So there I was bored on the toilet and my mind wandered and now im still bored but no longer on the toilet so imma write what my mind wandered on about.
Class fantasies we dont have in wow that have lore justification for existing and would probably feel cool to play. Disclaimer I’m no game dev so I have no idea how any of this could be balanced.
I think if done properly some of these could spice up PVP a lot too.
These are just the ones that I think would fit irrespective of race (looking at you, dark rangers, mountain thanes and sunfuries)
Warrior archetype:
-Support spec: Commander. Lore justification: …Just… commanders of all sorts. Warlords, generals, etc. Buffs allies with periodic shouts, debuffs enemies with other shouts, could have different sounds for each shout type, make it really stand out, could drop banners on the ground that grant benefits to different types of classes, 4 banners at a time, one banner for tanks, one for dps, one for heals, one for support, each giving a different type of benefit and essentially making the Commander design what the battlefield looks like. Could similarly place banners or flares or something on the ground on enemy locations to increase the damage dealt to enemies in the banner’s range, effectively an “attack these guys” command, debuff enemy speed in banner range, effectively “suppressive fire on these guys”, etc. Optionally also have a combat revive for fallen allies with sheer inspiration a la “Get up soldier, we’re not done fighting”, that recharges faster when orders are followed. Could replace Rage with Morale, and have Morale be generated by party members following orders (i.e. doing aoe on enemies in the aoe banner location, or being dps and standing in range of the dps banner, etc.)
-Tank spec: Cavalry/Lancer/Knight/whatever. Lore justification: human knights, orc raiders, night elf sentinels, etc. We got mounted combat with DKs but DKs are not the only mounted combat archetype. Introducing cavalry, able to generate a lot of threat in a short period of time (i.e. passing through enemies) and then kite the enemies instead of relying on pure damage resistance. Also possibly have a net ability that drags enemies it catches behind the knight as they move, causing light damage and making them “follow” the tank faster. Damage dealt and damage resistance scales with the amount of time you’re moving without stopping, making it a dynamic tank that perhaps deals damage in bursts and uses kiting as the damage mitigation method.
Paladin archetype
-Support spec: Lightbringer. Lore justification: Paladins used to be heavily into granting auras depending on the circumstance, and their lore is very much the "guys you call in to help your troops survive"Constant Consecration aura around themselves that deals light damage to enemies and light healing to allies. Auras become timed empowerments instead of passives: stronger but limited duration on separate cooldowns and also modifying their consecration aura benefits: maybe knock back enemies every couple seconds during Devotion Aura or grant absorb shield to allies, make crusader aura grant haste to allies and terrify enemies into attacking slower when they’re in the consecration, etc. Turn aura play into an active effort with strategic timings for when to activate what.
-DPS/Heal Hybrid spec: Tyrsworn. Lore justification: Tyr’s hand rebuilt, following Tyr’s way of charging in to do combat while assisting allied armies. Main role is healing but healing abilities temporarily increase when the tyrsworn deals damage to an enemies within a few seconds of that enemy dying, gains buffs when an ally falls below 35% health depending on what that ally’s role is, somewhat rewarding risky plays and making people who stand in the fire actually give the healer extra power for a change. Prolly still not enough to keep the fire-standers alive but it’s something.
Death knight archetype
-Support spec: Defiler. Lore justification: Death knights kinda used to be this. Sort of a necromancer. Could have four thematic long cooldown auras: unholy aura granting haste without triggering bloodlust cooldown, vampiric aura granting leech, anti-magic aura causing enemy spellcasters in range to deal less damage, aura of dread that causes melee enemies to deal less damage while in range, Frenzy buff/debuff that increases damage dealt but also increases damage taken, can be placed on allies and on enemies equally, turn death and decay into unholy’s Defile but make enemies that die inside of Defile summon a 10 second random undead minion to deal damage to enemies. Maybe even be able to temporarily grant Lichborne to allies to make them considered undead and be able to be targeted by Death Coil at a heal absorb cost. Could also have a reverse-death pact that removes half the caster’s hp to cast a strong buff on an ally. Maybe lichborne-d allies also heal over time while standing in Defile.
-Ranged DPS spec: Lich. Lore justification: First gen DKs, liches. Lower survivability but high AOE damage: empower death and decay to deal more damage the more health the enemy has and make it cost runic power, melee abilities replaced with ranged variants: shadowfrost bolt for single target, the warcraft 3 frost nova (ice spike from the ground dealing big damage to main and small damage in aoe), killing a target grants a charge of Raise Dead, summoning 1 minute timed minions with lower hp than base raise dead. Give them the lich ability to sacrifice a minion for “mana” in this case runic power, basically building up to being able to cast Death and Decay repeatedly. Could make death and decay be a unique type of ability that can never kill anything. Deal 100% damage at 100% enemy hp, 99% damage at 99% enemy hp, all the way down to 1% damage at 1% enemy hp, 0.00001% damage at 0.00001% enemy hp. Functionally identical to killing since a light breeze would knock you over at that point but still, cool unique ability.
Hunter archetype
-Hybrid melee/ranged spec: Ranger. Lore justification: Literally, rangers. This is what Survival used to be. Give them a rotation that allows them to close in on a target, deal the melee abilities until off cooldown, then gain distance from enemy (but only to mid-range, maybe 20 yds) and use ranged-only abilities, rinse and repeat. A mobile fighter. Could use 2x1handers to give hunters a use for the dual wield they have. Weapon for ranged attack stance could be mogged onto a hidden slot since the 1h crossbow survival has wouldnt quite fit for a ranged-only stance.
-Mid-range Tank spec: Berserker (name in progress). Lore justification: we dont have a weapon thrower spec for any class and yet they exist in lore. Spear throwers, axe throwers, knife throwers, what have you. 2x1h, all abilities and auto-attack usable in up to 15 yds and throws the equipped weapon, backflip ability with a low cooldown to gain distance as extra damage mitigation method. No summoned pet, instead gain a big spender based on what spec of pet you tame. The theme of “berserker” being “bear priest”, warriors who embodied the spirit of the bear. So you embody the spirit of whatever animal you’ve chosen. Could get a pounce attack spender for cats/wolves/etc, an enemy-targeted evoker Rescue (grab enemy target and move with it to x spot) that’s basically heroic leap for birds of prey, a charge attack that knocks enemies down for bears/mammoths etc, maybe a dragon breath attack that deals DoT for tamed dragonkins, a shriek attack for gryphons/hippogryphs that interrupts enemies in a cone, sky’s the limit.
Shaman archetype:
-Support spec: Bard. No, I’m serious… Lore justification: When outland exploded, a sound elemental lord was created from the death throes of the planet. With Azeroth currently undergoing a “radiant song” thing, I can very much see the same concept giving birth to sound elementals on Azeroth, and shamans learning to commune with them, a nascent new form of elemental that were never under the old gods’ command and who are basically an embodiment of Azeroth’s cries for help. A sound shaman could use sound magic to buff allies through the connection to Azeroth, incapacitate enemies, deal damage with soundwaves, etc. Could have an instrument pick as the first node choice for the spec with no difference other than the sound produced. This is probably the most the least jokey way we could have bards in WoW.
-Tank spec: Geomancer. Lore justification: Geomancers exist but we barely ever use earth magic as shamans. Shamans used to be the equivalent of paladins and were capable of tanking way back when. Combine the two. Temporary earth armor, zoning capabilities by creating walls of earth like Neltharion does in Aberrus (but prolly make the walls able to be damaged cause otherwise imba), create fists of stone to smash down on enemies, etc.
Evoker archetype:
-Melee DPS spec: Twilight. Lore justification: well, void can corrupt dracthyr and we have dracthyr shadow priests and warlocks. Why not have some dracthyr who discover how to use Twilight magic to enhance their bodies and cast melee void abilities based on the cataclysm Twilight magic type? Could even dip into using The Unseeming, summoning shadowy phantasms to target enemies for limited periods of time.
-Tank spec: Chromatic. Lore justification: Neltharion’s experiments were always attempting to combine the magics of all five flights to make ultimate warriors, even before he went mad. We can make dracthyr with several different colored scales, a red layer a yellow layer and a blue layer, a brown layer a purple layer and a white layer, etc. Make these bad boys switch colors like warriors can switch stances. Extra points if they actually change their character model colors too for sh**s and giggles. Make each stance do something different but tank related. Black takes less melee damage, blue takes less spell damage, red receives more heals, green has a chance to stun when attacking (making enemies drowsy/asleep), bronze increases attack and movement speed, all abilities melee a la Azure Claws, give them tail attacks, wing buffets, make em use their bodies like the weapons they were designed to be.
Rogue archetype
-Support spec: Alchemist. Lore justification: We got combat alchemists all over the place. Rogues used to have poison making as a skill to level and needed to craft poisons from ingredients. Cant bring all of that back but can make a spec that leans into their ability to make potions and poisons. Throw potions on allies to give them temporary effects, throw poisons on enemies to give them temporary debuffs, give them a Death Touch-like ability that converts an enemy killed by that ability into a philosopher stone that grants bonuses to party members based on that creature’s type. humanoid philosopher stone grants increased resource generation, undead philosopher stone grants increased healing received, etc. This based on the warcraft 3 alchemist being able to turn enemies into gold.
-Mid-range dps spec: Shootenanny. Yes, horrible name, stolen from west of loathing. Lore justification: We have pistols. We have rogues who can shoot pistols. Why not make a full on pistol-shooting rogue class? 15-20 yd range, most abilities shoot pistols to do one thing or another. Maybe throw a grenade in the air and then shoot it with a pistol to deal aoe damage. Lean into the gunslinger. Could give them some interesting mechanics like spending a full energy bar to create a full combo bar (reload your pistols) and then a big spender that shoots an amount of bullets equal to the combo bar, with various randomly applied effects: side shot makes enemies attack slower, head shot makes enemies take increased crit damage for a short while, low shot decreases their move speed. Could even make it a power-up ability like dracthyr breath attacks, at level 1 empowerment you’re more likely to deal leg shots, level 2 more likely to deal side shots, level 3 more likely to deal headshots. Could make a dead-eye ability akin to red dead redemption where you shoot one bullet at each enemy in front of you, same function, one shot in random body part with higher chances for better effects if you charge it up.
Druid archetype:
-Hybrid dps with possibility to offtank: Shapeshifter. Lore justification: Malfurion. Need I say more? Yes? Then the Ancient/Loa of Change. Lean into the shapeshifting mechanic of druids and either make it so different abilities shift to different forms to do different things, or give them mutations like Malfurion: maintain your regular race/sex form but shift different body parts into different things for different effects. Gain hoofed legs to charge forward, gain a bear claw to swipe, gain wings to flap backwards, envelop your arm into roots and extend it to attack from range like Alexei Stukov in HOTS. Go wild with it. Wild, get it?
-Support spec: Dreamwalker. Lore justification: some druids just sleep all day to master their understanding of the Dream. The Dream can grant a whole slew of effects, could even just be the same ones we got in the emerald dream patch/prepatch in random areas. Heck maybe even as an ult summon a green drake to breathe dream stuff on allies and enemies alike.
Monk archetype
-Melee dps: Scarlet monk. Lore justification: scarlet monks. Just fire everywhere. Fire kicks fire fists fire everything. Why not?
-Support spec: Crane. Lore justification: The pandarian monks follow monk paths that honor the four celestials. Or… at least supposedly. Brewmasters are all in on the yak, ww are all in on the tiger, mw are all in on the serpent. Chi-ji is relegated to… two, maximum three abilities? It’d be perfect for a support spec and could be a highly mobile class that passes through enemies to steal life essence and redistribute it as buffs to allies. Idea partly inspired by the Chi-ji gem in Pandaria Remix where your main method of attack during the Chi-ji form was running through enemies like a demon hunter’s fel rush.
Demon hunter archetype:
-Support Spec: Soul-thief. Lore justification: Allari and her scythe. Could use a 2handed polearm or staff, inflict debuffs, temporarily strip the souls of enemies from their body and turn them against their own bodies (“why are you hitting yourself?”), enhance allies with fel buffs that min-max: reduce attack speed for more attack power, reduce armor to gain speed, reduce speed to gain a layer of felslate armor, etc. Would help other classes reach their full potential - more burst or more sustain, help in escaping a “dont stand in the fire” if they were a little late, etc.
-Melee spec: Bladetwister. Lore justification: DHs used to be these really agile warriors and had all sorts of fun controlling the battlefield by moving to a different location. Now they’re basically glorified eyebeam turrets. So give their mobility back with a different spec. Focused on fel rush, blade dance, other abilities that deal damage while also moving your character. Not for people who have motion sickness. But no one forces you to pick it right?
Mage archetype:
-Melee spec, possibly tank?: Spellblade. Lore justification: Magic is not only a ranged effect, and mages have access to several spells that can only really be used at fairly short ranges. Fire breath, frost nova, cone of cold, arcane explosion. Can repurpose spells like that and add more to make a viable melee only mage specialization. Maybe also give them Control Magic from warcraft 3, the ability to take control of temporary summoned creatures. Enemy npc summons skeleton minions? yoink. Enemy warlock summons two dreadstalkers? yoink one. enemy mage summons a water elemental? yoink. Could cast self-targeted barriers same as all other mages, could cast larger scale barrier to protect party like the mages in Coldarra, maybe give them a counterspell that causes the ability that was interrupted to still trigger but affect the player that was casting it at 50% effect.
-Support spec: Portal mage. Lore justification: Portals are overpowered. Jaina used portals to almost flood the entirety of durotar. You could open a portal in front of a firing squad and have them shoot at your enemy through the portal. Portal to Pandaria and have some pandaren throw food items at your party. Portal a low health enemy to Dalaran Crater to die of fall damage. Portal to Shattrath to have A’dal give some random buff to the party. The possibilities are endless. Plus it’s a callback to the old way mages used to make gold by selling portals.
Warlock archetype:
-Melee spec: Demonic empowerment. Lore justification: Fel corruption. Felsworn, satyrs, eredar, whatever. Gain fel claws to strike enemies, horns to gore them with, maybe turn into a mini-gorefiend and eat their souls, demonic mutations are so wild and varied I’m surprised this isn’t a thing already. I mean it sort of was in MOP but we quickly got that taken away 
-Support spec: Order. Lore justification: Warlocks just kinda steal all the power they come across, symbollized both by their abilities and by their tier sets. They’ve got regular fire presumably from the firelands, hellfire presumably from satyrs, shadow bolts are void magic, they’ve got shadowflame which is fire void combo, they’ve got felfire which is a fel and fire combo, they’ve got chaos bolt which is pure fel, they’ve got curses, they can summon demons which is just plain old teleportation, they have the ability to channel blood magic (when they give their blood to their demons from afar), they can drain life with shadow+fel spell effects, kanrethad became a demon by stealing the reliquary of souls’ remnant which was borne from well of eternity water… Warlocks kinda just steal everything. So why not have some warlocks steal Order magic from the titanforged they encountered? Since Order can basically do anything from deal damage to empower to debuff, fits perfectly for a support role.
Priest archetype:
-Support spec: Loa Priest. Lore justification: We got holy and void represented. But not other kinds of worship. Here’s one. Draw from all the different still-alive Loas to grant buffs to your allies, debuffs to your enemies. A more lore-accurate version would be to specialize to a single Loa but alas. That would be too many specs and probably not varied enough.
-Tank spec: Cleric/Warden. Lore justification: Sometimes healers get fed up with healing and just start smashing everything in a one hundred yard radius. No but really, paladins are more of a knight type of deal, combat clerics are a thing in general fantasy and have somewhat been represented in WoW through the night elf Wardens: former priestesses of Elune who became the enforcers of justice according to their faith. Not noble warriors following a code, absolute zealots, “Forgive me for I’m about to send some fools your way.”. Scarlet Crusade is kind of representative of the battle cleric ideal for humans, shadow hunters for trolls, wardens for night elves, etc - full on worshippers who picked up a weapon and said “I offered you a chance to repent, now present your bottom for a spanking.”
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.