Dark Ranger Race or Class? A Possibility?

Community General Discussion
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Hello everyone. :slight_smile:

So there are a bunch of Dark Rangers in WoW. All of them are loyal to Sylvanas.
Now I know there are already a lot of classes and a lot of races. (Perhaps to many nowadays…?)

But just for the sake of speculation.
Is it likely that we could at some point get a dark ranger class or race?

I would like that. Since we would have this dark kind of undead elves. But still different from the normal undead we have right now. Plus right now, what’s happening on Darkshore? Oh right, Sylvanas is raising dead Night Elves into…Dark Rangers. (That could be the Dark Ranger starer area. A new Dark Ranger is reborn from death and it’s…us.)

Lightforged Forsaken seems to be a thing that might happen to. So is it possible we could get some dark ranger race as well? Alliance gets Lightforged Forsaken, Horde gets Dark Rangers.

I just like the idea of a race or class loyal to Sylvanas, or at least kind of based of her. Being able to play as a Dark Ranger would be pretty cool if you ask me.

This could possibly be done if Sylvanas leaves the Horde. Right now she is not liked by everyone. There is kind of this Sylvanas vs Saurfang going on. (It would be terribly boring if Sylvanas was just killed off, and I hope that doesn’t happen.) One logical way that could end is if Sylvanas grabs her loyal troops (Dark Rangers) and goes her own way.

I would say she also grabs the Forsaken and goes. But in the Before the Storm novel things happen. Some of the Forsaken are kind of shaken up, Sylvanas does things that kind of makes some of them question her. So all of the Forsaken may not be as devoted or loyal to her as they once were.

My point is, it would then make sense for Sylvanas to be recruiting. Opening up a way for us to have Dark Ranger characters. If they become a new race or class.

So what do you all think?

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It’s more a sub-class version of a Hunter rather than a true new class. What would they have that Hunters and Death Knights don’t already have?

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Wouldn’t say necessary as a new class or race, but something a bit different which could be done for other races/classes.

A special questline for blood elf hunters where in the end you get killed and ressurected as dark ranger, giving you customisation options like DKs have, except your eyes would be red and also make it so that your spells are more forsaken themed (arcane shot could be blight shot, being green instead of arcane etc)

Ya know, like green fire questline.
Why I say it could be done for other classes is that there are other things that could work like this.
Druids of the flame for non zandalari/kultiran druids.
Light of elune/wrath of elune for night elf priests (white or black spells)
Eye colors for DKs depending on spec.
Perhaps a void fire for locks.
Some holy shenanigans for shadow priests, or on the other hand, void shenanigans for holy priests.
Etc etc.

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Apart from the fact that I don’t want any more Elf races, since we already have more than enough of them, it feels very unlikely that the Dark Rangers will play an important role in future contant, seeing where the story is headed.

The Horde is changing, Sylvanas is becoming more evil by the day and a rebellion is brewing. In a few days, the “Sylvanas evil!”-questline will reach new heights and the reactions to that event from various race leaders shows that most of them are pretty much done with where the Horde is heading towards.

In 8.3, or 9.0, we’ll have a new Warchief. Possibly Baine or Saurfang, maybe even Thrall or a War Council. Point is, there will be no place for Undead-development anymore within the Horde. Sylvanas will obviously be gone by the and of BfA, Forsaken and all other races will be put in the background.

Add to that the fact that Dark Rangers are not really an “allied race”, since they’re already part of the Horde. But I guess that that won’t matter to Blizzard, since they shamelessly retconned the status of the Dark Iron Dwarves (they were already allied with the Alliance since Cata) as well.

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I like the idea but we have too many elves already and what would make them different then from the normal hunters we got?.

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Also lightforged undead as a race sounds stupid to me and wouldn’t work for the simple fact that light hurts the undead :joy:,and yet we have undead priests which doesn’t make sense to me and never will.

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I think we’re due another mail/ranged class. I don’t think it’ll be dark ranger but I think that will be one of the specs. If I was in charge I could see this class covering the Dark Ranger archetype as a dps role (shadowy magic), but also the Priestess of Elune archetype probably as a healer akin to Disc (light magic). Would fit well with the upcoming light/shadow theme.

Basically, a bow user with magic.

Wouldn’t necessarily need a third spec, but I’d love to shoehorn in a Bard spec, and this class might be a great opportunity :wink:

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A lot of good points you make guys. And yes we have a lot of Elf races, a lot of pointy ears. :stuck_out_tongue: But this is just speculation.

If a Dark Ranger class or race is added they would be a ranged class yes. Mail or leather gear aha. But unless they got something very special, they would perhaps not be very different from the hunter class. Though we never see Sylvanas or any Dark Ranger with a pet. (Nathanos does not count. :rofl:I had to say that. Wouldn’t surprise me if many see Nathanos as Sylvanas evil little puppet.) So one thing that could separate Dark Rangers from normal Hunters is that Dark Rangers would not have any beasts/pets.

Perhaps they could also have some magical abilities, like Void or death focused. So a Dark Ranger could possibly have some aspects from hunters and some from…Warlocks?:thinking: I’d say Void Elves but their void and Sylvanas is death so nope. Void and Death kind of hate one another.

(Of topic but yup. That is one thing I will never do and I never understand it. Undead Priest…what??? o.O Whenever I see that I stop for a second and just “…?..:thinking::face_with_monocle::grey_question:” )

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was basically going to say this, with 3 plate, 3 cloth and 4 leather users compared to 2 mail, the next class should be focused on being mail. a shaman friend even said recently they are finding it hard to get gear cause in a raid of 20-25 people there are no other shamans or hunters, so they cant swap around gear like all the leather/plate users around atm. so this new class would also help hunters/shamans gear up!

while i was going to focus mainly on mail, you are also right about ranged. our guild is so melee heavy its not funny. there seems a shortage of people wanting to be hunters, eles and warlocks atm, and even shadow priests are low, so that means the main ranged players are either mages or boomkins.

fixed. xD

to OP, without major retcon, a dark ranger would only be available to the horde? so this would create an obvious imbalance.

so yeah, next class NEEDS to be ranged and mail. so…ideas?

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Tinker is gonna come next I bet, and will be able to take all 3 roles of the trinity system and have mech, will be able to use long range weapons like turrets and all sorts of gadgets to. The races which will be able to play as one will be goblins and gnomes.

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forgot about that. yes, there is much talk about tinkers. and they would fit the ranged option as you said. lets hope blizz chooses mail for them.

/whisper Vulpera xD

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(LF) Draenei, Blood elves, Nightborne, (DI) Dwarves could also be tinkers.

But I’d like if they added more racial flavour into this class similar to Druid :slight_smile:

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I think Dark Rangers are up there for the most likely candidate for next class, specially since Alleria is now in the equation it could be a similar case of paladins now ( Zandalari = loa , humans = light ) we would get ( Horde = undeath , Alliance = void )

Tinker is also a more likely candidate even thou I hate the concept soo hard.

Also I’ve read up on a " Dragonsworn " class which seemed very interesting.

Thou I think blizzard is going to take a brave step next expansion and either add extra specs for each class, or sub specs rather than classes. Or maybe they don’t add anything and use that development time to reinvent classes in a new fashion like rogue’s combat rework and renaming.

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But back to the topic, I wonder why people consider Dark rangers as a race? I know that we’ve seen mostly undead elves as dark rangers (I remember one Blood elf with Morgoth-like name from Hunter class hall), but it is still a class not a race.

Both undead elves and Dark ranger class are quite popular suggestion so we might see them in the future. Especially if the next expansion will be focused on Death, then it would be really fitting.

I also like what Hínáta suggested, I’d even go to having more “source options” as Void/Death/Shadow (in general)/Lunar… and each race would have certaind amount of the options unlocked, e.g. Night elves would have Lunar/Shadow, Void elves wold have Void/Shadow etc. Most of the spells/skills could be designed in neutral way and only some of them would change according to your source (mostly colouring).

Btw I would really love this to be available to priests as well…

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I’m also not a big fan of tinkerer and mechagnome as next class or race like…ah no thank you. xD

But yeah you mentioned something I overlooked. The Alliance has made a step towards the void. It would only make sense if the Horde took another step towards Death. To perhaps that was because Horde already has a step towards death, aka The Forsaken.

Regardless of what class or race comes next, unless it’s some big major new like Demon Hunters were things need to change. If we get classes or races to similar to others Blizz is gonna need to add more specs or something like that as you mentioned.

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Dark Ranger - Any Horde Race that can be a Rogue or Hunter - Specialist Hunter with Rogue-like capabilities?

Warden - Any Alliance Race that can be a Hunter or Rogue - Specialist Rogue with Hunter-like capabilities?

Possibilities?

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They can make a class with 4 (or 5) specs and give access to them based on race/faction of your character. (again same can go to priests, e.g. adding Moon spec)

Or two classes with only two specs at the same time, like you suggested Warden for the Alliance and Dark ranger for the Horde.

Another possibility is to make these two classes with absolutely same gameplay, but with different spell effects, names, sounds etc.

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Tinker is far more unique and provides something new to the table though. Dark Ranger? It doesn’t imo justify it as new race or even class.
If anything more like special questline to unlock extra customization. But truth to be told I never understood their appeal nor any of their skills were in particular standing out.

I’d like shadow hunter to be introduced at some point, but Blizzard wouldn’t put a class that can be played not just by one race but that couldn’t be mirrored to alliance faction.

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Depends on how they became undead - the Forsaken are raised and “liberated” using shadow magic, which is why the Light hurts them.
Alonsus Faol on the other hand was raised by shadow, but freed himself, which is why he could use the Light in limited fashion.
Calia Menethil was brought back though the Light, which is why she would be able to wield the Light freely, but most likely the Shadow/void magic will hurt her.

Considerng Mechagon and the stories that are datamined, Tinker (Mail/Plate wearing class with 4 specs similar to Druids) is the more likely option than (Dark) Rangers/Wardens.

We Already have Dark Warden (Sira “the utter fool” Moonwarden) and we can easily consider the Kaldorei and Quel’dorei (Yeah, the actual Alliance kind that should’ve been instead of VE) to still have a good amount of Rangers.

Besides, the Wardens are literally Arcane DHs or Shadow DHs (Dark Warden case), while the (Dark) Rangers are Non-BM hunters.

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They can always create Shadow Hunter for the Horde and Warden for the Alliance with same playstyle, but different visuals. In fact I can imagine these two being “mirrored”.

Problem with tinker(er) is that it is way too mechanized, that is why it might not be liked that much, unless they give it more variety, like changing it according to your race, e.g. Belves could have more arcane based spells, Draenei Light based etc.