WoW: Allianz Shamanen und Horden Paladine kommen

Tja davon war irgendwie auszugehen und nun kommt die Bestätigung:

So what does all this background mean in terms of gameplay? Simply put: In The Burning Crusade, Alliance players can play as Draenei shamans, while Horde players can play as Blood Elf paladins. Previously, players on either side weren’t able to access those character classes: paladins were exclusive to the Alliance, while shamans were exclusive to the Horde. According to Blizzard, Horde paladins and Alliance shamans will have many of the same talents of their traditional counterparts, though they „will also enjoy some unique abilities to themselves, similar to the priest class‘ racial specialties.“ Since this new feature will fundamentally change the asymmetry between the game’s two factions, it will presumably have a significant impact on the way the game is played, especially in competitive player-versus-player combat.

Tja was soll man davon nun halten? Werden Shamanen über kurz oder lang dann komplett das Zeitliche segnen und die noch bessere Frage lautet: wie soll mein Bloodelf Paladin heissen? Es wird mehr als spannend, wie Blizzard beiden Klassen eine Rolle im zukünftigen Raid-Game geben möchte. Ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, dass man das jetzige Rollenmodell so einfach miteinander mischt, wozu sollten Horden-Raids dann noch Shamanen mitnehmen? Da wird noch einiges an Class-Design Arbeit auf Blizzard zu kommen.

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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.

The fact is, by allowing for this particular change we will be afforded the opportunity to open up many more options for both the Shaman and Paladin — while preseverving the distinction between the two. We feel strongly that there is much more to gain by this route than there is from the flavor generated by keeping a class unique to a faction.

Und es hat nur zwei Jahre gedauert. bis diese Hybrid-Klassen eine Rolle im Raid und ein funktionierended Class-Design bekommen. Wird sicher lustig, dann meine alten Paladin Artikel zu lesen.

Was ist noch bekannt? Beide Klassen werden weiterhin irgendwie exklusiv gehalten. Was so aussieht, dass man Bloodelf Paladinen einen Racial Skill geben wird, der diese dann sicherlich im großen Maße, den Allianz-Paladinen überlegen machen wird. Gleiches gilt für Dranei-Shamanen. Bliebe noch das Problem Fear-Ward, aber auch hier darf man annehmen, dass Bloodelf-Priests sicherlich Fear-Ward bekommen werden.

Thema Mudlfation. Es braucht nicht viel um zu sehen, wie heftig zukünftige Raids mit beiden Klassen sein werden, wohl aber auch nur im alten Content.

First of all, we plan to allow most of the Shaman and Paladin buff effects to stack, with a few exceptions of course. This means that both will be extremely useful in regards to improving the potential power level of those around them. Beyond this, you’re only thinking in current „WoW“ terms and seem to only be digesting current end-game. When the Burning Crusade releases all classes will have access to new spells, talents and abilities, which will be taken advantage of (and play a large part in) grouping/raiding in the expansion’s end-game.

It’s also important to note that moving forward, we’ll be able to design our raid and dungeon encounters to specifically draw out the strengths of each of these classes, whereas now we actually take measures to prevent an encounter from being too beneficial to only one of the classes.

I’d also like to mention that beyond raiding, we think it will be exciting for players that feel strong allegiance to one specific faction to have access to a class that has seemed unavailable to them.