Blizzcon New Class Why No Caster?

[Klingers]

I'd say with WoW the biggest issue is that the caster main power fantasy niches are already covered. Monks were an RPG staple that worked to justify/expand Brewmasters into a workable class and Death Knights and Demon Hunters were two very Warcraft-specific power fantasies that just happened to me melee.

We've got our Gul'Dan-style caster in Warlocks, we've got our Khaadgar-style caster in Mages, we've got Priests, we've got Shamans and Druids. Necromancers would work but there's too much thematic crossover with Death Knights at this point. Just about every aspect of the established power cosmology and lore characters are covered in some niche.

About the only untapped angle I can think is some kind of rune-based caster. How you could work that in besides playable vrykul is beyond me.

[Deleted]

I'd say with WoW the biggest issue is that the caster main power fantasy niches are already covered. Monks were an RPG staple that worked to justify/expand Brewmasters into a workable class and Death Knights and Demon Hunters were two very Warcraft-specific power fantasies that just happened to me melee.

We've got our Gul'Dan-style caster in Warlocks, we've got our Khaadgar-style caster in Mages, we've got Priests, we've got Shamans and Druids. Necromancers would work but there's too much thematic crossover with Death Knights at this point. Just about every aspect of the established power cosmology and lore characters are covered in some niche.

About the only untapped angle I can think is some kind of rune-based caster. How you could work that in besides playable vrykul is beyond me.

I agree, however I think the following ideas could fit in.

1. Witch doctor/shadow hunter class (voodoo, shaman doesn't do enough voodoo!)
2. Void ranger-ish (Alleria, maybe combined with above)
3. A chi based range spec for monks (, chi explosion, red crane etc)
4. Tinkerer, but I don't see it happening in 8.0

[Wyrt]

Thinking about it more, I think arcane is the least used magic type since it's just arcane mages that use it. Well, frost/fire use it for like utility stuff, but they're not fighting with it. Would be nice to have another class that use arcane magic in some form since arcane mage is pretty awful to play. Something like Spellblade Aluriel from Nighthold or magi-tech like the draenei, ethereal, and nightborne use would be nice.

Shadow magic is also pretty limited being limited to just shadow priest and affliction warlock. Could seem something happening there too.

Third least would be undeath magic since that's basically just the 3 DK specs. Necromancer is the commonly requested one. Soulbinder could be good too since it'd be a different take on undeath magic than DKs and both factions have those(trolls and draenei).

[Mic_128]

About the only untapped angle I can think is some kind of rune-based caster..

Deathknights use runes.

[TheVaryag]

why...why have we had 3 melees added to the game but not a single caster?

will this Blizzcon finally be the time where they announce a new caster? it's been 13 years since release and no caster was added ever since.
what makes designing a caster so much more challenging than designing a melee? or did a caster simply never fit the lore of an expansion?
do they think that they have exhausted all options for a playable caster in the WoW universe?

what would you like to see if they were to add a new caster?

I want a caster too, but It makes no sense to release another class after releasing a class the expansion before. It usually went like this:

TBC - Races
Wrath - Class
Cataclysm - Races
MoP - Race & Class
WoD - Updated char models, taking a break from the above which Is good.
Legion - Class
Exp. 7 - Probably races

Technically we could get class AND race, but I really hope we don't, unless they drastically change the game up, remove artifact system, remove mythic+ and stop pretending It's high end progression rather then a casual's way to get mythic raider gear for low effort and time. Oh and also give us back the old animations, cause you just gave up another unique advantage of WoW's animations: The fact each race had It's own unique animations that you now removed for the same generic melee and caster movements for each race and class. And the caster animations look like I'm about to go Super Sayen.

[Xeerah]

I would like a blood mage/vampire sort of ranged caster (no mana class)
Specs could be:
Damage/Heal/Tank (yes a caster tank would be sort of something new)
Armor: Mail

For DamageSpecc:
You offer x amount of your life for your damage spells and build up a blood resource (working like rage) and you have a sort of life leech with which you can regen (cooldown based) - one of your damage spells could have a mechanic stacking up a buff on you which empowers the life leech
(Think of something like Vladimir from League of Legends)

For Healspecc:
You use part of your life for healing others with a similar life llech system as described above

For Tankspecc:
Not sure how a caster tank could work (no designer here^^)
Maybe you build up "blood minions" on which incoming damage is split and for spikes/def cooldowns you can sacrifce all minions to reduce incoming damage by X for duration Y based on the amount of minions sacrificed
And the normal skills would be sort of similar to damage specc

Dont know if something like this could work but would be cool