A discussion in defense of new race/class combinations
by Michael Sacco 
Aug 18th 2009 at 1:00PM
There's been a lot of news about possible new features arriving with the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. I covered one of those recently, that being the possibility of new race/class combinations, ones that were previously unavailable to player characters.
Now, this feature would actually make a ton of sense, especially taking the following into consideration:
- We've had the same 9 classes available for going on 5 years now.
- With new races being added in Cataclysm, there's almost certainly no hero class.
- It's quite likely that the new races will be unable to be Death Knights, at least at first.
- The leaked information from MMO-Champion suggests that Azeroth is getting a makeover, graphically and design-wise.
- The Paid Faction Switch service is coming soon, and adding these new combinations would bring almost 100% parity between factions in terms of classes available.
- Blizzard has been tossing quests that hint at these new combinations into the past few patches and onto the PTR.
But of course, the WoW community is a fickle beast, and what they seem to be focusing on here tends not to be the gameplay benefits of adding new race/class combinations, but the "lore-breaking" aspects of said combinations.
Well, I don't think any of these are unreasonable, and in fact many of them have precedents in lore. To make the discussion more interesting, I've brought in my lore-hound colleague Daniel Whitcomb, and we'll expound on each new possible option to give you clear reasons why they're not only plausible, but likely. On top of that, I'm bringing in our class columnists to give their insight on the new choices and explain their pros and cons in terms of gameplay!
Let's start, shall we?
TAUREN PALADINS AND PRIESTS
Daniel Whitcomb: Whereas for me, it's probably one of the ones I'm most excited about. Mythology and Religion have always been some of my favorite subjects, so the idea of Warcraft fleshing out the religions of the world is possibly my favorite possibility from the lore so far.
MS: Right. In the quest that was added in patch 3.2, Tahu Sagewind seems to be doubting that Night Elf-style moon worship is the right way to go for all spiritual Tauren; that there should be some balance between the sun and the moon, just as they worship their personifications, An'she and Mu'sha. Sun and Moon, male and female, light and darkness. He seems to think that pure Druidism is getting it wrong by not taking this balance into account.
DW: And given that whole sun worship hook, I'm really hopeful that the new Priests and Paladins are sun worshippers, using the power of the sun to cast their damage and healing spells in the same way Druids use arcane magic when casting moon-related spells. On top of that, Aponi Brightmane's conversation with Tahu does seem to suggest that she might have found something to admire in the Argent Crusaders and feels inspired to take up their abilities, so I can see that too. I'm really hoping it's sun worship though.
MS: Either way, we could be looking at the first Tauren Priest in conflicted druid Tahu, and the first Tauren Paladin in injured warrior Aponi.
DW: Aponi?
MS: Aponi.
DW: Wait ... Ghostcrawler promised us Aponi ... and he delivered!
Priest columnist Matt Low's perspective: Holy cow! I don't think anyone saw this one coming! Possible? Yes it is! Taurens can be Druids or Shamans. While it may not seem obvious, the Tauren have an affinity for healing. With Taurens being able to train for Priesthood now, they can add their own diversity and racial talents among Horde players.
Possible Tauren Priest names might be Holyhoof or Lighthorn.
Tactically speaking, the first thing that comes to mind is that Tauren Priests will have a defensive mechanism for anyone close by them. The War Stomp will be enough to stun and stall pesky players (such as Rogues) long enough for them to get clear or wait for reinforcements. If that's not enough, the base health increase allows them to survive a little bit longer. They'll probably survive an extra 2 seconds before they get turned into beef. Priests and Herbalism also go well together. I'm not quite sure how handy Nature Resistance is going to be. My first thought is that it'll increase their survivability against Chain Lightning and other related nature spells that are prominent in Ulduar.
DW: Seriously. In both Zul'aman and Zul'gurub as well as Zul'drak, we've seen Trolls channel animal Loa to gain power. It's certain possible that certain Troll Priests could call on their Loa for similar empowerment, and thereby gain Druid-like powers.
MS: Right. They have the pick of the pack in terms of animals to worship.
DW: What's really intriguing to me is which set of Loa player-character Troll Druids might call upon. As Darkspears originally hail from Stranglethorn, they might call upon the jungle Loa of Zul'grub, assuming they're now freed from the influence of Hakkar. On the other hand, Zul'aman offers more immediate analogues to current Druid forms, including Bear, Cat, and Bird Loas.
MS: For me, the Stranglethorn bunch seems much more likely, actually. If you've ever quested in Zabra'jin, you do some scouting on Lost One Druids in Feralfen Village for the Troll Shaman Seer Janidi, and she says, "No self-respecting Darkspear troll engages in bird worship. Their spirits are weak, capricious, and best left to the Amani."
DW: Right, which brings up the question: Does that mean, perhaps, different animals for Troll Druid forms? The possibilities certainly have me excited!
MS: After all, it's not called Storm Crow Form, it's called Flight Form. Maybe we'll see Bat Form for flying Troll Druids. Maybe their cat form could be a badass tiger with 80s hair.
DW: Yeah, and Serpent or Spider Tank form? I'm on board. But then again, I'm not sure if Blizzard wants to take the plunge and make that much of a change to class flavor, even if the basic mechanics and numbers behind the spells and forms are the same. They could just go the other way and allow some Trolls to get buddy buddy with the Tauren and learn Druidism from them -- or they could introduce a whole new set of Loas or mix and match Loas. Like I said, I love fictional religion and mythology, and I've been in love with troll Loas since I first read about Eraka no Kimbul and Ueetay no Mueh'zala in Zul'Farrak. So, I'm hoping it's all about Loas and not just a bunch of Trolls converting to Earthmother worship a la Tauren.
Druid columnist Allison Robert's perspective: We know that Trolls are perfectly capable of managing the shapeshifting mechanic (e.g. Zul'Gurub, Zul'Aman, and Gun'drak), so the most class-defining part of being a Druid isn't really a stretch for them. Moreover, Trolls are already capable Shaman, and the two classes' views on the world aren't entirely dissimilar. Lorewise the only thing that's kind of tough to accept is that the Trolls would willingly join a class so inextricably linked to Night Elven civilization and culture, but better them than the Blood Elves (who were perhaps the other likely choice). Trolls are still the least-played Hordeside race (possibly the least-played race in the game, period) and so they're unlikely to impact the population advantage still held by the Night Elves, but I might have had to kill myself if Blood Elves got Druids.
Now, frankly, Troll racials are amazingly bad for Druids. This is the one area where Horde would have been better off getting Blood Elves as Druids; BE racials would have been fantastic for the class. Beast Slaying has situational use, and isn't likely to have a significant impact on either PvE or PvP. Bow and Throwing Weapon Specialization are both useless for druids. Da Voodoo Shuffle is hardly a big deal for a class that can already shift out of most movement impairing effects. Regeneration is pretty meh. Helpful while grinding, to be sure, but as with Beast Slaying, it's situational.
Berserking is slightly different. Useless for Balance and Resto, somewhat useful for Feral. Oddly enough, Bears might get better use from it than Cats, because +haste (which is basically what Berserking is) still isn't a great stat for kitty; even with Savage Roar, the vast majority of our damage comes from special attacks dependent on Energy ticks and not white hits. I can see Berserking being a nice but not overwhelming DPS boost for cats, but helpful for Bear threat generation in 5-mans, especially if combined with Berserk. In raids, well...how close to the hard expertise cap are you?
Filed under: Druid, Lore, Expansions, Warrior, Shaman, Priest, Paladin, Mage, Hunter, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 9)
Massadonious Aug 18th 2009 2:27PM
@T
I'm sure if they specialized in such a thing, a lot of people would believe it, which was my point in the first place. If they started doing opinion pieces on cats, people would surely find them more reputable than Cat Fancy.
T Aug 18th 2009 2:35PM
@Massadonius
Don't ever trust those jerks at Cat Fancy.
Seriously, I understand your skepticism. I don't share it entirely, and I trust MMO Champion, mainly because of their previous work with WotLK. That said, Blizzard enjoys practical jokes, and after seeing how on target MMO Champion was in 2007, Blizzard may have set out a much stronger dis-information campaign this year.
Suzaku Aug 18th 2009 4:16PM
"Blizzard may have set out a much stronger dis-information campaign this year."
Disinformation campaign. From Blizzard? Are we talking about the same company?
You know, the company that goes incredibly far out of their way not to give anyone expectations that they won't meet? The company that has a 500+ word legal section after every announcement saying that "soon," "may," "will," "could," are "forward-looking statements" and that "things might prevent them from occuring"?
Uh, no. What does Blizzard have to gain from spreading disinformation? A bunch of upset players? GOOD PLAN!
Matt Aug 18th 2009 1:10PM
This is not a game based on fact and real events guys? Blizzard invented the Lore. I don't get what the problem is?
Is it part of the lore that Mankrik send 11 million people on quests to find his wife?
It's an online persistent world, enjoy yourselves.
Massadonious Aug 18th 2009 1:26PM
Cool. Then I guess you would be okay if they added lightsabers and F-16 mounts?
After all, it's not real events.
I'm less of a lore junkie than most, and I'm pretty much fine with all these combos, but maintaining some sense of order and, for a lack of better term, reality, in their game world is a big deal to some people. I've heard a lot of Horde players that would be truly miffed if Garrosh became Warchief. Call them dorks, if you will, lollore, and all that, but those people are no less important than the people that only care about item levels and how big their crits are going to be.
Massadonious Aug 18th 2009 1:54PM
Granted, I took a rather large extreme, but then, you did too. Equating new race/class to a real-life, mixed raced, successful golfer? I'm almost surprised you didn't channel Obama.
As far as pop culture references go, lore junkies don't care about insignificant NPC's like Kara Thricestar that hold no real significance, or that their weapon is referenced to a Brad Pitt movie. They care about the history and culture of the races they play. A couple of Tauren basically having conversations that equate to "Well, we're bored of this Earthmother stuff. Let's try the Light out." Something 5 years ago, and throughout the history of the Warcraft franchise (since War 3, really) that didn't fit with the Tauren mythos, suddenly being retconned in for the sake of more player options? That's a pretty big deal.
Again, it doesn't matter to me, so I'm not going to be overly concerned if Tauren have white swirly hands instead of green swirly hands, but it might matter to a lot of people. As I said, this universe was around long before WoW existed.
Torlaz Aug 18th 2009 2:08PM
Agreed they shouldn't overdo it, but we have seen light-sabre like weapons in game already. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24361
For races to learn new skill and share with other of their faction is a good thing. They have never said that races are unable to learn a certain class only that they can't currently learn it.
It's good for class/race diversity. To make rare obscure combinations that not many play.. it adds the ability for players to not conform to a certain standard but play with a story/style they enjoy.
Creating rigid class/race lines doesn't hurt the game but doesn't always help either. Lore-wise they'll make what they do work. And like real life.. weird stuff happens. When Fantasy is made to conform... is it still fantasy?
hail_averse_sefira Aug 18th 2009 2:09PM
@Massadonious
Yeah, I can totally see how adding fighter jets and technology from sci-fi is comparable to a realistic leadership change (something that happens all the time in the fantasy genre) or races learning to take on new classes (something we do as real life humans constantly). Definitely nothing realistic about that.
...
Using your logic, everyone might as well get angry at authors for changing their stories for the purpose of progression.
Massadonious Aug 18th 2009 2:12PM
@Torlaz
As someone who is contemplating faction changes, diversity is definitely a good thing, but I still can see how it can be game breaking to some people.
Massadonious Aug 18th 2009 2:18PM
@hail
Cute, but maybe if you bothered to read the rest of my post(s) you can see a more rationalized argument and would see that I already admitted I took that particular analogy to the extreme.
My "F-16" in this case, would be something like a Undead Paladin, or a complete faction switch of a race, something that would be completely in line with the Warcraft universe, but still gamebreaking to some people.
Besides, we already have rickety flying machines and bombers in this game. Fighter jets wouldn't be too far of a stretch. =)
hail_averse_sefira Aug 18th 2009 2:29PM
Oh man, I must have missed that they were adding an Undead Paladin along with the rest... oh wait... THEY AREN'T. Rendering your next hyperbole as moot as your last one. It's almost as if (and bear with me here) Blizzard is attempting to justify how the ones they selected actually have backgrounds and reasoning behind them.
Protip: Using extreme while unrealistic examples to try and compare a one thing to another usually just nulls your arguments as most people are too smart to think it's comparable.
Massadonious Aug 18th 2009 2:37PM
You wanted a better analogy than a real life fighter jet, I gave you one. I never said Undead Paladins were ever going to be implemented, but in the context that the Warcraft universe holds to some people, Undead Paladins might as well be F-16's or any other real life object.
But I guess I'll join the rest of the herd, even though I made it clear, twice, in fact, that I never really cared one way or the other. Next time, I'll play Devil's Advocate with a less hostile audience.
hail_averse_sefira Aug 18th 2009 2:51PM
To be fair, I know you are playing devil's advocate, so my arguments are not posed at you personally. I know you are presenting the same arguments many crying Lore fans currently are, so I am responded as if you are one.
Maybe I am just missing something big here as I couldn't possibly care any less about Lore, but it seems to me that Blizzard is at least trying to do it in such a way that you could argue in favor of its rationality. It seems more like the Lore fans are realistically arguing for "absolutely no change" under the false pretense of "oh maw gawd, it doesn't make sense!!!!111one"
In any case, what a dull game this would be if the lore (read: game) never changed in the five years many of us have been playing it.
ash Aug 18th 2009 4:47PM
@hail_averse_sefira :
I don't think everyone is averse to change I think its just some of speculative reasoning or lore is bleh.
joerendous Aug 18th 2009 5:24PM
i'd like my F-16 and lightsaber please.
t0xic Aug 18th 2009 5:59PM
I'm with joerendous on this one. I'd like my F-16 to have a Hula Girl Doll on the dash. kthxbai!
jbodar Aug 18th 2009 8:38PM
Crusader Strike: Now summons an F-16 which fires lightsabers at the target, dealing Holy damage.
Works for me. Ret = fixed.
xoonaka Aug 18th 2009 1:13PM
I'm super happy with the new additions. Aside from HATING Tauren and loving the chance to finally play a druid, I remember back in my early days of long ago, and making it into Felwood for the first time... and immediately logging to go make an undead hunter.
...much to my chagrin, I could not. Now me and my undead bear will be together one day, and none of you lore lovers can stop us!
Wolftech Aug 18th 2009 1:14PM
I still am thinking red herring. We will see Friday. If it is true, its time to start a gnome only guild.
Suzaku Aug 18th 2009 2:22PM
One question: Why would Blizzard *ever* deliberately misinform the playerbase? In what way could purposely causing expectations, hope, or anger benefit Blizzard?
They still get people complaining on a daily basis about Dance Studios.
Trust me, Blizzard spends too much time, going too far out of their way, to try and keep people from having expectations. They never confirm or deny anything, they always leave windows open, they play things close to the chest, and they drop a wall of text after every corporate announcement designed purely to keep people from getting their hopes up.
Purposely leaking disinformation would be counterintuitive to all of the work they do to be ambiguous.