The Return of Faction-locked Class?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Where is that picture left bottom from? I've never seen that

By Matthew McKeown. Here's the link to his artstation.

[Triceron]

It's too late to make Druids exclusive to Night Elves, it's too late for Faction-locked anything.

[Jester Joe]

They actually joined the Horde during BFA, then Blizzard did nothing with that but get our hopes up.

The Alliance killed them in their war campaign is why. Or at least, their leader.

[Plehnard]

By Matthew McKeown. Here's the link to his artstation.

Thank you very much

[loras]

Not anymore. She began raising Rogues as Dark Rangers because their stealth powers were more beneficial. Pretty much all Dark Rangers now are ranged Rogues. When Blizzard made Survival melee, Sub should have been made Dark Ranger.

You realise hunters can use camouflage(stealth) nowadays, right?

[username993720]

Sooner or later this expansion will once again be Cata 2.0 going MoP/WoD 2.0 with theme veiled island+dragon to old gods+time travel and we be heading back to Pre-Sundered Azeroth...


Here comes the Shadow Hunter for Horde &
Night Warrior for Alliance with Neutral Hero class Dark Ranger

What is your take on going back to the faction locked classes now that, race x class locked playable characters is once again introduced, with cross faction play also be implemented and how WoW is going retro with their "rehashed" Talent tree?

Thoughts? Comments?

No. Shadow Hunters and Night Warriors can be Alliance and Horde too.
For example, the witchcraft of the Drust could allow Kul Tirans to be Shadow Hunters. Gilnean Harvest Witches might open up Shadow Hunters to Worgen.
In the Horde, the Zandalari Lun'alai, Shadowmoon Clan and Nightborne could all be Night Warriors based on their connection to the Moon and stars.

[melzas]

Replace "Night Warrior" with Warden. Warden is far more iconic and has been far more requested as a playable class or a class skin than Night Warrior.




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The overuse of the old gods makes me appreciate TBC and WoD more. The only expansions with no old god presence.

Warden is a horrible idea though. Class that fits only one race and one gender, on top of it is always presented in one armor set, using one type of weapon and with abilities overlapping with other classes? Just because they are staple in wow lore doesn't mean they would make a good player class. In fact it's the worst idea for a class thats being tossed around by people with very little imagination.

[vertigo12]

If cross faction guilds ever become a reality, then "faction-locked class" becomes redundant and would have no reason to exist.

The whole point of faction-locked classes is that the other faction would not have access to that class, and cross-faction guilds would go completely against that idea, rendering it moot.

It even validates that a cross-faction guild raid be it 10/20 or 25 man would make faction locked class be more relevant since you are increasing synergy and strategy by not just having racials to benefit a group but having 2 or more faction locked class accessible with the feature of unlocking a faction/racial locked skills or talent be unlockable for all the toons of the same class.

This way class or spec specific quests will once again be a major content similar to how artifact weapons have been a major theme in Legion.

[Ielenia]

It even validates that a cross-faction guild raid be it 10/20 or 25 man would make faction locked class be more relevant since you are increasing synergy and strategy by not just having racials to benefit a group but having 2 or more faction locked class accessible with the feature of unlocking a faction/racial locked skills or talent be unlockable for all the toons of the same class.

This way class or spec specific quests will once again be a major content similar to how artifact weapons have been a major theme in Legion.

No. No, it would not.

Again: the whole reason for the existence of "faction locked class" is so the other faction does not have access to it. That's it. And with cross-faction grouping now being a thing, that entire reason for the existence of "faction locked class" is rendered moot, as in, irrelevant and unnecessary.

There is no reason to add faction-locked classes... if both factions can access said class through cross-faction grouping.

[Temp name]

It even validates that a cross-faction guild raid be it 10/20 or 25 man would make faction locked class be more relevant since you are increasing synergy and strategy by not just having racials to benefit a group but having 2 or more faction locked class accessible with the feature of unlocking a faction/racial locked skills or talent be unlockable for all the toons of the same class.

This way class or spec specific quests will once again be a major content similar to how artifact weapons have been a major theme in Legion.

Why would it matter that there's faction locked classes when you can just play with them as the other faction anyway?

[vertigo12]

Why would it matter that there's faction locked classes when you can just play with them as the other faction anyway?

As content. The same way or treatment why there are allied races. They have focused majorly on class with legiondaries, allied races with BfA, covenants with SL.

If you have a specific class that let's you empower a skill or be unlocked through specialization quest it becomes a major content. Instead of releasing all specializations or class you can time gate it at future patch as part of story driven content and a replacement for borrowed power.

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No. No, it would not.

Again: the whole reason for the existence of "faction locked class" is so the other faction does not have access to it. That's it. And with cross-faction grouping now being a thing, that entire reason for the existence of "faction locked class" is rendered moot, as in, irrelevant and unnecessary.

There is no reason to add faction-locked classes... if both factions can access said class through cross-faction grouping.

That was not the rationale behind why there is Shaman for Horde and Paladin for Alliance back in vanilla. The same reason why both faction were able to have that specific class on TBC with Blood Elves and Draenei.

It was meant for exclusive content for faction so there would still be content that you experience/revisit if you already have one previously from the other faction. Now they have a neutral race x class locked playable character.

Nothing in WoW is set in stone. Something removed can alway return.

[Ielenia]

As content. The same way or treatment why there are allied races. They have focused majorly on class with legiondaries, allied races with BfA, covenants with SL.

If you have a specific class that let's you empower a skill or be unlocked through specialization quest it becomes a major content. Instead of releasing all specializations or class you can time gate it at future patch as part of story driven content and a replacement for borrowed power.

And why couldn't said content be available to both factions? All "epic questing" are all faction-agnostic, anyways.

That was not the rationale behind why there is Shaman for Horde and Paladin for Alliance back in vanilla. The same reason why both faction were able to have that specific class on TBC with Blood Elves and Draenei.

You're confusing lore reasons with gameplay reasons. Also, the whole idea of "faction-locked" class is more of a hassle than it has to be because that would mean the faction-specific classes have to be "similar but not the same" to each other, which was the case with paladins with auras and shamans with totems back during vanilla. Why? Because of PvP that isn't cross-faction (to my knowledge).

Especially since is the fact that there would be some Alliance players who would want to play the "Horde class" but is not interested in going through the Horde leveling and stories, and vice-versa.

Nothing in WoW is set in stone. Something removed can alway return.

That doesn't mean they should. And faction-exclusive classes is one such idea that shouldn't return because it brings no benefits.

[Cheezits]

Didn't Blizzard JUST say they are on the slow track to add every class for every race?

[Triceron]

To be honest, Class Skins are the best way to go about this. We're only really missing a change in ability names and spell FX to really sell a new class concept. Throw in some slight customizations and heritage armor like the Dark Ranger customizations, and we're set. Like, with the Dark Ranger I'd say all Blizzard really needs to do is swap out a few Hunter abilities with Dark Ranger themed ones either through a glyph, talent or customization option.

Just offer customizations for the races that deserve to have their own variations, like Tauren Sunwalker with Sun-based spell names and FX, Light-based Draenei Vindicator replacing Shadow Priest, Kul Tiran Tide Sage with Water effects replacing Lava. This would be better than completely changing out a class to be 'Horde' and 'Alliance', since they could tailor all the differences to be race-specific instead of class-specific.

[vertigo12]

To be honest, Class Skins are the best way to go about this. We're only really missing a change in ability names and spell FX to really sell a new class concept. Throw in some slight customizations and heritage armor like the Dark Ranger customizations, and we're set. Like, with the Dark Ranger I'd say all Blizzard really needs to do is swap out a few Hunter abilities with Dark Ranger themed ones either through a glyph, talent or customization option.

Just offer customizations for the races that deserve to have their own variations, like Tauren Sunwalker with Sun-based spell names and FX, Light-based Draenei Vindicator replacing Shadow Priest, Kul Tiran Tide Sage with Water effects replacing Lava. This would be better than completely changing out a class to be 'Horde' and 'Alliance', since they could tailor all the differences to be race-specific instead of class-specific.

Back in Vanilla there was differentiation between a Priestess of the Moon and a Forsaken Shadow priest. They slowly began to remove these uniqueness and standardize priest skills in exchange for access. They removed talents trees when MoP came and here they are reintroducing them. In fact they have been constantly face lifting a class by reducing talent tiers/ranks, and then prune the branches itself into talent tables allowing you to slide across the same rank. They try to remove talents and put them back as legiondaries traits, removed devouring plague only to bring it back as insanity resource spender in the future.

They continuously do this as if convinced that their players will not recognize and even remember.

[Djaye]

they are making the game more inclusive. so, no. this is kinda the opposite direction the game has been going and looks to continue.