With trolls spearheading a new age for the Horde, what if the next expac brought not Demon hunters but Witch Doctors as the new hero class? This class has a couple big problems preventing it's implementation, but I have some suggestions to fix them. INC WALLTEXT!
The main problems we have are: Their aesthetic is already a lot in the hands of shamans (main traces for both classes are totems and hexes) and a bit on shadow priests and locks (curses) and we don't have many races that could make good Witch Docs on the Alliance side. To fix that I propose two things.
The aesthetic problem:
In WoW, a Witch Doctor is unrecognizable without his totems. We'll need to use them again, but separate them from elements (more of a shaman thing). Each WD would have only one totem that would work more like a rooted pet. Spells would flow through them and they'd be able to cast different spells at the same time. A good WD would have to learn how to move around the battlefield with his character and his totem at the same time, PvPing would revolve around "herding" the enemy towards the totem and away from the caster. Placing a WD totem and moving it around would have a reasonable CD to make movement more important and risky and the totem would have about as much health as a hunter pet, it's death about as harmful to the WD as the death of a pet is to a hunter. In PvE, the totem could be used to slow/fear/cc mobs or to cause more damage and kill mobs faster but not to tank mobs (that's a hunter/warlock thing, trying to move away from them). In the end, the mechanics around the WD's totem would be vastly different from shamans', revolving more around micromanaging mobility and control and less on which totem to pick.
When using a healing spec the WD would focus on redirecting damage or draining health from the enemy to heal allies. He'd turn his DoTs into HoTs for friends! The damage wouldn't be all that great, but the heals would compensate, in a way similar to a ranged attacking mistweaver monk. The totem would also fit a similar role to the jade statue, but with more skills to it and moving it around more important (every time he moves the totem he spends mana but the totem drops a small AoE heal). It's unique skills would revolve around not only removing debuffs but reapplying them on the enemy (might need a big CD and/or cost).
The Races Problem:
In WoW, when I think Witch Doctor I think troll. Well, trolls are leading a new age for the Horde now so I wouldn't be surprised if they felt like bringing back some of their old ways after that. They could teach tauren, goblins, forsaken, pandaren and orcs the many uses of the voodoo. Maybe even belves, but... ugh, I dunno. If we ever get ogres as a playable race too... :)
On the Alliance side however... I suppose wildhammer dwarves could kinda do that and draenei already have a few Witch Doctors here and there, although they are looked down upon. I think it'd fit better if Alliance had an entire new version of the class though! Much like Horde paladins are aesthetically very different from the Alliance ones (Alliance = civil and noble, blood elves = vengeful and ruthless, tauren = patient and tribal), I believe the draenei could help spread an entirely new look to the class while trying to better prepare themselves for another confrontation with the Burning Legion! Instead of Witch Doctors they'd be called Justicar (or something else, I dunno... :P), instead of Loa powered Voodoo they'd have Na'aru blessed Light and instead of tribal totems, crystalline pillars (which would still be called totems 'cuz "crystalline pillars" sounds lame). Some spells would have different names too, as would their specs, but the effects would all be the same (much like Seal of Vengeance = Seal of Corruption or Bloodlust = Heroism). If you think of these Alliance WDs more like New Age Priests and less like Tribal Wise Men than we can fit in Draenei, Humans, Dwarves, Worgen, Pandaren and Gnomes. I fear the Nelves are too "Moon" for this "Holy Light" version of WDs. I'd love to see the Broken as a playable race with this new class though! :)
The class and it's specializations.
In the end we'd have 3 specs, all wielding mail armor: Shadowhunter/Peacekeeper (the guards from Shattrah) doing ranged agi dps; Hex Master/Soothsayer with ranged int dps; Loa Prophet/Na'aru Prophet (like Velen!) doing the healing.
Shadowhunter/Peacekeepers can do ranged damage with bows, x-bows and guns (help hunters share those weapons), but would involve a lot more pet movement and spell damage than hunters normally do. They'd also be able to use agi axes, hammers and staves in a pinch, not ideal though, just while they are trying to take some distance. One of their strongest CDs could summon an elder spirit from the totem that repeats all their actions for sometime, be it to the same target or not (ranged cleaving! stronger than Curse of Havoc!)
Hex Master/Soothsayer would do int damage using staves, wands or int daggers/swords/axes/maces (maybe a room for int shields?). Like shadow priests they'd have curses in their arsenal, but to shake things up they would have more CDs than any other class, most of them with shorter duration too. None of them would be quite as powerful as some of the 5min CDs we have on other classes and ideally they are stuff to be used separated, not stacking like most people do. Imagine that every 30s or so a WD would be able to summon a different Loa animal/Na'aru to do a small burst damage from their totems. WD's dps in the end would be more burst based then most, the curses there just to even out the damage spikes a bit.
Prophets would heal by draining health from the enemy to redistribute among allies and reflect debuffs back at them. Best CD would be Big Bad Voodoo, but not quite as OP as it was in Warcraft 3 I guess. I'd like them to have B rezzes too, they are used to dealing with spirits after all :). I'd rather if this was limited to healers though, we already have too many people with B rezz. A little bit of absorbing in the form of Loas/Na'aru popping up to take damage in other people's places would be cool too, but I'd rather if this was a passive bonus (Mastery procs?) to keep out of disc priests' turf.
The benefits:
Constantly moving the totem around, either to better heal or damage would give this class it's unique flavor in terms of gameplay and make this class more about micromanagement (you'd feel like the totem was a 2nd character you have to control half the time) then about rotation or ability priorities. Healing and moving the totem more important than it is for any other pet of any other class. This would make these guys stand out from hunters and warlocks.
The class would also fill gaps in lootables. We could use another class that uses mails, bows and int shields.
And last but not least it would fit the expac's theme well. On the Alliance side this would be the draenei's version of pulling their big guns to take the fight back to the Burning Legion, we need some more spotlight on the draenei too after all! On the Horde, this would be the Darkspear opportunity to bring back old values now they're free from Garrosh's oppression. These new WD soldiers could be Vol'jin's attempt to lead the Horde on the fight against their demonic enemies so he may gain some more prestige with the orcs that aren't still sure about this new NEW Horde.
So, what does everyone think? Am I into something here? :)
The main problems we have are: Their aesthetic is already a lot in the hands of shamans (main traces for both classes are totems and hexes) and a bit on shadow priests and locks (curses) and we don't have many races that could make good Witch Docs on the Alliance side. To fix that I propose two things.
The aesthetic problem:
In WoW, a Witch Doctor is unrecognizable without his totems. We'll need to use them again, but separate them from elements (more of a shaman thing). Each WD would have only one totem that would work more like a rooted pet. Spells would flow through them and they'd be able to cast different spells at the same time. A good WD would have to learn how to move around the battlefield with his character and his totem at the same time, PvPing would revolve around "herding" the enemy towards the totem and away from the caster. Placing a WD totem and moving it around would have a reasonable CD to make movement more important and risky and the totem would have about as much health as a hunter pet, it's death about as harmful to the WD as the death of a pet is to a hunter. In PvE, the totem could be used to slow/fear/cc mobs or to cause more damage and kill mobs faster but not to tank mobs (that's a hunter/warlock thing, trying to move away from them). In the end, the mechanics around the WD's totem would be vastly different from shamans', revolving more around micromanaging mobility and control and less on which totem to pick.
When using a healing spec the WD would focus on redirecting damage or draining health from the enemy to heal allies. He'd turn his DoTs into HoTs for friends! The damage wouldn't be all that great, but the heals would compensate, in a way similar to a ranged attacking mistweaver monk. The totem would also fit a similar role to the jade statue, but with more skills to it and moving it around more important (every time he moves the totem he spends mana but the totem drops a small AoE heal). It's unique skills would revolve around not only removing debuffs but reapplying them on the enemy (might need a big CD and/or cost).
The Races Problem:
In WoW, when I think Witch Doctor I think troll. Well, trolls are leading a new age for the Horde now so I wouldn't be surprised if they felt like bringing back some of their old ways after that. They could teach tauren, goblins, forsaken, pandaren and orcs the many uses of the voodoo. Maybe even belves, but... ugh, I dunno. If we ever get ogres as a playable race too... :)
On the Alliance side however... I suppose wildhammer dwarves could kinda do that and draenei already have a few Witch Doctors here and there, although they are looked down upon. I think it'd fit better if Alliance had an entire new version of the class though! Much like Horde paladins are aesthetically very different from the Alliance ones (Alliance = civil and noble, blood elves = vengeful and ruthless, tauren = patient and tribal), I believe the draenei could help spread an entirely new look to the class while trying to better prepare themselves for another confrontation with the Burning Legion! Instead of Witch Doctors they'd be called Justicar (or something else, I dunno... :P), instead of Loa powered Voodoo they'd have Na'aru blessed Light and instead of tribal totems, crystalline pillars (which would still be called totems 'cuz "crystalline pillars" sounds lame). Some spells would have different names too, as would their specs, but the effects would all be the same (much like Seal of Vengeance = Seal of Corruption or Bloodlust = Heroism). If you think of these Alliance WDs more like New Age Priests and less like Tribal Wise Men than we can fit in Draenei, Humans, Dwarves, Worgen, Pandaren and Gnomes. I fear the Nelves are too "Moon" for this "Holy Light" version of WDs. I'd love to see the Broken as a playable race with this new class though! :)
The class and it's specializations.
In the end we'd have 3 specs, all wielding mail armor: Shadowhunter/Peacekeeper (the guards from Shattrah) doing ranged agi dps; Hex Master/Soothsayer with ranged int dps; Loa Prophet/Na'aru Prophet (like Velen!) doing the healing.
Shadowhunter/Peacekeepers can do ranged damage with bows, x-bows and guns (help hunters share those weapons), but would involve a lot more pet movement and spell damage than hunters normally do. They'd also be able to use agi axes, hammers and staves in a pinch, not ideal though, just while they are trying to take some distance. One of their strongest CDs could summon an elder spirit from the totem that repeats all their actions for sometime, be it to the same target or not (ranged cleaving! stronger than Curse of Havoc!)
Hex Master/Soothsayer would do int damage using staves, wands or int daggers/swords/axes/maces (maybe a room for int shields?). Like shadow priests they'd have curses in their arsenal, but to shake things up they would have more CDs than any other class, most of them with shorter duration too. None of them would be quite as powerful as some of the 5min CDs we have on other classes and ideally they are stuff to be used separated, not stacking like most people do. Imagine that every 30s or so a WD would be able to summon a different Loa animal/Na'aru to do a small burst damage from their totems. WD's dps in the end would be more burst based then most, the curses there just to even out the damage spikes a bit.
Prophets would heal by draining health from the enemy to redistribute among allies and reflect debuffs back at them. Best CD would be Big Bad Voodoo, but not quite as OP as it was in Warcraft 3 I guess. I'd like them to have B rezzes too, they are used to dealing with spirits after all :). I'd rather if this was limited to healers though, we already have too many people with B rezz. A little bit of absorbing in the form of Loas/Na'aru popping up to take damage in other people's places would be cool too, but I'd rather if this was a passive bonus (Mastery procs?) to keep out of disc priests' turf.
The benefits:
Constantly moving the totem around, either to better heal or damage would give this class it's unique flavor in terms of gameplay and make this class more about micromanagement (you'd feel like the totem was a 2nd character you have to control half the time) then about rotation or ability priorities. Healing and moving the totem more important than it is for any other pet of any other class. This would make these guys stand out from hunters and warlocks.
The class would also fill gaps in lootables. We could use another class that uses mails, bows and int shields.
And last but not least it would fit the expac's theme well. On the Alliance side this would be the draenei's version of pulling their big guns to take the fight back to the Burning Legion, we need some more spotlight on the draenei too after all! On the Horde, this would be the Darkspear opportunity to bring back old values now they're free from Garrosh's oppression. These new WD soldiers could be Vol'jin's attempt to lead the Horde on the fight against their demonic enemies so he may gain some more prestige with the orcs that aren't still sure about this new NEW Horde.
So, what does everyone think? Am I into something here? :)