[Opinion] The Alliance has generally gotten some GARBAGE Allied Races

[Claymore]

I know there are some differing opinions on the Nightfallen not being accurate to their NPC models in Legion, and the Highmountain Tauren are just Tauren-with-antlers, but I would still consider them generally strong additions (I hope the Tauren -- Bloodhoof and Highmountain alike -- get some time to shine in the story at some point).

Meanwhile, the Alliance has Dark Iron Dwarves -- which, I think we can all agree, are pretty fucking metal and awesome -- and then... the rest are shit.

Void Elves - Visually, they're "another race of PURPLE elves", except "edgy". In terms of lore, they're such an ass-pull there's simply no choice BUT to ignore them. They will never be important in the game's Lore, ever, because their introduction came out of nowhere, and to nowhere they have returned. "Void" elves, indeed...

Lightforged Draenei - My real problem with this race is that, by the game's own lore, they are presented as being "BETTER Draenei" than the existing Draenei. It would've been better if they'd been a genuine racial-offshoot, that "these are Draenei that spent tens of thousands of years fighting the Legion, where the only physical source of light was literally the Naaru". Visually, I'm okay with them (other than the armor and "jewel" on their tail doesn't match the rest of their visual cues), but they're a rare instance of a "new" race that, simply by EXISTING, makes one of the old races seem worse (because if your Draenei was TRULY powerful, they would become Lightforged, barring some mental gymnastics to justify them NOT wanting to become "powered-up").

Kul Tirans - Fat humans. To be fair, they *almost* look cool, they're just TOO large and goofy-looking, to the point they almost look like they were stylized completely differently than other humans. Players have been asking for Vrykul ever since Wrath; the Vrykul should've been the Allied Race in the Kul Tiran's stead.

Mechagnomes - Are you fucking shitting me? The new character-models for Gnomes already made them the unambiguously UGLIEST race in the game, and now you're going to double-down on that? Oh, and their culture is EXACTLY the same as the tinkerers of Gnomeregan, they just have a shitload of amputees running around. Those are cool options, for sure, but in no way, shape, or form do they justify being a separate fucking RACE. Nothing about them is even vaguely distinct from "regular Gnomes", they just have some snazzier options and built-in goggles.

The Allied Races the Alliance *SHOULD* have gotten:

Vrykul - 'Nuff said. Just explain them as a clan that was lost at sea, and only recently came back to land (perhaps related to the disturbances of their 'gods' during the events of Legion).

"The Broken" Draenei - Ugly, but also VERY different from existing Draenei. Would make both races seem cooler by comparison. Could also enable wildly different class choices (no Priest or Paladin, but perhaps adding Warlock and Rogue).

PLOT-TWIST - Highmountain Tauren!!! Instead of "Void Elves", I think it would've been far more appropriate to have added the Highmountain Tauren. As outsiders looking in, they would've been the perfect parallel to the Nightborne. Looking at the Horde and Alliance (in their CURRENT state) objectively, I feel like the Highmountain would've probably been more inclined to join the Alliance. Failing that, I think "High Elves" would've been fine, provided they drew more inspiration from Alleria, being a bit more "rugged" and sporting tattoos or war-paint.

Mindflayers or whatever-the-fuck they're called in WoW - Basically, the dudes with the tentacle-faces. They're clearly based on the Forsaken models. I'd probably make them stand upright (more "fancy" looking), still thin but more evenly-distributed, scaling down the size of their heads in proportion with the rest of their bodies.

I mean, it's far too late for any of this input to be important now. But, much like the storytelling, the Allied Races for the Alliance have been completely boring and unimaginative. And given it's still looking quite likely the Vulpera will be joing the Horde, the prospect of fucking "Mechagnomes" for the Alliance is borderline insulting.

[Varodoc]

Mindflayers or whatever-the-fuck they're called in WoW - Basically, the dudes with the tentacle-faces. They're clearly based on the Forsaken models. I'd probably make them stand upright (more "fancy" looking), still thin but more evenly-distributed, scaling down the size of their heads in proportion with the rest of their bodies.

So you don't want edgy asspull elves but are fine with edgy asspull tentacle monsters? Do point me to the K'thir who appeared before Battle for Azeroth.

[Steelangel]

Cool story bro. It's not like this exact post hasn't been made a dozen times before.

[Florena]

Void elves have gotten a fair bit of exposure in BFA and will likely be important as the Void takes a larger presence in the story. I don't think it's quite fair to write them off as 'never to be important again.' And while they are a new development and should have had a little more lead up to them, I don't have a problem with 'new' allied races showing up.

Lightforged I found to be underwhelming, but broken wouldn't work as an allied race, they would have needed to be a full on new race, though I do think they would bring more to the table than lightforged.

I'm not a big fan of kul tirans, but Vry'kul just wouldn't work without severely nerfing their height, and then what do you have? Just an abnormally tall human. They also probalby wanted an allied race to represent Kul'tiras in general since the main Alliance story in 8.0 is helping them out so we can bring them into the Alliance, and vry'kul wouldn't do that.

Mindflayers? Seriously? How would you even justify these on the alliance?

I do agree that DI Dwarves are awesome though.

[Danare]

It's confirmed somewhere that Alliance is going to get Mechagnomes? When I watched some of 8.3 gameplay, I get more feeling that Jinyu is going to be next Allied race? Mechagnome is currently an enemy no?

[Ealyssa]

Meanwhile, the Alliance has Dark Iron Dwarves -- which, I think we can all agree, are pretty fucking metal and awesome

Taste are like asses, everyone has one.

I find the Iron dwarf to be the most garbage allied race of all. So no, we definitely don't agree

[Mermeoth]

So you don't want edgy asspull elves but are fine with edgy asspull tentacle monsters? Do point me to the K'thir who appeared before Battle for Azeroth.

Exactly XD

[micwini]

Im predicting Jinyu(nazjatar version) and Gilblin for next allied races. They could do mechagnomes and vulpera for 8.3 or 9.0 promotion. They then have the ability to be tinkers alongside gnomes and goblins.

[Trollokdamus]

I would agree that Lightforged make regular Draenei feel inferior, even more so if you're a Light-wielding class. This shouldn't be the case.

[EbaumsTipster]

I would agree that Lightforged make regular Draenei feel inferior, even more so if you're a Light-wielding class. This shouldn't be the case.

Only if you don't care about Shamans and Monks. Draenei have more to them than the light themeing (not that the average person cares about this because most people just see them as Boobs and Light).

Draenei FROM THE START were introduced as a way for Alliance to have Shamans because of their naturalistic ties to Draenor. Lightforged make better paladins and light priests, regular Draenei make better Shamans and Monks (as well as soul priests). They are not 1:1 upgrades in any canonical way besides "duhhh dey look better"

[Martymark]

Void Elves are BY FAR the most played Allied race, so statistically, most people disagree with OP.

More people have 120 Velfs than Dwarves, Worgen, Gnomes or Pandas.

https://realmpop.com/us.html

[Super Kami Dende]

Only if you don't care about Shamans and Monks. Draenei have more to them than the light themeing (not that the average person cares about this because most people just see them as Boobs and Light).

And tail swagger.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I’d say the alliance has gotten the better end with the only good horde one being zandalari.

[Lochton]

What? I love the Kul Tiran model! On Horde, only cool I think is HM and Zandalari...

[Florena]

For me, Highmountain and Lightforged are about equal. Neither really, for me anyway, add that much and could easily be customization options for the base race instead.

For the elves, I would say the horde were the clear winner but the nightborn player models just don't feel right to me, and they're pretty limited in options. I feel like void elves ultimately added more to the alliance for variety than the nightborne did for the horde, who already had arcane focused aristocratic elves who had a recent well related mana addiction crisis.

For dark iron vs mag'har, I kinda feel like the dark irons won out. Yes the Mag'har get a bunch of skins, but really only a handful of skin colors with a few different 'tattoo' type options. Their racials, heritage armor mount all feel a bit...generic mag'har? The skin option is really the only thing with real clan identity, and I have a feeling blizzard will struggle to actually give the mag'har clans actual idenitty in the story going forward sine they're merged into this one group now, where as the dark irons are 100% dark iron and not diluted by say, shoving a bunch of different dwarf groups into one allied race. Mag'har are still all in all pretty good but for me, the singular dark iron identity wins out over a bunch of clans molded into one allied race.

Kul'Tirans vs Zandalari are fairly even IMO, even if neither are my ucp of tea I feel they were both handled well and give something new.

[Selah]

Void Elves - Look, we're all heartbroken we didn't get proper High Elves. That said, the claim that they aren't going to be important *glances over at N'zoth and Xalatath* well... I think that's not true. Lots of Void themes floating around. Not likely to get better anytime soon.

Lightforged Draenei - That's the whole thing about the LF Draenei, they're kinda of limited. They're very bound to the Light and as such can only be 5 classes, they're specialists. That's what they are, they do one or two things well and that's it. You can't tell me a race that can only be a Warrior, Hunter, Paladin, Mage, and Priest is going to better than their counterparts who can do everything they do PLUS be Shamans, Monks, and Death Knights. Not to mention, the Draenei have been fighting for quite a long damn time too and they fought other things besides the Burning Legion. To me, LF Draenei feel like the weaker race from a lore perspective.

Kul Tirans - Why shit on a race that isn't the one you want? People seem to like them well enough. Don't get pissed just because they aren't what you want.

Mechagnomes - The argument you make here is far better applied to Highmountain Tauren. HM Tauren are just regular Tauren who got a blessing to turn their bull horns into antlers. That's it. They share the same culture and beliefs, they could've easily just bit another skin option for Tauren and we'd be no worse off for it. At least with the Mechagnomes they are different.

Vrykul - Yes, yes, we know. You want Vrykul.

"The Broken" Draenei - Yeah, they're kinda fun. I still don't understand why Draenei can't choose to be Warlocks or Rogues. We've seen a ton of Draenei Rogues in WoD and Legion and we know Draenei can be Warlocks. I prefer LF Draenei over them, but wouldn't have a problem with Broken.

PLOT-TWIST - Highmountain Tauren!!! At the time they joined the Horde, there was no Horde VS. Alliance things going on. We had just finished fighting the Legion, there hadn't been enough time for this war stuff to kick off. Not properly anyways, it made sense for them to follow their cousins. It's the same thing for the Nightborne, I suspect that if these events had happened before they joined they wouldn't have. Besides, the Alliance might end up with more Horde allies soon anyways.

Mindflayers or whatever-the-fuck they're called in WoW - These are the human versions of Void Elves. It's just a slightly different "ascension" process. Seems a little strange that you'd complain about the obscurity of the Void Elves and then advocate for these guys.

[Destinas]

It's confirmed somewhere that Alliance is going to get Mechagnomes? When I watched some of 8.3 gameplay, I get more feeling that Jinyu is going to be next Allied race? Mechagnome is currently an enemy no?

No, you work with many of the Mechagnomes in their resistance against the ruler, King Mechagon. The prince is the one leading the rebellion. The rebellion is also a rep. That's how you do the quests on Mechagon, with Goblins showing up as well.

It's a fair assumption that Mechagnomes are going to be playable, due to their player character customization and a unique female Mechagnome dance animation, which are generally more for player races. They also have a rep, which fits in well with all other Allied Races.

On topic: Sure the Alliance has had a bit more boring Allied Races. However, the Alliance, as a whole, is a bit more boring of a faction. Getting Vrykul wouldn't change much of the problem - they're another shape and size of human, exactly like the Kul Tirans, for instance. They haven't really set up many other unique/interesting races that are 100% Alliance. though, I do feel that Lightforged should have been customization for regular Draenei, and the Broken could have been the Draenei Allied Race. However, I'm content with everything else so far.

[Galathir]

Void Elves - Visually, they're "another race of PURPLE elves", except "edgy". In terms of lore, they're such an ass-pull there's simply no choice BUT to ignore them. They will never be important in the game's Lore, ever, because their introduction came out of nowhere, and to nowhere they have returned. "Void" elves, indeed...

Have you been playing this expansion? From the battle for Lordaeron that their portals turned around over the Alliance war campaign to the assaults, especially in Zuldazar, they are everywhere. I'd argue they are the most present allied race on the Alliance side (except for Kul Tirans naturally)

[Gatto]

In terms of racial traits the alliance can't beat the Mag'har Orc

https://www.wowhead.com/skill=2598/racial-maghar-orc

However, mechagnomes are so damn creepy...

[Kumorii]

And tail swagger.

and that arched back!