It’s not really having a class themed around them, it’s having heroes that are of that class that are certain races, which makes players gravitate to those races as that class. So for example you’re going to get a lot of Blood Elf and Draenei paladins because of Lilandra, Yrel, and other characters. That’s just how it goes.
The issue is that the majority of Goblin and Gnome heroes are fighting inside mech suits and we can’t do that.
So if you see Mekkatorque shooting a demon in the face and think it’s cool and want to do what he’s doing, you’re SoL. It gets even worse when you roll whatever class as a Gnome and you enter New Tinkertown (after fighting robots and irradiated gnomes inside a factory) and pretty much everyone is riding a combat mech and at the end have you fight a guy who’s inside a mech.
Meanwhile, you’re a dude with a tiny sword or a pellet gun…
Because major characters drive people to play race/class combinations. If you like Thrall as a character, then you’re very likely to roll an Orc Shaman to be like him. If you like Illidan, you’re very likely to roll a NE Demon Hunter to be like him.
Goblins and Gnomes have a two tier issue: No major heroes for the current class lineup, and they really don’t fit the current classes.
Draenei are more often than not left out of the main narrative and have basically no mage characters. Let alone a mage character on the level of Jaina.
My main is still a draenei mage. Why? Because I like the race.
Awesome! Then we can agree that engineering doesn’t come anywhere close to satisfying player interest in a tech themed class! (As enhance is FAR closer to a spellblade than engineering is to a CLASS)
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That’s the genius of a mech! You can stand toe to toe with powerful foes, accomplish otherwise impossible feats of strength AND drink out of it! Multifunctional!
Glad to see more folks pushing this idea specifically. There’s a lot of potential in a Mech-based class, like the Steam Warrior from the tabletop game.
Addendum:
I get the feeling, depending on how it’s done, most folks will see the class as prohibitively Gnome/Goblin centric regardless of its openness. The Monk Effect, if you will.
Really wouldn’t make sense to make it exclusive to them, anyway. They and the Dwarves may be the most well known for their use of high technology, and have mostly pioneered it, but we have plenty of examples of people from other races who are just as proficient, even if most of them are either relatively obscure or simply generic.
I also wouldn’t say race exclusivity necessarily guarantees narrative representation or development. It would make those things easier, given there’s less races to work with, but I’ve yet to see much evidence of races getting more narrative attention this way specifically.
For small races (Gnomes, Goblins, Vulpera, Dwarves), I could see tinkers with mechs being a thing. For large and medium races (Tauren, Worgen, Humans, Orcs, Elves, Draenei, Dracthyr, etc.), I would go with power armor exoskeleton suits.
Oh, sorry, she shows up 1 time with no story exclusively so Horde players can kill her.
Wow, what a great developed character.
The sad truth is that unless the race is humans or elves they’re going to have 1 developed character: their racial leader. And some like trolls don’t even get that.
The whole “people won’t play something unless there’s a major character of that race/class combo” is complete nonsense.
TBF, that action figure, her appearance in WoW comics, and her appearance in the game made quite a few people want to roll Draenei mages. Especially female Draenei mages.
Probably better to simply give up. Blizzard will look at all the requests. Laugh, throw it in the trash and mock players with themed transmogs of what will never be.
