Originally Posted by
Neverafter
I think some people aren't thinking abstractly enough, or maybe I'm just completely crazy. Here is an example of how a tinker COULD work, at least in my mind.
First, there has to be some seismic change, some reason, some threat so great that Azeroth's best get together and the decision is made that Azeroth needs more Tinkers. I don't know what the next expansion is going to be. But whatever it is, lets say that Mimiron receives a message from somewhere in the Great Beyond. There is a looming threat, and it's heading towards Azeroth. Flesh has no chance of defeating it, but machines, metal and stone, etc, can.
Mimiron reaches out to the Horde and the Alliance to warn them of this threat and to recruit Gazlowe and High Tinker Mekkatorque along with any willing members of the Alliance and Horde. Then there is a short questline, much like the quest chains that unlocked Allied Races. This one would involve Mimiron repurposing Ulduar into a Tinker Training Area, and our characters have to get various supplies, metals, gems, fuels, etc, in order to get the Training Area working. Just as it looks like we are about to have everything in place, X threat attacks. For arguments sake, lets say its a Darkened Naaru. Playable characters can't battle it because it invades their minds and sears their flesh, but Mimiron and a small group of Tinkers are able to defeat this advanced threat (more are on the way). Afterward, you get an achievement and Tinker's are unlocked as a class choice.
On the character creation screen we have all the available races and the icons for the classes. Now there is a cog icon, with a description stating that Tinkers are highly advanced technological battlers who use their mechanical knowledge to fight for them. They can be tanks, melee dps, ranged dps, and heal.
There's nothing linking them (on the surface) to a druid. Just as many players don't realize that Mogu are reskinned Draenei or Saurok reskinned Worgen, Tinkers would share no surface links to a druid.
You would create a character, choose Tinker, gather abilities and mech suits, etc, like any other class. All your abilities will be tech based. All the animations will be tech based. It's not that druids would somehow became technological wizards. There's nothing druid about a tinker, until you realize that the background, nuts and bolts (pun intended) skeleton if you will is the same. A druid swipe would do the same damage as a tinker's Gyro Arm, etc.
This would also work for any number of other class skins. Necromancer, Spellbreaker, Spellblade, etc. It would also help alleviate the need to have every single class have a class skin. Much like how they released Allied Races over time and not all at once, they could do the same here. Necromancer-Warlocks and Spellblade-Paladins are probably the easiest to do so they would probably come first. The animations, ability names, etc needed for Tinkers and others would take more work.