Could do with a revamp/freshening up of the class system

[ravenmoon]

We could really do with a revamping of the class system to freshen it up and expand it. Allied races did revamp the races, allowing us to have more options. We need a way to have at least more class fantasies too.

I still want to play as a Moon Priest, Ranger, Star Augur, Locus Walker, Runemaster, Blademaster, Necromancer, Tinker etc etc.

Face it, there are too many desirable class fantasy to ever make it as full new classes, for the next 20 years at the rate blizzard introduces full new classes -- so i propose a more creative solution to come with a new class option for 10.0


Class Skins and Identities

A class skin is simply given a distinctive look to a class to fill provide a fantasy.
e.g. Moon Priestess is a class skin for potentially Night elf and Nightborne Priests. Ranger a class skin for all Elven Hunters, whiles Mountaineer a class skin for dwarven hunters: When in game, members of those races can begin a quest to attain the class identity.
Some are even smaller changes that are meaningful:
e.g. Void Hunter has void coloured arrows instead of normal, while a Lightforged one has light ones and a Nightborne one has arcane coloured ones. Think also of Lightforged priests having a shadow spec that is light damage instead and a void priest having the healing spec using void instead instead of light as the only changes their versions get.

A class identity - takes this further and completely disguises an existing class as something else in lore - abilities are renamed, with unique special effects, visuals and animations that fit the fantasy completley:
e.g. A Blademaster can simply take the Demon Hunter class and re-dress it: Rename all the abilities and change the animations and effects for the abilities, change the iconic weapon from warglaive to Longsword - and now on non-elven races, the demon hunter class slot is replaced by the Blademaster for races. You would have to role most of thses from scratch as they open new options, however where the race allows it, you can retrain your current class to one of these. Unlike class skins, existing characters that convert cannot change back.

Other Applications & Implications: These can be used to provide interesting new classes that are appropriate for certain races. As well as sufficient new class/race combos that fit the lore:
e.g. A Locus Walker would be a new new class for Void Elves and is essentially a re-dressed mage.
e.g. An Entropist is a redressed Shaman that provides the shaman option for Humans and Forsaken

All of these are essentially the same thing that highlight 3 differnt ways they can be applied.


EXAMPLES

Class Skins:
Ranger & Dark Ranger - hunter skin for all elves
Mountaineer - Hunter skin for all dwarves
Witch Doctor - Shaman skin for Trolls
Shadowhunter - Hunter skin for Trolls
Spirit Walker - Priest skin for Mag'har and Tauren
Necromancer - Warlock skin all races that can be warlock
Moon Priestess - Priest skin for Night elves and Nightborne
Sunwalker - Priest and Paladin skin for Tauren
Warden - Rogue skin for night elves
Valewalker - Druid skin for night elves
Tidesage - Shaman skin for Kul'tirans



Class Identities:
Runemaster - Prestige class that uses the
Blademaster - Prestige class that uses the Demon hunter class mechanics for its playstyle
Star Augur - New class that uses the shaman for its playstyle
Locus Walker - A new class that uses the Mage for its playstyle
Spellblade - A new class that uses the Paladin for its playstyle


New Race/Class Combos:
Spirit Walker - A new identity for Orc Priests
Entropist - A new identity for human/forsaken/Elven shaman
Tidesage - Identiy for human and forsaken shaman (this is also a skin for Kul'tiran shaman)
Botanist: - Identity for Blood elf and Void elf druids
Valewalkers - Nightborne druids
Sunwalkers - Highmountain Priests and Paladins
Night Warrior - Night elf paladins
Void Knight - Void elf paladins


New Class
Tinker - Like the current classes, the Tinker can have skins and identities to produce playable options on other races.
Dragon Lance: A class identity using the Tinker class mechanics for its playstyle: Available to
Artificers: A tinker class skin for Draenei



Please help me out with examples. I'll edit this post to add more.

Understanding what Class Identity Means

Look at it this way. When you think of the Shaman class what do you think of? A tribal witch doctor type figure that communicates with dead and elemental spirits using totems and elemental power to rush though its enemies? or do you think of a calss with 3 spec, one that is ranged magical dps, the other melee dps that uses minor buffs to enhance its damage and the other healing?

Well both would be right. In lore terms, the first is how the playstyle is dressed. Who's to say how a shaman actually plays like in your video game world?A class is essentially the way you operate a character fantasy like the shamn in the video game world. It's how you go about doing things. And each class is a different playstyle. While lore has informed the name and appearance of the abilities, how they operate is a feature that doesn't depend on the lore.

So you can take the mechanics of the shaman class, and but make it another class in the lore by simply renaming it's abilities and changing its visuals so it fits the new class you want. This is essentially what a new class identity is. Rather than develop a whole new playstyle every time you want to introduce a new class, you instead give it a new identity. That class is actually a new class, but it's not a new playstyle. The advantages are listed above. Elves can't be shaman, but an Arcane Elemntalist (call it an Entropist or Thermatuge) or Star Augur for Night/Nightborne elves that suit the night elven races much better than a tribal witch doctor.

Like this you can actually get a many more classes out, much more often and more frequently. Gives you more time to come up with a new playstyle/mechanic which can in turn bet he base for several new identities, have several skins too and well take a long time to come out.

[Phurox]

That would require too much effort for the team. They can't even make armor sets for different classes, and you expect this?

[mber341]

Personally i really like this. I've been for class skins for some time. I doubt Blizzard would ever do something like this tho, it looks like a lot of work.

[Cæli]

I'm a bit tired of constant "revamps" to be honest, if they keep doing it the interest of the players will just hit zero if it's not already lost
imagine a Minecraft that is a survival game, then 2 years later it's a shooter, 2 years later it's a solo game, 2 years later the sky is always red
way to kill a business

[Kyphael]

Yes to all. If they no longer have to make tier sets, then this is doable over the course of several patch cycles with no firm deadline, but more like release when ready, just like heritage armors. Though I suppose tier sets are technically class armors, but I am all for class skins.

[Byleth]

I really like the idea behind class skins, and I would like to see Blizz run with this someday.

[Nfinitii]

Most of your ideas seem mostly cosmetic. And we don’t need more classes. Current class design needs fixing.

Specs feel like their own class instead of an extension of the class. Talent system sucks. Gearing is boring and terrible.

[jzhbee]

New Class
Tinker - Like the current classes, the Tinker can have skins and identities to produce playable options on other races.
Dragon Lance: A class identity using the Tinker class mechanics for its playstyle: Available to
Artificers: A tinker class skin for Draenei

Theeeeere it is.

Man, you people just don't give up, huh.

Also: Night Warrior is still kind of a unique full power given to Tyrande. It's referred to in lore as an almost antagonistic anger, and will never see use as any kind of character customization outside of the eyes.

Also: Blademaster is not similar at all to Demon Hunter, even if you reskinned the abilities. How would eye beam, or Metamorph, or Double Jump fit?

[ravenmoon]

Class Armors

While heritage armor can be one by any class, Class armors are specific iconic armor pieces that highlight iconic hero versions of certain class units iconic to a race. These are armor rewards with titled rename of your class that allow certain iconic class race options to gain the appearance:
e.g. Draenei Exarch - is a class armor reward for Draenei Paladins - requires exalted with Exodar and completing Legion Paladin order hall quest. Once you complete - Your Draenei Paladin is now a Draenei Exarch

Class Armors

Draenei: Paladin (Exarch)
Orc: Hunter (Beastmaster)
Troll: Warrior (Beserker)
Night Elf: Warrior (Sentinel)
Nightborne: Mage (Arcanist)
Blood Elf: Hunter (Farstrider)
Pandaren: Monk (Brewmaster)
Tauren: Shaman (Farseer)
Dwarf: Paladin (Storm
Forsaken:
Gnome
Worgen:
Goblin:

Theeeeere it is.

Man, you people just don't give up, huh.

This isn't a Tinker class in disguise. At some point we would get a new class, as a new playstyle, Tinker seemed the best candidate to suggest. It could have been added as a Class Identity for Hunter, but then tinker can also work as a Tank and Range dps, and there is no class currently that fills that slot to be a skin for it, hence it's a great candidate for a new class.

[Razion]

For Runemaster, I imagine they would use monk as a base.

[ravenmoon]

Most of your ideas seem mostly cosmetic. And we don’t need more classes. Current class design needs fixing.

Specs feel like their own class instead of an extension of the class. Talent system sucks. Gearing is boring and terrible.

truee, I use to spend my earlier dayas brainstorming class ideas and abilities, getting into the Maths of current classes, wasting time on elitistjerks. Now I just waste time on Mmo-champion, the casual nature means I don't spend anywhere near as much time on it as I use to.

NEw classes are very complex to create, lots of testing then the ultimate balancing with multiple specs, this is why they take so long, and I appreciate tthat, but there are so many other candidates people wanna play, as well as missing race/class combos that some r aces do not have those playstyles available.. this seems a neat way of giving players new vibes and skins and identities for existing classes to create new ones.

it's up to blizzard if they would wnat them to have something mechanically different, but I think they can actually get a lot more interest generated wtih this in addition to a new class. You can imagine people rolling new toons just to get the specific vibe/look they want, from a Faarstrider, to a Ranger or Moon Priestess... and ofc new options like a Star Augur which is new class that uses the shaman playstyle allowing Night elf/nightborne to have access to the shaman class in a unique form, same with the Entropist.

There are peopple who have 2 or even 3 versions of classes as they are, this would make that even more common, greatly extended people's play time.

It's not all they rely on, you do get a brand new class, but the identities and skins are probably the easiest things to do to provide a new face to the classes, and generate a lot of interest for a small time investment.

What is exactly involved in all of these?

1. New spell names
2. New spell animations/visuals
3. A quest

That's it - you just take an existing class, and dress it up in way that fits whatever new identity or skin you wanna give and boom. You've got it. If you doubt how effective this is, jump on SWTOR and try playing a Sith Sorceror and Jedi Sage, they play exactly the same but they have completley differnt vibe and look/feel to them they appear like separate classes - it's one class dressed up in two different ways. What is different? SPell names and visuals/animations.

Releasing a new class as intended assures people that they will get a new playstyle too.

Who gets busy? Lore team and FX team. Art team might be called in to design iconic gear for each the options, but that's up to them, it will help.

[Craaazyyy]

couldn't care less about this cosmetic shit.. just make class design better

[ravenmoon]

For Runemaster, I imagine they would use monk as a base.

Again <3 Razion, with the first suggestion contribution. Now perhaps this thread can really take off.


Feel free to add anymore suggestions you feel might fit the skin or identities options

i did have trouble figuring out where to place Runemaster - Monk did cross my mind, I am actually not that familiar with the unit, so wasn't sure. Other options include making it a Class identity that uses the new class playstyle. Paladin might be another class to use as its base.

[lollerlaban]

That would require too much effort for the team. They can't even make armor sets for different classes, and you expect this?

I'm curious though, at what point do you set the limit? 20 tiers of sets for different classes really limits your creativity without going over board.

[Razion]

i did have trouble figuring out where to place Runemaster - Monk did cross my mind, I am actually not that familiar with the unit, so wasn't sure. Other options include making it a Class identity that uses the new class playstyle. Paladin might be another class to use as its base.

Another option that seemed like it would work for Runemaster would be Shaman, specifically for Enhancement, but because Runemasters don't typically wield weapons, and monk are the quintessential unarmed fantasy it checks out there, although Runemaster probably shares the most mechanically in terms of augmenting themselves like Shaman. Paladin maybe can line up with some of the barriers or blessings they use, but the weapon disparity is much larger there. The next closest would probably be an unarmed Demon Hunter, as they already summon a lot of sigils and cover themselves with runes to empower themselves as it is, though all the jumping and dashing is out of place.

[Seranthor]

.

All these brilliant ideas of yours, why haven't you offered them to Blizzard on their forums instead of sharing them here where Blizzard rarely if ever visits, and if they do its not looking for gems like this.

[Dakara]

After Shadowlands they'll need to do something with the classes, and skins are a decent idea IMO.

[Throwme]

We could really do with a revamping of the class system to freshen it up and expand it.

Isn't it bad enough that they revamp the specs pretty much every expansion?

I still want to play as a Moon Priest, Ranger, Star Augur, Locus Walker, Runemaster, Blademaster, Necromancer, Tinker etc etc.

A priest is a priest is a priest. There's no difference between a Silver Hand paladin and a Sunwalker paladin. They're all paladins. regardless of name,

All of these are essentially the same thing that highlight 3 differnt ways they can be applied.

Which means there is no need to make 3 versions of the same thing. We have one, it works, leave it at that and focus on other stuff instead.

Class armors are specific iconic armor pieces that highlight iconic hero versions of certain class units iconic to a race.

CLASS armors that are RACE specific are not CLASS armors.
CLASS armors already exist, they're called Tier sets. They're gawd daim iconic for some people. T2 paladin? T6 Priest? Yeah, iconic!
RACE armors exists too, with more coming. They're called Heritage armors.
Trying to mix them will be an incredibly tedious task, because you have to make sets for each race that can be each class. Not going to happen.

[Spazzix]

So to summarize:

Cost:
Heavily invest your art/3D resources
Create synonymous classes
Leave out a lot of class/race combinations.

Benefit:
Some players are happy for a couple months before they get bored of the new visuals?

Why the costs are just straight up cons:
-Creating new animations is labor intensive, to the point where when they recently did it they had to put it into batches and made a big deal about doing it (if you are spending lots of resources on something, you make a big deal about it so people know you're doing stuff.)

-Creating multiple names for the same class is a good way to confuse the crap out of new and very casual players.

-New visuals is a chore for PvP/High PvE players that are use to certain visual or audio queues (when new abilities are put into the game they have to learn them, sure, but this is just forcing them to do it for no reason)

-When someones race/class gets left out it feels a whole lot worse than with something like an allied race not being able to roll your class. Maybe you really wanted void elf paladins, but when they weren't allowed, it was just part of the game—none of the ally paladin players can be void elves. But as you get into specific race/class/spec(?) combos. It starts to narrow it to a point where now you feel like everyone gets all the cool shiny stuff EXCEPT for YOU because you are playing a dwarven ret paladin.

You're saying freshen up the class system, but what your post is actually doing it telling me that 15 year-old laundry is going to be clean because you spray a bunch of (very expensive) Febreze on it.
Putting clothes in the washer and dryer is more work than Febreze, but if you want them to be "fresh" for more than 5 minutes, that's what you've gotta do.

[ravenmoon]

So to summarize:

Cost:
Heavily invest your art/3D resources
Create synonymous classes
Leave out a lot of class/race combinations.

Benefit:
Some players are happy for a couple months before they get bored of the new visuals?

I heard people say that about sub-race posts a lot, and yet here were are nearly 2 years after. The question you have to ask yourself, is do you see yourself playing more or getting more into the game because of this.


As for me, yes. There are several classes in wow, even if I didn't jump on a new one, I'd love having a new look. Furthermore, this is exactly the sort of thing that would excite me about class jumping.

Re-rolls are quite the thing, they happen for all sorts of reasons, but I can safely say, this would be the most exciting one. I have a night elf priest for example, I don't really touch her, but if Moon Priestesses were a skin I could take playing out this new fantasy, I'd jump to it. the same goes for my Blood elf hunter becoming a ranger, all of as uddden he ffels more connected and relevant.

I have never had an interest in playing an elven shaman, but if a Star Augur, or Elemental Entropist was a great concept introduced, guess who'd be rolling one?? -

The fantasy is the first thing that sparks the imagination of what to play. Yes I know shaman can be an interesting class etc..but every class I've picked I've done so because of the theme and presentation, the fantasty it has and the dreaming and imagination it excites.

Afterwards I may have switched race tfor an allied one or done so for better racials. Or did you think wow was that popular only because of its gameplay? No other game has come close to the detail of fantasy variation and expression they have for each of their races and classes. Some game focus on the classes, some on the races, but the scale, scope and fantasy oin Warcraft is detailed, well varied and captivating like no other. Drop this or ignore it at you'll lose out.

But the very thing I have presented here is why I pick a class in the first place. And just like how our imagination is captured by a race, its set and its vibe tha tmakes us want to pick it when it is released, the exact same thing happens here.

Why the costs are just straight up cons:
-Creating new animations is labor intensive, to the point where when they recently did it they had to put it into batches and made a big deal about doing it (if you are spending lots of resources on something, you make a big deal about it so people know you're doing stuff.)

I can't fault your logic, you've looked at the statement and imagined what it would take, but you haven't considered how this plays out on the actual class skins and identities.

New animations can be quite costly, if you have to re-rig the characters and design new ways for how he would swing a weapon or move his/her hands to cast. This is not what is actually happen here in nearly all these cases. Character movement animations aren't being invented for this, although they can be, what is changing is the colour of the spell, or animation of the effect.. for example a pillar of yellow fire coming down or stars rising from the ground.

It is work, but not now where near the scale of new rigs. There can be exceptions, for example the Blademaster, who is based on the demon hunter, can have blade dance have a new animation instead of the way the demon hunter does it, involves moving all the character models for that. THis is optional but also quite rare and not expected, it's like saying every new class they do re-writes all the animations, when actually you just get 1 or 2 signature move animations (roll for monk and the kicks, DKs I don't think had any, DHs had the blade dance, rush and glide).

What you might be missing is that these are not a mass lump production - like Allied races, you give a few at first, and you introduce more periodically over time.

allied races are substantially less work than new classes, which is why you can get multiple and frequent ones. THis is the same, this is a lot less work than a new class, doesn't mean its a wave of the wand easy and you can get all of them in immediately. But you can get new identities and skins coming in over time.

-Creating multiple names for the same class is a good way to confuse the crap out of new and very casual players.

Not really, allied races is an example of this again. AS you can clearly see, you don't start the game out being able to play them, once you're use to the game you can unlock them, a new player has 15 years of stuff to catch up on, an existing player is over familiar with it and its stale. Check out my other topic

How Seriously have you played Warcraft? Do you still do?

Look at the responses, the vast majority of playerse are casuals, and long time players, have played hardcore, and actually long for a lot of these things. They won't get confused, and as you unlock these things for new players too, I fail to see the problem. When I was a new player in wow, if levelling my Night elf priestess allowed me to start on a quest to make me Moon Priestess, I would not have been confused at all. Later on I may have found out the Moon Priestess mechanics are identical to the normal priest, but that isn't confusing.

I'm not asked nor required or needed to take in all the new info, especially if an advanced feature like a hero class, an allied race, or a Class identity is something later on unlocked. Same goes for new casuals and experience casuals. In fact I'd have found the game far more engaging. It seriously gets very weird once you get into the races, to see a Paladin on all the race actually identical, especially when it doesn't even fit their lore.

THe content and aesthetic of the game, the story have all painted pictures that help to understand what a Ranger is, a Moon Priest is, a Blademaster etc, why would these be weird, and new ones make the optiosn far more interesting. Customisation is always a good idea on a game where millions of players play. Role play is always more engaging when you have cool identifiable themes that your lore provides.

Think, why does the lore bother to do all these things? All these variations.. .surely it's "less" confusing if we just had one bog standard rogue that was the same thing in every race, yet we have all manner of things, and new ones, new variations of rogue, whether as scout, assassin or even prestige like a Warden - because it is cool and exciting.

Races have very specific versions of things in wow, people have been familiar with since the RTS days and the MMORPG has these units in it as NPCs you interact with and go how cool. Yet it's too much to play these as separate classes, yet, who wouldn't jump at the chance to play their shaman as a Farseer or role an Orc priest as a Spirit Walker, or play a Valewalker even if it is the druid class repackaged, or a Blademaster that uses the base of a demon hunter.

-New visuals is a chore for PvP/High PvE players that are use to certain visual or audio queues (when new abilities are put into the game they have to learn them, sure, but this is just forcing them to do it for no reason)

Yes it is, that I can't argue, but it actually keeps pvp very open less predictable and people having to watch more. It's like saying having more races confuses pvp, because they have more models to watch.. at the end of the day.. a healing spell is a healing spell, whether the visuals change, they have similar grade effect sounds, and visuals, as do a damage spell. A spell being cast regardless of the animation use or the effect use is exactly that, you know when to kick, they've caused all healing spells to have uniform type of rig animation - only the visual animation differs, the rig animation is your key,, melee is melee.. you hit the button, your character swings, it's thes ame you don't have time to figure out what new ability he has used what it was, so it doesn't matter how many abilities are out there, you're reacting as soon as the person goes for you.

Finally you overestimate what playing reskins is for a pvper - in SWTOr the Bounty Hunter and Trooper are the same class with different identities yet its obvious to tell when healing is happening, range or melee - even though the visual is very different.

-When someones race/class gets left out it feels a whole lot worse than with something like an allied race not being able to roll your class. Maybe you really wanted void elf paladins, but when they weren't allowed, it was just part of the game—none of the ally paladin players can be void elves. But as you get into specific race/class/spec(?) combos. It starts to narrow it to a point where now you feel like everyone gets all the cool shiny stuff EXCEPT for YOU because you are playing a dwarven ret paladin.

THat isn't a problem for class skins. For identities, are you trying to tell me the complex fanatical raid guilds will all of a sudden be confused that a Blademaster isn't a melee class or demon hunter equivalent when making their selection?

I could list only 5 brand new identities all of which are none, and 8 new identities filling in race/class combos, 7 of the 8 are known. Are you telling me people will be confused that a Spirit Walker is a Priest or Valewalker/Botanist is a druid or a Night Warrior a Paladin? Please, all you do is go to Icy Veins or Wowhead and if you were totally new, guess what will be listed under Paladin? - Sunwalker, Blood Knight, Night Warrior, Void Knight - people will know your base class and your spec role, and rely on you to know how to play it, I raid lead a realm 1st guild and for a while a World 25 guild in the olden days, long before allied races, DHs, Monks, DKs, Worgen, Goblin etc and in SWTOR too, - trust me, not once did I need to know every new ability of any of the new classes or what the character looked like , nor once was I confused because we had more options.. I had my tanks, healers, range and melee, and I knew exactly what specs brough the buffs I needed.

it would take many more many more class names for it to get tediously confusing, our current selections are SOOOOO limited, you know them very quickly, trust me, we don't have IQs of 40, we won't be helplessly confused because we have more classes, as a raider, learning the raids is far more challenging than having a few more names for the same class.

You're saying freshen up the class system, but what your post is actually doing it telling me that 15 year-old laundry is going to be clean because you spray a bunch of (very expensive) Febreze on it.
Putting clothes in the washer and dryer is more work than Febreze, but if you want them to be "fresh" for more than 5 minutes, that's what you've gotta do.

No its not, the same argument was made for allied races too. It is going to appear that way for some people, and the majority aren't going to care for anything but the optiosn they like, just like those who like caster classes ore ven mages, don't care that you have 14 melee specs, 8 tank specs or 30 healing ones, they may moan that you didn't add a new mage class for htem, but they have their mage. You may not like mechagnomes or vulpera or mag'har or kul'tirans etc, but chances are nearly 100% of the playerbase is going to like at least 1 option, slightly less 2, slightly less 3 .. but by introducing so many options quickly, you've given exciting things for many people.

I love allied races, i've been harping on about sub-races for ages, and even though my most desired sub-race didn't come, i actaully have 2 that i really like and not been interested in any other. but guess what.. I play all their unlock quests, and intro quests too and if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have bought BFA.


All your arguments were made for allied races, but few people really did get those of us were trying to say, it took some cool pictures by fan art concepts using blizzards cerations to really show people the potential, and they've been a huge success and a lifeline for blizzard. This is the class equivalent.

- - - Updated - - -

Isn't it bad enough that they revamp the specs pretty much every expansion?

You're not learning a new spec, these aren'tactual new playstyles or revamped playstyles.. the system team has no change in the playstyle, the art and creative team dress the current classes up , but they are essentially the same.

A priest is a priest is a priest. There's no difference between a Silver Hand paladin and a Sunwalker paladin. They're all paladins. regardless of name,

Indeed, but it matters to a lot of people when playing a priest that the Moon Priest looks different and has different spell names than the Holy Light Priest, but that is not the only application here, a Blademaster is not a demon hunter, but it doesn't need to be to use the demon hunter class playstyle for its own. different class in the lore but not in the mechanics. I know this really confuses some people but that's what its.

Which means there is no need to make 3 versions of the same thing. We have one, it works, leave it at that and focus on other stuff instead.

This is not about more playstyle options, this about cosmetic, feel, more cool options to take the role as in the universe. Just like allied racese give a differnet skin to the normal races, these give a different skin to the classes.

THeir advantages? You get long sought after classes - people keep screaming to play Necromancers, Dark Rangers, Blademasters, Tinkers - vast majority of these requests are not for a new playstyle, they're to play the iconic Necromancer or Moon Priest etc etc.

You also get to give many new missing race/class combos in appropriate ways. Most people who want to play a night elf paladin, want to have the playstyle on the night elf, - they are not looking for a night elf Knight of the Holy Light - any night elf fan knows that just doesn't work with night elves, yet it's pospular because of the playstyle - so if the Night Warrior was basically the paladin class with different spell names and using arcane and void spell colours and visuals instead of the yellow/golden ones a normal paladin does - you effectively have given a desired class/race combo, but in a fitting way.

And trust me the lore matters. Do you know how many people complained about the arse pull that Tauren Sunwalkers and Orc mages were, because they just don't fit.. flip that round and create proper unique expression for them and they'd be a lot more popular. Think of it this way, if your Kul'tiran shaman or mage was actually a TIdesage, where the spell names and effects were altered to match the Tidesage vibe you play? It's still the shaman, but it will be a hell of a lot more popular..

Why? BECAUSE THESE THINGS MATTERS TO PEOPLE. It is the exact same reason why blood elves, void elves, allied races are popular, vibe, aesthetic, theme, characterisation they matter a hell of a lot, and

you pick up a class to play the fantasy long before you know what the playstyle is.

CLASS armors that are RACE specific are not CLASS armors.
CLASS armors already exist, they're called Tier sets. They're gawd daim iconic for some people. T2 paladin? T6 Priest? Yeah, iconic!
RACE armors exists too, with more coming. They're called Heritage armors.
Trying to mix them will be an incredibly tedious task, because you have to make sets for each race that can be each class. Not going to happen.

Yes the class armor concept is not a well thought out one, might be worth scrapping.