Could Tinkers be the next class in World of Warcraft?

They might be according to YouTube content creators Taliesin and Evitel.

If Blizzard follows their pattern, 2019 will bring the announcement of the next expansion of World of Warcraft and with it, a new playable class. Taliesin and Evitel are certain this new class is none other than the Tinker! I thought Cataclysm would have been the perfect time to introduce them along with the Goblin race, but hey now is better than never. Just like the Demon Hunter, Tinkers were a hero class in Warcraft 3.

The video is fantastic and I recommend you take a few minutes to watch it. Taliesin revisits a bit of history surrounding new classes in World of Warcraft. He outlines the issue of Tinkers not fitting with the expected Black Empire/Old gods theme of the next expansion. This leads him to conclude Blizzard is already hard at work introducing elements of the Tinker class throughout Battle for Azeroth.

He points to 8.2 features like the Junker Gnomes and Mechagon. He also shows the Goblin and Gnome Island Expedition AI teams. These teams are meant to resemble a group of players with each member having an identifiable playable class, except for two: Gazlowe’s Grease Monkies and the Razak’s Roughriders. These teams are full of Goblins and Gnomes which look like Tinkers.

Every new class introduced thus far as been either a tank/DPS hybrid or a tank/healer/DPS hybrid. They’ve also all been melee. While the expected mech suit screams tank, what caught my eye with the Expedition teams was the medical bot which points to a possible healing spec. It would be interesting to see a healer/DPS or even a ranged tank with a healing and DPS spec. One of the exciting things about Tinkers is they could be almost anything at this point.

In addition to what Taliesin outlines in the video, there are a couple of other intriguing items in the game which also could point to a Tinker playable class. The Beast Mastery Hunter talent, Spitting Cobra is, in essence, a proof of concept for a turret based DPS class. With a simple skin change, it could go from an animal to Torbjörn style turret. While Spitting Cobra isn’t the best option on its row for Hunters, the Tinker version could hit much harder as a core part of its rotation. Then there’s the Pump Action Bandage Gun introduced as an Engineering item in Legion. While it does negligible healing, it’s only a matter of tuning the numbers to turn it into a Heal. Combined with the the medical bot from the Roughnecks doing its best impersonation of a Healing Stream Totem and you’ve got the beginnings of a Ana-like healer spec.

There remains the question of what to do with the Engineering profession. There’s bound to be some overlap between Engineering items and the Tinker abilities. I don’t think they’d go so far as to remove Engineering, though Battle for Azeroth saw the end of First Aid.  Some players invested in the Engineering profession may not have an interest in making a new Tinker main. The simplest solution would simply leave the Engineering profession as lesser powered version with higher failure chances.

I have wanted playable Tinkers in game for a long time.  If Taliesin is right and Tinkers are indeed the next playable class, I know I’ll have a new main in 9.0.