WoW class: the Warden

World of Warcraft is coming up with an expansion in the coming months. It will feature the new continent of Northrend, a new level 80 cap and a new class: the Death Knight. The class will feature spells like Raise the Dead, an dark version of the Paladin's auras and the ability to wear heavy armor for tanking.


But what about other possible classes which could exist in WoW? Here's an idea for an additional class for World of Warcraft: the Warden. Based on Warcraft 3's Night Elf hero, the Warden is a melee/caster hybrid which specializes in vicious attacks, sneaking, self-preservation and a whole realm of magical abilities based on the idea of crippling and incapacitating his enemies, as Wardens are known within the Elf communities as peace keepers and bounty hunters. Only Blood Elves and Night Elves can become Wardens.

The Warden wears cloth armor, uses a new type of weapon called Glaives, which are double-edged circular weapons which can be thrown and summoned back. It has three talent trees: Conservation, Wrath and Skirmish. Conservation boosts the Warden's protective spells and abilities; Wrath boosts his offensive spells and Skirmish boosts his melée and ranged combat abilities.

Here's a short list of spells, talents and abilities of the Warden:

Spell: Fan of Knives
By equipping a thrown weapon, the caster can create magical duplicates of it and throw it in all directions, hitting their enemies. The strength, range and cooldown improve as the Warden becomes stronger.


Tracking: Infravision
Similar to the Hunter's various tracking spells, Infravision enables the Warden to see his enemies on the minimap. It also heightens his eyesight during the night and underwater, and surround his enemies with a reddish aura.


Spell: Spirit of Vengeance
This powerful spell summons a lumbering Spirit of Vengeance which will fight along side the Warden which summons invincible sprites for each of the Warden's fallen allies. The Warden controls only the Spirit of Vengeance as a pet, which in turns orders its sprites around.

Buff: Nature's Constitution
This is the Warden's Strength and Stamina buff which lasts 30 minutes. It also has an enhanced Thorns effect similar to the Druid's, but it is self-only.



Talent: Leather Armor
By putting a point into this talent, the Warden can switch to wearing leather armor. In addition to the Warden's multiple armor and HP regen buffs, this ability greatly enhances the Warden's ability to sustain physical attacks.


Spell: Phase
Similar to the Mage's Blink spell, the Warden's Phase spell will teleport the caster within a 20 yard range to a random location. If this random location is situated behind the Warden's enemies' field of view, the Warden's aggro is reset as they lose sight of him. If, however, this random location is within the field of view, his enemies simply relocate and resume their attack.

Buff: Moss Armor
This buff spell can be cast on self and allies and enhances Armor and health regeneration.




Combat style: Crippling Blow
With a vicious backstab attack, the Warden poisons, slows and snares his target, rendering it useless in battle for a short time.



Spell: Spoil Magic
For a few seconds, the Warden's weapons have a chance of absorbing incoming magical spells. This magical energy can be stored, converted back into mana, thrown back onto the Warden's enemies or used to enchant the weapon temporarily.


Combat style: Backlash
The Warden surprises his enemies with a spinning backward attack which hits all of his enemies currently placed behind him. A low blade swipe, this attack also snares and temporarily incapacitates his enemies.


Ability: Bust Lock
Similar to the Rogue's Lockpick ability, the Warden's Bust Lock is instantaneous and unlocks a door or a chest for everyone else without having to open it. The Bust Lock ability also deals instant damage to any mechanical foe. Its drawback is a 5-minute cooldown.


Talent: Enhanced Evade
By putting points into this talent, the Warden significantly boosts his evade ability. Five points into the talent will boost the Warden's evade by an additional 10%.



Combat style: Hurl
The Warden throws his currently equipped weapon at his enemies, and is therefore disarmed for a short period of time. The weapon will deal maximum damage to the selected enemy, but hit every other enemy in the weapon's path for decreasingly less damage.


Spell: Bloodfang
The Warden earns the temporary ability to absorb his enemy's Health with each weapon hit. Only works on beasts and humanoids. The attack is however negated, even harmful against undead creatures as it will drain the Warden's life and heal them.


Spell: Enhanced Hiding
Using their unique ability to use their clothes and layers of cloaks and robes as camouflage, the Warden can completely vanish from sight. It is similar to the Rogue's ability to sneak but can be used while in combat. It is however less effective, as higher level monsters might see through the ruse.

More MMO Class Ideas

The Grappler

Basically a wrestler, the Grappler uses his body as a weapon. Using nothing but brute strength and light body armor, he tosses and neutralizes his enemies with submission holds. His combat styles range from charging, toppling over his enemies, to targeting specific body parts, to cracking his opponents' necks with deadly submission holds. Grapplers are also the toughest and most enduring warriors since they don't carry heavy equipment.

Grapplers live a harduous life of endless fighting and drunken bar fights, and can therefore sometimes intimidate their enemies into submission or cheer up and encourage their allies, driving them sometimes into a battle frenzy. They have a whole spectrum of battle shouts, charisma and constitution buffs and survival skills. They make great battle leaders as they will often clash with an enemy party fearlessly.

The Mystic


Scattered throughout the world are remains of a long lost civilization, and the Mystics are what's left of it, as they worship their technologically advanced ancestors. In return, these abandoned ruins will come alive whenever the Mystic approaches them. They actually are of a robotic nature and will detect whenever the Mystic is near.

Through hundreds of generations, the Mystics have remembered how to operate these machines and use them to defend themselves, teleport from one place to another, uncover ancient treasures and caches, spy on their enemies, learn ancient knowledge and exclusive magic spells or summon help when in time of need. Naturally, Mystics will usually regroup around these long abandoned ruins and engage in worship rituals; they will defend them with their lives.

The Cronus Knight


The Cronus Knights have such a deep understanding of time and its various principles and manifestations that they can actually control it. On the battlefield, they are able to not only see future events but actually roll back time. The amount of time recovered, the area of effect and the effect itself are related to the Knight's level of experience. Some Cronus Knights are even capable of bringing a fallen comrade back to life.

The Cronus Knights can also increase his allies' attack and movement speeds, slow down or stop their enemies dead in their tracks, or appear to teleport themselves as they freeze time and move around the battlefield. The Cronus Knights can also cast a time bubble on magic spells; in other words, they can delay a spell's effect, moving out of the way of ground targeted spell or incoming projectile spell such as a fireball.

The Scavenger


Each battle fought is likely to leave bodies, broken weaponry and sometimes forgotten loot. This is where Scavengers come in to reap whatever's left of these ferocious encounters, as they salvage these remains for usable material. Scavengers are also known to be excellent survivalists, as they often have explored most of the world in search of treasure, lore or just a good story to tell over a campfire.

Scavengers can specialize in lore, crafts or exploration. A Scavenger specialized in lore can actually collect quest items before being given the quest - sometimes very useful as they can simply venture into an unexplored area without having to be given any quests. A Scavenger specialized in crafts can gather broken weaponry, animal-derived goods such as pelts, ivory or chitin and building material and can recondition them for the trade market. A Scavenger specialized in exploration earns attack bonuses against the types of monsters he's slain the most, exploration bonuses in new, yet-unexplored areas, and a bigger, more detailed world map. These bonuses also apply to their allies, as they temporarily share their knowledge with them.