Spellblade Class?

[Directionalk9]

Demon Hunter mirror class...nuff said.... we need mirror classes.

[Teriz]

Enhancement Shaman cover this. They even utilize fire and frost spells, which is 2/3 of the Mage’s specs.

[Traycor]

Wow will never implement a spellsword sadly

Why do you think something like this will never be implemented? The same could be said for any class suggestion.

[gioderpington]

Knight enchanters from Dragon Age Inquisition were fantastic and I have always adored magic warriors.
I don't think balance and uniqueness would be an issue in any form unless they introduce a necro tank like from diablo
The issue is they have to add at least one ranged class before they introduce ANOTHER melee class. They might be able to get away with it if they give it a melee dps, ranged dps (think mesmer from guild wars), and tank spec.
Another option, as people have mentioned above, is add a 4th spec to mages. If DH's can have 2 and druids can have 4, then there theoretically is no reason why mages, one the most diversely displayed classes in the game cannot have a 4th spec. Key example being battle mages from dalaran fighting alongside frost, arcane, and fire mages

[Elkfingers]

What if a Spellblade was both melee and ranged at the same time? Or what if there was a spec that was primarily ranged?

I guess the problem with that from a design perspective, is that in a raid environment specifically, having to constantly resposition in order to do optimal damage is something which inherently adds a lot of compexity. Personally I'd enjoy that if the risk were worth the reward, but Blizzard doesn't really like high skillcap rotations which is in large part why they removed double ice lance (which functioned in essentially in the same way as moving in and out of melee would).

[Cosmic Janitor]

Would have been awsome during legion, but now the ship has kinda sailed. I don't think there is any reasonable way to introduce such a class this expansion (especially for both factions) anymore. As a 4th mage spec though, along with a couple (not every class has strong contenders) of other 4th specs it could work though, but I very much doubt the current Blizzard would do anything like that, let alone pull it off successfully.

[Trumpcat]

This is something I've been raving about for years (a couple of times on this forum).

Give me an Arcane melee who can dps and tank.

But I doubt there will even be a new class in the next expansion. The current classes are so dull that I hope they can muster the developer power to at least funify the braindead current specs.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I guess the problem with that from a design perspective, is that in a raid environment specifically, having to constantly resposition in order to do optimal damage is something which inherently adds a lot of compexity. Personally I'd enjoy that if the risk were worth the reward, but Blizzard doesn't really like high skillcap rotations which is in large part why they removed double ice lance (which functioned in essentially in the same way as moving in and out of melee would).

I'm not sure turning them into a FFXIV red mage would be ideal niche for such a class, the attempt or mixing melee-ranged in a single spec already failed with survival if you ask me. Imho it should focus on one aspect, in this case the melee range application of magic and weaponry.

Spellblade as a melee spec isn't that hard to realize. Part of the concept is buffing your defenses and mobility via magic in the first place. Getting to leather, mail or even plate level of armor class is nothing worth mentioning. I think the niche of attacks is more in combo and areal close quarter magic application and some minion/construct gameplay. There is the danger of overlapping with enhancment shamans a bit, but I would put a spell blade more into the 1h weapon + (caster) shield category, rather than dualwielding like enhancement (btw fuck shamans hogging the lightning element alone).

[Ealyssa]

LMAO what?

Current progress race composition :

[Cosmic Janitor]

Current progress race composition :
https://i.imgur.com/HpMoK4g.png

That is one class and all of them are probably still demonology, because that spec is still broken and Blizzard refuses to fix it for some reason.

As someone who plays both melee and ranged I can say that usually melee have it way easier in raid fights, since alot of abilities are exclusively affecting ranged classes. In m+ the only affix that fucks with melee is the quaking one while others either force ranged into melee or require straight up more movment from them. Even then quaking affects ranged just as much, especially in tighter dungeons. There are some outliers in some raid encounters that make melee classes less desireable or put a cap on them due to spatial restrictions, but pretending that range are at an overhwhelming advantage is just nonsense.

[Ealyssa]

probably still demonology, because that spec is still broken.

Not sure if trolling or just clueless ???

[Cosmic Janitor]

Not sure if trolling or just clueless ???

Did they make another one OP while I wasn't looking? Could be, still that is only 1 class. I don't see them drowning in mages, moonkins, shadow priests (weirdly.. is this an old one?) or hunter specs.

[Elkfingers]

I'm not sure turning them into a FFXIV red mage would be ideal niche for such a class, the attempt or mixing melee-ranged in a single spec already failed with survival if you ask me. Imho it should focus on one aspect, in this case the melee range application of magic and weaponry.

Spellblade as a melee spec isn't that hard to realize. Part of the concept is buffing your defenses and mobility via magic in the first place. Getting to leather, mail or even plate level of armor class is nothing worth mentioning. I think the niche of attacks is more in combo and areal close quarter magic application and some minion/construct gameplay. There is the danger of overlapping with enhancment shamans a bit, but I would put a spell blade more into the 1h weapon + (caster) shield category, rather than dualwielding like enhancement (btw fuck shamans hogging the lightning element alone).

Yeah so I wrote that in response to a question; not advocating for a melee/ranged hybrid or saying that you wouldn't be able to have a melee spellblade (tbh not being melee at all would be ridiculous). I think the next class to be added really needs to be purely ranged though, which isn't really compatible with the whole spellblade thing anyway.

I was just pointing out that even though I personally would enjoy the challenge of dancing in and out of range in a purely hypothetical case, or at least I did with Frost Mage in NH, it's not in any way easy or practical which is why Blizz would never do it.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Yeah so I wrote that in response to a question; not advocating for a melee/ranged hybrid or saying that you wouldn't be able to have a melee spellblade (tbh not being melee at all would be ridiculous). I think the next class to be added really needs to be purely ranged though, which isn't really compatible with the whole spellblade thing anyway.

I was just pointing out that even though I personally would enjoy the challenge of dancing in and out of range in a purely hypothetical case, or at least I did with Frost Mage in NH, it's not in any way easy or practical which is why Blizz would never do it.

Yeah I can see that. While I agree that the game really needs more ranged specs (we seriously have less than when the damn game launched 14+ years ago ..), I still don't think Blizzard really cares about that at all. Melee classes are vastly more popular because they are just more mobile and can adapt more easily to the encounter design that Blizzard throws at us (which is just putting more random rainbow colored zones under our feed the higher the difficulty). Besides the obvious advantages of the wide range (dot) cleave classes, melee also tend to have rather strong AoE, at least the last 3 entries to the class roster certainly don't lack it and staples like warrior were always top notch in that regard.

[UnluckyAmateur]

Good idea but it steps on too many other classes' toes.

[Sorrior]

Play ffxiv

Roll red mage

Wow will never implement a spellsword sadly

RDM really isn’t what he is describing either.

I personally find enh to be the closest or was back in vanilla to pandaria but they have merged and changed it so much it is much less so in my mind.

Personally I would love it myself. More games need to embrace true spellblades/battlemages imo

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Knight enchanters from Dragon Age Inquisition were fantastic and I have always adored magic warriors.
I don't think balance and uniqueness would be an issue in any form unless they introduce a necro tank like from diablo
The issue is they have to add at least one ranged class before they introduce ANOTHER melee class. They might be able to get away with it if they give it a melee dps, ranged dps (think mesmer from guild wars), and tank spec.
Another option, as people have mentioned above, is add a 4th spec to mages. If DH's can have 2 and druids can have 4, then there theoretically is no reason why mages, one the most diversely displayed classes in the game cannot have a 4th spec. Key example being battle mages from dalaran fighting alongside frost, arcane, and fire mages

Or swapping arcane to be it(see arcane warriors from da)

Another option is to give 3 flavors of battlemage

A two handed bruiser using fire ice and arcane as he imbues his weapon with the elements and hurls fireballs and shards of ice.

A ranged spec that wears heavy armor and attacks at range with spells but can step into melee(see ffxiv rdm)

A tank that imbues there armor with stronger defenses and counter attacks with magic or whose defensive spells react like say a fire shield that burns foes who strike it or an ice one that slows there attacks.

Three styles three classic variants that don’t step on any other classes toes

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Would have been awsome during legion, but now the ship has kinda sailed. I don't think there is any reasonable way to introduce such a class this expansion (especially for both factions) anymore. As a 4th mage spec though, along with a couple (not every class has strong contenders) of other 4th specs it could work though, but I very much doubt the current Blizzard would do anything like that, let alone pull it off successfully.

Enh STILL needs a fourth earth spec

- - - Updated - - -

I'm not sure turning them into a FFXIV red mage would be ideal niche for such a class, the attempt or mixing melee-ranged in a single spec already failed with survival if you ask me. Imho it should focus on one aspect, in this case the melee range application of magic and weaponry.

Spellblade as a melee spec isn't that hard to realize. Part of the concept is buffing your defenses and mobility via magic in the first place. Getting to leather, mail or even plate level of armor class is nothing worth mentioning. I think the niche of attacks is more in combo and areal close quarter magic application and some minion/construct gameplay. There is the danger of overlapping with enhancment shamans a bit, but I would put a spell blade more into the 1h weapon + (caster) shield category, rather than dualwielding like enhancement (btw fuck shamans hogging the lightning element alone).

2h weapons for a dps spec too

[mickybrighteyes]

I understand that point of view, but DK(anti paladins), Enh Shamans, and Paladins are all basically priest/fighter archtypes. They might be casters, but they aren't at all the classic Spellblade gish, and they don't feel like a wizard at all.

DH somewhat matches, but it's very strongly focused as a demonic class, complete with demon wings, gouged out eyes, and demonic transformation. None of that fits the classic Spellblade. There's lots of room to make something totally different.

I think that's more a thing of class fantasy... than mechanically discussing how they'd work.

I mean between the 5 speccs that are magically enhanced melee, how would you make a new unique one that also stands apart from the existing 30+ builds also ingame?

[Xeenith]

There are three "flavours" of the archetype already: DH, Enh shammy and Ret pallies. However, none of them has the "arcane" theme of battlemages proper, to me that's akin the Spellbreaker unit from WC3:TFT, the Enchant sorceress from D2, or even Spellblade Aluriel from NH. I know I'd play the !@#$ out of one of those...

I want a pyromaniac spellblade swinging around a massive flamming sword like a maniac and laughing like a psycho !!

[Chromell]

Demon Hunter mirror class...nuff said.... we need mirror classes.

By mirror classes you mean same spec types? Like DK and Warrior? (Tank/DPS/DPS - Tank/DPS/DPS)?

[dunkl]

I love the spell blades in Suramar, I think they are called spell blades, might be called another name, I forget.

As a playable spellblade, this will allow artists/designers to craft new and refreshing animations and stances we're not conditioned to. A nightborne's melee animations should have flare akin to fencing maneuvers and their refined spell casting animations could move elegantly, inspired by olden day French dance and etiquette.

Overall I think the models are really well done and do a good job at including what we fell in love with, and should posses these qualities; slit eyes, proud posture, regal stance, noble, charismatic, a little snooty, slightly gaunt but healthy, passionate. And some long, curly white hairstyle options! I love the French inspiration for the Nightborn. It would be awesome to have some long curly hairstyles similar to how French hair styles were in the 16th-17th centuries. Not as condensed as wigs. Just some twirls here and there for the gentlemen, and on the sides of the face or trailing down the back. Done up in a curly bunch for ladies.