Class Reimagining Thought Experiment

[Cadien]

A little bit ago on the RoR Discord I saw a discussion of the name/aesthetic concept for the classes. For example, the thought of remaking a Knight of the Blazing Sun into an Imperial Knight, with each of the mastery trees representing a different knightly order. Consequently, different armors would be representative of the different knightly orders (e.g., conqueror is knights of morr, vanquisher is kotbs, invader is reiksguard, etc.). This has a benefit of conceptually remaking the class into a knight that could more easily be customized to represent the player's conception of what they want their character to be. That got me thinking about other classes and whether they could be changed in the same way.

DISCLAIMER: This is not an attempt to get the devs to change of the classes currently in the game. The classes and their aesthetics are set. The armors are set. The amount of developer work that would be required would not be worth the miniscule amount of benefit such a rework would bring, if its even possible. This post reexamines some of the class fantasies from the bottom up. I'm sure some of these ideas were kicked around at Mythic, but were rejected for some reason. Also, this is mostly about flavor. Abilities and roles are the same. Also, I'm not as well-versed in some of the races.

Empire:
Imperial classes, generally, have a pretty strong class fantasy that is unique. Several of the classes, however, represent a smaller sect or group within a greater whole of the Empire.

Knight of the Blazing Sun: As stated above, this class could have been a generic Imperial Knight. Each of the mastery trees would have represented one of the imperial knightly orders. I think the Order of the Blazing Sun is fine to replace the Glory tree, while the Vigilance tree would be replaced by the Reiksguard. The Conquest tree is a bit of a wild card, but I think the focus on attack would suit the Knights of the White Wolf. As stated above, the different armor tiers could each visually represent a different knightly order to allow the player the ability to customize their character.

Bright Wizards: This one could be the most difficult to implement, but the possibility of using the different colleges to represent the specs would be interesting. The class would simply be a "Hedge Wizard," with each tree representing one of the colleges of magic. I am aware that this would cause potentially lore-breaking problems. A single imperial using more than one of the winds of magic regularly - or, even more lore-breaking, being a part of multiple colleges - is fundamentally inconsistent with the lord. That being said, having only the bright wizards represented seems off. Although it would never ever happen, having the Bright College replace Conflagration, the Celestial College replace the Incineration tree, and either the Amethyst or Grey College replace the Immolation tree could have been cool. Similar to Imperial Knights, different armor tiers would represent the different colleges.

Warrior Priest: I don't really have much a problem with the Warrior Priest representation in the game right now. Perhaps you could have a stronger divide between Salv, Grace and Wrath, with Salvation being represented by Lectors, Grace being Warrior Priests, and Wrath being Flagellants. That being said, I don't know how much that would really get you for customization.

Witch Hunter: Similar to the Warrior Priest, i think the class fantasy is already really strong here. I also have the least amount of experience with Witch Hunters to be able to comment on their lines or aesthetics.

High Elves:
The problem with High Elves, I think, is that they have such aesthetically and functionally diverse class types in fantasy. If I could wave a magic wand, there would be some significant changes, though.

Swordmaster: To me, the biggest offender. A sword-and-shield Swordmaster is wrong (not as wrong as my Bright Wizard entry above, I concede). I think there are two options. The first would have been to allow the Swordmaster to adopt a stance that would decrease damage but allow the the Swordmaster to block with a two-handed sword. This seems like the simplest solution, though it would have taken work to balance it. The second would have been to change the Swordmaster class to a baseline "Elven Warrior" class, with the various specs represented by various tabletop units. For example, what is now the Path of Khaine could have been the Path of the Phoenix Guard; the Path of Vaul could have been the Path of the Noble, and the Path of Hoeth could have been the Path of the Swordmaster. This option has a number of obvious problems, though. For example, a Phoenix Guard uses a halberd while the Swordmaster uses a two-handed sword. The itemization and item limitations would have been a nightmare, I'm sure. The other issue is that, visually, there isn't a lot of difference between the Swordmaster armor in-game and, say, Phoenix Guard armor. As is, you can build a visualization of a Phoenix Guard through armor sets and dyes that right now that is fairly well-representative of the Phoenix Guard (minus the halberd). I think the better option for class visualization and fantasy for the Swordmaster would be the first option.

Shadow Warrior: The class fantasy for the Shadow Warrior is strong. However, in the interest of shaking things up, I think it would have been interesting to have the Shadow Warrior base class been an "Elven Archer" that specializes into various High Elven ranged professions. So, with a baseline archer, you could have Scout become the Shadow Warrior line, Assault could become the Lothern Sea Guard line (this is the weakest example, I admit), and Skirmish could be the Handmaiden line. Introducing the Handmaiden line runs the same problem that sorceresses encounter of having a male class represent an profession that is entirely female; it didn't stop them from introducing male sorcerers, though. As it is now, the Shadow Warrior armor looks fairly similar from one tier to the next. This would allow for more distinction - at least between the Handmaiden and Shadow Warrior.

Archmage: I cannot really think of much to do with the Archmage. I think that they are visually distinct - at least distinct enough. They don't really have different sects or groups to distinguish them. The only think I can think of is to assign one of the lores to each of the trees. So, for example, the Lore of Life would take the place of the Path of Isha, the Lore of...well, pretty much any other lore, could take the place of the Path of Asuryan, and the Lore of Qhaysh could replace the Path of Vaul. This seems much more minor compared to some of the other suggestions, though.

White Lion: The White Lion, in my opinion, has one of the strongest class fantasies in the game. They are visually consistent and distinct; they are visually true to their source; they are visually interesting. The pet, on the other hand, is whatever. There's not much to change here, I think. If I had a magic wand, however, and was not restricted by class abilities/mirrors/whatever, I would have made the Swordmaster the mdps for the High Elves. That being said, the White Lion is fine.

Dwarfs:
Probably one of the most complete groups, in my opinion. There are some tweaks that I can think of, though.

Ironbreakers: Ironbreakers are great: they are visually interesting and distinct, they have a mechanic that compliments their class fantasy, and they serve their role very well. However, there is one tweak that I think would have been warranted. Namely, to change the class to a "Thane" with lines that reflect various Dawi units. So, the Path of Vengeance is replaced by the Path of the Hammerer; the Path of Stone is replaced by the Path of the Ironbreaker, and the Path of Brotherhood is replaced by...I don't really have one here...maybe the Path of the Longbeard? As is, you can pretty much make yourself look like any of these units, though.

Engineer: Like the Ironbreaker, they are visually interesting and distinct, have a mechanic that compliments their class fantasy, and are pretty good at their role. There's not much to do with this class to have it represent the ranged units of the Dawi that would be consistent with the class mechanics. You could not, for example, try to make a range through the class since rangers use crossbows and engineers use guns. I'm at somewhat of a loss for this class.

Runepriest: Again, not much to do here. Their class fantasy is strong and consistent with their role and specs. There aren't distinctive enough sects or groups within the "Runepriest" profession to break them down as far as I'm aware.

Slayers: The biggest problem for Slayers is that the visual progression of armor is antithetical to their class fantasy; their entire purpose is to run into battle barely clothed and unarmored. I'm not sure what to change or put in its place, which is probably a good thing for the class.

Chaos:
This is where I think Mythic had the biggest missed opportunity. There are four classes, and four chaos gods. I'm sure that they decided to have them all follow Tzeentch for a reason, but it still feels like a missed opportunity. As such, my thematic rework would not have been to change the individual lines of each of the classes, but would have been to change the god to whom each class was devoted. To me, this is almost a no-brainer. The Chosen - the tanky, durable class - would have been devoted to Papa Nurgle. The Marauder would have been changed to be a Khornate Berserker. The Magus would remain the same. The Zealot would have been a Slaaneshi Zealot. This would have required the "Raven Host" to be the "Chaos Host"; Chaos would have been undivided, and lead by an Everchosen like Archaon. I assume they went Tzeentch because he's the easiest to represent to a mass audience: Nurgle is too gross, Khorne is not spelly-casty enough, and Slaanesh is too rated X. But, it still feels like a big missed opportunity. The aesthetics would fall in-line with each chaos god.

Dark Elves:
Dark Elves suffer the same problem as their Ulthuan cousins. However, there are some things that, I think, would have been beneficial.

Black Guard: A sword-and-shield Black Guard is less of an abomination compared to a sword-and-shield Swordmaster. However, I think the same sort of block "stance" would have been warranted. Alternatively, like the Swordmaster, they could have made a baseclass of "Dark Elven Warrior" with the Path of Malice being the Path of the Executioner, the Path of Loathing being the Path of the Dreadlord, and the Path of Anguish becoming the Path of the Black Guard. This would suffer the same itemization problems as the Swordmaster above; typically, Black Guards use halberds while Executioners use two-handed swords.

Sorceress: There's not much to do here except eliminate male sorcs from existence...

Disciples of Khaine: Obviously, there is no WFB counterpart to this as this class was custom-made for Age of Reckoning. I don't really have an alternative to the Disciple; they're visually distinct and their mechanic fulfills the fantasy. Dark Elves aren't really into mending wounds.

Witch Elves: This is probably one of the areas that I would have changed the most. Instead of Witch Elves, I think there should have been an "Assassin" class. Instead of dual wielding daggers, it would have had a sword and a hand crossbow; this would have allowed the devs to more closely balance Witch Hunters with the destro assassin mirror. I recall a number of people calling for this when Witch Elves were first revealed, as well.

Greenskins:
I don't have much for Greenskins; I am less knowledgeable about their distinct tribes and things that would differentiate one class from another.

Black Orc: Black Orcs are great. I don't have much for this class, and welcome other ideas on it.

Choppa: I wish they were "Savages" with war paint instead of "Choppas" - which look like big 'uns. I don't have much beyond that.

Shaman: Delete the class. Seriously, though, the only thing I can think of for distinctness/class identity would be to have a stronger association with the Badmoon or Night Goblins in one of their lines and armor. Suggestions welcome.

Squig Herder: I don't have much here, either. You could focus more intensely on the archer side of the class, but then you lose the pet. I don't know on this one, and suggestions are welcome.

Again, this is not a call for change in the current incarnation of Warhammer Online. Instead, it is a topic that i hope will generate some talk amongst people who are interested in both the game and the WFB lore.

[Machiara]

From a lore perspective (for Emp wizards and knights especially), to do this you would need to have the mastery trees be exclusive; you could only go up one. Or what I think might be a better idea is that you would have two "standard" class mastery trees and then you could choose one additional mastery tree specific to your Knightly Order or Wizard College. This could work for elf tanks as well.

[Cadien]

Or, you could have your "identity" dictated by whichever mastery is higher

[Machiara]

As you know, for Wizard colleges in particular that just doesn't work from a lore standpoint. And from a gameplay standpoint it seems like it would just be weird and anti-lore as well. You don't have wizards changing colleges or Knights changing orders on a whim, right? Especially if we're going to have gear that properly reflects the Order/College.

[Cadien]

As you know, for Wizard colleges in particular that just doesn't work from a lore standpoint. And from a gameplay standpoint it seems like it would just be weird and anti-lore as well. You don't have wizards changing colleges or Knights changing orders on a whim, right? Especially if we're going to have gear that properly reflects the Order/College.

Yeah, that's why I called it "lore-breaking." That one is probably the least feasible, lorewise, of all the options. The knight one is less of a problem to me, though, because the armor is presently there to dress as a Reiksguard if I really wanted to; it's a pretty bland Reiksguard, but it's there.