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Why is World of Warcraft's Druid the only Shapeshifter in MMOs?
Gravarg
Member UncommonPosts: 3,424
I got to thinking while playing around on my Druid, and though to myself, "Self, there aren't really any other MMOs that do shapeshifting like the Druid."
There's Guild Wars 2, which has the Norn that can shapeshift temporarily into one of the 4 animal spirits. There's Dungeons and Dragons Online which you can shapeshift into animals, but once you get the next shapeshift you rarely use anything other than that one. Everquest 2 has shapeshifting Druids, but they still don't work smoothly lol. Elder Scrolls has Werewolves. Lord of the Rings Online has Werebears.
So why is it that one of the most popular classes in the most popular MMO of all time isn't copied or at least attempted in other MMOs?
There's Guild Wars 2, which has the Norn that can shapeshift temporarily into one of the 4 animal spirits. There's Dungeons and Dragons Online which you can shapeshift into animals, but once you get the next shapeshift you rarely use anything other than that one. Everquest 2 has shapeshifting Druids, but they still don't work smoothly lol. Elder Scrolls has Werewolves. Lord of the Rings Online has Werebears.
So why is it that one of the most popular classes in the most popular MMO of all time isn't copied or at least attempted in other MMOs?
Comments
EQ and Vanguard had all kinds of class based illusions and shapeshifting types of spells. They also had items that provided the same effects.
As fo the GW2 shapeshift forms, they only have around 5 skills temporarily, and basically share the Costume Brawl system. It's not an entire new class with permanent sklils, so it's useless, and it also doesn't ruin balance in pvp or pve.
I guess WoW was the first I can recall where you had one "class" that could shift to serve any part of the trinity - EQ1 you were pretty well locked into your role based on your class (although I did see some amazing out of the box play).
The shapeshifting wasn't the unique part for WoW (at the time), it was the multiple roles in a single class in a trinity-based game. EQ1 druid came the closest (kinda a healer, kinda a dps) that I can think of before WoW's release, but my experience in early MMOs is somewhat limited.
But the WOW Druid was my favorite class when I played.
In an era where some devs can't be arsed to create male and female models for some classes, its no surprise a versatile and complex class such as the WOW Druid would not be "cloned" by others.
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Other games did it also, not just WoW.
I like the WoW Druid, but I feel it's become pigeonholed into a specific role which defeats the purpose of the class. You used to be able to invest in multiple talent trees which allowed you to tank a little, heal a little, and DPS a little. I guess it's all in the name of having easy balance of classes. The concept is nice, but the end result is you just end up playing as a healer, mage, tank, melee dps with different graphics/spells depending on what you choose.
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Only MMO as far as I know to allow you to play as the "undead" (forsaken). Very very few singleplayer games even allow that.
A demon summoning class (warlock), granted quite less unique as demon summoning is pretty common, but WoW did it perfectly
Only currently released MMO as far as I know for an unique starting area for each race. Only MMO (that I am aware of) that was released that was like that is Vanguard Saga of Heroes, which had an unique starting area for each race as well (it actually had more starting zones because it had more races)
WoW's shaman is very unique, not too many MMOs, if any (as far as I know), that is like the WoW shaman
It also has most content and paths to advancement than any MMO. From 1-60 you have a TON of zones you can choose to go through, each time you make a character its different because there are so many choices to go to. And that is VANILLA zones before expansion zones, no MMORPG (themepark) has that many vanilla zones to progress in. Most MMORPGs are a very small linear world, WoW is linear to a point, but you have a TON of choices of what zone to go to. Once past 60 the choices are more pigeonhold, but before that you get a ton of options. And a bit of options again in cataclysm zones. But then you can level through dungeons, or level through crafting/harvesting (possible yes, I've done it and made a ton of money doing it), or PvP or any number of things.
Vanguard saga of heroes also had a ton of options of which zone to go through, because so many zones to choose from that you could level pretty much anywhere you wanted in any direction you wanted (similar to WoW). It was also very similar to advancement in WoW, where you had a lot of choices of what to do to progress.
WoW did a lot of other things right, but those are things that pop out in my mind. Only MMO to come close to WoW is vanguard saga of heroes, but it died.
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