4th Specialization

[Schizoide]

It was actually one developer who championed warlocks in MoP, and there's a pretty interesting backstory behind what happened with them, how the class was revitalized, and then the dev was eventually fired when he grew bitter and aired Blizzard's dirty laundry in public. He wrote about the MoP warlock dev process on his blog. Great read, strongly recommend.

http://xelnath.com/2018/05/15/the-mo...ew-you-missed/

[Itori]

I think they should just eliminate specs and give classes their abilities, and assign them roles as the class is

Warrior - tank
Paladin - tank
Death knight - tank
Mage - dps
Hunter - dps
Warlock - dps
Demon hunter - tank
Priest - healer
Monk - healer
Druid - healer
Rogue - dps
Shaman - dps

[ipoststuff]

One of the best decision blizzard made with DH's was to give them only 2 specs. If only blizzard started that way from vanilla especially with pure dps classes. More specs mean more homogenization and less balance. And why are people asking for new specs? Have you played every spec of every class?

[Schizoide]

One of the best decision blizzard made with DH's was to give them only 2 specs. If only blizzard started that way from vanilla especially with pure dps classes. More specs mean more homogenization and less balance. And why are people asking for new specs? Have you played every spec of every class?

I have, yes, aside from healing specs.

If you're into progression raiding and want to DPS, it's extremely risky picking a class with a single DPS spec. There have been multiple tiers where shadow priests and ret paladins were complete trash and those players were just shit out of luck. Playing a class with two or three DPS specs makes it much less likely that all your DPS specs will be garbage simultaneously. It still happens, but much less often.

[snackfeat]

Terrible idea, the specs in BFA are almost all a pile of garbage. Why would you want more specs with the state of the current ones?

[arkanon]

Terrible idea, the specs in BFA are almost all a pile of garbage. Why would you want more specs with the state of the current ones?

A little bit dramatic, but yes, i have said this a couple of times before: Forget adding new shit to the game - fix what is there first. Take the classes, completely strip them back to nothing but name, and start completely from scratch. I honestly believe if they did that, numerous specs would fall off the table pretty quickly. I would rather have 2 specs / class that are well fleshed out, flexible, dynamic and exciting, with plenty of genuine options for talents and abilities.

They need to be aggressive - literally take all abilities off every class, and start completely from scratch - and start by asking "what will this specs niche be":

ST sustain
Aoe burst
Sustained cleave
ST burst
sustain aoe healing
tank healing
utility healing

etc etc etc

I cant stand the current design philosophy of "everyone has to be average at everything, and everyone has to be balanced with everyone at everything at all times". I personally believe the pursuit of "balance" has completely killed the classes, and that is one of the core reasons the game is in such a bad state.

[lllBlackSunlll]

Terrible idea, the specs in BFA are almost all a pile of garbage. Why would you want more specs with the state of the current ones?

A little bit dramatic, but yes, i have said this a couple of times before: Forget adding new shit to the game - fix what is there first. Take the classes, completely strip them back to nothing but name, and start completely from scratch. I honestly believe if they did that, numerous specs would fall off the table pretty quickly. I would rather have 2 specs / class that are well fleshed out, flexible, dynamic and exciting, with plenty of genuine options for talents and abilities.

They need to be aggressive - literally take all abilities off every class, and start completely from scratch - and start by asking "what will this specs niche be":

ST sustain
Aoe burst
Sustained cleave
ST burst
sustain aoe healing
tank healing
utility healing

etc etc etc

I cant stand the current design philosophy of "everyone has to be average at everything, and everyone has to be balanced with everyone at everything at all times". I personally believe the pursuit of "balance" has completely killed the classes, and that is one of the core reasons the game is in such a bad state.

I generally agree, it would make more sense to really flesh out the existing specializations than make more. In a way by playing a specialization should really like its own class rather than a variation of a class. IE Mage1 being low mobility but heavy hitting and dot juggling vs Mage2 being high mobility, proc based and many 30s or 2min cds makes that Mage feel completely different, but they are both mages.

By no means abandoning existing specializations for more is not an answer and I don't encourage any Blizz dev to do this unless the existing specializations are exactly where they and the community generally agree are good.

But the Lore has expanded a lot and giving better background on it through specializations gives a better feeling of what is happening in the world. Want to help your raid worship the shadows, Heal as Nightmare! Want your enemy feel your rage while you fire a gun, be Assault Warrior! Again, making these and abandon the issues with existing specs is not an answer, but I think the inspiration could be applied to existing specializations and maybe work.

[arkanon]

I generally agree, it would make more sense to really flesh out the existing specializations than make more. In a way by playing a specialization should really like its own class rather than a variation of a class. IE Mage1 being low mobility but heavy hitting and dot juggling vs Mage2 being high mobility, proc based and many 30s or 2min cds makes that Mage feel completely different, but they are both mages.

By no means abandoning existing specializations for more is not an answer and I don't encourage any Bloizz dev to do this unless the existing specializations are exactly where they and the community generally agree are good.

Yeah i think the way they (in my opinion) gutted Demo to help pad out DH was a real shame. Thankfuly, i quite enjoy both Demo and DH now, although to be fair, i think Vengance is a perfect example of a spec with absolutely no identity at all - it just doesnt work for me at all - warrior block with their shield, druids have high hp and strong passives, blood has self healing, monk is strong steady dmg reduction, pally is a cross between block and healing - most tanks feel like they have a niche - but Veng? what is the class fantasy? i personally just dont understand it at all, and to make it worse, i find the gameplay to be very poor. Havoc is great though imo.

I still miss the old Demo - but thats quite subjective, and i quite like the current iteration of demo so i forgive them. I think my issue was legion - the gap between demo getting gutted, and demo getting redone - it should never have happened. The current iteration of demo should have been released at the same time as the DH.

[SaneOstrich]

Yeah i think the way they (in my opinion) gutted Demo to help pad out DH was a real shame. Thankfuly, i quite enjoy both Demo and DH now, although to be fair, i think Vengance is a perfect example of a spec with absolutely no identity at all - it just doesnt work for me at all - warrior block with their shield, druids have high hp and strong passives, blood has self healing, monk is strong steady dmg reduction, pally is a cross between block and healing - most tanks feel like they have a niche - but Veng? what is the class fantasy? i personally just dont understand it at all, and to make it worse, i find the gameplay to be very poor. Havoc is great though imo.

I still miss the old Demo - but thats quite subjective, and i quite like the current iteration of demo so i forgive them. I think my issue was legion - the gap between demo getting gutted, and demo getting redone - it should never have happened. The current iteration of demo should have been released at the same time as the DH.

DH is rather a one trick pony, it's such a niche as a class already. Let alone trying to create specs for it. And since tanks are always in short supply they went with that I guess. So it's no wonder it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[Ange]

It was actually one developer who championed warlocks in MoP, and there's a pretty interesting backstory behind what happened with them, how the class was revitalized, and then the dev was eventually fired when he grew bitter and aired Blizzard's dirty laundry in public. He wrote about the MoP warlock dev process on his blog. Great read, strongly recommend.

http://xelnath.com/2018/05/15/the-mo...ew-you-missed/

Thanks for this. Blizzard DEV team = House of Cards?

[Chain Chungus]

I do think druids should get one too though. It would be cool if they could harness that red energy from the Emerald Nightmare raid.

[huth]

I think they should just eliminate specs and give classes their abilities, and assign them roles as the class is

Warrior - tank
Paladin - tank
Death knight - tank
Mage - dps
Hunter - dps
Warlock - dps
Demon hunter - tank
Priest - healer
Monk - healer
Druid - healer
Rogue - dps
Shaman - dps

And what do you do about all the players of those classes not currently of your assigned role?

[Has lost its way]

nublizzard would never put in this kind of work.

Go grind your new AP each expansion and be happy.

[lllBlackSunlll]

I do think druids should get one too though. It would be cool if they could harness that red energy from the Emerald Nightmare raid.

I thought for a while abiut what is missing from Druids. They have melee physical dps, magic ranged, healing, and tank. From a lore perspective it is basically all filled it, so now to make a new specialization we would need to expand.

One idea was to make a class that would have many forms to transform. Other specs are based around one form, this one would hace many. But that is already the best part of being a Druid, you can do anything. So instead of making a new spec, why not be able to do anything but on demand. That's why I justify being able to change spexs in combat, which is frankly kind of broken, but I feel is the best fit.

[valky94]

DK - Necro range int pet spec (simmilar to demo but with less dmg coming from pets and more from the caster itself, simmilar to necros in D3)
DH - Range caster spec with chaos magic, runes,
Druid - alrdy has 4
Hunter - Trapper, gadget range pet spec, simmilar to DH in D3 with turrets, bolas, chakram, explosive arrows
Mage - Time - a hybrid heal/dmg/utility simmilar to disc, spec that speeds up damage over time effects on the target and heals allies based on damage taken
Monk - Range caster spec based on Chi-Ji
Paladin - Inquisitor - Range int caster spec with holy fire based spells
Priest - Dps holy spec that is focused more on single target, or a 3rd healing spec that is based around shadowmend and the "healing with a cost" principle
Shaman - tank spec based around earth
Warlock - petless tank spec, or a spec based on sharing damage with your pet but without your pet actually doing the tanking (cuz pet AI kinda has a mind of its own sometimes)
Warrior - Gladiator - plays simmilarly to current prot, but defensive spells like shield block and ignore pain are replaced with dps ones that increase damage of Shield Block for example (maybe have a an option to equip 2H + shield but you do reduced damage simmilar to how D3 Crusaders have Favor and Heavenly Strength)

[lllBlackSunlll]

And what do you do about all the players of those classes not currently of your assigned role?

That was something that bothered me in Classoc. If I spent this whole time playing dps as a Shaman, then hit max and was forced to heal, why give me an option? It was such a let down I completely stopped playing. WoW is a lot better now for giving a choice.