4th spec and New models instead of new class and new race?

[velde046]

Even though the idea may sound good, I'm afraid of the all the balancing it involves. It could take ages to rebalance the classes to acceptable variations....
ONe new class is much much easier really. If there needs to be tuning you only have to do it on one class's talents.

[Deleted]

The new models make alot of sense to me, Blizz just has to finish them in time, and I think they'll look really good if Blizz puts all their focus on the models instead of another new class/race etc.

The 4th specs are a definate no though..

[Absintheminded]

Fourth spec for Druids only happened because there were two legitimate specs already within Feral that could not be shunted into a different spec so they added a fourth.

That's good and all, but where's my DK's 6 specs?

[Glaziola]

Very nice ideas Teriz I'd love to see them reach the live servers!

[Imnick]

Adding fourth specs would be more work than one additional class (three specs)

[Deleted]

I would HATE this idea.

[Absintheminded]

Adding fourth specs would be more work than one additional class (three specs)

Common myth, and not necessarily so. You're talking about full design of a class from mostly scratch, dozens of abilities, interactions, mechanics. I'm not saying for sure which is more work, don't just assume because 4th spec is a higher number than 3 specs for a new class.

[Deleted]

I agree that it's unlikely to happen due to balancing issues.
But some nice idea's that i've seen/thought about include:
Battle mages - Melee mages, who shift into an 'ethereal' form, and use arcane/spectral abilties, kind of like wizards in D3 with spectral blades.
Tinker rogues - Mainly focuses on traps, explosives etc. A very DoT based melee class, which hasn't really been done yet.
Demon hunter could either be a warlock or a hunters 4th specc, ideas have already been discussed in this thread.
DK - either a ranged specc, like runecaster/necromancer or a 2nd tanking specc (priests have 2 healing speccs so why not)
Priest - a holy dps specc or a specc with similar abilities to old gods, their resource could be insanity, they build it up with dark spells and consume it with holy spells, but they should never let it reach 100% or they would get a 10 sec debuff or something to stop them attacking/reduced dmg.

For other speccs i can't really think of much. A paladin ranged specc would be okay, but it's nothing fancy.

[Deleted]

I'm torn on this. First let me just make my position clear, I'd LOVE for this to happen, it would probably be IMO the best 2 features to get me hyped for an expansion.

Putting a 4th spec for each class makes sense for quite a few reasons, first of all you are giving everybody (potentially) the chance to rediscover their classes and try something new without rerolling, secondly, many of the hero class ideas that have been brought up before, such as dark ranger and demon hunter ect. can be pretty much covered by adding new specs to existing classes, it would be a great feature that would really mix the game up.

But I don't think it will happen, not because it isn't a good idea, but because of the ammount of work required and the balancing issues it would bring to the table, I can imagine this being an absolute nightmare to balance especially in PvP, I'm confident blizzard has learned how to balance things alot better since the release of DK's, monks aren't nearly as overpowered as DK's were, but I still feel like adding a 4th spec to each class would be expecting too much in one expansion.

Just my 2 pence, but here's hoping I'm wrong and we do see it.

[Imnick]

Common myth, and not necessarily so. You're talking about full design of a class from mostly scratch, dozens of abilities, interactions, mechanics. I'm not saying for sure which is more work, don't just assume because 4th spec is a higher number than 3 specs for a new class.

Unless you're making the most boring specs in the game, you will also need to make dozens of abilities and mechanics for 10 new specs.
Compare a Destruction and Affliction Warlock's toolkits, there is very little overlap.

[Absintheminded]

Unless you're making the most boring specs in the game, you will also need to make dozens of abilities and mechanics for 10 new specs.
Compare a Destruction and Affliction Warlock's toolkits, there is very little overlap.

First off, I was playing a pretty objective devil's advocate, so no need to overcompensate your opinion by making the other side of the coin sound so obviously wrong.

Secondly, not every class has an affliction or destruction spec. Baseline abilities and baseline mechanics are no less work than specialization abilities and specialization mechanics. Put those two together and comparing one new class to a 4th spec for each and the amount of work could not possibly be that far off from each other.

Anyways, I didn't come here to argue a point I have no real opinion on. Neither one of them are necessary honestly.

[Imnick]

I was comparing two DPS specs of a pure DPS class, there's going to be more overlap there than anywhere else.
The proposal is generally adding roles to classes that they previously could not fill at all! Almost nothing in a Mage's current spellbook would prepare it for being a healer, every single ability of that spec would have to be new.
Nothing in a Warlock's spellbook prepares it for being a melee DPS, though I suppose the DOT elements could carry over!

[Absintheminded]

It could be done man, just take chloromancer fromrift where you're healing is done mainly via damage

[Imnick]

Blizzard have already tried that with Discipline and Monks, and it seems pretty clear that after making an attempt they've decided they can't have a class that heals purely through damage and that there needs to be more traditional healing spells too.
Every healer class in the game has their own specialised mechanic entirely unconnected to DPS.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

It would be a separate tanking spec. Enhance, Restoration, and Elemental would be untouched.

It would also end those nauseating 2H/Tanking Shaman threads once and for all.

---------- Post added 2013-01-27 at 06:08 AM ----------



Really? I applied a healing spec for Mages and a tanking spec for Rogues in the OP. Those are hardly a rehash of old DPS roles.

I want you to think about how the arcane can heal. Or how stealth can take large amounts of attention and aggro.

You probably think Blizz doesn't care about lore, but they do.

---------- Post added 2013-01-27 at 09:16 AM ----------

Blizzard have already tried that with Discipline and Monks, and it seems pretty clear that after making an attempt they've decided they can't have a class that heals purely through damage and that there needs to be more traditional healing spells too.
Every healer class in the game has their own specialised mechanic entirely unconnected to DPS.

Healing linked to dps is hard to balance. If the dps is too good, everyone will require Mistweaver for the dps. If it's bad, then the healing doesn't match up.

[killidan]

I just want worty content = DIFFICULT HEROICS AND 25-MAN RAIDS

Sick of faceroll dungeons, LFR and crappy raids with faceroll options that give same loot with -n ilevel

[Justignoreme]

I like the idea of fourth specs, but I dislike most of the ones you proposed.

[Deleted]

Rather than adding yet more specs to be balanced, resulting in a huge waste of development time and resources, would not it be better to focus on adding definition and identity to existing specs? Rogues and Mages are in sore need of focus to delineate their specs from each other, Marksmanship is as well.

Seriously, you are the biggest wet blanket I have ever seen.

"We have one specc in one class doing something similar, CANT HAVE THAT ANYWHERE ELSE"

If thats the case, Prot Paladins should be scrapped, we already have a shield tank.

Holy Priests should be scrapped, we already have a holy healer.

Affliction should be scrapped, we already have shadow priests.

[Sliske]

I think they should do this.

At the end of the day if they can't balance 9 classes with 3 specs each they won't balance 11 classes with 4 specs each.

Make the game about variety and fun, not chess styled around what counters what

[notorious98]

Healing linked to dps is hard to balance. If the dps is too good, everyone will require Mistweaver for the dps. If it's bad, then the healing doesn't match up.

That's not true at all. Support specs exist in other games and could exist in this game as well. If your dps is "too good", it just means your healing output is also good. Then they can start tuning raid encounters around needing support classes, just like Rift does.