To be fair, Monk didn't even exist as a class with lore before Mists of Pandaria. Chen is the sole example and he was just a one-off oddity in WC3. And then Blizzard decided to let a bunch of other races like humans become Monks overnight despite the "long-term isolated training on an island" reasoning for how they got to be able to use these powers. So I feel like people focusing only on established Classes and Heroes that already exist in WoW's universe aren't thinking big enough, Blizzard could create a new class from new lore even if there's as little as 1 character in all of Warcraft history that you could say represents it (such as with Chen). I'm sure someone going through WC1-3 could find SOME character with a set of abilities that was another one-off like Chen. Beyond that, can people really say that nowhere in the chronicle (or other Warcraft books) is there an example of a Unique character that doesn't fit into a class archetype? Established groups can be lore-d in later like with Monks. "Followers" of texts passed down by X important person in Warcraft if the person's dead, etc.
Blizzard: "we won't add a new class if it doesn't make sense to the story."Also Blizzard: "the Heroes of Azeroth left the Tidestone unguarded, because reasons."
This is just another in the long line excuses that the wow devs use to not put work into the game. They didn't like people calculating the best talent tree setup for results so they took it away. They didn't like that people weren't playing all their content when they got flying so instead of doing anything to give people a reason to stay on the ground they just hid flying behind a time/grind gate. They do the bare minimum to make any old content viable for current play. And now they've broke they expansion feature cycle because at the end of the day the devs are petty lazy and will only put in enough work to cover their bottom line. And you can't claim that wod already broke the cycle they addressed that since they had introduced both in mop that they had satisfied the cycle.
why ppl always post a comment without know some lore? dark rangers, shadowhunters and necromancer.... stop that. read some lore then come back for useful comments XD
when i hear the comment "pl system is pretty great" it makes me wanna puke out of disgust of the players who like it
*cough* Unholy Death Knight *cough*
Interesting you guys wanting new class, but for what purpose? Just because its a new expansion so it must have a new class? To my PoV, if and when they decide to include new class with new balancing nightmares, new talent trees (the dream...), new roles, new this, new that... first they should fix the game. Adding a class changes everything in the game, so, why not changing everything in the game BEFORE adding a new class?Prereq 1: Removal of the current talent system, make a talent system with more choices. Since they wanna bring back "class over spec", then make a "sphere grid" where you have active skills, passive skills and stats all spread in a wheel that mixes everything your class can have, if you're a DK you'll see necrotic strike along with heart strike on the wheel, they're in opposite directions because the deeper you go into one direction, say bloody direction, you won't be called a frost DK or UH DK, you'll be a blood DK. That is a simple scalable system that can persist through expansions just by adding/replacing nodes. Instead of doing a class revamp, just tweak some numbers for balance purposes and that's it. Easy maintenance, better class presentation, its a win win scenario.Prereq 2: Classes having "schools of magic" or "trainer trending": Mages for instance could have several school affinities for their class, such as fire, frost, air, earth; Mages that follows a more arcanic school could have affinities with arcane, light, dark, and be called wizards but still a mage. Warlocks would then be masters of plague, death, blood magic schools, if they decide to go occultist, then they would be necromancers (see? not a class, a spec). Rogues would be something like dagger expertise, sword expertise, pistol expertise, where a rogue that has masters in dagger tree would be like assassination, with deadly finishing moves, poisons and crippling moves. Sword expertise would be something like assassin's creed moves, slower hitting rogue but with stronger per hit attacks, the skills would be somewhat like combat rogues back in the days. Pistol masters would be like pirates, they would wield a longsword in main hand, do some slow but hard-hitting attacks and would have ranged attacks mixed as well, because of the pistol, something like outlaw nowadays. And the list goes on for every class in the gameThen they can safely add new classes if they see fit because it'll be easier to maintain, without having to redesing everything every expansion. But hey, what do I know right?
Exactly, realm of the dead, how does it not scream Necromancer!
I think, going forward, the way to properly enhance class fantasy is not through new classes (which brings confusion and balance issues down the line), but class "skins".For example, you could skin your warlock as a "Necromancer", and have all your spell turn death-themed, with demon minions replaced by undead etc... Tinkers could be hunters with mechanical pets, Shadow Hunters a troll rogue or hunter skin, etc. With this, the possibilities are endless, and can be expanded further and further without bringing balance issues.
are they kidding me? they've lined up so many potential classes via the latest lore, and hyped up this year's blizzcon so much, that i was expecting them to drop the ball and add several classes at once.dark rangers/wardens, necromancers, tinkerers? especially the first 3 would have fit in with shadowlands. or just add those as class skins to fulfill class fantasies without actually adding new classes
Banshee hero class?
All I constantly see from the Dev team now is "we want to do a little more research to see how players interact with these systems". Dudes... those systems have been around for over 10 years. Youre literally talking about systems that have dated back to the beginning of the damn game. Its like these people dont even play their own game... They might never learn from their mistakes. Unpruning and class-over-spec design are good starts, but there is a reason why so many people prefer Classic. There is a reason beyond "because the game requires it" to do activities. Covenant abilties might end up being trash with the conduit system. Since Conduits are consumables, its just another system that requires the player to grind in order to obtain the one item they need to continue gaining power. conduits should be interchangeable objects between all soul bind trees that you can re use if you choose to respecc, rather than re farming out brand new conduits if you need want to try another soul bind tree. I would personally like to see the return of "in-dungeon crafting locations" such as the alchemy lab in Scholo, or the Black Forge/Anvil in BRD, where players must go on adventures in order to craft high level materials and consumables. This creates more common goals for players to interact for. Blizz really needs to hire people that have actually played ALL of their games.
If Legion was THE perfect time to introduce long-awaited Demon Hunters, the Shadowlands is THE perfect time to introduce long-awaited Necromancers or Soulpriests. I can't imagine any more windows of opportunity for such a class fantasy, and if there are, they'd be much too late to be very fitting.As it stands, not only does Shadowlands have only 2 major features with Covenants and Torghast, (which means it could possibly end up as another bare-bones expansion like WoD), but we are missing out on a LOT of potential. I mean, we aren't just going to a sister planet in the solar system, we are stepping outside the bounds of our reality! The Shadowlands is another PLANE OF EXISTENCE! That means literally anything goes when it comes to new class ideas. Why even bother with generic Necromancers when Blizzard could do away with conventional concepts entirely! I'd love to see a new class with an otherworldly aesthetic (that Traveler transmog, illusion, and hearthstone from the CE is a perfect example of what a class could look like) that maybe even breaks the usual class role conventions of tank/dps/healer. It sucks they are just not touching this untapped potential. I wonder though if there were any early concepts for classes when Shadowlands was still on the drawing board.
Screw new classes. There are already more than enough to improve and make more fun to play.