4th specs confirmed through Death Knight fire weapon datamine?

[Kyphael]

That is how I would do it. Gradually adding specs where it fits. A new class can amount to just barely 2 specs as we've seen with demon hunter. Adding a couple here or there whenever we have some major story developments could be an interesting gimmik and ultimately more involving of the playerbase than AR, which either require a race change or rerolling entirely. Since race or class has been the usual expansion feature I could see it happening..

..realistically though, I still very much doubt Blizzard would do it.

Balancing is not as much of an issue as people make it out to be, the reality of the matter is you have content and you want your players to be able to perform to a certain degree, so all you do is tune each spec for a certain target performance. It's a misconception that Blizzard tunes each spec in relation to every other spec, if they did that they'd essentially just endlessly tune classes and then roll a dice for what their content is tuned for. That would be a rather backwards and nonsensical approach (exception is PvP, but there it's down to the base design). That pretty much scales linearily with the amount of options you add, so adding more classes has the same impact as adding a spec here ot there.

Despite that I think Blizzard won't do it, since they are way too caught up in their current design paradigms. They also announced that they would look for ways to make classes feel more like classes again, while my inner cynic tells me that only means we get some unimportant flavor stuff back (though if we get 2h frost back I'd be smiling with the biggest shit eating grin imaginable), I still don't see them going out of their way to change the current systems.

Good point, but Blizzard might surprise us. Besides their usual posturing and then under-delivering due to perceived laziness and/or limited development resources, allied races (sub-races) and how many we've gotten, and their successful implementation was a surprise to everyone, and while fourth specs are clearly more of a challenge to implement, if they have the time and the desire, it's not inconceivable for Blizzard to pull off. After all, when have they actually implemented any new class without issues and bugs. And introducing them gradually instead of all at once gives them the leg room to find tune each one.

[guisadop]

that would be pretty awesome IMO, 3 specs is really not enough for most classes, especially if you care about RPing.

[Guildenstern]

Fire to be the 4th deathknight spec would be such a waste and stupidity when theres clearly a necromancy alternative. Even Blizzard wouldn't botch this.

[Grimbold21]

Since WoW still follows the holy trinity, I don't see this being reality, let alone a major one encompassing all classes.

[Triceron]

Do you even know what the term "confirmed" actually means?

Do you know what the term "clickbait" means?

[Dragtox]

Are they going to put the time in to basically create the same amount of work as 4 new classes across the 12 existing ones adding new mechanics and completely shaking up the gear/balance meta along with ten new levels of skills, balancing and knowing them reworking the 1-120 talents and skills of the 12 existing classes and 36 specs at the same time?

This is Blizzard, what do you think?

they gona reduce max lvl cap to 50-60 its already confirmed so dont use 1-120 as a good argument for future content

[Cosmic Janitor]

Good point, but Blizzard might surprise us. Besides their usual posturing and then under-delivering due to perceived laziness and/or limited development resources, allied races (sub-races) and how many we've gotten, and their successful implementation was a surprise to everyone, and while fourth specs are clearly more of a challenge to implement, if they have the time and the desire, it's not inconceivable for Blizzard to pull off. After all, when have they actually implemented any new class without issues and bugs. And introducing them gradually instead of all at once gives them the leg room to find tune each one.

I know, I could see them doing it based on the fact that they have their 15th anniversary now, they need a really strong expansion after bfa and actually expanding the existing classes would be a really big thing they could advertise to hell and back. Still not seeing it happening though, I mostly dislike how people dismiss the idea for nonsensical reasons

[Rune B]

Anything but confirmed, however it is very interesting, and it would be kinda weird to offer a flaming one just for the hell of it, no? (pun intended)

A fourth DK spec would actually make sense IMO. Either a fire tank spec to help balance out LFG further or a fire dps spec just for flavor, because Bolvar.

The expansion might bring some new races and specs for some classes instead of a new class all together.

[RobertMugabe]

<snip>

Very simple answer to your question: No it hasn't been confirmed /thread

[Renley]

Fire to be the 4th deathknight spec would be such a waste and stupidity when theres clearly a necromancy alternative. Even Blizzard wouldn't botch this.

Scourge Necromancers are Mages though(see Kel'Thuzad), not Death Knights. And most other forms of necromancy in lore is tied closer to Warlocks. In a potentially death themed expansion, you'd probably see it as a spec for one of those two.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Fire to be the 4th deathknight spec would be such a waste and stupidity when theres clearly a necromancy alternative. Even Blizzard wouldn't botch this.

Maybe it's a Nightbane inspired necromancy spec that is themed around spawning flaming/smoldering undeads? If anything, given how petulant Blizzard was with some of the AR, it would perectly fit their modus operadi. Seeing how bolvar's fire is red dragon fire even a healing spec would probably make more sense though. But the amount of nonsense going on with that idea is beyond mortal comprehension ...

[Rune B]

For people who have a lot of characters, 4th specs might also be a good way to get people to use allied races, without having to recycle the leveling game experience.

[Evaddon]

Now that's a stretch if I ever heard one

[shade3891]

Some people are really dumb here. They could not come with enough ideas for 3rd DH spec but you think they will add new spec for every class?

Just not in time to implement a propper 3rd spec. Ideas enough.

[zlygork]

For people who have a lot of characters, 4th specs might also be a good way to get people to use allied races, without having to recycle the leveling game experience.

on the contrary, if they are gonna put work on 9-12 new specs (big freaking if), it would be more logical to make 4-6 new classes instead for allied races to be leveled as.

[Rune B]

on the contrary, if they are gonna put work on 9-12 new specs (big freaking if), it would be more logical to make 4-6 new classes instead for allied races to be leveled as.

I don't think that's even close to being the same workload. Although a lot of it takes balancing, it's still a bigger task to come up with 1 new class than 3 new specs. I don't think 12 new specs is too big a task for an expac. Probably a similar workload to 1-2 classes.

[Gloriandus]

The "skin" idea makes more sense than implementing a 4th spec. They already did this with Artifact Weapons; make a base skin, then unlock different "specs" (colors) via completing specific in-game activities.

[Mamut]

Just not in time to implement a propper 3rd spec. Ideas enough.

They said third spec did not make sense because there was not enough abilities/mechanic that would fill the spec, it wasnt about time.

[zlygork]

I don't think that's even close to being the same workload. Although a lot of it takes balancing, it's still a bigger task to come up with 1 new class than 3 new specs. I don't think 12 new specs is too big a task for an expac. Probably a similar workload to 1-2 classes.

Be that as it may (though I don't know that I agree with the current state of specs as pretty much separate classes), it still would in no way be an incentive to level new characters.

[NoiseTank13]

the name 'Burning Blade of the Ebon Blade' is making me irrationally angry