"Allied Classes" - Suggestion to Diversify Classes like Allied Races

[Jokubas]

One thing that's really cool about Allied Races is that they're really getting to play up the distinct culture of whatever variant they are. While it still seems weird to me to do so much work to unlock what is essentially a few new customization options with something like Lightforged Draenei, I'll admit that it's neat that when you play a mag'har orc, you'll be recognized as such and your class options and racial abilities will revolve around that.

It makes something more glaring to me, however. While some classes, like shaman and druid, have race-specific elements (totems and shapeshift forms), it's one of the only places in the game that such a distinction exists. I'd like to see more of this sort of reflavoring and, if possible, to take it up a further notch. Some of these things have lore now, but most of that has been homogenizing the lore for the sake of the gameplay, and my point is to make that compromise unnecessary. It would be a nightmare to make these legitimately distinct like Allied Races are, but I think they're a good place to start for inspiration.

Possible examples:
Tauren Paladin - Change it so NPCs will refer to your class as sunwalker, not paladin. Reflavor the abilities to feel more like a sun-worshipping tauren and not a light-worshipping human stuck in the wrong body. Instead of golden swords and hammers, perhaps spears and totems, or give them the solar imagery instead of Balance Druids.

Night Elf Druid - I know there has been a lot of retconning about the arcane and the night elves' relationship with it, but I'd at least remove the appearance of arcane abilities from night elf druids. Remove the solar stuff for night elf druids entirely. Reflavor more attacks to be nature rising up against their foe, like roots and beasts, less arcane bolts and sun blasts. Also, perhaps do another pass on their druid forms, since they're extremely boring compared to any of the ones being added anymore despite originally being the iconic example.

Worgen Druid - While their connection with the night elves solves most issues with their brand of druidism being similar, I think you could still make it more distinct. Play up the harvest theme with their abilities. For instance, perhaps their Entangling Roots can have pumpkins on the vines. This one could also potentially be renamed to something like Harvest-Witch.

Every Priest - Potentially rename the class for several races, at the very least. For gnomes, make their abilities look a little more... techy? Like Medic Uther's heals in Heroes of the Storm. Perhaps even have the class be referred to as Medic for them. Troll priests could potentially be renamed Witch Doctors, but it's not a perfect fit.

Every Monk - I know the official lore is that all playable monks learned from the Pandaren, but that's always been unnecessary. Scarlet and Auchenai monks predated our meeting of the Pandaren, and some races had good unarmed animations already like the night elves. I would suggest that at least some races get monk without the jade coloring and pandaren references, even if they still go to the same places.

One of the reasons I want to suggest this, is because as classes get proliferated, it's starting to dilute the lore more and more. When everyone has druids, then what made the night elves special, for instance, is no longer special. At the same time, I get that you don't necessarily want to make an entirely new class for every new culture we stumble upon, but you still want to make those things playable.

I think a solution is to more heavily reflavor classes per race to the point where you even give them distinct names depending on the race, but otherwise keep all the balance the same. This way, druids aren't something that the Alliance knew about all along, despite being surprised by them. Sure, the Kul Tirans or Drust might have something that plays like druid, but it looks different and is called something different. Perhaps Kul Tirans could also get a reflavored mage or shaman to showcase their sea magic. More races can get paladin without them all looking like human knights in shining armor, and more minor differences can be shown without having to make a new class or forget it entirely. Priests used to have racial abilities, and they could do that again if they were just different appearances for the same ability. Sure it's not as distinct, but it's still better than nothing.

[Lochton]

What you mean isn't allied classes but a system to change the name and design of each class pr. race.

[Jokubas]

During Cataclysm, the Shen'dralar highborne rejoined the night elves as an excuse to make night elf mages playable, and the Wildhammer and Dark Iron clans came to Ironforge to explain dwarf shaman, warlocks, and mages. In a post-Allied Race world, we would have just gotten those races instead of had those class options added to the base race.

The analogy I'm trying to make is that, like how you will now be able to just play a Dark Iron dwarf and the game will recognize you as playing a race distinct from the base (Ironforge) dwarf, I want to see class variants (like Sunwalker) be recognized as something distinct from the base class.

They don't align perfectly as I said, since they wouldn't actually be a distinct choice, because making a million minor class variants is a lot bigger deal for the balance of the game than a million race variants, but the main idea of giving a variant its own flavor and name is true of both.

As another example, my idea is that some races (perhaps Undead?) could get Tyrant Velhari's Anti-Paladin. Officially, they would get Paladin as a new class choice, but NPCs would refer to them as Anti-Paladin or Dark Paladin or Shadow Paladin or something, and their abilities would be a different color.

[RobertMugabe]

It's a cool idea, definetly.

[Time Sage]

So basicly text would read "Tauren Sunwalker" and you'd get a couple diffrent spell animatons... Seems like a lot of work for something that may confuse a new player

[AcidicSyn]

Another example would be the Blood Knights. The original belf paladin aesthetic was much more "blood" focused, lots of crimson overpowering gold. Yes bringing back blood knights right NOW would not make sense in the lore; but just offering an example of what (I think) OP is talking about in practice.

If that is indeed what they're talking about then I quite like the idea. Would help explain forsaken priests using holy magic among many other things.

[Kayb]

Scarlet Crusade and Auchenai monks would have been more like priests in terms of intended nature though wouldn't they?

[AcidicSyn]

Scarlet Crusade and Auchenai monks would have been more like priests in terms of intended nature though wouldn't they?

tbh I think they are more or less what Discipline should have been from the get go- a more martially focused priest.

[NiftySwifty]

I too would love more diversity to get classes to be more specific to the races. Even if it was for simple stuff like that. I agree that too much stuff got diluted in Legion. Especially for priests. We went from a group of individuals with all different religions/gods/beliefs to Naaru or Void. A friend of mine was devestated at the human druid reveal and felt that it ruined all night elf druid lore. However I felt that it added to lore and made the night elf druids more unique. I'm all for more diversity in wow and think that it would be far more enjoyable to see differences between classes based on race.

[Florena]

Scarlet Crusade and Auchenai monks would have been more like priests in terms of intended nature though wouldn't they?

SC monks were taught by a guy who learned from a pamdaren. Dungeon journal for new SC explained this.

Auchenai seemed entirely different.

[WurstKaeseSzenario]

When reading the title I was expecting something like a 4th spec or class mixups. Instead it's about lore and animation adjustments.

[Schattenlied]

Night Elf Druid - I know there has been a lot of retconning about the arcane and the night elves' relationship with it, but I'd at least remove the appearance of arcane abilities from night elf druids. Remove the solar stuff for night elf druids entirely. Reflavor more attacks to be nature rising up against their foe, like roots and beasts, less arcane bolts and sun blasts. Also, perhaps do another pass on their druid forms, since they're extremely boring compared to any of the ones being added anymore despite originally being the iconic example.

Removel sdolar stuff from NE druids? Sure... Remove arcane stuff from NE druids? Can't... Night Elves are defined by their connection with Elune, which is where the "arcane" part of Druid's kit comes from... Elune is (so far as we know) a being of Holy and Arcane origin, has been for ages, and I doubt they are gonna retcon that at any point. Elune made owlbeasts, and owlbeasts, which are Balance Druid's shapeshift, use Arcane magic, a lot.

Worgen Druids also should retain their moon/arcane based aesthetic... Since, well... The Scythe of Elune is what is responsible for Worgen existing to begin with, they are connected with her as well, and of course Elune is the moon, and they are Werewolves, so this makes sense...


And on that note, I believe that if Night Elves ever get to be Paladins through the Light of Elune, Worgen should as well, Gilneas already had Paladins before they walled themselves off, it makes sense that some of them may have been afflicted and changed into Worgen... Their story would be simply that due to their affliction they lost their ability to channel light as they knew it, but found it again through Elune after resettling in Teldrassil. Worgen Paladins would have to not start in the Gilneas cataclysm starting zone, but rather in Teldrassil with the Night Elves as they rediscover their connection to the Light with the help of the Night Elf Paladins.

[Deleted]

I think a solution is to more heavily reflavor classes per race to the point where you even give them distinct names depending on the race, but otherwise keep all the balance the same.

These kinds of changes are so tiny that it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if they do them or not. Sure, they could, no problem, tiny bit more fun for some people. But so few would actually enjoy it that it really doesn't matter.
The spells would do the same, just different graphics and text, right? Doesn't matter.
The quests would be the same, just different greetings, right? Doesn't matter.
The game itself would be played exactly the same way, right? Doesn't matter...

I'm not saying it shouldn't happen. I'm saying it really doesn't matter if they do it or not, because the end-result would be that the game is exactly the same as now.

[Dannihilate]

While I fully endorse this, I also have to admit that it would never happen, as it would take away development time that could be spent elsewhere. But it would be cool. Priests had a bit of this distinction back in the day, with each race having two unique racial Priest spells, but that was removed due to balance reasons.

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Priest_racial_abilities

[khazmodan]

My suggestions would be:

Tauren; if the character goes afk, a farmer walks up with a stool and starts milking it.

Worgen druid; makes no sense at all, Worgen is a form that the race has no control over turning into wolfman (or doggirl) when combat starts, so then having a choice to turn into another form is immersion breaking.

Priest; since Anduinn is a priest that cries and has nothing interesting to say, we need a new class name that is not associated with little girlie boys.

[Deleted]

It would be cool to have racially themed class abilities (or atleast visuals and names, icons), especially for Tauren Sunwalkers.
We kinda already have a bit of that in Shaman totems and Druid forms.
But I doubt this could ever happen, just think of the work that would hav to go into this. And at the end of the day, some class/race combos would just look better, even if not intented.

But in the meantime, we can speculate. I'd like Night Elf Warriors to have Sentinel themed abilites, Blood Elf Warrior would have Spellbreaker theme, Night Els Rogues could have Warden theme, Dark Iron Paladin would have fiery flare to their abilities.
And I fear that would be it, for now. And that creates the problem, you can't satisfy every race/class combo

- - - Updated - - -

The spells would do the same, just different graphics and text, right? Doesn't matter.

Let me remind you how popular the warlock green fire, and various other spell appearance glyphs used to be in MoP

[Jokubas]

When reading the title I was expecting something like a 4th spec or class mixups. Instead it's about lore and animation adjustments.

I really seem to suck at naming things sometimes, sorry.

Removel sdolar stuff from NE druids? Sure... Remove arcane stuff from NE druids? Can't... Night Elves are defined by their connection with Elune, which is where the "arcane" part of Druid's kit comes from... Elune is (so far as we know) a being of Holy and Arcane origin, has been for ages, and I doubt they are gonna retcon that at any point. Elune made owlbeasts, and owlbeasts, which are Balance Druid's shapeshift, use Arcane magic, a lot.

I want to preface this by insisting that I know exactly what you mean and I don't exactly disagree, but I want to elaborate on why I was saying that. These abilities bugged me back in the day because of lore that is irrelevant now, but it still bothers me because while Elune is important to all night elves, Elune isn't really a druid thing. She's their goddess, but they're not priests. Starfall was the Priestess of the Moon ultimate ability long before it was a druid ability, and it was even kind of a Priest ability in World of Warcraft as Starshards before racial Priest abilities were removed.

My complaint is that Balance Druids are essentially Priestesses of the Moon with a second set of solar abilities, which is really weird. You'd expect that to be a priest thing, or maybe a thing for night elf hunters, but not a druid thing. It's the same culture, but completely different parts of it. I guess, in some ways, having Balance Druids represent the Priestess of the Moon unit because Priestess of the Moon isn't its own class is kinda what I'm talking about in this thread, but it just feels weird to me.

Also, I like the nature aspect of druid, but I'm not that big of a fan of shapeshifting. I wish the caster spec was about nature-themed spells like summoning vines, carnivorous plants, insect/animal swarms, and hurricanes (some of those still exist, but not as main abilities). I admit this is more of a personal thing, but I think it makes sense.

I'll also admit this ship has probably long since sailed though.

Worgen Druids also should retain their moon/arcane based aesthetic... Since, well... The Scythe of Elune is what is responsible for Worgen existing to begin with, they are connected with her as well, and of course Elune is the moon, and they are Werewolves, so this makes sense...

I didn't expect worgen druids to get completely overhauled because of that, but since they did have their own preexisting druid culture with the whole harvest thing, I just thought that could be used to give a unique character to an ability here and there.

SC monks were taught by a guy who learned from a pamdaren. Dungeon journal for new SC explained this.

Auchenai seemed entirely different.

Yeah, but they predated that. The new lore probably is supposed to override the old lore, but I just want that retconned again. I wanted the Pandaren, and the race-specific theme of the monk class still just gets to me, and I think it's a huge waste. Instead of getting a bunch of new lore about how all these races approached the concept, the existing implications were retconned away and we were left with just one culture. I don't need every race to get their own perspective, but even one or two to start with would be greatly appreciated.

While I fully endorse this, I also have to admit that it would never happen, as it would take away development time that could be spent elsewhere. But it would be cool. Priests had a bit of this distinction back in the day, with each race having two unique racial Priest spells, but that was removed due to balance reasons.

I know it wouldn't be a huge priority, but with Allied Races and Blizzard getting around to things like upright orcs, it inspired me and it feels like the sort of thing they're actually ready to do now. That said, they definitely wouldn't make every race and class combination unique, and I didn't intend that, but maybe we could focus even more on ones that would really make a difference.

Also, I want to reiterate that I don't expect significant changes to any of these. I mostly expected renaming things and recoloring things, with the occasional replacement of an effect, like paladin hammer spells looking like a different weapon.

The main inspiration for this is Tauren Paladins. They represent a unique cultural concept, but since there isn't racial flavoring to classes, they really stand out in a way that they shouldn't. However, even they don't need significant changes. Have NPCs refer to them as Sunwalkers and change a couple of the most standout spell effects and you're in a good place. The gold already works for a solar theme, but some of the more specific things are just plain weird since Sunwalkers are supposed to be their own thing. Allied Races are actually distinct choices in character creation, but I think you can apply the same ideas of visual cultural distinction and recognition from NPCs onto specific class combinations and really get that extra mile out of certain character choices. That sort of flavor can go a long way for some people.

If you don't have a current race/class combination you want to reflavor, though, think about ones that aren't playable. People say Undead can't be paladins because of the Light, but Tyrant Velhari already had a reflavored paladin into Shadow magic. Using that could be a way of giving them the class. I'm a personal fan of adding night elf paladins (especially since such a thing now canonically exists), but tinting all of their abilities silver to represent the Light of Elune.

[Florena]

I really seem to suck at naming things sometimes, sorry.

I want to preface this by insisting that I know exactly what you mean and I don't exactly disagree, but I want to elaborate on why I was saying that. These abilities bugged me back in the day because of lore that is irrelevant now, but it still bothers me because while Elune is important to all night elves, Elune isn't really a druid thing. She's their goddess, but they're not priests. Starfall was the Priestess of the Moon ultimate ability long before it was a druid ability, and it was even kind of a Priest ability in World of Warcraft as Starshards before racial Priest abilities were removed.

My complaint is that Balance Druids are essentially Priestesses of the Moon with a second set of solar abilities, which is really weird. You'd expect that to be a priest thing, or maybe a thing for night elf hunters, but not a druid thing. It's the same culture, but completely different parts of it. I guess, in some ways, having Balance Druids represent the Priestess of the Moon unit because Priestess of the Moon isn't its own class is kinda what I'm talking about in this thread, but it just feels weird to me.

Also, I like the nature aspect of druid, but I'm not that big of a fan of shapeshifting. I wish the caster spec was about nature-themed spells like summoning vines, carnivorous plants, insect/animal swarms, and hurricanes (some of those still exist, but not as main abilities). I admit this is more of a personal thing, but I think it makes sense.

I'll also admit this ship has probably long since sailed though.

I didn't expect worgen druids to get completely overhauled because of that, but since they did have their own preexisting druid culture with the whole harvest thing, I just thought that could be used to give a unique character to an ability here and there.

Yeah, but they predated that. The new lore probably is supposed to override the old lore, but I just want that retconned again. I wanted the Pandaren, and the race-specific theme of the monk class still just gets to me, and I think it's a huge waste. Instead of getting a bunch of new lore about how all these races approached the concept, the existing implications were retconned away and we were left with just one culture. I don't need every race to get their own perspective, but even one or two to start with would be greatly appreciated.

I know it wouldn't be a huge priority, but with Allied Races and Blizzard getting around to things like upright orcs, it inspired me and it feels like the sort of thing they're actually ready to do now. That said, they definitely wouldn't make every race and class combination unique, and I didn't intend that, but maybe we could focus even more on ones that would really make a difference.

Also, I want to reiterate that I don't expect significant changes to any of these. I mostly expected renaming things and recoloring things, with the occasional replacement of an effect, like paladin hammer spells looking like a different weapon.

The main inspiration for this is Tauren Paladins. They represent a unique cultural concept, but since there isn't racial flavoring to classes, they really stand out in a way that they shouldn't. However, even they don't need significant changes. Have NPCs refer to them as Sunwalkers and change a couple of the most standout spell effects and you're in a good place. The gold already works for a solar theme, but some of the more specific things are just plain weird since Sunwalkers are supposed to be their own thing. Allied Races are actually distinct choices in character creation, but I think you can apply the same ideas of visual cultural distinction and recognition from NPCs onto specific class combinations and really get that extra mile out of certain character choices. That sort of flavor can go a long way for some people.

If you don't have a current race/class combination you want to reflavor, though, think about ones that aren't playable. People say Undead can't be paladins because of the Light, but Tyrant Velhari already had a reflavored paladin into Shadow magic. Using that could be a way of giving them the class. I'm a personal fan of adding night elf paladins (especially since such a thing now canonically exists), but tinting all of their abilities silver to represent the Light of Elune.

I think the strong pandaren theme is what makes wow monks stand out and be interseting, watering it down so that they're multi cultueral monks I think would just make the class feel more generic.

[Deleted]

Funny that there actually was a little bit something like that in vanilla/early TBC. Priests used to have unique abilities for each race (undeads had a Devouring Plague extra dot, dwarfs had a fear ward which made them OP and best race for a priest, NEs had Starfall which also was some kind of a damaging ability, Humans had an insta heal with big CD, I dont remember what trolls had). Then when BE paladins were introduced they also had a unique seal, which was only available to them, and alliance paladins had something different.

[PraisCthulhu]

I like the idea to a degree. I don't think they should change spell names or icons, as that just gets confusing, but I like the idea of a Tauren Paladin being called a Sunwalker and a Blood Elf Paladin being called a Blood Knight by NPCs (though not on the class select screen), for example, and having animations that reflect that. We already get unique druid forms and Shaman totems, I think it would be really cool to give other classes some love too.

Priests are another really good example. A Troll "priest" and human priest have basically 0 in common lore wise.

It doesn't even need to be for every class. Some classes, like Warrior and Rogue are super straight forward and will be more or less the same no matter your race, and that isn't a problem. Other classes, like Mage, don't need so much to be done per race as to have a couple different "schools" so to speak. Basically it would be split as those whose races were taught by Elves and those who weren't. Add flavor where it makes sense and homogenize where that makes sense.