WOW: other hero classes were considered

By Oli Welsh Published 30 January, 2009

Necromancer, Rune Master didn't make it.

World of Warcraft lead designer Jeff Kaplan has revealed that two other hero classes were under serious consideration for second expansion Wrath of the Lich King - before ultimately being beaten to it by the Death Knight.

In the seventh of Blizzard's occasional podcasts, Kaplan described the Necromancer and Rune Master designs that were being kicked around.

"The class choice was super hard and eventually we had it down to three front runners," he said.

"We were talking for a while about a Necromancer. He would kind of be a range caster, do a lot of corpse explode, that sort of thing. Things we ended up incorporating into the Death Knight.

"We also had a cool idea for a Rune Master. That was going to be more of a melee type - think rogue or monk type character. But Death Knight ultimately fit."

The WOW team evidently isn't short of ideas for new class design, as producer J Allen Brack joked that "it was difficult to narrow it down from the 29 hero classes that we’ve got completed, which one we were going to go with".

The rest of the podcast is a post-mortem discussion of Wrath of the Lich King, in which Brack and Kaplan mention that new continent Northrend was one of the first zones ever prototyped for WOW. They also express their satisfaction with the new two-tier raiding system ("It seems like just the first month has really validated that decision" - Brack) and more rewarding itemisation ("greatly improved over what it was in Burning Crusade" - Kaplan), among other things.

Lore fiends will also want to check out a section in which Blizzard's story guru Chris Metzen talks about the ramifications of Wrath of the Lich King's plot developments. You can download or read the the conversations at the Blizzcast site.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    I love Necro skills in GW, so Necromancer would've been cool. I can live without though, I think Death Knight is cooler.

  • munki83 #2 3 years ago

    Death Knights were a better choice lore wise and helps pad out the tank classes some more

  • Kami #3 3 years ago

    I agree, however Blizzard still have some shit to sort out.

    Solo content. I enjoy my questing so imagine how utterly pissed I was to find the actually rather fun Icecrown chain cut short abruptly. I thought I missed something, maybe it was bugged. Nope, they hadn't finished the chain. That would be completed when the Citadel opens. I'm sorry Blizzard, if you're going to have people START a chain of quests with a reasonably nice bit of plot behind it make sure you finish it.

    The end-game content has already been burned through by the majority of guilds as well. Malygos is a nice meaty boss but Naxx, especially 25-man, is far too easy. We still gotta wait however another two or three months for new content. Now Blizzard, I was one of the first to actually say spreading the content out a bit was a good idea but maybe speed up getting it to us? Current content is too easy and getting real old real fast!

    PvP is also getting in the way of PvE too much, so much so I know a lot of priests have rerolled because the proposed changes to their class are just going to sting them too much in PvE. People like to PvP, I'm glad of that and I enjoy a bit myself, but it really must never step on the toes of the PvE. That's how Blizzard sell the game.

    Finally, it's a shame Blizzard have been so hasty with WotLK. Sloppy patches that need hotfixing within 24 hours, some very questionable gear on the horizon (I'm a rogue and I'm already thinking I may reroll to NOT wear the new tier set! Damn it's ugly! No really, IT'S UGLY! And will be worse on the guys I am sure!), incomplete and/or bugged professions (Inscription is getting better but it's still not a "complete" profession with new glyphs due regularly) and a huge emphasis on achievements over new and interesting content is setting up WotLK to be a bit of a pudding.

    I'm starting to be really disappointed and looking forward to Aion and whatever Square-Enix will be showing at E3. WoW will always have a place in my heart but Blizzard are getting cocky, complacent and lazy with the littered remains of those who failed to topple it. And paart of me wants a game to really kick it in the nuts and wake Blizzard up and remind them that when you're on top, you've got a much longer way to fall.

  • bdc #4 3 years ago

    11 million people seem to refute that 'fact'

  • Orange #5 3 years ago

    I got to 77 then unsubbed again, can't see myself going back to WoW again with KOTR and other mmos on the way. They can't change the formula as its too successful, but without the change something new will inevitably come along and topple them.

  • sonicgoo #6 3 years ago

    Instances being easy is not a mistake. It's a deliberate policy and a huge success. Before, most people never even saw that content. Designers were making stuff that was hardly used. Now, it's so popular it's straining the servers. Working as intended.

  • Eraysor #7 3 years ago

    They still have 28 more hero classes to release? That should be fun :)

  • Benno #8 3 years ago

    I am glad we now have another tanking class even though I am not much of a fan of death knights personally

  • actionfitz #9 3 years ago

    @Orange
    30-Jan-09 17:19:28

    I got to 77 then unsubbed again, can't see myself going back to WoW again with KOTR and other mmos on the way. They can't change the formula as its too successful, but without the change something new will inevitably come along and topple them.

    ---

    I said the same things before AoC and WAR came out.
    although i still have fondness in my heart for WAR, AoC was a farce.
    I hope KOTOR MMO is awesome... but I'd not put all my faith in an unproven product (yes the single player games are ace but MMOs are a different beast).
    Cautious optimism is what i'd recommend.
    never underestimate a games company's ability to snatch defeat away from the jaws of victory.
    many try to be so different from wow that they forget why it's so successful in the first place. the rest copy it so closely that - really what's the point of switching when the games are so similar and all your mates are still in wow?... :/

  • Kami #10 3 years ago

    @ sonicgoo;

    And we see where that's heading, most of the super-hardcore guilds that were world leaders have already stated their intention to check out Aion and maybe move their guilds over. It's like the PvP vs PVE argument, doing over one part of your auidence for another is a very poor strategy...

  • Pirotic #11 3 years ago

    Eliminate the grind, focus on end game content and treat the leveling up system as a short but sweet tutorial method. By all means let people grind for better weapons, items, but making me grind mobs for a week just so I can enjoy battlegrounds is lame.

  • Notez #12 3 years ago

    I really don't see how anyone plays this after three or so years (unless the subscriber turnover is big, since there is good fun to be had for a while).

    Maybe if they had put in more classes (since they apparently are sitting on a pile of those) there would have been some incentive to fool around for a bit longer since the content is the same as before and it got old a long time ago.

  • sonicgoo #13 3 years ago

    @kami:

    If Blizzard can do something that annoys the 100K or so uberleet players but pleases the 11,4M others, the answer is simple.

  • Mooks #14 3 years ago

    I agree much of WoW content does feel old and yet no other developer seems to be able to take what Blizzard have created in terms of MMO design and build upon it. Warhammer is a prime example tipped as the PVP WoW killer it was so badly implemented and executed that it never really stood a chance. Blizzard now have such a huge fan base and established IP that they could crap in a box and 11 mil people would prob still buy it.

  • iokthemonkey #15 3 years ago

    I got to 77 then unsubbed again, can't see myself going back to WoW again with KOTR and other mmos on the way. They can't change the formula as its too successful, but without the change something new will inevitably come along and topple them.

    ----

    I played until 70 and then cancelled my account when I found I hadn't logged in for six months. I didn't pick up Lich King as at that point I'd lost all interest in WoW. It's a well-crafted game and very slick, but it's also just too narrow for my tastes and when I saw Lick King's feature set nothing there made me want to come back, as it was just more of the same for me...

    I'm playing LOTRO now and having much more fun with that than I'd had for a long time in WOW.

  • Kami #16 3 years ago

    Is it really a good tradeoff when you've been good to a particular audience to cut them off and say, "Thanks but we're aiming for the casual players now goodbye don't let the door hit your ass on the way out"?

    WoW has been good up to now catering for all. TBC, as long as it was, showed us that Blizzard could cater for all their customers. Telling their hardcore audience now that they're no longer interested in them is a recipe doomed to fail in a big way - that audience has been with them for years. I have, though in that time I've spent a year away from it as well.

    It's not that then casual audience do not matter, but saying the populous of hardcore raiders (100k is pathetic really, likely much more than that - 1/5th of recorded guilds cleared BT and that to me is bordering hardcore) doesn't matter is equally absurd. Blizzard have been able to cater to all. Okay, so there may end up content some won't see - it never bothered the casual market up to now.

    The main reason why it bothers them now is achievements, and this is a system that just isn't going to work. And when big name guilds are starting to tire and look to the horizon, you really need to take note. This is an audience that has endured the most of the shit - from the early days of uberlag and failed patches and general technical buggery through the pretty abysmal launch of TBC and how servers couldn't cope, through the pretty hefty web of things Blizzard weaved to get to the end content in TBC and through all of this now, with smaller guilds clearing the content just as quick as them.

    This is a patient, understanding audience that for the most has put up with Blizzard's crap for years. Maybe they don't matter to the majority of players or to Blizzard, but it'll be a pretty hefty blow to see these people walk away. Like it or not, these are the people who made the game what it is today. Some of them even managed to make a living from the game, either being paid to blitz the content or report on the game itself, the mechanics and fundamentals and relate it to all players.

    Is it really worth the risk? Blizzard are playing a risky hand here for the sake of an audience that may not stick around half as long as those it is now shunning.