolve around a talent that isn’t very popular. For instance the Chosen of Elune for guardian druid forces them to take lunar beam. I have never seen a guardian druid use that spell. I can assure you that they aren’t excited about the possibility.
I really hope blizzard gives troll players something with these hero talents. Whether it’s witch doctor or shadow hunter. They have the opportunity to give the class a fresh new spin focusing on hexing, wards (altering what totems do) and voodoo related spells.