New leaked information that is being removed from the official forums as fast as they can, along with banning those who post it there. So, I thought I would post it on my site as a mirror. I also took the time to format it so it was readable.
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Sources inside Blizz have revealed their plans for hero classes. Blizzard does plan to release hero classes with the expansion, but they haven’t explicitly stated it because they want to announce it close to the release date, insuring a huge amount of hype. I haven’t been told much more than the basics, but I’ll try to explain the system as best as I can:
At any given level there is a certain amount of content; at level 60, the amount of content is very disproportionate with the available content for other levels. The reason is obvious: it is the current endgame, and players need something to enjoy. However, with the level cap raised players would be able to blow through and skip a lot of the content that has been developed over the past year, and allowing players to do so would be a poor use of the developers’ time. This is where hero classes come in.
You will be stuck at level 60, just like you are now, even when the expansion comes out. An epic quest (of REALLY epic proportions) for each hero class will be made available to level 60 players. The only way to break the level 60 barrier will be to go on one of these quests to become a hero class. The quest will require the player to do a lot of solo content as well as a variety of group and raid content. Upon completion of the quest, the player will become a level 61 hero class
Each race/class combination will have 2 hero classes available to them (with several overlapping). This presents a monumental balance job (there are about 50 hero classes), which is probably another reason why Blizzard is delaying the information release. Choosing your hero class will be irreversible, much like the tradeskill masteries. Some hero classes are an extension of the “father†class, some have tweaked mechanics, while others are radically different. The easiest example I can think of is a Night Elf priest, for which the 2 hero classes are a Priest(ess) of the Moon (a continuation of the priest’s current form) and Demon Hunter (an agility-based combat hero with a variety of discipline-esque abilities). So without further ado, here is a brief overview of some of the hero classes:
Druids
Night Elf Druid
Keeper of the Grove: The druid will sacrifice some of his shapeshifting abilities in exchange for improved healing and casting, and will even be able to command treants on occasion.
Tauren Druid
Elder: This is essentially a druid that has lost some shapeshifting abilities and gained some beast-like abilities similar to the hunter. The casting and healing abilities are also amped up, but not nearly as much as the Keeper of the Grove. The Elder also has a bit of the Diablo II druid mixed in for good measure.
Hunters
Night Elf Hunter
Beastmaster: The Beastmaster focuses more on the beast aspect than the ranged aspect of the hunter. He gains new beast abilities, such as switching pets in battle, and is a bit meaner in melee combat in exchange for a lot of his ranged hitting power.
Dwarf Hunter:
Beastmaster: see above
Orc Hunter:
Beastmaster: see above
Tauren Hunter:
Beastmaster: see above
Troll Hunter:
Headhunter: The Headhunter still has the ranged emphasis of the hunter, but it focuses on throwing weapons (a massive revamp for throwing weapons is planned). The Headhunter uses energy, has more combat abilities, and drops the pet.
Mages
Human Mage:
Necromancer: The only similarity between the Necromancer and the mage is the emphasis on magical damage. The necromancer uses shadow damage and has a major focus on pets, similar to the warlock. However, unlike other pet classes, the majority of the Necromancer’s damage will come from the pet instead of the Necromancer. I do not know if the Necromancer will be able to have multiple pets out at once.
Gnome Mage:
Arcanist: The Arcanist is similar to the mage, with a focus on arcane magic. The Arcanist does slightly less damage than the Archmage, but gains added utility and new support spells.
Undead Mage:
Necromancer: see above
Troll Mage:
Shadowcaster: The Shadowcaster is essentially a mage that uses shadow magic instead of fire and frost.
Paladins
Human Paladin:
Cleric: The Cleric is the other side of the paladin spectrum. Instead gaining new combat abilities, the Cleric gains improved healing, more utility and support, and some holy damage spells.
Dwarf Paladin:
Cleric: see above
Priests
Human Priest:
Spellbreaker: The Spellbreaker wears mail, has several combat abilities and diminished healing, and has several anti-caster abilities.
Dwarf Priest:
Runelord: The Runelord is similar to the High Priest, although not as healing heavy.
Night Elf Priest:
Demon Hunter: The Demon Hunter is radically different in playstyle from the priest. The Demon Hunter is a mana-using melee damage hero class. The Demon Hunter has a mix of discipline spells and combat abilities with some shadow spells mixed in.
Undead Priest:
Shadow Priest: The name is pretty self-explanatory. The Shadow Priest does not have all the healing abilities of the High Priest, but makes several gains in the damage, utility, and crowd control departments.
Troll Priest:
?:
Rogues
Gnome Rogue:
Scout: The Scout has slightly less damage than the Assassin, but is tougher in combat, and has the ability to use traps among other new utilities.
Human Rogue:
Scout: see above
Dwarf Rogue:
Pitfighter: The Pitfighter is a rogue without stealth, but with improved combat and defensive abilities.
Night Elf Rogue:
Scout: see above
Orc Rogue:
Pitfighter: see above
Undead Rogue:
Scout: see above
Troll Rogue:
Scout: see above
Shamans
Orc Shaman:
Spirit Walker: The Spirit Walker is a more direct extension of the shaman than the Farseer, maintaining a rough balance of combat, casting, and healing ability.
Tauren Shaman:
Spirit Walker: see above
Troll Shaman:
Spirit Walker: see above
Warlocks
Human Warlock:
Shadowguard: The Shadowguard has more melee emphasis than the warlock, and loses the demonic pet. The Shadowguard on his own is weaker than other melee classes, but is aided by demonic-type abilities (such as burning blood and fiery breath) to power himself up.
Gnome Warlock:
Shadowguard: see above
Orc Warlock:
Shadowguard: see above
Undead Warlock:
Shadowguard: see above
Warriors
Blizz hasn’t fleshed out warrior hero classes as much as the others, so I wasn’t able to get much on them. However, it has been confirmed that Orc warriors do have the option to become a Blademaster!
Question marks (?) denote a hero class that hasn’t been decided on by the developers yet. I don’t know the Blood Elf hero classes. I don’t know the new Alliance race (although I hear they’re going to reveal it soon). I have no idea how talent/abilities are going to work, I don’t know what will happen to armor requirements and class specific sets, etc. Everything I know I’ve posted here, and it is subject to change as it is still in fairly early development stages.
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Original link as I saw it posted on the forums in one of the latter threads:
Link Appears to be Dead
That is a great idea. Now only if it were real…
I hope they rethink some of these hero classes. It’s one thing to add to a classes abilities and focus. It’s quite another to alter the nature of that class and remove its unique characteristics. A hunter should not become a rogue essentially, a preist should not become a bastardized version of a shaman. The idea of hero classes is certainly positive, but this setup isn’t as well thought out as I would like.
Don’t be such suckers, this is clearly fake. They wouldn’t radically alter existing classes so much, it would be a balance nightmare.
This sounds like garbage. Total mixing and hybridization of classes alrdy in game. This is some1’s lame wish list, no way is this a blizz thing. The only thing i could see as being legit is the lvl cap at 60 and then do some quests to extend that cap to 70. I believe that part since a few other games have done similar things. Otherwise this is all crap.
2 words: BALANCE NIGHTMARE
Also this would create big problems for endgame raiding since if u pick the wrong hero class u screw yourself and guild since u cant turn back and fix it.
The post may be right considering the level arrangement but i doubt it. But the explanations for the hero classes themselves make no sense and are at best reguritations of ideas already tossed around and most are obvioulsy picked from existing lore with in the game. Caster classes becoming more like melee doesn’t make any sense. And some of the examples lack any innovation across the races, ie warlocks and rogues. Just my 2c.
I just find is interesting that they delete the posts and ban the posters so quickly. Are they just trying to stifle the spread of mis-information or is it actually damage control? Bottom line is that no matter how much content then add to the game, longevity requires more PLAYER options so hero classes are something thats definitly needed whether they’re drastically different from their parent classes or not. Perhaps an option to continue to level to 70 without HAVING to pick a hero class would alleviate some of the outcry.
anyone who actually believes any of what was written here doesn’t have the slightest clue in hell how programming and coding works
to put it bluntly, the changes outlined above are completely impossible given the current legacy code in WoW. The entire system would have to be completely dismantled and reworked in order to even begin these types of changes. In fact, it would probably be less time consuming for blizzard to produce an entirely new game than to attempt to work out the issues that attempting such coding feats would involve.
in short, the above information is 100% false.
there may end up being “hero classes” with the burning crusade expansion, but they will be nothing even remotely akin to what is described above.
its sad how some people feel the need to make up a bunch of obvious bull**** to feel important, and even more sad when they expect others to be as stupid as they are, and actually believe it.
lawls
So fake. It’s funny seeing how many people actually believe that the classes will be totally altared this much, and keeping it as a one time decision.
Yeah. Right.
I don’t know about the expansion containing them, but most of the items in the list above are very unlike anything in previous Warcraft games.
Hero classes have been on the burner since beta, and I’m sure one day they’ll show, but they’ll just be an extension or specialization of current classes. Think of it like an extension to the Class tree.
Some of the Hero classes from Warcraft 3 aren’t even mentioned in the above, and the few that are, are very inaccurate.
Lich – I’m guessing this would be an expansion of warlock…and would replace so called Necromancy (no necro’s in warcraft)
Death Knight – Arthas post undead. Death Knight is an anti paladin…not sure how this would be implemented
Seer – Thrall is a Seer. Seers are a cross between paladins and Shdamans….think paladin caster…or tank mage.
Dreadlord – Demon rulers.
Basically the theme is the same in all of them, and that is that the chances of you being able to “convert” a 60 into one of them is highly doubtfull. I’d expect you have to meet some specific goal with your current character and you’d “unlock” the ability to make a Hero class and level it from 1 on up. Think more along the lines of Warshades from CoH, or how Jedi worked when SWG started. Otherwise you’d face too much of a balance nightmare.
My 2 cents.
some of it sounds pretty cool – but as everyone else has said balance is an issue and most of these so called ‘hero classes’ tend to merge all the standing classes into one – the fact warriors weren’t expanded on and numerous classes had same hero classes regardless of race smacks of inaccuracy! Blizzard have a great creative development team and this would have been benched or better refined if it had come from them – I’m as excited as the rest of you about the expansion and love the rumours but I think I’ll remember they are rumours and get on leveling my alts so as they can be @ lvl 60 & epic’d up in time for expansion!
my 2 pence
Lol, there is no way this is real.
First – They would never require a group or raid level quest in order to continue advancing in level. This would loose them about a million customers, seriously.
Second – They are not going to completely change the focus of some classes (ie. Mage switching to shadow, hunters loosing pets, etc). This would completely invalidate huge amounts of talents and would force them to basically create a new 10-70 talent tree for each and every hero class. It takes them about 2 months to rework the existing talent trees, no way are they going to add 10 levels and create 50 more of these trees. Talk about your balancing nightmare.
Third – There would be a huge outcry from certain races who couldn’t be the hero class that they really want. Hero classes would never be restricted by race.
I just called Blizzard to ask about this. They told me it was fake and then explained what the new hero classes really will be. PRETTY DARN COOL GUYS CAN’T WAIT!
I think it sounds cool, even though it might not be the easiest thing in the world to implement. It could be done though, look at what COH did with COV, pretty much the same thing, but instead of you starting over, you actually make anew character, but they did make whole new classes with differnet abilities that do in many ways mirror the original COH classes. I think the only place I have seen “hero” classes that were similar to these proposed changes was on MUD’s. Still all in all, I wouldn’t mind seeing some of this come to light.
So there are SEVEN different priest hero classes but every warlock, regardless of race, has to pick from the same 2 choices? F A K E
It was believable until it devolved into the clueless wannabe-game-designer spaghetti mess of hero classes that Blizzard would probably sooner shoot themselves in the head than implement. Maybe they will implement hero classes but it sure as hell wont be this list.
Should have kept it to two hero classes per class, it would have been something approaching reality.
Prist in mail????? it is crazy—so lets give to hunters plate..This is full Bull Sh*t.sry for my english.I am realy wonna some very hard qwest to get 60-70 lvl.it will be fun ;D
Mabye the “Hero” Classes would get new Armor.. Say they make.. The Priest/Lock/Mage Could go to Leather.
The Rogue/Druid to Mail.
The Shaman/Hunter to Plate.
The Paladin/Warriors to “Mythical” (Gained in Outlands/New instances)
“Mythical” Would be Learned from your class trainer.
Aslong as, Leather for Clothies. Mail to Leathers.
Plate to mailers..
At level 70, The end point. And Only gained at level 70 Raid Instances, That would be much better than The whole Rumor About
“Hero Classes”
Right?
I may not play this game (Much.)
But, I DO understand the game more than I may seem to know.
And, now.. Since My Favorite T.V show is on.(Married With Children.) I bid you,
Farewell
(2nd Member of the SpearGod Squadren(SGS) 2-Man Clan(For now!))
it’s good idea… but about warriors… not at all…
This is crap. It would totally throw off how the gmae is played and alot of peopel playing a race they enjoy may not like the new “hero classes” that would be added because it would throw off their gameplay. Come on htuenrs wiht out pets? Priests in mail? Druids loosing shapeshifting abilities? Way to unlikely.
Karaoke Massage Quote:I just called Blizzard to ask about this. They told me it was fake and then explained what the new hero classes really will be. PRETTY DARN COOL GUYS CAN’T WAIT!
really now? if you called them and they actually told you, why not share with us so we know if this is total BS or not
Shit! complete shit
Why should i make a new Human Priest Char and pump him up to reach the best healing abilities? Total shit!
i lol’d
one things for sure. i certainly hope they announce a massive battle net upgrade before the expansion launch. whatever it contains, dealing with the lag and server crashes that happened at wow’s initial launch is not what im looking forward to again.
Funny. Some of Dru will be as hunters. Crap.
Some of these are BS. Switching hunters to a completely Energy using class is an indicator that this list is mostly wishful thinking.
Notice I said “SOME”. I do not doubt that Hero Classes are going to make an appearance in the expansion but I do not think they will work like regular levels.
Here is a little more sane outlook:
Rogue completes epic quest to become Assasin.
Rogue is now 60/1 and gains Stats but no HP (or mana if Spellcasting) and all skill caps increase by 5.
New Epic/Set Armors and such have reqs of Assasin 2 (or whatever)
This is speculation but it makes more sense than what is posted above (Kudos for reposting it here btw). What they have planned for Heroic abilities is just too far out (imaginatively and chronologically) to explore.
But I guarantee this “The expansion will contain Heroic levels. Heroic levels will be more endgame content at 60, NOT an extension of the endgame beyond 60.”
I call bullshit.
To the guy who said there were no necromancers in WoW…wtf do you think you fight in Scholomance and Stratholme? NECROMANCERS. Get a clue, wouldja?
Personally, I think It’d be better if there was 1 universal heroclass per class, and each race gets 1 other heroclass. That is if this isn’t BS :Þ
i think it is crap, the balence issues are way to wide for some classes and you lose stuff on both heros classes and you like in the class you have right now. and it jsut seems unfair to have some race get a cool hero class over a another race, ya know what is called? discrimination
oh yeah and i call bullshit on this too lol, there might be hero classes which seems ligical but not these
Wishful thinking, most of this is crap…
Oh, and if you’d ever played Warcraft Orcs vs. Humans (aka Warcraft 1) The Orcs had Warlocks and Necromancers, so yes there are definitely necromancers somewhere in Warcraft.
Priest wearing mail? that ahs got to be the joke of the year 😛
this is Funny fake Shit
“Lich – I’m guessing this would be an expansion of warlock…and would replace so called Necromancy (no necro’s in warcraft)”
Liches are mages that have died and risen.
Warlocks are warlocks.
Look things up before posting imo.
Also I would like to add that liches raise the dead.
People who have never played previous warcraft games = ftl
Shit I don’t even care about this stupid article, that guy is just dumb for saying that.
hunters – sux (((
Quoting Lloydlicious:”…and would replace so called Necromancy (no necro’s in warcraft)”
Did you not play wc3? I’m pretty sure Kel’thuzad was a necromancer who died and became a lich.
hah “no necromancers in warcraft” and you have the gall to make fun of people who have never played….im pretty sure necromancers were a huge part of warcraft and if you actually played from war1 you would know that. they are very much a part of the history and would be an awesome hero class if they decided to implement them.
I really believe WoW needs to be mixed up a bit…the same constant grind over and over gets boring after awhile. Merely extending the current classes to have something similar would be utterly rediculous. You might as well just level more and get more powerful skills (the same as now). To have the options deviating the classes a bit i believe would be a smart move and letting the players choose their routes wisely. Understandably this would mess up raid organzition…GOOD! NEW STRATEGIES! CHANGING GAME PLAY!! WOO HOO I CANT WAIT! and besides, most likely you wont be able to achieve a hero class until level 70 anyways, so all those who want to stay the same boring class for 70 levels can.
as yes in warcraft 1 there were necromancers! they summoned skeletons from the dead bodies. All you children who are too young to know this need to stop talking out of your asses.
also alot of the classes they do speak of make quite a bit of sense. Archmages summoning Water Elementals (Warcraft 1) etc etc. They seem to be pulling alot from the old times. I wouldnt doubt you will be experiencing similar classes like these in the caverns of time.
Spellbreakers..i believe would be a great class for the alliance…all the alliance wimps wouldnt have anything to complain about when having a similar class as a shaman (anti-caster) (for all the people complaining about priests in mail..once you choose this class you are no longer a priest–shut up)
Templars and Clerics would be a great addition for paladins. Approaching two different play styles. Right now paladins are almost forced to go primarily holy if they want to be effeciant in raids. Giving them the option to do some DPS would be great.
Also breaking up the races to have their individual classes now allows for a reason to play a specific race other then you think it looks good and the pathetic racial talents.
Even if this seems like a bit bogus and uncertain…it is a good attempt at trying to stir up World of Warcraft! i applaud whoever came up with it.
I specifically remember filling meat wagons with corpses and bringing along a necromancer (necro=dead, mancer=”controller”) as a quick attack strategy. No necros in WC, eh? 0/10
“Templars and Clerics would be a great addition for paladins. Approaching two different play styles. Right now paladins are almost forced to go primarily holy if they want to be effeciant in raids. Giving them the option to do some DPS would be great.”
Uh, no. If they make paladins capable of tanking, alliance warriors will no longer have a purpose.
i think something is right and something is wrong because i have seen many suggestions to the hero class and none of them has been hunted down by blizz like this, but what is true and what is false?
The reality is that there will be three hero types. These three types will be available to all races.
The way this will work is you get to level 60, complete the epic quest (which requires you to swim around an entire continent in less than 3 hours without surfacing), and then select your hero type. The options are Carebears, Smurfs, and Cabbage Patch Kids. For an additional 90 gold to the quest giver, you can choose your color as well.
I think alot of you are jumping the gun here. If Blizzard is going to take the game to the next level something like this is in order. If they don’t then what’s the point of another 10 levels of grind.
Thats exactly how I feel about it. This might not be the exact thing that happens, but I am hopping something this different does.
-Owl
Yeah, mages summoning elementals and Nrcomancers summoning undead! Lets hope it’s true.
Well mages summoning elementals, thats what they did in the earlier Warcraf series
Your a Fucken Tard…no demon hunter??? for nightelfs?? and wtf with the druid classes….you should give warcraft 3 more of a spin noob!!!.