With how much has foundationally changed in World of Warcraft recently, it feels like just about anything could happen. Warbands have revolutionized account-wide progression, player housing is on its way, and you can drift in a racecar now. Blizzard could tell me it’s adding a battle royale to Azeroth and I’d believe it—oh wait, that already happened.
So when I heard the recent reveal video for the upcoming patch 11.2 Ghosts of K’aresh has what looks like a tease for a new kind of demon hunter—a class that’s been around for nine years—it only took me a few seconds to be convinced it’s probably real. Demon hunters are the only class left with only two specializations to choose from while everyone else gets to juggle three (or four in the druid’s case). And it wasn’t that long ago that Blizzard surprised everyone with a third spec for evokers.
The clue lies in 11.2’s new raid Manaforge Omega. One of the encounters is against three demon hunters who have mysteriously found their way to the planet. Two of them are dressed like the demon hunter specializations we already have: Havok (damage dealer) and Vengeance (tank). But the one in the middle is decked out in unique purple gear and holding two glaives made out of glowing void energy.
Blizzard could explain this away with just about anything, but Wowhead and many players can’t think of a good reason why it would choose to make up a new type of demon hunter just for a boss fight.
“I was going to be dismissive of this but it is strange to have both DH specs represented on each side,” Reddit user Guilhaum wrote.
Wowhead speculates the void-themed Midnight expansion could skip adding a new class and introduce new specializations instead. I’m no lorehead, but I know demon hunters have direct ties to Illidan Stormrage, a very popular character who might be coming back for the last expansion of the trilogy, The Last Titan. When asked about when players would be able to finally pull the gigantic sword sticking out of the planet on a WoWCast episode last year, executive creative director Chris Metzen said, “I would even say you are not prepared for that moment,” referencing an iconic line from Illidan at the end of the Burning Crusade cinematic trailer. A big update for demon hunters could be the first step in welcoming the very first demon hunter back to WoW.
If things play out like the evoker’s third spec did, we might hear about a new demon hunter spec within a few months.