Glyphs Revisited (Wall O'Text alert)

[shadowmouse]

This started as a continuation of something that struck me as I replied to the current new class thread. It turned out too long and felt like too much of a thread hijack, so I've tossed it up here as a separate idea.

Path of the Titans never made it in, Glyphs have not been expanded much, and I'm an altoholic. A new class appeals to me because it gives me new things to play with, but the current classes cover a whole lot of ground and introducing a new class with three new roles means we spend an expansion ironing things out.

What we have seen, is that a couple of the classes have played around with glyphs to create a different feeling without adding a full on new spec. What if we could add to the glyph system, create more tweaks for our existing characters, and maybe bring back some of the feeling of being able to customize our characters a bit more? We have seen Guardian broken off separately, Warrior has Gladiator by glyph, Warlock had their glyph. That gives us three classes that either have or with a bit of work could have a fourth spec that has already been tried out in existing content.

As an argument to support this idea, consider the problems of balancing PVP vs PVE concerns. A class adjusting glyph could be used to create PVP and PVE specs that are slightly different and don't function outside of their specific environment -- your PVE glyph goes inactive outside of raids and dungeons on a PVP server, your PVP glyph is only active in PVP settings on a PVE server. Probably mildly complicated, but we're seeing things tweaked along similar lines already. I'm not sure tweaking existing classes would be that much more of an issue than introducing a new class with three roles.

Let me shoot myself in the other foot and try to round out this idiocy by trying to fit roles to classes. I don't claim these are marvelous ideas, they're a starting point for an alternate discussion. I'm going to try to fit things in to a setting that draws on Mists and Warlords, with an eye to the next expansion having seas and demons in some form. Where possible, I'm going to try to stick to things that already are (or have been) in the game, just like Gladiator took a common aspect of combat (weapon and shield) and gave it a role outside of tanking.

I'm going to skip Warrior and Warlock, assuming that Gladiator and Demon Hunter could be worked on a bit.

Druid -- a tough one because they have an existing fourth spec. What they don't have, for me, is the feeling they had when one was midway between the current Feral and Guardian roles; however, there are talents that give some of that feeling by letting one perform off spec a bit better for a short while. What if we could have something that isn't a kitty or a bear?

Wrath of the Wild Drawing on lessons learned from the Zandalari, Druids looking for additional power learn to wrap themselves in the form of dinosaurs. General intent would be to create a form that lets us fight more like a bear and less like a kitty, exchanging stealth and dots for a bit more survivability and more direct attacks.

Death Knight -- Also tough because we shouldn't see new Death Knights emerging. On the other hand, there were still Death Knights after the Knights of the Ebon Blade broke free, and there is still a Lich King. What if the surviving Death Knights begin to draw other powers under the influence of that new Lich King, perhaps his power still attracts certain forms of restless dead?

Fallen Champion There must always be a Lich King, and no matter how he might try to withdraw from Azeroth's conflicts, his power continues to attract the spirits of disgraced heroes seeking vengeance or redemption. General intent would be to give a nod to events at the end of WotLK by expanding on the fire powers of the class doing more with Lichbane and perhaps Spellbreaking.

Priest -- Discipline sort of fills the role, but it often falls a bit short on being the "smiting with the Light" counterpart to Shadow. What if our interaction with AU Draenei and their Naaru brings a few of the priesthood a bit further along on the smiting at the cost of some shielding or healing?

Inquisitor of the Light The betrayal at Auchindoon has pushed some of the Light's champions to take a more militant stance to guard against further lapses. General intent would be to give Priests a DPS option other than Shadow, free to smite and call fire from the skies without being a raid healer.

Paladin -- I was stuck on this one, but if events push some Priests towards a more aggressive use of Light, where does that leave Paladins? What if they begin to draw on Shadow, just as Priests already do? This isn't meant to be an Anti Paladin, these are reckless and vengeful warriors who are following a dark path that is present among Priests and even the Naaru to a degree.

Hammer of Darkness Even as the Priests have turned to a more militant use of the Light to fight forces such as the betrayal at Auchindoon, Paladins seeking to expand their power have begun to draw on the power of Shadow. It remains to see if they can wield such power without falling to corruption themselves. General intent would be to give Retribution Paladins a slightly different set of tools and visuals. It was tempting to work off of Protection, but I felt like that was too close to what was done with Gladiator and Warrior.

Shaman -- This one could have gone several ways. I would have liked to do something to see if two handed could be made useful with something like the Burning Blade. Instead, what if we take some of the bard like buffs from Frostfire and use them to give Shaman a bit more tanking ability to mirror the Gladiator glyph?

Defender of the Elements The wars that have raged across Azeroth have put Shaman into active roles in their respective armies. Many Shaman thrust into such situations have found a sturdy shield to have its uses. General intent would be to let Enhancement Shaman use shields to cover off hand weapon requirements, giving up some DPS in return for survivability and ability to hold aggro.

Instead of continuing this wall of text, I'm going to break off here. For Hunter, I'd like to see something that brings back some use for melee weapons, empowering their strikes much like Ret can use Consecration at melee range and possibly calling on an animal spirit like some of the Zandalari did. For Rogue, I'd hope that the navel elements in 6.2 lay the groundwork for more adventures at sea in the future and Swashbucklers -- Rogues that are low on stealth but who use ranged weapons to project some of their abilities as a balance to what I've suggested for melee Hunters.

That leaves Mages and Monks for further speculation if this hasn't already put everyone to sleep. Again, these are potential choices, I don't consider them definitive or polished by any means.

As I tried to think of how to implement these changes, I found myself thinking about a slot for a class altering glyph and perhaps three other glyphs that help define it's abilities. Those could be put on a separate tab, possibly accessed by giving up a major and minor glyph slot. That way, people who don't want to mess with the extra glyphs get a minor offset for not picking them.

[Mafic]

I like this a lot.

This has potential but I don't think Blizz is going in that direction. They are talking about pruning even more which baffles me.

[shadowmouse]

The nice thing about revisiting glyphs would be that it builds on what they've already tried for a couple of classes (Warrior and Warlock). It lets us change the feel of a spec without being a full on fourth spec. That's why I was thinking class glyph plus perhaps three slots to trade spells or alter something mainly cosmetic.