Friday, August 14, 2015

Where Would You Want Your Class Hall?

We already know of a few of the places where class halls are going to be.  Places like the lights hope chapel for paladins and the dalaran sewers for rogues but for most classes we have heard nothing about where their class hall is thus far.  So lets play a game of where would you place your favorite classes class hall.  Remember it needs to be a neutral place, based on the design they are using so that both sides use the same hall.

I personally like the choices of the lights hope chapel for paladins and the sewers for rogues.  I think they both fit extremely well.  But for some classes I really can't see where they could go, at least if only considering places that already exist.  So we might need to make up some new areas.

Druids would be a simple one for me in my opinion.  They already have their own zone as it stands and will be getting more love in the legion expansion.  But that zone, Moonglade, really seems to be the best place to set their class hall.  First off they have an ability that brings them directly there, which would be an amazing boon, and some might say quite unfair for them, but no other class has such a perfect place mostly unused that could house a class hall so easily.  If druids class hall is not in Moonglade, blizzard is doing it wrong.  The place was built to be the druid class hall back in vanilla before class halls were even a dream in some developers mind.

My main is a hunter so I have been thinking where the hunter hall could be.  If they mentioned it already I did not notice it, so I will instead let my mind run wild and see where we should have our class hall.

There is no place that already exists in game that really jumps out immediately in my mind.  There is nothing in game in terms of a building that just screams hunter like the lights hope chapel screams paladin.  Add that to the fact that hunters as a whole usually feel more like the class least likely to create a fraternity of their class.  Maybe a group of big game hunters talking about their hunts while swilling beer in a lodge could fit but in game most hunters are not the big game hunter type.  That is in Nessingwarys wheelhouse.  The hunters we play in game, at least to me, come off as loners, us with out pets, taking on the world one hunt at a time.  We are the planning and stalking types that kill for the betterment of us as individuals when required to do so or our society as a whole, not the jump out behind a bush to kill a deer type of game hunter.

Being the slow pace and intense planning involved in a good hunt, as we do them, I would not expect the place that we would call our class hall to be hidden.  It would probably be some sort of building that people would pass by and think nothing of it.  It would blend in, it would seem inconspicuous, not drawing any attention to itself, just like we as hunters do when we are out in the wild.  We blend, we do not stand out.  Leave the flashy lights to the paladins.

I could perhaps picture a farm, a large farm out in the middle of nowhere.  We would need space for our pets because we don't go anywhere without them.  Even when we are doing a lone hunt our pets are never far behind waiting for the moment to pounce should we ever call for the need of them.  Our pets, our companions, are important to a hunter so a hunters hall needs to not only have a place for the hunters to mix and mingle, but a place for our pets to run free for a bit and, I guess, mingle as well with the other hunters pets as I am sure they have stories they wish to share as well.

So being there is no place in game that stands out as a place I would like to see as a hunters hall I will have to make something up.  My first idea was in southern westfall because there is a lot of green area for our pets to roam, some mountains around it so it would be an area that would make for a perfect point of defense if need be, and most of that area is currently unused for the most part.  Some minor quests, very few, all low level mobs that would not be missed if they disappeared, and nothing other of conciquence otherwise.

I could see some carving out of the mountains, some free ranged space for our pets out in front, and it is in an isolated place.  So it seems like a good idea to me.  The only thing I would have a concern with is that it is one zone removed from strormwind which means it is really close to alliance territory.

I then started to think of any other area that would fit for hunters in the vein of what I already have in mind.  A place where we could be most secluded and have room for our pets.   Another place that seems like it could fit were we could put a hunters and their pets is in Feralas.  There are a few areas there, if cleaned out some, that could make a reasonable place for hunters to have their hall.  The ruins of feathermoon seem to be one of the top options in my opinion.  Losing the couple of quests that are there would mean nothing really in the long run.

Want might even better would be if somehow we could raise and then shroud the island to the south of it that went underwater in cataclysm.  Isle of dread, if I remember correctly, is what it used to be called, where we would go to farm the chimaerok meat.  The zone had a few quests objectives back in the day but nothing the average player would have ever ventured there for and as it was an elite area even before it suck, it is a place many even knew it was there.  It was forgotten before it was even lost.  For a place of seclusion there would be no place better.  It was surrounded completely by mountains and lush green lands from one end to the other.

That would be my ideal place to put the hunters hall.  Sure, it is kind of out in the middle of no where, but it is a place were we can be alone, we can have our pets run free, and it has some history, even if long lost, of being a elite hunting ground, which, after all, it what we are, hunters.

I am sure there are better places out there and I am sure that blizzard would never raise a sunken island for us hunters to call home even if I think it would be rather cool, so it most assuredly will be elsewhere.  But where?

Where do you think would be a good place for your class hall?  Or if you already know where your class hall is, would you prefer it being elsewhere, and if so, where.

40 comments:

  1. Putting rogues in a sewer rather than Ravenholdt, is like putting druids in the Molten Front rather than Moonglade!

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    1. Depends on how you look at it. Revenholdt is burnt down and destroyed last I remember it. However, the dalaran sewers were a rogue hideout even back in wrath, so there is history there.

      So the choice is a really cool underground lair that you have been using for so many years and no one ever noticed you there or a burnt down building in the middle of nowhere.

      I'll take the sewers for my rogue thank you very much. Add to that everyone else will have to go world hopping to get to their class hall while mine will be in our home city. I really like that idea.

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  2. I'm going to be honest here an say I really don't care. What I care about is access. If they add portals or a teleport ability for classes, it can be out-of-the-way and cool. If they don't, I want it across the street from my go-to bank, stable master, transmog dudes, and AH. And I don't want it instanced. I hate taking time to zone.

    The stuff I do in towns and hubs is the stuff I have to do before I go out into the world and play the game. It is the mowing the grass before playing golf if you will. You need to mow to play, but you want to minimize it as much as possible.

    In the spirit of your post, however, I like Stranglethorn b/c it was the first home of Nessingwary.

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    1. Access will be key. We already know the rogues class hall is in dalaran and our home city is dalaran so they have quick access. If the druids do get moonglade they will have quick access with their teleport, as do the DK with theirs.

      So location will matter. I hope there is a port to it. Traveling to lights hope chapel on my paladin will get really tired really fast. I am guessing we will have a class hall hearthstone the same as we have a garrison one and a shipyard one.

      Stranglethrorn does make some sense, absolutely. And lots of space for our pets to roam too.

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    2. Hmmmm, I guess I just assumed that location would not matter, other than for story line and aesthetics, that every class would have a class hall hearthstone, like our current garrison ones.

      My impression was that the halls will have to be instanced, as our garrisons are, but extended for a large group, a technical progression of the current mechanic for inviting your raid or party group into your garrison.

      Not going to be happy if I have to haul my elf butt all the way to someplace like Nagrand just to pick up a quest or do something with followers.

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    3. I am near sure there will be a hearthstone, but with blizzard you can never be sure. I am with you there. I would hate to travel my butt half way across the world once a day to do missions and pick up a quest.

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  3. As I like and develop my toons equally, I would run through them all.

    Dudes which already have personal class lodge with teleport ability:
    Death Knight - Acherus, no options
    Monk - Kun Lai Summit, no options
    Druid - Moonglade, no options

    Obvious or Blizz-determined ones:
    Paladin - Light's Hope Chapel, no options
    Mages - Dalaran Tower, no options
    Warlocks - Outer Space at chunks of planets - yes, but could we have some furniture too?
    Shamans - Maelstorm Cave

    Rogues - would prefer Ravenholdt, only rogues know about it :) A special place if you know what I mean.
    Hunters - Winterspring. Many cosy caves, space for pets, frost, and its north was the biggest game grind without Hemet Nesigwary.
    Warriors - the hardest one. Some arena would do.

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    1. Warriors are a hard one too. Maybe as hard as the hunters, but I could see anywhere we skulls get smashed on a regular basis to be some place they would hang out it. Maybe near the amphitheater of anguish or something like that.

      I see a lot of rogues saying ravenholdt, but ravenholdt was destroyed. Not to mention the dalaran sewers were their lair in wrath, so it has history as well as a rogue hang out. It fits. Maybe not as "pretty" as the manor, but still acceptable and with history.

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    2. Was it? As far as I remember Sylvanas and Cataclysm elementals didn't get up there. Durnholde Keep was overrun by elementals, yes. and Hillsbrad - by forces of banshee queen.

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    3. Anon, Grumpy's former Guild Leader:

      Ravenholdt Manor is not a burned out building, least wise it is not to my level 100 warrior. I just logged in and flew there to make sure my summer festival memories were correct and Ravenholdt is still standing. Is its destruction something only rogues can see, cause otherwise the rumor of its demise are greatly exaggerated.

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    4. @Anon & @gnomecore

      You've never done the quest I am guessing, hence you can not see it. It gets destroyed at the end of the fangs of the father quest line. Only rogues do the quest. At the end of the quest line there is a huge battle and the building gets set on fire to burn. Of course for anyone that has not done the quest it is just a building in pristine condition.

      Admittedly, for game play reasons, even if a rogue has done the quest, the building is there in fine condition but as far as lore goes, it is a burnt out building. (at least I think it is in fine condition now, never been back).

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    5. it got re-built! I tell ya, Gnome Construction is F.A.S.T.

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    6. Gnome rogues, fast AND no one sees them doing it.

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  4. Hunters should take over that bar in BRD. It's not a very huntery theme, but it's a bar!

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    1. Okay, part of me really likes this idea.

      On the down side, it is instanced. On the plus side, it would be giant F-You to all the other classes. :-)

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    2. I could go for that. It might not be huntery but it sure is cool.

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  5. They've already mentioned that the warlock class hall will be (basically) on the smashed demon hunter homeworld. (sarcasm)yeah so excited :| (/sarcasm)

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    1. At least it is something new and not a place we have already been, which some people are complaining about.

      Personally I like the idea of it being a place you have a connection with, but as a hunter the only thing I have a connection with, at all, is my pet.

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    2. I don't know about where, but your comment spawned an idea of why and how we get there.

      http://casuallyodd.blogspot.com/2015/08/an-idea-on-class-halls.html

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    3. Sweet post, read it over the weekend. Well thought out and very fleshed out.

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    4. @Grumpy

      Thanks I had fun writing it. Reading it today I notice so many glaring errors or things I could have done better, but at the time it really got me much of excited and interested in a part of the game I'm not really enthused about. Which says a lot to me about the importance of good lore for some players. But I knew that already. I just wish Blizzard remembered it.

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    5. That happens all the time when writing posts to me too. I come back and think of things I left out, or things I said that came out different than what I had in mind. Pitfalls of writing sometimes.

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  6. For me I think the hunter place should be in STV, the first place Hemit was, the original vanilla beast zone. They would have to build a special hunter camp or building but that seems fine.

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    1. That seems to be a common place, at least the one I have seen suggested the most. I would not be adverse to that.

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  7. I think there are lots of great places. I really like the idea of Grizzly hills, upstream from the PvP zone (just upstream of where arcturis spawns). I could also see Sholozar Basin or Stranglethorn working, but I'm a little bit less excited about hemet zones.

    However, I think they're going to put ours in the new highland zone (already forgot what it's going to be called) in the broken isles. So, what I really want to see, is something like this:

    You're walking through a forest, and notice some big boulders and such, but nothing out of place, and keep moving on.

    here's an example from DA:I http://i.imgur.com/HABgiLc.jpg

    The point of that picture, is you can't see it from the road there, but there's a trail going down through those rocks into a forest canyon, which opens up into a big camp. I think that sort of camp would be great for a hunter's hall. At the bottom, there could be a dwarven entrance to the rock that takes you to a tavern, there could perhaps, at the top of the hill, be a tauren type shrine.

    Anyhow, I just really want it to be in the wilderness somewhere, and not be seen easily.

    I think maybe there was a robin hood movie with the same sort of idea, they had to blindfold marian and take her to their hideout in sherwood forest, and basically they went through a little opening that eventually opened up into a lush forest with waterfalls and such. I'd like it to feel like that when we go into the "hall".

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  8. The place that first came to my mind was Farstrider Lodge in Loch Modan.

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    1. Position wise that would be perfect, it is kind of out in the middle of know wheres land. But it is also an alliance city, so that would need to change to allow it.

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  9. Beyond flavor, it really doesn't matter: unless we can walk out the door and be in that zone. Instanced with a flight point just outside and the option to take a stroll would be ideal.
    I'd like it to be a spell, not an item in my bag. I'd want my Class Hall portal spell to open a portal and my hunter pets stream into the portal before me.
    If we can walk out the door, then anywhere far away would be fine: Tanaris near the Caverns would be cool.
    I'd like to see Class Hall wars. Rogues vs Hunters in ten minutes, Join? (y/n). A brief fight for some minor achievement.
    A daily DPS leaderboard in the Class Hall would be fine: maybe with a pseudo combat log so we could see the top spells.
    I'd like to be near some Titan experimental zone: Un'Goro crater, Shalozar Basin or even that Dino Isle in MoP.

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    1. "I'd like to see Class Hall wars. Rogues vs Hunters in ten minutes, Join? (y/n). A brief fight for some minor achievement. "

      I'm sure the balance issues would be ridiculous, but this could actually make Class Halls somewhat interesting. And I don't even really like PvP but it would give a reason to have them. Cool idea.

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    2. Seems like you put more thought into this than blizzard has so far. Some nice ideas. I agree with Casually Odd however, the build in balance issues of one class vs another class would be too much to over come. Even more so when you consider a class like the druids could have tanks, healers, mdps and rdps whereas the rogues would have melee. They would get owned.

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  10. I don't really care about a class hall. Seems like a waste of resources. Would rather see them add a dungeon or two or some other content.

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    1. What if they were to add dungeons designed to be solo dungeons for that class, or for 5 of that class? Would be like two things at once.

      I personally would love the solo dungeons designed to be a challenge to me and my class.

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  11. Anon, Grumpy's former Guild Leader:

    The idea of being the leader of the Paladin Order or the Priest Order or the Monk Order or..., bah, it is a ridiculous notion. One that should be dropped. If I am to be a commander of the whole order on one character and yet have another character of the same class and am still supposed to be the commander on that character too; well, that just blows any attempt at immersion. I have four priests for goodness sake that I play actively, how is each of them supposed to be the commander of the Priestly Order. It is a stupid idea, made to try to tweak a single player mode onto a multi-player game.

    Drop that and pick a lore character to be the surviving head of the order. We as the player can be his main go to character without the foolish pretense we are in charge, when we obviously are not. With that change in focus, the story may make a bit more sense using the various class Orders as a bridge between the horde/alliance divide.

    The notion of the Horde Alliance relationships falling to a bitter low is absurd on the face of it. With Varian having shown Lincoln type restraint in how the Alliance acted in the last flare up, combined with a Vol'jin who has a history of pragmatic cooperation with the Alliance, it makes even less sense. I suppose enough deaths in the lore leaders of the various factions will make cooperation harder. Even so, anything other than a full joining together in the Horde Alliance of Azeroth (with all factions working together) makes no sense to me. It does not have to be a perfect union, but rather a pragmatic decision to work together to fight the Legion and not each other. I doubt I am going to find any other story worthwhile.

    Actually this Commander of all the (insert class here) Order silliness might be the one thing that drags down the expansion as a story telling device. There are a lot of interesting things to come in WoW:L but a stupid story telling device that breaks immersion by existing and makes no sense play-wise may be a deal breaker. Really, how will my not be listed as the commander make the game any worse? What benefit is there to my having to pretend I am the Commander of the Silver Hand on my paladins. (Note the plural there.) None is the answer, for the whole concept is ludicrous.

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    1. They throw around the immersion word left and right and use it as an excuse to leave us grounded as long as possible and they once more they do something, like class halls, that ruin immersion for some people, like yourself.

      It makes no sense. How can immersion be so important to them about one part of the game and mean absolutely nothing to them in another. I understand that game play trumps lore but I disagree with the idea of we are all the leader of a mixed area. It worked in garrisons as we were the only ones there, it will not work here.

      I actively support the idea of working under a leader from lore, being his right hand elf. That can work, even if multiple hunters are his subordinate so to speak.

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  12. Anon, Grumpy's former Guild Leader:

    Class Orders that I am fairly sure of include:

    Lights Hope Chapel for my paladin (3 alliance, 3 horde)
    Kun Lai Summit for my monk (2 alliance, 1 horde)
    Moonglade for my druid (2 alliance)
    Acherus for my death knight (4 alliance)
    Dalaran Tower for my mage (4 alliance)
    Maelstrom Cave for my shaman (1 alliance)
    Legion Portal world for my warlock (3 alliance)

    No Idea for my priest (6 alliance, 1 horde)
    My first thought was Northshire Abbey but I could see Horde players objecting to that one, so I really know of no particular spot that makes sense for a pantheon that is loosely termed the Light

    No Idea for my hunter (2 alliance)
    I like Farstrider Lodge in Loch Modan, but again that is an Alliance outpost, so why would Horde want to go there?

    No Idea for my warrior (3 alliance)
    Some sort of training ground, perhaps attached to the Gurabashi arena in the Cape of Stranglethorn?

    I have no rogues, nor (yet) demon hunters.

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    1. You know, even if it is a PvP area, the Gurabashi arena is the best area I have heard mentioned for warriors thus far. I like it.

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  13. The location of the Hunter class hall was revealed in a recent Gamescom interview. Here was Blizzard's response when asked:

    Ion Hazzikostas: I believe it is in the peaks of the zone High Mountain. It’s because they have a hunters lodge up there.

    http://www.mmogames.com/gamearticles/world-warcraft-legion-gamescom-interview/

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    1. I saw that the other day too.

      It was not where I might have expected it might be or where I wanted it to be, but it is most definitely not a place I would complain about. It seems, from the little we know, very hunterish.

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