Blizzard have to find a way, the right way to make high elves playable

[ravenmoon]

really they do, cos they're sittiig on a gold mine they need to exploit while people are still interested in wow and wow lore, it's one of those topics that gets fans really really riled up whenever it's brought up, and it always sparks interest and contention, which fits the conflict system of warcraft like hot glove on a winter morn. Only horde v alliance topics get this

you don't get half as much night elf vs blood elf friction as you get high elf vs blood elf, everytime without fail, so they gotta find a way.

My proposal:
Do it with sub-races

this would be the best time give an alliance sub-race of high elves but also give a forsaken sub-race of human look alikes, something the horde tbh really need, and will help naturally balance horde numbers without having to pump up their storyline.

one of the sub-races of alliance get high elves, one of the sub races of forsaken get unliving humans, so they're not decayed like undead, but they're not living either, - they look human so playess see a human optioni on character creation, but they don't have to be alive, think of vampires for example, they/re not living, yet they're not dead either

Proposal:
Living or Unliving Forsaken Humans:
Model: BLood elf model - humanised - it is the blood elf model, blood elf animations, blood elf silhouette - BUT - human skin tones (so you get darker ones), human ears, human eyes, human eyebrows, Lordearon human emotes.

it's important these don't look like stormwind humans or alliance humans, their story ties in with the forsaken.

Enjoy the hate and fihgting between fans oon this one, and enjoy the masses who aren't lore buffs of warcraft, actually seeing a race they can identify with on the horde side and picking horde forskaen unliving to play with.

watch population blanace even out without the need to hakeep pushing the horde stories almost exclusively and watch the love and immersement grow.

[Gheld]

They should make it so that the Lich King nearly wipes out all of the High Elf civilization, and that the majority of the survivors eventually join up with the Horde under the name "Blood Elves".

[ravenmoon]

her'es a possible story for the forsaken human-look alikes: the Unliving version and the Living version

Story:
Unliving: Lordearon survivors are unwitting victims of a san'layan that is trying to become a lich king hiself, found a way making minions through a bite that he can control. Starts a campaign, and ends up infecting the majority of Lorderon survivors still fighting in Tirisfal Glades, but rather than become undead they beceme in this weird state of unliving with a racial that has their eyes turn blood red and growing fangs. Sylvannas eventually frees them by taking out this San'layan, no longer human but not undead either, and free to make their own choice, a large portion join the ranks of the forsaken.

alternative: Living humans: Again uses the blood elf model humanized like above. Mysterious event happens where a large number of forsaken are gathered and their flesh startsliving again, regenerating so that they become alive again, still forsaken, Sylvanna use s them as a secret weapon to to infiltrate the humans, but the humans have also got a mysterious alchemist who calims he can cure undeath, thafter seeing the success of this on a captured forsaken, Varian orders the cure to be weaponzied, the gthought is eliinate the forsaken by turning them all human again. So having this magic /alchemy bomb, they launch an attack, at a huge forsaken gathering to start this coampaign, these bombs don't work on everyone, but they work on some, and some forsaken become human gagain, , but thrather than rejoin the alliance or fight agianst the forsaken, they still hate the alliance for trying to wipe them out when they ewere undead, all the efforts of the alliance end up doing is just making some forsaken human again and they end up not changing anything, meanwhile htey've been infiltrated and don't even know it.

it would be a nice counter to playable high elves, which is too good a thing to pass up.

[Arrashi]

No they really don't have to. And if they ever decide to add more races, they should try better then just generic elves we already have.

[Amerissis]

Why would you want more of the same when you could get a real new race? I don't understand why people want blood elves with different eye colours in the first place, because that's all it is. And I think even less people asked for high elves then did for Pandaren, and look how that turned out...

[ravenmoon]

They should make it so that the Lich King nearly wipes out all of the High Elf civilization, and that the majority of the survivors eventually join up with the Horde under the name "Blood Elves".

no fun in that, you want high elves playable, you want horde blood elves really hating on them, and you want alliance high elves really hating on the blood elves

you want the same kind of heated reactions on the forums playing out in pvp and plot lines in-game that's what you want. But in order to make it work well, you need to give horde faction an equally compelling sub-race tha twill draw the numbers in, so make Lordearon humans either as unliving vampires types that look like humans that will use blood elf models as a base, or make them forsaken that somehow get living again and use blood elf models humanized instead of stormwind human models, should work well, for balance, numbers and things like that - afterall if alliance get a playable blood elf model called the high elf, why not horde get a playable human sub-race called forsaken unliving or forsaken humans

- - - Updated - - -

Why would you want more of the same when you could get a real new race? I don't understand why people want blood elves with different eye colours in the first place, because that's all it is. And I think even less people asked for high elves then did for Pandaren, and look how that turned out...

sub races, they're coming, and would be perfect for introducing high elve s no? afterall as you point out, you can't exactly introdcue high elves as a new race, cos they are already in the game as blood elves, the best they can ever be is a sub-race, an option that they might do for giving race customizations.

[Andromedes]

Why would you want more of the same when you could get a real new race? I don't understand why people want blood elves with different eye colours in the first place, because that's all it is. And I think even less people asked for high elves then did for Pandaren, and look how that turned out...

I dont understand, why people are saying, that high elves are blood elves with blue eyes... Its like you said, that eredar and draenei are the same.. Its not just about visual appearance, but also about their behavior, culture.

[Durandro]

They should make it so that the Lich King nearly wipes out all of the High Elf civilization, and that the majority of the survivors eventually join up with the Horde under the name "Blood Elves".

I know you're trying to be funny, but... /sigh

Anyway. The population argument is pretty much moot due to:

1/ The Darkspear Trolls. Tiny population who suffered more losses recently.
2/ The Gilnean Worgen. Relatively small community, most Gilneans aren't Worgen.
3/ The Bilgewater Goblins. Even assuming rapid reproduction and recruiting from other Cartels...

Small populations be damned, they can still be playable. They are, after all, heroes and not entire armies.

[Deleted]

Elvs, Blood Elvs.
Enough Elv's. already

[rayvio]

we have enough elves already, both factions have their own elf race and there's really no point in adding another. if and when we get more new races they should be new. more elves would be like giving the Horde another goblin cartel as a new race or having Dark Irons as a new race for Alliance

[Deleted]

I'm all for sub-races, and I'm all for playable alliance high elves, but somehow I don't think conjuring a race of pseudo-humans out of thin air would happen, even if it was a viable way to keep realm populations balanced (which is debatable in and of itself )

I dont understand, why people are saying, that high elves are blood elves with blue eyes... Its like you said, that eredar and draenei are the same.. Its not just about visual appearance, but also about their behavior, culture.

Well, technically the differences between Draenei and Eredar are far more pronounced than between High Elves and Blood Elves, both physically and culturally - give it another ten thousand years or so, and that might have changed But I get were you're coming from, there is really no reason why high elves shouldn't be playable, other than maybe population balance.

They could just make each sub race a 20€ buyable item on the store, that would prevent massive shifts in population and pay for any additional development time invested. But then again, the flak they would take might not be worth it

[Jawless Jones]

And next we have Steamweedle Goblins!!!!

And then Duskwood Worgen!!!!

And then Highborne Night Elves!!!!

And then Bloodscalp and Skullsplitter Trolls!!!!

[randomnamegenerator16]

No more races. We have enough of them.

[ravenmoon]

They could just make each sub race a 20€ buyable item on the store, that would prevent massive shifts in population and pay for any additional development time invested. But then again, the flak they would take might not be worth it

yeah, that would work, i suspect we're going to see subraces available at a price. and you buy it at a price:

E.g. Su-race Elves:

Gets you highbourne, high elves, forsaken elves, San'layan - customisations, complete with level 1-6 phased zones in Ferelas Eldre'thalas for highbourne, Crystalsong forest for high elves, sunstrider isle for forsaken elves, Death knight start zone for San'layan
The packs would either be per sub racea aat $4.99 per sub-race or you buy the elven unit at $14.99 or for a staight up $49.99 you unlock ALL races.

Alternatively if you don't want to wait, you have to complete some long ass chain in the zone the subrace is home to, e.g. Taunka woud have to complete some long ass chain inBorean Tundra/WEstern dragonblight to unlock them

[Cover25]

yeah, that would work, i suspect we're going to see subraces available at a price. and you buy it at a price:

E.g. Su-race Elves:

Gets you highbourne, high elves, forsaken elves, San'layan - customisations, complete with level 1-6 phased zones in Ferelas Eldre'thalas for highbourne, Crystalsong forest for high elves, sunstrider isle for forsaken elves, Death knight start zone for San'layan
The packs would either be per sub racea aat $4.99 per sub-race or you buy the elven unit at $14.99 or for a staight up $49.99 you unlock ALL races.

Alternatively if you don't want to wait, you have to complete some long ass chain in the zone the subrace is home to, e.g. Taunka woud have to complete some long ass chain inBorean Tundra/WEstern dragonblight to unlock them

Pretty sure ESO proved that hiding races behind a price tag is a bad idea.

[Stormdash]

They don't really *have* to do it.

If they did do it, the right way is going to look pretty different depending on who you ask.

[Thimagryn]

watch population blanace even out without the need to hakeep pushing the horde stories almost exclusively and watch the love and immersement grow.

You mean by balance out it skews even further into a higher percentage of Human and Elf characters than there already are? We might as well remove all other race options then. Saves the artists time on all that work.

[Deleted]

Pretty sure ESO proved that hiding races behind a price tag is a bad idea.

I don't think ESO constitutes valid proof that such a system could never, ever work, considering the bazillion other problems that game has. We already have (very limited) paid customisation in WoW in the form of transmog items, the jump to paid sub races wouldn't be that long to make.

[ravenmoon]

You mean by balance out it skews even further into a higher percentage of Human and Elf characters than there already are? We might as well remove all other race options then. Saves the artists time on all that work.

i duno, i think you're both right and wrong on this. yes, it would lead to a higher percentage of human and elf characters, true, but i don't think it would make the other races vanish ata ll, quite the oposite, the new players will naturally flock to the humans, those new to warcraft relatively tend to pick humans in games that have funny looking playable creatures.

after they've gotten into the game, and know the lore, they then choose other races, but it's the new bunch that gneerally are the bulk of the players, and then after a while it would be so cliche'd to be human or elf, that draws more people to the other races

[Thimagryn]

after they've gotten into the game, and know the lore, they then choose other races, but it's the new bunch that gneerally are the bulk of the players, and then after a while it would be so cliche'd to be human or elf, that draws more people to the other races

From the numbers, that's not how things work, or else we'd have a more even number of races played. People who choose Human and Blood Elf generally stick with those choices. I would even say that a sizeable percentage of other races chosen are due to lack of Human or Blood Elf options, like Druids and Shamans.

Of course this is a broad generalization, but Human and Blood Elf options for both sides tips the scales in a different direction instead of balancing things out.