What New Class Would've Worked Well with Shadowlands?

[Kayb]

Ghostbusters class

[Blackmist]

Most of these suggestions would involve adding ranged specs to the game.

Know how many they've added since launch? Minus one. Blizzard will sooner cut of their own testicles with a pencil sharpener blade than add a ranged spec.

[Triceron]

My personal favourite class concept was the 'Shadow Stalker' from the Dark Prophet fake leak.

It was a mix of Dark Ranger and Shadow Hunter into one class. A dark and shadowy physical dps/magic caster hybrid who deals damage at range with either bows or throwing weapons. There would be a strong Voodoo connection to one or two of the specs, and it would bring in some of the Troll culture that's missing in classes right now.

It had a Phys Ranged DPS spec, a Spellcasting DPS spec and a Spirit-based Healing spec. I didn't like the idea at first because of the weird mix of Dark Rangers and Voodoo, but it started to make sense if you bridge it all under the concept of Death/Undeath and their ties to higher powers granting life after death for the purpose of vengeance.

I think it could have bridged into Shadowlands with the Bwonsamedi connection.

[Archmage Xaxxas]

Necromancer in a place where everything is already dead seems a weird fit to me.. ya gonna toss corpses at corpses?.

This is how The Necrolords defend the Shadowlands anyways.

[Hammerfest]

None. No new class would have fit with Shadowlands that we don't already have.

[Nero Duskwind]

Necromancer was a no-brainer for Shadowlands, and was almost expected. When it wasn't announced, it was kind of a letdown. I agree with most of your choices except Night Elves, just doesn't fit a race that relies so heavily on the cosmic force of Life. I would do...

Necromancer Races:
Alliance:
- Human
- Worgen
- Gnome
- Void Elf
- Dwarf

Horde:
- Troll
- Orc
- Undead
- Goblin
- Nightborne
- Zandalari (with their closeness to Loas of Death, seems cool and logical)

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Shadowlands laid the groundwork for Necros becoming a class in the following expansion. The story as its unfolding is recasting DKs (Knights of the Ebon Blade specifically) as stewards who guard the pierced veil between life and death. It could potentially recast Necromancers in a manner similar Diablo 3, where they would exist at the opposite spectrum of Druids but use their death magics to preserve the same cycle of Life>Death>Rebirth.

[Pufster]

People still asking for necromancers? It doesn’t make any sense.

We have:
1) unholy dk which focused on undead minions and diseases.
2) a ranged cloth class focused on minions: demo warlock

Where does Necromancer fit in all this? It doesn’t. People use the argument of demo warlock and demon hunter, which is completely different. Demo warlock had 1 ability removed in favor of DH. Also one is magic ranged other melee.
We already have everything a necromancer could do in other classes.

[Zentail]

Fun fact: Death Knights are actually Rune-based and are more like Rune-Knights (via lore). Gul'dan raised them from the corpses of a slaughtered Warlock group. They're basically Warlocks that were brought back from the dead and infused with Ethereal magic. That's why they don't have hardly any death access via spells and abilities. (Unholy is disease/plague, not Death. No class/spec in the game currently handles Death).

[Triceron]

People still asking for necromancers? It doesn’t make any sense.

We have:
1) unholy dk which focused on undead minions and diseases.
2) a ranged cloth class focused on minions: demo warlock

Where does Necromancer fit in all this? It doesn’t. People use the argument of demo warlock and demon hunter, which is completely different. Demo warlock had 1 ability removed in favor of DH. Also one is magic ranged other melee.
We already have everything a necromancer could do in other classes.

Exactly where the Paladin fits despite there being a Warrior and a Priest class perfectly available to allow you to fight with melee or heal/spellcast with Holy abilities.

Would you say the Paladin doesn't fit in WoW? Think hard about this. Think hard about the 'but we already have X' arguments you are about to use, and apply this to Paladin. What does a Paladin actually bring to the table that isn't already covered by Warriors and Priests?

The end result is always in having a class that fulfills a certain fantasy and identity. Necromancers master the art of undeath through magical and alchemical means, whereas the Death Knight is a former champion of the Scourge who simply uses Necromancy as a tool, by means of channeling that power through their Runeblades. While a Death Knight has the same capabilities as a Necromancer does, it's the same kind of similarity between Holy Paladins and Priests, Frost Mages and Frost DKs, Resto Shamans and Mistweavers (Water-based spirit magic healing); Feral Druids and Rogues, and now Demon Hunters and Warlocks.

The differences come from the fact the DK is a Rune-based melee undead minion summoner while a Necromancer would be employing spells and alchemy alongside summoned minions. It's not a matter of singular specs or abilities, it's how they work together in a class.

[Susanoo]

As the op and other have stated Necromancer would of made the most sense for Shadowlands.

My 3 necromancer specs would be:

Summoner- Spells revolve around summons hordes of undead to overwhelm your enemies.
(Probably would be a bit similar to demo lock)

Lich- A shadowfrost caster that’s deals uses both damage over time and massive spell bursts.
(Would be a fusion of shadow priest and fire mage. Uses dots but has a big burst spell and cool down transforming the user into a Lich)

Blood: A dark healer that uses sinister blood magic to heal their allies while draining the blood and life essence from their enemies.
(A fusion of a disc priest and aff lock)

Alliance Races:

Human
Dwarf
Gnome
Worgen
Kul Tiran (Drustvar)
Dark Iron
Void Elf
Draenei (controversial but there are canon Draenei necromancers in the lore. Look at Auchindoun and the Auchenai faction)

Horde races:

Orc
Mag’har (Shadowmoon Clan)
Troll
Zandalari
Undead
Goblin
Blood Elf
Vulpera (If they can be warlocks they can be necromancers. Necromancer probably makes more sense than Lock. Could of learned Necromancer arts from the Zandalari)

[Kyphael]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Shadowlands laid the groundwork for Necros becoming a class in the following expansion. The story as its unfolding is recasting DKs (Knights of the Ebon Blade specifically) as stewards who guard the pierced veil between life and death. It could potentially recast Necromancers in a manner similar Diablo 3, where they would exist at the opposite spectrum of Druids but use their death magics to preserve the same cycle of Life>Death>Rebirth.

I hope so, we did get some hints that the mortal races of Shadowlands would come back to Azeroth with more knowledge of Death itself, and I think they've acknowledged subtly the disappointment in part of the player base at not getting a new class, specifically Necromancers, in an expansion about Death. If next expansion deals with The Void, known enemy of Death, then I could see the cosmic force of Death being used as a weapon against The Void in the form of Necromancers, and I'd be happy with it.

[Nero Duskwind]

I hope so, we did get some hints that the mortal races of Shadowlands would come back to Azeroth with more knowledge of Death itself, and I think they've acknowledged subtly the disappointment in part of the player base at not getting a new class, specifically Necromancers, in an expansion about Death. If next expansion deals with The Void, known enemy of Death, then I could see the cosmic force of Death being used as a weapon against The Void in the form of Necromancers, and I'd be happy with it.

If Death knights were able to get a completely new iteration from WC2 to WC3, I don't see why it can't be done for Necromancers. It go from the original Frost/Disease to Death/Anima and continue the "less-is-more" two spec trend that they began with Demon Hunters.

[Lilly32]

After watching an Arena fight on Twitch Id like to see more creative options for current specs. Saw a DK played as a range only using his ghouls. Other ideas could be Warlocks getting Meta Form back and being able to Tank would be fun. Rift had an interesting Mage spec called Chloromancer that allowed them to heal by doing damage sort of like Disc Priest with Smite Healing. Rogues are obviously open to some kind of Bard spec that lets them become more of a support role. Honestly the old Tank/Healer/3x DPS model is kinda old and Id rather see a change to that before a new class. Something that gives current classes a different way to play but still makes sense.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I would say probably Necromancer or Lich class, if we were going to get any new classes, these two would be one of the options I'd want.

IMO I do agree Shadowlands would have been the perfect timing for the Necromancer Class, but specially re-framing it as a more broad "communion with the death" type of class, specially since this expansion is all about understanding how the afterlife and its denizens work. I mean even their resource could be souls, and overall there could be an overlay of said specs with the covenants, but not a 1:1

So Necromancer could have been more like a spec of this class, which overall would be close to Maldraxxus. Maybe another spec could have been more about controlling spirits/communing with ancestors, and would call to the Shaman/Spirit Walker and Auchenai fantasies -and tangentially relating all of that to Ardenweald to a degree- and the third one could have been straight up Vampires heh!

Gonna leave Bastion out cause IDK, I do think they already overlap a lot with Priests in that respect, specially Discipline.

[arkanon]

People still asking for necromancers? It doesn’t make any sense.

We have:
1) unholy dk which focused on undead minions and diseases.
2) a ranged cloth class focused on minions: demo warlock

Bugger - going to have to remove either demo warlock or BM hunter now - both ranged focused classes focused on minions. Such a shame, they are such popular Specs.

Now we are going to have to remove either Fire Mage or Destro lock as well.

And spriest and affliction seem doomed!

Oh dear - now what on earth will we do with the THREE leather classes that all work off a builder / spender combo system and focus on melee combat. Sorry rogues, monks, and druids - looks like some of you are gone!

This is really sad news, until this post i had no idea how bad this issue was! But now that you have brought it to light, it looks like we will be losing 40-50% of our specs!

[Ragnarohk]

Necromancer was a no-brainer for Shadowlands, and was almost expected. When it wasn't announced, it was kind of a letdown. I agree with most of your choices except Night Elves, just doesn't fit a race that relies so heavily on the cosmic force of Life. I would do...

Necromancer Races:
Alliance:
- Human
- Worgen
- Gnome
- Void Elf
- Dwarf

Horde:
- Troll
- Orc
- Undead
- Goblin
- Nightborne
- Zandalari (with their closeness to Loas of Death, seems cool and logical)

I Honestly don't get why people keep asking for necromancer. The Death Knight is Blizzards unique interpretation of that class. You would have to gut DK and warlock to generate a class that resembles what we already have.

[kuhntasmash]

Not specifically entering Shadowlands, but Leaving Shadowlands, I do see the potential of a new Hero class though.

Something akin to Guild wars 2 "Revenant".
Class with 4 speccs (granted, clearly unlikely since monks have 4 schools w/ 1 not being realized) based around the 4 convenants.

Kyrian, ranged "spell caster", throwing magic javelins.
Venthyr, blood magic healer
Necrolords, Good time for a necromancer themed summoner, but the necrolords seem super military focus, so who knows. Bring back Blood dk dps with this?
and
Night fae themed tank.
Obviously just spit balling.

[Kyphael]

I Honestly don't get why people keep asking for necromancer. The Death Knight is Blizzards unique interpretation of that class. You would have to gut DK and warlock to generate a class that resembles what we already have.

A Necromancer is as distinct from a Death Knight as a Priest is distinct from a Paladin. A lot of parallels, sharing a cosmic force as its theme (Light, or in this case, Death) but still conceptually and technically unique. One is a plated melee warrior aided by their corresponding Cosmic Force, and the other a spell caster. Would Affliction Warlocks and Unholy Death Knights take some blows to make up two or three Necromancer specs? Probably, but not necessarily, and whether that happens hinges on Blizzard's creativity, or lack thereof, but it's not a convincing argument to dismiss Necromancers when they were once developed in Vanilla WoW and nearly released. Demon Hunters did some minimal "gutting" to Demonology Warlocks, but nothing so serious that it broke the class.

[kaminaris]

Demon Hunters did some minimal "gutting" to Demonology Warlocks, but nothing so serious that it broke the class.

Technically they reworked entire spec. And from absolute garbage it became absolute masterpiece.

[Amnaught]

Necromancer was a no-brainer for Shadowlands, and was almost expected. When it wasn't announced, it was kind of a letdown. I agree with most of your choices except Night Elves, just doesn't fit a race that relies so heavily on the cosmic force of Life. I would do...

Necromancer Races:
Alliance:
- Human
- Worgen
- Gnome
- Void Elf
- Dwarf

Horde:
- Troll
- Orc
- Undead
- Goblin
- Nightborne
- Zandalari (with their closeness to Loas of Death, seems cool and logical)

Wait, Dwarves get necromancers, but not Dark Iron Dwarves?
Also Kul Tirans have a strong connection to necromancy


Also why does everyone leave out Blood Elves?