Breaking News: draenei Shamans, Blood Elf Paladins!!

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corinalbria

New Member
Breaking news on the general forums - come Burning Crusade, Draenei will be able to be shamans, and Blood Elves will be able to be Paladins!!

Quoted from Eyonix (blue post):

"Something we have always held to as a core design philosophy is developing classes which are distinct from each other. This means developing a class with it's own abilities that clearly separate it from other classes in terms of how the class plays and operates, both for the player and from a design stand-point.

Early on in the inception of this game, it was a hot debate as to whether factions should have a specific class, which they alone have access to. Some wanted all classes to be distinct from each other, but accessible by all. Others thought that more flavor could be generated by keeping a class unique to a faction. Obviously, if you have one side with a unique class, you should probably give the other faction a unique class as well. Thus, Shaman and Paladins became those unique classes.

However, by linking them in a relationship as unique counter-points, options are closed for our main design goal, which is to keep classes distinct. We want factions to be balanced, but don't want to cut and paste abilities from one to the other and homogenize the classes. If we went that road, there would be little difference or need for a distinct class. We want classes to be different in more than just name-only or superficial appearances.

So, in our desire to keep the classes distinct and open up new possibilities for development of each class, shaman and paladins shall now be a playable class for both factions. This decision comes at a time when we have an opportunity to blend this decision into future development. Namely, with the new races in the upcoming expansion. Prior to the new races, the Paladin and Shaman lent themselves easily to their own factions and not that well to the opposite faction (Tauren Paladin? Gnome Shaman?) With the advent of the two additional races, the choice was made more clear in game design and lore.

In terms of game design, one of the options it opens up is for specific classes in dungeon encounters. We already have several encounters that highlight the abilities of a single class or make use of a classes specific abilities. Shaman and Paladins in the previous design could not participate in such encounters. If killing a creature required a Shaman, the Alliance could never beat the encounter and vice versa. This change allows the two classes to bring their own abilities into a situation which may highlight their class as an integral part of the encounter."
 
This is absolutely hilarious. My brother was a 60 Tauren Shaman, decked in BWL gear and all he see's is the weaknesses of the Shaman and strengths of a Pally. This will cause him and others to see the flip side of their arguements. For example he sees that having to lay totems that are one shotted a weakness but doesn't see how if you are forced to deal with 4 totems, you expose yourself to upto 8 seconds of the shaman getting free hits on you.

And I'm sure it will be true of the Pallies.
 
I think Shamans are a cool class, but this is what it looks like they are doing:
"We want factions to be balanced, but don't want to cut and paste abilities from one to the other and homogenize the classes."
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They are taking the Alliance and Horde sides and copying them to the opposite sides. From the beginning I have thought that the opposing sides should have different races, as well as different classes. I dont see how making a Shaman on the Alliance side fits into the storyline; but the Paladin for the Horde makes even less sense. In my opinion, giving racial abilities to the races to help differentiate the classes is not enough. Aka Undead Mages from Gnome Mages.
 
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Weak sauce... Shamans are for PWNING -- not playing... It gives a priest more satisfaction when a shammy goes down. Now we gotta run with em'? :)
 
Just think, an all shaman and pally pvp team. Mail and plate wearers with ranged nukes, big two handers with unmitigated damage and invinceable shields. Oh, did I mention they can heal and regen mana while fighting.
 
I agree with Klangy on this done. I think that would kill the feel of the game.

Just because some noob designer couldnt build a dungeon that either side could complete, they just get rid of the entire uniqueness of the faction classes, dropping the lore and everything? The entire pvp feel is shattered if fighting both sides is now more or less the same. I might as well just go duel if I want to fight against all classes if this comes to being.

If this really comes to being without some major tweaks, I'm shutting the coffin on this game.
 
Personally I LOVE the idea. It gives us basically a new class to mix in the groups. Think of all the buffs with a shaman and pally in the group. Shamans can self res and then res us. Sooo convenient for raids! Although I would really like a completely new class, this will give us a change up.

This comes with the expansion, so that means we have months and months of new content to explore. No way I am letting this change ruin my gaming experiences, with all the new content BC is bringing in. Xpac is gonna rock!

If you think this will change the feel of the game, wait till lvl 70s get in the mix!
 
so Draenei can be paladins or shamans, wow thats crazy. Blood Elves being paladins makes sense since in Warcraft III the High Elves before they were the Blood Elves were game priests and healers for the human faction which means they knew about the Holy Light.
 
I think the game is still worth playing... but they shouldnt simply copy and paste a class into a society where it doesnt fit. There are no Light believers in the Horde lands, and there are no Shamanistic believers or societies in the Alliance. I really wish they had come out with 2 or 3 new classes. One class both sides of the fence can play and then one special class per faction. I am still rolling a Shaman when the expansion comes out. I hope that only Undead can play Paladins. It is the only class that can possibly fit into the role a paladin requires. An Undead paladin makes more sence to me than a Dwarf Paladin to me.
 
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The developers said they planned this before the expansion and are basing the entire future of the game on this decision. I doubt they just cut and pasted anything. This is a solid decision and the xpac depends on it.

I think this is the best news for pallys. Now they can buff us and itemize us without worring about being unfair to the Horde.
 
ewoksrule said:
...Now they can buff us and itemize us without worring about being unfair to the Horde.
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They shouldnt have to worry about that though. Shamans and paladins should equal each other out. Because all the other classes do that to their Alliance or Horde race counterparts.
 
right but now for 60-70 they can make us take seperate paths if they wish, without worring about balancing across factions. Now shamans and pallys don't have to balance each other out.

blue quote
In terms of game design, one of the options it opens up is for specific classes in dungeon encounters. We already have several encounters that highlight the abilities of a single class or make use of a classes specific abilities. Shaman and Paladins in the previous design could not participate in such encounters. If killing a creature required a Shaman, the Alliance could never beat the encounter and vice versa. This change allows the two classes to bring their own abilities into a situation which may highlight their class as an integral part of the encounter.
Click to expand...
 
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couldnt they just make some dungeons in expansion allow/require shammy/pally cooperation? Like mixed faction groups?

No, instead bliz likes ruining pvp dynamics.

Right now the horde hate the alliance largely because of paladins.
Right now the alliance hate the horde largely because of shamans.

In expansion, there will be no more of such feelings. I'd hate world of WARcraft to become a fashion walk showing off dungeon epics where they wont even be used (even more so than it already is.)

Group pvp is different for each side; it gave strategy and special coordination to use the paladin/shaman's abilities to compensate for the lack of the opposing faction class. With that void in expansion, well, that's no more. It's like playing starcraft with only 1 race available.

I think if there's a lot of racial ability tweaking and a good amount of lore put into it, it might still be pretty cool; but as of now, from a pvp perspective it's gonna kill a lot of the game.
 
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If any of you guys actually played WarCraft III and previous games, you would know this actually does make sense. Believe it or not, but World of Warcraft is not the first WarCraft in the series :p.

I, for one, really like the idea. I think it matches perfectly.

edit: btw guys, the game is changing. We'll just have to get used to it, because this is always how it's been in Blizzard's previous games. There's a reason they create the most played games; they're know what they're doing. For those of you who did not know, the Night Elves actually used to be a very evil and magical race. So, there's a lot of changes in the story of WarCraft that many of you may not even be aware of, but seem to get along with the decision just fine. I think that's how the future of WarCraft is going to be, as well. We can expect a lot of changes, but that's what makes the lore and gameplay of WarCraft so great.

Again, I think this was a great idea. It kinda surprised me at first, but then I realized just how much I liked it, not to mention that it fits the story.
 
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