Discussion: What IF no new classes were ever added, but specs instead?

[Rhamses]

Riding in a vehicle =/= Shapeshifting into an animal.

Yeah, don't know why people think vehicle abilities would be remotely similar to animal-based abilities. What a bunch of ludicrous nonsense.

Rhamses was right; Waste of time.

Told you.

[Enrif]

1) This post get more and more convoluted as it goes from DK to Monk.
2) This is an example of sliding concept.

I perfectly under your DK part, in which existing class (Paladin / Warrior / Shaman) go f'ed up by Arthas and turns into each spec of DK, instead of random nobody that happens to start at level 58.

But this makes no sense to forcefully go forth to Monk. it gets convoluted right here. Druid, hunter whatever for no reason can "evolve / advance" into brew master, windwalker or mistweaver? It makes no sense.

yeah, the idea started with the DK, since i main one. So i tried to add in the other extra classes, and Monk was the odd ball...

[Pua]

A better alternative would probably be to give players complete freedom, you create a character and you can specialize it towards whatever you want, whether that's towards a mage, warlock, or some hybrid in-between would be up to you.

They'd need a new IP in order to do that.

People's view of the class system in World of Warcraft is now so heavily entrenched that such a radical diversion would see an extraordinary backlash from the community.

[Kuja]

Creating 3 new specs and a new class sounds easier than creating 1 new spec to every class, especially if they do that everytime they are planning new classes.

[Cassidin]

Slightly related (but not totally)...... I liked what "Runes of Magic" did. The game was a blatant wow ripoff - but it did have some cool ideas in my view. Each character had a main and a secondary class. So for example you could have a main class of Druid and a secondard class of Rogue (both were very different to the wow classes of the same names btw). When you were leveling your druid class - 1 (or was it 2) of your rogue abilities were also available to you. When you were levelling your rogue class, one or two of your druid abilities were available. Each class had to be levelled separately - so you would level a couple of levels - change primary spec and then level the other class a couple of levels.

It sounds kinda complex but it provided a lot of flexability. Druid/Rogues, Priest/Warriors etc etc. I would personally love to see something like that in wow.

[Darktbs]

Yeah, don't know why people think vehicle abilities would be remotely similar to animal-based abilities. What a bunch of ludicrous nonsense.

Its called using the same mechanic, the same idea.

I would advice that you learn the difference between the thematic part and the Mechanic part.

But considering your's and Kiradyn last posts.
Its unlikely to happen as is your Tinkers.

Pretty low.

[Polarthief]

Title: I mean, maybe once every class had 4 specs, I'd want them to go back to classes.
The suggested specs: What? No. Just... no!

[Cyero]

hey everyone,

so after reading a fourth spec thread i got a random thought. What if blizzard instead of adding new classes had added those classes specs as additional specs to the original classes? How would the game be different?

Let's start with the first new class the death knight.

If we remember the old reveal cinematic we saw a paladin becoming a death knight, and back then many people believed they had to level a paladin, or sacrifice a max level character among other ideas. But instead it was just a new class.

Now instead of a new class we pick 3 classes who will get the DKs specs instead and making them kind of to a death knight (think of it similar to hearthstones DK heroes)

so the first would be the paladin from the reveal cinematic who will get the unholy spec.
the second that i think would be a fit is the warrior, especially looking back at their T3 Armor. They would get blood.
For Frost i think of the shaman actually. Although in WotLK the Horde already got Paladins and the Alliance shamans, they are still kind of the face of their original faction.

Now, if we remember all back, all 3 DK Specs had the ability to tank OR dps. This would give the Paladin and the Warrior a second tank option and the shaman it's first tank option.

Ofcourse we now know that DKs can't tank in frost or unholy anymore, how would that go for those classes who just got the specs?

I think Frost would be kept around as a tank spec for shamans.

Blood for warriors could go either way, but since they already got a two handed dps spec in arms and they are kind of THE tank class from back in the days of vanilla i would think having two different tank styles for them would be great! Also, blood is a great tank spec these days.

For the Paladin and unholy, i think it would go the way of the dps spec, maybe even going to a more ranged play style then current unholy DKs. With this the Paladin would have a ranged dps, a melee dps a tank and a heal spec, like it's counterpart the shaman.




The next class is the Monk.
Instead of a Standalone class teached by the Pandaren, they instead train 3 classes the way of the Pandaren.

I struggle a bit for fitting all 3 specs onto the existing classes, especially with the DH in mind later on. but focusing on the monk right now.

The first spec, Windwalker, i would hand over to the priest. Since Vanilla there were NPCs who were technically priests, but yet also monks. and i think it blends thematically.
The second Spec, Mistweaver i would give to the Hunter. It could theoretically play on the spiritbond to their animal companion and with this a connection to the august celestials to grant healing powers.
The third spec, Brewmaster, is the deal breaker here, as there is not really a fitting class to get it in my opinion, but i think it should go to the Druid. AND the druid does not get the Guardian spec it currently has, but blends guardian and Brewmaster to a new spec, where we get instead of a full bear a kind of werebear (mage tower skin!) transformation, that mimics pandaren brewmasters

So, with this we would have melee priests, healer hunters and drunken bear druids.


For the last Class that was added,the demon hunter, it only got 2 specs, but there are hints that there were plans for a third.

but to the distribution.
The first one is clear

Vengeance goes to the Warlock, as a Melee Tank. With its Demonology and Metamorphosis background it makes sense. THey would still get the demonology overhaul from Legion and unbinding Metamorphosis from Demonology.
Havoc would go to Rogues, not much to say here.
Now for the thirds Spec, there are hints at a third Spec in one of the NPCs who does not uses Warblades but a polearms and seems more magic focus,just lets call that spec CHAOS that spec would go to the mage.



NOW
with all that sorted, do you think the game would be more interesting that way? Maybe more balanced? Or would it be worse then what it is now?




tl:dr

what if..
Warrior - Blood(DK)
Paladin - Unholy(DK)
Shaman - Frost(DK)
Hunter - Mistweaver(Monk)
Druid - Bearmaster(Monk)
Rogue - Havoc(DH)
Warlock - Vengeance(DH)
Mage - Chaos(DH)
Priest - Windwalker(Monk)

But no actual DK,DH or Monk classes

Yikes, I hope that doesn't happen or else my Tinker class dream might never become a reality

[ddengster]

Wasn't catering to casuals and grandmas part of Blizzard's philosophy? Where does having more specs help in that? If anything, it'll make things more complex.

Edit: Should point out it's more appealing from a marketing standpoint to have a new class.