Noncombat classes

| Sunday, June 20, 2010
Due to a fail on my part, here's Monday's post a bit early.

Do non-combat classes have a place in a combat-based game, such as WoW?

For a point of reference, I'm thinking of this based on Star Wars Galaxies, in which there were a few classes which were not designed for combat, but for interaction with other players. Traders were economic, primary crafters and gatherers. There was also an entertainment class, for things like dancing or music.

To be accurate, they were not completely non-combat. Traders made items which could be used in combat while entertainers could give buffs, and I think remove some debuffs related to combat. But neither were intended to be in your raid fighting the boss, so to speak.

Could such classes work in WoW? Would you play a class that will likely never see a raid, and may be afraid to even wander far from cities?

These classes would have their own methods of advancement (as they do in SWG), quests and xp related to their areas of expertise, and so they wouldn't merely be glorified AH alts.

8 comments:

Angelya said...

What a great idea! To some extent you can do this sort of thing already, just rock up outside the bank in Dalaran and start singing, but to actually have a dedicaed class rather than through RP sounds like fun. It does seem strange that everyone in the world is either a hero or a vendor, bar a few npcs here and there...

Unknown said...

I sure as hell would like it. They would need to be more accessible or something though. Still, if there is enough content for classes like that in the game, i wouldn't mind having one. Beats having a DK for a bank alt any day.

Shintar said...

I think it would be a cool additional option to have a completely different type of gameplay. I'd hit it.

Klepsacovic said...

@Angelya: There are the peasants, endlessly carrying wood, and the grunts, who young heros beat with clubs.

@Nikola: The risk of death is pretty low when you don't have to fight anything. That's either boring or safe, depending on perspective.

@Shintar: It would be cool. Maybe even cool enough to bring in players who otherwise wouldn't play.

Mister K said...

It would be huge on RP realms. I'm sure that plenty of people would roll noncombat toons for when they felt like being in game socializing but not grinding away on the endless grind of emblems and gear.

iapetes said...

nope

We Fly Spitfires said...

It worked in SWG because of the skill based nature of the game and that people could take a non-combative class along side something else OR just respec all their trees if they wanted to. Personally I think it's a great way to design a game although I can't imagine it working in something like WoW :( There's just too much focus on combat.

Anonymous said...

I have a non-combat class. He's technically a warrior but he's level 6, has no armor and one grey sword. He rarely leaves the civilized parts of the world and hasn't killed anything in ages. He spends his time at the auction house, the bank, the barber shop, the inn and running around town on errands. The only pvp he does is on the AH but he plays an essential support role for my raiding toons.

Sure it would be cool if he could gain more skills with time as my fighting toons do, but he's not missing out on anything in the game as it is. Levels are pretty unimportant in WoW if you're not worried about killing things.

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