The Cool Void effects in 8.3

[ravenmoon]

Seen some pretty cool new void looking abilities in 8.3 - it makes me wonder,

1. Couldn't blizzard have had void elves able to glyph some of their spells in each class/spec to instead change to a void spell? Or actually have the normal class ability replaced by a void ability, and you can glyph the normal one back in if you want.

Same with Lightforged, but light versions instead, Nightborne have arcane versions, Zandlari possibly blood versions? [meanwhile to make it more accessible, they allow Forsaken casters to be able to adopt the void ones, blood elf players to glyph the light ones, night elf players to glypsh the arcane ones, and Darkspear players to glyph the blood ones.

2. There are so many creature abilities and spells out there, as well as classes, blizzard really could do class skins and identities with many of them. It's jsust a matter of organising the various classes and races, and selecting which ones to have a cool customisation skin. Here is a quote on from my calss skins topic.

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/2531209-Could-do-with-a-revamp-freshening-up-of-the-class-system

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.

Now ofc this is the full list. sadly some not so very bright people worry about blizzard's work load without realising this is meant to be given over a time, not all at once. Besides is it not better for you to have cool things that fit the fantasy and give your class or race more distinctiveness? Let blizzard worry about how they'd make it work, if you really like the sound of it, tell them. Trust me they really want to do things that players would relly love and cause them to play the game more.

There are so many spells and aabilities in game, on NPC mobs, bosses,, raid/dungeon encoutners etc, more than enough to give all these suggested specs and raecs many times over.

I would suggest that no new animations are given, just use existing ones, but maybe each class should have a signature ability, that's just a bit special than the ordinary (e.g. Wardens have the Avatar thing).

[Varodoc]

That's too much work in my opinion, but I would love that. I'd enjoy playing a Void Elf Dark Zealot (i.e. just a Void Paladin), or something similar. Pretty sure there are already some Twilight Dark Paladins in the game anyway, so it's not too far-fetched.

[Gaidax]

After Warlock's green fire, it seems they do not fancy making more of similar stuff. Seems like alternative spell effects are harder to do than people think, even if it's supposedly only recolor.

It would be nice to have some personal touch to spells whether it's due to race or some special quest, like green fire, but I don't expect it to happen.

[Throwme]

Here is a quote on from my calss skins topic.

Why? Are you sad because your ramblings didn't get the usual 500 posts? There's nothing new to discuss here.

[Doffen]

Love the effects on my void elves. It should be more of those coming with the race if I might say so myself. We want more cool, give us.

[JacobusRex]

No amount of flash in the world can fix stupid-simple, repetitive and uninteresting gameplay. Flashy effects and skins are completely moot in the face of boring gameplay.

[Nefarious Tea]

After Warlock's green fire, it seems they do not fancy making more of similar stuff. Seems like alternative spell effects are harder to do than people think, even if it's supposedly only recolor.

It would be nice to have some personal touch to spells whether it's due to race or some special quest, like green fire, but I don't expect it to happen.

It's really not. You load up the texture file for the spell effect in photoshop and play with the cmyk values. I teach grade 10 students how to do it with the photos they take in my class. Considering that the glyph system already modifies spell appearances, the technical side is also taken care of.

It has nothing to do with difficulty and EVERYTHING to do with being unable to monetize it - or far more likely, that the backlash from doing so would cost them more than they'd make.

[Capultro]

I'm sorry but this post is a total nonsense, it's almost all wrong.I'm just going to clarify some unforgivable things I've read.

Necromancer - Warlock skin warlocks are not necromancers.they use diferents powers,so no sense a warlock with necromancer armor.

Warden - Rogue skin for night elves wardens are not rogues so a rogue cant have warden armor. maiev is not a rogue
with this 2 examples,i want say that i cant acept this,hero classes are needed,but not skins.for example it makes no sense to put a rogue a warden's armor, since a warden is not exactly a rogue.you only have to see the powers of maiev in hots, there it can be clearly seen that she uses very specific skills typical of a warden.It's not that I'm against skins, but I will support them when they make sense. But something like giving a rogue a warden's armor, I can't accept it in any way.

Finally, to clarify that Blizzard has money to develop all the aforementioned hero classes. Do not use it for that, and use it to create geek games, that is another problem, it is clear that they are demonstrating not knowing how to use their resources intelligently economic ... that is, our money, which is unforgivable.

therefore I am still waiting for my warden hero class, so necessary in these days in which the demon hunters are running around jumping ... someone has to stop them for God

[ravenmoon]

No amount of flash in the world can fix stupid-simple, repetitive and uninteresting gameplay. Flashy effects and skins are completely moot in the face of boring gameplay.

That's like saying no amount of cool art, music or animations can fix gameplay. While true, you should still do as much 9f the cool flashy stuff your team can make, and hope the systems team improve gameplay and its content.

What you dont do is ditch development on everything and call only the systems team to work, b/c it needs improving.

In other words, different departments, but you are fairly correct

[matrix123mko]

Bring me cool void!

[ravenmoon]

I'm sorry but this post is a total nonsense, it's almost all wrong.I'm just going to clarify some unforgivable things I've read.

Necromancer - Warlock skin warlocks are not necromancers.they use diferents powers,so no sense a warlock with necromancer armor.

Warden - Rogue skin for night elves wardens are not rogues so a rogue cant have warden armor. maiev is not a rogue
with this 2 examples,i want say that i cant acept this,hero classes are needed,but not skins.for example it makes no sense to put a rogue a warden's armor, since a warden is not exactly a rogue.you only have to see the powers of maiev in hots, there it can be clearly seen that she uses very specific skills typical of a warden.It's not that I'm against skins, but I will support them when they make sense. But something like giving a rogue a warden's armor, I can't accept it in any way.

Finally, to clarify that Blizzard has money to develop all the aforementioned hero classes. Do not use it for that, and use it to create geek games, that is another problem, it is clear that they are demonstrating not knowing how to use their resources intelligently economic ... that is, our money, which is unforgivable.

therefore I am still waiting for my warden hero class, so necessary in these days in which the demon hunters are running around jumping ... someone has to stop them for God

Did you ever play SWTOR? Look at their classes, two totally different classes using the same gameplay mechanic. You could say the Jedi Sage was a skin for the Suth Sorceror or the bounty hunter a skin for the trooper.


Like Necromancer and Warlock or Dk, those classes are nothing alike, but they use the same mechanic dressed differently

- - - Updated - - -

Bring me cool void!

I always liked this look when it was done.

Class skins and class identities can be used to give a lot of extra options.

It isnt a substitute for a new class, and I expect 1 new class to come either after this system or along with it, but afterwards, it's going to be hard to introduce more unique new playstyle classes, we already have 36, those can be used for classes like necromancer, blademaster, thermatauge, locus Walker, spellblade, Vale Walker, Entropist, Runemaster etc etc.

If you are waiting for these to come as brand new playstyle like DH, DK and Monk, youd be waiting forever their are far many more classes in wow than blizz has time to make, especially since a new class is roughly once every 4-5 years