Mechagnomes should be neutral, is blizzard making them alliance only unforgivable?

[Oneirophobia]

Nightborne going Horde was unforgivable. We actually quested and invested so much time for at least 2 patches. Blizzard doesn't care, same for HM and Army of the Light.

Have you seen the nightborne models? Bullet dodged honestly.

[Kathranis]

Which is actually funny because it means Alliance get screwed there because Horde can grind the rep necessary for Mechagnomes on their Horde character. Alliance can't grind the rep necessary for Voldunai on their Alliance character. Gotta make and level a Horde first.

You still need a max level Alliance character to unlock the Mechagnomes so it's not much of a difference.

[MrFiddleswitch]

I mean what about the horde players grinding the rustbolt resistance rep to play them on their faction. It is disgusting

Hey - story wise, I agree with you. However, the same thing goes for the Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren and Lightforged Draenai.

Thematically, I disagree with you. It makes sense that the Highmountain would join the Horde, Lightforged the Alliance. It makes sense that the Nightborne's primarily arcane focused culture that suffers from magically withdraw would find a friend in the Blood Elves, who faced similar challenges. It also makes sense that a group of "lost" Gnomes that were being forced to mechanically replace their body parts would find friends in unaltered Gnomes - the thing that Mechagnomes generally want to be in the story.

[Lolites]

those were traitors :P

yeah those treacherous vendors who didnt do anything bad other than not siding with alliance against their neighbours and protecting their lives when attacked totally deserved it

[Heladys]

What's unforgiveable is I'm probably going to have to grind rep with them to get them, and I don't want to do any more mechagon.

[DotEleven]

You still need a max level Alliance character to unlock the Mechagnomes so it's not much of a difference.

Not quite, because on reach max level the person unlocking Mechagnomes will be able to just go and unlock them. On the other hand the one getting Voldunai is going to have to rep grind on their newly created character.

[Lothaeryn]

Man, I remember this discussion when it was Nightborne.

Yep, since we're not allowed to have Neutral races that rightfully wouldn't side with either because both helped out, Horde just have to deal with it.

[Destinas]

To be fair, most Allied Races should be neutral, with a couple exceptions. The Alliance and Horde were involved in the liberation of Suramar. They both helped the Highmountain Tribes. They both went to Argus and worked with the Lightforged. They both went to AU Draenor and defended it from the Legion.

Races like the Void Elves, Zandalari, Kul Tirans, and Vulpera were written from the get-go for their respective factions. Dark Irons have been part of the Alliance since Cataclysm.

However, all of these races go to their respective factions because they're directly related to other races on their factions - Vulpera are an exception, as well as the Void Elves/Nightborne (somewhat - they're related to Night/Blood Elves, but it was based more on models rather than lore). That's the reason that the Lightforged went to the Alliance, Highmountains went to the Horde to join the other Tauren, and that's why the Mechagnomes are also joining the Alliance. They want to join their Gnomish cousins as one Gnome force. I find it a bit silly, but, Blizzard wants to keep strict faction lines.

As far as being disappointed as a Horde player, well, that's kind of been the case since Allied Races were introduced. They all went to one faction or the other, none have been neutral. I apologize for sounding harsh, but it shouldn't have been a surprise by this point with the way all other Allied Races have worked.

[Jujudrood]

To be fair, most Allied Races should be neutral, with a couple exceptions. The Alliance and Horde were involved in the liberation of Suramar. They both helped the Highmountain Tribes. They both went to Argus and worked with the Lightforged. They both went to AU Draenor and defended it from the Legion.

Races like the Void Elves, Zandalari, Kul Tirans, and Vulpera were written from the get-go for their respective factions. Dark Irons have been part of the Alliance since Cataclysm.

However, all of these races go to their respective factions because they're directly related to other races on their factions - Vulpera are an exception, as well as the Void Elves/Nightborne (somewhat - they're related to Night/Blood Elves, but it was based more on models rather than lore). That's the reason that the Lightforged went to the Alliance, Highmountains went to the Horde to join the other Tauren, and that's why the Mechagnomes are also joining the Alliance. They want to join their Gnomish cousins as one Gnome force. I find it a bit silly, but, Blizzard wants to keep strict faction lines.

As far as being disappointed as a Horde player, well, that's kind of been the case since Allied Races were introduced. They all went to one faction or the other, none have been neutral. I apologize for sounding harsh, but it shouldn't have been a surprise by this point with the way all other Allied Races have worked.

This is the reasoning and it makes sense.
What doesn't make sense is that pandas can play both sides of the fence.
Both factions helped them, then they split into two sub factions.
Allied races could have easily done the same, with a faction of HMT not agreeing with Horde and going Alliance as a thank you for the help, etc etc.
The Nightborne logic of "I was insulted once" or whatever the hell it was, it was weak and nowhere near deserving of forsaking one faction over another.
LFD shouldn't really give a shit about their cousin goats either; they fight off demons and shit and both factions helped that as well.

But that would have been confusing as shit, having like half the Allied races shared along with Pandas.
"It's a cow! Oh wait, no, a moose... is it red? Ok, kill it!"

[Destinas]

This is the reasoning and it makes sense.
What doesn't make sense is that pandas can play both sides of the fence.
Both factions helped them, then they split into two sub factions.
Allied races could have easily done the same, with a faction of HMT not agreeing with Horde and going Alliance as a thank you for the help, etc etc.
The Nightborne logic of "I was insulted once" or whatever the hell it was, it was weak and nowhere near deserving of forsaking one faction over another.
LFD shouldn't really give a shit about their cousin goats either; they fight off demons and shit and both factions helped that as well.

But that would have been confusing as shit, having like half the Allied races shared along with Pandas.
"It's a cow! Oh wait, no, a moose... is it red? Ok, kill it!"

Agreed on all points, except the last.

I've never really liked that last point. They've made tooltips say their faction, as well as change the colors of names for both factions to make it easy and accessible for people in PvP to identify an enemy. In the past few years, people haven't been confused about Pandaren on either side. In full armor, it's nearly impossible to tell if it's a Blood Elf or Void Elf. In War Mode and BGs, people just pay attention to what is red, not how the actual character model looks.

But for full transparency, I hardly PvP. When I do, I'm mostly looking at nameplates, or, y'know, who's stabbing me. In PvE, it doesn't really matter at all. I see Tauren and wave at them. We all kill world bosses and rares together. I don't really care about faction lines, though I know some do. Every race could be neutral for all I care.

But, for lore, there are certainly reasons, I just think some of them are silly - like you said, Tyrande insulted Thalyssra, so they joined the Horde. Makes sense, I just find it a hamfisted way to present the lore, as opposed to the Blood Elves and Nightborne going through similar experiences or something.

[Tolfor]

why would an advance tech race join a mudhut primitive organization with leaders that keep commiting genocides?

The Horde is only a "mudhut primitive organization" if you ignore the majority of its member races and also decades of advancement. That doesn't even accurately describe the orcs at this point.

The Nightborne logic of "I was insulted once" or whatever the hell it was, it was weak and nowhere near deserving of forsaking one faction over another.

I feel like this point gets misrepresented pretty frequently. It's not about Thalyssra being "insulted one time" - it's about Tyrande, as a representative of the Alliance, expressing the sentiment that the Nightborne would never be trusted as compatriots there, as she held all of them responsible for the actions of their leader (some of which took place millennia ago). In contrast, Lor'themar (as a representative of the Horde) welcomed the Nightborne with open arms and expressed a desire to help them rise above their past & their circumstances, as the Horde had helped his own people to do in the past.

Also, this feels like a bad false-flag bait thread. We get it, OP, you're still mad about Nightborne joining the Horde after both sides helped them in Legion. But come on, we both know that Horde players upset about not getting to play gnomes are in the extreme minority.

[Ielenia]

no they aren't
they stood and fought BL until we met them in Legion, u can see their backstory in Tyralion and Alleria audio story
they never joined Velen, they stood and fight since day one against impossible odds and at least got wiped out twice at least

False. They were part of Velen's crew that left Argus when Sargeras showed up and corrupted Archimonde and Kil'Jaeden.

[Syegfryed]

he indeed baited some folks here lol

[How dare you]

How so? Although it used the Argussian Reach rep, the allied race we got from it didn't really have anything to do with the Argussian Reach.

They were related through Alleria and the void.

[Akibaboy]

Pro-tip: Just play both factions. 100% game experienced. 0% drama.

[DotEleven]

They were related through Alleria and the void.

The Argussian Reach had nothing to do with Alleria or the Void. The Argussian Reach were the Broken on Argus. They didn't have much more of a connection to her or the void than they did any of us.

[Zyky]

not really, nightborns are not tech advanced and goblins are inferior to mechagnomes

Your argument was faction based, not directed towards goblins:

join a mudhut primitive organization with leaders that keep commiting genocides?

therefore my argument stands, the same reason that a culturally rich and magically advanced race(the only mortal race that has been known to wield time magic) would join the Horde.

[Irian]

I get that you're probably trying to be petty and reflect Alliance players bothered by Nightborne being Horde, but the comparison doesn't really work. Nightborne are more closely related to night elves than any Horde race, and had no real reason to join the Horde until Blizzard made Tyrande blow them off. Mechagnomes are literally gnomes - an Alliance race - with some robot parts.

Also, as a mainly Alliance player I'd actually like that a lot. Mechagnomes are ugly as shit and would at least have a unique place on the Horde as opposed to being a half-assed reskin of gnomes on Alliance.

[GreenJesus]

Highmountain Tauren, Nightborne and Lightsworn Draenei should also all be neutral. Dark Irons were already a member of the Alliance (hence dwarves getting the options for warlocks and mages during Cataclysm.) The lore for allied races has been very slipshod as far as I'm concerned with only the Kul'Tiran, Zandalar, Void Elves and Mag'har really making sense.

It's funny you include Maghar and void elves. Since void elves never existed before 7.3 and there are only a handful of them. Bringing maghar orcs required time travel to another planet and Yrel to go on a crazy crusade. Really the only allied races that make sense are Kultiran and Zandalari and they are closer to actual races than allied races since they have relatively unique skeletons.

[Thetruth1400]

On the actual topic of Mechagnomes, they are an even worse take on the original race than the LF are compared to the normal Draenei. Not only are they far uglier, they bring nothing new to the table.

Agreed. With all the new cosmetic changes coming in Shadowlands, Mechagnomes should have been relegated to what they really are; nothing but a cosmetic change. I feel like they wanted to give Vulpera to the Horde, but knew they had to add in a race for the Alliance too, so they just settled for something low effort.