Thursday, May 17, 2018

Predicting Classes for Kul Tirans and Zandalari

While Dark Iron Dwarves and Mag'har Orcs are on the Beta, thus giving us a pretty clear sense of their playable classes, it looks like the primary inhabitants are going to take a little longer to unlock, possibly as late as 8.1. I suspect you'll need to go through some major stories to get there.

So what classes will these guys get? Let's speculate!

Zandalari: Announced with BFA, the Zandalari Trolls are obviously going to be the biggest population on Zandalar. Theirs is the oldest humanoid civilization on Azeroth (if you don't count Titanforged, who are more Giant/Mechanical.) Now, there are some classes that are easy to detect via datamining - specifically Druids and Shamans, who have their animal forms and totems respectively. So let's go down the line:

Warrior: It's really harder to justify not having Warriors than otherwise. Blood Elves were the only race ever to not have Warriors, and that ended in Cataclysm.

Paladin: This one's a bit controversial - there were actually Zandalari Paladins loyal to the Loa, but there are NPCs who explain that their order is so tiny as to not really be a thing anymore. As a Paladin main, I'm always happy to see new flavors of these guys (and a Paladin-themed Raptor mount could be really cool,) but I'm skeptical we'll get them.

Death Knight: Hero classes appear to be out.

Shaman: I think we've got totem models for these guys, and Trolls have a long shamanistic tradition.

Hunter: Like Warriors, Hunters are pretty universal, and Trolls have always had good hunter traditions.

Rogue: Again, unless you have loud hooves, there's nothing really culture-specific about Rogues. And with all the intrigue in Zuldazar, you'd have to imagine they've got spies and assassins galore.

Druid: This we know from the various dinosaur models. Trolls' connection to the Loa mirrors the Night Elves' to the Ancients, which is of course all just the same worship of the Wild Gods. Malfurion's status as the first Druid is maybe a little in question, though it's possible that the Zandalari (like the Darkspear) looked at this tradition and said "hey, how come we're not doing that?"

Demon Hunter: Again, hero class, so no.

Monk: This would actually be tricky. The Zandalari were literally thought of as monsters to scare children in Pandaren society before the Mists receded, and I could imagine that a lot of Monks would want nothing to do with these ancient allies of the Mogu. On the other hand, Pandaren are very chill and forgiving. Still, I think Blizzard would be totally justified in denying Zandalari Monks.

Mage: As an ancient society that has certainly done some work in Arcane magic, no reason not to have these.

Warlock: Very few societies are really happy to have Warlocks, but I doubt that there's any special taboo against dabbling in the Fel among the Zandalari that would prevent them from trying this out.

Priest: With the importance of the Loa and specifically navigating the kind of politics between them, Priests are a hugely important part of Troll society. So yeah.

So it looks like with the possible exception of Monks, Zandalari might get the same suite of classes as their Darkspear brethren. Zandalari Paladins would be cool, but they seem to be backing away from that possibility.

Now, we move on to Kul Tirans!

Kul Tirans have a mix of influences - we can obviously look to Stormwind Humans to get a good sense of their capabilities, though we also want to look to Worgen, as Kul Tirans were originally Gilnean colonists (though that was three thousand years ago.)

Warrior: Like above, practically guaranteed.

Paladin: This one's less obvious. Personally I felt that it was weird Worgen couldn't be Paladins, but it's a question of how widespread the Silver Hand was. There's definitely examples of Paladins in Stormwind and Lordaeron, but we don't know if Kul Tiras has that tradition. Among NPCs there, there are no clear examples, except perhaps the Witch-hunting Order of Embers, which would actually be a pretty badass Paladin order with a very different flavor than we've gotten with other Human Paladins.

Death Knight: I'd actually argue that this should be available, but Blizzard really seems to be taking hero classes off the table, so no.

Hunter: Kul Tirans have a long tradition of monster-hunting, so this is another practical guarantee.

Shaman: This is actually kind of an interesting question: we actually know from some datamined dialogue that the Drust were not entirely wiped out, and that some have worked alongside the Kul Tirans to train them in their ways. This seems primarily to be about their creepy form of Druidism, but I don't think it would be a huge stretch for it to extend to Shamanism. No anchor-themed Totems, though, as far as I can tell, so probably not. There are also the Sea Priests in Stormsong Valley that dress in cloth like Priests, but have a deep spiritual connection to the sea and storms, which frankly feels pretty shamanistic to me.

Rogue: Um, Pirates. Definitely definitely yes.

Monk: Unlike the Zandalari, there's nothing saying the Pandaren couldn't come and teach the Kul Tirans some unarmed combat.

Druid: This we know from datamining, and it's a super-cool different take on Druidism that is far darker and seems to employ both Life and Death magic. I'm totally rolling one of these.

Demon Hunter: No hero classes, and this wouldn't even make much sense even if they were considering them.

Mage: Hello Jaina. So that's a big yes.

Warlock: If Worgen and Humans can have them, I don't see why you wouldn't find some Kul Tiran Humans who practice the dark arts.

Priests: There's a whole tradition of Sea Priests on Kul Tiras, so unless they make them all shamans (unlikely, though I think justifiable) I think this is a lock.

More than the Zandalari, the Kul Tirans seem like a bigger departure from their base-race. Ironically, they might feel more like an Allied Race variant of Worgen than Humans, especially given the English accents (personal pet peeve - it's a fantasy world. We don't all have to be English.)

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