Hypothetically, you could also implement a Warrior that heals by throwing axes at people.
Or a Rogue that facetanks raid bosses.
Or a Priest that is pure DPS without the thought of adding a heal to their bars.
All of those classes could absolutely nail the aesthetic, the flavour, the theme of the class… but they wouldn’t truly be Warriors or Rogues or Priests. Their primary roles are integral to the overall fantasy of the class.
A Bard’s ability to support is just as integral as a Rogue’s ability to deal damage, a Priest to heal, and a Warrior to tank.
WoW simply does not have that role.
You can reskin anything with a musical theme and call it a Bard… but putting a stethoscope on your pet dog doesn’t make her a doctor. There is no point in adding the Bard class if you cannot add something unique to the gameplay of the game which, for Bard, is integrally support.
I would take literally any other class, specifically because I love Bard so much.
Is that a statement of fact? Show me your evidence, or by your own statements, you are a whiny little baby. See how silly that is? Not everything is a statement of fact unless there is a disclaimer. This is a place for conversation, no need to attack people for giving their opinion.
New necromancer class will give you a new caster that will summon up to 8 mobs at a time and be the first in game class with a tanky golem that can tank for raids! Cast spells like diablo 2!
What you will probably get
New Necromancer class will give you a caster that will summon 1 single skeleton at a time, but will only last for 10 secs with a 5 minute CD! If lucky your pet will kill a mob so you can raise that exact mob for a -90% stat reduction as your own pet! Class also features bone bolt, a physical spell that does no damage and redirects 999% threat to healer!
They can’t even balance the classes we have now, you really want a new class that will be broke until the 3rd or 4th xpac?
oh thats it, you just want a new op broken class to main to be meta
Easy enough. You look at the wow numbers between the last few expansions and you will see a steady decline. The only times the numbers shot back up and stayed up was when a new class was introduced. In recent memory that was during Legion with Demon Hunters and in MOP with Monks.
Then two expansions in a row with no new classes you have people leaving in massive numbers because there is nothing new to really sink our teeth into aside from the content. However history is fairly clear that new classes = higher sub numbers.
The only class that makes sense is a bard. It can be a mail wearer and uses bows and/or like 1H + offhand or staves and stuff. A range DPS and healer only (no more effing tanks or melee). Can use the WoD legendary ring mechanic where they build up a resource and then channel it in a song providing either buff or healing.
Nonsense like “tinkers”, “dragonkin”, and/or “necromancers” are incredibly stupid and in the latter case, is literally a reskinned unholy DK.
I would contend that the only class that doesn’t make sense is Bard. I love the class, but I don’t want to see another support class get the disrespect that Shamans did. The support role is integral to the Bard class, and to reskin a Priest or Hunter and slap a musical theme on it is simply insulting.
And you’ve lost any and all credibility now that I see you’re a Dragonsworn poster. I’m sorry that your precious view of Bards makes them impossible, but I for one hope you are wrong.
Unfortunately, that’s just a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. If five people die after eating broccoli, that doesn’t automatically mean that broccoli is poisonous. I’m not saying that you aren’t correct, I’m just saying you are jumping to conclusions. Also, just because the game was more popular during those times, is not evidence that the game will die without new classes. My friend, you have given nothing more than an opinion. But that’s okay! I respect your opinion, and I might even agree with you. I’m just saying maybe don’t be so quick to attack people. We’re all here for a good time.
“Credibility” jab notwithstanding, I mean… it’s reflected in virtually every RPG sourcebook and in virtually every video game in which you can find the class. Bards are support, in an RPG context. That is their identity.
Go get those. And mash people with them, or heal. Because that’s literally all a Bard in WoW would do. If you wish to be a pale imitation of the class, the option is already available to you.
I would love nothing more than to WoW to re-establish a support role in their game - perhaps even expanding to classes other than Shaman, Paladin, and Bard - but I’m not holding my breath.
Add in that the only precedent are Blight Boar and ETC… I’m just not seeing the theme as something core to the WarCraft universe, regardless.
But I also said we’d never get Pandaren - 'lo and behold, an artist’s penchant for hiding doodles evolved into an expansion, complete with continent, race, and class, so who knows? I don’t see it as likely, but literally anything can happen.
This is more a problem that classes have grossly blended together in the name of homogenization.
There is plenty of room for a heavy support spec that has an already well defined and established niche. In fact, the bigger problem I see is that WoW’s core design makes the bard a problem because every spec needs to be fully capable in all forms of content as well as competitive in the spec.
The fantasy of a bard would have them never be a DPS, but they would certainly have to have a DPS spec to not only level and solo content but would have to be more or less good at it or forever be shunned and undesired in any kind of group content.
So either the group utility would have to be so great and thus their individual numbers would have to be so poor to justify that or they’d just be seen as critical and mandatory.
All that said, tinkers, dragonkin, and necromancers are all far worse. I’d much rather we never get a new class and uniqueness returned to classes/specs.
Correct but we can further support the claim by adding that many people did play the new class and that the expansion right before was WOD which saw massive decline in sub numbers. The addition of a new class and the numbers of how many people played that class is more evidence of how successful the game became off that class alone. Legion had many other pros going for it but for every Demon Hunter main in Legion the sub numbers of the expansion grew. And there were hundreds of thousands of players that did play that class.
Perhaps it is an opinion but I think history has shown that the game loses subs very quickly without new playable classes being added every few expansions to mix things up because it gives players a new fantasy to experience.
Regardless my point stands from earlier. If someone wants to stop class development on the game until everything is perfectly balanced then we wont ever get a new class because perfect balance does not exist.
To the first paragraph, that was the issue with Shamans and Paladins, and why we’re no longer support classes. In fact, the support role, as a secondary function, has been homogenized to the point that it’s not even worth mentioning. Also, having a primary role does not preclude them from secondary roles, such as DPS (like healers and tanks still contributing DPS, but being present for their primary functions).
And if Shaman were to become support again, I’ll take the deal and never get another new class again.
As for the second paragraph asserting that everything is worse… I disagree.
Bards have a strong theme, but will never have the mechanical structure required to adequately realize the class.
Necromancers have always been a trash tier class, aspiring to be something greater (like a Warlock or Lich) or acting in service of a greater power (like a Death Knight). And they kind of missed the boat.
Tinkers have the opposite problem of Bards - they might have a unique mechanical potential, but their theme is “weak” in that it will never headline an expansion.
Dragonsworn, though? Pure potential. Whether or not that potential can be realized is a different question, but depending on implementation, it could be something greater, without the baggage of all the other options.
But still, if you want to get into a discussion about “evidence,” don’t employ fallacies to make your point. Let your point stand on its own merit, because merit, it has.
But it was evidence. Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy or “this happened so therefore that is true” is only a fallacy if no evidence is given. The evidence of sub numbers increasing and the massive playerbase that started playing demon hunters is valid evidence that a new class increased subs because the expansion before it saw a massive decline in subs and the expansion after wod introduced a new class that massive amounts of players played and stayed subbed for to play. The same can be said of MOP Monks and WOTLK DKs. The evidence is very clear and the numbers are there.
If the sub numbers increased and yet no one played these classes then your statement of a fallacy has more merit but the data supports my claims.
I agree with you that the new classes is probably what’s responsible for the increased success at those times. But that does not lead to the conclusion that WoW will die without it. That is still an opinion, and not a fact. Really, you would have to be able to see the future for that to be a fact. Otherwise, it’s just an opinion that could be correct. Only time will tell.
Yeah I tend to agree with this, my point wasn’t to argue with your opinion, it was just to point out that you attacking someone, probably without really realizing it.
necromancers should be a “skin” class that warlocks should get just replace all fel and demons with undead and that magic lime green thing necros use and boom a full fletched necromancer.
class skins over new class, we need shadowhunters and wardens and other cool things we don’t need another class to balance.
Fair. However the concern is still there. Wod was a wake up call for the company that thought they did not need to add anything new and engaging in order to retain players. However when I look at so many other games outside the wow bubble one of the biggest reasons why they die is lack of new playable content and characters/classes. I doubt the NBA 2K series would be successful today if they were still using the roster from 2008-2009 nba. Same thing goes for many other games. The data out there shows massive growth in subs when new classes are introduced and a massive decline after no new class is introduced. So the risk is there that the game will die off. Perhaps it is a bit exaggerated because I also tend to think no game ever really dies if there are people playing it but the sentiment comes from a perspective of massively multiplayer games and I do not want to see the massive multiplayer part die out to just be a “dead game” with some people playing and nearly empty towns and cities.
