I know I've been talking about Protection Paladins a lot lately, but I thought I'd throw in some more thoughts about Active Mitigation (AM) and how to make tanks fun to play and easy to learn while still allowing for veteran players to be able to see an improvement when they play better.
Actually, first I'm going to talk about a serious problem that's faced the game for a long time: the Tank Shortage. Most players are totally uninterested in tanking. There's a huge amount of pressure on tanks to perform well. Not only are tanks non-combinational (meaning that having another tank in your group will not make you any more effective - at least on a boss fight,) but they are, as a necessary consequence of the design of the game, forced to set the pace of the run, know the most about how a fight works, and be at an equal or higher level of gear/skill than the rest of their group.
No matter how much you boost threat, the threat game is always going to be part of the Tank's job, because no matter how high your threat is, you first need to get the enemy's attention and hold it. If you aren't smacking the enemy on a regular basis, someone will pull off you.
Survival for a tank needs to be something that is intuitive. The original Holy Shield, seen way back in Wrath, was a good example of this. It lasted 8 second and had an 8 second cooldown. It was a rotationally-maintained ability that basically said "yes, I'm holding up my shield. I am properly tanking." Of course, when it was a guaranteed part of the 969 rotation, there was little interactivity, but I think it kind of fit as a sort of tanking version of "Slice and Dice." It's not a particularly exciting ability, but you're expected to maintain it.
Shield of the Righteous, Mists-style, is almost there. With the new Bastion of Glory aspect of it, what I think needs to happen is that they make Shield of the Righteous into a new Holy Shield. Now, a flat physical damage reduction is probably better than increased Block, as you no longer have it devaluing Mastery or risking Paladins sitting at the Block cap (and also not making it into RNG-dependent block value.) But the current implementation of 3 seconds makes it an absurdly small window - one in which you'd be lucky to reduce the damage of two boss auto attacks.
So, a proposal: Shield of the Righteous reduces incoming damage by a smaller amount, but for something like 8 seconds - or a number under what they'd expect you to be able to get enough Holy Power to refresh it. Protection is now concerned with maintaining their defensive bulwark.
Bastion of Light's super-buffed Word of Glory, then, becomes the short cooldown - to use when damage gets heavy.
The Main Point:
The biggest concern I have about AM is the notion that we have to sit on our defensive abilities. A compelling gameplay style is one in which you always have something to do. I think all tanks need to have something they can hit that doesn't have a cooldown and boosts their defense by a small amount. Tanks and boss damage are then built around the assumption that all tanks are maintaining that defensive buff. We then have our short cooldown ability - one that is exclusive with the maintained buff (by tying it to the same resources, such as Word of Glory and Shield of the Righteous) - which is the "and now the damage is really pouring in" ability.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Beta's Bugging so I Blog (Protection Paladin thoughts)
Yes, it's exciting to get into the Beta and be able to check out the new class, the new race, and the new continent, but the price you pay is that things can get really, really buggy. This latest build causes the game to crash very frequently. This is not a complaint. The whole point of a Beta is to see what causes the bugs to pop up and then smash them with a hammer (a programming hammer.)
The newest change to my main's spec (Prot Paladin, in case you had forgotten) is that Mastery finally functions as something more than Block Rating. Now, I know a lot of people complain that it was boring through Cataclysm, but I'm actually ok with Mastery being on a simplicity level comparable to other secondary stats. Still, the big problem for Mastery was that it was flat - if you capped it, it became worthless. Admittedly, the same can be said for a lot of Masteries, but unlike, say, Strikes of Opportunity, Divine Bulwark can cap in existing gear because of the way that Block interacts with Dodge and Parry currently.
By separating out the Block roll from the Avoidance rolls, you make it highly unlikely anyone's going to be Block capped, because you'd need the full 100% from Mastery alone and the more dodge and parry you get, the less exciting it is to get another 1% block.
However, the thing that was so good about Protection Paladins' Mastery in Cataclysm was that you could cap it. Now that block capping has been castrated, Paladins needed something else to make Mastery worth picking up again.
And that's where Bastion of Light comes in. There's a new effect on Shield of the Righteous that causes you to stack up a buff called "Bastion of Light," which scales with your Mastery (don't worry, Mastery also still provides Block Chance) and stacks up to 5 times, increasing the healing done by your self-targetted Words of Glory.
I haven't gone into the math of it very much, and in fact I've only run one dungeon on the Beta, but I understand that as they buffed Shield of the Righteous' defensive effect, other finishers (pretty much just Word of Glory, because what else do we use?) started to feel really lackluster. Now, you'll get a super-charged Word of Glory once you've stacked up Bastion of Light.
There are a couple ways to interpret how to use this. One is that you want to take advantage of the buff as much as you can, making every 6th finisher a Word of Glory. That's a fine idea, but I actually think that the best use is a solution to the whole question of AM (the acronym I'll be using for active mitigation): namely, is it rotational or reactionary?
Ever since they made Shield of the Righteous into an AM ability, I struggled with how the hell I was supposed to use it. Just hit it every time I can? Or save it for some big hit? As I've mentioned before, the problem I have with AM is that it's hard to be a proactive, defense-based tank when your enemies aren't telegraphing their moves. If Boss McLootman uses "Super Punch" every once in a while, certainly I'm supposed to hit my AM button right before it goes off. But if I have no way of knowing when Super Punch is going to go off, I'm either going to hold off on using it so long that I wind up taking way more damage than I need to (and sometimes miss the punch anyway) or I'm going to find that when he does use Super Punch, I don't have the resources to actually use it.
By tying Shield of the Righteous to a buff for Word of Glory, we can have our cake and eat it too. My proposed strategy (and this is really just a strategy - intricate knowledge of a fight can probably allow more intelligent use of these) is that you want to hit Shield of the Righteous rotationally. You probably want to pool up to 5 Holy Power so you can get back up to 3 in a pinch. You hit Shield of the Righteous every time you get to 5 Holy Power, and if that means wasting a few stacks of Bastion of Light, it's not the end of the world. After all, if you're not taking too much damage, the it will be an over-heal anyway.
However, let's say you're on... Zon'ozz, for example (the boss my guild is stuck on. Yes, I know, kind of sad, shush.) While he does start to pound pretty hard on you as his buff stacks, the healers can generally get you through that - plus, it's physical damage, so your ShotR will help with it. However, the really painful part is when he hits you with Psychic Drain. Even if you've hit Guardian of Ancient Kings or Glyphed Divine Protection, that's still going to leave you down a quarter or a third of your health (and it happens too often to have a cooldown ready for all of them.) This is a perfect opportunity, then, to hit your super-powered Word of Glory. If you've been good about stacking to 5 Holy Power, you can very quickly get your full-powered WoG off, and your healers will have a much easier time topping you off.
A lot of people have been talking about putting the overhealing absorb shield back on Word of Glory for Prot. Certainly, it would make it a more powerful ability, but I actually think that the design as is makes a lot of sense.
One of the problems I always had with AM is that it seemed like you could get in a position where you felt that you needed to do nothing for a while just in case you needed to save the resources for later. It's the whole "Use it now and risk wasting it on trivial damage or wait to use it and risk wasting its cooldown" thing that I hate about the current Holy Shield. This offers a great solution - either way, you're still doing something, but smart tanks will know when it's time to shoot off the super-powered WoG and when it's time to save it for a rainy day.
The newest change to my main's spec (Prot Paladin, in case you had forgotten) is that Mastery finally functions as something more than Block Rating. Now, I know a lot of people complain that it was boring through Cataclysm, but I'm actually ok with Mastery being on a simplicity level comparable to other secondary stats. Still, the big problem for Mastery was that it was flat - if you capped it, it became worthless. Admittedly, the same can be said for a lot of Masteries, but unlike, say, Strikes of Opportunity, Divine Bulwark can cap in existing gear because of the way that Block interacts with Dodge and Parry currently.
By separating out the Block roll from the Avoidance rolls, you make it highly unlikely anyone's going to be Block capped, because you'd need the full 100% from Mastery alone and the more dodge and parry you get, the less exciting it is to get another 1% block.
However, the thing that was so good about Protection Paladins' Mastery in Cataclysm was that you could cap it. Now that block capping has been castrated, Paladins needed something else to make Mastery worth picking up again.
And that's where Bastion of Light comes in. There's a new effect on Shield of the Righteous that causes you to stack up a buff called "Bastion of Light," which scales with your Mastery (don't worry, Mastery also still provides Block Chance) and stacks up to 5 times, increasing the healing done by your self-targetted Words of Glory.
I haven't gone into the math of it very much, and in fact I've only run one dungeon on the Beta, but I understand that as they buffed Shield of the Righteous' defensive effect, other finishers (pretty much just Word of Glory, because what else do we use?) started to feel really lackluster. Now, you'll get a super-charged Word of Glory once you've stacked up Bastion of Light.
There are a couple ways to interpret how to use this. One is that you want to take advantage of the buff as much as you can, making every 6th finisher a Word of Glory. That's a fine idea, but I actually think that the best use is a solution to the whole question of AM (the acronym I'll be using for active mitigation): namely, is it rotational or reactionary?
Ever since they made Shield of the Righteous into an AM ability, I struggled with how the hell I was supposed to use it. Just hit it every time I can? Or save it for some big hit? As I've mentioned before, the problem I have with AM is that it's hard to be a proactive, defense-based tank when your enemies aren't telegraphing their moves. If Boss McLootman uses "Super Punch" every once in a while, certainly I'm supposed to hit my AM button right before it goes off. But if I have no way of knowing when Super Punch is going to go off, I'm either going to hold off on using it so long that I wind up taking way more damage than I need to (and sometimes miss the punch anyway) or I'm going to find that when he does use Super Punch, I don't have the resources to actually use it.
By tying Shield of the Righteous to a buff for Word of Glory, we can have our cake and eat it too. My proposed strategy (and this is really just a strategy - intricate knowledge of a fight can probably allow more intelligent use of these) is that you want to hit Shield of the Righteous rotationally. You probably want to pool up to 5 Holy Power so you can get back up to 3 in a pinch. You hit Shield of the Righteous every time you get to 5 Holy Power, and if that means wasting a few stacks of Bastion of Light, it's not the end of the world. After all, if you're not taking too much damage, the it will be an over-heal anyway.
However, let's say you're on... Zon'ozz, for example (the boss my guild is stuck on. Yes, I know, kind of sad, shush.) While he does start to pound pretty hard on you as his buff stacks, the healers can generally get you through that - plus, it's physical damage, so your ShotR will help with it. However, the really painful part is when he hits you with Psychic Drain. Even if you've hit Guardian of Ancient Kings or Glyphed Divine Protection, that's still going to leave you down a quarter or a third of your health (and it happens too often to have a cooldown ready for all of them.) This is a perfect opportunity, then, to hit your super-powered Word of Glory. If you've been good about stacking to 5 Holy Power, you can very quickly get your full-powered WoG off, and your healers will have a much easier time topping you off.
A lot of people have been talking about putting the overhealing absorb shield back on Word of Glory for Prot. Certainly, it would make it a more powerful ability, but I actually think that the design as is makes a lot of sense.
One of the problems I always had with AM is that it seemed like you could get in a position where you felt that you needed to do nothing for a while just in case you needed to save the resources for later. It's the whole "Use it now and risk wasting it on trivial damage or wait to use it and risk wasting its cooldown" thing that I hate about the current Holy Shield. This offers a great solution - either way, you're still doing something, but smart tanks will know when it's time to shoot off the super-powered WoG and when it's time to save it for a rainy day.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
To Fly or Not to Fly
Mists of Pandaria is going to deal with flying mounts the way that Burning Crusade did, making you hit the level cap before you can fly.
Flight in World of Warcraft has actually been around for the vast majority of the game's life-time. WoW Classic was the only time when you were bound to the ground regardless of whether you liked it or not - with the exception of Zeppelins and Flight Masters (or a Mage hitting Slow Fall and diving into Un'goro Crater.)
Outland was the first area to be designed with flying mounts in mind. While much of the continent/planet is accessible from the ground, there were a number of areas designed specifically for level 70 players that required the ability to fly in order to get there (for some reason, druids could get their slow flight form at 68.) It was actually quite cool, having leveled up all the way to 70 and then being able to take wing, flying up to Tempest Keep, for instance (back then you actually had to go to the dungeons you wanted to run. Go figure.)
Wrath and Cataclysm had their own variations on the rules about flying, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. As you'll probably notice, I tend to cite Wrath of the Lich King as the right way to do things, but I'll go into detail first.
Cataclysm is the opposite extreme of the BC model. All five of the high-level zones in Cataclysm allowed flight. They had just remade the entire world to make it flight-capable, and especially since they specifically wanted those zones (Deepholm notwithstanding) to exist within the original continents, it wouldn't make sense to limit your flight capabilities. Oddly, places like Hyjal and Deepholm do actually have roads and ramps that could theoretically get you where you needed to go (except the Alliance gunship in Deepholm,) but I can't imagine anyone took the time to go there on foot (or hoof/wheel/mechanical bird leg.)
Having a flying mount really does make you feel like you've made it to a point of pretty impressive power. You're the elite force, able to strike from above. I remember shortly after I got my first level 70 toon (Darsino, the rogue) his flight ability, I flew over to Kil'sorrow Fortress in Nagrand and landed on the balcony of the tower on the western side. It may not sound all that exciting, but having never been able to fly before, it was very cool and very flavorful for a rogue to land silently in an enemy fortress, slaughtering his way through surprised guards.
The problem, of course, is that when you can fly, especially now with the Quest Objectives on the map (and in fact, a lot of quests seem written with the assumption that you've got that on - the directions are left totally vague,) many quests feel sort of like "fly in, kill this dude, fly out." Unless someone's in a cave or a fort, it's rare that you'll actually bother fighting your way (or sneaking your way) into a hostile area unless you also need to kill eight nameless minions - though even then, you'll probably just land, kill the main guy, and then kill the eight nearest ones and fly out.
So how do you retain the awesomeness of being a winged warrior while still making the quests compelling and less like errands?
Before Cataclysm, you still had to get to level 70 to fly at all, and you had to hit 77 in order to fly in Northrend. Your assault against the Lich King was mostly ground-based, but once you hit 77, it was time for the real assault. In the Blizzcons talking about Northrend, they mentioned that Icecrown is absolutely crawling with undead. You can't land there without a ghoul or zombie jumping up and trying to bite you. It makes sense - the Scourge does nothing better than acquiring new members, Icecrown is not only their headquarters but also a vast, impenetrable fortress. That was why we had the Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer flying overhead - there were no Horde or Alliance bases because there just wasn't a safe place to set down long enough to actually build one. In fact, one of the major quest chains in the zone involves you defending the Argent Crusade's tiny incursion and establishing a new foothold just barely inside of Icecrown proper (In 3.0, the Argent Tournament grounds were just a flat, snowy space, which then grew into the current grounds over the course of the expansion.) Another major quest chain involves helping the Knights of the Ebon Blade take over one of the Scourge's many fortresses deep within Icecrown.
The point is that Icecrown was a zone that was designed specially for flying mounts - there was a story reason for it, and the mechanics were designed to match that need. Similarly, Storm Peaks, which were the same level range (the Netherstorm to Icecrown's Shadowmoon Valley, as it were) had their own story reason for being accessible only from the air. The Storm Peaks are so inaccessible because it's one of the areas the Titans set aside to both monitor the world (and you wouldn't want people interfering with that) as well as housing the prison for Yogg-Saron (and you definitely wouldn't want people wandering into that.)
Flight is a valuable tool for making the world a more exciting place, but it's best when it's used in limited ways. By all means, once a character hits the level cap and tends to be more concerned with endgame, it makes sense that the world should open up to them.
On one hand, a place like Uldum isn't made all that much more impressive by letting you fly around. In fact, the vastness of the desert might have had more of an impact if you were grounded. If there had been a facility of the complexity and scale of Ulduar inside, or perhaps if we had spent more time in Skywall (how sad is it that such a gorgeous location is limited to a single 5-man and a raid very few people bothered with?) flying mounts would have, of course, been fantastic, but as it stands, much of Cataclysm had the "drop in, fly out" problem.
In the future, I hope that Blizzard can really think about their design for zones in "flying" or "non-flying" way. Especially with epic group quests becoming epic solo quests or scenarios, it would be a shame to remove flight as a means for more epic questing.
Flight in World of Warcraft has actually been around for the vast majority of the game's life-time. WoW Classic was the only time when you were bound to the ground regardless of whether you liked it or not - with the exception of Zeppelins and Flight Masters (or a Mage hitting Slow Fall and diving into Un'goro Crater.)
Outland was the first area to be designed with flying mounts in mind. While much of the continent/planet is accessible from the ground, there were a number of areas designed specifically for level 70 players that required the ability to fly in order to get there (for some reason, druids could get their slow flight form at 68.) It was actually quite cool, having leveled up all the way to 70 and then being able to take wing, flying up to Tempest Keep, for instance (back then you actually had to go to the dungeons you wanted to run. Go figure.)
Wrath and Cataclysm had their own variations on the rules about flying, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. As you'll probably notice, I tend to cite Wrath of the Lich King as the right way to do things, but I'll go into detail first.
Cataclysm is the opposite extreme of the BC model. All five of the high-level zones in Cataclysm allowed flight. They had just remade the entire world to make it flight-capable, and especially since they specifically wanted those zones (Deepholm notwithstanding) to exist within the original continents, it wouldn't make sense to limit your flight capabilities. Oddly, places like Hyjal and Deepholm do actually have roads and ramps that could theoretically get you where you needed to go (except the Alliance gunship in Deepholm,) but I can't imagine anyone took the time to go there on foot (or hoof/wheel/mechanical bird leg.)
Having a flying mount really does make you feel like you've made it to a point of pretty impressive power. You're the elite force, able to strike from above. I remember shortly after I got my first level 70 toon (Darsino, the rogue) his flight ability, I flew over to Kil'sorrow Fortress in Nagrand and landed on the balcony of the tower on the western side. It may not sound all that exciting, but having never been able to fly before, it was very cool and very flavorful for a rogue to land silently in an enemy fortress, slaughtering his way through surprised guards.
The problem, of course, is that when you can fly, especially now with the Quest Objectives on the map (and in fact, a lot of quests seem written with the assumption that you've got that on - the directions are left totally vague,) many quests feel sort of like "fly in, kill this dude, fly out." Unless someone's in a cave or a fort, it's rare that you'll actually bother fighting your way (or sneaking your way) into a hostile area unless you also need to kill eight nameless minions - though even then, you'll probably just land, kill the main guy, and then kill the eight nearest ones and fly out.
So how do you retain the awesomeness of being a winged warrior while still making the quests compelling and less like errands?
Before Cataclysm, you still had to get to level 70 to fly at all, and you had to hit 77 in order to fly in Northrend. Your assault against the Lich King was mostly ground-based, but once you hit 77, it was time for the real assault. In the Blizzcons talking about Northrend, they mentioned that Icecrown is absolutely crawling with undead. You can't land there without a ghoul or zombie jumping up and trying to bite you. It makes sense - the Scourge does nothing better than acquiring new members, Icecrown is not only their headquarters but also a vast, impenetrable fortress. That was why we had the Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer flying overhead - there were no Horde or Alliance bases because there just wasn't a safe place to set down long enough to actually build one. In fact, one of the major quest chains in the zone involves you defending the Argent Crusade's tiny incursion and establishing a new foothold just barely inside of Icecrown proper (In 3.0, the Argent Tournament grounds were just a flat, snowy space, which then grew into the current grounds over the course of the expansion.) Another major quest chain involves helping the Knights of the Ebon Blade take over one of the Scourge's many fortresses deep within Icecrown.
The point is that Icecrown was a zone that was designed specially for flying mounts - there was a story reason for it, and the mechanics were designed to match that need. Similarly, Storm Peaks, which were the same level range (the Netherstorm to Icecrown's Shadowmoon Valley, as it were) had their own story reason for being accessible only from the air. The Storm Peaks are so inaccessible because it's one of the areas the Titans set aside to both monitor the world (and you wouldn't want people interfering with that) as well as housing the prison for Yogg-Saron (and you definitely wouldn't want people wandering into that.)
Flight is a valuable tool for making the world a more exciting place, but it's best when it's used in limited ways. By all means, once a character hits the level cap and tends to be more concerned with endgame, it makes sense that the world should open up to them.
On one hand, a place like Uldum isn't made all that much more impressive by letting you fly around. In fact, the vastness of the desert might have had more of an impact if you were grounded. If there had been a facility of the complexity and scale of Ulduar inside, or perhaps if we had spent more time in Skywall (how sad is it that such a gorgeous location is limited to a single 5-man and a raid very few people bothered with?) flying mounts would have, of course, been fantastic, but as it stands, much of Cataclysm had the "drop in, fly out" problem.
In the future, I hope that Blizzard can really think about their design for zones in "flying" or "non-flying" way. Especially with epic group quests becoming epic solo quests or scenarios, it would be a shame to remove flight as a means for more epic questing.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Further Changes in a Post-Cataclysm World: New Lordaeron
One of the most exciting things about Cataclysm was the way that it allowed for the world to progress. Players have always been the heroes of Azeroth, trekking through lands both familiar and alien, fighting the bad guys or each other. However, before the advent of phasing in Wrath (something that admittedly was used in a very limited way before - such as the ghosts in Auchindoun and Nagrand showing up after you did a particular quest chain) you would never really see your impact on the world. You might blow up, say, a facility making a Mana-bomb in Terrokar Forest, but literally seconds after you accomplished that, the bomb would be back, and the evil Blood Elves would start to respawn.
But beyond phasing, which is mainly useful to show the results of a particular event, the revamp of the old world in Cataclysm showed the passage of years. This new version of Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms truly felt as if all our past efforts had made a difference. Now, that difference was not necessarily a good one. For instance, when Alliance heroes (or Horde ones who took an interest in a fairly out-of-the-way problem) fought their way through the underground lair of the dangerous bandit-lord, Edwin VanCleef and killed him for his crimes against the realm, they unwittingly planted the seed that would lead to a resurgence of the Defias as a pseudo-Marxist revolutionary movement. On the other hand, some of our actions have been good. Andorhal and Caer Darrow notwithstanding, the Western Plaugelands are truly beginning to heal, and while the question of who actually gets to enjoy the newly fertile countryside is one Humans and Forsaken are happy to slaughter each other over, at the very least it looks like in a few years you'll be willing to eat produce farmed there (though probably still with some hesitation.)
This sort of plot progression is something that I really hope Blizzard commits to continue exploring. There is a problem, though, which is that after the intense effort spent on revamping the world, I doubt that Blizzard is going to go re-design things again any time soon (or even during the life of the game.)
So how can we continue these changes? Well, phasing is a big possibility. I think that the outdoor leveling zones have probably got to stay the same because that is just too much effort and time that could be spent on new areas and content. However, I would say that the places where the most plot-development happens should be the cities. After all, other than Stormwind and Orgrimmar, none of the cities were all that dramatically changed in Cataclysm. Also, we're definitely going to see Garrosh booted from Orgrimmar (dead or alive) after Mists' final patch, so clearly there's going to be some change there too.
Anyway, with that long introduction, I figured I'd start talking about possible developments in the plot I could imagine happening. Where I'm starting is a question of the real identity of the Forsaken - or, more specifically, the free undead of Lordaeron.
The Forsaken are not exactly doing a great job making friends with the rest of the world. While they can't really help their grotesque form, they have also been pursuing Scourge-like tactics in their efforts to secure their place in the world.
It's always been a little ambiguous whether the Forsaken simply want their own little corner of the world, or if they want absolutely everyone else dead.
I was playing a low-level Warlock on the Beta (to see how Affliction has changed, if at all. So far no) and it's interesting, because even Sylvanas talks the talk of someone who's just trying to live in safety. The events in Silverpine Forest (one of my favorite, if not my favorite post-Cataclysm zone (including the foray into Gilneas) begins with Sylvanas demonstrating her use of Val'kyr to Garrosh. Oddly, she almost seems surprised when Garrosh has the (totally reasonable) reaction he does, recoiling at the atrocity that she is committing. To Garrosh, and any sane person, inflicting undeath upon her adversaries to bolster her ranks is abhorrent.
It's also strange, because the very first thing you find out as a new Forsaken character (post Cataclysm - before then, there was a sense of uncertainty, as if most of the people around you had only just regained their free will) is that you are not a slave. You might be undead, but you're free to join the Forsaken or go your own way. Free Will is (or at least was) a key to the Forsaken identity, because that is what separated it from the Scourge.
The curse of Undeath was something that Sylvanas dedicated herself to avenging. The Scourge was adversary number one. Yet now, Sylvanas is doing to the humans of Hillsbrad and Gilneas exactly what Arthas did to the elves of Quel'thalas. She is conscripting her fallen adversaries to fight against their own friends and families. The legitimacy of the Forsaken is really starting to slip here, as the distinctions between them and the Scourge start to fall apart.
However, Sylvanas makes a decent point when you ride with her to the Sepulcher. The Forsaken are, in fact, the human inhabitants of Lordaeron. They didn't invade Brill or Andorhal or whatever Deathknell was called before the plague came. They were already there as living humans. This is their homeland, and it seems pretty damned unjust that a bunch of humans from another nation way down south would claim to have a more legitimate stake in the land. These were the subjects of the Menethils, not the Wrynns. Sylvanas argues that Lordaeron and its people are simply trying to defend their sovereign land.
And here's the big conundrum with the Scourge and the Forsaken: Does Lordaeron, as a country, still truly exist? Or has it gone the way of the Holy Roman Empire and the USSR? The land is still there, of course, and the people as well, but do the Forsaken consider themselves humans of Lordaeron, or Undead of the Forsaken? Lordaeron was a human nation. If the Forsaken no longer consider themselves human, can they claim to truly represent Lordaeron?
This is what I'd like to see developed: the Forsaken is an organization founded by former members of the Scourge who broke free of the Lich King's will (interesting thing to wonder: we assume pre-Cataclysm Forsaken players were simply alive as humans before Arthas returned from Northrend, but who are the new ones? Simply old corpses that had not been raised yet? Or various living humans killed by the Forsaken or the Scourge? Worth thinking about...) The Forsaken are not, however, really a "race." They are a political movement united over a shared affliction (undeath, and the free will to lament that fact.) They are not the only one, however. The Knights of the Ebon Blade, for instance, are also undead, and despite being more of an independent military institution than a political one, they are completely autonomous from any governmental body (though they enjoy friendly relations with the Argent Crusade.)
It stands to reason that there would be a different political movement in Lordaeron. Sylvanas is all about redefining her people - casting off "humanity" to embrace a wholly different identity, even as she invokes her people's right to the land based on their origins. Therefore, I think it would make sense that a new movement, a kind of "New Lordaeron" could emerge.
These would be members of the free undead who still consider themselves human, and would, as an endgame, like to normalize relations with the Alliance. They're still committed to owning all the land that was once called Lordaeron, and let's be clear here - they would still be at war with the Alliance. But New Lordaeron would be something very different. They would reach out to the Argent Crusade, rather than begrudgingly tolerating their presence. They would be opposed to the incursions into Hillsbrad and Gilneas, and most importantly, they'd be reluctant to cooperate with the Horde.
By making New Lordaeron a serious force, you have a group of undead that actually deserve Lordaeron. Furthermore, when the Alliance inevitably rejects their offers of peace and cooperation (whether because of post-Wrath Gate prudence or simply an inability to tolerate the undead) you finally get to see a situation where the Alliance are actually effective antagonists as well as being in a position of power.
There's actually already something vaguely similar going on with the few remaining High Elves, who remain loyal to the Alliance. It seems like a real missing piece to not have members of Lordaeron (the country around which the Alliance was first formed, after all) want to re-join, or at least reconcile with, Team Blue.
But beyond phasing, which is mainly useful to show the results of a particular event, the revamp of the old world in Cataclysm showed the passage of years. This new version of Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms truly felt as if all our past efforts had made a difference. Now, that difference was not necessarily a good one. For instance, when Alliance heroes (or Horde ones who took an interest in a fairly out-of-the-way problem) fought their way through the underground lair of the dangerous bandit-lord, Edwin VanCleef and killed him for his crimes against the realm, they unwittingly planted the seed that would lead to a resurgence of the Defias as a pseudo-Marxist revolutionary movement. On the other hand, some of our actions have been good. Andorhal and Caer Darrow notwithstanding, the Western Plaugelands are truly beginning to heal, and while the question of who actually gets to enjoy the newly fertile countryside is one Humans and Forsaken are happy to slaughter each other over, at the very least it looks like in a few years you'll be willing to eat produce farmed there (though probably still with some hesitation.)
This sort of plot progression is something that I really hope Blizzard commits to continue exploring. There is a problem, though, which is that after the intense effort spent on revamping the world, I doubt that Blizzard is going to go re-design things again any time soon (or even during the life of the game.)
So how can we continue these changes? Well, phasing is a big possibility. I think that the outdoor leveling zones have probably got to stay the same because that is just too much effort and time that could be spent on new areas and content. However, I would say that the places where the most plot-development happens should be the cities. After all, other than Stormwind and Orgrimmar, none of the cities were all that dramatically changed in Cataclysm. Also, we're definitely going to see Garrosh booted from Orgrimmar (dead or alive) after Mists' final patch, so clearly there's going to be some change there too.
Anyway, with that long introduction, I figured I'd start talking about possible developments in the plot I could imagine happening. Where I'm starting is a question of the real identity of the Forsaken - or, more specifically, the free undead of Lordaeron.
The Forsaken are not exactly doing a great job making friends with the rest of the world. While they can't really help their grotesque form, they have also been pursuing Scourge-like tactics in their efforts to secure their place in the world.
It's always been a little ambiguous whether the Forsaken simply want their own little corner of the world, or if they want absolutely everyone else dead.
I was playing a low-level Warlock on the Beta (to see how Affliction has changed, if at all. So far no) and it's interesting, because even Sylvanas talks the talk of someone who's just trying to live in safety. The events in Silverpine Forest (one of my favorite, if not my favorite post-Cataclysm zone (including the foray into Gilneas) begins with Sylvanas demonstrating her use of Val'kyr to Garrosh. Oddly, she almost seems surprised when Garrosh has the (totally reasonable) reaction he does, recoiling at the atrocity that she is committing. To Garrosh, and any sane person, inflicting undeath upon her adversaries to bolster her ranks is abhorrent.
It's also strange, because the very first thing you find out as a new Forsaken character (post Cataclysm - before then, there was a sense of uncertainty, as if most of the people around you had only just regained their free will) is that you are not a slave. You might be undead, but you're free to join the Forsaken or go your own way. Free Will is (or at least was) a key to the Forsaken identity, because that is what separated it from the Scourge.
The curse of Undeath was something that Sylvanas dedicated herself to avenging. The Scourge was adversary number one. Yet now, Sylvanas is doing to the humans of Hillsbrad and Gilneas exactly what Arthas did to the elves of Quel'thalas. She is conscripting her fallen adversaries to fight against their own friends and families. The legitimacy of the Forsaken is really starting to slip here, as the distinctions between them and the Scourge start to fall apart.
However, Sylvanas makes a decent point when you ride with her to the Sepulcher. The Forsaken are, in fact, the human inhabitants of Lordaeron. They didn't invade Brill or Andorhal or whatever Deathknell was called before the plague came. They were already there as living humans. This is their homeland, and it seems pretty damned unjust that a bunch of humans from another nation way down south would claim to have a more legitimate stake in the land. These were the subjects of the Menethils, not the Wrynns. Sylvanas argues that Lordaeron and its people are simply trying to defend their sovereign land.
And here's the big conundrum with the Scourge and the Forsaken: Does Lordaeron, as a country, still truly exist? Or has it gone the way of the Holy Roman Empire and the USSR? The land is still there, of course, and the people as well, but do the Forsaken consider themselves humans of Lordaeron, or Undead of the Forsaken? Lordaeron was a human nation. If the Forsaken no longer consider themselves human, can they claim to truly represent Lordaeron?
This is what I'd like to see developed: the Forsaken is an organization founded by former members of the Scourge who broke free of the Lich King's will (interesting thing to wonder: we assume pre-Cataclysm Forsaken players were simply alive as humans before Arthas returned from Northrend, but who are the new ones? Simply old corpses that had not been raised yet? Or various living humans killed by the Forsaken or the Scourge? Worth thinking about...) The Forsaken are not, however, really a "race." They are a political movement united over a shared affliction (undeath, and the free will to lament that fact.) They are not the only one, however. The Knights of the Ebon Blade, for instance, are also undead, and despite being more of an independent military institution than a political one, they are completely autonomous from any governmental body (though they enjoy friendly relations with the Argent Crusade.)
It stands to reason that there would be a different political movement in Lordaeron. Sylvanas is all about redefining her people - casting off "humanity" to embrace a wholly different identity, even as she invokes her people's right to the land based on their origins. Therefore, I think it would make sense that a new movement, a kind of "New Lordaeron" could emerge.
These would be members of the free undead who still consider themselves human, and would, as an endgame, like to normalize relations with the Alliance. They're still committed to owning all the land that was once called Lordaeron, and let's be clear here - they would still be at war with the Alliance. But New Lordaeron would be something very different. They would reach out to the Argent Crusade, rather than begrudgingly tolerating their presence. They would be opposed to the incursions into Hillsbrad and Gilneas, and most importantly, they'd be reluctant to cooperate with the Horde.
By making New Lordaeron a serious force, you have a group of undead that actually deserve Lordaeron. Furthermore, when the Alliance inevitably rejects their offers of peace and cooperation (whether because of post-Wrath Gate prudence or simply an inability to tolerate the undead) you finally get to see a situation where the Alliance are actually effective antagonists as well as being in a position of power.
There's actually already something vaguely similar going on with the few remaining High Elves, who remain loyal to the Alliance. It seems like a real missing piece to not have members of Lordaeron (the country around which the Alliance was first formed, after all) want to re-join, or at least reconcile with, Team Blue.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Grimoires and Hellfire
Early in my experiences with WoW, I did not particularly like Warlocks. This may come as a shock to those who started playing more recently than I do, but Warlocks were, during much of Burning Crusade, "that class." What I mean by "that class" is that it was the class that everyone was playing. At the time, Warlocks (Affliction, mainly) were real powerhouses in PvP. If I recall correctly (my Warlock, Morcanis, was only in the teens I believe by the time I decided to actually level him during Wrath of the Lich King,) a Warlock could put Curse of Agony (as it was then called,) Corruption, Unstable Affliction, and I think even Immolate (before they kept UA and Immolate from stacking) on you all at once and then fear you, causing you to run around the battleground as your insides melted/dissolved/burned, screaming and unable to do anything while the Warlock just laughed.
BC was a different time. Back then, many PvE'ers would run Battleground after Battleground (or Arena, though that was truly for the hardcore) to get the most easily-acquired epics. This was a time when success in a heroic dungeon run was hardly a given. Even with all the resilience on the gear, you could get stuff that was miles ahead of what you were getting in heroics or Karazhan (few raiders were able to progress beyond Kara, especially given the jump from 10-mans to 25-mans. The original Zul'Aman was created to give 10-man raiding guilds a place to move on to.)
Anyway, the point is that PvP power led to PvE power, and so Warlocks were immensely popular.
While I never had any doubt in my mind (at least, once I'd figured out how talent trees were supposed to work) what spec Jarsus or Tarbhad, or Darsino should be (I've grown fond of Assassination, but at heart I prefer the flavor of Subtlety,) Morcanis was always a character I struggled with. Eventually, with the advent of the Felguard and Metamorphosis, the decision was made, and in fact, the more they play around with Demonology, the more I find I like it.
Other than the Monk (who is, of course, in the process of invention,) Warlocks are getting the biggest overhaul with Mists of Pandaria. I can't speak to Affliction, as I have not tried it out, but my understanding is that for the most part, Aff locks are getting the fewest changes. Demonology and Destruction, on the other hand, are getting entirely new resource systems (akin to Runic and Holy Power, respectively, sort of - though really they're pretty unique, new systems.)
I'll start with Destruction, because it's the one I know less about and we can get it out of the way. First off, Banes are gone for both Destro and Demo. In fact, Immolate is now Destruction-only, and replaces Corruption. So that's one DoT. Soul Fire, also, has seen huge changes that affect both D-spec (I don't think Affliction uses it, though I could be mistaken.) Soul Fire now always crits. Addtionally, Destro locks will gain power of Burning Embers whenever they Incinerate a target with Immolate on it (which is what you'll be doing most of the time.) The Embers take a few Incinerates to build up, and max out at 3 (4 with a glyph, I believe,) but once you have one, you'll literally catch fire. Now, this is where I could be wrong (and I'm too lazy to look it up,) but I think the more Burning Embers you have, the more powerful your spells will be. However, the more Burning Embers you have, the more damage you'll take as a self-inflicted DoT.
The flavor is quite well-reflected in the spec's design. Destruction Warlocks are insane pyromaniacs, with a fervor for chaos that would make Twilight's Hammer go "whoa, whoa, careful there, buddy." Destruction also is interesting in that Life Tap is gone, but instead they regenerate mana at a much higher rate. Destruction is going to play fast and hard. Seems like the perfect spec for a Goblin.
Demonology goes in a different, but also very interesting new direction.
The first thing to note is the new secondary resource, Demonic Fury. Various abilities build up Demonic Fury, which increases your damage done and also powers your demon form.
Metamorphosis was always a cool ability, but other than the few, mainly flavorful abilities you get with it, it was always pretty much a glorified cooldown that scaled with Mastery. Metamorphosis is much more important now. First off, there's no more cooldown, and you will be expected to toggle in and out of Meta-mode to play effectively. Meta will do a couple things: you won't be able to cast basically anything except Demonic Slash - which Shadow Bolt automatically transforms into - and Soul Fire. However, your damage is increased and none of this costs mana - instead it costs Demonic Fury. Simply being in Demon Form will drain your Demonic Fury, so ultimately, you can't stay in it forever, but wait, because the next part is fantastic.
Wild Imps. Currently, Bane of Doom has a chance to summon a little Imp that attacks your targets with weak melee. It's not totally insignificant damage, but it's certainly not your most crucial component. Wild Imps will be summoned when you use Shadow Bolt, with a 15-second internal cooldown. Their fire bolts will then charge you with Demonic Fury. If you want them out quickly, there's also a separate spell (on a cooldown) that pops 5 out at once.
So what this means is that you'll truly have a small army of Imps, your main summoned demon, yourself in Demon Form nearly half the time, and on important fights, a big, scary Doomguard (or Terrorguard, with the talent.)
Hand of Gul'dan's been heavily redesigned, and is now ground-targeted (which is actually one thing I'm not crazy about) but it will help get your Demonic Fury flowing.
Anyway, Warlocks are getting some serious love this expansion. Assuming thing remain on this trajectory of awesome, I expect Morcanis will see a lot of play over in Panda-land.
BC was a different time. Back then, many PvE'ers would run Battleground after Battleground (or Arena, though that was truly for the hardcore) to get the most easily-acquired epics. This was a time when success in a heroic dungeon run was hardly a given. Even with all the resilience on the gear, you could get stuff that was miles ahead of what you were getting in heroics or Karazhan (few raiders were able to progress beyond Kara, especially given the jump from 10-mans to 25-mans. The original Zul'Aman was created to give 10-man raiding guilds a place to move on to.)
Anyway, the point is that PvP power led to PvE power, and so Warlocks were immensely popular.
While I never had any doubt in my mind (at least, once I'd figured out how talent trees were supposed to work) what spec Jarsus or Tarbhad, or Darsino should be (I've grown fond of Assassination, but at heart I prefer the flavor of Subtlety,) Morcanis was always a character I struggled with. Eventually, with the advent of the Felguard and Metamorphosis, the decision was made, and in fact, the more they play around with Demonology, the more I find I like it.
Other than the Monk (who is, of course, in the process of invention,) Warlocks are getting the biggest overhaul with Mists of Pandaria. I can't speak to Affliction, as I have not tried it out, but my understanding is that for the most part, Aff locks are getting the fewest changes. Demonology and Destruction, on the other hand, are getting entirely new resource systems (akin to Runic and Holy Power, respectively, sort of - though really they're pretty unique, new systems.)
I'll start with Destruction, because it's the one I know less about and we can get it out of the way. First off, Banes are gone for both Destro and Demo. In fact, Immolate is now Destruction-only, and replaces Corruption. So that's one DoT. Soul Fire, also, has seen huge changes that affect both D-spec (I don't think Affliction uses it, though I could be mistaken.) Soul Fire now always crits. Addtionally, Destro locks will gain power of Burning Embers whenever they Incinerate a target with Immolate on it (which is what you'll be doing most of the time.) The Embers take a few Incinerates to build up, and max out at 3 (4 with a glyph, I believe,) but once you have one, you'll literally catch fire. Now, this is where I could be wrong (and I'm too lazy to look it up,) but I think the more Burning Embers you have, the more powerful your spells will be. However, the more Burning Embers you have, the more damage you'll take as a self-inflicted DoT.
The flavor is quite well-reflected in the spec's design. Destruction Warlocks are insane pyromaniacs, with a fervor for chaos that would make Twilight's Hammer go "whoa, whoa, careful there, buddy." Destruction also is interesting in that Life Tap is gone, but instead they regenerate mana at a much higher rate. Destruction is going to play fast and hard. Seems like the perfect spec for a Goblin.
Demonology goes in a different, but also very interesting new direction.
The first thing to note is the new secondary resource, Demonic Fury. Various abilities build up Demonic Fury, which increases your damage done and also powers your demon form.
Metamorphosis was always a cool ability, but other than the few, mainly flavorful abilities you get with it, it was always pretty much a glorified cooldown that scaled with Mastery. Metamorphosis is much more important now. First off, there's no more cooldown, and you will be expected to toggle in and out of Meta-mode to play effectively. Meta will do a couple things: you won't be able to cast basically anything except Demonic Slash - which Shadow Bolt automatically transforms into - and Soul Fire. However, your damage is increased and none of this costs mana - instead it costs Demonic Fury. Simply being in Demon Form will drain your Demonic Fury, so ultimately, you can't stay in it forever, but wait, because the next part is fantastic.
Wild Imps. Currently, Bane of Doom has a chance to summon a little Imp that attacks your targets with weak melee. It's not totally insignificant damage, but it's certainly not your most crucial component. Wild Imps will be summoned when you use Shadow Bolt, with a 15-second internal cooldown. Their fire bolts will then charge you with Demonic Fury. If you want them out quickly, there's also a separate spell (on a cooldown) that pops 5 out at once.
So what this means is that you'll truly have a small army of Imps, your main summoned demon, yourself in Demon Form nearly half the time, and on important fights, a big, scary Doomguard (or Terrorguard, with the talent.)
Hand of Gul'dan's been heavily redesigned, and is now ground-targeted (which is actually one thing I'm not crazy about) but it will help get your Demonic Fury flowing.
Anyway, Warlocks are getting some serious love this expansion. Assuming thing remain on this trajectory of awesome, I expect Morcanis will see a lot of play over in Panda-land.
The Constant Influx: Races
As I was talking about in the previous post, every expansion has given us an incentive to roll up a new character, whether it be new races, new classes, or both (or new ways to combine old races and classes.) While I personally find new classes the most exciting way to do this, it's obvious that new races are a much simpler thing to bring into the game. With Mists of Pandaria, we'll be up to 5 new (as in, not from Vanilla) races against 2 new classes.
Races obviously require a lot more work from the creative side of things - creating an effective backstory, giving that side a reason to join its respective faction, and creating a part of the world that has, to this point, prevented them from stepping into the global fray.
One of the downsides of constantly introducing new races is that some stories can fall by the wayside. The Draenei, for instance, haven't had a huge amount of plot development since Burning Crusade. The Worgen didn't even get much screen time in their own introductory expansion (if I had to guess, I think Blizzard settled on Worgen as the new Alliance race much later in the process than when they chose Goblins for the Horde - which was probably the very instant they decided to introduce new races.)
Still, new races are fun, and I always like to imagine what a player in 2004 would think if they could see a their trusty Night Elf hanging out with Space Goats, Werewolves and a Panda-man. They add new visual variety, and can change the tone of things.
Also, once they've created the new models and made the starting zone, they're basically done - no serious balance-tweaking unless someone winds up with an amazing set of racials.
Anyway, I seriously doubt that the influx of new races is going to stop any time soon, so let's talk about possibilities. While the Pandaren are available to both sides, I don't think (and in fact, I would not prefer) that all future playable races will be split like that - unless the big twist is that the factions are going to get united once we depose Garrosh - which I think is basically never going to happen in a million years.)
So, without further ado, the possible races:
Naga:
Obviously, the biggest hurdle here is how the hell they'd be able to use a mount. I can kind of imagine them draping their tail over the mount. The other is how you'd handle boots, which I'd have to say could be done as a sort of "tail cap." Story-wise, I think there's a decent possibility for them as a Horde race. While the Naga were transformed by the Old Gods, that doesn't necessarily mean they're possessed the way Deathwing was. One could imagine it being more akin to the Curse of Flesh. Anyway, one could imagine a splinter group that has lost faith in Azshara. Their animosity toward the Night Elves (and vice versa) would be far too great to put them in the Alliance, but their shared history with the Blood Elves and their general cunning and military strength would be valued by the Horde. Also, obvious racial bonus: faster swim speed.
Ogre:
Another obvious Horde race - there's even Ogres friendly to the Horde already, so it's no big stretch that you'd be able to get a playable faction. They are a bit on the large side (and Tauren already have trouble fitting through some tight spots - especially if they're mounted) but I could definitely see them working out.
Ethereals:
Quasi-Arabic Space Goblins made of Energy? These are a stretch, especially given their non-corporeality. Still, I think they would be very, very popular. Not sure which side they'd go to, though the Alliance could use a somewhat callous, ruthless addition. For customization, you'd have to look at the wrappings mainly, though you could also change the color of the glowy-essence within.
Vrykul:
While the Vrykul are not exactly the most friendly people, and their alliance with the Lich King made them even worse, I could imagine a group of Vrykul that denounced Ymiron and maybe even remembers their human offspring, and would probably never bow down before a Warchief of some alien race, though they might respect a King who is almost like them, so I'd put these guys on team Blue.
Murlocs:
Hilarious, yes, but I think these guys are best as the kings of the "minor threat races," like Gnolls, Kobolds, and Troggs.
The Constant Influx: Classes
Every World of Warcraft expansion has added new incentives to create new characters - if you're a true altoholic like me, you've made at least one new toon per expansion. Burning Crusade introduced the Blood Elves and Draenei races (and thereby effectively introduced a new class to the Alliance and the Horde, thanks to Blood Elf Paladins and Draenei Shamans.) Wrath of the Lich King gave us the Death Knight class (one of the reasons I still adore Wrath as an expansion.) Cataclysm actually created the biggest influx of new character possibilities, opening up not only two new races, but also a wide assortment of new race-class combinations, ranging from combinations like Human Hunters - which were always conspicuously absent for no particular reason - to ones like Tauren Paladins - which were supported by new lore, conceptually a kind of sweeping cultural change through Tauren society.
It was always suspected after Blizzard copyrighted "Mists of Pandaria" that the Pandarens would become a playable race. Despite the fact that Cataclysm had just introduced us to the Worgen and Goblins less than two years ago, it would seem odd to have an expansion all about the Pandaren homeland without allowing us to play as the Panda-people.
Of course, then there's the fact that the Pandaren are the only new race. BC and Cataclysm both, obviously, had to introduce two new races each - one Horde, one Alliance (while I like the Goblins a lot, I think the Alliance lucked out both times.) There are a couple reasons why I think they didn't just come up with a different race to introduce and give Pandaren to one side or the other (on the whole, they seem a bit more Alliance-like, but that's beside the point.) There is, of course, some lore background that suggests the Pandaren are not really the kind of people to divide themselves along such passionate lines, but I also think that whichever side didn't get the headliner race would feel pretty cheated.
Anyway, what surprised me a bit with the announcement was the introduction of the Monk. This will be the first time they ever introduce a new race along with a new class. Of course, the somewhat unfortunate consequence of this is that, with literally just one new race and one new class (and one new character-slot-per-server) you're going to see an immense influx of Pandaren Monks. We're going to see very, very few non-Pandaren Monks and very, very few non-Monk Pandaren. Because I'm a horrible altoholic, I have ten toons on both my Alliance and Horde servers. Admittedly, I wouldn't be too torn up to throw a couple of those guys on the chopping block (my Troll Druid, perpetually level 30, it seems, whose name is Tuzaka, started life as a hunter. I might reroll him as a Monk, though I'd miss the troll druid forms.)
Anyway, my agonizing over how I'm going to set up my Monk toon (and hopefully Brewmasters will have been given several more coats of paint - not loving it quite yet on the Beta, though I know it's still early) is actually not what I was going to write about here. What I'm actually here to talk about is what sort of new races and classes could be introduced in the future of the game.
Four expansions have set quite a precedent, so I will assume that every expansion will bring us something new. Let's start with the smaller category with a bigger impact: Classes.
First off, I should mention that the introduction of the Death Knight balanced the number of Healers, Tanks, and pure dps classes. Monks, conveniently, keep tanks and healers balanced. I actually doubt we'll see new pure dps classes, because I generally think Blizzard wants people to be more flexible. Also, imagine how long the dungeon queues would be for low-level newbies of a pure dps class when everyone is leveling that class (actually even a 2-role hybrid can cause that problem.)
Demon Hunter:
On one hand, this seems like an obvious addition. Demon Hunter NPCs are in-game, and the concept of their class is pretty flavorful and badass. On the other hand, this seems like it would be yet another melee class. Additionally, a lot of Demon Hunter territory is already occupied by Warlocks - most, if not all of Illidan's moves from Warcraft 3 are already Warlock abilities. Also, at least for now it stands to reason that the next new class should be a Mail-wearing one, as Cloth, Plate, and now Leather all support three classes. DHs really seem like they should wear Leather armor (Illidan's blindfold, the Cursed Vision of Sargeras, is a leather piece after all.) Demon Hunters would make sense as Tanks, Melee Dps, or Ranged Dps (though you'd have to make sure the latter didn't just feel like a Demonology Warlock.)
Battlemage:
The Battlemages we've seen in-game are really just Mages, but reaching out to other RPGs, the Battlemage would be a plate-armored soldier who uses Arcane magic to fight and defend. I should tell you - this class would probably become my Main. Like the Demon Hunter, this feels like a Tank, Melee, and Caster class (the Casters would finally provide another spec to use all that intellect plate!) While Arcane Mages have a (somewhat underdeveloped) time-manipulation theme, I imagine Battlemages could a have a space theme - perhaps using some Titan backstory and giving them abilities like Black Hole and Meteor (a hostile-mob favorite.) Honestly, this is one of those ideas I've put far too much thought into - including a resource system that combines Mana with something called "Charge," which is akin to Rage or Runic Power.
Necromancer:
Supposedly this was actually the first thing they considered as a new class when going in to Wrath of the Lich King. While a Necromancer could work, I think overall the niche is split between Affliction Warlocks and Unholy Death Knights. Really, that's essentially the space Necromancer's exist in - a cross between a Warlock and a Death Knight. One could imagine them being able to heal (imagine a shadow-based healing class. That's cool) but overall I don't know if it would really feel all that unique.
Classes are a tricky thing to do. Death Knights were filling a niche that was always empty (a dark plate class) and Monks go hand in hand with the whole Pandaria/China thing. Most of those flavor-niches are pretty much filled, and you can often squeeze certain classes to fill one role or another (Hunters, for instance, can be military snipers or spiritual one-with-nature types, and Shamans can be anything from Mage-like Elementalists to Witch Doctors to Tribal leaders, etc.) And of course, mechanically classes require a huge amount of work to make them feel unique.
Next up: New Races!
It was always suspected after Blizzard copyrighted "Mists of Pandaria" that the Pandarens would become a playable race. Despite the fact that Cataclysm had just introduced us to the Worgen and Goblins less than two years ago, it would seem odd to have an expansion all about the Pandaren homeland without allowing us to play as the Panda-people.
Of course, then there's the fact that the Pandaren are the only new race. BC and Cataclysm both, obviously, had to introduce two new races each - one Horde, one Alliance (while I like the Goblins a lot, I think the Alliance lucked out both times.) There are a couple reasons why I think they didn't just come up with a different race to introduce and give Pandaren to one side or the other (on the whole, they seem a bit more Alliance-like, but that's beside the point.) There is, of course, some lore background that suggests the Pandaren are not really the kind of people to divide themselves along such passionate lines, but I also think that whichever side didn't get the headliner race would feel pretty cheated.
Anyway, what surprised me a bit with the announcement was the introduction of the Monk. This will be the first time they ever introduce a new race along with a new class. Of course, the somewhat unfortunate consequence of this is that, with literally just one new race and one new class (and one new character-slot-per-server) you're going to see an immense influx of Pandaren Monks. We're going to see very, very few non-Pandaren Monks and very, very few non-Monk Pandaren. Because I'm a horrible altoholic, I have ten toons on both my Alliance and Horde servers. Admittedly, I wouldn't be too torn up to throw a couple of those guys on the chopping block (my Troll Druid, perpetually level 30, it seems, whose name is Tuzaka, started life as a hunter. I might reroll him as a Monk, though I'd miss the troll druid forms.)
Anyway, my agonizing over how I'm going to set up my Monk toon (and hopefully Brewmasters will have been given several more coats of paint - not loving it quite yet on the Beta, though I know it's still early) is actually not what I was going to write about here. What I'm actually here to talk about is what sort of new races and classes could be introduced in the future of the game.
Four expansions have set quite a precedent, so I will assume that every expansion will bring us something new. Let's start with the smaller category with a bigger impact: Classes.
First off, I should mention that the introduction of the Death Knight balanced the number of Healers, Tanks, and pure dps classes. Monks, conveniently, keep tanks and healers balanced. I actually doubt we'll see new pure dps classes, because I generally think Blizzard wants people to be more flexible. Also, imagine how long the dungeon queues would be for low-level newbies of a pure dps class when everyone is leveling that class (actually even a 2-role hybrid can cause that problem.)
Demon Hunter:
On one hand, this seems like an obvious addition. Demon Hunter NPCs are in-game, and the concept of their class is pretty flavorful and badass. On the other hand, this seems like it would be yet another melee class. Additionally, a lot of Demon Hunter territory is already occupied by Warlocks - most, if not all of Illidan's moves from Warcraft 3 are already Warlock abilities. Also, at least for now it stands to reason that the next new class should be a Mail-wearing one, as Cloth, Plate, and now Leather all support three classes. DHs really seem like they should wear Leather armor (Illidan's blindfold, the Cursed Vision of Sargeras, is a leather piece after all.) Demon Hunters would make sense as Tanks, Melee Dps, or Ranged Dps (though you'd have to make sure the latter didn't just feel like a Demonology Warlock.)
Battlemage:
The Battlemages we've seen in-game are really just Mages, but reaching out to other RPGs, the Battlemage would be a plate-armored soldier who uses Arcane magic to fight and defend. I should tell you - this class would probably become my Main. Like the Demon Hunter, this feels like a Tank, Melee, and Caster class (the Casters would finally provide another spec to use all that intellect plate!) While Arcane Mages have a (somewhat underdeveloped) time-manipulation theme, I imagine Battlemages could a have a space theme - perhaps using some Titan backstory and giving them abilities like Black Hole and Meteor (a hostile-mob favorite.) Honestly, this is one of those ideas I've put far too much thought into - including a resource system that combines Mana with something called "Charge," which is akin to Rage or Runic Power.
Necromancer:
Supposedly this was actually the first thing they considered as a new class when going in to Wrath of the Lich King. While a Necromancer could work, I think overall the niche is split between Affliction Warlocks and Unholy Death Knights. Really, that's essentially the space Necromancer's exist in - a cross between a Warlock and a Death Knight. One could imagine them being able to heal (imagine a shadow-based healing class. That's cool) but overall I don't know if it would really feel all that unique.
Classes are a tricky thing to do. Death Knights were filling a niche that was always empty (a dark plate class) and Monks go hand in hand with the whole Pandaria/China thing. Most of those flavor-niches are pretty much filled, and you can often squeeze certain classes to fill one role or another (Hunters, for instance, can be military snipers or spiritual one-with-nature types, and Shamans can be anything from Mage-like Elementalists to Witch Doctors to Tribal leaders, etc.) And of course, mechanically classes require a huge amount of work to make them feel unique.
Next up: New Races!
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