New Class: Mech/robotic/mechanical idea

Community General Discussion
1

As the game has moved forward and evolved into the Undermine, where we’re driving around cars and seeing more mechanical engineering being used by characters, in mounts, bosses, isn’t it time for a new class utilizing these features?

Here’s the idea:

Class type: Mech and Engineer
Class roles: Similar to Demon Hunter = Tank/DPS
Classes available: Gnome/Mechagnome, Vulpera, Goblins (you have to be small enough tof it into the mech suit)

Mech (Tank spec) - upon entering combat, your mech falls from the sky and you jump into the drivers seat of a Mech, initiating combat (it’s like shapeshifting as a druid). This is your combat form, essentially.

Some cooldown abilities:
Gatling gun: Fire a flurry of rounds at the enemies in a cone in front of you

Shield barrier: Activates a large frontal shield, shielding you and reflecting attacks towards combatants

Smoke Cannisters: Launches a barrage of smoke canisters around you (like Smoke bomb) increasing enemies hit chance by 75%

Engineer (DPS), think of this like a Boba Fett. You get a customizable skin like the Dracthyr, except layered onto your character.

Some cooldown abilities"

Up and away: initiate your jet pack and move to another location (think like heroic leap instead though that you can fire and control your character)

Flamethrower: launch a large flame at enemies in a narrow cone in front of you (think of this like Dracthyr charge up ability, but more deadly and shorter)

Desperate measures: Upon reaching 20%, active self-destruct mode, causing large damage to enemies in a short radius. When talented into life-support, have a 20% chance of reviving yourself

Rocket barrage: (think of Dracthyr fly by mode) Launch yourself high into the air and fly into a circle bombarding your enemies

I’m basically a genius. Hopefully, Blizzard hires me for 50k a month for my amazing ideas. We really need more people playing these little guys.

2

“Tinker”

4 Likes
3

^ This.

Ideas like this have existed for years.

1 Like
4

Apart from the skin, what would mechanically make this a unique class? What can it give that none other’s can?

Unfortunately, any ideas the “tinker” class has come up with over the years already exist in a shape or form within some other class. So it would essentially be a re-skin of said class.

But if that is the case, we dont need a new class. We need a new skin.

1 Like
5

This is tinker class. And I have a gut feeling it’s coming as the next class come Midnight expansion.

2 Likes
6

Sadly the only way we could get tinkers is if blizz out of nowhere gives us a new class with the last patch of two like they gave us a new spec in the middle of df.

I don’t see them giving us a mech class that gets associated with goblins and gnomes with the big elven expansion and that means now or never

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So it’s Tinker. Very oldest WoW’s story “class” about goblin’s and gnome’s skill. (Dwarven rarer)
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Tinker

We waited so long get Tinker class for players in game

8

Adding a new class this early in development is not a good idea. They’re still trying to figure out how to make the ones we have playable.

9

Blizzard could be as creative as they wanted to be, this opens up a million possibilities, rather than with Dracthyr and Druid, where you stuck with an overall form, as it represents a real entity.

With Engineer(or Tinker as people are saying), you’d have a exosuit that layers around your existing clothing, that can be customized and modified in the dressing room, but the overlay is permanent, as that what grants you certain abilities, such as flamethrower through an arm attachment. It also has a rocket pack on the back, with a utility pack that provides all the equipment for it’s abilities.

Abilities, even among all the classes are quite similar and sort of mirrored/replicated from one class to another, so that wouldn’t be anything new. Plus, it needs to be familiar enough for players to understand.

For example, instead of totems, it pulls out turrets from the backpack that would assist you in combat, but function in a similar way. You would use drone type technology, that works the same as a Hunter’s flare, or DH’s invisible detection ability. Instead of an Ice wall ability, it can erect a metal barrier, or even deploy a a minefield, similar to Helldivers, a spinning turret that deploys mines, which can helpful in plucking out stealth units.

For the Mech unit, they could add a headlight, yellow spinning light in the rear that beats when moving backwards, all that can be modified in color, pattern or positioning, they could really make it functional. Profession items could add further customization.

Even when you think of player housing, you could add coo-coo clocks, toasters that launch toast into the air, things that are mechanical but don’t always function optimally.

Everything in the game is really static, nothing moves or has life to it, except for the culture of Mechgnomes and Goblins. It’s really a goldmine for Blizzard if they can understand the vision. When you think about Horde/Alliance and all the races and diversity from the cultures into one, they’re poorly represented in those factions.

There’s a treasure trove of ideas and creativity that can expanded on this, that can make the game feel alive and unique, yet Blizzard’s just sitting on it. Undermine could be a great start though.

10

if you think about the Class name Tinker then yes that would be good,
but remove the Vulpera from it.
those foxes only know how to roam desert and jungles to find food and these kind of things

1 Like
11

Vulpera? On a mech? No way.

Tinkers should be for the races that actually have genious inventors & not just for short races.

IMO the better line up for tinkers would be

  • Goblins
  • Gnomes
  • Mecha-gnomes
  • Dwarfs
  • DI Dwarfs
  • Earthen
12

Yes but then look at that lineup.

Two for the horde four for team blue.

I say toss undeads and vulps in there just to bolster the numbers of playable races

13

Or we could go with the demon hunter treatment & just make it for goblins & gnomes.
Willing to throw in mecha-gnomes as they’re basically just gnomes.

14

You explained a really nice and cool way to dress up a toon. Im all on board with that.

However. When you suggest that dont forget that this game has two components. Gameplay and Esthetics. And sometimes, they can be married together. But sometimes they cant.

For example, you described a really cool way of deploying Shaman Totems. But if this new “tinker” class will mechanically play like a Shaman 2.0, why do you have Goblin Shamans to begin with?

And then think of the repercussions. You would have to balance this “tinker” class against all others. And if it plays identical to a Shaman, then you run into problems.

So instead of a new “Tinker” class that plays exactly like a Shaman. Why not a gliff that changes ghost wolf to “mech suit” ? Or add more esthetical perks for having Engineering as your profession.

Its a win-win situation.

1 Like
15

Ahh yes, hunter with engineering. I also hate that the most advanced race (draenei) is not even included.

16

Yeah we could but that just sucks.

I like how DH playes but by god I hate elves.

Race lock should not be a thing

1 Like
17

'Pera Gundam Suit!

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I agree, in theory, and considered that when creating this post, but I considered that at this point, why not? It would feel a bit awkward to have 2 classes on faction, but the other side only having one. Also, I think these races are generally unpopular and could use a population boost and this would give players a reason to try races out they otherwise would not.

I remember when Shamans were only Horde, and Paladins only Alliance, and there was a fuss over whether that should be changed. Look at the game now, Shamans everywhere on both side.

Vulpera are relative in dimensions` to the others I mentioned. Dwarves are a bit “plus sized”, and I have a hard time imaging this walrus of a dwarf hopping inside a Mech.

It’s not a replica of a Shaman, or Hunter, or Evoker, even though it might lend from those classes certain abilities, but this in part to help players feel familiar with the class. When a class is to foreign in design, and the mechanics are more nuanced than what they’re used to in the game, they tend not to play it or want to get to learn it.

Evoker and Monk are really good classes, but they’re not as obvious and easy to interpret, therefore, often not played as much, even when meta.

Also, lots of classes lend from one another. Assassination Rogue and Feral Druid play nearly exactly the same, but makes one a cat, throw in some poisons, a smoke bomb and call it a whole different class, but nobody compares them, even though they play identically. Nobody compares a DH when it flies into the air to a Holy Priest that does the same exact ability, but heals.

It all comes down to how the class plays, feels and is interpreted, despite most classes being builder/spender in design.

So you’d have turrets, that resemble totems, but don’t function in the same way. You could have only 3, instead of the 10 it feels like with Shaman, way over encumbered in key binds, especially in PvP. Other abilities resemble Evoker, Hunter, likes reminding you of traps, or flight, but just like with nearly every other class in the game it play and feel very differently. You want players to be like, “Ah, this is like X ability”, but then when they realize it’s implementation works differently, then they’ll to understand that it functions in a different way.

There is no mechanical class, despite seeing lots of examples of it in game. It could be designed in an entirely unique way, despite feeling familiar enough to understand and people don’t give up on it for being too difficult and unfamaliar.

19

Hmm I would actually prefer if it was some new gimicky class rather than different flavor of existing playstyles.

How about instead of shifting into mech like druids or DH does into their “forms”, use the mechanic inspired by mech ability from Delves.
You get to control powerful tanky mech but at the same time your character stays where it was with controler in hands (like when you control Darkmoon Tonk or use hunter’s Eye of the Beast spell). It would force players to not only focus on the boss but also to keep an eye on their char. That adds another layer of gameplay to the class - a bit like final fight in Avatar movie where blue hero guy had to keep the bad guy away from his dreaming body while fighting.

Or it could also be themed around how unreliable gnome/goblin tech is. You summon big though and mean robot to fight for you but as it is hammered by enemy it starts to lose parts (bolts and gears) that lower its stats, say dmg reduction for example. To counter that player would have to run around picking them up and jamming back into robot. While at the same time have to repair it during fight, shove more coal into it to power it up and manualy command it to use various def or offensvie abilities. This way we get much diffefent play style than lets say hunters or warlocks who just focus on their skills and let the pet do its own thing.

For dps you could go with summoning smaller short lived controlable robots like bomb bots and crawler mines.
Same goes for turrets, you build it for few sec than enter it giving you new set of abilities. A bit of StarCraft/Heroes of the Storm siege tank playstyle - massive dps but 0 mobility (Bastion from Overwatch also comes into mind).

21

Sounds fine to me. :smiling_face:

Also: It’s called ‘The Alliance’. If you’re calling the Horde, the Horde.
If you’re calling the Horde ‘team red’, by all means call the alliance ‘team blue’.

:kissing_heart: