One BOE talent from another class

[Akos1896]

Hey!

Sharing an idea I'm palying with for a long time. I think that allowing a class to use one ability from another class (under a striclty controlled environment) would have more advantages than disadvantages.
Only one, not more. Not deleting class identity, just adding some spice.

What I'm thinking about:

We're having class ability BoEs at the later stages of the game. Abilities which can't be learnt from class trainers (looking at you, AQ20 mainly). I'm thinking about having similar BOE packages with abilities that are from a different class. But with severe restrictions.
1. Allowing a player to collect several of these talents is okay, but only one can be actively used. Imagine it this way: you activate an ability like this and all of your 'collected abilities' go to a 1h CD. The one you pressed can be used with normal CD.
2. If an ability requires a resource (like mana), only classes could learn it which use such a resource.
3. Each of these talents would of course come without the talents which made the ability stronger in their respective class.
4. They would come with a specific ability level (like frostbolt, rank 3) and with a class restriction (only for shamans). Lower rank versions of the spells could be very rare dungeon drops and world drops at leveling zones, while max rank talents could be very rare raid drops. I don't imagine people running around with a bunch of abilities from other classes. I'd imagine this with the rarity which means on average 1 while leveling and in general 2-3 max level ones if someone is a committed Naxx raider.
5. No iconic ability would be available for other classes - no totems for non-shamans, no blessings for non-paladins, no traps for non-hunters.
6. Abilities from a school of magic could only be learnt by a class which uses that school of magic (no fire spell for priests for example).
7. There are certain abilities which would be too strong at certain classes (would feel weird if I just roam the Barrens and a ret pala blinks into my face). I try to find a balance here: mentioning abilities which would be interesting to some classes without giving them really OP options.

Why I propose this?
* Gold sink. People would pump an incredible amount of gold into thiese BoEs.
* Fun. As long as balance is kept in check it just adds a flavor and uniqueness to your character.
* Motivation to run content you'd otherwise ignore. SWV/AQ20 boss having a 0,1% drop chance for the ability for your class which you really wanna have? There was a debate here before about people not caring about dungeons/early raids and only farming later raids/PVP after a character level.

How a sample ability would look like?:
AQ20 boss drop (0,1% drop chance at Moam): Tome of blizzard (shaman) - teaches the shaman how to cast blizzard (rank 3).

Sample abilities I was thinking about:
Conjure water (rank 1-8) - priest, druid, paladin, shaman
Shred (ranks 1-5) - rogue
Raptor strike (rank 1-8) - shaman, paladin
Cure disease - druid
Swipe (rank 1-5) - warrior
Retaliation - rogue, druid
Power word: shield - pala
Curse of tongues - priest

[Biteyou]

Warriors with WF totem when?

[Ishilu]

Sample abilities I was thinking about:
Conjure water (rank 1-8) - priest, druid, paladin, shaman
Shred (ranks 1-5) - rogue
Raptor strike (rank 1-8) - shaman, paladin
Cure disease - druid
Swipe (rank 1-5) - warrior
Retaliation - rogue, druid
Power word: shield - pala
Curse of tongues - priest

So, you're mostly trying to "fill gaps" in different class toolkits. Sorry, I have to give this a -1. Classes not being able to do everything and different classes shining or struggling at different things is part of the vanilla experience.

[Akos1896]

Sample abilities I was thinking about:
Conjure water (rank 1-8) - priest, druid, paladin, shaman
Shred (ranks 1-5) - rogue
Raptor strike (rank 1-8) - shaman, paladin
Cure disease - druid
Swipe (rank 1-5) - warrior
Retaliation - rogue, druid
Power word: shield - pala
Curse of tongues - priest

So, you're mostly trying to "fill gaps" in different class toolkits. Sorry, I have to give this a -1. Classes not being able to do everything and different classes shining or struggling at different things is part of the vanilla experience.

Hmm... Filling gaps, that's a valid point.
In my defense, I imagine these as extremely rare, hard-to-get drops. In a hypothetical let's say this system is active. After months of playtime only 3 shamans would be on the server who gets an added decurse. Why I'd like this is some kind of uniqueness which gives people motivation for the grind.
Would avoid OP or uninteresting addtions, of course. Other guy's remark with warrior + wf would be ridiculous. My point is not to fill in all gaps (most classes have many) but to give an option that after massive grinding, one gap can be filled. F.ex. having 3 prot palas in the server who can range pull somehow. Those 3 guys would love it and the char would feel unique.
My examples or not necessarily good ones, just theoreticals. F.ex. a spriest with curse of tongues against casters might break PVP.

[Elisleris]

Do not try to do all classes equal. The strength in variety and uniqueness.

[Valadorn]

Shamans with presence of mind or bubble :3

[Xudo]

Could be done via usable trinkets and on-hit procs.
Now retri Paladins have access to whirlwind via upgrade of Herod Axe and Judgement of the Crusader

[Ishilu]

Could be done via usable trinkets and on-hit procs.
Now retri Paladins have access to whirlwind via upgrade of Herod Axe and Judgement of the Crusader

Guess I missed something here. The helicopter axe can be upgraded now? Honestly don't know.

Trinkets mimicking class abilities are a thing, of course, but I can't think of an example where they wouldn't be weaker than "the real thing" and they take up a trinket slot or at least a slot in our bags.

About the suggestion: Balancing aside, making these things BoE is probably unwise, too. Trading skillbooks between players for gold would not work as a gold sink, it would only move gold around on the server.
Also, an optional class change remains optional for some people only as long as it takes for somebody to calculate the average dps increase from the change, so it might (worst case) incentivise people to buy gold for real money if it were introduced as BoE or "force" people to grind specific raids if it were introduced as BoP.

On a personal note, I normally don't welcome changes that lean towards more endgame grinding. Being an altoholic, I like to have people around me who level new alts instead of farming the same dungeons and areas at maxlevel, but that's only my personal taste.

[Ataika]

please ban op

[Akos1896]

please ban op

Nah, it's time to finally get rid of you. The internet is big, be annoying elsewhere.

[Zulnam]

please ban op

Funniest response i have ever read in any mmorpg change request thread. And oh lord have I read a lot.

[Akos1896]

Don't get me wrong guys, the things I write about are very rarely suggestions in the normal sense.
Nothing I was thinking about is like 'dear team, please implement it until yesterday'.
These are what if ideas - loving to create those scenarios, and seeing pros and cons in arguments.
I don't realistically think that TWOW will implement these boe abilities and I'm not absolutely convinced that it would be a good idea but I find the idea very interesting. Playing with it, seeing what would feel awesome, what would feel bad etc.
I know I usually spam the 'suggestions' topic but these are 'what if' articles all way long.

[Atreidon]

This idea has a few fundamental flaws.
If the class book is giving a significant spell whatsoever, the powerlevel between someone who simply got lucky with a drop and someone who didnt is massive. (For example lets say warriors get blink to remove roots)

If the spell is only fluff, its not worth spending thetime & effort to implement it. (Farming moam to cast detect invisibility? No thanks)

Lastly if we simply give classes access to spells that are similar to what they already have its no better than the already middling implementation of the already existing classbooks (rogue with shred over backstab would just be a massive power increase for instance)

It sounds incredibly cool in theory, but there are just way too many ways such a dramatic change go wrong