The next alliance race options-the People's choice award.

[Skayth]

Good. Let them overcome technical challenge to add a new race that is unique. I am sick of all the same races with small difference. When you add races, you try to make them varied enough. You don't do a palette swap, size swap or add a pair of long ears.






What about Mantid for Horde/Neutral and Nerubians for Alliance/Neutral?

While, I do agree to see four legged races in azeroth, like you would, unlike the children of Cenarius, who are all basically druids, so a shapeshift function to a 2 legged, or snake, form is not that hard to perceive, as it is apart of them. But to make it... rp friendly, they would need to make two models, one four legged, and one two legged, but nearly identical to eachother.

Now, Mantid, being two legged, could be simply added, like any old race, besides the lore going out the window. The only reason the Paragon of the Klaxxi are with the Horde, is because Yshaarj is there, and Garrosh is his speaker. Otherwise, they are by themselves, uncaring who or what you are. You are told this multiple times through the klaxxi quests, and even told to be disposed of multiple times. Besides lore, Mantid can easily be added as a race, thanks to them being bipedal praying mantises. Some female designs would need to be made of the "warrior" class.

Now Nerubians have all been spiderlike, and unlike the lore for a shapeshifting Children of Cenarius, they are stuck in their spiderlike form, making mounting on ground mounts impossible. For air mounts, it would be a simple web harness dangling from flying mount. I would say limit them to the larger dragons, but you see bulky taurens flying on the small horsemen and wyvern mounts, so physics are not the problem. The problem though simply lies in the ground mount, which you cannot mount up for, not even the web harness being dragged, as then we are just into a land where its stupid. While naga could mount Side Saddle, The Children of Cenarius could Shapeshift, and the Warrior class of the Mantids are all bipedal, Nerubians would not be able to mount ground mounts, Minimum.

[Haytham]

Stop suggesting high elves in every single race post. Because they will never be added.

And there is no need to add them either.A new race would be far better and a better selling point for a new expansion.

[Shroud]

People seem to have a low sense of what would be a good fit for additional races in the game. Something that can be modeled for armor doesn't mean it would make a good race.

High Elf: High Elves ARE Blood Elves. The only physical difference is their eyes. The High Elves exist in Alliance cities and actually have a fairly large population, but honestly why would you want to have a copy-paste of a race that already exists on the opposite faction? There are so many elf types already in this game: Night Elf, Blood Elf and the undead Death-Knight style of Elf are all playable Elf models.

Naga: People seem to think that Naga are a good fit for the Alliance. Why? Does everyone not understand that the Naga are viewed as twisted abominations by the Alliance. The Naga hold nothing but ill-feelings toward the Alliance, but above all else the Night Elves. "But but, splinter factions": no. Splinter factions only work if the race as a whole wasn't viewed as monsters, they'd have to have been able to be accepted in the first place.

If we're going to toss a race idea out here, let's go with Dryad: http://www.wowwiki.com/Dryad

The ONLY reason I don't see that working as a playable race, however, is the issue of them not being able to ride mounts. That in itself would be the largest factor for them not being taken into consideration. However, from a lore standpoint they have done far more for the Alliance over the years than some ridiculous ideas of High Elves and Nagas have.

and yet we have playable Night Elf Mages.....I repeat PLAYABLE NIGHT ELF MAGES.......The Naga have a decent chance of being playable but Space mummies sound cooler to me so my vote is for Ethereal.Demon Hunter Ethereal...yes please.

[Skayth]

and yet we have playable Night Elf Mages.....I repeat PLAYABLE NIGHT ELF MAGES.......The Naga have a decent chance of being playable but Space mummies sound cooler to me so my vote is for Ethereal.Demon Hunter Ethereal...yes please.

Arent they goblins... IN SPACE? Their high priority is money, which is why they are in both Stormind and Org. Dont get me wrong, they can do the whole "varian saves them, now a faction joins them," but is that not the same premise of the goblins? If they would become playable, I would not doubt they would be Neutral.

[Yarathir]

While, I do agree to see four legged races in azeroth, like you would, unlike the children of Cenarius, who are all basically druids, so a shapeshift function to a 2 legged, or snake, form is not that hard to perceive, as it is apart of them. But to make it... rp friendly, they would need to make two models, one four legged, and one two legged, but nearly identical to eachother.

Now, Mantid, being two legged, could be simply added, like any old race, besides the lore going out the window. The only reason the Paragon of the Klaxxi are with the Horde, is because Yshaarj is there, and Garrosh is his speaker. Otherwise, they are by themselves, uncaring who or what you are. You are told this multiple times through the klaxxi quests, and even told to be disposed of multiple times. Besides lore, Mantid can easily be added as a race, thanks to them being bipedal praying mantises. Some female designs would need to be made of the "warrior" class.

Now Nerubians have all been spiderlike, and unlike the lore for a shapeshifting Children of Cenarius, they are stuck in their spiderlike form, making mounting on ground mounts impossible. For air mounts, it would be a simple web harness dangling from flying mount. I would say limit them to the larger dragons, but you see bulky taurens flying on the small horsemen and wyvern mounts, so physics are not the problem. The problem though simply lies in the ground mount, which you cannot mount up for, not even the web harness being dragged, as then we are just into a land where its stupid. While naga could mount Side Saddle, The Children of Cenarius could Shapeshift, and the Warrior class of the Mantids are all bipedal, Nerubians would not be able to mount ground mounts, Minimum.

Mantid-wise, it's easy. The younger Mantid that aren't part of the Klaxxi serve only the Empress and don't even care for the Old Gods. Only the Klaxxi Mantid "see the bigger picture" and serve the Old God. To them, the Empress is merely a figurehead for the hatchlings who can easily be disposed of and replaced to them. But to the hatchlings, she is their goddess.


In other words, there are two kinds of Mantid. The type that serve Empress and worship her and the type that merely use her to control the hatchlings and really serve Y'Shaarj. With that in mind, I don't find it unrealistic at all for some Mantid to be able to not care for either and instead shape their own destiny and get stronger on their own. That's a second thing. Strength is obviously something the Mantid respect. If Y'Shaarj, or the one holding its powers is defeated by heroes, Y'shaarj will seem weak to the Mantid. It's possible that they could go from respecting Y'Shaarj to respecting the heroes that defeated their Old God.


As for Nerubians. I don't agree. Sure, just one mount animation wouldn't be enough. But I don't see mounting up as something silly or impossible. Say, we don't play the typical Nerubian model, but the more elite versions. The type with four legs. In that case, the mounting animation for the majority of mounts could be something like the death animation:




Really, the player nerubian doesn't have to be the typical type. Hell, Goblins and Worgen both got quite a design update from vanilla to cataclysm. What if the player Nerubian is more like the one pictured above? With four legs.


Of course they could also make them two-legged, but that's taking something unique away from them. I think Blizzard could easily work around both the armor and mounting problem with proper animations. Maybe one extra mount animation would be required, but that wouldn't be an excuse not to do it.

[Deleted]

I don't understand the die-hard appeal they have other then the fact that theyve been embedded into the Alliance, that's it

High Elves are Blood Elves, no if's, no but's, theyre Blood Elves.
Architecture is the same, appearance is the same, they have the same lore as Blood Elves minus everything past the Sunwell.

A new playable race in an expansion is something alot of players look forward to, it's a new exciting feature and simple things such as the aesthetics of your character determines alot, imagine the bitchfits at this hypothetical Blizzcon
New Horde Race: Ogres or whatever
New Alliance Race:B̶l̶o̶o̶ High Elves

Re-skinned race, nothing new to the table, Horde gets a new exciting race that hasnt been covered much, Alliance gets more elves fresh from the Horde's recycle bin,

Theyre such a boring decision from a marketing point of view as well , if they actually get announced as an incentive to play the game during the next expansion how much would people would go "Oh its just Blood Elves for the Alliance", just like they thought MoP was "just pandas" Make them a re-skin, that'd be more than cool, but jesus dont make them the big new race to play as.

If Alliance gets High Elves I want playable Leper Gnomes, because green things are just so Horde

[Obelisk Kai]

The desire for playable High Elves is my absolute pet peeve. I firmly believe that the reason why a driven minority keep mentioning High Elves isn't that hey can play their favorite kind of elf. If they wanted to do that, they'd roll Blood Elf.

No, what the High Elf brigade hates is the inversion of the common fantasy trope of the Elf, the Dwarf and the Man united against the Monsters. They want their traditional fantasy setting so they can be the pale, fey elf with their traditional, almost stereotypical allies. They want to be a beautiful elf but they just cannot bring themselves to play Horde (personally I am hoping the new Night Elf model is used to scratch that particular itch).

Never mind the countless reasons given in lore as to why High Elves can't be playable (succinct summary, they're mostly dead). Never mind the backlash that would follow from the majority of players, not just the people for whom promoting High Elves has become something of an obsession (Hail to the Queen Calia and my own copious fanfiction!) if the Alliance were gifted a reskinned Horde race. (Side note, it would be the same race. I don't recall reports of Confederate and Union soldiers taking on dramatically different appearances after a few years of political separation during the American Civil War).

Here's a practical point. Each new race added to the game has filled a vital role missing up to that point. Draenei added a big and Magical race to the Alliance. Blood Elves added a beautiful and Magical Race to the Horde. Worgen added a monster race to the Alliance. Goblins added a short, technological race to the Horde.

Pandaren are Pandaren, the race Blizzard had a soft spot for and added to both sides as they believed they couldn't come up with a race to counter balance them for the opposing faction if they were faction locked.

What niche would High Elves fill for the Alliance? They are Magical. The Draenei have it covered. They are pretty? Humans, Night Elves and, again, Draenei.
They would be the Elf race for the Alliance...oh no, wait, the Alliance has that covered with the Night Elves.

The High Elves would sit in the Alliance like an ugly carbuncle, a copy of a Horde race that would diminish the Blood Elves unique position in the game. The majority of the players would perceive them as what they were, a cheap hack job by Blizzard.

Frankly I don't think Blizzard is even contemplating adding the High Elves. The negatives of doing so greatly outweigh any positives. After all, it's not like Blizzard isn't allowing you to play an Elf like that.

Roll a damn Blood Elf.

[logintime]

I'm not going to rule out any of the choices out there, per say. Blizzard proved with the Draenei that they're willing to do whatever to justify a race, regardless of whether it requires a sizable retcon or not. There's no real restriction from lore, as they can always overwrite it, or by appearance, as they can always change it.

So Naga, Centaurs, Tuskarr, etc., they're all possibilities, however faint they may be. About the only race I'm comfortable ruling out are High Elves, because 1) we already have two elf races in game, 2) they are the exact same as blood-elves, minus the whole magic sucking thing, and 3) there are still better options out there.

But that last point brings up something: good options. Sure, Blizz can add whatever race they want, but at this point in the game there are only really two races in my mind that can be easily added without twisting lore into knots. Those are the Ogres and the Furbolg. The former can slide in perfectly with the Horde, and the latter already have the sort of ties necessary to draw them into the Alliance. It's worth noting there is a small Ogre faction already in the Horde, and a small Furbolg faction already in the Alliance, so it's not like we're stretching here. Both are in dire need of new models (seriously, look at them!), have a good amount of usable lore, and have plausible starting locations. So why not? If we're going for the most obvious choices, these two make more sense than any other.

[Kalcheus]

Wall of Text

I want a high elf because they're a good looking model (for some outfits; others I prefer Draenei) and I'd like to be able to play the model with my alliance friends. You're completely overthinking this.

EDIT: And seriously, people: Wolvar!

[Obelisk Kai]

Logintime, I think the Furblog are permanently ruled out with the addition of the Pandaren. Another bear like Humanoid isn't happening.

[autotrendauto]

High elf is too similar to blood elf.

[logintime]

Logintime, I think the Furblog are permanently ruled out with the addition of the Pandaren. Another bear like Humanoid isn't happening.

Sadly, you might be right. It's a shame too, as I always found Furbolg to be the more interesting.

[Obelisk Kai]

I want a high elf because they're a good looking model (for some outfits; others I prefer Draenei) and I'd like to be able to play the model with my alliance friends. You're completely overthinking this.

EDIT: And seriously, people: Wolvar!

And I believe you wish to ignore the negatives of adding them. The degradation to faction diversity, the immense amount of spin to justify numbers high enough for a realisitic race, the feelings of the wider Alliance audience who were hoping for a new race that could give them a fresh take within their faction rather than the carbon copy of a Horde race.

As for your desire to play with your pals with a model you like, I understand that. But what if one of your friends wanted to play the Orc model but remain Alliance? Or Tauren? Or Undead?

Where does that sort of logic end?

[Knarg]

I am also disappointed by the fact that Furbolg will probably never be added after Pandaren. But it's possible. If Blizz wants to add a 'giant' race to each side, they're still a natural choice for Alliance. In lore they're 7 to 10 feet tall. And they're a good deal more savage and feral, too.

Again, it's a shame the Pandaren probably removed them from the running.

[Shroud]

Arent they goblins... IN SPACE? Their high priority is money, which is why they are in both Stormind and Org. Dont get me wrong, they can do the whole "varian saves them, now a faction joins them," but is that not the same premise of the goblins? If they would become playable, I would not doubt they would be Neutral.

More than likely what they will go if we do get another race with a demon expansion

[Skullslasher]

Honestly I'd like the high elves to be given to the alliance. I never liked the furbear nerds. They are hideous hunchbacks that are just generally unappealing. When I say hideous i mean, they have no redeeming qualities. I mean, Orcs look brutal, Tauren look noble, trolls look cunning, worgen look vengeful...etc. Furbears just look like dumb angry bears--an offspring between the hunchback of notre dame and some circus bear.

[Lycanroc]

I don't want another stupid elf race, especially one that adds absolutely nothing new to the table. There would be no new lore associated with the High Elves and again Alliance would feel shafted by getting a bland, unoriginal race when the Horde gets an entirely brand-new one.

I still think Arakkoa, because there's a population of them allied with the Draenei. Remember, the current WoW cities aren't an accurate representation of the populations that live there and it's probably MUCH more than what's appears to be there.

[Talen]

The desire for playable High Elves is my absolute pet peeve. I firmly believe that the reason why a driven minority keep mentioning High Elves isn't that hey can play their favorite kind of elf. If they wanted to do that, they'd roll Blood Elf.

Some people do. They hate the Horde but love the way BElfs look, move, their history or whatever.

This is true for other races as well. The BElfs, however, are different. They actually DO have an Alliance counterpart in the HElfs. This opens up for them the possibility that they can have their favorite race alongside their preferred faction.

You see this with other races as well. There have been, in the past, calls for Horde Dwarves and Gnomes for example. Or for the Tauren to turn Alliance. But the High Elves remain a firm favorite for this type of call.

The model looks good, the HElfs have strong ties to the Alliance, they are very involved with the story...and unlike the Tauren, Gnomes, etc, they already belong to the faction calling for them to be playable.

Never mind the countless reasons given in lore

There aren't any. There isn't one reason set down in lore that would forbid the Helfs being playable.

There are only two valid arguments against adding HElfs.

First - they would indeed be reskinned BElfs. You would either need to develop them to the point where they looked very different from BElfs (leading to the inevitable calls for each side to be given the other sides version as it looked better) or you'd need to balance it out by giving the Horde a "reskinned" Alliance race - currently, only the Highborne would be suitable but Blizzard could rework lore to justify another race.

The second objection is the only one that has any degree of merit. This is where BElf players may feel they have lost something special and unique. Of course, other BElfs players would be happy to see they can now play their preferred race on their preferred faction. Others wouldn't care. Others would see it as a fair trade for getting to play their preferred race on the Horde.

In short - this would be a judgement call. Making HElfs available to the Alliance has some strong advantages for Blizzard and the player base, and it'd be up to Blizzard to decide if the cost was worth it.

What niche would High Elves fill for the Alliance?

They'd fill out the roster of WC3 races, just as Ogres would do for the Horde. Maybe they'd bring Spellbreakers and Spellblades/bows with them. WoW is at a point where there aren't really any racial niches to fill.

That'd be quite a nice gift for the 10th and 20th anniversaries of the game.

They'd also be a cheap race to add. And give increased value to developing and using Elf lore. The trick here is not being cheap - it would be being fair. If both sides got a reskin, few would complain. If one side got a reskin and the other a brand new race, then there'd be justifiable complaints.

And what if there were another scenario? What if the Horde got NElfs and Ogres, vs the Alliances HElfs and Drakonids? WC3 races all added, and each side gets a new race so Blizzard isn't seen as cheap?

Unlikely? Yes. But so is adding HElfs.

I don't like any of those. I would like to see a Mylune type race/class in the game.

They have the same issues as Naga.....mounting. You may also see some gameplay issues due to their body shape. They WOULD be different though.

Sadly, you might be right. It's a shame too, as I always found Furbolg to be the more interesting.

Maybe, I personally think the Furbolgs main story is really too tied into the NElfs.

And I believe you wish to ignore the negatives of adding them. The degradation to faction diversity, the immense amount of spin to justify numbers high enough for a realisitic race, the feelings of the wider Alliance audience who were hoping for a new race that could give them a fresh take within their faction rather than the carbon copy of a Horde race.

Blizzards tendency to mishandle Alliance races aside, the only issue that is valid is how the racial choice would affect the existing BElf player base.

HElfs remain a viable choice for the next Alliance race. Unlikely, perhaps...but not impossible.

But...Blizzard would need to pair them with a reskinned Alliance race for the Horde (possibly starting at L90 as Hero Races?) or a revamp. This would be very analogous to the way Paladins and Shamans lost their faction exclusivity in TBC. More importantly would be how Blizzard would judge the effect on BElf players.

EJL

[Tydrane]

Furbolgs. WoW's Ewoks.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

More than likely what they will go if we do get another race with a demon expansion

Assuming Legion is Expansion VI, they'll be the Neutral race to go along with Demon Hunter.