I wonder if we’re ever gonna see some specs reworked to have them revolve around death magic. We have DKs right now, but I think it could be a great opportunity for something like balance druids, who are basically in lore limbo right now as any explanation of their powers delves into headcanon territory by default. Affliction locks are another. I remember the Legion article handwaving it away as something like “shadow magic powered by fel”, but I think they too could use a stronger identity in terms of lore. Right now it’s just “yeah so there’s some fel magic… but it’s also shadow-y right… and you got some decay… wait… were those supposed to be different things or… anyway it’s basically all fel…”. I mean, I personally think warlocks should be more than just “chaos mages”. They already have two specs completely devoted to fel magic, why not use the third one for a different evil wizard fantasy?
PS: EYE OF N’ZOTH GLYPH PLEASE
PSS: FEL ELEMENTAL GLYPH FOR VOIDWALKER PLEASE
PSSS: JUST MORE GLYPHS PERIOD PLEASE
I doubt it. All our death magic stuff in Shadowlands is gonna be the expansion-specific Covenants.
I’d sacrifice a raid tier for a comprehensive release of spec+class cosmetic glyphs to add racial or alternate class themes (eg. Necromancer for Warlock), but I doubt you could convince blizz to do it.
I expect they would also comment on pvp recognisability - identifying classes/specs/etc. at a glance from their abilities would be made harder with such flexibility. I’m happy to make that sacrifice, but I don’t know if blizz are.
Why would you say that and then state a worse idea? Removing two classes and adding one is somehow better than adding cosmetics to an existing class?
Yeah it’s been a slippery slope since transmog was added. They kept the class specific sets but recolours/offset pieces were messing with that since the start. They’re glacial slow to change, so maybe give it another two expacs and we’ll get there.
But Both those classes were chosen over Necromancers back in Vanilla and then Wrath. They were planning on Necros for vanilla > Went with Warlock instead. Necros were supposed to be Hero class in Wrath > Went with DK instead.
THEY GOT IN THE WAY!
I love Necromancers so badly, and DKs are just an extreme low-tier version of 'em (imo), and demons are boring. ;__;
I just want my dang necros man… as Its OWN class, not some painted over warlock.
They’re already changing primary stats on gear depending on spec, there’s not necessarily any reason why they can’t change armour type too and just making everything ‘Adaptive’.
Whether that would be a step too far toward homogenisation is another question, but it’s not an illogical step for what they’ve already been doing with gear.
I’m not sure if I’d like it, honestly, but if it only mattered for a few classes…maybe?
Spitballing the idea here - gear drops/appearances wouldn’t be changed from current behaviour. You’d still have class sets and offset pieces. Just that the gear being adaptive means that plate appearances (that aren’t class-restricted) could now drop and be used by clothies, mail by leathers, etc. with the appropriate armour value.
Means more viable loot drops per boss (but also, potentially, diluting the pool?) and much more transmog freedom, while also freeing up the ability for you to change armour types between specs as a balancing tool.
Honestly writing it out I’m not convinced it’s a good idea. It might be a step too far. idk.
Clothies wearing plate might be a step too far, but letting most classes pick from two adjacent armor types (cloth-leather, leather-mail, etc.) would be pretty cool. Of course, provided there’s more to diversify armor types than just the Armor value on them (which, by this point, isn’t really meaningful in the gear game anyway). A balancing act between movement and defense, maybe?
Was discussed in another thread recently but there’s plate-like cloth transmog already. Or the Cosmetic stuff, like the Stormwind Guard/Orgrimmar Grunt set from WoD, or the Noble stuff from DMF. Heck, you can run around fully naked if you want.
Armor value may not seem meaningful but it’s definitely still got its place - PvP’s the obvious one, but it’s also a tank balancing mechanic (since it’s just passive DR). It can cause some balance issues though - an ele/resto shaman with a shield is objectively better than one with a 2her, since statwise they’re identical except one has a big chunk of armour on top.
One thing which is worth bearing in mind, at least a little, is that even though toys have short duration vs. cooldown there’s enough transform toys in current year that you can cycle through them and never see your actual character model.
