Originally Posted by
ravenmoon
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.