Hey everyone,
I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately, thinking about how World of Warcraft felt during Legion under Celestalon’s class design philosophy. For me, Legion was the golden era of class fantasy and gameplay. Each spec had a unique identity that shone through—whether it was the artifact weapons, class halls, or the way abilities and talents tied into the lore. I still remember the thrill of wielding Ashbringer as a Ret Paladin or casting spells as a Fire Mage with Felo’melorn. The classes didn’t just feel like a collection of mechanics; they felt alive, immersive, and true to their fantasy.
Celestalon (Chadd Nervig) and his team seemed to nail that balance of flavor and fun. Every spec had its moment to shine, and the systems like artifact power and legendaries (despite some RNG gripes) gave us so much to chase and experiment with. I loved how my Outlaw Rogue felt like a swashbuckling pirate, or how my Demon Hunter was this agile, demonic powerhouse. Even the less popular specs had their fans because of how distinct they felt.
Compare that to now, where some specs feel homogenized or like they’ve lost that spark. I miss the days when class design felt like it was built around a story, not just numbers. What do you all think? Was Legion peak class design for you too? Do you miss Celestalon’s influence, or do you think WoW’s class design has evolved for the better since then? Let’s share some memories and thoughts—what made Legion’s class fantasy so special for you?
Looking forward to hearing your takes!
- Class halls are very cool, but had massive downsides
- More lean and elegant class design means that classes are more unique functionally, and also have more unique rpg class fantasy
But I think some stuff is really good now. For example reworked Retribution Paladin is the coolest and best class Blizzard has ever created in wow gameplay-wise.
However, one thing that Legion and TWW both messed imo up a bit was narrowing down the meaning of the classes way too much. What does it mean to be a warrior? Suddenly it was only narrowed down to Odyn in Legion, and to Herospec variants in TWW.
I love playing a BM Hunter. Anything that emphasizes that or supports that is awesome.
So I loved the focus on class fantasy.
It also provided different experiences on a per class basis, leading to me leveling up more alts than I had done since my vanilla days.
Those two things are probably what I enjoyed most about it.
As for the ‘actual gameplay side of it’, I don’t really have an opinion. I still only really liked BM hunter. I leveled those other classes despite their gameplay, not because of it (there was only one exception: I enjoyed Mistweaver Monk, and during Legion that became my primary alt).
Ignoring stuff like artifact and legendary weapons, 'cause they really are anything but essential for general class fantasy, let’s break it down to the quotes.
So, what makes you feel class fantasy is lost to mechanics and numbers?
Class fantasy comes from descriptions, names of spells, tooltips. Don’t think “that’s just a 1mil dmg fire animation coming from my mage/warlock” think where that fireball comes from, how is it weaved, what does it do to it’s target.
These are all things depicted in ability names, tooltips, corresponding talents.
Where does that idea come from, that class fantasy is gone…why do some specs feel homogenized?
Going back to Vanilla, where is the difference now to class fantasy? Why doesn’t an outlaw rogue feel like an outlaw rogue to you anymore, comparing vanilla up until now class fantasy wise? Why do mechanics rob you the feeling of classes/specs?
I liked how each class had its own developer team who talked to players here and elsewhere. Especially during beta testing of MoP and Legion it was amazing.
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