I wanted to create a thread about the proposed “Witch” class that was surveyed to those subscribed to Chromie(de), since I feel as if it was drowned out by the resulting necromancer teasing and that class has all but consumed some attention spans.
I also wanted the create a thread to actually talk about the topic of witchcraft in world of warcraft, since besides the now canonically defeated and eradicated Heartabane Coven and the Drust, it is still a relatively niche topic on Azeroth.
Yet while it is still niche there are very clear examples of what it is throughout the legacy of Azeroth; from recent lore within Gnoll tribes, the minutely touched upon Harvest Witches of Gilneas, and even treading upon Naga Tidemistresses and Troll Witchdoctors.
The “Witch” Archetype is something that has been in the game since Warcraft III, even in previous generations it was more or less described to befouled spellcasters and togue wizards. It has only started to gain a genuine “identity” since arguably Battle for Azeroth, where we begin dead witches actual signs of occult and archaic, primitive ritualism spearheaded by the Heartsbane.
Even as our champions went on a bender and essentially eadicated them, we are then introduced to the rothide gnolls in Dragonflight who on the surface seem to practice necromancy, but it becomes very clear that they are practicing some sort of shadowy death magic intermingled with primal or nature magic to create a withering and rotting plague to allow the Rothide Matron to pull a Hogger and dominate the other tribes.
Are you at all interested in such a class? To me, I practically drool over it because I have a very fond experience within Drustvar.
It would also be nice to separate the witch identity from druidism to allow them an expansion into the darker forces of primal nature.
Witch like Necromancer seems like it has it’s power fantasies spread out already. Warlocks curse people and Shamans can already turn people into frogs.
we could do shadow hunter and throw in a priestess of the moon tree but even that got dark ranger taken. unless we steal it back
we could do reskins and new specs though
I think there is room for a few new warrior specs but im a warr main
or reskin warlock and death knight specs and slap them on a class called necromancer without having to balance them ez money.
This is a class i had the idea to put into wow since a while now :
I imagined something that would mix, the witches in the black woods like you could see in old times, with covens and all the idea of dancing to the moon and ritual to the Black Goat!
With the more blood related rituals of Diablo that for example Adria use, which is also a witche.
To me the idea would be to have, a darker version of a druid, with black roots, blood magic, rotting stuff, “dance puppet”, cruses etc…
And it could also include a more necromantic vibes, yes, the NECROMANCER could be in this too!
And you might say “Oh but its just a warlock!” and i will answer that : yes it was the warlock in vanilla, but now what is the warlock if not a demon loving class? It does nothing without demons, it could be called a demonologist it would be even more accurate than calling it a warlock.
Actually, some transelations of the game even call it “demonologist” so yeah, warlock lost all of its “witches” vibes.
Yeah but they rewrote Demonology to be more about controlling demons than understanding them to the point you could turn into one.
They could certainly rebrand enough specs to make a Witch viable but I don’t know if it’d be worth it. Curses seem pretty core to the Warlock class identity and I’m pretty sure the word warlock just meant a male witch. So presumably any girlock already is one.
My obsession with a playable Lich aside, I think Bard is the likeliest addition from the list provided in the survey. It is a classic staple with no representation that ties directly into ongoing storylines (The Radiant Song).
Witch does not seem relevant to anything happening now or in the near future. I think they could easily carve out a unique identity or niche for anything they introduce—Evokers say hi. What has been 100% true of every new class introduced is that they tie directly into the upcoming content; DKs in the undeath/Lich King expansion, Monks in the fantasy Asia expansion, Demon Hunters in the Legion expansion, Dragon-people Other-Mages in the Dragon expansion, etc.
We know we’re headed into Thalassian elf territory with heavy Void themes, then we’re following that up by heading back to Northrend with heavy Titanic themes. If we’re accepting the survey leak as the full scope of what’s possible, we can probably winnow at least half of the list away.
Have you played Lock? Affliction is the speciality Curse spec but it’s still pretty iconic to the class. I’d put it up there with poisons for Rogues. Yeah Assassination uses them the most but the whole class has them and it used to be way more universal.
Ha yeah it was a cruse long ago, but i mean, really.? I man, i play a warlock demonlogy and i never use the curses, i find them just useless, when you play in a RAID BOSS, you never use these spells…
Like yeah on pvp you use…yeah on m+ HIGH LEVEL KEYS (and i mean very very high lvl keys)
But no you dont use them otherwise, dont make me beleive you actually press these buttons.
You would remove them it would not change a thing especially in raid.
Well yes, i play a lock, demology one, and i play hl with it, even clear raids and i also did m+ hero achiev, and i never use the curses.
What is signature thing of warlock since legion is…demons =p
Demo locks are all about spamming their imps via Hand of Gul’dan and using their other demons when they’re off CD. I personally never had to use curses either. Elites and such are usually dead long before the curse becomes effective
Yes, i mean, i dont want to be mean, but if people use cruses, as warlock…you are actually doing something wrong, because in all the guides and stuff, it dont even tell you to use them because its a gcd loss…
And thats even in pvp, you can ask big pvp players they dont use them either.
And when you have, curses that are useless, like you actually lose something by using them, its not what i call iconic and its nowhere near rogue poisons.
Well, countershot is an interrupt, so yes its useful, and for curse you mainly use curse of weakness on raid (and only ONE is needed to be put so if you have another warlock who do it you actually dont need to do it.)
Slows are not working in raid.
Its not my goal, i just mean that, saying that curses are “a core thing” of warlock, is wrong. For it to be a core thing it would actually need to be useful and part of the gameplay cycle etc…
Counter shot is a great quality of life spell for all hunter specs though if you want to make things a little easier on yourself. Not necessary by any means, but it’s a lovely tool to have in your kit.
Warlocks though, curses depend entirely on how you specced your lock out. For mine, curses aren’t needed, as I got lots of ways for my pet to tank through the damage. And my imps and felstalkers usually make short work of things before I have to bring out the Tyrant
