Battle for Azeroth Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Hitei]

Eh, Night Elves aren’t Nightborne. They don’t even look the same, minus skin color.

What are you talking about? The Nightborne are Night Elf models with very slightly slimmer limbs and altered animations.

Nightborne share very little similarity to Night Elves at all, despite their history: in fact they share more similarities with Blood Elves, as has been discussed in this thread.

Not to mention the Sunwell/Nightwell comparison...

The Nightborne are Highborne. They are quite literally the exact same people as the Shen'dralar who are now part of the Night Elves.

[In Ogres We Trust]

I don't buy it.

Nightbourne I can see.

Lightforged Draenei and Cowmountain Tauren are just customization options, not new races. If it had been broken draenei and maybe yaungol I could have bought it, but not the other two.

And what in the fuck is a void elf?

[Beloren]

Nightborne share very little similarity to Night Elves at all, despite their history: in fact they share more similarities with Blood Elves, as has been discussed in this thread.

Not to mention the Sunwell/Nightwell comparison...

that's just nonsense, nightborne are arcane night elves, if you've never read the war of the ancients or nkow anythign about the arcane side of the night elves, that is exactly what the nightborne are, i mean for crying out loud, they're in a freaking kaldorei empire city, and you are shown that they are night elves getting darker and darker over time due to the nightwell. How many more freaking clues do you need.

Arcane magic was first wielded by the night elves, and they built Suramar and all that fancy stuff by it, the blood elves are descended off a group of them and bear in mind, they are not an improvement according to the lore, the elven golden era was 10k years ago in the night elf empire, everything since then has been broken because of the sundering/legion.

it's just silly to think that they share very little simalirty to night elves when they are the freaking night elven individuals themselves and look nearly identical to them in their new form. Make no mistake, nightborne on the horde are bloody night elves on the horde.

we better get all of Suramar too, then we can bundle htem up and keep them there, far away from Quel'thalas

[EbaumsTipster]

Lightforged and Highmountain are super easy and understandable faction picks. The Void Elves and the Nightborne swapping the expected side is a "hook" Blizzard will use to drum up interest.

As 7.3 shows it's not like Nightborne going Horde is something that hasn't been hinted at.

[Wyrt]

That's a high elf in shadowform.

[Directionalk9]

I think the bigger sin is that the Alliance is getting a Horde “model” and Horde is not getting an Alliance “model”

The Nightborne are similar, but not a copy/paste job.

[Hitei]

Lightforged and Highmountain are super easy and understandable faction picks. The Void Elves and the Nightborne swapping the expected side is a "hook" Blizzard will use to drum up interest.

As 7.3 shows it's not like Nightborne going Horde is something that hasn't been hinted at.

It's such an amazingly weak plot point in the face of the entire Suramar campaign, and who the Nightborne are, and who the factions are.

[Beloren]

We have a ton of evidence for them joining horde. Which is where subrace falls apart to me. They'd be a NElf subrace technically.

technically yes, but this is player logic. void elf while a blood elf sub-race is on the alliance, so conversly, nightborne while a nigiht elf sub-race is playable on the horde. This is those damn alliance getting high elves pretty much. And i'm sorry, nightborne is not payment enough for most of us on the horde.

[In Ogres We Trust]

that's just nonsense, nightborne are arcane night elves, if you've never read the war of the ancients or nkow anythign about the arcane side of the night elves, that is exactly what the nightborne are, i mean for crying out loud, they're in a freaking kaldorei empire city, and you are shown that they are night elves getting darker and darker over time due to the nightwell. How many more freaking clues do you need.

Arcane magic was first wielded by the night elves, and they built Suramar and all that fancy stuff by it, the blood elves are descended off a group of them and bear in mind, they are not an improvement according to the lore, the elven golden era was 10k years ago in the night elf empire, everything since then has been broken because of the sundering/legion.

it's just silly to think that they share very little simalirty to night elves when they are the freaking night elven individuals themselves and look nearly identical to them in their new form. Make no mistake, nightborne on the horde are bloody night elves on the horde.

we better get all of Suramar too, then we can bundle htem up and keep them there, far away from Quel'thalas

You need a break from the game.

- - - Updated - - -

Lightforged and Highmountain are super easy and understandable faction picks. The Void Elves and the Nightborne swapping the expected side is a "hook" Blizzard will use to drum up interest.

As 7.3 shows it's not like Nightborne going Horde is something that hasn't been hinted at.

If you will, since I haven't touched the new content, elaborate on this statement.

[EbaumsTipster]

I think the bigger sin is that the Alliance is getting a Horde “model” and Horde is not getting an Alliance “model”

The Nightborne are similar, but not a copy/paste job.

That's definitley a complaint I can see. My theory is that Void Elves/Alleria will receive a slight model update, or they will showcase their "void form" to make them more unique than Blood Elves.

If you will, since I haven't touched the new content, elaborate on this statement.

The latest patch has Lady Liadrin hanging out with Silgryn. If you click on them, they have a conversation where Liadrin advertises the Horde to Silgryn, and she says she'll think about it. There is no Alliance alternative.

[In Ogres We Trust]

That's definitley a complaint I can see. My theory is that Void Elves/Alleria will receive a slight model update, or they will showcase their "void form" to make them more unique than Blood Elves.



The latest patch has Lady Liadrin hanging out with Silgryn. If you click on them, they have a conversation where Liadrin advertises the Horde to Silgryn, and she says she'll think about it. There is no Alliance alternative.

Isn't Silgryn a male?

[Beloren]

I think the bigger sin is that the Alliance is getting a Horde “model” and Horde is not getting an Alliance “model”

The Nightborne are similar, but not a copy/paste job.

don't be so sure of that, all they need to say is the Arcan'dor helped reverse some of the effects of hte nightwell mutation, and revert the ears back tto night elven, and just claim it's a different gait, skin colour and armor scheme, they look close enough to night elves, which it's freaking obvious they do. it's so blatantly night elves on the horde.

Why would they bring night elf lore to the horde - it's either going to ruin blood elf lore, or just going to go to waste - there really is no serious logical minded reason for any blood elf fan to want nightborne on the horde, you want blood leves to be better than nightborne, not be friends with them. They are more like the new challenge, we've dealt with the night elves, now lets prove that we are better than the best the kaldorei empire had to offer by surpassing the nightborne.

[Directionalk9]

High mountain as a subrace should be another crime we talk about. A sub-race who’s only differing feature (once in armor) is antlers. Eh, LF Draenei is worse I guess.

[In Ogres We Trust]

I think this works:

a) Blood Elves become Neutral on the selection screen
b) High Elves join the Alliance as playable versions of the Void Elves (to give a distinction)
c) Nightborne join the Horde to fill the spot from the relocation of the Blood Elves
d) Playable Ogres smash every elf in sight before telling Blizzard to come up with a damn alternative for the Alliance

[Wildberry]

Elf-woes aside, I do wonder how far they're willing to go with subraces. To be specific, in the sense that the "subraces" deviate from the base models.

Take Orcs and Dwarves for example. Orcs will most likely be getting Mag'har skins & possibly Blackrock/Dragonmaw/Shattered Hand ones. Dwarves will likely get Wildhammer and Dark Iron Skins. Those are simply skins stretched over the base model.

If Draenei and Tauren get Lightforged Draenei and Highmountain Tauren respectively, those will simply have different customization options. Lightforged Draenei will obviously have different skins and particle effects, but from what we've seen, they also sport unavailable horn options. Highmountain Tauren will obviously have antlers instead of horns.

Then, we have the Nightborne and Void Elf bit. Should Blood Elves get Nightborne, and Night Elves get Void Elves, those are going to be major deviations from the base model. Silhouettes, skeletons, and available textures will be changed completely.

If this is actually the case, how far do you guys think we can reasonably expect subraces to go, in terms of model deviation? Feel free to elaborate in a general sense, or spitball your own, of course, but just in terms of gauging reasonability, I'd like to hear thoughts on the likelihood of the following:

Draenei: Broken. (The Argus Broken have far more model similarity from the shoulders down than the BC ones. So it seems likely to me, but like I stated before, I've been wanting subraces since WotLK so I might be getting trigger happy)
Tauren: Taunka. (Canonically loyal to the Horde, similar to Tauren from the head down)
Gnome: Mechagnome (Just spitballing here, because Leper Gnome seems to be the only alternative. Would require some/all flesh replaced by machinery. Too much?)
Undead: Reskinned Humans and/or Elves (Nathanos Blightcaller and Sylvanas. The former seems more likely to me)

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

technically yes, but this is player logic. void elf while a blood elf sub-race is on the alliance, so conversly, nightborne while a nigiht elf sub-race is playable on the horde. This is those damn alliance getting high elves pretty much. And i'm sorry, nightborne is not payment enough for most of us on the horde.

For me the bigger sin is if we get no new race. Just these reskins.

Feels very WoD to me right now. We're missing the big ticket item.

[EbaumsTipster]

High mountain as a subrace should be another crime we talk about. A sub-race who’s only differing feature (once in armor) is antlers. Eh, LF Draenei is worse I guess.

Technically they have war paint too. LF Draenei have eyes and new horns and skin.

Nightborne/Void Elves are the more developed ones, while the other two pave the way for more to come like Dark Iron, Wildhammer, Draenor Orcs, etc

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Also maybe we should spin the subrace talk into a new thread. It's kinds drowned out everything else again.

[TheFirstOnes]

Eh, Night Elves aren’t Nightborne. They don’t even look the same, minus skin color.



To each thier own?

Nightborne are an Evolution of Night Elves. They transformed cause of the Nightwell. Meanwhile, the HIGH ELVES are also an Evolution of the Night Elves, they just changed color due to the Arcane, the Eastern Climate, and the Sunwell.

They're VERY fucking Similar, as they're just mutations of their former selves.

[Hugnomo]

This sub-race speculation is really interesting. Honestly, coupled with the dialog Blizzard went out of their way to implement between Liadrin and Sigryn, I'd say it is VERY VERY likely we'll see sub-races in the next expansion.

And I want to remind everyone, that while aesthetically one would assume the nightborne to be a sub-race for nightelves, lore doesn't necessarily make it so. The last time the nightborne were united with the Night elves was at the War of the Ancients, thousands of years ago. There was no horde or alliance back then. No high elves/blood elves. They have lost contact for thousands of years, and now they see that a part of their kin has turned to the Alliance, while another has turned to the Horde (as blood elves). One of those groups is conservative about wielding arcane magic, lives off druidic magic and the light. The other have developed a wondrous city of arcane knowledge, have had their leadership corrupted by demons, became addicted to magic and used a well (Sunwell) to sate it. With which one of these groups do you think the Nightborne will have an affinity ?