The Next Expansion: New Playable Classes?
Posted by 
iTZKooPA on Thursday, July 23, 2009 - 52 Comments Tags: alchemist, cataclysm, dark ranger, demon hunter, dread lord, goblins, mountain king, new classes, new wow classes, speculation, the next expansion, tinker, warden, wow classes, wow: cataclysm
iTZKooPA on Thursday, July 23, 2009 - 52 Comments Tags: alchemist, cataclysm, dark ranger, demon hunter, dread lord, goblins, mountain king, new classes, new wow classes, speculation, the next expansion, tinker, warden, wow classes, wow: cataclysm 
That's A Lot Of Classes!To date, our series of speculative creativity has relied upon some inkling of a rumor as the basis of most of the pieces. I am going to pull a hard 180 and go completely off the cuff with this one. No backroom discussion, drunken rant or friend of a friend who knows a guy that dated some girl who roomed with Chris Metzen sparked my neurons. As such, the class details below are entirely fake!
Currently we only know one thing about World of Warcraft's third expansion, that it exists. Beyond that it's all been conjecture, speculation and well wishes, and yet none of these have touched upon any major gameplay feature. Masks aside (and I consider that rumor a huge leap of faith) we lack the faintest idea of what could be announced as part of the official declaration of expansion the third.
What you thought Sams would walk to the podium, whisper "World of Warcraft: Cataclysm" and walk away? Fólkvangr no. There will be a ridiculous amount of information given that faithful day, whenever it may be. What I am trying to figure out is what the big gun is going to be? Another new class? A pair of new races? An incredible amount of dungeons and raids spread across all levels? A working Wintergrasp?
I found the idea of new classes to be the most interesting despite the fact that Wrath just brought us one. That and guessing classes is a shot in the dark.
Alliance:
- Mountain King (Dwarf only) - The mighty Mountain King will be a tank of a different nature. These steadfast warriors will be capable of absorbing obtuse amounts of damage no matter their specialty. Their stocky stature enables them to create earth shattering Thunder Claps to frighten, disorient and slow foes in the immediate vicinity, and a well-timed Storm Bolt stops almost anything in its tracks. Unfortunately the bulk is a defensive mechanism, causing overall DPS to be lower than other melee classes.
- Warden - Popularized by Maiev Shadowsong, the Warden makes a return to reclaim Fan of Knives from rogues hunt those who have done injustices to Night Elves, and the rest of the Alliance. The nimble class' focus will be close-ranged AoE combat. Single target DPS suffers when compared to the class' ability to handle two or more mobs via close range AoE attacks and spells. Shadowstrike, a non-channeled, multi target Mind Flay can be used to lay waste to fugitives.
Horde:
- Dark Ranger (Undead only) - At the basic level Dark Rangers are to be compared to their bow-loving buddies, the Hunters, but DRs have a completely new set of spells and abilities. The most notable difference would be the lack of a pet. Instead of fuzzy companions these former Scourge officers have the ability to resurrect fallen corpses to fight for them. However, these beings act more as fodder than DPS. The devastation instead comes from the DR's Silencing abilities, Life Drain and an overall more powerful, yet slower, standard shot that is charged with dark energy.
- Dread Lord - The Nathrezim have played a large role in the Warcraft universe, but haven't received much press in WoW (at least as far as the Alliance can tell). It's unlikely that they could be added as a class without the addition of the race itself, but the Dread Lord makes for an interesting class. These dastardly beings are quick attacking, weaponless fighters that use a mix of instant or fast spells (one second or less) and strong claw-based attacks to drop foes. A revamp of the Sleep spell that allows units to be damaged would be their stun and the Vampiric Aura adds fantastic group appeal.
Neutral (more on this tomorrow):
- Goblin Tinker - Another class that can only be applicable as part of a new race, the Goblin Tinker specializes in machine-based battle. The short race makes up for its strength inadequacies by placing themselves in crazy battle mechs. The new class will feature mindless, summonable minions which detonate on aggressive mobs if they are not killed quickly. Attacks include a targetable rocket AoE stun, a slow swinging wrecking ball for white damage (also another weaponless class) and a personal buff along the lines of Inner Fire, but with damage attributes too, call Mechanical Mayhem.
- Goblin Alchemist - In an effort to once keep a solid number of healers being played at all times comes the Goblin Alchemist. Instead of mechanical ingenuity, this diminutive class relies on its ability to create chemical and biological agents for offense and defense. Alchemists specialize in short to mid-range AoE combat, with nearly all of their spells, healing or damaging, being targetable AoE abilities (think bombs). Instead of mana, the class is reliant upon how fast the brews can be concocted, causing the cooldowns to be the only limiting factor.
- Demon Hunter - The DH would have made a more logical addition in The Burning Crusade, but one could argue that the amount of demons in the world then caused an vast increase in these heroes, on both sides of the fence. With the threat largely neutralized the dedicated hunters have begun looking for other work. Following the outcast class' lore, the melee (fist, swords and dagger) machines would subsidize their strikes with powers from the dark taint they hunger to banish from Azeroth, such as Immolation. Spectral Sight allows Scourge and Demon tracking. A fantastic chance for Blizzard to show our characters changing over the course of time (leveling) thanks to the demonic energies corrupting one's body.
Any Warcraft III fan can see that I picked the most applicable and unique heroes from the past lore and spiced them up with some World of Warcraft twists and mechanics. What are the odds that one of these bad girls gets selected, assuming a new class is announced? Who's the most likely candidate?
Which toon would you want to play? Personally I think the Goblin Alchemist sounds pretty freaking cool, but Storm Bolting never gets old.
Reader Comments (52)
How about a Brewmaster, throwing alcohol over a group of enemies then igniting the enemies for extra damage, as well as the lvl 90 ability to replicate and actually do a significant amount of damage as compared to the mirror image ability of a mage.
not bad man. not bad. Still waiting for a beast master class :D Rexar ftw
BM hunter?
1st but ye i like those classes although I´d like that instead of an goblin alchemist i'd like to have a holy shadow wich would have mainly mass aoe healing and some singletarget damaging spells such as the priests:holy fire.smite and mana burn.
Probably won't work as written above.... Blue Posts have put the emphasis of the new raids to "Bring the Player...not the Class". The new classes would have to have the ability to be valuable outside of certain niches and the older classes would have to be buffed/nerfed to be complimentary them. Not to say they don't sound like cool classes (they do), they would just need to tweak everyone to make them fit (i.e. there have been a LOT of tweaks to DKs and all the classes to make them complimentary and focus on the player, not the class).
too many speculations about what people would want to have :\
Even if this does seem somewhat plausible, Blizzard has a hard enough balancing classes as is. So I doubt we will be seeing any new classes for awhile. New races maybe. I am pretty sure one of the devs did say that after the Death Knight, we wont see another class for awhile.
not bad classes
but personally i like the idea of a mele hunter with two pets
As much as we'd all like to have so and so, not much of what anyone is really saying nor speculating will make it in the game.
It's lovely to speculate, but just throwing constant ideas out there? Be a little realistic, lore-wise.
@Alondor
iTZKooPA only listed his overall intentions for the class, it should go without saying that tons of tweaks and reworks would need to be incorporated, no matter what is chosen. Assuming we even get a new class; something I doubt.
As you point out, the DK needed (arguably still does) a lot of work before the class was considered balanced. The only class described that I would see not filling a multi purpose roll like Blizzard current intentions is the Demon Hunter. DHs, as described, seem too specialized at demon and scourge killing (one would assume they'd have advantages against them) to be useful in the Naga-ridden world of Maelstrom.
@OP
I'd roll a Dread Lord, I've always wanted to play a class based solely on fisticuffs (not fist wpns!).
well if that is true it would surely suck but heres what blizzard could do give the existing classes kind of secondary class mages could imploy the powers of a blood mage the paladins rogues warriors DKsimplo the powers of a fighter hunters imploy the powers of a demon hunter and so on that would be awsome
i doubt that blizzard is gonna put a class at one faction and a diferent class at the other faction. cuz just like paladin and shaman (pre BC) they would have to balance them and then the class would lose its distinctivness . so more probably a new class for both factions
Stupidest ideas ever. Except maybe dreadlord.
Dragoon
A dragon taming hunter that uses his superior hunting and taming skills to make use of azeroths most terrifying beast.
Using spears as there main weapon dragoons attack from afar with leaping strikes and devastating throws. After defeating their foes dragoons hop onto their dragon ally and fly away to reap more havoc on the battle field.
this is stupid and um.. the "classes " are a colleges corses
Personally since i started playing id love to c blizz make it so that u can fuse two classes together like dual spec but dual class instead
Witch Doctor... (maybe to support the release of D3).
Kind of a combination of the 'alchemist' idea and 'dark ranger' in terms of pet fodder. it can also apply aoe diseases... since it the new patch might get rid of some for death knights.
almost more like a more sinister druid minus the shape-shifting.
What about Sea Witch? Great for the nagas (Lady Vashj)
blizz said after wrath came out that there would be one hero class every x-pac. so there will be something like the DK in the next xpac and thats probably it... maybe new races though since they didnt add any in the last xpac
"this is stupid and um.. the “classes ” are a colleges corses"
Hello, that's a joke. WTS sense of humor.
TBC brought races, Wrath brought a class. Something very nice will be in store for this expansion...
What about the RuneMaster There is tons of lore behind them and they could be used by Orcs Tauren Dwarves and Humans It would be the Monk class everyone has been wanting BRING ON THE RUNE MASTER
Well I think the question needs to be asked, "What is missing?" in terms of classes. What class mechanics would be most desired or useful in this game? Let's not forget that with the new expansion (which is still a ways out) will have new fight mechanics (hopefully) that the new class or classes would be useful in having. For instance the Auriaya fight having a DK put down death and decay for the pull is quite helpful, I know there are other ways to do it but it works pretty good especially considering that the DK wears plate and can take a pounce if the tank can't pick up the sentries.
GIVE new class and race for both factions!
Or blizzard get some fantasy up and make a new faction :O
@fuzzy
enhance shaman with feral spirits?