Idea: Race-themed Classes

[Rathnor The Flesher]

Now, what do I mean by "race-themed classes"? My idea is to create a sort of individuality and distinction between the races by making the shared class archetypes have unique appearance, names, and maybe even race-specific abilities regarding the class. Something that always bothered me, especially with race/class combos like Tauren Paladin, is that some classes look inappropriate for the race even when the lore supports it. When I think of a Sunwalker, I think of a tribal warrior who beckons the power of the sun to smite and heal with a very 'Tauren' theme, instead they still have golden crucifixes floating around them and the same Templar-ish aesthetic present in Human paladins.

There happens to be a few MMOs that accomplished this with decent results and I think it could add much-needed distinction between races. Thoughts? Input?

[Deadhank]

Yeah, always was a fan of having class combos be more race-specific. I mean, Troll Priests and Warlocks are not holy-based, neither are Tauren Paladins, like you said. Most classes on the alliance part are pretty ok tho, can't think of any that seems weird. But on the other hand, I think we need more tribalesque tauren pallies and more voodoo-ish troll casters.

Nice thread, excited to see some ideas!

[SkyBlueAri]

Because Blizzard only have a limited amount of people working on WoW and so they neglect large portions of the game in order to create average content to the style (with limited difference between content) that people have been used to for years. Also Blizzard don't seem to do things that they should do, rather they do things that they think people want them to do.

[Grand Crusader Absalom]

Not sure what you're asking. Classes that fit races better lore wise or come up with new classes that would fit races in a good way lore wise?
I don't think much could be added... Night Elf Sentinel perhaps?

[Deadhank]

Not sure what you're asking. Classes that fit races better lore wise or come up with new classes that would fit races in a good way lore wise?
I don't think much could be added... Night Elf Sentinel perhaps?

He means more specific class-combos. Like, Tauren Paladins have HUMAN paladins abilities, with so much crucifixes and holy light everywhere, instead of sun and tribal based abilities.

If I'm not mistaken, there were race-specific abilites per class back in classic, like a moon-thing for Nelf Priests, etc.


Basically, he wants to see more depth in the race/class combos.

[Dantastic]

Sunpriest, Moonpriest, Blood Knight, Loa Priest, Sunwalker, Exarch, Shadowpriests that exclusively use shadow, Voodooer (Ha, ha. Warlock.), Gnome Medic, etc. I'm all for this. I wouldn't like them changing the names of the abilities, no matter how weird some could get, specifically because of how it works in SWTOR. But different visuals would be a very, very welcomed addition to WoW. At least, for me. ...This could justify Gnomish Sharpshooters.

I also made a post about this a while back and everyone seemed to hate it. What happened? Lol.

[Sukhoi]

They could just rename classes for certain races

Night elf hunter = sentinel
Be pally = blood knight
Tauren pally = sunwalker
god mountaineer,technomage, plagueshifter,assasin,mountain king,blademaster the list literally goes on

[Rucati]

If I'm not mistaken, there were race-specific abilites per class back in classic, like a moon-thing for Nelf Priests, etc.

Yup, they did. And they got rid of them because they were stupid and annoying and served no purpose.

Though it was a bit different in vanilla, for example Undead Priests had Devouring Plague while say Night Elf didn't. Which is obviously a DPS difference.

That being said, no, it would be incredibly idiotic to name things differently based on race, not to mention it'd be a ton more work for quite literally zero benefit.

[Olrox]

I don't think this would be worth doing.

You're more or less asking for the return of stupid things like needing a Dwarf priest because they were the only ones that had Fear Ward; this would happen again with race-specific versions of existing classes; someone would find the "best" ones and those would be the ones used in raids.

You'd also asking for them to divert resources and such for something that's fairly trivial in the long run; I'd rather they just made a whole new class or new spec instead of something like this - the differences would lose their novelty quickly because you're not going to get anything drastically different out of it, just something that's ultimately a nuisance like Fear Ward was.

The concept is "neat" but it's impractical and I personally wouldn't advocate it if I had any power.

[Hitei]

They could just rename classes for certain races

Night elf hunter = sentinel
Be pally = blood knight
Tauren pally = sunwalker
god mountaineer,technomage, plagueshifter,assasin,mountain king,blademaster the list literally goes on

Sentinels are more like warriors.

[TheDangerZone]

I support doing this in a way it doesn't disrupts gameplay, i.e. just doing it for flavor, like the green fire questline.

Racially themed spell effects, and maybe even ability names, could be great, and the developers already have added several cosmetic changes to spells via glyphs.

My personal idea involves Glyphs; instead of changing one ability, they change several on a themed way: l

Glyph of Lunar Priesthood (Priest): Makes all the spells from the holy school silver instead of golden.

Glyph of Sun Walking (Paladin): replaces the paladin graphics for tauren themed ones.

Glyph of Vindication (Paladin): replaces paladin graphics for draenei themed ones.

and so on and so forth; Loa Priests, Dark Ranger Hunters, Witch Doctor Warlocks (Purple shadow instead of fire?) The possibilities are myriad.

[Thermaplugg yer butt]

I like that each race of shaman have their own totems. Something along those lines for other race-class combos would be nice.

[LiiLoSNK]

I made a night elf rogue named xzibit so I can stealth while I stealth.

[Thimagryn]

I support doing this in a way it doesn't disrupts gameplay, i.e. just doing it for flavor, like the green fire questline.

Racially themed spell effects, and maybe even ability names, could be great, and the developers already have added several cosmetic changes to spells via glyphs.

My personal idea involves Glyphs; instead of changing one ability, they change several on a themed way: l

Glyph of Lunar Priesthood (Priest): Makes all the spells from the holy school silver instead of golden.

Glyph of Sun Walking (Paladin): replaces the paladin graphics for tauren themed ones.

Glyph of Vindication (Paladin): replaces paladin graphics for draenei themed ones.

and so on and so forth; Loa Priests, Dark Ranger Hunters, Witch Doctor Warlocks (Purple shadow instead of fire?) The possibilities are myriad.

This.

I think they've proven with the Priest racials that they can't manage to balance different gameplay mechanics.

If it's glyphs, I think it could be doable. However, with them spending all that effort to make racial glyphs, it'll make me worried that down the line they'll just open it to all the races and we're back to square one about feeling like special snowflakes.

[Worgoblin]

I am definitely a fan of this idea. I would want it to be more than just a "flavor" thing though. There should be unique abilities for each race/class (screw balance). But it would create a huge workload to make race specific classes. So I don't see it ever happening.

[Wyrt]

At least for priests and paladins they should make them fit the race thematically even if they're mechanically the same.

[Lazy Gecko]

I think this was planned for every race/class during development of vanilla WoW. Only priest abilities made it to release, and then they were removed/redistributed to all races as part of the growing homogenization and watering down of traditional RPG design. And during TBC alliance and blood elf paladins had their own seals briefly, of course.

Glyphs would be a good way to at least bring back the choice for some variety.

[Viradiance]

Much easier to just provide glyphs / Green Fire questline style interfaces to change what "sect" your class belongs to.

Talk to a Paladin trainer in Thunder Bluff -> "I would like to train in the ways of the Sunwalker" -> "Pay X gold to gain Sunwalker spell effects?"


Ta-da.


Of course, they'd just put it on the Blizz store.

[Chonar]

I made some suggestions a few months back in regards to racial glyphs; many of which do the exact same thing as described here. Check 'em out:


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Purely Aesthetical
Human - Glyph of the Cult - Pales your skin and gives you eye markings, changing your appearance to that of a member of the Cult of the Damned.
Dwarf - Glyph of the Highlands - Replaces your chestpiece with a leather harness and adds blue tattoos to your body, changing your appearance to that of a Wildhammer Dwarf.
Dwarf - Glyph of Ragnaros - Darkens your skin, blackens your (facial) hair and reddens your eyes, changing your appearance to that of a Dark Iron Dwarf.
Dwarf - Glyph of Ulduar - Partially reverts the visual effects of the Curse of Flesh, changing your appearance to that of [an Earthen].
Dwarf - Glyph of High Kings - (WARRIOR ONLY) Your Avatar ability gives you a more steely appearance, and causes your equipped weapons to appear as a giant mace and axe.
Dwarf - Glyph of Inebriation - Being completely wasted on alcoholic beverages now animates you as being stunned. 30% chance every minute to spout random gibberish.
Nightelf - Glyph of Elune - Gives you the Elune's Blessing ability. Slightly illuminates the area around you while having a moon sigil above your head. Lasts 5 minutes, 20 minutes cooldown. (Similar to Tyrande's flavor buff at the end of WoE 5-man)
Nightelf - Glyph of Ancestral Weaponry - Changes the appearance of your ranged weapon and fired ammunition into that of a four-pronged Glaive. Auto-shot ammunition becomes invisible. Changes the appearance of your mainhand weapon into that of a three-pronged Glaive. When dualwielding, changes the appearance of both weapons into that of a two-pronged Glaive.
Draenei - Glyph of Inner Light - Makes the Sigil of the Naaru on the Draenei's forehead (related to Gift of the Naaru) permanently present.
Gnome - Glyph of Ulduar - Partially reverts the visual effects of the Curse of Flesh, changing your appearance to that of [a Mechagnome].
Gnome - Glyph of Greatest Invention - Attaches plateau heels under your boots, boosting you to near-dwarven height! My, you're a tall one!

Orc - Glyph of Garadar - Causes your skin to adopt a brown hue, changing your appearance to that of a Maghar Orc.
Orc - Glyph of Mannoroth - Changes your skin to adopt a red hue, changing your appearance to that of a Fel Orc. Your Blood Fury ability makes you grow 15% larger for the duration of the buff.
Troll - Glyph of Zul - Bulks you up, changing your bodytype into that of Forest Trolls. (would require a new forest femtroll body model)
Troll - Glyph of Headhunting - (HUNTER ONLY) Ranged weapons and fired ammunition now appear as thrown spears. Auto-shot ammunition becomes invisible.
Troll - Glyph of the Death Loa - When claiming a Killing Blow on an enemy player, there is a 20% chance Bwonsamdi will spawn, dancing and /laughing at your opponent's corpse.
Tauren - Glyph of Frozen Ancestry - Changes your form to adapt to a northern environment, changing your appearance to that of a Taunka.
Tauren - Glyph of the Chieftain - Your Warstomp leaves cracked fissures in the ground.
Tauren - Glyph of Bloodhoof - When you corpserun, you can sometimes see the spirit of Cairne in the distance, giving you a /cheer.
Undead - Glyph of the Spreading Sorrow - Grants you the Sorrowalk ability, leaving a trail of wilted flowers and blighted ground in your wake. (Lasts 15 seconds, 5 minute cooldown)
Undead - Glyph of Tablemanners - Cannibalism now causes bloodspatters while channelled, and leaves behind a Corpse Explosion meat model.
Undead - Glyph of Creeping Death - Your walk animation now makes you shamble instead, with your arms stretched outwards before you. Brains.
Blood Elf - Glyph of Sunwell Purity - Removes the demonic influence from your eyes, returning it to High Elven blue.
Blood Elf - Glyph of Warlock Envy - (MAGE ONLY) Gives you three floating Verdant Spheres around your shoulders.
Blood Elf - Glyph of the Vampyr - Darkens your skin and dulls our your hair color, giving you the appearance of Northrend Darkfallen. When you are hit by a critical strike, you sparkle.

Pandaren - Glyph of Surf - When under the effects of any waterwalking effect, you'll appear to be surfing on a straw hat instead.
Pandaren - Glyph of Extra Bouncy - When landing from a height that would kill a non-Pandaren, you bounce 2 more times with forward momentum equal to half of your initial movement, at 60% and 30% falling height respectivly.
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Other
Human - Glyph of Charisma - Replaces your Diplomacy ability with Charisma, allowing you to Seduce any target enemy humanoid. Channelled. (Lasts 30 seconds or until damaged)
Gnome - Glyph of Penultimate Tinkering - Gives you the Mech-Suit Ability. Allows you to board a Mech-Suit, increasing your health and all damage and healing done by 20% for 30 seconds... before it malfunctions and explodes, instantly killing you.
Draenei - Glyph of the Unforgotten - Replaces your Gift of the Naaru with Remembrance of the Naaru. Summons a spark of the Naaru to heal four random friendly targets for (half value of GotN). When out of mana, the miniature Naaru will follow you around for 2 minutes. (6 minute cooldown)
Worgen - Glyph of Home - Grants you the Longing Memory ability, teleporting you to a phased version of Gilneas with a functional bank, auction house and class trainers. Cast again to return to where you were.
Worgen - Glyph of Chihuahua-Bane - Changes the appearance of Female Worgen to that of Alpha Female Worgen. Changes the appearance of Male Worgen to that of a Classic Worgen.

Orc - Glyph of Lost Teachings - (WARRIOR ONLY) Upon placing a battle banner, it instead appears on your back, and causes your chestpiece, shoulders, shirt and tabard to become invisible, while equipping you with prayer beads, and causing your equipped weapon to appear as a twohander katana. Lasts for the duration of the battle banner.
Tauren - Glyph of the Forgotten Ability - Grants you the Plainsrunning ability, allowing you to travel at high speeds across land.
Goblin - Glyph of True Goblinism - Replaces your Rocket Barrage ability with Self Destruct, instantly killing yourself and dealing 35% of your HP as fire damage in an area around you. Causes knockback.
Goblin - Glyph of Ideas - Gives you the Product Sample ability. Product Sample conjures a single can of Kaja'Cola. It gives you IDEAS! (TM) (2 minute cooldown. Conjured items disappear if logged out for more than 15 minutes)

Pandaren - Glyph of the Iron Stomach - You're able to eat food usually limited to 5 levels above yours.
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[Lynneiah]

Sentinels are more like warriors.

Sentinels seem to be a cross between mail wearing Warriors and pet-less Hunters. Then again, 'Sentinel' just means 'member of the Night Elf army', so I'm sure there's specializations there.


Something I'd also like to see is more racially themed gear available to all classes of that race. Let Night Elf priests dress like actual priests of the moon, give tribal plate gear for Tauren Paladins and Warriors (different sets), etc. Make them stat-less transmog gear if you have to. Maybe have them as rewards for race-specific quests?