There have been many suggestions so far about whether there should be another class introduced in the next expansion, or new specs in the existing classes. I was always in favor of new specs.
I understand however that would be a balance nightmare with the introduction of not 2 or 3 but 12 new specs.
Therefore i came up with this solution that might be seen as a kind of compromise to that.
Heroic specs are specs that can be unlocked at the beginning of their expansion. They can be taken by many classes, where each character can have only one heroic spec. For example a spell-blade spec could be taken by a mage but also a warrior.
One of the problems this faces is of course armor. I have thought of 2 solutions for this. One is the specs themselves having their own armor type which you get at the unlock scenario. Another would be that each spec would have a passive that would allow their original class armor type to function as intended. Personally i am more in favor of the second solution.
Also choosing the heroic spec could unlock spec specific transmog set much like the heritage sets.
Some Heroic Specs would be:
Spell-blade(Tank or DPS)
Classes: Warrior, Mage, Rogue, Warlock (and maybe Hunter)
Lore: Dalaran/Suramar battle mages in the face of /insert new threat here/ have decide to make their fighting style teachings public thus allowing any martial or magical adepts of the Alliance/Horde to become Spell-blades. Warriors/Rogues get magic lessons and Mages/Warlocks get martial training.
Armor Passive: Enchanted Armor: Plate/Leather loses Armor and Stamina and gains Int while cloth loses Int and gains Armor and Stamina.
Weapon: one-Handed and off hand Staff
Powers:
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Enchanted Gear - [Class Buff] - passive : Enchant the weapons and Armor of your Party and raid members within 40 yards. Their weapon attacks do extra 5% frost-fire damage. Their Armor gains the chance to reflect 5% of any magical damage back to the caster.
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Blink-Strike: Teleport to target and strike.
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Path of blades(AOE frontal cone): Conjure blades in an AoE in front of you that hit all targets
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Force Pulse(target AOE 20yards): create a pulse on the target that hits all enemies around it. Target can also be ally without him/her being affected.
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Frost-Fire bolt: One of the only hard casts of the class. Fire a blast of frost-fire on the target that consume any and all marks for extra damage.
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Mastery: Magical Marks : gives you access to mark of fire and mark of frost skills. When either of those is activated gives your skills the ability to place the appropriate marks on targets.
Mechanics:
Marks: When you have Mark of fire or frost activated certain abilities give marks to your target. When your target already has a mark and you hit it with another, they take damage depending on how many stacks of that mark the target had.
Frost-Fire Enchantment(Active): Enchant your weapons with a frost-fire enchantment allowing the application of both marks at the same time.Lasts x secs.
Mark of Fire: Debuff placed on target with a max of 10 stacks. Reduces all damage of target by x% per stack.
Mark of Frost: Debuff placed on target with a max of 10 stacks. Reduces armor of target by x% per stack.
Utility:
Mages would have their Portals and food just the same.
Warlocks would have their summons and soulstones.
Rogues would keep their stealth along with only Sap.
Warriors would keep Charge and Leap.
Transmog: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/02/d0/e9/02d0e9e5112848cff2df4d81c3b2cdde.jpg Something like this.
Next is
Necromancer(Range DPS)
Classes: Warlock, Death Knight, Shaman, Mage
Lore: Scholomance gets reopened under the supervision of the ebon blade. Any hopeful acolytes gain the opportunity to become full fledged necromancers.
Armor Passive: Bone Armor
Weapon: Staff, dagger and offhand
Iconic Powers:
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Lich Form: Gain the visage of a lich and increase all your damage effects by 10%. (can be talented into permanent trnsformation)
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Summon undead Guardians: Summons 2 undead minions to fight for you.
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Black Magic - [Class Buff] - passive: Party and raid members within 40 yards become infused with dark powers, reducing all magical damage taken by 5%, and increasing to 10% when below 20% health.
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Death Bolt: Throw a bolt of necromantic magic that does x% damage onyour target. Applies Necromancer’s curse.
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Screeching Wave : Launches 6 waves of death magic at your enemy over 2 sec, causing X shadow damage, interrupting spellcasting, and preventing that school of magic from being cast for 5 sec. If you’re interrupted while channeling this spell, an explosion of shadow magic will erupt around the caster, causing Y shadow damage to all enemies within 15 yards. 2 sec channel.
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Death Spiral: Launches a swirl of shadow and ice at your enemy, causing X shadowfrost damage to your target and Y damage to all enemies within 15 yards. Applies Necromancers curse.
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Bone Giant : Combines your Skeletal Guardians to form a Bone Giant to attack your target for 60 sec. When the Bone Giant expires, it explodes, dealing X physical damage to all enemies within 20 yards.
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Cursed Flesh : Corrupts your enemy’s body, causing their two healing spells to instead cause damage to their allies and their next two damage spells to instead cause healing to the Necromancer’s allies. Lasts x secs
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Mastery: Mastery: Necromancy - Increases all minion damage by X%, and summons a Skeletal Acolyte to join your Skeletal Army. When you deal direct damage, the Skeletal Acolyte will mimic those attacks, causing Y% of your damage.
Mechanic:
Undead Minions: Your summons do x% of your damage.
Necromancer’s curse: When the enemy add or player dies while under the effect of Necromancers curse, a skeletal minion is raised in it’s place to serve the necromancer for the next 10minutes. Can have up to 3 minions summoned this way.
Utility:
Mages would have their Portals and food just the same.
Warlocks would have their summons and soulstones.
Shamans keep Reincarnation.
Death Knights keep their Mounts and Akherus Teleporter.
They all gain Phylactery.
Phylactery: Bury your Phylactery to a graveyard location. When you die you can choose to resurrect in that graveyard instead of the nearest one without going to the shadowlands.
Transmog: https://store-images.s-microsoft.com/image/apps.24560.66028464606298972.c829376f-f89f-4be8-a096-56d410545f5b.18261c08-bcd5-4b41-96a3-372f59b34514?mode=scale&q=90&h=1080&w=1920&format=jpg no need to look further
Lich Form: Skeleton Based on race.
And finally:
Cleric:Healer/Tank(only spec that can choose which)
Classes: Priest, Paladin
Lore: In the Netherlight Temple priests of both Shadow and Light banded together to face the Legion. Once the Legion was dealt with however some chose to stay there and continue their research into the true natures of the Light and/or Void. As time passed they made a tremendous discovery. It seemed that while inside the netherlight temple and the twisting nether in general, the adverse effects that normally occur during the interaction of the Light and the Void where substantially reduced. Instead most of the released energy between said collisions where fused into the astral energy that the Nether comprises of. They named this energy Netherlight after the temple. They then decided to invite any and all wielders of the Light and the Void in order to teach them how to summon and manipulate it.
Armor Passive: Ceremonial Armor
Weapon: Staff, Staff and Shield
Mechanics:
Netherlight Radiance: By focusing on the restorative properties of netherlight you manage to use it to safeguard yourself and your allies from harm. (Shielding healer, preemptive healing)
Saraka’s Lament: By taking in the remnant energies of the void god Saraka and fusing it with the Light, the clerics have managed to create a version of Netherlight that seemed to allow itself to be infused on the caster’s body but refuse to do anything while simply being conjured. It also gave the clerics that fused with it, a rudimentary resistance to the Void as well as the Light (Light/Void Tank with shields and self-heals).
When you go through the scenario you choose on of the 2 above in order to chose your specs role. The abilities will be mostly the same with some role specific ones.
Iconic Powers:
- Netherlight shield: Create a shield around you and/or your allies that absorbs damage.
- Celestial bolt: Fires a celestial bolt to the target. Refreshes Netherlight shield
- Netherlight Aura: Explode with Netherlight aura healing and damaging all foes around. In Tank role you just damage and the cast is instant. In healer mode the cast is channeled and you both damage and heal as well as refresh Netherlight shield.
- Celestial torrent: Channel Netherlight to your target. Every hit creates a blast that heals/damages everyone around your target in healer/tank role.
- Void’s Corruption: Aoe cone. By manipulating the void side of Netherlight you spew corruption in a cone in front of you. movement is reduced by 50% for x secs
- Light’s dominance: Your target is dominated by the dominance of the Light. stun for x secs.
- Mastery: Balance: In healer mode any damage you receive as well as inflict heals the 2 group members with the least health. In Tank role it creates a shield on you for the same amount.
Utility:
Netherlight stride: You gain an increase in mounted speed.
Paladins keep their mounts.
Priest keep their buff.
Transmog: https://i.imgur.com/Tdc2Qkq.jpg think how would a wow priest look like in dark souls.
These are just 3 of the Heroic specs i have thought about. There could be a lot more. Plus they could all be expansion related.
What would you think of such an implementation.