I always thought survival should be a melee tank spec. Could have some interesting tech, like using the pet as a recharging health buffer that you use to split or redirect incoming damage
I mean there's some basis since they've had eras with beastmasters regenerating with their pet. Not a huge stretch to take it a next step further with what you're proposing. I think it would be really neat flavor wise to have the Hunter "absorb" their pet as a sort of "totem" animal that they base their fighting style off of. Gaining some abilities based off of the pet as well as some baseline so that they are viable regardless of choice.
However I won't deny that a Hunter/Pet tag team combo as tank would also be dope so not like married to my idea by any means
In Vanilla, they had surmised a tank spec for Shaman, which is why they can use shields, but clearly, they fell short on that. I, for one, would love a shaman tank, caster type tank using chain lighting for AOE taunts.
Maybe the "Caster" portion is why the idea fell off, with the knock back on spell casts.
They could easily subvert it by removing it for Shaman tanks, or by making Chain Lightning a lower damage and instant spell or something, but I wouldn't mind Shaman Tank being melee focused with big rocky AoEs
Tbf the overpowered part was that many Shaman tank were actually enhancement dps with just a tanking rune, they didn't even use shields, and thus it did basically more damage than most DPS
After they fixed this by making wielding a shield a requirement I haven't heard more complains about Shaman tank
and the real problem that people complained about was that they were dunking on everyone in pvp. I don't think many people really minded being carried in pve content
> I don't think many people really minded being carried in pve content
There are 2 kinds, the very vocally angry about it but most people know they are the problem not you. Then for raids especially, the people that want to just play the game and not get loot as fast as possible which the carry person should be kind enough to leave.
I think the funniest thing was seeing many, many players say something along the lines of "Shaman is clearly Blizzard favorites" or "why are Shamans always OP"
It was... something to behold to say the least
hard disagree about "always getting new forms". Everyone else gets a new set with multiple colors each tier. Druids went, i think, 12 years before the first option to change your animal forms existed?
Druid only has four specs because back in the day one of their specs - Feral Combat - was simultaneously both a tank *and* DPS spec. When MoP came around, it had to be split into two specs in order to not be absurdly overpowered.
Druid is not an example of getting a fourth spec to fill a class fantasy, it's an example of one spec getting cut in two.
> and always getting new forms
I mean... not really? And that's the tradeoff for Druids not being able to see their transmog in combat.
They butchered our boy Feral and forced it into two separate specs. That's the only reason why we have 4 instead of 3 like the rest. And we don't get nearly enough forms when you consider that's all we get to look at all the time. We don't get to see armor or mogs unless we stand around in the city.
I have no problems with Shamans getting some time in the sun. The real problem is that only one faction has access to them, and a lot of their OPness was via new utility (like stacking mana return).
Even if they do balance Shamans and Paladins to be equivalent in p4, one faction will still have better racials in p4. The weapon skill updates planned for p4 will probably elevate this discrepancy.
I mean we still have a 2007 Earth Shield animation and the Ascendance model tells you all you need to know about what Blizzard thinks of Shamans.
IMO, it's not that they hate the class, it's that they know if they make Shamans awesome then the wow pop of 14% paladin, 14% hunter, and so on.... becomes 18% Shaman, 14% paladin, etc.
I felt kinda bad how all my memes are shaman, but I genuinely forgot about earth tank, as a shaman main, so I feel even worse about that lol. Maybe used to the neglect
There was a brief period in classic when shaman could frost-tank low level dungeons and it was a riot.
Hell, one of the strangest things I ever did, was do a wild Disc/Holy build where I avoided every aggro-down talent to see how much aggro I could have as a healer. I managed to tank UBRS with a group of Ret Pallies and a pair of rogues and mages while solo healing. It was the wildest thing I ever did and it was freaking hilarious. Also it was scary because I could hold aggro mostly while just spam healing myself.
Way back in classic it was borderline necessary pre-raids if you outgeared your tank. But yeah I might be misremembering how many talents it was. I feel like it was 2 on the disc side and 1 on holy? if you went up both trees, could be misremembering though, this is 20 years ago. lol.
You are definitely misremembering. There was only ever one threat talent in Disc which applied to heals, and a couple talents in Shadow (-threat for shadow spells and -CD on Fade). Also original release Healer gear did basically nothing except increase your mana pool, so your gear barely mattered.
However, a poorly played tank would struggle to keep aggro - and tbf most of them played really poorly at that stage, since no one really knew how threat worked at that stage. So I was overly harsh - there was certainly a large population of priest healers who took that talent just for that reason: Most tanks had no idea how to hold threat. It was also quite important for Onyxia and on some BWL bosses.
As an Enhancement main, I love the spec but I don't think the name applies. I'd love them to rename the melee spec and then make Enhancement another support spec.
Disc is all about "balance" between Light & Shadow, hence why half of the spells are dark/void-themed.
Honestly I just want to be able to DPS on my priest without becoming a deranged void cultist, and without suffering through trying to squeeze DPS out of a healing spec..
This. I want to dps as my first main I ever had without him having to deal with LITERALLY GOING INSANE. I was pissed when blizz made that design choice. I’m sorry, but my priest will never dabble in insanity. Made me sad, too.
That's the dream. Void and shadow is cool and all but we have no class that focuses on tearing enemies apart with the Light. Paladins are close but they're melee and it doesn't feel like you're using the Light to blasto, just to augment a few attacks.
I don't want to heal nobody, not even incidentally, I want to sear enemies with holy light. I want pew pew gold lasers, sparkling explosions and stuff that has the Consecrate visual but on crack.
I imagine it would be focused more around "Inner Fire" and other related/sort of unused spells. Like a Frolo-style inquisitor fire priest (aka what Whitemane/Koegler is).
I believe Ascension has something like that with specifically Sun Clerics.
So I've played a cleric for a while, and, while you are right, theres a lot of different subclasses that go beyond "holy-powered tank". Both Ret and Prot are quintessentially mirrored as D&D paladins, but Hpal matches maybe 50% of Cleric subclasses.
This is because Cleric was designed to fit into any kind of party due to the fact that, in earlier editions of the game, having a Cleric was pretty-much mandatory. There's the stealthy Trickery cleric, the Druidic Nature cleric, the Wizardlike, blasty Light cleric, or even the evil Death cleric. There's more but I'm not bringing up the list of like 15 subclasses they have lol.
It would be cool if there was some sort of medium-armor, ranged inquisitor kind of Paladin, sure, but I feel like that would fit more into the Priest class in WoW.
I think that gets to one of the bigger issues with Clerics in a WoW sense. Priest and Paladin ate up a good chunk of their identity and WoW as a setting struggles to support the others.
Like if you're a Life Cleric or Trickery Cleric or something doesn't that fall under Druid and Shadow Priest? Priest is a really large umbrella in WoW that gathers up most of the faiths except specifically like Druid, Shaman, and Titan worship.
Fucking idiotic is what it is.
Every other melee should get a 10-20 yard minimum range. Melee in WoW isn't so glamarous that being in actual melee range is *that* enjoyable compared to all the shitty downsides.
If the melee hitboxes didn't make us feel like we're often standing right up their fucking bunghole I might not have an issue. The bandaid is useful until Blizzard actually solves these issues, and there's nothing to suggest they're even trying.
Well then they wouldn't be melee. How's a warrior gonna swing an axe and hit something 60 feet away? That's a whole-ass bowling lane's worth of distance.
If there was a ranged character that used holy magic to lead inquisitions I would assume paladin rather than priest. Hell, if yo took the exact gameplay of holy paladin and told me that was priest, I would buy it. As long as you are not having the gameplay be identical, it does not matter which is which as long as its consistent from its inception. Gameplay would not be what differentiates the idea of a ranged paladin from a priest but lore would be. Obviously the gameplay would be different but the names of the abilities and flavor text are more telling than the actual gameplay.
Honestly wild that Blizz hasn't been doing that. Game balance currently is what?:
6 tanks, 7 healers, 1 support (Aug-Evoker), ~30 dps
Which includes 4 classes (Mage, Warlock, Hunter, Rogue) who only has options to dps.
Honestly I really just want a tank spec for Shaman or Evoker. I'm getting very very bored of the current tribrid class choices and I'd love to be able to play something different.
Magmerazied Shield on your Earth Shaman would be so cool. It would be a bulky defensive which at the same time does dmg to attackers.
Maybe that's how shatank can work. They enhance dmg return while being Def by imbuing earth and fire
I can already think of some sweet mechanics for sharing damage with your pet. Think brew master stagger but with a twist. Abilities to weave in and out with your pet.
Lot's of opportunity.
literally just a melee hunter spec where you and your pet stand side by side and it adds your stats/staggers damage with them or something
its free real estate
Micromanaging you and your pets health bars as you swap aggro between eachother sounds really fun. You tank some of the time, your bear tanks some of the time
Yesterday when I was playing an evoker I thought to myself why don't they have a tank spec? I mean c'mon their dragons... we've killed dragons and they were pretty tanky so why not our dragons? lol
Shaman tank is hype but i dont think Evoker tank fits the class fantasy, at least in a traditional tank sense
Could be a good opportunity to something totally out there though
Ok hear me out. Diviner Hunter from Pathfinder is a paladin archer
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/paladin/archetypes/paizo-paladin-archetypes/divine-hunter/
How is there only one class that can use guns, bows and crossbows in the whole game? And only in two specs? Give melee classes ranged weapons back, damn it
Rogues get a ranged spec, so bows aren't literally only used by not even all the specs of a single class, and Hunters get a tank spec where they ride their pet into battle to add their HP together.
Even just a HotS Rexxar-style spec would be interesting
Short/mid range attacks from the hunter but ~50% of your kit is offloaded to the pet, plus direct movement/control of the pet (in addition to yourself) instead of pets auto-following you or your target
Outlaw’s already halfway there with Pistol Shot and Between the Eyes. I’d love to see Outlaw become a full-on gunslinger who mostly fights at medium range and who uses Grappling Hook and Disengage to jump in and out of melee for certain attacks. Then bring back Combat as the agile blademaster spec - a sort of unarmored, dual-wielding counterpart to Arms Warriors, like it used to be.
I feel like Marksman actually fits Rogue better than it does hunter. They obviously changed a few aspects of the class fantasy to fit the overall design of hunters, but imagine Marksman in line with the rogue class fantasy.
Stealth as an integral part of the kit like a real Sniper with tools to confuse and control enemies like Smoke Bombs, well placed shots (kidney shot?) and suppressing fire that would stagger enemies. Wearing leather instead of mail to allow more silent movement. Coating their arrows/bullets in various poisons.
I think we were kind of robbed by Marksman being included in the hunter kit. Like half the damn spec tree is about pet centric talents that MM doesn't get to interact with.
Adding one-handed guns gives Outlaw a new twist, Hunters can have a fun dual-wielding pistol spec, and as long as we're expanding ranged weapons let's go ahead and give Warrior a mid-range (25y) shotgun spec.
I said this a while back when hero talents were first announced but got dogged on for it. **Dark Ranger should have been a fourth ranged spec for Rogue.** The fantasy of a "Dark Ranger" is more align with a modern rogue than a hunter anyways as they actually utilize shadow magic.
For sure. Dark Ranger just doesn't work with Hunter really. It's the wrong class fantasy imo.
Dark Rangers are essentially tied to 4 races, given they're generally a raised elf. And besides, as you say, they just feel more like rogues than hunters. Like, I wouldn't exactly call Sylvanas a Hunter. It just screams ranged Rogue in every way.
Granted, this would have been very biased towards Alliance, but Hunter really deserved something like Rifleman instead. Dwarf Hunters need some loving.
Rogues, maybe, but I don't see how Hunters struggle with that tbh. If anything, I feel like Hunter's (current) 3 specs are more distinct than, say, Mage's three specs are (which are fairly different each too, at least to someone who's mained Mage for 15 years).
I don't think MM, BM, and SV tap into almost any of the same areas. Aside from Affliction, I'd even say Warlocks have a worse spec distinction/uniqueness between Destro and Demo even though they're also not the same spec at all.
Now Old Survival, *maybe* that would've been worse for diversity even though it was a banger spec. It was somewhere in the middle of the other two I feel.
I guess if your argument is that 2 of the 3 Hunter specs are the only specs in the game that use (cross)bows/guns, then sure, I guess. But BM and MM aren't really comparable at all and Survival obviously isn't.
SV and BM have overlap in the pet synergy aspect of hunter. The idea of fighting alongside your pet is a good fantasy to have and it should have been the *Beast Master* tbh.
Personally, I’m a fan of scrapping Survival as it is altogether, and reworking it to something resembling MoP/WoD era Survival. BM is the pet focus, MM is the sniper, Surv is the poisons and traps. The division was there and it was perfect.
They could get a healing/tank/support spec, which would he nice as there would be less DPS only classes
Bard as healer/support or an alchemy focused healer for rogue, and a melee dual wield beastmaster tank (ie, Rexxar) for hunter, for example
The fact we didn't get an earth based tank for shaman like 15 years ago is pretty wild to me.
If I was going to guess which class/spec would exist first it would have been shaman tank as a 4th spec after druid got feral split into 2 specs.
Imo its a crime warlock and shaman don't have a tank spec yet.
We almost had it with [one of the hero talent trees](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnoliZxL1GQ), they were gonna get the ability to wield a two-hander and a shield.
Removing Gladiator was the worst choice Blizz has made for Warriors, it was so fun and unique. Getting the vibe and aesthetic of sword and shield but not having to tank was so nice. If it was imbalanced they should've fixed it rather than just throwing it in the garbage.
It's an *obscene* waste of Dark Ranger to classify it as "BM + MM."
Dark Ranger has *nothing* to do with beat mastery, *at all*. Of all the things we've ever seen dark ranger do in wciii, wow, rumble, heroes of the storm, whatever... it has never, ever involved a beast.
You shouldn't be eroding the identity of this concept in order to smash this square peg into the round hole needed for your expansion's power mechanic.
Dark Ranger should 100% be its own class. Stuff that dark rangers do in the lore:
Silence, life drain, extra shadow damage, summoning skeletal minions, charming opponents, disabling towers' attacks, shots that pierce through multiple enemies, throwing shadowy daggers that poison, wailing banshee screams, summoning waves of banshees, teleporting, making the team run faster.
There's enough of a vibe to build off there to make its own class. Certainly it lacks thematic overlap with *beastmaster hunters*. Applying a shadow dot does not make you a dark ranger.
Not to mention that the warcraft aesthetic of dark ranger clashes *extremely had* with like, Tauren hunters. lmao.
As a holy pally main I would actually love this. I didn’t hate the classic days of running around and tossing Blessings on people for most of the fight. A more modernized support spec version of that could be very fun I think.
Demon hunters with double one handed crossbows, brawler warriors only using their fists, dark ranger rogues, valkyrie melee priests, necromancer warlocks etc etc. Only in my dreams I guess…
I firmly believe that they need to split hunter into two classes. One thats focused on marksmanship and the other focused on beast mastery. That way blizzard can stop fighting the original class theme and have their dark ranger/sentinel archers and the people who play hunter for the beasts/nature vibe can have their fantasy back.
Obligatory RIP to hunters having a gun fantasy, because hero talents only want them to be a ranger or something
Edit to add: class or spec restricted weapons should not exist in my opinion
They also got a hero talent tree around being a sentinel that is almost entirely passives bolted on to the spec that doesn’t even work around the sentinel owl or chakram talents in the class tree.
Everything seems so half baked .
I do feel for hunters. I've been spending a bunch of time on the TWW talent calculators, and the Hero talents barely match up with the specs, and that's noticable to even myself who doesn't play Hunter much.
I've finally been diving into the WoW lore, and there's sooooo much that could be done with the Sentinel theme. Even just modeled after Shandris, Tyrande, or Maiev alone I could pick some amazing abilities, hell you could make the entire hero tree about powering either your Owl or Chakrams
I don’t see any way you have a 4th spec for any of these classes that doesn’t just make it a slightly different version of a totally different class/spec that already exists lol.
Not to mention that none of the suggestions so far would work at all with the base class talent trees!
They need to make more support specs so augmentation has competition. Without any competing specs it’s either necessary or absolute shit and can’t have anything inbetween to make the role viable
A rogue or hunter spec based on thrown weapons would be cool. For hunter a javelineer spec would be awesome, along the lines of a troll headhunter from wc3. That or letting us transmog bows/guns into thrown weapons would be fun, although not very compatible with marksman especially.
I really do feel like we need a couple of new specs.
Snipe-focused Marksman Rogues
1h and shield DPS Gladiator Warriors
2h and shield Crusader Paladin (would love [staff and shield](https://afkjourneyguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Lucius-Guide-AFK-Journey-1-1120x630.jpg) too)
why do people want a sniper focused spec for rogues when hunters have MARKSMAN? With abilities such as aimed shot, steady shot, SNIPER shot etc. It doesnt make sense...
No Kyrian:Valkyre lore-based DK spec to fulfill my anima-wielding, mass rezz/undead raising, self-sacrificing, soul siphoning, personal amz shielding, rotting-angel -healer dreams, why live?
Monk buffing spec? (Or did they say they would not do a Augmentation Evoker class again) Something like ‘Spiritdancer’ and uses Chi-Ji with dances to buff team
I love warlock and have fun with all 3 specs but I always end up playing alts so that I can tank or heal because dps is almost never in demand, especially not the low-mid tier dps I can provide. Adding a tank spec, or even a healing spec, would allow me to play my favorite class more so I really hope it happens.
How is it possible that you make this meme and DON'T include Shaman lol
I thought the orc dude was the shaman haha
and PRIEST!! gip me holy-damage based DPS!
Give me a priest tank, clad in the armor of (some sort of) God
I mean especially over hunter, what’s the last hunter class fantasy? Engineer?
Hunter tank riding on some of the tanky pets. I want my hunter riding on a triceratops while tanking like a boss.
I always thought survival should be a melee tank spec. Could have some interesting tech, like using the pet as a recharging health buffer that you use to split or redirect incoming damage
I mean there's some basis since they've had eras with beastmasters regenerating with their pet. Not a huge stretch to take it a next step further with what you're proposing. I think it would be really neat flavor wise to have the Hunter "absorb" their pet as a sort of "totem" animal that they base their fighting style off of. Gaining some abilities based off of the pet as well as some baseline so that they are viable regardless of choice. However I won't deny that a Hunter/Pet tag team combo as tank would also be dope so not like married to my idea by any means
I don't think our ideas are mutually exclusive. "Eating" the pet for a big mitigation cooldown would be pretty sweet under the tag-team model.
So you want to play a triceratops. Because in this scenario the hunter is doing absolutely nothing, even less so than a beastmaster
In this scenario the hunter is throwing stuff at the enemy and yelling a lot.
TBF... if we're not getting a tinker class give the hunters turrets..
Yes turrets please
Basing this off being survival, but healing of some sort?
Like a field medic? Personally I always thought that fantasy was a better fit for rogues or warriors, but I guess it fits hunters just as easily too.
Yeah exactly actually think battlefield medic-bare essentials and patching up
Not seeing Shaman here (for an Earth based Tank) got me feelin just how Blizzard makes me feel as a Shaman.
Yeah. Disappointed I can't roll an Earthen Earth Shaman. I hoped the SoD shaman tank was ground work (heh heh) for Shaman 4th spec.
I was expecting Shaman tank to be earth focused with a reworked Earth Shield to that basically did all the things that the Way of the Earth rune did.
In Vanilla, they had surmised a tank spec for Shaman, which is why they can use shields, but clearly, they fell short on that. I, for one, would love a shaman tank, caster type tank using chain lighting for AOE taunts.
Maybe the "Caster" portion is why the idea fell off, with the knock back on spell casts. They could easily subvert it by removing it for Shaman tanks, or by making Chain Lightning a lower damage and instant spell or something, but I wouldn't mind Shaman Tank being melee focused with big rocky AoEs
SOD gave shaman tanks and everyone about burned down Blizzard HQ because shaman was overpowered for a month for the first time in 20 years
Tbf the overpowered part was that many Shaman tank were actually enhancement dps with just a tanking rune, they didn't even use shields, and thus it did basically more damage than most DPS After they fixed this by making wielding a shield a requirement I haven't heard more complains about Shaman tank
and the real problem that people complained about was that they were dunking on everyone in pvp. I don't think many people really minded being carried in pve content
There was issue from the Paladin side of things.. But that was more just feeling over shadowed.
> I don't think many people really minded being carried in pve content There are 2 kinds, the very vocally angry about it but most people know they are the problem not you. Then for raids especially, the people that want to just play the game and not get loot as fast as possible which the carry person should be kind enough to leave.
That was probably the most annoyed I've been at the playerbase. God forbid Shaman gets to be strong once in the games lifespan in a temporary season
I think the funniest thing was seeing many, many players say something along the lines of "Shaman is clearly Blizzard favorites" or "why are Shamans always OP" It was... something to behold to say the least
Pallys existing:
It was just true in vanilla because of how busted Shamans were in pretty much all content, especially compared to the other two hybrid classes.
I agree, because Druids are by far the most favored class lol - only class with 4 specs and always getting new forms
hard disagree about "always getting new forms". Everyone else gets a new set with multiple colors each tier. Druids went, i think, 12 years before the first option to change your animal forms existed?
Mages are the main character
Druid only has four specs because back in the day one of their specs - Feral Combat - was simultaneously both a tank *and* DPS spec. When MoP came around, it had to be split into two specs in order to not be absurdly overpowered. Druid is not an example of getting a fourth spec to fill a class fantasy, it's an example of one spec getting cut in two. > and always getting new forms I mean... not really? And that's the tradeoff for Druids not being able to see their transmog in combat.
They butchered our boy Feral and forced it into two separate specs. That's the only reason why we have 4 instead of 3 like the rest. And we don't get nearly enough forms when you consider that's all we get to look at all the time. We don't get to see armor or mogs unless we stand around in the city.
I’ve liked how they added forms, but it really just comes down to hulk man bear.
half of the SoD population cant play as shaman, but have to fight against them.
I have no problems with Shamans getting some time in the sun. The real problem is that only one faction has access to them, and a lot of their OPness was via new utility (like stacking mana return). Even if they do balance Shamans and Paladins to be equivalent in p4, one faction will still have better racials in p4. The weapon skill updates planned for p4 will probably elevate this discrepancy.
Any time, ANY TIME, any of the shaman specs are top of any role the nerf stick comes out at light speed.
People have bout burned Blizzard HQ over everything in SoD lol.
I mean we still have a 2007 Earth Shield animation and the Ascendance model tells you all you need to know about what Blizzard thinks of Shamans. IMO, it's not that they hate the class, it's that they know if they make Shamans awesome then the wow pop of 14% paladin, 14% hunter, and so on.... becomes 18% Shaman, 14% paladin, etc.
Dude, I can’t stand the way ascendance looks. It’s so ugly I don’t even choose the talent anymore, even when it’s recommended meta
Yeah it really is kind of unbelievable and disappointing because I really enjoy the fantasy of the air attacks. Oh well.
I felt kinda bad how all my memes are shaman, but I genuinely forgot about earth tank, as a shaman main, so I feel even worse about that lol. Maybe used to the neglect
Don't worry. We all are.
There was a brief period in classic when shaman could frost-tank low level dungeons and it was a riot. Hell, one of the strangest things I ever did, was do a wild Disc/Holy build where I avoided every aggro-down talent to see how much aggro I could have as a healer. I managed to tank UBRS with a group of Ret Pallies and a pair of rogues and mages while solo healing. It was the wildest thing I ever did and it was freaking hilarious. Also it was scary because I could hold aggro mostly while just spam healing myself.
> a wild Disc/Holy build where I avoided every aggro-down talent So you avoided one talent, which basically no one takes in the first place?
Way back in classic it was borderline necessary pre-raids if you outgeared your tank. But yeah I might be misremembering how many talents it was. I feel like it was 2 on the disc side and 1 on holy? if you went up both trees, could be misremembering though, this is 20 years ago. lol.
You are definitely misremembering. There was only ever one threat talent in Disc which applied to heals, and a couple talents in Shadow (-threat for shadow spells and -CD on Fade). Also original release Healer gear did basically nothing except increase your mana pool, so your gear barely mattered. However, a poorly played tank would struggle to keep aggro - and tbf most of them played really poorly at that stage, since no one really knew how threat worked at that stage. So I was overly harsh - there was certainly a large population of priest healers who took that talent just for that reason: Most tanks had no idea how to hold threat. It was also quite important for Onyxia and on some BWL bosses.
I was hoping Augmentation Evoker would also be an earth based tank. I feel like it would fit those two classes so well
you don't want a pet tank class you think you do, but you don't
As an Enhancement main, I love the spec but I don't think the name applies. I'd love them to rename the melee spec and then make Enhancement another support spec.
Someday, I will be able to play a Light-themed, DPS priest. Some day...
Legion disc?!
Disc is all about "balance" between Light & Shadow, hence why half of the spells are dark/void-themed. Honestly I just want to be able to DPS on my priest without becoming a deranged void cultist, and without suffering through trying to squeeze DPS out of a healing spec..
This. I want to dps as my first main I ever had without him having to deal with LITERALLY GOING INSANE. I was pissed when blizz made that design choice. I’m sorry, but my priest will never dabble in insanity. Made me sad, too.
That's the dream. Void and shadow is cool and all but we have no class that focuses on tearing enemies apart with the Light. Paladins are close but they're melee and it doesn't feel like you're using the Light to blasto, just to augment a few attacks. I don't want to heal nobody, not even incidentally, I want to sear enemies with holy light. I want pew pew gold lasers, sparkling explosions and stuff that has the Consecrate visual but on crack.
Exactly. I want to roleplay an inquisitor and blast undead, demons and void spawns shouting "THE POWER OF ~~CHRIST~~ THE LIGHT COMPELS YOU!"
What would a paladin 4th spec even be though? Ranged? You mean "a priest"?
Priests need a Holy DPS option more than paladins need a ranged option.
To be honest, that Holy DPS is oftentimes just Disc lol
There was going be a "cleric" style holy dps at one point, got scrapped /sigh
I'm imagining a Nun spec that uses rulers.
I imagine it would be focused more around "Inner Fire" and other related/sort of unused spells. Like a Frolo-style inquisitor fire priest (aka what Whitemane/Koegler is). I believe Ascension has something like that with specifically Sun Clerics.
I feel like a D&D style cleric would have way too much visual and stylistic overlap with WoW Paladins.
So I've played a cleric for a while, and, while you are right, theres a lot of different subclasses that go beyond "holy-powered tank". Both Ret and Prot are quintessentially mirrored as D&D paladins, but Hpal matches maybe 50% of Cleric subclasses. This is because Cleric was designed to fit into any kind of party due to the fact that, in earlier editions of the game, having a Cleric was pretty-much mandatory. There's the stealthy Trickery cleric, the Druidic Nature cleric, the Wizardlike, blasty Light cleric, or even the evil Death cleric. There's more but I'm not bringing up the list of like 15 subclasses they have lol. It would be cool if there was some sort of medium-armor, ranged inquisitor kind of Paladin, sure, but I feel like that would fit more into the Priest class in WoW.
I think that gets to one of the bigger issues with Clerics in a WoW sense. Priest and Paladin ate up a good chunk of their identity and WoW as a setting struggles to support the others. Like if you're a Life Cleric or Trickery Cleric or something doesn't that fall under Druid and Shadow Priest? Priest is a really large umbrella in WoW that gathers up most of the faiths except specifically like Druid, Shaman, and Titan worship.
Then don't copy it 1 for 1 and give it a WoW touch??
The wow touch is what makes it overlap with paladins
Isn’t that what EQ had? I distinctly remember an old forum post comparing the EQ Cleric to the then beta Priest in WoW.
Any of the dozens who tried to force a shockadin build throw up a hand!
I would <3 holy dps or at least skin for shadow priest.
2h Aug-style buffer spec
Now if only Blizzard would stop trying to ruin Holy Paladins by forcing casting playstyle onto them.
Ret paladin is ranged at the moment tbh
I was gonna say, you can practically do it's full rotation standing beside a dev evoker lol
Which is being removed
That’s a damn shame
Fucking idiotic is what it is. Every other melee should get a 10-20 yard minimum range. Melee in WoW isn't so glamarous that being in actual melee range is *that* enjoyable compared to all the shitty downsides. If the melee hitboxes didn't make us feel like we're often standing right up their fucking bunghole I might not have an issue. The bandaid is useful until Blizzard actually solves these issues, and there's nothing to suggest they're even trying.
Well then they wouldn't be melee. How's a warrior gonna swing an axe and hit something 60 feet away? That's a whole-ass bowling lane's worth of distance.
witch hunter. gun and 1h
Inquisitor spec, armed with Gun/Crossbow and Shield!
You could go an "Inquisitor" angle and have them use ranged weapons as like Holy Marksmen
If there was a ranged character that used holy magic to lead inquisitions I would assume paladin rather than priest. Hell, if yo took the exact gameplay of holy paladin and told me that was priest, I would buy it. As long as you are not having the gameplay be identical, it does not matter which is which as long as its consistent from its inception. Gameplay would not be what differentiates the idea of a ranged paladin from a priest but lore would be. Obviously the gameplay would be different but the names of the abilities and flavor text are more telling than the actual gameplay.
Could be a dual wielding ret or a spec that’s actually supposed to be ranged so ret can move back into melee range.
Shockadins were a thing since vanilla
Tank shaman, tank evoker are my top 2. And then I think dh, rogue, hunter all have room for a cool 25yd spec in the devastation range
Yeah Tank Shaman, Evoker, and Warlock are for sure my top 3 for specs that should already be in the game.
I do want a shaman tank and a hunter tank. Heck, even warlock could be ranged tank
Warlock Tank in SoD is pretty cool. Would love to see every class have either a Tank or heal Option (or Support if you will)
Honestly wild that Blizz hasn't been doing that. Game balance currently is what?: 6 tanks, 7 healers, 1 support (Aug-Evoker), ~30 dps Which includes 4 classes (Mage, Warlock, Hunter, Rogue) who only has options to dps.
Warlock Tank is SoD is mashed DH Tank. Warlock Tank in Retail would have to be done similar to a Hunter with a Pet.
Honestly I really just want a tank spec for Shaman or Evoker. I'm getting very very bored of the current tribrid class choices and I'd love to be able to play something different.
Magmerazied Shield on your Earth Shaman would be so cool. It would be a bulky defensive which at the same time does dmg to attackers. Maybe that's how shatank can work. They enhance dmg return while being Def by imbuing earth and fire
I was so hyped on the third spec for evoker to be a black dragonflight themed tank spec. Alas...here we unfortunately are
survival tank please edit: yall downvoting me cause i speak the truth. Rexxar is a tank in HoTs and its a lot of fun.
I would be playing survival hunter tank 100%
Yes, we need a mail tank and a clothie tank.
I can already think of some sweet mechanics for sharing damage with your pet. Think brew master stagger but with a twist. Abilities to weave in and out with your pet. Lot's of opportunity.
literally just a melee hunter spec where you and your pet stand side by side and it adds your stats/staggers damage with them or something its free real estate
Micromanaging you and your pets health bars as you swap aggro between eachother sounds really fun. You tank some of the time, your bear tanks some of the time
Yesterday when I was playing an evoker I thought to myself why don't they have a tank spec? I mean c'mon their dragons... we've killed dragons and they were pretty tanky so why not our dragons? lol
Shaman tank is hype but i dont think Evoker tank fits the class fantasy, at least in a traditional tank sense Could be a good opportunity to something totally out there though
i can understand the other 3 but why paladin?
Ok hear me out. Diviner Hunter from Pathfinder is a paladin archer https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/paladin/archetypes/paizo-paladin-archetypes/divine-hunter/
As long as they get to use a crossbow that fires hammers then I'm in
Disc pally, light and void magic + big hammer
Shockadin ranged dps?
How is there only one class that can use guns, bows and crossbows in the whole game? And only in two specs? Give melee classes ranged weapons back, damn it
Rogues and Hunters already struggle with having three distinct specs and you wanna add a fourth?
Rogues get a ranged spec, so bows aren't literally only used by not even all the specs of a single class, and Hunters get a tank spec where they ride their pet into battle to add their HP together.
Holy shit a hunter tank riding a bear into battle sounds amazing
Even just a HotS Rexxar-style spec would be interesting Short/mid range attacks from the hunter but ~50% of your kit is offloaded to the pet, plus direct movement/control of the pet (in addition to yourself) instead of pets auto-following you or your target
That's just fucking beastmaster but melee. You know, the one that should have been melee.
Yeah I don’t personally like how hunters are the only ones to use bows. Class or spec restricted weapons should not really exist in my opinion
*I was about to disagree with you*, but the idea of a mage using a gun sounds proper badass. Arcane infused bullets, yes please.
Demon hunter using a gun for fel magic infused shots is pretty damn cool too.
That would be cool. But hear me out, conjured weapon mages. Fire gets dual flaming swords, frost gets a big ice hammer, arcane gets Two void daggers.
>arcane gets Two void daggers. Ok, you lost me here. Why void? Lol
To be honest I have no clue lmfao
Combine the two ideas for Fire. Dual-wield flamethrowers would be ridiculous.
Yeah, giving rogues a scout spec or something would work for ranged I think.
Ranged spec for rogues, and Blizzard adds OH guns and crossbows. I wanna make a Diablo DH/Lord Godfrey cosplay so bad
Outlaw’s already halfway there with Pistol Shot and Between the Eyes. I’d love to see Outlaw become a full-on gunslinger who mostly fights at medium range and who uses Grappling Hook and Disengage to jump in and out of melee for certain attacks. Then bring back Combat as the agile blademaster spec - a sort of unarmored, dual-wielding counterpart to Arms Warriors, like it used to be.
I would love a hunter tank on a pet-mounttttt
Ranged rogue and a more engineering style hunter with turrets and bombs since tinkerer seems like it will never be real
Still just want a tinker class
I feel like Marksman actually fits Rogue better than it does hunter. They obviously changed a few aspects of the class fantasy to fit the overall design of hunters, but imagine Marksman in line with the rogue class fantasy. Stealth as an integral part of the kit like a real Sniper with tools to confuse and control enemies like Smoke Bombs, well placed shots (kidney shot?) and suppressing fire that would stagger enemies. Wearing leather instead of mail to allow more silent movement. Coating their arrows/bullets in various poisons. I think we were kind of robbed by Marksman being included in the hunter kit. Like half the damn spec tree is about pet centric talents that MM doesn't get to interact with.
Gimme Ranged Rogue and Tank Hunter
Give. Me. Gun. Slinger. Outlaw
Pistol dagger rogue like a Thief in Guild Wars 2 would be fucking epic. GW2 thief was my favorite class.
Adding one-handed guns gives Outlaw a new twist, Hunters can have a fun dual-wielding pistol spec, and as long as we're expanding ranged weapons let's go ahead and give Warrior a mid-range (25y) shotgun spec.
PLEASE a shortbow themed rogue spec PLEASE
Titan gripping crossbows?
Tank rogue based on actually using shadow magic to become a proper dodge tank.
I said this a while back when hero talents were first announced but got dogged on for it. **Dark Ranger should have been a fourth ranged spec for Rogue.** The fantasy of a "Dark Ranger" is more align with a modern rogue than a hunter anyways as they actually utilize shadow magic.
For sure. Dark Ranger just doesn't work with Hunter really. It's the wrong class fantasy imo. Dark Rangers are essentially tied to 4 races, given they're generally a raised elf. And besides, as you say, they just feel more like rogues than hunters. Like, I wouldn't exactly call Sylvanas a Hunter. It just screams ranged Rogue in every way. Granted, this would have been very biased towards Alliance, but Hunter really deserved something like Rifleman instead. Dwarf Hunters need some loving.
Rogues, maybe, but I don't see how Hunters struggle with that tbh. If anything, I feel like Hunter's (current) 3 specs are more distinct than, say, Mage's three specs are (which are fairly different each too, at least to someone who's mained Mage for 15 years). I don't think MM, BM, and SV tap into almost any of the same areas. Aside from Affliction, I'd even say Warlocks have a worse spec distinction/uniqueness between Destro and Demo even though they're also not the same spec at all. Now Old Survival, *maybe* that would've been worse for diversity even though it was a banger spec. It was somewhere in the middle of the other two I feel. I guess if your argument is that 2 of the 3 Hunter specs are the only specs in the game that use (cross)bows/guns, then sure, I guess. But BM and MM aren't really comparable at all and Survival obviously isn't.
SV and BM have overlap in the pet synergy aspect of hunter. The idea of fighting alongside your pet is a good fantasy to have and it should have been the *Beast Master* tbh. Personally, I’m a fan of scrapping Survival as it is altogether, and reworking it to something resembling MoP/WoD era Survival. BM is the pet focus, MM is the sniper, Surv is the poisons and traps. The division was there and it was perfect.
They could get a healing/tank/support spec, which would he nice as there would be less DPS only classes Bard as healer/support or an alchemy focused healer for rogue, and a melee dual wield beastmaster tank (ie, Rexxar) for hunter, for example
Rogue Bard would be so cool.
RIFT's physician spec for rogues was so cool. Combo point based healing.
Shaman tank when
The fact we didn't get an earth based tank for shaman like 15 years ago is pretty wild to me. If I was going to guess which class/spec would exist first it would have been shaman tank as a 4th spec after druid got feral split into 2 specs. Imo its a crime warlock and shaman don't have a tank spec yet.
Monk ranged dps or support spec to match the celestials.
I want axe thrower warrior mon, let me bring back da old amani boys
Gladiator warr, shouldve been made 4th spec back in legion
We almost had it with [one of the hero talent trees](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnoliZxL1GQ), they were gonna get the ability to wield a two-hander and a shield.
Removing Gladiator was the worst choice Blizz has made for Warriors, it was so fun and unique. Getting the vibe and aesthetic of sword and shield but not having to tank was so nice. If it was imbalanced they should've fixed it rather than just throwing it in the garbage.
It's an *obscene* waste of Dark Ranger to classify it as "BM + MM." Dark Ranger has *nothing* to do with beat mastery, *at all*. Of all the things we've ever seen dark ranger do in wciii, wow, rumble, heroes of the storm, whatever... it has never, ever involved a beast. You shouldn't be eroding the identity of this concept in order to smash this square peg into the round hole needed for your expansion's power mechanic. Dark Ranger should 100% be its own class. Stuff that dark rangers do in the lore: Silence, life drain, extra shadow damage, summoning skeletal minions, charming opponents, disabling towers' attacks, shots that pierce through multiple enemies, throwing shadowy daggers that poison, wailing banshee screams, summoning waves of banshees, teleporting, making the team run faster. There's enough of a vibe to build off there to make its own class. Certainly it lacks thematic overlap with *beastmaster hunters*. Applying a shadow dot does not make you a dark ranger. Not to mention that the warcraft aesthetic of dark ranger clashes *extremely had* with like, Tauren hunters. lmao.
Something something, black arrow goes brrrr 😎
In this essay, I will go into the history of dark rangers and explain my 20-point plan for their talent trees..
why would paladin need a fourth spec lol
Holy ranged caster dps or an aug style buffer.
As a holy pally main I would actually love this. I didn’t hate the classic days of running around and tossing Blessings on people for most of the fight. A more modernized support spec version of that could be very fun I think.
We need another class that uses bows and guns
Warrior - Glad DPS Hunter - Guardian (?) Tank Spec Mage - Chronomancer Healing Rogue - Ranged Spec with Pistols/Guns Priest - Holy Melee/ Scarlet Monk-esque spec Shaman - Earthy Tank Spec Paladin - Ranged Holy/Archer Inquisitor spec Warlock - Demon Tank Spec RIP in peace other cool ideas
Demon hunters with double one handed crossbows, brawler warriors only using their fists, dark ranger rogues, valkyrie melee priests, necromancer warlocks etc etc. Only in my dreams I guess…
If warrior ever gets at 4th spec it should be gladiator
I want a thrown weapon warrior. Let me play a troll axe thrower mon
I firmly believe that they need to split hunter into two classes. One thats focused on marksmanship and the other focused on beast mastery. That way blizzard can stop fighting the original class theme and have their dark ranger/sentinel archers and the people who play hunter for the beasts/nature vibe can have their fantasy back.
Obligatory RIP to hunters having a gun fantasy, because hero talents only want them to be a ranger or something Edit to add: class or spec restricted weapons should not exist in my opinion
They also got a hero talent tree around being a sentinel that is almost entirely passives bolted on to the spec that doesn’t even work around the sentinel owl or chakram talents in the class tree. Everything seems so half baked .
I do feel for hunters. I've been spending a bunch of time on the TWW talent calculators, and the Hero talents barely match up with the specs, and that's noticable to even myself who doesn't play Hunter much. I've finally been diving into the WoW lore, and there's sooooo much that could be done with the Sentinel theme. Even just modeled after Shandris, Tyrande, or Maiev alone I could pick some amazing abilities, hell you could make the entire hero tree about powering either your Owl or Chakrams
Blademasters in shambles btw.
how exactly would a blade master be different from arms? Add a stealth element ?
The things i would do for tank warlock in retail
I don’t see any way you have a 4th spec for any of these classes that doesn’t just make it a slightly different version of a totally different class/spec that already exists lol. Not to mention that none of the suggestions so far would work at all with the base class talent trees!
Rogue 4th spec should be Gunslinger/Deadeye from Lost Ark
"Hahaha......No." - Druids, probably
They need to make more support specs so augmentation has competition. Without any competing specs it’s either necessary or absolute shit and can’t have anything inbetween to make the role viable
Give me MoP combat rogue as a spec pls
They’ve totally missed a trick by not making support a formal 4th spec and giving it to a bunch of pure dps classes
hunter doesn't need a 4th spec. It needs blizzard to actually fucking spend dev time on it.
A rogue or hunter spec based on thrown weapons would be cool. For hunter a javelineer spec would be awesome, along the lines of a troll headhunter from wc3. That or letting us transmog bows/guns into thrown weapons would be fun, although not very compatible with marksman especially.
Rip void paladin spec
TBH I think that Hero Talents also oversteps on some possible classes.
Shoutout for everyone who wanted a battle-mage / weapon conjurer
blademaster would be my dream
Warriors gladiator spec
DH really needs that cancelled caster dps spec
It sounds cool and everything but blizz can’t even balance the current specs and you want them to add more?
Shaman tank, warlock healer, priest holy light dps.
You do NOT want a 4th spec. Druid has 4 specs and the class tree is an absolute mess.
I really do feel like we need a couple of new specs. Snipe-focused Marksman Rogues 1h and shield DPS Gladiator Warriors 2h and shield Crusader Paladin (would love [staff and shield](https://afkjourneyguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Lucius-Guide-AFK-Journey-1-1120x630.jpg) too)
why do people want a sniper focused spec for rogues when hunters have MARKSMAN? With abilities such as aimed shot, steady shot, SNIPER shot etc. It doesnt make sense...
You shift into first person mode and have to hit the head and vitals for crits.
360 no scope for 2x crits
Dh 3rd spec? Fel corrupts, not heals. And were not d3 dhs.
i wanted blademaster :( all i got was a mog
No Kyrian:Valkyre lore-based DK spec to fulfill my anima-wielding, mass rezz/undead raising, self-sacrificing, soul siphoning, personal amz shielding, rotting-angel -healer dreams, why live?
Give monk a ranged caster spec, let me go full weeb mode with it
I don't get it
Monk buffing spec? (Or did they say they would not do a Augmentation Evoker class again) Something like ‘Spiritdancer’ and uses Chi-Ji with dances to buff team
Before I die I want to play as melee DPS cloth Specs (sentinel Priest, spellblade mage, hellreaver? Warlock)
I want monk chi ji range dps spec...
Honestly instead of brand new classes in the future I’d just like to see new specs.
I love warlock and have fun with all 3 specs but I always end up playing alts so that I can tank or heal because dps is almost never in demand, especially not the low-mid tier dps I can provide. Adding a tank spec, or even a healing spec, would allow me to play my favorite class more so I really hope it happens.