Is it time to remove race restrictions on Classes?

[Kyphael]

While true, they haven't done that yet. So I suppose it's possible, but that would feel extremely forced to me. For some of the races, the idea that any of them would dabble in certain things....like the Draenei or Lightforged Draenei doing anything Fel related, would be a bit ridiculous.

Make their skin red, their eyes green, call them Eredar and bam. Draenei warlocks. I mean, every Eredar started off as nothing more than a regular Draenei.

[Echocho]

No because Tauren rogues makes no sense

[DarkAmbient]

I like the idea. I bet most players don't give a fuck about the racial lore and are only interested in the story anyway. The only thing is I doubt Blizzard will do it, because they'd have to spend the resources to develop druid forms for another 16 races.

[Amnaught]

Aren't Priestesses of the Moon technically Paladins?

What? No. Theyre priests.

[Linri]

i like the restrictions. TBH they have a lot of options already, and a lot of them are just strange

I can't really foresee a tauren rogue, or a goblin paladin, or a gnome shaman, or even better a tauren demon hunter with wings flying around with laser eyes

[Katchii]

Make their skin red, their eyes green, call them Eredar and bam. Draenei warlocks. I mean, every Eredar started off as nothing more than a regular Draenei.

But the Draenei faction the PC comes from are adamantly against the Legion, Velen their racial leader would never allow them to remain in their ranks if they were to actually become an Eredar.

Being anti-Fel magic is a pretty integral part of their racial identity.

[Kyphael]

But the Draenei faction the PC comes from are adamantly against the Legion, Velen their racial leader would never allow them to remain in their ranks if they were to actually become an Eredar.

Being anti-Fel magic is a pretty integral part of their racial identity.

Duly noted, but they still fight alongside Alliance Warlocks and Demon Hunters, even if they themselves don't become them.

[Katchii]

I agree that there would be consequences, namely the fact that racial identity would be muddled a bit, but I think we have much to gain from loosening the rigidity in WoW, the PC should have focus as an individual not a member of a race as our PC's are completely unique compared to anyone else.

I think every race should have a distinct culture, but it shouldn't be portrayed as if there are zero deviation from it, because then the cracks that are already present stick-out even more I.E, LFD being able to be Spreists and Unholy DK's.

While I agree a bit, there's game play and lore, and there IS a logic behind their separation.

Lore-wise it makes complete sense for a LFD to be a priest and a DK...it's not like DK's are usually willingly risen, and there were plenty of dead LFD available for the Lich King and the Knights of the Ebon Blade to raise into Death Knighthood after the events of Legion. Game play wise, you can't separate a Holy or Discipline priest from a Shadow Priest as it's part of the same class, so a LFD being a shadow priest is just a game play consequence of allowing them to be priests at all.

It's the same reason why the Forsaken are allowed to be Holy or Discipline priests rather than ONLY Shadow Priests.

[SilverFaerie]

Wasn't too long ago Gnomes were too fucking stupid to be Hunters..

What am I reading here. Gnomes are the pioneers for some of the most advanced technology the Warcraft universe has ever seen.

[Katchii]

Duly noted, but they still fight alongside Alliance Warlocks and Demon Hunters, even if they themselves don't become them.

Fair point, but there's a distinction between tolerating the help of outsiders who use methodologies you don't align with and outright accepting those same methods from within your own population.

Just look at Death Knights specifically, the factions tolerate them but their own racial faction doesn't really accept them, they are a separate faction (Knight of the Ebon Blade) that are simply aligned with the factions against the common enemy. Game play wise they still have to divide across the Alliance and Horde faction line, but lore wise it's pretty clear that they're really only aligned to themselves as Death Knights and the Lich King.

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Wasn't too long ago Gnomes were too fucking stupid to be Hunters..

That's being disingenuous as to the reason they weren't Hunters. It had nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with Hunters connection to nature, animals and respect/appreciation for the environment...things that Gnomes were not exactly known for.

They loosened up the definition to pretty much allow anyone who could fire a gun could be a Hunter, but the premise behind them not being Hunters before still had nothing to do with the intelligence of the race.

[Ardenaso]

Duly noted, but they still fight alongside Alliance Warlocks and Demon Hunters, even if they themselves don't become them.

that's pretty much out of necessity and convenience, like how the DKs were accepted into the Alliance

[Nightstalker]

As long as blood elves get removed from the game?

[Relapses]

Nah. And contrary to the 6 pages of discussion on this topic that this forum has somehow managed to produce, this is not an issue that is realistically important to anybody.

[Polarthief]

Yes. 10chat.

Seriously though, races should just be what aesthetics you want and what minor powers you get from being said race. It sucks when your favorite race is locked to only a handful of classes, none of which you want to be, or when your class is locked to only a handful of races, again none of which you want to be. Blizz is doing the whole race 2.0 customization thing so you can "be the character you truly want to be", but it's hard to do that without letting us pick our class untied from races as well. I really do not see the problem with it. Who says a Human can't learn to be a Druid or a Shaman? Who says a Night Elf can't choose to study fel and demonic magic to become a Warlock? Classes are not something you're just born into, so I really don't get the need to restrict it.

[Nightstalker]

These restriction are literally the reason why horde isn't 50% blood elves by now.

[Logwyn]

These restriction are literally the reason why horde isn't 50% blood elves by now.

Last I checked Blood Elves were really close to 50% if not more.

[tankbug]

Then we both agree.

I'm not saying anything about my opinion, because for myself orcs and kul'tirans are too big for being rogues. I'm just trying to see it from the Blizzard perspective.

Blizzard has even even more important factors to consider, like how much players will appreciate content x vs the other, because they have to prioritize where to put the effort in. Why does DH have only 2 specs? Why can they only be two races? Well, because it would take a lot more work making another spec, and why bother doing a lot of model updates on many races, when they're lucky enough that the the base race is a popular alliance one, and the closest one on the horde side is the most popular one (by far). Why even bother with more? Let's see what happens if they do the same with unpopular races, even if that's close to existing lore.

[Melsiren]

Nope, removing restrictions was a mistake.

[Yarathir]

Druids, Shamans and Demon Hunters are gonna be a problem.

Druids need unique forms, Shamans need unique totems and Demon Hunters have a bunch of customization options.

[Razion]

This was such a wasted chance, in my opinion. Highmountain Tauren have such a lackluster selection of classes (as do Lightforged, for that matter), that adding a bit of lore saying that what remains of the Bloodtotem tribe rejoined the rest of Highmountain after the events of Legion, bringing with them less traditional classes for them. Namely Warlocks, but I could also shove Rogues in there (inb4 tauren rogue memes).
That would make them far more distinct from regular Tauren not just in terms of their visuals, but class selection. As it stands now they feel like pre-Cataclysm Tauren, but with Monks in the mix. Giving Mag'har the Priest class instead of Warlock created a small but very important distinction between the two orcish variants, I feel like Warlocks and/or Rogues could have done the same for Highmountain.

Grimtotem also have bandits, pirates, and various dark casters in their ranks. I think Tauren also have the leeway to have Rogues and Warlocks, as well.