New MMO from League of Legends’ own MMO veteran is taking a MOBA-style approach to classes, with “lots of specialized” ones: “We can’t have classes that are too generic”

Former World of Warcraft lead systems designer and League of Legends MMO veteran Greg ‘Ghostcrawler’ Street has spoken about his approach to classes in his upcoming fantasy MMORPG, which he says will include “lots of specialized classes.”

Street’s upcoming game, codenamed Ghost, still doesn’t have a release date, and no gameplay footage has been revealed, but the Blizzard and Riot Games veteran has been sharing plenty of nuggets of information over on Twitter (which previously led to him discussing what he thinks the problem plaguing MMO combat is). Recently, his focus turned to classes, which he says Ghost will have “a lot of” when it’s out.

“Rather than having fewer classes with different specs, there are just lots of specialized classes,” Street says, adding that the MMORPG is “very alt friendly.” He continues: “This means we can’t have classes that are too generic like a fighter or wizard, because we need to support 20 fighters and 20 wizards (eventually after many expansions). Think more of a MOBA like LoL, though these are your characters[,] not an already named hero you collect.”

The former WoW lead notes that he’s “not making most of the classes” in Ghost, but he’s taken inspiration from games like Darkest Dungeon, Pathfinder, and Gloomhaven, “so you can get some hints from there.” He also teases that all the classes are tied into the game’s lore. More technically speaking, the team is “using the holy trinity” – tank, DPS, and healer – and Street says the MMORPG is “unlikely to have hybrid classes that can fit multiple roles, but who knows as we get crazier with it. Our tanks are less about aggro lockdown and more about helping the group survive.”

He clarifies that much of this “still on paper at this point,” with the actual playable classes not being super diverse right now, but that’s not exactly surprising considering that the project is still early in development. That means the team may have to “pivot” on certain ideas eventually, but at the very least, this is what they are for now. 

Before Ghost’s release, be sure to check out our roundup of the top 10 best MMORPGs you can play right now.