Class Concept - The Sorcerer

[Edlarel]

Alright, I mentioned working on this in an earlier thread, and I now have some of it that I'd like to share. This is my idea for a sorcerer class, should it be introduced with a Dragon Isles expansion.

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Note 1: This is just a fun design exercise. While I'll accept feedback of any kind, at least be constructive about it. Since it's late here, I'll also check back tomorrow with more emphasis on base abilities, leveling up, and talents. For now, I offer the broad strokes.

Note 2: I have made every effort to locate artist credits (reverse image search and so on), but could only come up with McF4rtson over on Hearthpwn for the class icon. The background is from a generic wallpaper site with no credit. Credit of course, to the artists, and the layout is based on Blizzard's class pages on their website. I own none of this work, and the concepts put forth are intended only as free fan content, so anybody is welcome to them so long as it's continued to be used in such a capacity with credit where due.



Chosen of the Aspects

With their magic waning, the former aspects of life, magic, and time have joined the Black Prince in his search for the Dragon Isles, fabled to hold what remains of the power Tyr once granted them. In order to succeed, the dragons must rely on mortals, so they have used the last of their power to imbue those willing to wield it, turning them into sorcerers. The fate of Azeroth’s dragons is now up to the mortals they once protected.

Class Information

Sorcerers are capable of tapping into the magic found within dragons, be it arcane, life, or time magic. Lifebinders heal their allies and keep them fighting, while spellweavers assail their enemies directly from a safe distance and timewalkers stay close to enemy and ally alike to control the flow of battle.



Alextrasza, Nozdormu, and Kalecgos. The three remaining dragon aspects. Or, at least, they used to be. To defeat their brother, Deathwing the Destroyer, the aspects sacrificed their immortality and much of their power. Now, as they search the Dragon Isles for the lost power of Tyr, they have imbued sorcerers with that magic in the hopes that the mortals of Azeroth will protect dragonkind as the aspects protected them for so long.

Features
Lifebinder – Healer
Lifebinders use the magic given to them by the red dragonflight to heal their allies and keep them in battle longer. They use dragonfire to create the breath of life, which grants the sorcerer and all of her allies a temporary boost to their hit points and can even bring back the dead.

Spellweaver – Ranged Damage Dealer
Spellweavers channel the power of the blue dragonflight, reigning arcane power down upon an enemy. For spellweavers, dragonfire is like a second mana bar, and each of their spells is considerably stronger when they cast from it, but it can exhaust quickly if used without restraint. Their arcane breath ignites power in their allies.

Timewalker – Melee/Medium Range Damage Dealer; Control
Timewalkers weave the strands of time with the magic of the bronze dragonflight. Capitalizing on their strength, these ageless heroes warp reality around themselves to help allies regain power and magic quickly while slowing down enemy attacks and spells. With their dragonfire, timewalkers can even create a bubble of space safe from one of an enemy’s abilities or stop time completely for a few moments while they stack the odds in their favor.

Starts at 1st level.
Sorcerers have a unique introductory cinematic that leads straight into the starting experience. At the end of a losing battle, Nozdormu sacrifices his sanity to send you back in time so that you might correct the flow of time.

Races
Any race can be a sorcerer. With the introductory cinematic covering how you got to where you are, you are free to experience the starting levels of the game without destroying the fabric of reality by being there; hopefully.

Equipment
Sorcerers wear cloth armor. They can wield axes, fist weapons, polearms, staves, and swords. Spellweavers and lifebinders can also wield wands and offhand items. Armor of Nozdormu passively transforms Intellect on cloth gear a sorcerer wears to Strength and increases its armor rating by an amount based on the sorcerer’s level. The Hands of Time allow sorcerers to choose between dual wielding or fighting with a single, two-handed weapon without sacrificing their overall dps.

Resources
A sorcerer’s primary resource is mana. As the sorcerer uses their mana to cast spells, they build dragonfire, which is the power their current aspect grants them via their specialization. Lifebinders use dragonfire to generate healing in areas of effect and as healing over time. Spellweavers can use it in combination with their current focus to deal greater single-target damage, cleave between up to 5 creatures, or burst damage in an area. Finally, timewalkers use large amounts of dragonfire to block incoming abilities entirely by generating a bubble where time is unaffected by them or to stop time centered on themselves or a fixed point. When used right, it can help prevent potential 0% wipes or reset an enemy’s rotation as if it went back in time before it could use something deadly.

Breath Weapon
No dragon is complete without their breath weapon, and sorcerers are no exception. As a lifebinder, a sorcerer can generate the breath of life, which grants temporary hit points that disappear after a short time if not used and returns the dead to life (up to the current limit of combat resurrections). When a spellweaver breathes their arcane breath the magic enchanting their allies’ equipment gets stronger for up to 1 minute. Timewalker sorcerers breathe scouring sands that waste away enemy stamina as they age prematurely. While the enemy might regain their missing health over time, it could be too late.

[FossilFree]

I like your concept! We are missing a dragon magic type class in the game too, so this would work nicely. The text in the images could be a bit bigger though, I had to squint even after opening.

[Teriz]

Unfortunately, this is pretty much the Shaman class using mage-based magic instead of the elements. They really should be wearing mail armor, since that tends to be the armor group that combines range with melee (Shaman/Hunters). Also, the lack of abilities is rather disappointing.

[Futhark]

A Sorcerer is a great idea. It's one of two iconic D&D classes that hasn't been in the game yet (other than Bard) and having Draconic powers fits perfectly into WoW lore. To be a Sorc though, it would make more sense to be born with these powers instead of them being granted.

[The Stormbringer]

A Sorcerer is a great idea. It's one of two iconic D&D classes that hasn't been in the game yet (other than Bard) and having Draconic powers fits perfectly into WoW lore. To be a Sorc though, it would make more sense to be born with these powers instead of them being granted.

To be fair, it can (kind of) be both. They would just imbue the future parents of children with their 'gift', and then the children are born empowered. Sort of like how bloodlines work in D&D.

[Myradin]

A Sorcerer is a great idea. It's one of two iconic D&D classes that hasn't been in the game yet (other than Bard) and having Draconic powers fits perfectly into WoW lore. To be a Sorc though, it would make more sense to be born with these powers instead of them being granted.

To be fair, D&D's definition of sorc isn't the actual definition of sorcerer.

Personally I like the idea of calling them sorcerer's over calling them Dragonsworn or Dragon Knights or Dragon Chosen or whatever.

Though at the same time i'm sure there's plenty of mobs in the game with the title of sorcerer who have no dragon connections and are just mages effectively.

[Futhark]

To be fair, it can (kind of) be both. They would just imbue the future parents of children with their 'gift', and then the children are born empowered. Sort of like how bloodlines work in D&D.

Since it is well established that dragons take humanoid forms when dealing with mortals, would just be much easier to make the new class as "dragons" taking the form of the race you choose. You can add horns and stuff just like the Demon Hunter class adds horns and stuff.

- - - Updated - - -

Personally I like the idea of calling them sorcerer's over calling them Dragonsworn or Dragon Knights or Dragon Chosen or whatever.

Me too. A lot.

[Aucald]

I think it would be a really cool idea to expand this concept and make it similar to FF14's implementation of the Red Mage, a class that combines ranged spell-casting and melee, weaving the two in and out with one another, albeit with more of WoW's iconic flair. You could have these Sorcerers in their DPS mode basically build up a secondary power gauge over time as they use their abilities, then leap or dash into melee combat for a bit to use some powerful mid-range CD's to deal heavy damage (melee and/or breath weapons) then leap or fade back to ranged to rebuild power with a basic spell rotation. Maybe include a draconic transformation when this happens, gaining scales, size, horns, or other features to show when their draconic essence is at its apex.

[8bithamster]

Unfortunately, this is pretty much the Shaman class using mage-based magic instead of the elements. They really should be wearing mail armor, since that tends to be the armor group that combines range with melee (Shaman/Hunters). Also, the lack of abilities is rather disappointing.

Hey look! Teriz hating everything that isn't Tinker. How unexpected.


Cool concept tbh, way better than most others we got so far.

[Triceron]

Reminds me of the Dragon Disciples prestige class from D&D. I like it

[Cracked]

I think it's hard to come up with a class that would not encroach on existing class identity. Sorcerer, even with just the name itself, is basically a mage. I didn't like Demon Hunters for how they basically just diluted existing classes, and I would hate this even more. I appreciate the work you put into it, but no, thanks.

[Teriz]

Hey look! Teriz hating everything that isn't Tinker. How unexpected.

I don't hate the concept. I'm just pointing out it's similarities to an already existing class.

[Edlarel]

Hey all, thank you so much for your replies. I've been hard at work on this today, and have made some great progress on the abilities/spells/talents. Here's a look at the class-defining abilities. They also have standard fare like a basic heal and a fast heal, but there's no need to focus on those at the moment.

[Amarys]

While I like the idea of another magic class, I don't like the idea of it being able to heal and all the melee stuff. Maybe with a proper lighting/electricity/arc based damage spec. Yes shaman has some lightning spells but elemental isn't really about using lightning attacks, same way as there is the mage fire spec and there are lots of fire based abilities in other classes.

Also if you want them to make it connected to the dragons, then yes, mail would be a better idea. First because the game needs more mail classes and second, dragonscale is considered mail, you can't get more dragony than that.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Timewalker, I like it. I am not into dragons, though. It seems I played Skyrim way too much. Haha

[DatToffer]

I think it would be a really cool idea to expand this concept and make it similar to FF14's implementation of the Red Mage, a class that combines ranged spell-casting and melee, weaving the two in and out with one another, albeit with more of WoW's iconic flair. You could have these Sorcerers in their DPS mode basically build up a secondary power gauge over time as they use their abilities, then leap or dash into melee combat for a bit to use some powerful mid-range CD's to deal heavy damage (melee and/or breath weapons) then leap or fade back to ranged to rebuild power with a basic spell rotation. Maybe include a draconic transformation when this happens, gaining scales, size, horns, or other features to show when their draconic essence is at its apex.

The dragon flavor really helps making it not just a clone of the red mage.

Would you see it as a stance thing that changes your spells from ranged to melee (like a firebolt becoming a fire breath) or having separate abilities who only work (or work best) when they are used in the right form ?

[BB8]

O yes! Signed up for implementation

[Aucald]

The dragon flavor really helps making it not just a clone of the red mage.

Would you see it as a stance thing that changes your spells from ranged to melee (like a firebolt becoming a fire breath) or having separate abilities who only work (or work best) when they are used in the right form ?

The base idea would be similar to the Red Mage, in that you start as a typical ranged caster using basic spells - as you fight, you build up a secondary power gauge for a Draconic transformation, which upon hitting a certain point lights up the ability to transform. When you hit the transform button, you dash or leap toward your current target to enter melee range and your spells become melee or PBAoE type abilities (e.g. dragon breath), and your abilities deal extra damage while your secondary resource depletes. Once depleted, you would leap or dash back to ranged and revert back to your normal ranged abilities, awaiting the next window for transformation.

Different abilities and CD's could fill or deplete the secondary power gauge at different speeds, perhaps like having a longer CD that evokes a full dragon transformation but empties the gauge all at once, allowing you to do heavy damage to single or multiple targets, whereas a normal transformation involves just a minute in a dragonkin-like form, doing greater damage in melee before returning to humanoid form.

[DatToffer]

The base idea would be similar to the Red Mage, in that you start as a typical ranged caster using basic spells - as you fight, you build up a secondary power gauge for a Draconic transformation, which upon hitting a certain point lights up the ability to transform. When you hit the transform button, you dash or leap toward your current target to enter melee range and your spells become melee or PBAoE type abilities (e.g. dragon breath), and your abilities deal extra damage while your secondary resource depletes. Once depleted, you would leap or dash back to ranged and revert back to your normal ranged abilities, awaiting the next window for transformation.

Different abilities and CD's could fill or deplete the secondary power gauge at different speeds, perhaps like having a longer CD that evokes a full dragon transformation but empties the gauge all at once, allowing you to do heavy damage to single or multiple targets, whereas a normal transformation involves just a minute in a dragonkin-like form, doing greater damage in melee before returning to humanoid form.

That seems nice as long as you get some control over the transformation, something similar to Greymane gameplay on Heroes of the Storm, because being automatically bumped out of melee once your bar is empty would be a bother.

If you don't have to wait for the power gauge to be fully charged before transforming, that leaves some flexibility. And for the reverse, if you get a disengage ability lighting up once the gauge is depleted, it allows you more control over your transition.

Now I think the only thing I don't like about this whole concept is naming it "Sorcerer", lol.

[Aucald]

That seems nice as long as you get some control over the transformation, something similar to Greymane gameplay on Heroes of the Storm, because being automatically bumped out of melee once your bar is empty would be a bother.

If you don't have to wait for the power gauge to be fully charged before transforming, that leaves some flexibility. And for the reverse, if you get a disengage ability lighting up once the gauge is depleted, it allows you more control over your transition.

Now I think the only thing I don't like about this whole concept is naming it "Sorcerer", lol.

I would envision that the transformation would be an ability itself, triggered on demand once your secondary energy reached a certain threshold. Though you could also have a possible mechanic where you could "overcharge" the secondary gauge and perhaps force an involuntary transformation, basically going berserk for a short time but maybe also having some deleterious effects on yourself or others?

I would also agree that "Sorcerer" as a name for this kind of class doesn't fit, either. Kind of hard to think of a class name that really sums up the class, though. "Dragon Knight" seems more melee-oriented, whereas "Dragon Mage" feels a bit redundant. "Mageblade?" "Draconic Adept?" "Scalesworn?" "Talon Mage?"