Tony, they've said, repeatedly, that Essentials is not meant to replace or supersede the existing classes, merely add to them. I don't think any of your scenarios for older classes (particularly the Fighter) going by the wayside are terribly likely.
The fighter is rather unlikely to fade away, as it is the single most supported class in the entire game. If they don't add any new feats, powers, or paragon paths for it for a while, it wouldn't be a withdrawal of support: it'd be offering the other classes a chance to catch up.
The fighter has more class-specific feats, more powers, more paragon paths, and more class-feature options than any other class in the game.
The only class that comes close in terms of feat support is the Warlord, and the fighter has 120% of what the Warlord does. You could increase the number of Seeker-specific feats nine-fold and they'd be just past the half-way mark vs. fighters.
The Wizard (Arcanist) gets two utilities and two dailies at every appropriate level, and the Wizard (Mage) shares the same power list and gets two encounter powers at every appropriate level. Despite that? There are more fighter powers than Wizard powers. By a considerable number, at that.
Given that the Knight and Slayer Fighter subclasses are contrasted with the Weaponmaster variations specifically by the fact that they don't get powers, other than additional uses of Power Strike, it's rather hard for power inflation to cause them to eclipse the Weaponmaster. Beyond maybe one or two more stances, and maybe some more options for weapon-specific perks, it seems unlikely the Essentials fighters are going to get much more support themselves.
Errata and updates? They just did the most recent pass on the Weaponmaster, and didn't really end up changing much. If they wanted to nerf it, they could have, and didn't. I don't think they want to: they're fully aware how popular the class is, or they wouldn't have fed it so much support. Nerfing it won't sell more copies of the Essentials books, it'll just make people ignore errata.
And, finally, organized play... well, the Weaponmaster can't be used in Encounters. However, the goal of Encounters is to sell Essentials books (and whatever the season's book to promote is), as the gateway in to D&D. The new Lair Assault organized play just started, and is intended to be for more experienced players, and allows for all source-books.
The fighter is rather unlikely to fade away, as it is the single most supported class in the entire game. If they don't add any new feats, powers, or paragon paths for it for a while, it wouldn't be a withdrawal of support: it'd be offering the other classes a chance to catch up.
The fighter has more class-specific feats, more powers, more paragon paths, and more class-feature options than any other class in the game.
The only class that comes close in terms of feat support is the Warlord, and the fighter has 120% of what the Warlord does. You could increase the number of Seeker-specific feats nine-fold and they'd be just past the half-way mark vs. fighters.
The Wizard (Arcanist) gets two utilities and two dailies at every appropriate level, and the Wizard (Mage) shares the same power list and gets two encounter powers at every appropriate level. Despite that? There are more fighter powers than Wizard powers. By a considerable number, at that.
Given that the Knight and Slayer Fighter subclasses are contrasted with the Weaponmaster variations specifically by the fact that they don't get powers, other than additional uses of Power Strike, it's rather hard for power inflation to cause them to eclipse the Weaponmaster. Beyond maybe one or two more stances, and maybe some more options for weapon-specific perks, it seems unlikely the Essentials fighters are going to get much more support themselves.
Errata and updates? They just did the most recent pass on the Weaponmaster, and didn't really end up changing much. If they wanted to nerf it, they could have, and didn't. I don't think they want to: they're fully aware how popular the class is, or they wouldn't have fed it so much support. Nerfing it won't sell more copies of the Essentials books, it'll just make people ignore errata.
And, finally, organized play... well, the Weaponmaster can't be used in Encounters. However, the goal of Encounters is to sell Essentials books (and whatever the season's book to promote is), as the gateway in to D&D. The new Lair Assault organized play just started, and is intended to be for more experienced players, and allows for all source-books.
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