We all new sub races (given as allied races) were re-textured versions

[Beloren]

And we were all excited about it. But this seems to come as a shock to some people (20%) that they are. What did you expect?

For me this was far far better than just sloppily giving new skin tones and saying there. You have dark irons or mag’har.

This was the only way we could also get Zandalari, nightborne (prob Broken) which involve a little bit more tweaking than skin.

But why it surprises people that Nightborne are trimmed down night elves or zandalari upright trolls is really beyond me because this is what they always were. Modified versions of playable races, same for Mag’hqr, dark irons, Amani trolls, thinks, high elves etc. Some had a few more variable making them look slightly more distinct (like Taunka face, nightborne skinniness or zandalari upright, but they were always that.


Some of you loved the nightborne model in Legion which if you ever did masquerade surely you noticed she did everything but idle-standstill like a night elf, she even used a version of the old night elf model face and until the last release of beta her ears were exactly like a night elf while the male ears curved up at the end rather than taper. The playable version had to boost the fidelity, the npc model was not complete nor was it player race level of fidelity.

Also why moan about Void elves coming out of nowhere? Every sub race did during an expansion, you then get to gradually find out more about them during the course. Surely you did not hunk blizzard would only limit sub races to ones of previous expansions and not introduce several new ones with the next one like they do EVERY TIME we get a new expansion. With the void elves you just get to partake in the story.

My Quibbles

Void elves were a pleasant surprise but I really felt the horde was better for them and nightborne for the night elves. It fit better and could do more in a conventional sense. This way round is definitely interesting though.

A bit disappointed Lightforged aren’t more distinctive like. With wings (Angel/Valkyr version of the Kil-Jaeden/Hasabel) visibly visualising a far stronger light connection given that Draenei themselves are also light would definitely have warranted it given the thematic similarity with normal Draenei.

HM have the moose horns which are plenty distinctive but the culture and shamanistic worship is too similar and so needed more distinction, fur texture like polar bear thick.

You see unlike Void elves who are a distinct vein/focus that’s different from most blood elves (bar shadow priests and warlocks) and nightborne who also have a distinct vein which is pre sundering Kaldorei very different from current ones except highborne mages. Nightborne and Void elves also have some clearly visible difference standing out more from blood elves and night elves than Lightforged and Highmountain do.

One of the cool thing about the sub race groups was not only did they look different, they behaved differently with clear distinctive cultures or focuses in their culture that was more intense or apart from the playable race group. Void elves have this because of the void connection, Nightborne have this because of their unique storyline over night elf highborne or shadow priest/warlock blood elves.

Overall. Very Happy
I really am, despite
My quibbles, A’s we know more sub races are coming. Blizzard should work on making more distinctions but only where relevantand not just appearance but also focus/culture/philosophyAnd perhaps do a bit more for a sub race they introduce brand new

I love that we get them as a race not a skin option. They feel far superior to what the alternative was
Calling them allied races was also better as it allows minor races to be added who aren’t sub races (like Ogres who face it, will never be popular enough to be warrant the work for full main race focus but can now be playable under this sub section
. It also allowed them to sometimes give a sub races of playable races to the opposite faction like Void elves/nightborne
They got a thematic class selection
As a race they got distinctive lore and get their identity not only continued but highlighted rather than just fade into a memory or worse completely absorbed into the main race.

They get their own starting quest chains which gives them an introduction also licked into their unlocking requirement. So you can at least know about them.

Suggestions
All the quibbles are addressable

• give a starting scenario to new characters. It will help give much better clarity and depth without necessitating a start zone. Unlocking quests were good for background but not enough for launching their specific involvement. Especially void elves
  
• Quest to gain optional cosmetic upgrades like wings for Lightforged, back Void tentacles for void elves, mountain trial for Highmountain that allows their fur to go all bushy thick. You can hide/show these acquisitions once earned. Nightborne/zandalari and dark irons get nothing here as they are already more visually and thematically/culturally distinct.
• Add class effects that switch on with cosmetic earned stuff. Like light/Void/arcane arrows for hunters. Glowy weapons for melee users and light/Void/arcane effects for casters. Highmountain could instead use their massive rotten for certain selected abilities instead of their class weapon.

[Highlord Hanibuhl]

[*]Quest to gain optional cosmetic upgrades like wings for Lightforged, back Void tentacles for void elves, mountain trial for Highmountain that allows their fur to go all bushy thick. You can hide/show these acquisitions once earned. Nightborne/zandalari and dark irons get nothing here as they are already more visually and thematically/culturally distinct.[*] Add class effects that switch on with cosmetic earned stuff. Like light/Void/arcane arrows for hunters. Glowy weapons for melee users and light/Void/arcane effects for casters. Highmountain could instead use their massive rotten for certain selected abilities instead of their class weapon. [/LIST]

I love these suggestions!

I'd love to see some special love go out to more the current subraces in the form of
- Lightforged > weapons made of light
- Highmountain > bulkier model, thicker beards
- Void Elves > tentacles
- Nightborne > More gracious animations + weapons from Suramar

[lordsesho]

yeah...im just waiting for races that should be already part of the factions like broken and undead elves (even with the hate against the possibility of more elves)

[Futhark]

For me this was far far better than just sloppily giving new skin tones and saying there. You have dark irons or mag’har.

I've been wanting Wildhammer since they almost sloppily gave us a new skin tones in Cataclysm beta. I've been telling myself for the better part of ten years that that's all I really wanted.

Now that I see what they've done with Allied Races so far, I can't wait until Wildhammer gets their due, and I'm so happy I didn't get what I originally wanted.

[ravenmoon]

yeah...im just waiting for races that should be already part of the factions like broken and undead elves (even with the hate against the possibility of more elves)

I'm not sure undead elves will ever come now -- I think undead sub-race or allied race would be something like vampires or diablo 3 type necromancers, - the whole horde is fed up of elven sub-races, only the alliance seem to really still want high elves, so apart from them, we'll probably see sub-races from nearly every other playable race first before we see undead elves.

- - - Updated - - -

And we were all excited about it. But this seems to come as a shock to some people (20%) that they are. What did you expect?

For me this was far far better than just sloppily giving new skin tones and saying there. You have dark irons or mag’har.

This was the only way we could also get Zandalari, nightborne (prob Broken) which involve a little bit more tweaking than skin.

But why it surprises people that Nightborne are trimmed down night elves or zandalari upright trolls is really beyond me because this is what they always were. Modified versions of playable races, same for Mag’hqr, dark irons, Amani trolls, thinks, high elves etc. Some had a few more variable making them look slightly more distinct (like Taunka face, nightborne skinniness or zandalari upright, but they were always that.


Some of you loved the nightborne model in Legion which if you ever did masquerade surely you noticed she did everything but idle-standstill like a night elf, she even used a version of the old night elf model face and until the last release of beta her ears were exactly like a night elf while the male ears curved up at the end rather than taper. The playable version had to boost the fidelity, the npc model was not complete nor was it player race level of fidelity.

Also why moan about Void elves coming out of nowhere? Every sub race did during an expansion, you then get to gradually find out more about them during the course. Surely you did not hunk blizzard would only limit sub races to ones of previous expansions and not introduce several new ones with the next one like they do EVERY TIME we get a new expansion. With the void elves you just get to partake in the story.

My Quibbles

Void elves were a pleasant surprise but I really felt the horde was better for them and nightborne for the night elves. It fit better and could do more in a conventional sense. This way round is definitely interesting though.

A bit disappointed Lightforged aren’t more distinctive like. With wings (Angel/Valkyr version of the Kil-Jaeden/Hasabel) visibly visualising a far stronger light connection given that Draenei themselves are also light would definitely have warranted it given the thematic similarity with normal Draenei.

HM have the moose horns which are plenty distinctive but the culture and shamanistic worship is too similar and so needed more distinction, fur texture like polar bear thick.

You see unlike Void elves who are a distinct vein/focus that’s different from most blood elves (bar shadow priests and warlocks) and nightborne who also have a distinct vein which is pre sundering Kaldorei very different from current ones except highborne mages. Nightborne and Void elves also have some clearly visible difference standing out more from blood elves and night elves than Lightforged and Highmountain do.

One of the cool thing about the sub race groups was not only did they look different, they behaved differently with clear distinctive cultures or focuses in their culture that was more intense or apart from the playable race group. Void elves have this because of the void connection, Nightborne have this because of their unique storyline over night elf highborne or shadow priest/warlock blood elves.

Overall. Very Happy
I really am, despite
My quibbles, A’s we know more sub races are coming. Blizzard should work on making more distinctions but only where relevantand not just appearance but also focus/culture/philosophyAnd perhaps do a bit more for a sub race they introduce brand new

I love that we get them as a race not a skin option. They feel far superior to what the alternative was
Calling them allied races was also better as it allows minor races to be added who aren’t sub races (like Ogres who face it, will never be popular enough to be warrant the work for full main race focus but can now be playable under this sub section
. It also allowed them to sometimes give a sub races of playable races to the opposite faction like Void elves/nightborne
They got a thematic class selection
As a race they got distinctive lore and get their identity not only continued but highlighted rather than just fade into a memory or worse completely absorbed into the main race.

They get their own starting quest chains which gives them an introduction also licked into their unlocking requirement. So you can at least know about them.

Suggestions
All the quibbles are addressable

• give a starting scenario to new characters. It will help give much better clarity and depth without necessitating a start zone. Unlocking quests were good for background but not enough for launching their specific involvement. Especially void elves
  
• Quest to gain optional cosmetic upgrades like wings for Lightforged, back Void tentacles for void elves, mountain trial for Highmountain that allows their fur to go all bushy thick. You can hide/show these acquisitions once earned. Nightborne/zandalari and dark irons get nothing here as they are already more visually and thematically/culturally distinct.
• Add class effects that switch on with cosmetic earned stuff. Like light/Void/arcane arrows for hunters. Glowy weapons for melee users and light/Void/arcane effects for casters. Highmountain could instead use their massive rotten for certain selected abilities instead of their class weapon.

For a change, I actually agree with you. LF Draenei and Highmountain do suffer from not only looking similar, but having no distinguishing focus to set them apart from the main playable race.. draenei are already light people, and tauren are already shamanistic, as such blizzard should try harder to visually distinguish them at least and emphasize other aspects of them or the draenei that they don't have.

e.g. Draenei's techno-magic aptitude and expertise could be considerably boosted, and their shamanistic wing led by the broken. MEanwhile the LF get new revelations of the light with getting their wings into an ascended state.

[Beloren]

I love these suggestions!

I'd love to see some special love go out to more the current subraces in the form of
- Lightforged > weapons made of light
- Highmountain > bulkier model, thicker beards
- Void Elves > tentacles
- Nightborne > More gracious animations + weapons from Suramar

I love the idea of nightborne having more gracious animations.. it was always weird that night elves did not - imo they should both change to have more graceful casting style

[Highlord Hanibuhl]

I love the idea of nightborne having more gracious animations.. it was always weird that night elves did not - imo they should both change to have more graceful casting style

I always felt like the Night Elves were just a bit more pragmatic and skilled at war - hence their current animations.
High Elves/Blood Elves/Void Elves were all basically high elves, so they are a bit more sophisticated and withdrawn in their aggression.

But that's why I would've liked the Nightborne to be like that a bit as well; they've made themselves feel super special as well!

[Beloren]

I always felt like the Night Elves were just a bit more pragmatic and skilled at war - hence their current animations.
High Elves/Blood Elves/Void Elves were all basically high elves, so they are a bit more sophisticated and withdrawn in their aggression.

But that's why I would've liked the Nightborne to be like that a bit as well; they've made themselves feel super special as well!

Which would explain good night elf melee and hunting animations. However. Night elf mages are trained by highborne who are as sophisticated and arcane familiar as nightborne if not moreso, cos reading the Dire Mail lore, they seemed more fanatical as a whole than the nightborne.

Also night elf priests don’t forget have been going 15k years so should be pretty skilled at it. Why do people always forget there is a part of the night elf race that never stopped using magic, and that druids and priests never stopped casting either. It’s like they think night elves aren’t magical at all when blizzard presented them as very much so.
http://classic.battle.net/war3/nightelf/

It’s the nightborne who are out of practice with bow arrow and martial skills and not the kaldorei who “aren’t use to casting” as you put it. Night elf male casting was very pompous and goofy looking. They really benefited from the minor change in 6.0 and the spell changes in Legion

[Doffen]

Finally dinged 110, and the horrendous leveling was totally worth it.

Really makes the Nightborne character complete. Sure there is some tweaks they could've have done to the model, but wow, that heritage armor on the Nightbornes, really really good.

That posture though!