For a long time, fans have wished for Blizzard to add further specializations for existing classes in World of Warcraft. As Blizzard takes its time with this, fans are taking matters into their own hands.
For World of Warcraft, fans continually desire numerous changes. For a long time, there has been a demand for additional specializations for classes, such as a Time Mage or a Necromancer Death Knight.
On Reddit, the user Waybye has taken the initiative and personally addressed the issue. He has taken many classes and given them fresh specializations, resulting in new playstyles. For his own creations, he developed unique spells and also noted rough design ideas.
We would like to briefly introduce some of these design ideas to you.
The Time Mage (Healer)
Mages can do all sorts of things in WoW – but healing is not one of them. But why not? With temporal magic, it could be easily explained how mages can turn back time to undo wounds. The particularly powerful abilities would be balanced by high mana costs, punishing “failed heals” and rewarding tactical approaches.
Example abilities:
- Rewind: Sets the target’s health points to the highest value the character had in the last 3 seconds. Magical effects and curses cast during this time are also removed.
- Time Shield: Envelopes the mage in a shield for 4 seconds. If the mage is still alive after 4 seconds, all damage taken during that time is healed.
- Temporal Snapshot: Stores the current health points of the target. Cast the spell again within the next minute to reset the health points to the stored moment.
The Void Warlock (Tank)
Also quite cool is the idea of the warlock specializing in “Void.” This one overestimates himself and summons a powerful Voidwalker that takes control over the warlock!
The warlock then serves as the “pet” of the Voidwalker, which is instead controlled by the player and can fulfill the role of a tank. While the Voidwalker is directly controlled, the warlock uses abilities like Shadow Bolt, Corruption, and Life Drain. The Voidwalker can also draw health points from the warlock to heal itself.
Example abilities:
- Dark Star – Singularity: Summons a singularity at the target location that pulls all enemies within a 10-meter radius for 8 seconds. After 8 seconds, the singularity explodes and deals shadow damage.
- Life Line: Sacrifices 20% of the warlock’s health points to heal the Voidwalker by double that amount over 6 seconds. If the warlock dies, they are resurrected after 30 seconds.
- Dark Star – Circumference: Summons a Dark Star that circles the caster for 10 seconds, dealing damage to all enemies it touches.
Justice Paladin (Ranged DPS)
The 4th specialization of paladins is designed for ranged combat and aims to be a mix of the classic “Vampire Hunter” and Crusaders from the real world. The class mainly uses the Crusader Shot, which has limited ammunition and must be allocated appropriately. Additionally, the Justice Paladin also uses mana and Holy Power as resources.
Example abilities:
- Silver Bullets: The next 3 Crusader Shots deal additional holy damage. Each shot deals 50% more damage than the previous one. Critical hits from other abilities reduce the cooldown of Silver Bullets by 3 seconds.
- “Holy Hand” Grenade: Throws a grenade at the target location, which explodes and deals holy damage. The area is sanctified and causes additional damage to all enemies in the target area over 12 seconds.
- Sinner Seeker: Consumes all Holy energy to fire a projectile of light at the target. If the target dies from the projectile, it seeks another target within 10 meters.
On Reddit, Waybye’s ideas garnered significant acclaim, with the corresponding post receiving several thousand upvotes within just a few hours.
Waybye has created even more specializations, such as the Apothecary Rogue (Healer), the Necromancer Death Knight (Ranged DPS), the Void Seeker Monk (Ranged DPS), and the Guardian Shaman (Tank). To view these concepts, click the images below to enlarge them.
Cortyn says: I particularly find the concept of the Void Warlock, who is overwhelmed by his servant, brilliant. I would love to play such a tank specialization. It would be fresh air and a cool new aspect in the fantasy of warlocks. If it were up to me, Blizzard should implement this soon or at least experiment with it!
What do you think of these new specializations? Should Blizzard consider this? Or are they too far-fetched, and do the classes not need any further specs?
We have explained how classes really change in Battle for Azeroth in this article.
