Is the armor change discussion finally over? Can I come out now?
I've believed class skins were coming for a while. I honestly think it's one of the reasons why they stopped class sets. I think they only brought them back for 9.2 because so many people complained, but having class sets every tier make class skins unmanageable so I imagine they won't have them in 10.0 if class skins come.
They make sense, they're the same "quantity over quality" concept as allied races, where they can give us the things people have been asking for with less work.
I was working on a visual representation of this idea for a while but never finished it so here:
Class skins:
Warrior = Dragon Knight (red Dragon themed character customisation and abilities)
Paladin = Spellblade (Arcane themed abilities)
Shaman = Dragonsworn (Dragon themed character customisation and abilities from all flights)
Hunter = Dark Ranger (death themed character customisation and abilities and undead pets)
Druid = Dreamer (green Dragon themed character customisation and abilities as well as Dragon forms)
Rogue = Infiltrator (Black dragon themed character customisation and abilities, black dragonkin form when stealthed)
Monk = Brawler (non-kungfu/panda related abilities)
Mage = Spell-binder (blue Dragon themed character customisation and abilities)
Priest = Timelord (Bronze Dragon themed character customisation and abilities for holy abilities, infinite themed for shadow)
Warlock = Necromancer (death themed character customisation and abilities, undead minions replace demons)
A lot of Dragon stuff, but if that's the expansion theme it makes sense to me. I also feel like hero classes won't get class skins but that's just a vibe I have.
Class Skins are an idea I just absolutely cannot get behind. Especially at the cost of actually putting the effort in for a new class.
What are they, really? Cosmetics, masquerading as a different class while never actually being one? What’s left for people who want an actual new flavor to play with, almost 7 years since the last one?
Nothing, apparently. Just iteration, and people excited over the idea of cosplaying as other classes. No effort from anyone but the art and UI teams.
And can we stop pretending Warriors have any dragon flavor? They have dragon roar, a move that barely qualifies, and are otherwise just cut and paste warriors (and that’s fine, by the way)
Don’t shoehorn dragons on to everything and just let dragons be their own thing.
Class skins are just lazy ways of making multiple new classes at once. Demon Hunter could have just been a class skin for a rogue, etc. Pretty much every single one I saw except for things like Dark Ranger and Blademaster, can just be realized into full classes.
think class skin as what they did with warlock green fire, and go beyond just color. Yes they can make a dragon class as lazy as DH, but most of the class skin are not dragon related imo.
There is a lot of "things" that aren't classes on their own, and would only dilute the classes we have, like "warden" or "dark ranger", so, those as class skin or 4spec would be the right way to go.
but we all know blizzard, most profit for less effort, so its hard to say what it will be, the "right" decision in my eyes is to redo the MOP scenario dragon class and dragon race, but maybe is asking too much for then.
IMO Class Skins are a bad idea, replace them with Racial Class Skins, things that will never become their own class, so each unique racial class lore (Sunwalkers, Blademasters, etc) can be realized.
I'd like them to somewhat "simplify" the main story of future xpacs and have the villains be somewhat more straigthforward. The problem with the Jailer was how convoluded all of his intensions and plans was, and why he did what he did. heck, SL is done and dusted and we still dont have a clear picture.
While streamlining the main story and make it cool and easy to understand, they could also develop cool smaller questlines in each new zone. Here they could make it much more complicated and layered, here they can have freedom to tell a cool little story but its by no means a critical part of the main story of the xpac.
Look at the world in classic. All those quests in all the zones. All of them tell a story. Some(many probably) not very interesting, some are very cool and rather complex. Some have long questchains. It tells a story that belongs within the world. It might not be about the main bad guy, but its a story worth told in the game. This helps building a greater sense of a "living" world.
At the same time - these quests arent needed to do, but cool to experience.
Its getting a bit boring that every zones is jammed with "follow this streamlined questline that is 99% about the main villain of this xpac" repeated in every zone.