Post by Claggi
So you think you can implement a certain class better than hundreds of thousands of other people can? You think you have the perfect niche in combat, gear, and power for it to wield?
You think you can give the best excuse plot to implement a new race (or two if you’re into fair play,) better than the likes of some of MY favorite class makers tucked in the corner of only a few minds at most… even these best of the best are a spark that burn up pretty quickly. Their threads on the Warcraft suggestion forums gather dust and rare bumps every so often, but they flicker out.
The truth is, if you want to make this stuff, be prepared to feel invisible! You may need to aggressively seek attention sometimes.
Still, you want to put an effort into it, so I’m here to help.
Before I begin, maybe a bit about myself could be in order: my name is… or WAS… and will be when I return to play (It’s silly that you can’t post on the Wow forums with your account inactive,) Clayskeleton. I have four major class ideas to my name, all fairly substantiated by a huge amount of view count, and was an original member of a Great Sea idea thread. I was the one who made that Naga druidic rebellion idea long ago and have a feeling that whispers of my name are heard on the tongue of those who want to play Naga Druids… then again, I might be delusional with grandeur.
When I began long ago with my first class idea: The Death Knight known as The Befallen, I asked myself: how could I make them different from other classes? I figured that one way would be to make the class have access to tanking and access to healing, but be held back from both by having no rez spell, no plate, and a single heal move that also acted as an attack on enemies.
WARNING: This thread may be opinionated, feel free to let me know if bias clouds my judgement.
This segues into my first point:
Uniqueness!Make your classes have their own flavor of gameplay. Like above, the Befallen would have easy access to Mail from the start, but wouldn’t transition into Plate. To tank, it needed to turn into a Zombie, which raised armor and some resistances, but gave disadvantages (and advantages) of undeath. At the time, instances in Blackrock Mt. were all the rage, so when Zombified, it took more fire damage and holy as well!
There are many creative ways to give a class some flair, my (Spell) Breaker idea was an encompassing class in its races: an anti-magic crusader, the reveler, the curious, and the soldiery throw master. In short: Night Elves, Blood Elves, Gnomes, Trolls! I could go on, but I feel like I may sound like a boisterous gloater. The class also used Energy, the same as Rogues, because this class is trained to dissipate mana… if it used mana, it’d implode itself!
I'll just move on! Next point:
LoreLike I showed above, Spell Breakers have simple lore to allow unique blend of available races. This class is simple to lore up. Others were not so easy.
My Naga idea was a risk of valuable time that I coulda wasted in other ways. It was longshot, but it… well, maybe it worked. I’ll never know, but if you only want praise, this profession isn’t for you!
Writing lore is like writing a story, except you risk your ego exploding for you wish others to embrace your ‘genius’ as though it were worth being the end all. If your idea is good enough, people will except your story, but be prepared for circular arguments with repeated uses of the evidence until one person just gives up leaving the other to win… nothing. Be aware that you are writing someone ELSE'S story, but unless someone provides good counterarguements, well, you can tell em' to make their own thread on the matter.
Everyone has their own ideas, but in the end, because you took the effort to make a thread about it, you deserve a smidge of high ground.
Speaking of thread:
Presentation! I struggle with it myself. Let’s face it, forums don’t allow much formatting, heck this board doesn’t even allow triple spacing, making my habit of hitting enter 3x or more moot. Improvise, and try to keep most of the info on the first page, since I’ve had many times where folks have said they didn’t read past it!
Therefore, get used to hitting the ‘Edit Post’ button very often if you stay dedicated. Dedication is a category all its own, but it speaks for itself in this post, so yea.
When presenting, you must be
Open to Criticism!If a well presented arguement is issued, a healthy, civil debate can get your blood flowing faster than five cleavers. If a concept doesn't offer an idea or a reason behind it and submits to blatant or even subliminal Ad hominim attacks, then you can just outright ignore it. Still, you may have overlooked something, which another may point out and help to further your idea with.
If someone else posts a same idea in a very different way, don't berate them as competition; on the contrary, compare and contrast like gentlemen (or gentlewomen) and you might find yourself melding ideas.
You wanna be a
Hero?
Well, the only 'hero' the Death Knight, is a Lvl 55 starting class that can be any race and has its own zone... now, would other heroes follow this exact formula? I'd honestly say, I don't know, but until Hero #2 is unleashed, nobody else knows either.
Under this premise, the use of a 'hero' class as not all inclusive and not even as high a level are probably okay. I do think they should have SOMETHING to set them apart from other classes however, though I personally thought the DK one was a bit overdone to really just put the whole 'difference' factor in your face.
Read some Lore!Wowwiki is a decent source for lore. I can't stress the value of knowing lore so you can know how to bend it.
Equalize the Sides... to a DegreeNowadays, people want evenness. I do too, to a degree, and certain classes not being equally represented can draw RAGE from some people to mortal strike your races.
Druids, being the least race accessable class, usually are paired on both, unless another 'more classes for races' shtick is pulled. It seems prominent for the other hybrids, and former faction specific classes as well.
With Paladins and Shamans however, I've discovered a few ways to go over people's heads.
Note: We'll pretend that the Cataclysm isn't wonky on this balance.
- Simply add one of each to both races if possible. Not always easy to do though.
- Add only one class to both sides, ignoring the other entirely. My Great Sea expansion utilizes this as there are no new Paladin races.
- Add one to one side and the other to the other. Doesn't honestly matter which side, the difference ratio will remain the same. Good example is Blood Elves and Draenei, to an extent, but it take from the first section as well. This evens out the discrepencies on both sides.
The Greatest Race(ial)Not all racials are made of awesomesauce and drizzled in pwnage! Far from it, sometimes subtle racials work best, and overpowered ones are always scorned.
Must we go to War or DeathSimply put, everyone claims there are But Thou Must classes for races, mostly warriors and Death Knights, but Mages, Hunters and Priests are about to become available to all except one race classes.
I believe they don't need to be, and I'll give an example for Warriors: In a secret second project, I am adding Nerubians, now we've seen them melee, but not with weapons using high finesse. For this reason, I'd deny them Warriors, they have fighters, but not the weaponist kind. Yet they have Paladins and Death Knights (let's face it, there's many Scourge Nerubians.) The Paladins are Scourge haters to the max, fueling new Light to turn the tides and regain Azjol at long last!
As such, be creative, just because you can wield a sword doesn't mean you can be a Warrior, much like how Magic is available to everyone, yet everyone doesn't become a mage, and the fact that guns can be easy to wield doesn't mean everyone could be a hunter.... well, Cataclysm only shows Tauren and Gnomes respectfully as such examples, but still. Consider it.
New Mechanics? My head a'splode!Mind not the lulz factor, neh? The fact is, new classes are bound to have something unique. Case in point, I got told that my Rune Master class requires rocket scientry to play, but I'm a simple minded guy with an endless hunger and I find it very simple!
If you don't think outside the box a few times, everyone will have cleared the box out of all of its valuables before you begin to search it.
But I can use the Two Handed version...Want to make your class REALLY stand out? Give em access to a 2h weapon without its 1h counterpart, my idea for Necrologist jacks up its weapon access: it can use 2h Swords, 1h Axes, 1h Maces, Fist Weapon and Daggers, no other weapons, just those. Talk about gimping, the point is, no real loss here.
