4th Specs vs New Class

[Lubefist]

Neither. Rather see them putting the resources that would sink into new class/spec into making the excisting ones better.

edit:

Neither.

The ones we have are already an absolute dumpster fire. Can we get those fixed before we throw more fuel into the burning dumpster?

This guy said it better.

[Mysterymask]

If Balance is your reason then i got news for you, they could add 10 more specs and that wouldnt change balance, at least with adding specs you could add one to shore up the weaknesses of a class. No matter how many classes you add there will always be 1 at the top and 1 at the bottom. You really just need to buff the ones at the bottom and nerf the ones at the top and then you are fine for about 90% of the specs. The reason why balance feels so bad now is not because of the amount of specs but because of borrowed power and limited tuning passes.

Balance feels bad now?..bro balance right now is the best its ever friggin been or did you already forget back in the day when there were 2 or 3 viable classes?

[Lubefist]

Balance feels bad now?..bro balance right now is the best its ever friggin been or did you already forget back in the day when there were 2 or 3 viable classes?

You have to be joking.

[Huzzaa]

This topic "causes debate" because people like you think that it's super easy for Blizzard to develop, balance and introduce new specs and classes to the game. It's not. And that's the reason we don't see new specs and classes added with every other content patch. I think some people want WoW to resemble a MoBA with hundreds of different class/spec combinations that cycle in and out of the meta at any given time. Not only would that be disastrous for the game, it would fundamentally change how WoW is played. The amount of player outcry would be absolutely ludicrous. It's fun to "talk about," but when you start demanding the developers to introduce new classes/specs or call them "lazy" for making a conscious decision not to, that's when I tune out. Sometimes it's much better for developers to spend time fixing the underlying issues with the current game than it is to create pipe dreams about what could be if development time and resources were infinite.

And that shoud be the end of the thread.

On topic though. If there was a choice. Probably a new class. 4th specs for everyone is lunacy. For any of it to work though. I feel that the company would have to like triple their development team or something. Which knowing Boby Koticks money making machine, is never happening.

[melzas]

Adding another spec that is pretty much the same shit you already have with different flavour is a HORRIBLE idea. What's the point of adding another melee dps rogue? Another disease focused DK spec? Another tank or melee dps warrior? Ranged dps mage? Are you really this unimaginative...?

I could only see them adding 4th spec if they would introduce new roles for their classes. Shaman tank spec using earth magic, rogue sniper spec, axe/javelin thrower warrior spec, time rewinding mage healer spec, hunter pet tank spec.... Otherwise it's just a waste of time.

[Mysterymask]

You have to be joking.

Oh sorry i guess balance was better when if you could heal you did and certain specs were barely good at questing
Or when a warlock did more damage than every other class simply by spamming shadowbolt and everyone HAD to be a leatherworker
Or when pally/dk was instant gladiator and most classes had one good spec and 1 completely worthless spec


I mean right now looking at dps rankings...theres a few outliers but everyones mostly even

[Krawu]

I think most can at least agree this topic is one that causes much debate. While a new class is always interesting and brings new group dynamics there are a lot of people that would rather see existing classes optimized. From a dev perspective it is definitley easier to add a new class than to add a 4th spec to all existing classes, especially if they continue with the DH shortcut of only making 2 specs. Regardless if it is new classes or new specs I think anything would be a welcome change at this point. I find myself losing interest in the classes that I have played most of the history of wow like Ele shaman and Guardian druid. I think shadowlands is a step in the right direction with "unpruning" but overall I think wow has moved away from the state of classes that were the most fun. Legendary effects are cool and interesting but the classes are left feeling broken when they get taken away.

Anyway, I know these post have been done before and the primary answer for new classes are lich/necromancer and Tinker but what are some other classe you guys would like to see? I am on the tinker bandwagon as I love engineering. Something in mail as we are lacking in that department.

What about specs? What are some additional specs you would like to see? A few of mine below starting with the one I would most love to see:

Shaman: 4th spec - Earthwarden - A shaman tank. Using the elements to strengthen their resolve and protect those around them. Earthern Armor could be their mastery with things like rockbiter weapon and lightning shield coming into play. I have a whole talent system laid out for this but I'll leave it there.

Rogue: 4th spec - This could go one of two ways. Ninja which I think most rogues would prefer or Duelist which would be a dual pistol mid ranged fighter giving a much needed extra range spec to the game. Hey if a hunter can be melee then a rogue can be ranged

Demon Hunter - 3rd Spec - Carnage - A mid ranged glaive/chakram class. Again giving a much needed additional ranged spec

Paladin: 4th Spec - Dark Crusader - This could be a tank or a dps

Warrior: 4th Spec - Berserker - A fearless tank that doesn't need a shield as his blind rage allows him to absorb damage.

Death Knight: 4th spec - Pestilance - A disease focused spec

Warlock: 4th spec - Lich - Focused on draining life and energy from their enemies.

Mage: 4th spec - Dragonic - A mage with the powers of a dragon. We often see dragon aspects shapeshift into mages. It isn't that far fetched that at some point they train mages in the ways of dragonic magic

Hunter: 4th spec - Drew a blank here, sorry

Priest: 4th spec - Another blank here

Obviosly I don't believe any of this would happen but it can be fun to imaine the things we would love to see.

This was actually discussed in my guild a lot. Here's the best ideas we came up with:

Warrior: Bring Gladiator back, duh.
Demon Hunter: Mid-Range or support spec. or both
Paladin: Shockadin - Bursty caster DPS
Warlock: Spell-based Tank. Demon armors and strong regeneration.
Mage: Time mage - Arcane offshoot that functions as a healer by turning back time on received wounds instead of healing them directly.
Hunter: Tank spec using Eyes of the Beast - Player controls the pet directly to tank while the Hunter becomes the "pet"
Shaman: Rockbiter-based tank.
Rogue: Ranged/Mid-Ranged option using thrown weapons
Death Knight: Necromancer/Lich (mass-minion based caster), maybe with a cloth option
Monk: Dedicated Fist-Weaving spec (healer)
Priest: Smite-based Caster DPS

[Lubefist]

Oh sorry i guess balance was better when if you could heal you did and certain specs were barely good at questing
Or when a warlock did more damage than every other class simply by spamming shadowbolt and everyone HAD to be a leatherworker
Or when pally/dk was instant gladiator and most classes had one good spec and 1 completely worthless spec


I mean right now looking at dps rankings...theres a few outliers but everyones mostly even

Yeah and all these things happened over 10 years ago. Solid arguments there bro.

[Colmadero]

Man, I just want a ranged dps paladin spec.

[Vaedan]

I also prefer fixing existing specs and classes before adding more. As has been said, it's already a mess. Some specs lost their unique feel over expansions, some just got stucked in a state which only borrowed powers mitigate, but the core itself is bad, etc...

If you want more diversity, balancing talent trees is also an answer. I've seen a suggestion on forums to actually give more variety to existing specs. The example was on fire mage - you could build a heavy dot ignite fire mage, or heavy burst pyroblast mage. All of those playstyles were in game before, so Blizzard already had some work on this regard done. Right now, every spec in the game changed drasticly over the years, so they have loads of ideas for them.

You know, there are many cool ideas what could be added. Tinkers. Necromancers. Draconic Knights. Bards. I think the best answer is to finaly introduce class skins.

[munkeyinorbit]

New class, and that class should be the Tinker class. Not only does the concept have the pedigree of the other expansion classes, but WoW also needs a class that represents the technology of Azeroth.

WRONG.

No one takes tinker seriously. If anything its a specialisation of a profession.

[MrLachyG]

I can see how a 4th spec might (and that is a big might) work for some classes but not all. also OP a lot of what you suggested would overlap with other specs already in game - your suggestions for DK and Warlock especially. definitely a new class is better than a 4th spec as it is already stretched sitting at 3.

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How about every class has just two specs a dps and then either a tank/dps spec. Then the left over-spec could add another spec for a new class! Then we could have 46 classes?!?

what about healers?

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Balance feels bad now?..bro balance right now is the best its ever friggin been or did you already forget back in the day when there were 2 or 3 viable classes?

Balance will never ever be a thing and Blizz should abandon it. You will never have a situation where every spec is doing the same dps/healing. what Blizzard should focus on is utility. Making each spec unique in a way that people will want it in a raid group, people can play it, have fun and while they might not do as good dps as others would they bring something else to the table which makes them useful

[Chronometer]

Mage - Spellblade, would be the first cloth melee and first melee class to deal a significant amount of Arcane damage

Age of Conan had something like this back in the day, thoroughly enjoyable.

Another idea could be a healing spec for Mages.
Time Magic is a thing in the WoW universe, so a healing spec based around that could be super interesting, at least to me. Chronomancer.

I am sure people more creative than me could riff on this more in-depth, but an example for an ability could be that you hit a cooldown, when the party is at max health (or close to it) and then within a set amount of time (like 7 seconds) hit it again, to restore the party to their former health using spellpower co-efficients to determine how much they gain back. Like"rewinding time" essentially.
A spec built on predicting damage patterns, a bit like disc favors knowing a fight.

The look and feel could be influenced by the Bronze Dragons, with the spell effects being bronze and golden.

I would play the hell out of that.

[dewd]

oh its this weeks iterarion of the new spec/class shit. blizzard can think about new stuff when they fixed existing specs

[Kithelle]

Age of Conan had something like this back in the day, thoroughly enjoyable.

Another idea could be a healing spec for Mages.
Time Magic is a thing in the WoW universe, so a healing spec based around that could be super interesting, at least to me. Chronomancer.

I am sure people more creative than me could riff on this more in-depth, but an example for an ability could be that you hit a cooldown, when the party is at max health (or close to it) and then within a set amount of time (like 7 seconds) hit it again, to restore the party to their former health using spellpower co-efficients to determine how much they gain back. Like"rewinding time" essentially.
A spec built on predicting damage patterns, a bit like disc favors knowing a fight.

The look and feel could be influenced by the Bronze Dragons, with the spell effects being bronze and golden.

I would play the hell out of that.

Used to play Harbinger in Rift...kinda miss it, used magic to buff and transform your staff into a magical 2H Sword, Axe, or Scythe.

[Malix Farwin]

Balance feels bad now?..bro balance right now is the best its ever friggin been or did you already forget back in the day when there were 2 or 3 viable classes?

Did you read what i said or did you fail to comprehend it. One of these two things you got wrong.

[Chronometer]

Used to play Harbinger in Rift...kinda miss it, used magic to buff and transform your staff into a magical 2H Sword, Axe, or Scythe.

I see that you too, are a man of distinction
There's just something about melee mages I really like, and I think it could really work in WoW too. Spells to buff armor, maybe a sword in one hand, and spellbook/whatever in the other.
Or you know, fulfill my old wet dream of an actual Bladesinger-like class.

[Syegfryed]

4th spec would only work if all they went back and make the spec to be less important, and less diverse, like the class per si, would import much more and specs to be just a form of customization and little gameplay difference

Blizzard is already in a bad spot talking about balance and making class feel good, even DH got only 2 specs, a 4th one for all other would be a nightmare for then, a new class with just 2 specs and a no-brain mechanic is easier

[Biomega]

The real problem is there's too few tanks and healers.

Could adding more tanking and healing specs help with that? No doubt. Sheer numbers would dictate as much.

Would it actually FIX the underlying problem, i.e. that healing and tanking are more thankless and dull jobs than DPSing? No.

We don't need to give pure DPS classes another DPS spec. That's a terrible idea.

[melzas]

Adding another spec that is pretty much the same shit you already have with different flavour is a HORRIBLE idea. What's the point of adding another melee dps rogue? Another disease focused DK spec? Another tank or melee dps warrior? Ranged dps mage? Are you really this unimaginative...?

I could only see them adding 4th spec if they would introduce new roles for their classes. Shaman tank spec using earth magic, rogue sniper spec, axe/javelin thrower warrior spec, time rewinding mage healer spec, hunter pet tank spec.... Otherwise it's just a waste of time.