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 4 of 9)
Suzaku Aug 18th 2009 2:21PM
Blizzard tends to disable DKs and character transfers to new realms for exactly the same reason. If they get the abilityt to be DK at all, it'll be further down the road, maybe a month or so after the expansion is released.
Torlaz Aug 18th 2009 1:45PM
Maybe. But if Blizz were to 'unlock' the class after you've run the starting experience of the new race with 1 character, I'd say that'd be a way to fix it.
Start as a level 1 DK(just a really crappy skilled warrior-like dk who isn't dead yet).. that after completing their starting area zone is give a special quest to go save someone, then gets ambushed/killed by scourge, after that they start as a 55 DK in that starting area.. commence DK storyline
ROB13 Aug 18th 2009 2:04PM
Plus starting a Level 55 Worgen or Goblin Dk will make it much easier to get the Realm First level 85 Goblin/Worgen as they will only have 30 levels to gain while the other races have 84.
Suzaku Aug 18th 2009 2:21PM
Just touching on tauren priests briefly, there's already some precedents in the RPG, and there was concept artwork of a "Tauren Healer" done up for WoW, back when they were considering other classes like Necromancer, Marksman, and Witch Doctor.
As has been mentioned numerous times, the classes in WoW often act as analogues for other, more race-specific classes. For example, the Forsaken priests technically worship the Forgotten Shadow, night elves worship Elune, and Troll priests are more like witch doctors.
While they all have the same abilities for the sake of balance, their effectively have their own unique twists to the class, with their own lore.
Much like the priests, you have hunters drawing in rangers, beast masters, and now, it seems dark rangers (hunters *were* given Black Arrow, after all). Rogues draw abilities from wardens, assassins, and even demon hunters.
deffo Aug 18th 2009 1:28PM
the new race/class combos are SO not happening. at least.. i so hope they're not.
Torlaz Aug 18th 2009 1:31PM
I'm sure Blizz would love to have a world in which their aren't these weird conditionals like.. you can't fly in the rest of azeroth but you can in Northrend.. when you train it.
If something feels broken they will fix it. It's great in my opinion if they choose to go about fixing/adding to the old world and building the next expansion around it.
There are so many more possibilities if they do this. Fixing the old world will just lead to better expansions off moving forward. If old world restrictions bother us I'm fairly sure they bother most of the developers as well.
I'm sure the class expansion is just the tip of the iceberg though, more likely a full class unlock. Forsaken Paladins ftw :)
dumasti Aug 18th 2009 1:32PM
TAUREN ROGUE
I've told my guild-mates that a Tauren Rogue would be the only class/race combo to bring me over Horde side. If that becomes possible in the expansion, I will stick to my guns, drop my bow, and roll a benevolent bipedal backstabbing bovine.
Noraa Aug 18th 2009 1:35PM
I already have "Incowgnito" saved on my server.
t0xic Aug 18th 2009 1:54PM
I'm guessing a Tauren would need at least 10+ additional ranks of vanish to hide all of that cow ass. A stealthy cow.... I'd roll one =)
Noraa Aug 18th 2009 1:33PM
If there is going to be a graphical re-do of Azeroth, why don't they graphically re-do the freakin character models?
Suzaku Aug 18th 2009 2:37PM
Seen the Ulduar trailer, or take a look at the graphics options menu since 3.1 came out (there's a new disabled option)?
Blizzard is obviously, at the least, creating new high-resolution character textures. I'm not sure if they're revamping the models as well, but the new textures alone breathe new life into those old models, as you can see in the trailer.
Irem Aug 18th 2009 1:57PM
They might. There was a point on the Wrath beta in which human female faces were horribly bugged because Blizzard was messing around with new textures. I've started to wonder if this is the reason they've held back on releasing the new dances, since if they plan a full graphical overhaul with significant changes to the character models, they'd have to redo anything they did for the current models.
thebitterfig Aug 18th 2009 1:33PM
"Berserking is slightly different. Useless for Balance and Resto, somewhat useful for Feral."
because as we all know, 20% haste during the starfire portion of an eclipse would be useless...
Allison Robert Aug 18th 2009 1:58PM
Berserking only applies to melee/ranged attack speed, and doesn't affect casting speed. I verified this on my Troll Priest last night, so unfortunately it's basically useless for Balance/Restoration Druids.
t0xic Aug 18th 2009 2:00PM
Which is a nice way of saying she actually did the research first (and she expected someone to make this comment).
Impressive.
micgillam Aug 18th 2009 4:35PM
To be fair to thebitterfig, I'm not sure when exactly it changed, but The wowwiki article on Berserking hasn't been updated, the Wowhead article has the new, correct tool-tip but it doesn't look like anyone commented about when it changed. I did some searching to try to find out what patch changed it, but came up empty-handed.
thebitterfig Aug 18th 2009 6:47PM
i'm finding this odd, mainly because it looks like berserking is working for casting haste on my mage...
i'm using a simple macro of /cast berserking, /cast evocation. naked thus i have no haste buffs. also, i'm not arcane so i don't have netherwind presence. evocation *should* take 8 seconds (leaving 2 on my berserking buff) if it isn't boosed by berserking haste. however, my evocation is taking just under 7 seconds, consistent with a boost from berserking, and berserking has at 3 seconds left when i'm done with my evocation. also, testing with opening a portal under berserking (new macro: /cast berserking, /cast portal: stonard), and it opens a portal before the buff runs out. quartz shows a reduced cast time, too. using berserking and icy veins at the same time leaves 4 seconds left on my Berserking buff when evocation finishes, again consistent with berserking increasing casting haste.
everything i'm seeing with my own eyes tells me berserking is still working for cast time.
i'm noticing something else, however. when i pop icy veins, my tooltips for, say, fireball show an improved cast time. however, when i pop berserking, they don't. however, that is only the tooltips. i'll say again, my tests appear consistent with berserking as 20% haste for spell casts.
Wrabbit Aug 18th 2009 1:36PM
I don't understand how the Horde get a new race for Druids and Paladins, and Alliance get more Mages and Hunters. If these changes happen, that means EVERY Alliance race can be a Mage. Why not something like Warlock for Dwarves?
I'm just hoping that Worgen will be Druids and Pallys to make up for the additional Horde races getting them.
Suzaku Aug 18th 2009 2:37PM
It's been pointed out that, depending on what the worgen and goblin classes turn out to be, there could very easily be an almost perfect balance between the race/class combos for the factions.
Just factoring in the rumored additions with the currently available combinations:
Priest: Alliance = 5, Horde = 4
Rogue: Alliance = 4, Horde = 4
Warrior: Alliance = 5, Horde = 5
Mage: Alliance = 5, Horde = 4
Druid: Alliance = 1, Horde = 2
Hunter: Alliance = 4, Horde = 5
Warlock: Alliance = 2, Horde = 3
Shaman: Alliance = 2, Horde = 3
Paladin: Alliance = 3, Horde = 2
See how they're almost exactly equal now? All it would take is Goblin having a few here, and Worgen there, and you've got an almost perfect balance.
alpha5099 Aug 18th 2009 2:11PM
I'm with you on Worgen Druids, but why would Worgen need Paladins? If the new combos go through there will be 3 Horde Shaman to 2 Alliance Shaman and 3 Alliance Paladins to 2 Horde Paladins. Nothing wrong with that balance.
And if you give Worgen Pallies, you'd need to give Goblins Shammies, and I don't feel like that would fit Goblins well.