Wow is finally ready for minor races including High elves

[Talen]

Night Elves:
High Elf - New blood elf model without tatoos, non-glowy blue, green, purple, grey eye variations. Starts in phased Quel'thalas before heading to Redridge or starts in Teldrassil.

Depends on how much work you want. High Elves could start anywhere from Stormwind, to Theramore, Quel'thalas or Crystalsong. We could see them as refugees from Lordaeron or Theramore, part of the Silver Covenant, Azerothians or see them being expelled from QT.

Vrykul: Hylanaar Vrykul: New human model but Vrykul height - not sure it's worth redoing the vrykul model just for this. Starter zone could be Stormpeaks phased 1-6 near Thor's peak, before joining the humans in stormwind.

Starter zone - on a ship as an ambassador to the humans. You start off there, approach Varian, help out around Stromwind before being sent on to help with the cataclsym. Hero Race, available after L80.

No Worgen or Panderan minor races I can think off - they won't be getting new models and it doesn't make sense to create a minor race for them like I did for the Gnomes.

Worgen: Tailed versions, Night Elfs....Gnomish Worgen as well.

Minor or Sub races can be added fairly easily. The question is in the impact you want each to have. Some can be just new skins, others would benefit from their own stories and questlines. Some could be available right away, others could be seen as hero races, opening up a pathway to the later levels.

Love the idea fdor the Troll racial.

EJL

[ravenmoon]

I play my Blood Elf as a High Elf. No need for any special sub-race feature in-game.

don't mean to diss role-play, but I'd much rather play a High elf as a high elf rather than a blood elf pretending, or dark iron as a dark iron rather than a bronzebeard pretending.. this is why i think they should do a little bit more than just have extra skin tones. at the minimum, I would provide a separate narrative and able to select the minor race with its name and description on the character creation as a subset of the main race. with a narrative you don't even need to add any quests and with an individual character creation screen you can make a more authentic presentation without too much work. I like to know that i'm selecting a High elf or a Taunka specifically or a Mag'har orc. but that's just me

[xezar]

Reskins are probably easy to do, but kinda meh on bothering to give them a new minor starting area, that's what would kill the deal for blizz. Besides who cares where they start, being a wildhammer or taunka is good enough for me.

[foxHeart]

Yeah, that's great, except high elves aren't a "minor" race. They are completely different than both night elves and blood elves. They're not a sub-division of either...

Dwarves on the other hand tend to all be pretty similar. Orcs are a bit of a stretch with maghar, but it could work.

[Mace]

Depends on how much work you want. High Elves could start anywhere from Stormwind, to Theramore, Quel'thalas or Crystalsong. We could see them as refugees from Lordaeron or Theramore, part of the Silver Covenant, Azerothians or see them being expelled from QT.




Starter zone - on a ship as an ambassador to the humans. You start off there, approach Varian, help out around Stromwind before being sent on to help with the cataclsym. Hero Race, available after L80.



Worgen: Tailed versions, Night Elfs....Gnomish Worgen as well.

Minor or Sub races can be added fairly easily. The question is in the impact you want each to have. Some can be just new skins, others would benefit from their own stories and questlines. Some could be available right away, others could be seen as hero races, opening up a pathway to the later levels.

Love the idea fdor the Troll racial.

EJL

well written Talen, you're the first to provide a concept for Worgen minor races, tailed ones .. although Gnomish and high elven worgen would likely mean a complete re-design to do it justice which would probably disqualify, but a tailed worgen might make the cut.

and completely agree with you about the impact of the race you want would determine the degree of customisation and the depth of introduction, you could anything from just a different opening narrative to a 1-6 starter zone.

btw.. if they did a phased starter zone for high elves, Crystalsong forest would be a really good choice with options to head to tormwind or the highbourne in teldrassil after that.

oh and the concept of Hero race also accessible after a certain level like 60 or 80 is also a possibility, altho unlikely because introducing them like that would require a death knight like experience, besides i would wanna play as a half mecha gnome from the start.

[Razael]

If i called the shots i'd do something like this:

Humans: Vrykul (a surviving caste that possibly refused to submit to the Lich King)
Night Elves: Highbourne (Slender, more Fancy Night elf, jewels , ornamentations of the sort), High Elves (this could fit either here, or on the Human area, not sure what makes more sense lorewise, if they reunite with the Night Elves or take their small dwindling numbers over to Stormwind)
Dwarves : Wildhammer, Dark Iron
Gnomes: Mechagnomes (possibly not full mechanical, more like the OP suggested, with Steampunk enhancements and that sort of stuff)
Draenei: Broken
Worgen: Out of ideas on this one

Orcs: Mag'har, Dragonmaw
Tauren: Taunka, and the new sub race from MoP , forgot the name
Trolls: Amani, Drakkari (yes please, maybe the few survivors link up with the darkspear or something like that)
Undead: So what if instead of giving the Darkfallen and the undead elves in general to be a sub race of the blood elves, why not a sub race of the undead? i mean undead elves already roam the Forsaken zones etc. , make it come with a Dark Ranger class (or a 4th spec to mah rogue themed as a Dark Ranger, stealing them hunters lootz)
Blood Elves: The badass ones, like OP (i think) described, with scars, tattoos and stuffz, allowing the regular blood elves to look closer to their High Elven brethren
Goblins : No ideas, maybe the Gilgoblins, they kinda look cool, unsure how this would fit lore wise.

Just my 2 cents.

[Laqweeta]

Omg. The Taunka.. That would be SO neat, leveling to 6 or so.. Only to see your friends get completely massacred, and out of the blue.. Comes a Horde Warship that rescues you.. You awake in Mulgore, with Taurens standing over you! YES PLEASE!!!

[Zxzas]

I'd like this... I mean blizzard has plenty of room in Azeroth and the technology to phase even just the zone in which these sub-races start out.

Wildhammers could start out in the Hinterlands, Dark Iron in Blackrock Mountain, Maghar in Nagrand, Highborne in Feralas (Dire Maul perhaps-the library comes to mind) etc etc. Would be neat. And of course they can just say "Oh herp derp this, Varian/Magni/Garrosh(Thrall)/Tyrande, needs your herp derp help in so and so land," after 1-10.

[Gharld]

To be honest I'm not sure on the whole phased zones and intro quests being changed for a cosmetic change that really, besides having your char look cooler, will only effect RP'ers. Subrace-Class Restrictions could also be an annoyance, but shouldnt be too hard to code "Brown orc no be warlock". While I love the idea I think it should be 100% cosmetic and nothing more than that. As for the "lore of the character", not too much of a stretch to say that you happen to be <enter subrace here> who wants to help <enter faction here> and they accept you. Anything further and deeper than that and you may as well be a RP'er, and chances are RP'ers would have a field day making some backstory for this kind of stuff.

[sk8ter12244]

Those ideas are awesome! If they did any of them, especially the forsaken one, i'd be stoked

[Krolikn]

This idea isn't new but I would like it to get more support.

[Sylar Hao]

The only problem is creating very different starting areas for each sub-race. Otherwise they wouldn't make sense (although Blizzard likes to rip his own lore.. so..).

That said. I support this.

[Terahertz]

Would love sub-races so much. As DK you're able to create some kind of Leper Gnome and Mag'har/Dragonmaw Orc with the different tone of skins. But it'd be cooler to see real sub-races like High Elf/Forest Trolls etc.

[Shroud]

Voljin could always start recruiting other like minded tribes like the Dark Trolls hell probably a good part of the zandalari are more than likely not to keen the direction there leader is going knowing full well the road it would lead down,if they were to try and become a third super power on azeroth the Horde and Alliance would team up and wipe them off the face of the planet.

[Mace]

The only problem is creating very different starting areas for each sub-race. Otherwise they wouldn't make sense (although Blizzard likes to rip his own lore.. so..).

That said. I support this.

it all depends on how much they wanna do, if they release them all at once, i mean new models and the corresponding minor rces along, then i doubt they would do phased starting areas for most of them and rather just give an opening narrative and possibly a quest or some npcs in dialogue at the main race starting area they start.

BUT : if they release them in patches, so overtime they gradually release the new models, then they can easily do a starting 1-6 area, afterall, it's not impossible to imagine designing roughly 25 quests per patch to fit 1 or 2 minor races introduced with the new race.. besides i think they'll get a lot more omney from race changes if they release the new models with minor races at arate of 1 to 2 a patch or as soon as they are ready, don't even need to wait for a patch. Like this i can certainly see most minor races getting a phased 1-6 starting zone in a familiar area. more than 6 levels would be too much work.

[Kalserrar]

I agree that I can't see any reason high elves shouldn't become a playable race for the Alliance anymore. The lore was always there, so the only reason against it was that their models being so similar to blood elves' would cause confusion across factions (and in PvP) - but with the release of Pandaren as a "neutral" race, that argument's invalid. In my eyes either blood elves will be made a neutral "elf race", which either becomes a High Elf or Blood Elf, depending on which faction you choose (perhaps a phased Quel'Thalas starting area, where you either choose to follow Kael'thas and take on the new name, or you head south to the Alliance?), or the Alliance will get High Elves when the Horde get Ogres (they were being considered to be the Horde race in Cataclysm).

I'm not sure I agree with all of your new racial skins though. Darkfallen, Felblood Elves, and Mechagnomes in particular would cause problems (mostly down to their faction alignments). And I don't see why Highborne night elves would require a new skin? They're the same race.

[ravenmoon]

Blizzard have two main approaches for this:
1. Release all the new models at the same time with their corresponding minor races, and pump it up as a huge new feature of the next expansion.. plus side the awesome change gets the kind of publicity that would reach retired subscribers who it might interest. But this is normally a short lived huge excitement that dies within a month at most 2 of the expansions release, so you get a huge boom, that rapidly falls off a month later.

The thing is expansions will always generate hteir own publicity and their own boom anyway regardless of this kick, can the introduction e served to better profit by another approach?

2. Release the new models and their corresponding minor races in a staggered apporach over time, release them in pairs either as soon as they are ready or with major content patches. I would say as soon as they are ready. Advanatage? you can do a much better job of the introduction and the effect will last a lot longer. REleasing all at once is too much good stuff at once. Releasing in pairs like every few months when they are ready, you will get a steady stream of race changes, not to mention sustain excitement over a much longer period of time.

previously it might have made sense for the big show at every expansion, but times are much harder now, you need to try something new and something that will have a stronger appeal to retain your subscribers and cause a few to return, some of my friends who have quit will find it very hard to resist coming back if they could play as Mag'har orcs or HIgh elves and with new models.


What is the best combos to do?

I have no idea here, don't know how far along they are, but a staggered approach will certainly make a minor race introduction a bit more special, if you released a couple of races or one as soon as they are ready, you could also budget for the time to phase one of the existing zones for a level 1-6 start.

Another thing I would recommend they do, is to release the concept art for ALL the new models. I know there is something to gain in built up excitement when you don't know what your re-done race would look like, however that can also bite you in the foot when what is released is not as fancy as players imagined. So, I recommend releasing the concept art for all the 10 races that are being re-modelled. What you can leave as a surprise would be which minor races are coming and also the animations of the models.. that in itself will build excitement and you can always promise more minor races to come in the future if an expected group doesn't arrive.

imo: I would start with the worse models in game:
Humans

then after that pick from: Night elves (and blood elves since the two are so similar), Orcs, Dwarves - they're all horrible. Trolls, Draenei and Forsaken - finally Tauren, Gnomes.

[Boogums]

Let them finish with the remodels first.

[Mace]

Am I the only one who's rather 'meh' about all this talk of sub-races? I'd rather the current playable races and their cultures be expanded upon in game, not diluted further by tacking on more of their racial kin, and then having to explain why they're there. For example, Moira and 'her people' returning makes for an interesting political conundrum, but in all honesty the sight of the Dark Iron in Ironforge makes my blood curl.

hey, minor races are exactly that, they expand the culture of the race. you can't expand the culture of the Orcs without a chapter on the other clans like the Mag'har or dragonmaw, or humans without other nations like Kul'tiras or their half-elven population or the high elves who share stormwind and dalaran with humans, or Tauren without the Taunka and the new group introduced in MoP, or Dwarves without more on the wildhammer and dark iron dwarves. or night elves without the highbourne and what that means for high elves too etc. etc, trolls with more depth on the other groups.

so yeah, minor races is definitley expandiing the culture, especially if you introduce them with a phased 1-6 starter zone in some existing wow area like Mag'har orcs in nagrand, Broken from Zangermarsh, high elves from Crystalsong forest etc etc - they are part of the story of the main race which is why you don't need brand new starter zones or tones of lore insertion, undoubtedly their very introduction is an expansion on the culture of the main race

don't you see they are all tied to one main race

[ZenX]

...and with that every bit of lore that was remaining within the game would finally be killed for the sake of gameplay and players' special snowflake obsession.