Idea for a new World of Warcraft class, the Necromancer.

[Ceravan]

For the past year or so I've been thinking and developing the ideas in my head for the class, and it is entirely feasable and easily capable of being balanced with the other World of Warcraft classes. Tell me what you think.

Some slight backstory/lore to what could bring the class to being.
By the time this class would come out, lorewise, the Draenei will have become masters of themselves and willing and capable of controlling dark energies without being corrupted like their eredar cousins, although those that follow in this path will still be outcasts, accepted, but not welcome. Draenei will be able to be both Warlocks and Necromancers.

The expansion would sort of follow like this, after the conflict between the horde and alliance, in which Garrosh was brought down and a new warchief put in his place, a lot of people have died. There are forces working with the old gods to break the threshold between Azeroth and the underworld, where all the souls of those who have died in these many conflicts have gone to rest. All of these goings on are disturbing the balance and disrupting those who have gone to their eternal rest and those on the way (consider this a spirit realm of sorts). And now it is time for the horde and the alliance to come together to seal the rifts and put things back to the proper order, or else noone will ever see the peace of eternal rest, the peace of death, it will all be a nightmare and damnation.

With all these restless souls and undead spirits coming out and about due to these events, the Necromancer class is born. Some are hermits who've had to learn to control these undead so that they may live their life peacefully, while others have sought out to use them to their advantage and wage war. And then there are some, who have found a balance between the two and seek to use their ability to control the undead to keep the peace and to resolve conflicts. Like the Warlock class in the alliance, it is frowned upon to be a Necromancer, however, unlike Warlocks to the horde, the Necromancer is frowned upon by the horde as well, except to goblins (who don't care so long as it makes them money) and undead (who have an affinity with them).

And now, onto the class.

Necromancer
Necromancers are a cloth wearing class and can wield staves, daggers, and swords.
Races that can be a Necromancer are:
Horde: Orc, Undead, Troll, Goblin
[*]Blood Elves find Necromancey too distasteful, which is how they can be Warlocks but not Necromancers.
Alliance: Worgen, Human, Gnome, Draenei
[*]Dwarves find Necromancey to be blasphemy, so refuse to have a trainer, let alone welcome any of their own kind to embrace it. The only Dwarven Necromancers you will find will be amongst those opening the rift between Azeroth and the underworld.

Tauren, Night Elves and Pandaren cannot be Necromancers as they find it is unnatural. They accept those that have become Necromancers as doing what they must do, but cannot come to terms with doing it themselves.

The Necromancer class is all about the undead, through and through. The three specs are based on this. Those three specs are Dominate, Control, and well, the third one is a work in progress.

The Dominate spec can be best compared to the Hunter's Beastmaster spec. This is a DPS spec.
In the Dominate spec, you can Dominate(think tame) any undead out in the world, it is a permanent pet. You can only have up to 3, unlike the hunter which can have 5, plus the 20 stabled. At 30 you get the ability to unsummon the one you currently have and Dominate/summon your second one, at 60 is when you get your 3rd one.
This spec is all about that Dominated undead pet of yours. You don't have the ability to name your pet, it comes with a name based on what type of undead, IE naga/elven name if it's a naga undead, vyrkul name if it's a vyrkul undead, common name if it's a basic undead minion. Every undead will have abilities based on the type it is, water based abilities for naga undead, frost or power(stronger hits, less accuracy) based abilities for vyrkul, and so on. As you get higher in level you can give gear to your pet that will enhance it's abilities based on the gear you gave it, some pieces, like shoulders, helm, weapons may even show on your minion. Once you give a piece of gear to your pet, you won't be able to get it back, any other gear of that type that you gave it will affect it's stats/abilities based on what it is. The abilities your pet gains won't be as powerful as a player with the same item, and it won't gain all the abilities that a player would with the item, for example Gurthalak on a player has a chance to spawn tentacles, your pet will never be able to do so. And you can't need on items that your pet can use. It may be easier however to just give the ability to give the pets gear for mearly cosmetic reasons and forgo any changes to it's power.
Your pet in this spec IS your primary damage ability, you have some slows and a low damage dot or two, but mainly have ways to enhance and heal your dominated minion.

The Control spec is an unusual spec in that it allows you to be a tank. It is a Tank spec, and you can kind of compare it to pet tanking or ranged tanking.
In the Control spec, you have 3 random minions, they are permanent, and are like Shaman Feral Spirits, Druid Treants, or Mage Mirror Images. They are a controllable guardian of sorts and they share your health pool. What random minions you have does not affect how they tank and only slightly affects what abilities they use to tank with.
This spec is all about abilities to help you control the fights and stay alive. It enhances the abilities they use for threat as well as your health and their armor. The minions as they take hits, no matter where your health is, will gradually die, and you will need to use your Raise Minions ability again to have a fresh, random, minion join your remaining minions. If you don't manage this well, you won't get very far, as once all 3 are dead, you are just as squishy as any other clothy. Think of each of the 3 minions having it's own set of a stack of 20 charges. And think of the charges similar to a shaman Lightning Shield, where it can only be used up every few seconds. If a mob or group of mobs has aoe abilities, this, depending on your minions chance to resist, may take out a charge on all 3 minions. A group of mobs may each be targeting a different minion, or may decide to target one minion, part of your job is to watch those charges and Raise a new minion as needed. As far as heals are concerned, they heal you, which keeps your health pool up and regenerates the charges on the minions.

The last spec is still a work in progress, but think of it as a ranged dps.
Essentially, in this spec, you have a ghostly minion(banshee or one of them souls that you would find in or around karazhan for example), that is a spell caster along side you. It will have it's own set of abilities based on your level, and both of you are casters, think of your pet as a more advanced version of a Warlock Imp. Casting more than just one spell, you can set it up to cast a variety of up to 4 spells, one or two of them would even be heals or HoTs. In this spec, you are the main damage dealer, whereas your pet enhances your abilities and casts alongside you. You could place it in a different location with move pet, or you could even make it attack a different target than you, you could set it to just keep you healed, as it's heals only work on you or itself, you wouldn't be able to use it to heal a party/raid member.

As for the last spec, I hadn't really given it much thought as I was so focus'd on the mechanics/ideas behind the first two specs.

What do y'all think, I'd like to hear your opinions, may even put it up on the warcraft forums.

[Lisaara]

Eh....sucha class has been brought up before but technically....we have those...split into two classes: Warlocks and Death Knights. They already do with the necromancer does.

[Teigan]

I rather like the idea. Kinda a clothie DK, but better. I always thought the DK spec with perma-pet should be a little more "pet" focused, and this would be. Whether I would actually want a decomposing peon at my side at all times is another matter....well, hell..who wouldn't?

[Kayb]

I really can't see a Draeni being a Necromancer, they're all for the light and goodness and peace and shiney and pony. I doubt they'd be up for reanimating corpses.