Originally Posted by
Diaphin
I don't know. I think its possible. Remember that people used to say the same about Demon Hunters, that they were basically just a mix of Rogues and Warlocks and not unique enough. RTS and NPC Class concepts seem to be rather bare bone and they usually are only expanded upon with the class being released. I think the argument that there isn't enough to seperate Hunters fom Dark Rangers also only exists, because Hunters as a ranged weapon spec have been unique in WoW for quite some time. I mean, if you look at it, there isn't that much seperating Paladins, Death Knights and Warriors superficially. All three are plate wearing fighters utilizing different aesthetic flavors, Paladins in shiny and Death Knights in dark, compared to warrior. Even Unholy DKs identity as a necromancer-like melee fighter is a new phenomena, before Legion they were mostly just warriors in dark and with dots with a pet for flavor. Before DKs were released, Warriors even received a Death Knight, more specifically Arthas, themed armor set in Naxxramas.
I think the Nathanos boss encounter and the abilities we see Sylvanas utilize are enough to build at least two unique Dark Ranger DPS specs, one plague themed and one shadow themed which also utilizes the banshee form. Sylvanas will probably also display unique abilities with her raid encounter in 9.1. What I could see is them mixing Warden as a Tank-Spec into the Dark Ranger, considering how the creation of Night Elf Dark Rangers, which is necessary for Dark Rangers to become a playable class, also came with the creation of a Dark Warden. And lets be real here, Dark Rangers as a playable class would totally utilize traits which were unique to Sylvanas before. They did the same with Death Knights and Demon Hunters in their customization. Glowing blue eyes were unique to Arthas before playable DKs, before WOTLK they used to have black or purple eyes. Demonic traits were unique to Illidan before playable Demon Hunters.
- - - Updated - - -
Nooooot really...I mean, it was the first case of Gnome and Goblin related content in years, in the case of Gnomes even a decade and even then, it was side content. Gnome and Goblin themed Tinkers on the other hand would probably require an expansion centered around these themes, which seems unlikely considering how rare and sidelined content with those races as the centerpiece tends to be. I mean, even the one time when we had an expansion with goblin technology as a main threat. it was Orcs who were front and center and who we saw utilizing it.