Why are there no new classes in Shadowlands?!

[Penegal]

Why are people mad that there's no new class? You want to open a whole new can of worms by introducing yet another class that is sure to be OP at the start, meanwhile everyone is crying that the game needs a lot of fixing (most of it is true, let's not kid ourselves).

No new class. -> Why?
New class. -> WTF, FIX THE GAME FIRST!

No winning. Let's hope they fix the game, worry about additional classes later on.

[chiddie]

how can you people say with a straight face that blizzard is sucking at balancing?

Because we have 15 years of case stories about this.

[kappalol]

Dont add more classes. Add 4th specs for some.

[Tamurello]

too much dev time = cost

goes against new actiblizzard model, cheaper to just create some confusing new expansion specific systems and roll those out to all classes

[Paperfox]

For those who want more classes: what new classes could be added that aren't just tweaks to current classes?

Example: A Dark Ranger or Shadow Ranger is just a hunter that is all purple-ly with re-colored spells.

I suppose you could have a Bard, I don't see how a support class where you really can't see what impact you have on the fight could be fun.

Really curious....

[Scratches]

after the Expansion of death... we will all embrace the Necromacers with an amzing world revamp

And in order to unlock the class, players will need to complete every step of SL's main story quest line as well as all side quests in the expansion, and raise every expansion reputation to Exalted, too... especially the one they unlock in 9.3.5, which will only give 25 rep per world quest

[sylenna]

Because we have 15 years of case stories about this.

that quote is out of context. this game is full of moving parts with unfathomable consequences when you use x with y while in z.

taking EVERYTHING in consederation, then being transparent about it and offering a chart which class is best against which other class under all the same consequences everytime for everyone, would lead the people to min-max that chart and take the best they can get. all the while every bg, arena and open world would be streamlined to the exact same experience on a holo deck to guarantee the most fun for everyone.

you know that would be a bad idea and the game would be dull.

[FelPlague]

As the title says, why are we not getting a new class. The way expansions worked in the past has been quite consistant.

Vanilla - all original classes and races
BC - New races
Wrath - New class
Cata - New races
MoP - Both new class and race
WoD - nothing due to MoP offering both
Legion - New class
End of Legion, Almost all of BFA - New races.

In keeping with tradition, we should be getting either a new class or both a class and race. I wonder what gives. I did see a youtube video where someone alluded to a new class (necromancer) but I think that is doubtful. Does anyone else think there might or might not be a new race for a specific reason. I personally wanted a new class but I know that an overhaul of the current classes and leveling is more important. Let me know what yall think.

WoD had no new race because it fixed the current races, updating them all
shadowlands is the same, no new class cause they are instead focusing on fixing the current classes.

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too much dev time = cost

goes against new actiblizzard model, cheaper to just create some confusing new expansion specific systems and roll those out to all classes

Too much dev time=too much time. has nothing to do with money, too much dev time means we are waiting till 2021 for shadowlands, and you KNOW players wont wait.

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For those who want more classes: what new classes could be added that aren't just tweaks to current classes?

Example: A Dark Ranger or Shadow Ranger is just a hunter that is all purple-ly with re-colored spells.

I suppose you could have a Bard, I don't see how a support class where you really can't see what impact you have on the fight could be fun.

Really curious....

Tinkerer and bard are the only ones i can think of.
People say necromancer, we have that, unholy, blood, frost, frost, affliction.
People say alchemist, i guess we could, but thats just a tinkerer spec.
and yeah people say dark ranger, but thats just hunter but with purple spells, marksmen was a dark ranger for a fair while, it had shadowbeasts and shadow shots and stuff.

[chiddie]

that quote is out of context. this game is full of moving parts with unfathomable consequences when you use x with y while in z.

taking EVERYTHING in consederation, then being transparent about it and offering a chart which class is best against which other class under all the same consequences everytime for everyone, would lead the people to min-max that chart and take the best they can get. all the while every bg, arena and open world would be streamlined to the exact same experience on a holo deck to guarantee the most fun for everyone.

you know that would be a bad idea and the game would be dull.

Given I don’t give a ... about PvP, PvE side the situation is indeed quite bad anyways. Classes/specs totally forgotten and others that are op is the standard since ages. What’s the point in having tons of classes and specs if only 1/3 of them are effective and fun to play?

I know that balancing is not easy but having a balanced game is also one of the reasons why we accept to pay a monthly fee.

[sylenna]

Given I don’t give a ... about PvP, PvE side the situation is indeed quite bad anyways. Classes/specs totally forgotten and others that are op is the standard since ages. What’s the point in having tons of classes and specs if only 1/3 of them are effective and fun to play?

I know that balancing is not easy but having a balanced game is also one of the reasons why we accept to pay a monthly fee.

sure, every spec should feel playable and not neglected. but most people aren't into bleeding edge raiding and don't have to min-max that much to the extent of more nice specs to be accepted.

what other route could you go? look at D3. one spec / class set was weak and they buffed it by 500-14.000%, depends on which aspect they aimed for. after that they buffed everyone a bit and some left out were buffed again to bring them in line. the power inflation is so high that nobody i happy about a big crit anymore.

[Shakana]

I know we should have had new class by the thematic of "xpac-class, xpac-no class, xpac-class, xpac-no class" but i think it's not truly necessary following that.

I wouldn't mind a new class as i wouldn't mind not having one.

Almost sure they are just focusing on other things, as it's not their priority right now. I think it's just something they don't want to focus on right now.

They are also focusing on bring new looks to old races, etc, doing a change on talents and skills, gameplay, and whatnot.

Maybe when they are done with that, they might decide giving a new class, or still, no new class.

Also they gave a "new class", death knights, to all races. Since the theme of the expansion is about death. We already have a class for that, so i quite understand the "easier way", and to not make another class that contains many spells similar to death knight itself. A necromancer for example, would mean, it would take much of death knight, even tho necromancer would be a caster. Just like demonhunters to exist had to steal meta from warlocks.

[tankbug]

Why are people mad that there's no new class? You want to open a whole new can of worms by introducing yet another class that is sure to be OP at the start, meanwhile everyone is crying that the game needs a lot of fixing (most of it is true, let's not kid ourselves).

No new class. -> Why?
New class. -> WTF, FIX THE GAME FIRST!

No winning. Let's hope they fix the game, worry about additional classes later on.

And what needs fixing before a new class should be introduced?

[Maljinwo]

For those who want more classes: what new classes could be added that aren't just tweaks to current classes?

Shadow Hunter
Tinker

[Shakana]

And what needs fixing before a new class should be introduced?

Honestly? Everything needs fixing. But i don't trust blizzard's way of "fixing" things. Unfortunately. I don't think they can ever balance anything, and it's one of the reasons why i usually don't want new classes in the first place. Demonhunters were fine, but because they have not much abilities and it's smashing pc dps, if they had more abilities to press, they would probably be bad at this point. And thank god, we only have 1 dps spec in dh, otherwise it would be too much to ask.

[chiddie]

sure, every spec should feel playable and not neglected. but most people aren't into bleeding edge raiding and don't have to min-max that much to the extent of more nice specs to be accepted.

what other route could you go? look at D3. one spec / class set was weak and they buffed it by 500-14.000%, depends on which aspect they aimed for. after that they buffed everyone a bit and some left out were buffed again to bring them in line. the power inflation is so high that nobody i happy about a big crit anymore.

If the difference between min and max would be under 5%, nobody would care apart from the top 100 guilds in the world.

[Shakana]

Shadow Hunter
Tinker

Tinker won't probably ever exist. They made this theme around mechagnomes and they gave us mechagnomes already.
And again, shadow hunter would probably take much of a hunter as well as necromancer would take from death knight.
At best option would be adding a 4spec to hunter. Atm, i don't think any of the two are in the works.

[MrLachyG]

Something I belive is that they wanted to make a ---------- NECROMANCER ---------- for shadowlands since it also fits very well, since its the land of the dead.

Necromancers would just be a combo of Warlock and DK. No point to them

[Penegal]

And what needs fixing before a new class should be introduced?

The entire direction of the game needs to have some changes at this point. The RNG introduced in gear, the borderline useless professions (JC, for example) need to be fixed, The forced reliance on factors outside of our control. Being limited in your progress needs to change in some way.

The way they are currently handling the game loop is not the most fun and it has its problems. It's annoying I have to rely on RNG to get lucky with a 1/6 chance of getting the Azerite piece I want if it's from a dungeon. Either that or having farm 8-10 weeks to get a specific item. Sockets being RNG is one of the most bullshit things they've come up as well. Gearing has become a roulette to a certain extent. At least the endless grind might be going away, so there's that.

[Vilendor]

I'm all for removing classes.

It's a f**ing joke that over 15 years they only added new melee classes and specs meanwhile they have 2-4 spots in a raid thanks to their horrible boss designs. Deathknight, Monk, Demonhunter, Survival hunter. Remove or remake them into ranged classes then we can talk about more.

[Maljinwo]

Tinker won't probably ever exist. They made this theme around mechagnomes and they gave us mechagnomes already.
And again, shadow hunter would probably take much of a hunter as well as necromancer would take from death knight.
At best option would be adding a 4spec to hunter. Atm, i don't think any of the two are in the works.

Shadow Hunters mainly use glaives. If they were to take stuff from another class, it'd probably be Shaman, not Hunter