Make Moonkin Form Cosmetic

[WhiteEagle888]

Thank you . I hope many other people see it who have the same feelings towards Moonkin, and are appeased a little by it because for such a big game it can be difficult to see these things and not to mention especially if they removed them.

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Thank you. I agree with you, I don't understand why it's acceptable to have some forms shape-shift and others not with no proper explanation as to why. If they could give a credible reason other than "It's outdated", even after the Moonkin models received an polygon update then I could understand, but otherwise it carries little weight in my mind and I guess Blizzard's too.
I do agree they needed to customise Moonkin skins as much as the Bear/Cat, in fairness I don't get why they still have refused to give that customisation and stuck to the racial fixation they had before and avoided in Legion artifacts.
Perhaps they will, and hope so too even if you can glyph it to other racial variants as a quick, stop-gap solution.

Balance druid (as the name implies btw) is all about guess what? Balance! That's right, have a cookie.
So the idea of a moonkin representing the full force of the sun, moon and the stars in the middle is faulty to begin with - back in 2004 when I started my adventure not only the chicken form but the lore behind it was incomplete - The sun never shone besides the moon to put it that way.

So in conclusion now with Legion they finally fleshed out all the nuances for classes and made them more distinct - Shadow Priests finally embraced the void, Disc Priests are in the middle, Rogues finally have distinct archetypes and all the classes and specs in general have become more immersed into the lore.

The moonkin is outdated because true balance druids also embrace this very balance now with sunfire added to the game and Wrath becoming Solar Wrath as it should have started with in the first place. The moonkin would be cool for moon aligned abilities and cooldowns offering a brief period of transformation but not having to grind from 1-110 looking like KFC material would truly be a blessing.

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Yeah i don't really understand why OP does not take position about this glyph. I mean, he cuold say:" I know it exist but i don't like it".

But nope, no answer so far.

Regarding the glyph - glyphs by definition should be redesigned to be obtainable by the classes themselves and not some throwaway profession crafted item. Class trainers should actively offer players quests to go out and collect them for their abilities and it shoudl have its own tab just like toys do.

That aside the glyph doesn't do the class justice. It's suboptimal design looks like your character perpetually got stuck in he shower, but some people like it so it could stay. What's relevant is that druid players should get to experience combat and roleplay in their normal forms just like other classes. Not being forced into a form that looks ridiculous - or hideous in the case of baseline aquatic form - would be a good start.

[ItachiZaku]

Nope, the reason feral and guardian works is because of shapeshift forms - bear and cat are tied to them. But Balance does not require it at all.

False. The nature gods don't like scumbag night elves, but go ahhhhh for lazer chicken form. All forms or no forms. That's the bargain.

[Orby]

How dare you hate on the Moonkin... who doesn't wanna play as those cute cuddly bird owls.



^ Look at him, look. HES SO CUTE <3

Stop being, owlbeast-ist? moonist? Boomkinist? Or anti cute

[Kokolums]

Some toys can also remove the moonkin form. I think the Orb of the Sin'Dorei is one. I should build a list.

[grexly75]

I find it funny the OP wants the Moonkin form removed yet guardian and feral get to keep theirs, yeah going to be about as popular as a pile of dog doo..

[The Flavour Cat]

I've always wanted my Worgen to just slash shit with his claws, i'd be okay with that.

Like how Greymane whacks that Felguard in the Alliance Broken Shore cinematics?

[Fyersing]

Druids are known for their shape-shifting forms. Perhaps Feral should not use bear or cat form? Yeah, bad idea.

The irony of this post is that in the lore, being in a form for any prolonged amount of time is actually dangerous to the individual -- so while the poster probably thought they were making an appeal to common sense, from an in-universe perspective, the answer to the question above would invariably be: yes.

If accuracy to the story were a concern, both Guardian and Feral should both play out-of-form -- both utilizing cooldowns to shift into their forms for short periods (ala Metamorphosis).

[Traveler Voltin]

You dare insult the moonkin and its awesome dance.
*takes off white glove and slaps the op with it*
I challenge you to a duel you uncultured swine.

[Evangeliste]

Balance druid (as the name implies btw) is all about guess what? Balance! That's right, have a cookie.
So the idea of a moonkin representing the full force of the sun, moon and the stars in the middle is faulty to begin with - back in 2004 when I started my adventure not only the chicken form but the lore behind it was incomplete - The sun never shone besides the moon to put it that way.

So in conclusion now with Legion they finally fleshed out all the nuances for classes and made them more distinct - Shadow Priests finally embraced the void, Disc Priests are in the middle, Rogues finally have distinct archetypes and all the classes and specs in general have become more immersed into the lore.

The moonkin is outdated because true balance druids also embrace this very balance now with sunfire added to the game and Wrath becoming Solar Wrath as it should have started with in the first place. The moonkin would be cool for moon aligned abilities and cooldowns offering a brief period of transformation but not having to grind from 1-110 looking like KFC material would truly be a blessing.

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Regarding the glyph - glyphs by definition should be redesigned to be obtainable by the classes themselves and not some throwaway profession crafted item. Class trainers should actively offer players quests to go out and collect them for their abilities and it shoudl have its own tab just like toys do.

That aside the glyph doesn't do the class justice. It's suboptimal design looks like your character perpetually got stuck in he shower, but some people like it so it could stay. What's relevant is that druid players should get to experience combat and roleplay in their normal forms just like other classes. Not being forced into a form that looks ridiculous - or hideous in the case of baseline aquatic form - would be a good start.

You can have your cookie back.

You don't even know the true ideals of Balance if you're quoting that Legion made them more distinct when you're carrying a weapon named "Scythe of Elune", Talents and spells of "Fury of Elune", "Incarnation: Chosen of Elune", if that's not a slap in the face to say they are not ignoring the quests from 2004, you really need to build on your observational skills. Also Sunfire was added back in patch 4.0.1 not just recently and added to your Solar aspect in the older gameplay styles, they most likely changed it to Solar Wrath in 7.0.3 to make individuals more aware of it's place and does pretty much the same thing even prolonging your Sunfire. That's back in Cataclysm if you don't know it. That's 7 years before Legion too.
I mean if all of the outdated things you claim are there then why finalise things like aforementioned? Even previous expansions changed how Balance worked in-game, if it didn't fit anymore why did they still keep the Solar aspect, even at points work from Solar and Lunar sides with an Eclipse centre?

You may not know but Elune could have made the Prime Naaru - Xe'ra, not just a Naaru, the head cheese which if you didn't recall is the one that scolds us inside the Light's Heart and talks to us about Illidan's journey. Why am I mentioning it? Because it relates right back to Balance and those old quests with Elune favouring Moonkin. It pretty much could have made them all and not just the Moon Goddess we've been led to believe. If she can make beings of Light as well as be of the Night, it suddenly makes sense for Balance to use both Solar and Lunar magic.
And Blizzard don't really add sprinkles of hints to not add it in later, if you want to call Elune makings of Naaru a bluff. There's tons of confirmations like Chen's Old Keg quest in Vanilla for Pandaren to arrive in Mists (and they were meant to be in TBC before Draenei's came), a Worgen in Moonglade from Vanilla before they arrive in Cataclysm or best yet Timeless Isle with Garrosh and Kairoz literally right before Warlords of Draenor and time travel! There's so much more.



What's weirder still is that Tear of Elune... It somehow being all about the Night, Arcane and crap... It can awaken a Light being.

So she herself isn't going to be strictly stuck into the Lunar side of things when it comes to pass. Actually, with that in tow it makes Moonkin Form even more reasonable because if Elune uses both Arcane magic and Light magic. I mean they have used both Solar and Lunar energies since 2004 and with this new scope, it makes it oh so more understandable compared to your current understanding of only being Arcane. It states Nature magic but considering Fire and Nature are at odds... As much as Light and Shadow are, seems even stranger? And the patron to Druids isn't even Elune, it's her son Cenarius.
I mean, I know they may be outdated quests but it's sure weird to refer to it after 7 years later of lore and context that was added in in 2004, concludes to still being legit 13 years later as the theme apparently.

The entire class and the lore too that made the basis to it all which surprise, surprise they went back to for 'fully fleshing out' in Legion. They are trying to fulfil the original intention they had in the first place which is why they dropped that nice long quest (shown in picture above) actually in a class hall. To me it shows those 2004 quests were thrown in to make way for something, that the game moved from and instead the story of that area grew so large and awesome they thought "Fuck, let's make it epic". After all if Elune made the Naaru, her true nature has now been blow out of original perspective and ties in nicely with it being made more epic than it originally was all those years ago, with virtually shit technology, internet connection, resources and more.

It's quite funny you mentioned they fleshed it out but missed that Legion actually went back to older characters, times and lore to actually fully flesh themselves and amazingly not just for the Druid campaigns too! Let's look at Dis Priests, they've always been between both Shadow and Holy - Dark Evangelism was one of my favourite things about them, Shadow Priests have always been with the Void and not "finally" even NPC's were hanging with Old Gods as trash, boss encounters, quests and more... As for rogues it's about fucking time they got a class fantasy rather than being the stealthy, sneaky bastards and nothing more. Better yet, Thunderaan says Hi again from his murder back in Molten Core! Even folks like Meryl Firestorm, Arathor the Redeemed from other classes and many more which date back who resurfaced and have a cause. Heck even the existence of Suramar with Paladin Night Elves are even older then the MMORPG and made an appearance in their RTS games prior, only to be bought back into Legion!
Golly.

So no, they are not outdated as you suggest, Legion has in fact updated and reclaimed a lot of lore, whether in-game, out of game, in original RTS's and/or supposedly removed, whilst building on the very building blocks they've sowed for the 13 years of online gaming and even before that. Where was Aviana, Ashamane, Ursol included before Legion when you have instances in-game of War of the Ancients?

TL/DR:
I know you'll pretty much denounce all of this as it "doesn't matter" to you and that's fine. I mean it's so outdated they've built upon it and reclaimed it evidently.
But you know, at it stands currently in-game as Elune having a hand in both Arcane and now Light magic, it actually makes more sense for the Balance spec being able to use two sets of magic which Light and Arcane respectively as Solar and Lunar that form to be Astral magic. I mean this was all started back in 2004, with those silly quests, because after several years of gameplay, changes to them and such, they hung onto the base principles of Solar and Lunar magic, to nowadays, carrying around a Scythe of Elune because it shows she still favours them and gifts them in a way to use Astral power to them because after all she is stuck up in the sky, hanging in outer space being all about the Arcane and Light magic.

Under your guise of it being outdated then the class fantasy shouldn't even have the Solar half and be all about the Lunar section too. Afterall, Elune is only of the Night, a Moon Goddess and Arcane based to you. Why don't you just be honest and say I don't like being a "giant chicken" which is actually an Owl Bear, like the Moonfeather take for the Feral skin being a Owl cat, rather saying it is outdated and trying to justify it without even properly looking into the content you're playing.

[Wildmoon]

As I already said moonkin form is not comparable to cat and bear form. It's comparable to treant form which almost no druid in lore utilize. Shapeshifting is not fundamental to Druidism as an art of magic in lore. It's an application. It's just the most distinctive application. To understand Druidism, just go back to look at the path of Malfurion who created the current mainstream Druidism. There are many people who are certain druids got their powers from Elune in the same sense as her priestess. The hint is in both Wolfheart and the short story:Seed of Faith. Malfurion showed that his faith in Elune was shaky at best. He practically believed in her existence because the culture shaped his belief but he did not believe her to be reliable.

It could be explained away as balance druid being a relatively new sect of Druidism.

[WhiteEagle888]

You dare insult the moonkin and its awesome dance.
*takes off white glove and slaps the op with it*
I challenge you to a duel you uncultured swine.

sorry, you're not worth my time - but have a nice bantime

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You can have your cookie back.

You don't even know the true ideals of Balance if you're quoting that Legion made them more distinct when you're carrying a weapon named "Scythe of Elune", Talents and spells of "Fury of Elune", "Incarnation: Chosen of Elune", if that's not a slap in the face to say they are not ignoring the quests from 2004, you really need to build on your observational skills. Also Sunfire was added back in patch 4.0.1 not just recently and added to your Solar aspect in the older gameplay styles, they most likely changed it to Solar Wrath in 7.0.3 to make individuals more aware of it's place and does pretty much the same thing even prolonging your Sunfire. That's back in Cataclysm if you don't know it. That's 7 years before Legion too.
I mean if all of the outdated things you claim are there then why finalise things like aforementioned? Even previous expansions changed how Balance worked in-game, if it didn't fit anymore why did they still keep the Solar aspect, even at points work from Solar and Lunar sides with an Eclipse centre?

You may not know but Elune could have made the Prime Naaru - Xe'ra, not just a Naaru, the head cheese which if you didn't recall is the one that scolds us inside the Light's Heart and talks to us about Illidan's journey. Why am I mentioning it? Because it relates right back to Balance and those old quests with Elune favouring Moonkin. It pretty much could have made them all and not just the Moon Goddess we've been led to believe. If she can make beings of Light as well as be of the Night, it suddenly makes sense for Balance to use both Solar and Lunar magic.
And Blizzard don't really add sprinkles of hints to not add it in later, if you want to call Elune makings of Naaru a bluff. There's tons of confirmations like Chen's Old Keg quest in Vanilla for Pandaren to arrive in Mists (and they were meant to be in TBC before Draenei's came), a Worgen in Moonglade from Vanilla before they arrive in Cataclysm or best yet Timeless Isle with Garrosh and Kairoz literally right before Warlords of Draenor and time travel! There's so much more.



What's weirder still is that Tear of Elune... It somehow being all about the Night, Arcane and crap... It can awaken a Light being.

So she herself isn't going to be strictly stuck into the Lunar side of things when it comes to pass. Actually, with that in tow it makes Moonkin Form even more reasonable because if Elune uses both Arcane magic and Light magic. I mean they have used both Solar and Lunar energies since 2004 and with this new scope, it makes it oh so more understandable compared to your current understanding of only being Arcane. It states Nature magic but considering Fire and Nature are at odds... As much as Light and Shadow are, seems even stranger? And the patron to Druids isn't even Elune, it's her son Cenarius.
I mean, I know they may be outdated quests but it's sure weird to refer to it after 7 years later of lore and context that was added in in 2004, concludes to still being legit 13 years later as the theme apparently.

The entire class and the lore too that made the basis to it all which surprise, surprise they went back to for 'fully fleshing out' in Legion. They are trying to fulfil the original intention they had in the first place which is why they dropped that nice long quest (shown in picture above) actually in a class hall. To me it shows those 2004 quests were thrown in to make way for something, that the game moved from and instead the story of that area grew so large and awesome they thought "Fuck, let's make it epic". After all if Elune made the Naaru, her true nature has now been blow out of original perspective and ties in nicely with it being made more epic than it originally was all those years ago, with virtually shit technology, internet connection, resources and more.

It's quite funny you mentioned they fleshed it out but missed that Legion actually went back to older characters, times and lore to actually fully flesh themselves and amazingly not just for the Druid campaigns too! Let's look at Dis Priests, they've always been between both Shadow and Holy - Dark Evangelism was one of my favourite things about them, Shadow Priests have always been with the Void and not "finally" even NPC's were hanging with Old Gods as trash, boss encounters, quests and more... As for rogues it's about fucking time they got a class fantasy rather than being the stealthy, sneaky bastards and nothing more. Better yet, Thunderaan says Hi again from his murder back in Molten Core! Even folks like Meryl Firestorm, Arathor the Redeemed from other classes and many more which date back who resurfaced and have a cause. Heck even the existence of Suramar with Paladin Night Elves are even older then the MMORPG and made an appearance in their RTS games prior, only to be bought back into Legion!
Golly.

So no, they are not outdated as you suggest, Legion has in fact updated and reclaimed a lot of lore, whether in-game, out of game, in original RTS's and/or supposedly removed, whilst building on the very building blocks they've sowed for the 13 years of online gaming and even before that. Where was Aviana, Ashamane, Ursol included before Legion when you have instances in-game of War of the Ancients?

TL/DR:
I know you'll pretty much denounce all of this as it "doesn't matter" to you and that's fine. I mean it's so outdated they've built upon it and reclaimed it evidently.
But you know, at it stands currently in-game as Elune having a hand in both Arcane and now Light magic, it actually makes more sense for the Balance spec being able to use two sets of magic which Light and Arcane respectively as Solar and Lunar that form to be Astral magic. I mean this was all started back in 2004, with those silly quests, because after several years of gameplay, changes to them and such, they hung onto the base principles of Solar and Lunar magic, to nowadays, carrying around a Scythe of Elune because it shows she still favours them and gifts them in a way to use Astral power to them because after all she is stuck up in the sky, hanging in outer space being all about the Arcane and Light magic.

Under your guise of it being outdated then the class fantasy shouldn't even have the Solar half and be all about the Lunar section too. Afterall, Elune is only of the Night, a Moon Goddess and Arcane based to you. Why don't you just be honest and say I don't like being a "giant chicken" which is actually an Owl Bear, like the Moonfeather take for the Feral skin being a Owl cat, rather saying it is outdated and trying to justify it without even properly looking into the content you're playing.

Fact is, the moon only reflects the Light -the actual source in Warcraft is still the sun. I strongly believe the Xe'ra Elune buildup is for Legion only being that Illidan is a night elf and they worship the moon - hence Elune plays a central role in Legion.

BUT - and this is a strong but Xe'ra may very well not be the only Prime Naaru - I think a far greater Naaru exists with the power of the sun who is not yet named because we will see him only when we aer already done with the Legion and Illidan has become a pure Archanagel of Light as it is stated at the end of his novel. (minor spoilers for those who didn't know.) and we aere already fighting our main enemy: the void.

Xe'ra cleary is the Light and Arcane I have also made the same conclusion long ago in a previous post, but druidism is not limited to Night elves only. The tauren Worship the sun as much as the moon and the trolls apart from mainly worshiping the loa also have equally strong ties to the sun and the moon so a moonkin for them doesn't make as much sense as to worgen and night elves.

Alas if they were activated with Starsurge and deactivated with casting healing spells like the old game they would make much more sense gameplay and lore wise.

[darklogrus]

I find it funny the OP wants the Moonkin form removed yet guardian and feral get to keep theirs, yeah going to be about as popular as a pile of dog doo..

Feral and Bear get tons of various appearances based on their artifact, an how many does the Boomkin get.

[Deleted]

To be fair the Moonkin form and Tree form were not there to begin with, and I never would have expected them to add them to druids either based on what I had seen in WC3 or early WoW quests. There were no NPCs or quests even hinting at druids transforming into moonkin back then.

[Razaron]

The irony of this post is that in the lore, being in a form for any prolonged amount of time is actually dangerous to the individual -- so while the poster probably thought they were making an appeal to common sense, from an in-universe perspective, the answer to the question above would invariably be: yes.

If accuracy to the story were a concern, both Guardian and Feral should both play out-of-form -- both utilizing cooldowns to shift into their forms for short periods (ala Metamorphosis).

Game-play > Lore - There are lots of abilities that could be argued doesn't make sense in lore but is allowed for game-play reasons. The Druid class has always been made around the roles you shape-shift into and it's not going to change because of lore now.

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I've always wanted my Worgen to just slash shit with his claws, i'd be okay with that.

That's not a class issue but a race one.

[Deleted]

Game-play > Lore - There are lots of abilities that could be argued doesn't make sense in lore but is allowed for game-play reasons. The Druid class has always been made around the roles you shape-shift into and it's not going to change because of lore now.

Feral and Guardian (as in just Feral) yes, but for Balance it was added out of nowhere later on because they suddenly wanted literally every druid spec to have some shapeshift form.

[Kyanion]

Feral and Guardian (as in just Feral) yes, but for Balance it was added out of nowhere later on because they suddenly wanted literally every druid spec to have some shapeshift form.

Yeah and that was 12 years ago or so. So I don't think it is going anywhere. This isn't like treant form that was added in much later and didn't last that long.

[Razaron]

Feral and Guardian (as in just Feral) yes, but for Balance it was added out of nowhere later on because they suddenly wanted literally every druid spec to have some shapeshift form.

Because that's the direction of the class, most specs we're fucked and unplayable and by the writing of some people on this thread they'd convince you that the Moonkin form originated a couple of years ago. Wrong, it was added during classic/vanilla wow in a patch.

If you don't like Moonkin I suggest pushing for more shape-shifting customisation that doesn't effect the immersion of the class or just use a glyph which is already available. But please, stop trying to redesign a spec that has had Moonkin since very near the beginning.

[Deleted]

Yeah and that was 12 years ago or so. So I don't think it is going anywhere. This isn't like treant form that was added in much later and didn't last that long.

Treant was added around the start of TBC if I remember correctly, so that time gap between moonkin and treant forms would be roughly 1 year.

Anyway I do agree that the Moonkin form has been completely integrated into Druid lore for many years already and there will most likely be no changes to that. Just pointing out that it has not always been part of the class identity like some people in this thread seem to imply.

[Kyanion]

Treant was added around the start of TBC if I remember correctly, so that time gap between moonkin and treant forms would be roughly 1 year.

Anyway I do agree that the Moonkin form has been completely integrated into Druid lore for many years already and there will most likely be no changes to that. Just pointing out that it has not always been part of the class identity like some people in this thread seem to imply.

Yeah I can't remember when treant was added but I know it was removed for a while at the end of WotLK as I remember all the treant druids on my realm hopping off of dalaran to their deaths before the next expansion started.

Moonkin form hasn't ALWAYS been a part of the class, no, but it has been there long enough where I think forced removing it would be a very bad idea. I really don't care if people want glyphs or ways to be out of moonkin as long as the base form is left unchanged and can only be removed by uses of glyphs or illusions.

[Deleted]

Maybe they could make alternate forms instead of an ugly overweight chicken-owl mutation. Like a Dryad form, or Arakkoa form.

if they make a dryad form, im 100% lvling a druid just for that