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High Elf and Dark Elf class predictions...
killerwig
Member UncommonPosts: 236
With the release of the final Chaos class - the Chaos Marauder - it just leaves the High Elf and Dark Elf classes left to fill. Now I've been wondering what Mythic and GW will come up for these two excellent races to field the following class archetypes:
Heavy Tank > DPS Melee / Ranged > Wizard / Mage > Fighter / Priest
So bearing this in mind, I've come up with my predictions - and why.
High Elves
Heavy Tank - Dragon Prince of Caledor - Linkage
These guys are probably the best looking High Elven warrior type in the game. They also have a great deal of interesting history behind them, with tales about riding dragons into battle. Personally I'd love to see these guys as a playable class in the game.
Edit: Someone mentioned in another thread, that they didn't think I realised that Dragon Princes were a cavalry unit (even though I linked directly to the games workshop cavalry unit above...). Well guess what? - Knights of the Burning Sun are also a shock cavalry unit in WFB - at least they were in the rulebook I used when I was collecting the Empire Army. But admittedly, Dragon Princes can't be used as foot troops - so maybe Mythic will opt for Swordmasters of Hoeth instead?
DPS Melee / Ranged - Shadow Warrior - Linkage
Another warrior type steeped in history - and a very grim, tragic history indeed, for they absolutely and totally hate the Dark Elves for sinking their homeland beneath the waves and for slaughtering their kin and stealing their children. Intense and brooding, wild and vicious, they ambush Dark Elf raiders whenever they can using bow and sword in bitter and never ending battle. So there you have it - we have light armour, excellent ranged ability, close melee - and lots and lots and LOTS of hatred.
Wizard / Mage - High Elf Arch Mage - Linkage
This is a no-brainer really. High Elves are the masters of sorcery in the Warhammer World. Expect really cool spells that can move mountains, create tempests and bring back the dead (for a short time to slay all who opposes the mage). Very cool for any lover of caster types.
Fighter / Priest - High Elf Seer of Isha - No direct Linkage... but - Everqueen of Avelorn
I had to dig to find this possible class type. A Seer in the High Elf society is like a lorekeeper of magical power, and Isha is the Elven goddess of the earth, plants and forests, which all mages learn about first - so I made the connection. I wouldn't be surprised if Mythic tapped into this lore to bring us something comparible to my guess.
Dark Elves (oh.. the fun)
Heavy Tank - Executioner of Har Ganeth - Linkage
So why these guys? .... well...The very name of Har Ganeth is cursed with evil. In Ulthuan none will even speak of the city which they call only the cursed place, whilst to the Dark Elves it is the city of the executioners.
Once the High Elves brought battle to Har Ganeth and attacked the city with as great an army as had ever fought in the Witch King's land. For many days and nights the battle raged and last the High Elves were driven from the field. Many fell as they turned to flee, yet many more were taken captive. Too exhausted to fight on they collapsed and woke to find themselves upon the alters of Khaine. The celebration of the dark Elves was a terrible thing to behold. Captive after captive was brought to the alters and slain in the most cruel ways imaginable by the Executioners. The screams of the dying mingled with the shallow laughter of the Witch Elves as they danced naked about the bodies of the slain. Wine and blood flowed from the altars and drunkenly the Dark Elves praised their evil god. For many nights the sacrificial fires burned and the Dark Elves feasted upon raw flesh. It was a madness of death and when it was over the sun rose upon a city stained red with blood.
Blood fountained from the windows of the high citadel and ran down the streets like a river. Crimson gore spattered the temples of Khaine and stained his brazen idols. The steps of his temples were littered with dismembered corpses. Everywhere lay Dark Elves entwined and covered in blood, stupified with wine and gorged upon raw flesh, sated upon the horrors of their own depravity. Har Ganeth is the city of executioners. To those who retain a shred of decency it is known only as the cursed place.
Basically - Heavy Armour - Big Axe - Bloodthirsty - No Remorse ... and you worry that WAR might be a game for carebears. 
Anyway... quickly moving on...
DPS Melee / Ranged - Dark Elf Corsair - Linkage
Armed with two wickedly curved swords and a repeater crossbow, these guys are just perfect for a DPS class. Plus, they have that whole pirate thing going on... yarrrrrr! ...but more evil. A LOT more evil.
Wizard / Mage - Dark Elf Sorceror / Sorceress - Linkage
Again, pretty much a no-brainer. But Dark Magic is the YANG to the High Elf ying. Think of really horrible, nasty, awful and painful spells.. then imagine the Dark Elf Sorceror laughing. You probably get the idea...
Fighter / Priest - Priest or Priestess of Khaine - No Linkage
With Khaine being the Lord of Murder and all, I could imagine a character like this being a very offensive priest type. But there's nothing in WFB or WFRP about any character of this type, yet a priest of Khaine would fill the gap.
So there are my predictions for the DE / HE classes. The only thing that I am totally unsure about are the dark elves, because I read something a while back that said the dark elves would be the "sex appeal" of Warhammer Online - so of course, that brings to mind Witch Elves... Ahh well, we'll have to wait and see!
Hey... what are your predictions?
Comments
For High Elves,
Instead of Dragon Princes of Caledor, I think it's going to be Swordmasters of Hoeth.
The reasoning for this because the Dragon Princes of Caledor are a heavy cavalry unit and the Swordmasters of Hoeth are a ground unit. Also, even though the Swordmasters of Hoeth are the Guardians of the White Tower, they also serve as messangers and travel through out the world guarding travelling scholars and collecting information. The Dragon Knights of Caledor do not have this freedom of movement and are too proud & argoant to run about.
I see the Dragon Princes of Caledor being introduced as a playable class if Mythic implements mounted combat.
"Whosoever shed last blood
By man shall his blood be shed
For immunity of God make he the man
Destroy all that which is evil
So that which is good may flourish
And I shall count thee among my favored sheep
And you shall have the protection of all the angels in Heaven."
The Dragon Princes rode dragons. Due to various circumstances, the volcanoes where the Dragons live in Caledor have cooled making the dragons lazy. It's harder and harder to arouse the dragons for battle so the Dragon Princes only do it in dire times. In the mean time, they ride horses with armor molded and colored after the dragons they rode. The Dragon Princes are the only High Elven people that do not bow their banners to the Phoniex King. To see a Dragon Prince not mounted on a horse would just seem to break the lore behind them.
I remember back a few versions ago that the Empire had Knights on foot. It's because of this that I can see the Knights of the Burning Sun being a profession while not seeing the Dragon Princes as such. I never played an Empire army myself so I don't know as much about them as I do my High Elves. I could be wrong and we could very well see players as the Dragon Princes of Caledor but it doesn't seem like that would happen. I could see the Swordmaster of Hoeth and the Shadow Warriors as the tank and melee DPS professions. I love my Dragon Princes. It's an intimidating unit when fielded. They are a heavy cavalry unit so they are slow. But when they connect, it's an ugly sight. I'd love to play a Dragon Prince, I just don't see how it would be possible given the lore behind them.
The Corsair seems like it would make a great class...Hopefully they won't pass it up
The Executioner seems like the obvious choice for a Druchii tank....but there are alot of other possibilities
The choices you have there for both races "Fighter/Priest" seem to be off.....but i can't find anything better. hehe
Yep, I see what you mean. I know all the lore behind them too, but thanks for the refresher. While it's true that some of the Empire cavalry units could also fight on foot in the form of Reiksguard, there were those also that were purely cavalry - such as Knights of the White Wolf, Knights Panther - and in the 2nd edition rules of WFB, Knights of the Blazing Sun also made an appearance as a cavalry unit, if i remember correctly. But you're perfectly right - the lore behind Dragon Princes suggest they are a specific cavalry unit without much room for versility.
But consider this - we already know that the Chaos Magus will be flying around on a disc of Tzeentch, so like the previous poster mentioned, mounts will likely play a role in WAR. If the suspicions are correct, then fighting from the back of mounts like horses, wolves, discs etc may be an option. And that would be awesome and very fitting with the game. I'd love to see something like that in WAR, but perhaps it's too much to hope for?
I'm leaning towards Swordmasters of Hoeth, the more I think about it, but I'm not giving up on the Dragon Princes just yet. This is because the High Elven army needs a class that stands out amongst the rest in terms of style - and the Dragon Princes hit the mark in that respect. They're the iconic High Elven elite toop, as well as one of the best looking troop types in the game. Although the lore leans heavily towards them fighting from hoseback, that doesn't mean to say that they can't fight on foot if need be. So there's still hope yet, I reckon.
I'm crossing my fingers because, like yourself, I'd really really like to see these as the tank class.
And yep, I always hated fighting them on the TT game, and would throw my Dark Elf harpies at them to tie em up, and stop them charging first. Trouble was, my opponent usually had Tyrion in the unit as well. Ouch... lol.
You got me wondering about mounts now, and the huge battles that will likely take place in the later levels of the game. Being part of any kind of mounted cavalry charge against the enemy would be... just a perfect gaming experience. Let's hope for the best!
Yep, about the priests - they don't feel quite right to me either. At the moment I'm putting my faith in the creativity of Games Worshop to come up with somehing great for these Elven roles. I think the Zealot is a fantastic idea that they came up with for Chaos - so fitting.
As for the DE tank.. well it was either the Executioner,Black Guard of Nagaroth, or the Cold One Knight. I just picked my favourite..
Aye - and that's what I thought too when considering the DE professions - it made for some difficult consideration. Really, I went for corsairs because they have a ranged ability, as well as good close fighting, whereas Witch Elves can only get in close and generally hack things apart without having much in the way of defense - no armour. That's pretty much why I figured that Corsairs might be a possible for the gap filler. The intro is something to go by I suppose, but they haven't included the Dwarf Slayer as a playable class on release (though I do expect that they'll stick the lore and feature an oathbreaker quest to become a Dwarf Slayer at some point).
But either would be fantastic, and as I mentioned, Mythic have said something about the Dark Elves being the "sex appeal" of the game - if they stick to that idea, it would likely mean the Sorceress and the Witch Elf will be making an appearance. And I'd still be a very happy bunny if they decide to do that.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Metallica8589/videos?view=0
Veteran corpse: This warrior is an expert at being dead, watch as he flops/rolls over to his enemies only to lay at their feet - confusing them utterly. Whilst the enemy is confused the corpse lets off his most powerful attack: "Lack of control over bodily functions" and urinates on the floor before being booted 78 times by goblins.
The Blocker This will most likely be the elves tank. The elf blocker is the first to meet the enemy. As they approach the oncoming horde of chaos, they simply throw themselves onto their foe's upraised axes and impale themselves on their swords. Covering the metal in blood, causing it not to look very nice at all! This gives the veteran corpse enough time to make it to the enemy and unleash its deadly attack.
The Magnet This is the elves caster class, the elf has no arms, so it relies completely on magic, as it is unable to hold a weapon for melee combat. Every time the elf casts a spell a magnetic field surrounds his form, causing any airborne arrows or wild sword cuts to embed themselves in his flesh, causing instant death. The elf has two spells to choose from; "Self Internal combustion" and "Even larger magnetic field."
If a weapon is aimed towards The Blocker and the magnetic field is up, both The Blocker and The Magnet will be flayed alive.
The Digger These elves can only wield plastic shovels, they dig the graves for The Blocker's and the The Magnet's... allowing them to transform into veteran corpses over a period of RL months, if attacked, The Digger's will automatically throw themselves into one of their many graves and lie perfectly still - this prevents anyone from having to dig a grave for them and also allows the enemy to plung their swords into the elfs stomach.
I think most of the lore raping will occur in the DE side.
A male Sorcerer would never, ever exist in a Dark Elf army under the command of the Witch King. Malekith was prophetized to die to a male magic wielder, so he banned the learning of magic of all males under his rule(Only one other male, besides Malekith, wields magic publicly). I'll be very disapointed if they do make Male DE casters, since it'll go against a big chunk of the Druchii lore.
Never heard of priests of Khaine, however the priestesses are what usually is reffered to as witch elves. I believe that the only other people that serve in the temple of Khaine are the assassins.
Executioners would hardly make a good tank class... While they receive training in combat, they are not particularly adept at it... They are good at killing with one blow, a fight that prolongs itself much is not a fight for an executioner. Also, while not on par with the most recent incarnations of Warhammer, I seem to remember that they don't use axes, instead they use. I think the normal infantry of the DE, is the tankiest of all the ground troops... Cold One Knights are better, but they only fight on top of Cold Ones.
Also, one class that I'd like to see make an appearence, would be the beastmaster.
The Anti Social Gamer
Ahhh very good points here about the sorceror, and several things that I had forgotten about too (It's been a while since I played and read the rulebooks and lore etc). But even since the 2nd edition rules of WFB, Executioners have used double handed axes - unless GW changed them? Admittedly, Executioners weren't ideal in the TT game (squishy Elves that strike last), so you had to use them tactically as support for other units, but that's not to say that they couldn't make a great class for WAR. Their alternative could be the Black Guard I guess, which would be fine by me.
It'll be interesting how Mythic implement fighter healer types for WAR - I bet the guys at GW are thinking hard about that one. As for beastmasters - yep, that would be pretty interesting to see.
And the the previous poster - yep, Dark Elves are quite sick. lol
I'm not saying that executioners would make a cool class, I'm just saying that they just wouldn't make a good Tanking class. I thought about the Black Guard, but there's just something veeeery wrong with giving every player the chance of being part of an elite group like that. And really, the normal soldiers in the DE army were pretty sick(sick as in cool) themselves. As for the executioners axe... I could have sworn they used swords(I recal alot of people saying it didn't even make sense, since swords in executions compared to axes).
Not sure if it'd make sense having a healer in a DE army, but witch elves could "frenzy" up the troops. I hope that in sieges to the DE base(not sure which city it'll be, or if it'll even be a city) we can deploy the Cauldron of Blood
The Anti Social Gamer
Well, i just found something on google video - an interview with Paul Barnett where he actually answers the question about male DE sorcerers - amongst other things. As always, Paul is a bloody joy to watch - one of those guys you'd like to go to the pub with and get stinking drunk.
Paul Barnett Interview 1
Paul Barnett Interview 2
But yep... looks like male DE sorcerors are in! - and has been okayed by GW.
The Anti Social Gamer
Well... you got me to dig deeper. Male Dark Elf sorcerers do indeed exist in the TT game - and have always existed. I vaguely remembered this being the case, but i haven't played Warhammer FB for years... so I had to check.
Linkage - Scroll down to page 6
Also about the lore. Indeed the Witch king is afraid of a prophesy that he will die to a Sorcerer - you are correct. More importantly, he is afraid that some users of magic would be a substantial risk to his own power - that's why he chooses sorceresses for the coven. But many male DE sorcerers and female sorceresses risk death outside of the covens, and practise magic within the Cult of Pleasure. As long as they are not caught by the Temple of Khaine or annoy anyone in power, they are generally okay.
To me at least, this isn't "lore rape" at all and seems pretty justified.
Well... you got me to dig deeper. Male Dark Elf sorcerers do indeed exist in the TT game - and have always existed. I vaguely remembered this being the case, but i haven't played Warhammer FB for years... so I had to check.
Linkage - Scroll down to page 6
Also about the lore. Indeed the Witch king is afraid of a prophesy that he will die to a Sorcerer - you are correct. More importantly, he is afraid that some users of magic would be a substantial risk to his own power - that's why he chooses sorceresses for the coven. But many male DE sorcerers and female sorceresses risk death outside of the covens, and practise magic within the Cult of Pleasure. As long as they are not caught by the Temple of Khaine or annoy anyone in power, they are generally okay.
To me at least, this isn't "lore rape" at all and seems pretty justified.
That's why I said that there are no sorcerors under the command of the witch king. Sure in the tabletop you can get away with using a DE CoP army and have a male sorceror... But generally, sorcerors recognized by the witch king there is only one(whose name I can't recall).
Considering that the Cult of Pleasure owes no special loyalty to the Witch King or Dark Elves in general(They tried invading Naggaroth in Malekith's absense)... Saying that these are renegade sorcerors(The kind who are usually put to death when discovered) isn't a plausible reason... Because they won't be running around hidden, they'll be marshalling the banners of the Witch King(not the Cult of Pleasure).
Edit: I'm not saying that the game will suck because of this addition... I just don't see it as a necessary one. There'd plenty of players who'd play sorcerors regardless of gender restriction. I'm still curious to see if there'll be male witch elves.
The Anti Social Gamer
So true... Still you never know
The Anti Social Gamer
Is there a reason they can't have both?
Gotta remember there are going to be 4 classes for every race.
They could very well have Corsairs, *Male* Witch elves, Blackguards AND Cold One Kinghts...considering the mounted nature of the Chaos magus or the "unequal" relationship between Chosen and Marauder, all of those seem possible. They way i see it GW can "make" whatever they want work for the game...even if that means hordes puppet sized Goblins ridding around on rediculous Squigs.