We saw in 11.0 his interest in it throughout the campaign, and his work with Brinthe was the reason we uncovered the truth from Archaedas. Obviously this ties super well into his character and his love of knowledge, but they've put an emphasis on his love for technology on top.
And then, the Overcharged Delves in 11.1.7. That (and the tease for its return in the future) were obviously primarily just gameplay elements with lore flavor, but it's the first time we see Dagran actually *building* things with Titan tech, and having his own plotline.
I've said in the past that, despite my desire for a wholly gnome/goblin centric Tinker, I unfortunately don't think Blizzard would ever see them as marketable. But a 'Titan tech' based Tinker? That not only allows for more racial options, but it fits *perfectly* with TLT.
Dagran's still got an ongoing story with both the Earthen and Titan technology, thanks to all of his questlines with Brinthe. And that makes him the perfect 'main character' to market for that kind of Tinker class in TLT, at which point we'll be long overdue for a new one.
I still hope at least *some* of Tinker's visuals and story is gnome/goblin based (especially after all of Brann's 11.2 abilities, and their ties to Mimiron). But I'll still be more than content to finally see Tinkers playable in a relevant way through Dagran and the Titanforged.
I kind of hope they separate the flavors of tinker into the different specs. Goblins would pretty easily slot into DPS, Gnomish could be healing and Titan stuff could probably make for a pretty good tanking aesthetic.
But honestly, I'd be pretty fine with with a mixture as long as the BIG stuff like any possible tanking mech suit spec had plentiful skin options for that RP flavor choice. That's the big one for me. I really don't want to be FORCED into any specific style, like what Hunters got. Elf or Rexxar. 🤷
I’d want it to be like Druids/Shamans where there’s multiple aesthetics for all specs! Maybe race locked by default but can be unlocked through some class quests as well.
That would be ideal. They did implement the Druid and Warlock customization stuff into the barber shop, so letting Tinkers use that to choose appearances for big stuff is the MINIMUM. Of course I'm much more for the Goblin/Gnome tech stuff, but we'll see what they do when they eventually get to it.
I always had this idea to also include Draenei (obviously) and maybe belfs (magic golems galore), although just the little Tinker guys would be so fun! Definitely a lot of ideas for the class!!