[Real Talk] Possible Future Playable Races.

[UnluckyAmateur]

Alliance
Arrakoa
Jalgar / Furbolg


Horde
Ogres
Vrykul

Neutral
Naga
Etherals

Fixed your list to be more, reasonable.

1) High Elves would need to have their physiology altered, removing the often-leveled criticism of them being "blue-eyed Blood Elves" from the playing field.

Except that Blood elves are literally the same species as high elves minus eye color. There is absolutely no noticeable difference in physiology that warrants them being their own race. Half elves on the other hand are more of a possibility.

[Florena]

The whole thing with them is that is all they literally are, Nothing makes them special, and nothing warrants them being seperatly playable from the overwhelming majority that now call themselves Blood elves.

They're the same species as blood elves. What would you alter? Tweak their builds a bit or something? Change them too much and they're no longer classic high elves people want. And then you just run the risk of giving the Alliance an improved and updated model of the most played horde race.

[Fyersing]

The whole thing with them is that is all they literally are, Nothing makes them special, and nothing warrants them being seperatly playable from the overwhelming majority that now call themselves Blood elves.

I don't want to de-rail this thread with more High Elf fanaticism, so I'm just going to say that you're incorrect on this front.

The types of people who opted to re-brand themselves Blood Elves and adopt new, unsavory, methods of sating their addiction tend to behave radically different from those who opted not to; the difference is, philosophically, similar to pro-NSDAP Germans and anti-NSDAP Germans prior to WWII.

They both see the same problem.
They both reach radically different conclusions.

The distinction between the groups isn't the conclusion, it's the reasoning they used to reach it. Blood Elves are highly internalized, pretty much don't give two shits about anything outside of their border -- High Elves are the polar opposite. That's why people like them.

Except that Blood elves are literally the same species as high elves minus eye color. There is absolutely no noticeable difference in physiology that warrants them being their own race. Half elves on the other hand are more of a possibility.

The term species doesn't really carry a lot of weight in a fantasy setting where almost everything can interbreed. It's also worth noting that I very, very specifically mentioned that their physiology would have to be altered. If you're going to try and posit a counter-argument, at least read what I wrote first.

[Friendlyimmolation]

The types of people who opted to re-brand themselves Blood Elves and adopt new, unsavory, methods of sating their addiction tend to behave radically different from those who opted not to; the difference is, philosophically, similar to pro-NSDAP Germans and anti-NSDAP Germans prior to WWII.

They both see the same problem.
They both reach radically different conclusions.

The distinction between the groups isn't the conclusion, it's the reasoning they used to reach it. Blood Elves are highly internalized, pretty much don't give two shits about anything outside of their border -- High Elves are the polar opposite. That's why people like them.

If you think high elves are the good guys then you haven't been paying any attention. Blood elves saved the race, High elves if they had their way would have all been killed off. not every Elf got to cower behind humans and leech off magic items like most of the High elves in Dalaran have, The Blood elves had to give up morals to survive. The fact that the elves of the plague lands lodge created such civil unrest that they had to be kicked out, doesn't speak ill of the Blood elves.

High elves are snoody Blue eyed Blood elves, thats about as deep as their characterization takes them. The only reason people want them playable is that they have rose colored glasses from Warcraft II and conveniently forget Warcraft III, or still can't get over the fact that burning Crusade happened, or in the end don't give a shit and want to play as a blood elf, but hate the Horde. None of these reasons warrant High elves.

[Al Gorefiend]

I play Alliance, so I'm certainly biased here, but it seems pretty funny that the only way to keep the Horde relevant is to shoehorn previously Alliance races into their midst. Almost 45% of the Horde playerbase plays a race which is formerly Alliance, and who share almost nothing in common with the "Core Horde".

It seems to me that if the only reason someone has for playing Horde is either the Blood Elves or Forsaken, instead of taking more stuff from the Alliance to give to the Horde, they should actually make the Horde interesting. Which means, Chris Metzen, just literally kill off most of the Frostwolf Clan and especially Thrall. Prior to SoO, Garrosh was the best thing that ever happened to the Horde -- this from the perspective of someone who actually thinks of orcs as a bunch of uncouth savages.

Gonna kick the hornet's nest here a bit...

Its all about sex appeal, literally zero to do with anything else. Forget lore, racials, unique classes, whatever other garbage people want to throw in.

Blizzard can make a genderless turnip humanoid into a race, give it a +10% damage done racial and it wouldn't be enough to topple Blood Elves. Blizzard knew this when they gave the race to the Horde seeing as vanilla population demographics had Alliance:Horde ratio at something like 3:2 and 5:1 on RP servers.

Look at every other RPG as well. The race with the sexy nubile chicks has the highest playerbase - the most appealing aspect to a 18-24 year old male who identifies as an RPG gamer (Lonely fat homebodies, mostly, the stereotypes are there for a reason).

So yeah, them being a former Alliance race isn't really a factor. You have to balance the factions out somehow, right?

Edit: I will also add that this is why High Elves are a terrible idea for an Alliance race. Blizzard would have to balance out High Elves by giving WoW an M rating, then introducing a female-only race of Succubus women from the planet Fertilitus to the Horde; with breast physics IGN could only describe as "genre-defining".

[Fyersing]

If you think high elves are the good guys then you haven't been paying any attention. Blood elves saved the race, High elves if they had their way would have all been killed off. not every Elf got to cower behind humans and leech off magic items like most of the High elves in Dalaran have, The Blood elves had to give up morals to survive. The fact that the elves of the plague lands lodge created such civil unrest that they had to be kicked out, doesn't speak ill of the Blood elves.

High elves are snoody Blue eyed Blood elves, thats about as deep as their characterization takes them. The only reason people want them playable is that they have rose colored glasses from Warcraft II and conveniently forget Warcraft III, or still can't get over the fact that burning Crusade happened, or in the end don't give a shit and want to play as a blood elf, but hate the Horde. None of these reasons warrant High elves.

I didn't say I thought the High Elves were anything. I made no mention of either HE's or BE's in any context relating to inherent benevolence / malevolence, instead I made the assertion that they're simply philosophically distinct from Blood Elves. To say that the only difference between HE's and BE's is eye-color is to say the only difference between N. Koreans and S. Koreans is which side of the line they were born on -- absolutely not the case.

Gonna kick the hornet's nest here a bit...

Its all about sex appeal, literally zero to do with anything else. Forget lore, racials, unique classes, whatever other garbage people want to throw in.

The flaw in this thinking is that virtually every individual who has ever posted in favor of implementing playable High Elves has also voiced that they'd still play them even if they were made to be grotesque by comparison (to Blood Elves). So they're are, quite literally, opting for better lore regardless of the models.

Personally, I'd expect lots of exposed "leylines" all over their body; something to specifically maintain the pretty-boy image of Blood Elves, while still allowing HE's their own moment in the sun. Perhaps something like a mixture of the following images:




The result of an arcane experiment gone wrong, perhaps? With magically-charged veins that are visible through the skin and even arcane-oriented growths from their faces / arms / backs? It's "cool" without being "pretty", which is the entire point of contention.

[Radaney]

I cant think of any race currently that warrants a good realistic reason to be added.

[Syegfryed]

Because the nichè for "ugly, warmongering, burly doofus" is already being filled in the Horde by Orcs. Ugly races have the lowest playerbase in WoW, and there isn't anything fun Blizzard can do with Ogres that isn't already being done, or being done by the Horde as a collective since Ogres are already a part of it. Look at Goblins, fun as all hell with a ton of personality and less than 5% of people main one on the Horde. Like what chance does an Ogre possibly have at getting a solid amount of people who'd play one?

Vrykul for the Horde adds a new human-looking race to split apart the massive, massive amount of Blood elf players who select that race to look human. Their ideologies best mesh with the Horde, and Alliance already has 4 races that are just humans of different sizes or curses

but why for the fisrt place add a new human-looking race? just to split the blood elf? im pretty sure people play with BE not to look like "a human on the horde side"

"ulgy warmongering burly doofus" will be replace with "pretty warmongering burly doofus"?

rly i cant see putting a new blood elf on horde will be good, just wait and se people saying they are only vrykul because of the visual, not the faction/lore, or they want vrykul because they look more human than the human, and in the future, people posting so many shit about how they want vrykul neutral like the high elf bullshit

maybe the ogres, get the same treatment like pandarens and worgen? just put some new combinations of class, and a good start zone/lore and will see people main one, worgens could be druids, pandarens have a big lore with the monks, both starting zones are amazing, but goblins? no new class combination, a boring starzone( and for me, boring racials) ogres are more expressive

i know a ton of friends who raceswamp a ogre mage and warrior in a blink of a eye( since there are no big magic races in horde like Belf, ogres could occupy this place, i can even think about ogres paladins Lol, i could trade by one tauren anyday)

[Polybius]

I find it ironic that some Horde players would want Vrykul on their side, but no High Elves on the Alliance side.

The neutral races I see potential in are ethereals and ogres. Possibly murloc, naga, and arrakoa if they're modeled to suit mounts and gear. Hopefully neutral to add versatility between factions. Subraces are pretty obvious, the moosetauren, nightfallen night elves, sand trolls, etc.

[Friendlyimmolation]

I didn't say I thought the High Elves were anything. I made no mention of either HE's or BE's in any context relating to inherent benevolence / malevolence, instead I made the assertion that they're simply philosophically distinct from Blood Elves. To say that the only difference between HE's and BE's is eye-color is to say the only difference between N. Koreans and S. Koreans is which side of the line they were born on -- absolutely not the case.



The flaw in this thinking is that virtually every individual who has ever posted in favor of implementing playable High Elves has also voiced that they'd still play them even if they were made to be grotesque by comparison (to Blood Elves). So they're are, quite literally, opting for better lore regardless of the models.

Personally, I'd expect lots of exposed "leylines" all over their body; something to specifically maintain the pretty-boy image of Blood Elves, while still allowing HE's their own moment in the sun. Perhaps something like a mixture of the following images:

[IMG]http://img14.deviantart.net/d0a2/i/2011/160/0/7/___vampire____by_fritz82-d3igzje.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]http://orig14.deviantart.net/a9b9/f/2015/043/8/1/81be616e727cc21bf1c6f70f4b429da2-d28xy4m.jpg[IMG]

The result of an arcane experiment gone wrong, perhaps? With magically-charged veins that are visible through the skin and even arcane-oriented growths from their faces / arms / backs? It's "cool" without being "pretty", which is the entire point of contention.

Youre describing wretched. I'm pretty sure if any high elf became wretched, their friends would put them down, because it makes you loony.

[Mace]

Youre describing wretched. I'm pretty sure if any high elf became wretched, their friends would put them down, because it makes you loony.

yes, the only way I see that changing is if you progress the narrative of wretched to something less loony, like say the sunwell's restoration has brought them back to sanity, many are being rehabilitated for addiction, but you can still see the visible effects of it.

They'd be blood elven models, but with the weird wretched eyes, maybe untidier features like bushier and more crooked eye brows, hairtyles, males would have more facial hair too with an unshaven look from a stubble to visible full beard growth, paler more pallid skin tones, maybe even runic tattoos that help with magic control unlike the immaculate high polished look of a normal blood elf.

They could even give their normal stance, the standing still/idle stance a bit of a slouch, or night elf like, but the animations and everything else blood elf.


But like any high elf implementation, it will never be as a full race, only as a sub-race of blood elf

[Gamevizier]

Youre describing wretched. I'm pretty sure if any high elf became wretched, their friends would put them down, because it makes you loony.

...but I do dig the second painting... :3

[Deleted User Guy]

I wouldn't mind seeing the Ethereal become playable, but it's probably unlikely. Who knows though - anything is possible.

[Futhark]

Vrykul. Horde if possible, but Alliance if necessary.

[WolfRider]

Ideas of future expansions theme and introduced races :

Rise of the Black Empire (RotBA) :
When heroes of Azeroth closed the Legion's Portal at the Tomb Of Sargeras, it caused a powerful tremor in the depth underneath Thal'Dranath, opening the forgotten prison of the last living Old God N'Zoth. Helped by his Faceless minions, his ally Azshara and her Nagas, he escaped and remained unseen until today with the rising of his city Ny'alotha. From Thal'Dranath shores we can testimony the pure evil coming from this black island, where the Dark Walls of the Old God's city stand.
N'Zoth is twisting the spiritual worlds of the Emerald Dream and the Shadow Lands, threatening the nascent Titan's soul sleeping in the heart of Azeroth. Join the fight taking place in the islands of the South Seas, find allies among the Vrykuls of Southeim, a powerful nation of sailors and the Truskarrs struggling against N'Zoth's faceless minions to preserve their kind, while Azshara is assaulting the remains of Zandalari civilization and the Human Realm of Kul'Tiras.

Playable races : Tuskarrs (Alliance) / Vrykuls (Hord).

New Class : RuneMaster
- armor type : mail
- specs : Range Dps / Melee Dps (one hand dual wield)
- resource : Arcane Ink + 3 Runes (Range Dps) / Blood Ink + 3 Runes (Melee Dps)
- stats : Intelligence > Leech > Mastery > Versatility> Critical Strike (Range Dps), Strength > Mastery > Critical Strike > Leech > Versatility (Melee Dps)
- gameplay (Range Dps) : You wield the Arcane flow to hit your target (filler), stealling the Arcane essence of your enemy and convert it into Arcane Ink. You can use that resource to draw lower runes to deal damages or to empower yourself for a short duration or let it fill your Arcane Runes everytime it Hit 100% (up to 3 Arcane Runes). Once at least one of your 3 runes is filled you can use them to draw a bigger Rune to deal greater damages or to empower your group. Arcanic Runes have individual cooldown once used. Rune damages based on Arcane and Fire.
- gameplay (Melee Dps) : You hit your target with your weapons (filler), to bleed your enemy and convert his blood into Blood Ink. You can use that resource to draw lower runes to deal damages or to empower yourself for a short duration or let it fill your Blood Runes everytime it Hit 100% (up to 3 Blood Runes). Once at least one of your 3 runes is filled you can use them to draw a bigger Rune to deal greater damages or to summon . Blood Runes have individual cooldown once used. Rune damages based on Void and Necromancy.

Tuskarrs : Warrior / Druid / Shaman / Hunter / RuneMaster
Vrykuls: Warrior / Priest / Mage / Hunter / RuneMaster

the Twisting Nether(TN) :
N'Zoth has been defeated and the link he created to the Twisting Nether has plunged Azeroth in a growing dementia. The World is slowly pushed into the Twisting Nether and disturbing rifts appeared on the planet's surface. On the other side, an incoming deadly threat is unleashing Void creatures from his gigantic maw. The Void Lords are entering the Great Dark Beyond through Azeroth's nightmares and the Army of the Light is returning to us after the succesful campaign on Argus, led by a redempted Illidan Stormrage. Push back the Void Lord's minions, ease Azeroth's soul and fly through the Twisting Nether to find the way to conquer this plane in the name of the Light and to send back the Void threat to the limb of the creation.

Playable races : Apexis (Alliance) / Xorothians(Hord).
Explanation : Army of the Light gathered surviving inhabitants of worlds attacked by the Legion. When Naarus came to Original Draenor, they found the Draeneis and the Apexis. Velen didn't want to involve his people in the war he was fleeing, but Apexis joined the Naarus.
Xorothians were former Nathrezims, living on a planet threatened by Old Gods. Some of them were saved by the Naaru, but most of them been corrupted, changing them into dreadlords. They started to invade other worlds and spread their demonic corruption, growing the Twisting Nether limits. When Sargeras found Xoroth, the Nascent Titan was corrupted so he cleaved it. Later, when he freed Nathrezims from Mardum, they conquered a planet and made it their home : Nathreza. On this planet were leaving the Thordrezims, a savant race who felt to the demonic corruption.
I may be wrong on Xoroth, I tried to find more Lore about that planet and the name of the corrupted nascent Titan, but as we can see in the Paladin Order Hall quest, there is a "golden dreadlord" and he explains that he's been saved by Naarus and joined the Army of the Light.
Both of these races have female and male.

[Friendlyimmolation]

I believe Dreadlords are the main race of Xoroth, unless we want playable felsteeds

[WolfRider]

I believe Dreadlords are the main race of Xoroth, unless we want playable felsteeds

I remember a little from the Warlock lvl60 mount's quest, but I can't remember the whole thing. I think the planet has been destroyed like Mardum or Draenor but something remained on it.

[Friendlyimmolation]

I remember a little from the Warlock lvl60 mount's quest, but I can't remember the whole thing. I think the planet has been destroyed like Mardum or Draenor but something remained on it.

Xoroth is intact, another world was destroyed in a display of power


Something might have changed, I haven't read the lore on xoroth since classic

[frogger237]

Id say realistic options are races that are related in some way to what ever expansion is coming out at the time. Like I doubt they will give us Ogres in a expansion where we go to Argus or something.

[LazarusLong]

Id say realistic options are races that are related in some way to whatever expansion is coming out at the time. Like I doubt they will give us Ogres in an expansion where we go to Argus or something.

And even with that, it's hard to justify the leveling experience.