Custom Classes for Turtle WoW - Blademaster

[Zangatsu]

Hello, your friendly Quel'dorei, Silaru Zanga Tsu'dorae here. Custom content is the heart of turtle WoW, while never quite crossing over into a 'fun server'. Custom races, without a doubt, have been a supermajor draw for many players on the realm, bringing us lots of traffic. Custom classes would have this same effect, if not far more! Very few classic wow servers have good custom classes. Only a handful have a copied demon hunter class. Instead, why don't we add a custom class that was also intended for vanilla the way demon hunters were? (You can clearly see a DH on classic wow box art.) Blademaster would fit perfectly into classic wow. It could be implemented without causing balance issues. We could happily place it in the lower tier of PVE functionality, at druid/paladin tier DPS, making it a melee support class with lots of fun abilities that doesn't disrupt the power balance of classic.

Allow me to outline the brainstorming I've had for the Blademaster Class.

The Blademaster would be a leather-wearing class that uses mana, with a deep talent in one of the trees granting the ability to wear mail. This would add a huge amount of utility to several pieces of druid/shaman/hunter gear that is seen as poorly itemized. As a warrior player, I imagine the Blademaster playstyle to be similar to warriors in that it involves waiting for auto attacks. It would have roughly the same stat gain ratios as rogues, gaining 1 AP per agility and 1 per strength. The weapons would be Two-Handed Swords, Two-Handed Axes, Polearms and Staffs, allowing another class to benefit from druid/shaman staves. Perhaps dual wielding One-Handed Swords/Axes could be allowed.

For abilities, in addition to being a melee class, the Blademaster should have access to a variety of supporting and debuffing *spells*. In Warcraft, the Blademaster casts such abilities as Windwalk and Mirror Image. They gain their blinding speed as a blessing from the spirits, similar to Shamans.

One of the main features of the Blademaster class would be the use of the sashimono, or the banner they carry on their back. This is already implemented via Warsong Gulch, and I like to believe that editing the texture of the flag would be somewhat easy. My idea for the sashimono is, that they are medium cooldown abilities, ranging in the 2 to 5 minute cooldown area, and all sashimono abilities share a cooldown. The Blademaster casts the ability and causes a banner to appear on his back for roughly thirty to sixty seconds, acting as a powerful aura that grants a buff to himself and his party members.

Another feature would be weapon grease, similar to rogue poison and shaman weapon enhancements. This is seen on Fel Orc Blademasters in the WOD expansions. Blademasters apply a smooth grease to their weapons to preserve them and make them cut through flesh and armor even more smoothly. Weapon grease could be done in a manner similar to rogue poisons, with the Blademaster having a side profession. Instead of buying reagents, there could be multiple options for what material is used to make the grease. For example, the first one, Fighting Grease, could have several crafting recipes available. One recipe requires Fish Oil, and creates one Fighting Grease. Flask of Oil. There's lots of options.

For talent specs, I believe two options are viable. One), all three talent specs would be damage focused. One tree focusing on single target damage similar to Warrior's Arms tree, the Tradition specialization. A second being focused on the banner-buffing aspect along with self-sustainability, the Battlemaster specialization, and a third being focused on the use of movement speed and mobility/debuffing spells, the Spirit specialization. Two), the second option would be to replace one of these with a tanking specialization. As suggested before, somewhere in these talent trees I think it would be very fun to grant the use of mail armor as a talented ability. On Turtle WoW, enhancement Shamans make formidable tanks, with great aggro generation, and not so great mitigation. Blademasters could follow this example, taking advantage of high dodge like Bear druids have throughout WoW, and perhaps even dual-wield parrying like Frost Death Knights once did.

I will now try to outline a list of abilities and their levels I have imagined up, although this is not fully thought out. In wow, some abilities are shared by classes such as warrior's Demo Shout/Druid's Demo Roar. I think rehashing is even further acceptable for custom classes.

Level 1:Blade Strike. An instant attack that causes weapon damage+, on a 10+~ second cooldown.
Level 2:Dance. Increases your dodge chance by 20%~ for 5~ seconds, lasts until one attack has been dodged. It would have a short cooldown with a high mana cost. This ability will be improved with talents in the tanking or Battlemaster talents.
Level 6:Return. An instant attack usable after dodging or parrying an enemy's attack. Striking an enemy with Return who is suffering from a slow deals additional damage.
Level 8:Windwalk. Increases the Blademaster's movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds. The first attack made while under Windwalk causes additional damage.
Level 10:Fighting Grease. Applies an oily grease to the Blademaster's weapon for 30minutes. Increases the Blademaster's attack speed by 3% for 30 minutes and causes critical strikes to slow the enemy's movement speed for 2 seconds.
Level 14:Thunder Roar. Decreases the movement speed and attack speed of nearby enemies, for 6~ seconds. 20 second cooldown.
Level 20: Mirror Image. The Blademaster summons one(increasing per rank, eventually allowing him to summon three images) image of himself to attack the enemy, dealing greatly reduced damage and increased threat for a short duration.
Level 24:Sashimono of Battle. For (30 or 60) seconds, the Blademaster dons a banner of battle upon his back, raising the attack power and attack speed of all nearby allies. This could temporarily overwrite/not stack with Strength of Earth totem and Blessing of Might in order to avoid balance issues.
Level 26:Sweep. Instantly sweep your weapon, causing weapon damage+ to up to three enemies in front of you.
Level 32:Blazegrease. This is something that exists in the Warcraft universe. Smears a highly flammable substance on the Blademaster's weapon. Causes the Blademaster's attacks to have a chance to ignite the foe, dealing instant damage and splashing the foe with oil, applying a fire-resistance reducing debuff.
Level 36:Slow. The ability arcane mages would eventually receive. A 30yd spell that reduces the movement speed and attack speed of a single target.
Level 36:Sashimono of War. For (30 or 60) seconds, the Blademaster dons a banner of war upon his back, increasing the weapon damage and critical strike chance of nearby party members. The difference here is, this banner would more benefit two handed classes, while Battle benefits feral druids and hunters
Level 38:Battle Meditation. Inspired by the Shaman's eventual ability Shamanistic Rage, for 30 seconds the Blademaster receives mana for each melee attack he delivers. 3-5 minute cooldown. Casting a sashimono cancels Battle Meditation.
Level 40:Bladestorm. Simmilar to the Ravager effect, the Blademaster spins and deals weapon damage every 1 seconds for 4 seconds. 3-5minute cooldown.
Level 44:Spiritual Summon. One second cast time, the Blademaster teleports an enemy or ally within 30 yards directly in front of him. This is inspired by the summoner Orc mobs in LBRS, who pull players directly to them.
Level 50:Blade's Edge. A self buff lasting a short duration. The Blademaster gains greatly increased critical strike chance and attack speed, until 2(increasing each rank) critical strikes have been performed. This is inspired by the WC3 passive ability.
Level 52:Spiritual Frenzy. Every time the Blademaster lands a critical strike, he gains a stack of Frenzy, lasting for a short duration. Frenzy could perhaps offer a buff, either damage increasing, self buffing, or mana regeneratin, or the buff could do nothing. Once reaching 4 or 5 stacks, the Blademaster will be able to cast Unleash.
Level 52:Unleash. Consumes all stacks of Spiritual Frenzy. A powerful instant attack with damage similar to Mortal Strike, damage being increased per stack.
Level 56: Bloodgrease. The Blademaster's attacks have a chance to inflict a disease on the opponent. Perhaps it will be long, increasing physical damage taken similar to many diseases already in the game, or short lasting dealing damage over time similar to a poison.

Some talented abilities.
Superslick Grease. Increases Parry chance by 5% and increases the damage of Return.
Sashimono of the Spirits. Increases Spellpower and Healing of all nearby party members. Any time a nearby party member deals spell damage, he has mana restored.

That's all I have thought out for now. I have some more abilities floating around in my head. Final thoughts are abilities that will be included in talent trees, such as a Spirit Shock ability, weapon specializations, and an on-next-hit attack like Heroic strike somewhere. There should be a banner ability that benefits spellcasters. In addition, it would be cool to work in spellpower coefficients in some way, most likely based on the weapon greases, and the Unleash ability could function similar to Holy Strike in that it changes the physical damage to spell damage, receiving scaling.

This was mostly for my own fun and satisfaction. This was all very much done on the fly, and I haven't put a great deal of thought into the balance that these abilities bring per level. The level at which each ability is gained would be subject to change. Unleash may be lowered to a much lower level to enhance the gameplay. Again, custom classes are something I've long pondered, and this is just me very, very quickly dumping all my creative brainstorming into a forum post. In addition, I know the turtle-wow dev team is already up to their necks in projects they want to implement in the game. In no way do I expect or desire these things to eventually come to light. I only hope that some developers agree with me and get excited by this prospect, and can build off what I've imagined. Thank you so much if you've read this far.

[Hardwelsam]

Hello!


Turtle wow about vanilla content.
And there already happened multiple responses by players with the idea what about Custom classes.
There no ever being happen,Custom races being added for a Classic content creator server.
There is only we can talk about something Custom content what is match the vanilla rulles and story,and the very Custom class is not really a plan.
Just think about it,how much time take to make bring theese classes.
After that,the whole game need a New balance,ehat is no longer the Classic.

[Zangatsu]

Hello!


Turtle wow about vanilla content.
And there already happened multiple responses by players with the idea what about Custom classes.
There no ever being happen,Custom races being added for a Classic content creator server.
There is only we can talk about something Custom content what is match the vanilla rulles and story,and the very Custom class is not really a plan.
Just think about it,how much time take to make bring theese classes.
After that,the whole game need a New balance,ehat is no longer the Classic.

In response to this, I say, that the original plan for WoW Alpha was to make Hero Classes such as Blade Master and Shadow Hunter. How can you say Turtle WoW is only about vanilla content when we have so much custom content?

As I said, no assets need to be added to create a Blademaster class. It can be done entirely using assets that are already in the game. And in regards to a whole new balance being needed, no one would complain if a custom class was underpowered in a way that it didn't break the game's balance.

However, if you say the GMs have already decried custom classes, then so be it. As I said I made this post for fun.

[Valadorn]

I would totally be in for custom classes, and balancing them in Vanilla would be extremly easy. You Just have to make sure they have a weakness, thats how all other classes are balanced and it would add to the uniqueness

[Mrkrissatan]

I would totally be in for custom classes, and balancing them in Vanilla would be extremly easy. You Just have to make sure they have a weakness, thats how all other classes are balanced and it would add to the uniqueness

this

[Rudyraccoon]

Found this old stock image of Vanilla WoW, that Night Elf is clearly a Demon Hunter.


Seems that Demon Hunter was a planned class even back then. I support the idea of custom classes, I mean you've already added new playable races, so why not.

[Zangatsu]

Found this old stock image of Vanilla WoW, that Night Elf is clearly a Demon Hunter.

Seems that Demon Hunter was a planned class even back then. I support the idea of custom classes, I mean you've already added new playable races, so why not.

Hell yeah! That's what I'm talkin' bout!

[Zangatsu]

I would totally be in for custom classes, and balancing them in Vanilla would be extremly easy. You Just have to make sure they have a weakness, thats how all other classes are balanced and it would add to the uniqueness

Thank you for the support brother! I know the turtle staff is already incredibly busy though. I wish I could learn how to edit the game client so I could make this happen myself.

[Raukodor]

This is what i always dreamed

[Raukodor]

In another server that i played that is classeless i RP a blademaster (my fav) in fact i alwasy rp a blademaster. My main is one

In that server i created a blademaster mixing a arms.warrior with some rogue skills. Making a arms 2h sword warrior with less armor but gaining agility dodge and parry and movility/banish

I love tje idea of heroic classes ( i think in alpha classic all.clases at Max level can choose to become a heroic class) i think is wonderful but maybe hard to create and to balance.

But would be awesome

[Leojj]

Any game that can cater to play styles over cut in stone classes is big plus. So long as the higher up skills/combinations have proper limitations it should be possible.

Unfortunately that’s not only a massive amount of work for the devs, creating new classes might be beyond the reach of the vanilla client.

I’ll still hold out for having rogues use bucklers again like in the pre alpha, even for just the cosmetic appeal.

[Rudyraccoon]

Any game that can cater to play styles over cut in stone classes is big plus. So long as the higher up skills/combinations have proper limitations it should be possible.

Unfortunately that’s not only a massive amount of work for the devs, creating new classes might be beyond the reach of the vanilla client.

I’ll still hold out for having rogues use bucklers again like in the pre alpha, even for just the cosmetic appeal.

Yeah, understandable, I get that there's only so much you can do with the Vanilla client, and working on it could take a really long time, just to add new classes and changing others like allowing Rogues to have bucklers.

[Hardwelsam]

I would be in if bm and dh class be released,but not really sure it is gonna be happen.
We'll see about that

[Valadorn]

Once they finish with their current plans, I would be all happy if they went for a New class :)


I also do not know if they are possible, but one can hope.

[Lichenwitch]

i think this is a really intriguing idea, and love the amount of thought you've put into it! the abilities and overall "feel" of the class that you've described is pretty vivid and compelling just from a quick post. i'd definitely be interested in trying it out if this ever became a thing.

[Paw]

The idea is good but it requires a ton of work and there are people who make servers alike. Noone is stopping you to play on both of our servers. If ur interested in such thing then try it out over there until we decide to make such a thing happen.

[Leftmousebutton]

I would love it if Hero Classes were added in a style that the original Death Knight was going to be in early WotLK concepts, which I assume were also the concepts they were going to use when hero classes were considered for Vanilla - evolved from high level characters of the base classes rather than a new character. Like Blademaster could be evolved from a Warrior, Rogue or Mage at level 30-40-ish. I wouldn't necessarily mind Hero Classes that start at level 1 like the others, either, though - that would just be my preference.

[Lukkas462]

Orc warrior with samurai set