New classes and Legion.

[Cosmic Janitor]

They could go with the hero route, or make scalable weapons, or let them share with another class for this particular content. Maybe we also just won't see another class, since we pretty much have most of it by now.. I would like them to actually add new specs to classes rather than diluting the ideas of existing classes even more..

They will have to figure out what to do about the artifacts after this expansion as well. So there is always a chance that they'll just remove all the necessary elements after that point. Imho that is the way more interesting question, how exactly will they handle artifacts after this expansion?

[Krille]

They could go with the hero route, or make scalable weapons, or let them share with another class for this particular content. Maybe we also just won't see another class, since we pretty much have most of it by now.. I would like them to actually add new specs to classes rather than diluting the ideas of existing classes even more..

They will have to figure out what to do about the artifacts after this expansion as well. So there is always a chance that they'll just remove all the necessary elements after that point. Imho that is the way more interesting question, how exactly will they handle artifacts after this expansion?

Well that all depends on how this expansion goes, and how successful the artifacts are. If it isnt that good i'd imagine they just do what they did to draenor perks and just include the best in our specs. If it's good, well they might keep doing it but with new artifacts, hopefully ones with NEW lore.

[Eurhetemec]

I was thinking today about the class halls and researching a bit about them. That's when it hit me, introducing a new class that is not a hero class after this expansion got a looooot trickier. You guys probably have already realized that, but if a new class is added their progression through the Broken Islands would be heavily hampered by the lack of class halls and artifacts weapon.

And I don't think they will design them just for an outdated expansion.

I know this is way into the future. But how do you guys think they might be able to overcome this? Use other classes halls ? They will only introduce hero classes? They won't ever introduce a new class?

I think your last two guesses are on-point - either we're looking at the last class to be added to WoW, or any future classes will be Hero Classes. Really there's no significant downside to making new classes all Hero Classes at this point - it's not like many people buy WoW in order to level up, and those who do are likely to be okay with not having all classes available for that.

Personally I don't think WoW has many more expansions in it, not full-scale ones, though perhaps if Legion is a massive hit that'll change.

[Deleted]

There might be another "cataclysm" expansion, with changes to old content, but probably on a smaller scale. Or maybe we'll get a completely alternate leveling path at some point. It's really just guesses at this point. Either way, it's not comming next expansion (probably), so there's still so much time for things to happen.

[Meagree]

the scaleable weapons solve the artifact problem... but not the class hall problem. BUt it might be trivial In a later expansion I suppose.

Make it start at level 110, or 120. Problem solved, no need for an artifact or class hall.

[Sluvs]

Well that all depends on how this expansion goes, and how successful the artifacts are. If it isnt that good i'd imagine they just do what they did to draenor perks and just include the best in our specs. If it's good, well they might keep doing it but with new artifacts, hopefully ones with NEW lore.

I don't know how the artifact system is being received in beta, or how it will be received in the end of the expansion. But I fully expect that sort of progression system to be updated for the next expansion. Even if it not tied to a weapon.

It would be cool if they turned artifact weapons into the most powerful weapon that your spec can have, but then i suppose they would have to move their traits somewhere else. Or maybe you just get the weapon when you complete your artifact tree.

[Slicer299]

New people usually don't buy heirlooms for their first character, and if they do they go for the XP stuff first. Some people don't even know what heirlooms are until someone rages at them during RDF.

And making players go out of their way to IF/UC to buy a weapon and then 3 upgrades for it (since 100-110 is probably gonna be a new upgrade) is not good. You also might not make that much gold for upgrades. (currently weapon is a couple hundred, 1st upgrade is 1.2k, 2nd 5k, so 3rd will probably be 7-10k). Even now it's not worth upgrading past 90 for WoD (crafted weapons are much cheaper on AH).

It's not good to gate an expansion behind a gold req in a previous expansion.

My guess is they would just add some weapon rewards to quests already in the broken isles.

You complaint/argument makes no sense at all.

New players don't buy heirloom weapons by time they hit 100? Completely untrue. Heirloom weapons are a big part of what makes leveling faster as they help kill things much quicker. Even for casters, the high amount of stats compared to non-heirloom gear is a significant buff.

Having to go to UC/IF is "out of their way" over the course of 100 levels? Also completely untrue. Even as a new player, at some point in your 1-100 leveling, you need to have a mage port you to Shrine so you can set your hearth there for all the portals. In Legion this will switch to the Dalaran over the Broken Isle as it will have all the portals. You can do that at level 1, yes a brand new player may need to find a guild or earn some gold for a tip first, but getting to UC/IF is not out of the way at all.

Yes, the level 91 crafted weapons are cheap and more usually more powerful than Heirloom weapons. But come Legion people won't be crafting much, if any, of those weapons any more. You seem to have this idea in your head that the work necessary to obtain and upgrade heirlooms completely prevents players from using them. But as Legion comes with a free 100, even brand new players will have a high level character with which to make gold to fund the purchase and upgrade of those heirlooms. And all of this only applies if, and is stress if, Blizzard introduces a new non-hero class some point after Legion.

If they do that they can still put in some sort of substitute to the Artifact weapon for their 100-110 leveling. They don't need an order hall, or even an NPC, they can literally be mailed a weapon that scales for those levels.

[Shadochi]

You complaint/argument makes no sense at all.

New players don't buy heirloom weapons by time they hit 100? Completely untrue. Heirloom weapons are a big part of what makes leveling faster as they help kill things much quicker. Even for casters, the high amount of stats compared to non-heirloom gear is a significant buff.

Having to go to UC/IF is "out of their way" over the course of 100 levels? Also completely untrue. Even as a new player, at some point in your 1-100 leveling, you need to have a mage port you to Shrine so you can set your hearth there for all the portals. In Legion this will switch to the Dalaran over the Broken Isle as it will have all the portals. You can do that at level 1, yes a brand new player may need to find a guild or earn some gold for a tip first, but getting to UC/IF is not out of the way at all.

Yes, the level 91 crafted weapons are cheap and more usually more powerful than Heirloom weapons. But come Legion people won't be crafting much, if any, of those weapons any more. You seem to have this idea in your head that the work necessary to obtain and upgrade heirlooms completely prevents players from using them. But as Legion comes with a free 100, even brand new players will have a high level character with which to make gold to fund the purchase and upgrade of those heirlooms. And all of this only applies if, and is stress if, Blizzard introduces a new non-hero class some point after Legion.

If they do that they can still put in some sort of substitute to the Artifact weapon for their 100-110 leveling. They don't need an order hall, or even an NPC, they can literally be mailed a weapon that scales for those levels.

Everyone who I know didn't buy a loom weapon for their first character, and most people don't know that the shrine is the best place for their HS even now, you don't even need to visit it since you can level 85-90 just in JF.

You seem to thing every new player to WoW knows the optimal way for everything, and that is not true. There's a lot of people that just log in, play for an hour or 2 and then just log out. That's it for WoW for that day for them. They don't visit MMO-C, WoWHead or wow youtubers to know the stuff, they just log in to mess around and have fun.
Even with a 100(after legion probably 110 boost) you can't make players need a certain amount of gold (which is gonna be at least 15k+) to progress with a new class.

As I said, easiest way would be to just add weapons you get from quests like regular rewards.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Well that all depends on how this expansion goes, and how successful the artifacts are. If it isnt that good i'd imagine they just do what they did to draenor perks and just include the best in our specs. If it's good, well they might keep doing it but with new artifacts, hopefully ones with NEW lore.

Imho blizzard needs to finally figure out how to make their systems last longer..
At this point they redesign all the class systems from the ground up with each expansion because their scaling is totally out of control and the systems they put in place are dead ends that either require a reset or a complete revamp with the next expansion. They spend about half an expansion's crunch time (let's say the period where they abandon the live servers completely..) reeinventing the wheel while hemorrhaging players because the live servers go to shit. They might want to start adressing this after 6 times doing the same..

[Deleted]

Probably just ignore it all the same way Death Knights and monks don't have tier sets pre-WotLK and pre-MoP, and goblins and worgen don't have representatives in the argent tournament.

They won't need an artifact weapon, since the end-game won't be in the broken isles anymore. Class Hall too.

Goblins and worgen not being at the argent tournament actually is quite logical, since they were not part of horde/alliance at that time and thus didn't participate in the war against the scourge. That might possibly be the way to justify not creating artifact weapons and/or order halls in case a new class will be added. However, they'd need some kind of a substitute for the order hall since it plays quite a roll in storytelling and quest flow (as far as I have seen in beta, note that my experiences there are at a very limited level).

[Krille]

Imho blizzard needs to finally figure out how to make their systems last longer..
At this point they redesign all the class systems from the ground up with each expansion because their scaling is totally out of control and the systems they put in place are dead ends that either require a reset or a complete revamp with the next expansion. They spend about half an expansion's crunch time (let's say the period where they abandon the live servers completely..) reeinventing the wheel while hemorrhaging players because the live servers go to shit. They might want to start adressing this after 6 times doing the same..

Oh i agree. But do you imagine how difficult it is to make a system without faults? It's almost impossible. I'm glad they're fixing broken/bad systems instead of just putting a blind eye to it. But yea, if they don't find anything groundbreaking i don't expect them to follow a similar system for many expansions. They did this back in the days and it was ok but also boring (the original talent trees).

[Gemini Soul]

I hope they don't add any more classes but if they do then it should be, a Mail wearer with a RDPS spec and a Healer spec only. That will help with loot and role spread.

[Mirishka]

New people usually don't buy heirlooms for their first character, and if they do they go for the XP stuff first. Some people don't even know what heirlooms are until someone rages at them during RDF.

And making players go out of their way to IF/UC to buy a weapon and then 3 upgrades for it (since 100-110 is probably gonna be a new upgrade) is not good. You also might not make that much gold for upgrades. (currently weapon is a couple hundred, 1st upgrade is 1.2k, 2nd 5k, so 3rd will probably be 7-10k). Even now it's not worth upgrading past 90 for WoD (crafted weapons are much cheaper on AH).

It's not good to gate an expansion behind a gold req in a previous expansion.

My guess is they would just add some weapon rewards to quests already in the broken isles.

Out of their way to get to Ironforge? Seriously? How lazy are you?

[Joeydivision82]

It's safe to assume the Class Halls will go the way the Garrisons did. They'll be useful as all hell during their expansion and pretty much irrelevant come the next expansion.

[Shadochi]

Out of their way to get to Ironforge? Seriously? How lazy are you?

Unless you are a dwarf, you don't go anywhere near IF while leveling. And then when you go there for the first time, It would take you 10-20 mins to to find the gates and then the vendor. Keep in mind we're talking about a player that is completely new to WoW.

[Taeldorian]

I hope they don't add any more classes but if they do then it should be, a Mail wearer with a RDPS spec and a Healer spec only. That will help with loot and role spread.

Yeah Id really prefer if they just add more specs to current classes. Like paladin could use another dps spec like a ranged holy dps or something, along with DH and really any other class. Thats what Id like to see tbh.

[Thimagryn]

Class halls can be rectified in any number of ways. As shown by a few of the Class Halls, they don't need to be based in or around Broken Shore at all. Monk's hall is back in Pandaria, Paladins are based in Light's Hope. All we need is a relevant staging area for the class. Shadow Hunters can use Echo Isles or Zandalar. Tinkers can use Undermine or Gnomeregan. Time inconsistencies don't matter, considering we have Worgen and Pandarens doing TBC content.

[Vichan]

the scaleable weapons solve the artifact problem... but not the class hall problem. BUt it might be trivial In a later expansion I suppose.

just make heirloom weapons scale, add a random quest that gives a weapon at the start or just make all the artifact weapon/class hall stuff skip-able, it's not that hard

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Don't expect the artifact weapon idea to go away, they will likely make a more interesting system for future expansions that will allow you to make your own.

why would you think this no weapon we could possible make would be on par with the artifact weapons and blizzard isn't known for letting people make there own stuff in fact they have never done it other then base character making.

[Unholyground]

why would you think this no weapon we could possible make would be on par with the artifact weapons and blizzard isn't known for letting people make there own stuff in fact they have never done it other then base character making.

They said the artifact concept isn't going away, I assume it will be something else unique but very similar in the future.