An interesting discussion started on the MMO-Champion forums about Blizzard's next expansion for World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria.
This discussion presented the idea of giving all WoW classes a 4th spec: Fourth Spec for More than Druids.
Although this discussion is far from anything new, this time people are actually getting comfortable with the idea. My opinion about that? It's about damn time someone realized how great of an idea this is.
The first thing I thought when I saw the Mists Of Pandaria Talent Panel (you can see a recap of it here) was "Wow, now they can create any spec they want for each classes". And indeed with this system Blizzard does throw the customization through talents aspect out of the window, but gains the ability to finally have classes with more than 3 specs.
For Blizzard, this is a good idea for one simple reason: they will be able to sell specs! More after the jump!
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| The asian themed continent of Pandaria. |
Mark my words on this, it will happen. Micro-transactions are the new way for MMOs to generate cash, and WoW will sooner or latter jump in the bandwagon like everyone else. Although they can't sell gears yet, selling optional specs seems like something they could do without seeming like a pay-to-win model.
Now what could be done with such a system. Well first we could finally make all classes able to fill all 3 roles, Tanking, Healing, and DPS. Here is some thought I had on different specs Blizzard could create to finally make all classes hybrids.
=== Hunter ===
DPS: Sniper - You gain an ability that unsummon your pet, give you a boost to ranged weapon damage, and give you buffing abilities that empowers your next single Sniper ability shot.
Tank: Beastmaster - Your pet gain mitigation bonuses depending on your Agility.
=== Mage ===
Tank: Spell Breaker - You gain special mitigation bonuses against spells, use spells to boost your physical mitigation. Would be based on the Spell Breaker unit in Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne.
Healing: Battle Alchemist - You could have targeted Area-Of-Effects based heals, and dealing damage could increases the strength of your heals. Combine it with the great control and utility of the Mage class and you would have one beast of a healer.
DPS: Battlemage - Attacking in melee would give you a buff that when stacked enough would reduce the casting time of some spells to 0 (making them instant). Oh the insanity! People are QQing about Mages being Overpowered? Just imagine what they will see when Mages will be able to also slap them in melee!
=== Rogue ===
Tank: Swashbuckler - You gain a boost to your evasion, attacking would increase your physical mitigation. This would manage what Combat failed to do, give spec a spec that would enable them to stand toes-to-toes against their enemies in PvP.
Healing: Medic - A Melee based healer, people close to you get healed, which would be other melee dps. And attacking would increase your healing capabilities.
DPS: Engineer - A Pet based Rogue, controlling a robot. One word: FUN!
=== Death Knight ===
DPS: Necromancer - You could harness the powers of undeath to cast lethal spells, gaining a mana bar. It would pose some problems as Death Knights are heavily melee-based but I can't really see another Melee DPS spec being done for Death Knights.
Heals: Corruption - Another Melee Healer, Death and Decay could heal as well as do damage!!! Attacking would reduce the CD of Death and Decay and Corruption healing spells.
=== Shaman ===
Tank: Earthwarder - You can heal yourself out of damage, you use totems to buff your mitigation, cast spells to increase your spell damage mitigation. This spec was the first one proposed as the first non-Druid 4th spec on the World of Warcraft forums.
=== Palladin ===
DPS: Shockadin - You dreamed of it, it could be a reality!
=== Priest ===
Tank: Zealot - You use spells to boost your mitigation and shield yourself out of damage. What could be interesting about this spec would be using those shields to help others in the raid, Zealots would help the raid in the healing department at the cost of doing a little less damage than other tanks.
DPS: Purifier - Melting Faces is soo not 2012, Smiting them is where it's at! It will be nice to finally be able to dps as a Priest without looking like some sort of evil spawn of darkness. Also people have always wished to be able to spam Smite for as long as World of Warcraft has been around.
=== Warlock ===
Tank: Damnation - You could boost your mitigation through offensive spells, and then use the buffs they would confer you to transform into a demon from time to time, greatly reducing the amount of damage received (your Shield Wall equivalent pretty much).
Heals: Corruption - Your damaging spells would heal the raid for a portion of their damage, to play on the Damage-over-Time aspect of the class you could have powerful Heals-over-Time.
=== Warrior ===
Heals: Tactician - Melee Healer, your shouts heal people around you, "GET UP, You pansy!!".
Druids are obviously not covered since they already have a 4th spec and they are already hybrids!
The only class for which I could not figure out a proper hybrid option was the Hunter. I can't see a proper healing spec that would make sense with the class flavor and style. If you can figure something that could fill the healing role as a Hunter, don't hesitate to drop me a line on Twitter @ControlBlue or show your idea in the comments section below.
Finally, Customization!
This system would put the customization back in a system that is clearly lacking it. Although the Mists of Pandaria will succeed in making people think about their talent choices, the limited number of those choices, coupled with the fact that those choices are not really character defining, make a pretty poor system for customization.
Through the creation of multiple specs, Blizzard would not only create a new revenue stream, but would also ensure that players will be able to further differentiate their characters and choose their characters' style of play.
Again, for more game design tips, thinking, and analyses, follow me at @ControlBlue. Meanwhile, stay Classy!
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