Would Multiclassing make WOW classes interesting?

[Jikate-Stormrage]

For those unaware, in the table top game platform Dungeons and Dragons, the player character can choose to either level a pure class; or level your class to a point where you wish to begin leveling a new class (to gain specific abilities from the additional class). This can even be done multiple times to create some really interesting builds.

How might this work within the WoW structure?

• Everyone levels their character as they do now.
  
  Everyone can choose to multi-class their character at a specific level (for instance, at 110 for BFA).
  
  If multi-class is chosen, the player can choose the class they wish to multi-class with, and they gain 3 abilities from that class (these abilities can be chosen by Blizzard, but lets say the player can choose 3 from a list of 6+).
  

Imagine an Arms warrior with frost nova, or consecrate. Enhancement shaman with a 2 hander and whirlwind. Frost mage with totems?

Would it be a balancing nightmare? Sure. But players enjoying playing their classes is far more important than perfect balance. By placing a few spells outside of the realm of possibility, they can avoid some of the more extreme results. It could however fill in the gaps where certain classes are simply not invited to specific content because they lack a CC, or the aoe, or ST.

Another idea would be to do the same thing with racials. Put all of the racials into a large pool, and allow each character to choose 2-3 they want for their character at creation. If 2-3 racials would simply be considered overpowered? Put them on the same tier, and allow only the choice of 1. The racials could be placed in the same UI as our current talents. They can even be unlocked just as talents are now, every 15 levels or so. This gives a feel of progression, something to look forward to, and it does involve player agency. Say... 5 racials total?

What are your thoughts on the ideas? Can you think of how these ideas could be improved? Or are they just garbage tier and don't warrant a second thought?

[Super Kami Dende]

AS with Classes now, People would find the "optimal" Class for each Class to combo with and Blizzard would either be constantly buffing/nerfing even moreso to keep everything "relevant"

Also, if someone chose to stay a Pure Class, what incentive would they get? And if remaining pure made them Stronger than a cross Class, most People wouldn't use the system. If being always weaker simply for wanting to be just one class, people would lose their shit.

[Amerissis]

But players enjoying playing their classes is far more important than perfect balance.

You say that, but the vocal minority (mainly high end raiders and wannabees) do not agree and unfortunately, those are the people Blizzard often listens to.

For the idea itself. Neh, wouldn't work in WoW. It would have to be too limited to be manageable. In table tops you have a GM who can 'change the rules' on the fly. If someone's combo was too powerful for a certain situation, the GM could just invent a reason why some of their spells won't work and move on. That's impossible in WoW. And even if they are able to balance bosses around every possible combo you could get, it would still be hell in PvP.

[horbindr]

i dont think ive ever seen a good multi classing system in a video game, it's always very limited. and for good reasons, balance, making sure not everybody plays the exact same spec, etc.

in general i think such systems work a lot better in more narrative/creative/fluid (and small scale) games like D&D than they do in more rigid game systems that video games are tied to.

[thilicen]

So everyone would roll rogue/priest or some shit that makes everyone unkillable. That would be great.

[VinceVega]

Oh hell no. Remember that druid ability Symbiosis? It was a balancing nightmare. (got removed for other reasons as well)

If you do this one change of say mage affects EVERY class in the game. That is not doable...

EDIT: also there is no class you cannot NOT play right now. In high end there is always the best setup and that will never change, rather get worse with this because you cannot Balance this in any way possible.

[Reinhart11]

This would only work in a more restrictive manner. If any class and any specc can be combined with eachother, even if you only get a view abilities to choose from, that would be a balancing nightmare indeed. And if Blizzard restricts it too much whats the point.

I think such a system could have potential, but it has to be an incredible well thought out design. And i'm not sure thats worth it. The question that comes up is also, could the developers handle this if they can't even make the current classes / speccs fun? Or balance them well? I mean in theory and on a superficial basis a lot of concepts can look promising, but are they still if you think deeply about it and how practical are they in the end?

I think the ressources you'd need to put in such a system are better spent to improve the current classes and speccs.

[PenguinChan]

There will be three camps if this happened, as a private server already does this: The casuals, The Informed, and The Min Maxers. Essentially, the casuals will do whatever they find fun that works for them. This may or may not be optimal DPS or Healing or Tanking but they'll do it anyways - look at TF2 for shitty weapons that people love to use despite them being utter crap at times.

The informed, or what are basically experienced individuals in RPG stats games will know what kind of build they want and have a good or at least vague idea of how to do it. They may not be super optimal but they also tend to kick the shit out of the casuals who just do stuff willy nilly. That said, they may, just like the casuals follow guides either strictly or loosely.

Then you have the min maxers who are the ones who create these guides and make super optimal, 99.95% best combinations for any kind of playstyle you want.



Now to me, this is all well and good and has its place - I don't think World of Warcraft is that place. I do believe WoW could improve itself from allowing you to switch classes on a single character (That are available to them as a race), but cross-class is very fickle and games like FF14 dropped it due to it creating negative pressure for even casual players to play multiple classes to get things that are needed to have fun.

[Trumpcat]

I would be happy with anything that breaks the monotony and spices up class design.

As for people saying classes are fine and only high end players are crying, have you ran 10-15 stones with a Warrior tank, Druid healer, 2x Rogues and DH? How would you compare that group setup to anything else? Or do you consider 10-15 to be high end?

I would say it differently: only the people who have an idea of the specs in game are crying.

Since we are at one of the worst (if not the worst) class balance situations since vanilla, I am hoping for whatever breaks the current state of gameplay and classes, it can't get worse. So at least give new stuff to the 15 years old game.

[Caliph]

i dont think ive ever seen a good multi classing system in a video game, it's always very limited. and for good reasons, balance, making sure not everybody plays the exact same spec, etc.

in general i think such systems work a lot better in more narrative/creative/fluid (and small scale) games like D&D than they do in more rigid game systems that video games are tied to.

the only one that gave a semblance of multiclassing was rift. You could do high ST damage, aoe, and buffs all in one build or just be an all out assassin. you could heal, buff adn do dd quite well or just be a balls to the wall healer.

This is what blizzard should do.