Tinker Class Concept 2018 (long)

[Teriz]

and if i wanted to play a game with mechs i would buy a game about mechs

You're already playing a game with mechs in it. WoW contains a lot of mechs, some of which you can already use.

[Rhamses]

Mechanic talents look good Teriz. I like how they're not overly flashy like the Assualt or Tank talents. Thanks for taking the time to write this up, it was a fun read, and a standard-maker in terms of how you do a class concept.

Mind if I use it in my signature?

[Teriz]

Mechanic talents look good Teriz. I like how they're not overly flashy like the Assualt or Tank talents. Thanks for taking the time to write this up, it was a fun read, and a standard-maker in terms of how you do a class concept.

Mind if I use it in my signature?

Thanks for the kind words.

Yeah, you can link the thread in your sig. Thanks for all of the support.

[ForrestAnthony]

As to your turret concept; Hmm, that is a pretty interesting idea actually; Essentially a Tinker running around in the back lines maintaining and upgrading turrets, and making that the new physical ranged DPS. I took quite a bit from D.va, but Torbjorn could definitely be used as inspiration as well. My only concern is would that be considered compelling gameplay? Would a player want to be in the backlines maintaining turrets, or zipping around the battlefield fighting inside a highly mobile mech?

Something to think about, but I do like where you're going with that DPS idea.

If my picture didn't already give it away, I've been dwelling on this idea for quite a while. :P But thank you! My rationale behind it is that, just like the obscure play-styles of SV Hunters, Shadow Priests, Disc Priests, Mist/Fistweaving, etc, my take on the DPS Engineer spec would be niche instead of trying to appeal to everybody. It would be gameplay closer to support, but instead of keeping players alive, the Engineer is aiming to keep the turrets functioning.

The way I imagine it is that yes, this spec would act as the next physical ranged dps spec. Like Torbjorn's turrets, the Assault's Turrets would have different states. These would be acquired by different abilities when used while targetting your own turret. Examples of this would be a damage steroid (Like Torb's Molten core), an artillery swap (frost shots for PvP, glue shots for Crowd Control, flak cannons for close range burst AOE, and Missiles that would have a slower fire rate but higher crit chance and splash damage).

Elaborating a bit on my comments about Boss mechanics, from my experiences in Vanilla GW2, it was extremely frustrating placing turrets only for the boss to stomp down or throw a giant rock and just like that, all of your turrets, and as such, your entire source of DPS is destroyed. It's frustrating and penalizes the class's encourages gameplay.

To fix this, (perhaps in the form of talented abilities), Hovering turrets (like in GW2: Heart of Thorns- their answer to that very problem) that follow you could be one option (in exchange for a % of base turret power perhaps). Another option could be a cooldown-based defensive spell that immediately reinforces your turrets so they take 95% less damage for a short period. A good application of this for example would be, say, you're fighting Avatar of Sargeras and he begins casting Rupture Realities. While you run off, you reinforce your turrets to take the hit so they can keep fighting as you retreat.

Amidst all that, this spec of Engineer would always have a hammer ready. Fun fact, when I wrote this concept on the forums a while ago, I imagined the Hammer to be an Artifact weapon called "Mimiron's Left hand". So sort of like how Shadow Priests unleashed all of their dots, then went into a "filler" cycle of mind flay, I imagined this gameplay would function somewhat similarly. The Engineer would clink and clank their turret, upgrade it, reinforce it, level it up, and once it's fully charged and firing non-stop, the engineer then enters their "filler" period (like Mind Flay spam), which would consist of 1 or 2 basic rifle shooting abilities. This would be used during the point in which the turret needs no immediate attention, and there's nothing better for you to do.

From then on, it would be a matter of reapplying turret upgrades, and if the fight permits (like DPS-Race fights) slowly but surely pile up turret after turret until one of two things (or both) happen:

1. You are frantically dashing between turrets, keeping them all up in peak performance, which means there's no more "filler" periods- in doing so, you're topping the DPS charts.

2. Your mad dashes between turrets means that the inevitable turret here or there explodes, overheats, battery dies, w/e, as such, your dps stays fairly balanced in proportion with your ability to multi-manage all of your constructs accordingly.

So in the heat of a fight, when every class is in "the zone" and pulling off their perfect rotations, cycling through their dots perfectly, etc, the Engineer (in this spec) is frantically dashing to keep all of these high-powered high-maintenance machines operating. The more efficiently the player manages to do so, the longer they can keep them all operating, and the greater DPS they're then able to pull off. That's the master plan of the spec as I envision it!

(So Torbjorn and Gazlowe combined and on steroids!)

[Thimagryn]

I got no problem with you guys taking things from Diablo. The entire Druid class idea came from Diablo.

Just be honest about it.

Wait, do you mean WoW's Druid class came from Diablo? Because Warcraft 3 was a thing with its own Druids, y'know. They're pretty different takes on the same archetype, just like Diablo's Witchdoctors are very different than the Troll ones we have in Warcraft. The Trolls don't summon zombie giants, throw jars of spiders or use blowdarts at all.

The Druid archetype existed in RPGs far earlier than Diablo, same as Paladins, which both existed in D2 and as early as Warcraft 2.

[Forsaken Shockadin]

Nice looking concept, always fun to read those. My only queston is why you would restrict this class to just gnomes and goblins while statistically people don't seem to like either races all that much. It worked for demon hunters because people love elves, but not so much for short ugly people. I'd expand this class for the following races:

Alliance: Human, dwarf, gnome, draenei

Horde: Orc, undead, blood elf, goblin

When counting allied races they could also do Nightborne and Lightforged.

Agreed, with your selections for Tinkers I've had it in my head that all races without Druids should get Tinkers and by that yardstick, Pandarans should get Druids.

[Teriz]

Agreed, with your selections for Tinkers I've had it in my head that all races without Druids should get Tinkers and by that yardstick, Pandarans should get Druids.

Eh, I still prefer keeping it Goblin/Gnome only especially if we're going the mech route. Goblins and Gnomes simply make the mech theme more palatable to the masses.

I think if we don't go the mech route, we're going to have some issues with the class overlapping with Hunters.

[Inshadowz]

Tanking on a tinker would be pretty sweet honestly if you think of the possibilities! And I am betting this class would come before anything else honestly, seems more realistic than anything else i've seen so far.

[Stricks]

I feel like everyone and their mothers (and fathers) would be a tinker if you got to ride a mech.

[Teriz]

I feel like everyone and their mothers (and fathers) would be a tinker if you got to ride a mech.

As do I, which is why I think it should be restricted to Goblins and Gnomes.

[Stricks]

As do I, which is why I think it should be restricted to Goblins and Gnomes.

Well that's true and a good point.

[Edlarel]

Agreed, with your selections for Tinkers I've had it in my head that all races without Druids should get Tinkers and by that yardstick, Pandarans should get Druids.

Just dropped in to say this same thing as it occurred to me today. This would be the perfect way to show tech vs. nature races. Also, mentioned in another thread they could give us a transmog tab that lets us choose our druid/tinker forms similar to how we change them with artifacts now.

[Jtree]

Just want to jump in and say that I quite like this; I've been mulling on a mech-driving Tinker class for a while myself, and even had the spec names "Siege" and "Assault" in mind!

I've had a few cosmetic/class lore ideas (that hopefully haven't been suggested already):

The Garage: A faux-order hall for the Tinkers, maybe even one for each faction. Helps establish story for the class, and gives a location to make customizations.

Talent Visualization: Talents that change the mech's functions can also change the appearance. A talent row could offer various attack options (flamethrower, machine gun, melee fist) that visually changes the mech's left arm!

Appearances: Artifact-like alternate appearances for the mech, earned in similar manners but for the Tinker's expansion. You could start with the default gnome and goblin mechs, then earn new frames and recolors relevant to the story of the expansion. Also, a pvp prestige frame: a battle damaged version of the other faction's mech.

[RobertoCarlos]

I like that you made the roles tank/healer/ranged dps. All roles that could be added, NO MORE MELEE PLZ.

Also mail armor is a good shout as it needs another class to make it fair considering how many classes are plate, leather and cloth.

I'd def roll one

[Ashleyxoxo]

[Deleted]

Man, i'm so sad this class isn't in this expansion. I wish i could trade DH's for Tinkers. :x

[Deleted]

Keep fighting the Tinker fight guys. Decade of monthly concept threads of a class that's never going to be implemented is impressive.
And they say furry fetish is strong..

You must not be depressed at all, fun guy.

Just cause you lost your spirit doesn't mean everyone has to do the same. Crawl back ence you came.

[The One Percent]

Engineering already covers this theme. What we need is something completely new, not something based off a profession.

Like.....?

[Rhamses]

Man, i'm so sad this class isn't in this expansion. I wish i could trade DH's for Tinkers. :x

I feel the same way bro. While I have nothing against Demon Hunters, the Tinker feels so fresh and unique that it almost hurts reading the OP. It's crazy to think that you can produce 4 unique specs that don't feel like existing classes, yet still feels that it would fit perfectly within the game. Did you notice that no one in this thread said that "this spec seems just like X class"? You got a lot of that in the Dark/Void ranger class thread a few days ago.

@Teriz did a damn good job on this. I went back and looked at his old Tinker threads, and this one is head and shoulders above his previous work.

[Deleted]

I feel the same way bro. While I have nothing against Demon Hunters, the Tinker feels so fresh and unique that it almost hurts reading the OP. It's crazy to think that you can produce 4 unique specs that don't feel like existing classes, yet still feels that it would fit perfectly within the game. Did you notice that no one in this thread said that "this spec seems just like X class"? You got a lot of that in the Dark/Void ranger class thread a few days ago.

@Teriz did a damn good job on this. I went back and looked at his old Tinker threads, and this one is head and shoulders above his previous work.

Yup. They have alot of potencial for unique gameplay.

The only complaint i see is Engineering. But quite honestly, the current engineering can be folded into blacksmithing like first aid got into tailoring. It isn't a very interesting profession anyways. It would increase the value of blacksmithing aswell.