It always felt odd to me that old-school MMORPGs like EverQuest and World of Warcraft allowed for class overlap between a lot of different of races. That amount of variety between classes and race characteristics that cannot address unique characteristics, is what makes Warhammer Online's classes shine. First you choose a race, then decide on a specialised class tailored ONLY for that race, still fit to a correct archetype. Instead of having Paladins that can be Humans, Dwarfs, Halfings, etc., you can only choose between the Order Paladin (Warrior Priest) and the Destruction Paladin (Disciple of Khaine). And yet, there is no exact mirror between the two, as they use different weapons and adhere to completely different racial traits. You cannot do this with a class that can be of 5-6 different races; the faction splitting would be far too complicated to even justify certain lore perspectives.wargrimnir wrote:I'm personally not a fan of the wildly modular combat mechanics they have created. It's an insane level of technical detail allowing them to do incredible things, but if they're not very particular about giving each class a unique feel it could quickly go the same route as every other bland and soulless cookie cutter MMO class system that's been done to death, although with fancier technical bits.
What makes WAR great for me is the fact that each class is so damn unique. If we were to totally mirror (or to the best that we possibly could) each class in WAR, they would be little more than reskins. Like most MMO's, same class on both sides. Just a reskin. Or worse, literally the same class with a different race. Because Cow paladins and Dwarf paladins and spacegoat paladins are totally the same class right... kek
Funniest thing is that Bright Wizards and Witch Hunters are 'on the same side' in this game. Normally, these two unique units of the Empire cannot stand each other, for obvious reason. The one thrives on use of magic, while the other persecutes such heresy. The same goes for how civil Orcs treat the Goblins; they seem as equals on the battlefield despite the lore and roleplay perspective that Orcs are constantly slapping and tossing their smaller kin about the place, while the smaller gits are actually the most clever and cunning leaders.
Another thing I've noticed, is that the set rivalries (Empire versus Chaos, Dwarfs versus Greenskins, High Elves versus Dark Elves) are the baseline of the game's lore, yet the class mechanic mirrors favour rivalry between other factions. For example, there are no mirror classes between Dark Elves and High Elves. Witch Elf = Witch Hunter, Sorceror = Bright Wizard, Disciple of Khaine = Warrior Priest, and Blackguard = Ironbreaker. All other races share at least one race mirror (Choppa/Slayer, Chosen/Knight) while the rest of the classes have been pre-determined to mirror a class outside of their set race rivalry.
