Patch 8.3 - Visions of N'Zoth Alliance Allied Race - Mechagnomes

[Walkerbo]

I do not like this race at all, cyborg gnomes seems like such a stretch surely they could have been a bit more inventive with a new race altogether like how the Horde got Vulpera

[Mirishka]

I just got done looking at the orc males on classic and each face is vastly different from the other. You could line them up side by side and easily tell them apart. Take the male mecha gnomes in this pic and do the same. Ask someone to tell which is unique and I guarantee you most people will think at least half are the exact same.

I mean you wonder about my eyes I wonder about yours! I know that they used low tech for the old days and it was just textures. But they still somehow have far more unique looking faces than most post WoD races with simple textures. Also what do you mean they didn’t have teeth? I’m looking right now and multiple faces have different sets of teeth. If it’s textured or a skeleton that doesn’t make a difference to me. When I’m looking at my characters face it’s almost always when standing still so the fact they can “react” with emotion or whatever is kind of a moot point.

Another issue with today’s models is the beards. For whatever reason no character has a beard in the right location. It’s always like TOO far below their chin. I don’t get why they did that but it’s so strange. There’s no orc facial hair options that I can see that appropriately cover the entire face. The only race that got the beards right is LF Draenei. Don’t get me wrong, the vanilla beards weren’t great either with their paper thin aesthetics. In fact I’m not even trying to argue that vanilla models were amazing looking. They had many issues even for their time. My problem is today’s models just looking the exact same and I find that really disappointing.

I'm referring to 3d-modeled teeth. The old models had little white pixels textured along the insides of their lips - it wasn't until Draenei in BC that a race actually had 3d teeth (specifically their fangs/canines, basic as those were).

And hey if you like the old faces better, more power to you. But they're basically like taking the same marshmallow and painting difference expressions on it, where as the new models have fully-realized 3D faces with advanced facial animation, proper eyes/teeth/eyelids, etc. They used some clever texturing to make the old faces look more different than they actually are, but again, its just pasting a picture of a face on an extremely low-poly head.

No argument here that some of the new model faces look quite similar to one another. But that's a trade-off I'm willing to accept for the increased fidelity/detail and expressiveness.

[stormrage666]

You see... WHY NO BLACK GNOME?

SRSLY, WHY?

They going to wait shadowlands for release more skin tone?

[Axxil]

You see... WHY NO BLACK GNOME?

SRSLY, WHY?

They going to wait shadowlands for release more skin tone?

Because it's unnecessary.

[Gurg]

This is just personal opinion post. And a long, personal rant. Because of their extremely off-putting look and extremely good passives.

3rd set of eyes for both genders look a bit weird. Like they missed adjustments and set them to be turned towards insides more than they should be, looking like they have cross "x" sight.
If you compare those pics with pics just above them you will notice that metal implants are moved way toward inside and it looks like half of eye pupils is actually looking into implant frame, while other half is actually looking trough the lenses.
Nothing too major, but enough to trigger a little.

I see few other cosmetic issues with models too, but two most important ones:

As ppl mentioned previously, is that their faces look to much similar, issue with most HiRes model updates.
Second one is that their model cant have sleeves and pants. Im ok with sleeveless chest pieces (i use it my self on most of my characters) however combination of thin mechanized upper arms and sleeveless armor can start to be sour sight on the long run.
Again, nothing major, but enough to trigger me, again.

Lastly, same goes for legs, "no pants" thing can be fun at start, but again, looking at speedo briefs can be pain on a long run.
Once more, nothing major, but enough to trigger me.

All that being said, combination of lackluster diversity of faces, some modifications poorly positioned, no-pants-no-boots and no-sleeves-no-shoulders bothers me even more since none of my transmogs look even half-decent on them. Sadly, no matter how much i tried i couldnt find any combination of transmog's that suite my idea across all armor proficiency. No-boots is REALLY bad idea.

But, as i said, their passives make them "top notch swiss army knife" for professions grinding/leveling.
And this is what bothers me the most, such a off-putting models and such good passives that cannot be overlooked for alt professions switchers/levelers.

Thank god for 3rd party morphing tools.

[monteiro]

I'm surprised that such horrible monstrosities even got past the drawing board phase.

[durenas]

No pink hair?! What kind of gnomes are these?

[Julaes]

Why are the horde races more convenient to unlock? They only require launch reps which everyone has since people still had new expansion hype in the first month of BFA and none of them require any dungeon runs let alone mythic ones.

I agree.

I remember that in the Legion, as an Alliance player, I had already unlocked both Horde's Allied races, while I still needed a lot to unlock the Alliance's. Now, in BfA, it was a pain to find a group to make the mythic dungeon to unlock the Kul Tiran, and now I need to do another mythic to unlock the Mechagnomes before 8.3. Yes, I know I can wait the patch and then do the heroic but I think it's unfair that the horde players don't have to go through this.

[Al Gorefiend]

Until they add a tinker class there’s no good option for these guys.

[Zeons]

I agree.

I remember that in the Legion, as an Alliance player, I had already unlocked both Horde's Allied races, while I still needed a lot to unlock the Alliance's. Now, in BfA, it was a pain to find a group to make the mythic dungeon to unlock the Kul Tiran, and now I need to do another mythic to unlock the Mechagnomes before 8.3. Yes, I know I can wait the patch and then do the heroic but I think it's unfair that the horde players don't have to go through this.

Yes, you have to play the game in order to unlock rewards.

[PuppetShowJustice]

Yes, you have to play the game in order to unlock rewards.

That doesn't actually address what he was talking about though.

[Aekero]

it bothers me how little of them can be customized as far as legs gloves etc, I wish they had armor that would fit to their mechanized parts. They're pretty cool just too restricted on appearance for me.

[Logwyn]

I'm not sure what you're asking... RotG doesn't care about levels, it only requires pink hair.

Isn't run of the Gnomes all level 1 gnomes? Mech-Gnomes can't run as they start at level 10?

[Xosimos]

Isn't run of the Gnomes all level 1 gnomes? Mech-Gnomes can't run as they start at level 10?

Nope, level doesn't matter.

[Logwyn]

Nope, level doesn't matter.

CLANK away!

[Gurg]

it bothers me how little of them can be customized as far as legs gloves etc, I wish they had armor that would fit to their mechanized parts. They're pretty cool just too restricted on appearance for me.

TBH if i remember correctly there is warning that mechagnomes do not have parts of their armor as customization option.
Or atleast they said that there will be a warning that part of their armor is restricted.

Next, tbh, im ok with no-pants-no-sleeves policy, even tho its lacking in customization, but i dont see the reason why they cant wear boots or gloves (IF you use normal hand customization is selected)

[Trassk]

blizzard are just going to have to accept the fact their isn't anything remotely appealing about gnomes.
Nobody wants to say it, but the unspoken truth about any character someones plays in this game is based on two appeals, the sex appeal, or the strength appeal, that being you either like playing your character because you find something attractive about them, or you like playing your character because you feel strong for playing it. Even goblins have some of this to a degree, in a more comical sense.

Gnomes however look like children, big heads, big eyes, tiny bodies, and they need tech suits to make them stand out like mekkatorque. And people are just not drawn to that design. Its not even a height issue because like say there is something appealing about dwarves and goblins and vulpera that can have appeal. Gnomes just lack this in their design, and are ALWAYS only ever used as comic relief by the developers of this game.

The ONLY time they did something meaningful with a gnome, was kinndy sparkshine, Jaina's assistant and friend in theramore, who meant something to Jaina and her death along with everyone elses death from the arcane bomb made jaina snap, including the harrowing scene when she found kinndy's body and touched it before it crumbled into sand, and jaina's screaming as he tried to grab the ashes. That was a powerful moment in the story, and sadly the only time blizzard used a gnome for an emotional and meaningful moment in the story.

[DeadDest]

Mecha gnome.... death knights....

Can I have my night elf paladin already? Also night elf warlock plz. Cuz reasons.

[therealbowser]

Mecha gnome.... death knights....

Can I have my night elf paladin already? Also night elf warlock plz. Cuz reasons.

Night elf paladins would be interesting given that we've seen hints of them being possible in the Paladin order hall quests. I'd like to see them added eventually.

Night elf warlocks will never happen. I mean I assume you were joking but who knows at this point...

- - - Updated - - -

blizzard are just going to have to accept the fact their isn't anything remotely appealing about gnomes.
Nobody wants to say it, but the unspoken truth about any character someones plays in this game is based on two appeals, the sex appeal, or the strength appeal, that being you either like playing your character because you find something attractive about them, or you like playing your character because you feel strong for playing it. Even goblins have some of this to a degree, in a more comical sense.

Gnomes however look like children, big heads, big eyes, tiny bodies, and they need tech suits to make them stand out like mekkatorque. And people are just not drawn to that design. Its not even a height issue because like say there is something appealing about dwarves and goblins and vulpera that can have appeal. Gnomes just lack this in their design, and are ALWAYS only ever used as comic relief by the developers of this game.

The ONLY time they did something meaningful with a gnome, was kinndy sparkshine, Jaina's assistant and friend in theramore, who meant something to Jaina and her death along with everyone elses death from the arcane bomb made jaina snap, including the harrowing scene when she found kinndy's body and touched it before it crumbled into sand, and jaina's screaming as he tried to grab the ashes. That was a powerful moment in the story, and sadly the only time blizzard used a gnome for an emotional and meaningful moment in the story.

A lot of people like gnomes. Some people get this idea in their head that no one is capable of looking at things different than they do, and that's pretty damn sad. That said, mechagnomes have a lot of problems that make the race less appealing than it would be, even to those who like gnomes. But that's beside the point. You are acting like no one likes gnomes. No, you dislike gnomes. You don't find the race appealing. Probably because you feel uncomfortable playing any kind of race that isn't drop dead sexy or muscled out to the point of comedy. That's your problem, friend.

I don't even know what you are going on this crusade over... so you dislike gnomes. Cool, want a cookie? The only thing one should really get out of this post is that we need to have more meaningful lore with gnomes, and on that note I couldn't agree more.

- - - Updated - - -

Until they add a tinker class there’s no good option for these guys.

Both hunters and warriors seem like pretty good thematic options for this race. Mechagon didn't elaborate much on magical classes or even stealth, but they obviously exist. That said the fact tinkers weren't added makes the race less appealing this expansion... oh well.

[LemonDemonGirl]

It may have been missed? I just checked PTR and it says "Creating a Death Knight with the selected race requires that you purchase Shadowlands." At a glance, it looks like you can't select it, but I imagine once it's live, attached to an account with Shadowlands, it'll be available, maybe?

They're not playable on the PTR yet sadly. We have two more weeks until 8.3 but still...