Non-existent. They have enough trouble getting 36 specs right. You want them to add 3-4 more?!?!
Non-existent. They have enough trouble getting 36 specs right. You want them to add 3-4 more?!?!
Please note what I actually asked. I asked what PLAYERS WANT. Not what developers DO. You will also note that new classes have come on the even odd numbered major versions. 3 - DKs, 5 - Monks, 7 - Demon Hunters. 9 - None. They add classes if they can thematically put them. Wrath had Death Knights because of the Scourge. Mists had Monks because of the contact with Pandaria and the prevalence of them in the local culture. Legion had Demon Hunters because of the return of the Burning Legion and Illidan. The only thematic thing with 9 was the addition of more races available to Death Knights.
Er, why?
Rogues getting Glaives of Azzinoth and Warlocks geting Metamorphosis didn't scratch Demon Hunters off the list. These are effects are tied to a weapon. Weapons tend to last for maybe half an expansion, and get replaced pretty quickly by the time the next expansion arrives. These aren't even End Tier Legendary weapons, these are high-end drops for a mid-tier raid, like Druid of the Flame staff from Firelands that lets you turn into a flaming kitty. I loved that staff, but it got replaced way too quickly. Wasn't even useful by the time Deathwing raid arrived.
I mean even if these were incorporated into actual spells in the Hunter, we might have more of a talking point. But seeing how Black Arrow and Metamorphosis were treated, I probably still wouldn't go as far as saying we have playable Dark Rangers.
I do regard this as a much more elegant way to have Hunters be able to RP as a Dark Ranger though. If there's any way to implement Wailing Arrow and Withering Fire into the Hunter class, this is much better than just straight up shoe-horning it into the class where it doesn't really fit. As I see it, with these items it will help sate the demand for playable Dark Rangers for the duration of the expansion. I think Blizzard would have to do more to keep this relevant into the future, like with glyphs or talents to keep them in play.
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Then you should know the answer to that is yes, players do want more classes, and there is no hard or soft cap to that limit.
It's like asking if players want more races in the game, or more abilities, or more anything. Of course the answer will be yes. People are still asking for the Dance Studio and Player Housing to this day. Players have zero accountability to be make 'reasonable' demands, and if we're simply asking if players as a whole want more Classes, then the obvious answer is yes, there are more people who want a class than people who argue things should stay as-is.
The problems with asking for more is always whether it's feasible for Blizzard to manage, not in players actually lacking a demand for it. So in a way, you were asking the wrong question.
At the end of the day, the decision to make new classes isn't going to be based on player demand, but on Blizzard's internal decision to create one or not. There's plenty of demand for new classes, and let's not go into the 'too many specs to balance!' issues since we all know the game will never be balanced, since it was never designed to be. WoW class balance has always shifted power between classes to keep people on their toes, and has never aimed to simply homogenize the format the way a game like Guild Wars 2 does.
Last edited by Triceron; 2021-04-19 at 05:32 PM.
They did wind up borrowing a lot of Kael's aesthetics for the Destruction class. Flame Strike, Banish, Drain Mana... all very Warlockish. But they gave Flame Strike to Mages and Phoenix remains in limbo. Conceptually, it has always fit more into the "Warlock" archetype in that Warlocks are just Mages that explore the taboo, which was what the entire Blood Elf culture was all about at the time.
Lorewalker Cho would be an excellent choice. Brann Bronzebeard would be an acceptable second choice.
Yeah. First, the TRPGs were not created by Blizzard. Second, WoW was not created inspired in the TRPGs.I mean, there wasn't even a TTRPG Bard class, and the TTRPG covered pretty much everything RPG-wise.
That's not a poor example. It's a perfect example because, if "must have an already established lore hero" is a must-have prerequisite, then the runemaster would never even be considered a possible class choice, much less be one of the runner ups, beating "famous" and "popular" concepts that do have "lore heroes" such as the demon hunter and tinker.And that's a poor example, since the Runemaster never became a WoW class.
The people want what they want. No matter how invalid you or I perceive to be an option, no matter how many people agree with that stance... someone out there may, and probably does, want it regardless.
And back in TBC, you could not only get Illidan's famous warglaives, but also his famous blindfold as a leather headpiece.
In other words: hunters getting Sylvanas' quiver means absolutely nothing.
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The answer is: nope. Dark rangers as a playable class are still valid and possible.
I guess they thought "oh it's green, so fel, let's give it to warlocks", when Kaelthas was never really a warlock in the classical sense and just did casual fel-sucking like all Bloodelves at the time. Also while they were corrupted, afaik it wasn't with fel, as it was tainted by whatever Kel'Tuzad left behind in the sunwell.
You are welcome, Metzen. I hope you won't fuck up my underground expansion idea.
I never saw Kael as fitting the Warlock theme though, even if the Warlock's Destruction spec was modelled closely after him.
Kael didn't exactly use Fel Magic himself despite siphoning their power from demons to become a Blood Elf. He was always still considered a Mage archetype. I get that the Warlocks were built around that aesthetic, but it was always a disconnect for me since the whole theme of a Blood Mage is based on the phoenix symbolism, the death and rebirth of their kind. Warlocks are just focused on the death part of that.
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This is how I see it.
Knowing that the Warlock class was still designed by Xelnath at this point, and he was the sole mad genius behind the Warlock's getting _everything cool_ despite it not totally fitting their identity, I can see how the Verdant Spheres ended up getting there.
Warlocks themselves are Mage archetypes. In the playable Warlock's case, they're just Mages with a little demonic spice sprinkled on... which is precisely what Kael'thas and literally all Blood Elf Mages were for awhile. But yeah, again, the playable Warlock's myopic focus on the demonic aspect of their class fantasy does detract from that fantasy, given that they should be exploring powers beyond demons, particularly after the Legion's defeat.
But where are Cho and Bronzebeard's Bardic abilities? Chen had Brewmaster abilities which were brought into the Monk class, where are such abilities for Cho and Brann?
Yet the TTRPG had DKs, DHs, and Brewmasters/Monks....Yeah. First, the TRPGs were not created by Blizzard. Second, WoW was not created inspired in the TRPGs.
If someone says that every WoW expansion class has had a hero attached to it, using a class concept that was never made into a class as a counter example doesn't really work.That's not a poor example. It's a perfect example because, if "must have an already established lore hero" is a must-have prerequisite, then the runemaster would never even be considered a possible class choice, much less be one of the runner ups, beating "famous" and "popular" concepts that do have "lore heroes" such as the demon hunter and tinker.
Their fire magic did not come from demonic sources.
They siphon energy from demons, but back then this was implied that it was simply converted into Mana (as there was no specific Fel/Arcane magic division back then). Demons just happened to be a magical source of energy, like an elemental creature. It's kinda like how the TBC intro showed that Elf turning that mana wyrm into a little pool of mana/arcane energy.
However the fire magic they cast is still purely arcane magic. One thing to note - Blood Elf eyes were not green in Warcraft 3. This was a TBC retcon, and even then it doesn't imply that the magic they use is Fel just because their eyes turned green. All of their racials were still Arcane based, and so are Kael's abilities in TBC.
Looking at the way warlocks started out in vanilla the whole fire theme wasn't particularily strong to begin with. I mean even in TBC when they finally got a fire nuke it was rarely actually used and most people just sacrificed their pet and spammed shadowbolt. Kael was certainly never summoning voidwalkers and imps.
You are welcome, Metzen. I hope you won't fuck up my underground expansion idea.
I totally get that, but to me it'd be like the disconnect between Balance Druid and Priestess of the Moon concepts. The Balance Druid is modelled with POTM elements in mind like use of Moon magic and Starfall, but not enough to use a bunch of owl-based abilities or turning full blown night warrior.
Go look at the {{ currentClassSpecPlayersAreBitchingAbout }} forums and see if your answer really is yes. I see more people wanting to developers to focus on the already too many specs in the game. Sure that complaining comes with every expansion and patch, but ever since Legion it has been A LOT louder.