Connecting with your Class

A lot of talk recently around the blogosphere has been about the Rogue legendary quest line and how this quest line is very class specific. I was lucky enough to take part of the beginning of this quest line on my alt rogue and I must say it was very enjoyable and got me thinking about class quest lines and their place in WoW.

Class quests in history:

For warlocks, back in vanilla WoW, you had a quest line that was specific to your class which rewarded you with a Dreadstead.

This Dreadsteed made you feel like a warlock. The quest line was hard work but it really was enjoyable and rewarding. To this day I still have the items in my bank that were needed to complete this quest line. Although they now are unusable, I like to keep them in my bags to remember the time when I completed this quest line. Most of the quest line required collecting items (and spending some gold) which did not involve needing to use any of your warlock abilities. But the final quest which involved summoning the Dreadsteed did involve a little bit of warlock skill to complete. During the ritual you were attacked by wave after wave of demons. To control the incoming adds you as a warlock had to banish or enslave the adds as they came. You did not have to do this by yourself as it took a group of 5 people just to get to this point but the event still was enjoyable and still involved using your warlock toolset.

There were other class quest lines in vanilla WoW. The most famous being the Priest Benediction quest line and the Hunter Rhok'delar quest line. These two quest lines were famous for the skill that was needed to complete them. I recall watching a hunter friend of mine do his quest line and the skill that was involved in kiting the mob that they had kill. These quest lines were memorable and what made them memorable is that it really connected you with your class.

Class quests in Catacylsm:

During Cataclysm, I have been lucky enough to partake in both of the legendary quest lines. The beginning of the rogue quest line (Assasinate Creed) really made me use all of my rogue abilities when killing Lord Hiram Creed and stealthing through the city to get to him made me feel connected to that class. On my warlock the part of the legendary quest line that involved going into Coldarra and partaking in a “solo” instance was the most solo fun I have had in a long time. The boss fight at the end really made use my different warlock abilities and my demon to their full potential in order to get the kill. After the fight was done I had a sense of accomplishment and although the fight was not class specific, I still felt a little bit closer to my class when it was done.

Class quests today:

One of the things I am hearing a lot of people from Star Wars: The Old Republic talk about is their class quest lines. And with the amount of talk people are discussing this topic it seems like WoW may start to head in this same direction. I for one really hope that they do and I hope that they do this in a more accessible way than it having to be a legendary quest line. Perhaps as soon as you get to Pandaria one of the quests you get is specific to your class and is a quest line that takes you to all of the zones and spans the whole 85-90 leveling experience. This quest line could involve using the new spells that you learn from 85-90 as well as some of your older spells. Along the way you could be rewarded with your new spell or with minor glyphs that augment your spells (green fire?) and maybe at the end you are rewarded with an epic quality item (I’m thinking helm or shoulder slot here seeing as how these items were the hardest things to get in Cataclysm)

I really see there being a lot of potential with having class specific quests. So many people have alts in this game because of how Cataclysm encouraged it with its new leveling experience. Wouldn’t it be great to have a class specific quest line in Pandaria so that when you went to level your alts the experience might be a little different? How much more excited will you be to level that alt knowing that a specific line of quests is awaiting you in Pandaria? Now this has gotten me excited and thinking about how I would make some warlock specific quests. But that is a post for another time.