Ethereals: Playable Next Expansion???!!

[Henako]

Please, yes.

[Deleted]

I still hope eredar for horde, so i could fulfill my dream of playing fem draenei without having to go alliance.

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

Most likely not, but that'd be flippin sweet

agree, probably not next expansion, but i would love to play an ethereal some day

[Sylvaeres]

I would race change my mage so fast

[Otaka]

broken got new models too.

i'm still suspecting broken and naga for alliance and horde respectively.

they wouldnt bring broken to alliance, theres no point... alliance has draenei and broken are literally sad draenei.

[Azalar]

Ethereals will never be playable because the whole point of a playable race is being able to customize them according to the standard UI. Ethereal have no face or identifying markers, there's nothing to really personalize.

But that's always happened with races that have existed before they were playable. For example, Worgen had at first sight very few customizable features, nor there were any females to be seen before Cataclysm. When you make a race playable, you put those personalizable characteristics into them accordingly.

[derpkitteh]

they wouldnt bring broken to alliance, theres no point... alliance has draenei and broken are literally sad draenei.

they are more of a subrace, yeah.

but it could work really. they're also one of the more requested races out there, up there with naga and ogres.

[Azalar]

Not at all comparable; worgen had a LOT of customizable features. They had FACES. They already came in many different fur types and you had the potential there. I mean, take the Broken. They have "few customizable features" as you put it, but they have infinite potential there. Tentacle variation, face types, etc. It's there.

Ethereal don't have faces or features to begin with, and that's a core trait to their species. That's who they are; they aren't meant to hold identity

Well, they 'do' have a face. You could choose one of many bandage arrangements for the face, showing one 'eye', both, none. Different body bandage arrangements as well, showing off energy in different parts of the body. The color of the energy inside. Maybe even some adornments in the face like Golden Yak has tried to depict in some of his art.

If they weren't to hold any identity, ranks and prestige would mean little to them. I highly doubt a Nexus-king or Nexus-prince would look the same as a regular Ethereal.

[zlygork]

Not at all comparable; worgen had a LOT of customizable features. They had FACES. They already came in many different fur types and you had the potential there. I mean, take the Broken. They have "few customizable features" as you put it, but they have infinite potential there. Tentacle variation, face types, etc. It's there.

Ethereal don't have faces or features to begin with, and that's a core trait to their species. That's who they are; they aren't meant to hold identity

In other words, they lack faces. Their bodies are potentially far more customizable than the other races (bandage color + energy color + bandage SHAPE/arrangement/both), fancy adornments (remember, they seem to be a pretty damn capitalistic kind of race - I would expect some sort of alternative to golden rings and earrings). As posters before have said, they can have different settings of bandage arrangements as "faces" or hell, I could even see some ethereal projection of a face as an option (think a ghostly face kind of popping in front of the bandages) then you get all of your usual facial choices + an option of the usual faceless mummy.

Whenever people say something is impossible due to art challenges (ethereal, naga, so on), they forget that if blizzard was a company that gives up whenever a challenge pops up, they wouldn't make some of the most popular games in their respective genres. Cataclysm was "impossible", playable worgen were impossible, pandaria was impossible, etc. I dream that one day these forums will learn that creative challenge is an incentive for producers and not an insurmontable wall.

[Kokolums]

Ethereals will never be playable because the whole point of a playable race is being able to customize them according to the standard UI. Ethereal have no face or identifying markers, there's nothing to really personalize.

Incorrect. Ethereals were once humanoids but they had their flesh stripped away by void energies. It might be possible for them to phase shift into a flesh form.

[zlygork]

Incorrect. Ethereals were once humanoids but they had their flesh stripped away by void energies. It might be possible for them to phase shift into a flesh form.

No one wants that tho, people like the cool mummy people that make visual copy of themselves as they walk, not {insert color here} humans with likely pointy ears and shiny eyes.

I believe the blizzard artists are capable of better than giving us non-ethereal ethereals or two-legged naga.

[Azalar]

But they do, they look identical. Because they're energy, you know? The only thing that distinguishes them is what they're wearing, and that would be entirely negated by making them playable since a playable race wears whatever gear they happen to stumble upon. A Nexus Prince without his clothes is identical to any other ethereal. Because that's their species' identity

That's kind of the appeal, and why they're so interesting. They're shapeless

Well, most other races also look nearly identical if you strip them. A human noble would look just like a human peasant if both were naked :P

So uh, Ethereals got a humanoid shape provided by the bandages. They're indeed a mass of nebulous energy without them.

Incorrect. Ethereals were once humanoids but they had their flesh stripped away by void energies. It might be possible for them to phase shift into a flesh form.

I'd rather not, tbh. While that'd open up possibilities for roleplaying purposes, I'd rather have them permanently in energy form. Then it'd be more of a reminder of their suffering.

[Trumpcat]

Always loved them, even more with the new models, but so certain they won't be a player race... ...If they ever are, however, I am immediately buying race change for two characters and deleting at least one to reroll Ethereal.

[Hallowseve17]

I don't think these new ethereal models mean they'll be a playable race next expansion. If anything, this proves the opposite. Plus, we don't need any new races yet, instead they should be fleshing out the Alliance and Horde story and lore. We need subraces first.

[Azalar]

I don't think these new ethereal models mean they'll be a playable race next expansion. If anything, this proves the opposite. Plus, we don't need any new races yet, instead they should be fleshing out the Alliance and Horde story and lore. We need subraces first.

Naga are along Ethereals the two most wanted races. Naga have been refurbished at least twice. This is Ethereals' first revamp. This proves nothing imo xD

[Deleted]

The fact that they used to be something else does not really enter into it, that's just lore written around them. Plus, nobody wants the original ethereal, their whole appeal is the mysterious energy mummy thing. That's what makes them interesting, you know?

And ironicly enough it is this same thing that makes it unlikely they become playable. A faceless pile of bandages with very limited ammounts of gear on them.

[Evangeliste]

True. But then there is the login screen where they are in glorious size (wish I could get rid of the buttons (UI) on that screen. But yeah - if they ever became a playable race, there would be ways to add something face-like or even the option to go faceless I guess. Or have female etherals (don't think I have seen one)

They might do it to be fair, keeping as it is now would make it more like Diablo Archangels. It's not uncommon for them to mix it but they do seaparate them so they are different between the games so who knows?
They were humanoids with themselves slowly decayed into their current form so there could be an opening in reformation, there's even that currently live, you have to look no further than Paladin Class Hall with the light Naztherim. Who even saw that coming? And we still don't even know why!
If they do become playable they won't just leave it as it is. When they first appeared, the technology and computer power was virtually non-existent to have a ghostly face (even several if it is a playable race), with enough resources to stretch to everything else. That could be re-addressed since time has well and truly moved on since then.