Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Kyriani]

At this point I think it just comes across as petty and stupid.

What does? That Blizzard hasn't provided more hair colors and styles to Void Elves yet?

I mean... allied races weren't supposed to get much focus as far as customization is concerned for Shadowlands launch. They told us back at Blizzcon that core races were the only ones getting focused on at the start. That they gave Void Elves the skin early (which is a straight up copy and paste that required little to no time or effort on their part to do) was a very nice surprise. Hair is another matter though.

While they could copy and paste all the Blood Elf hair styles to Void Elves, I think they may be trying to avoid that and give Void Elves something different, even if it's just variants of the Blood Elf hairstyles (like several Void Elf hairstyles already are). That takes time... time they don't have available as they put the finishing touches on Shadowlands to have it ready for October.

As far as the hair colors go, they actually can't just copy/paste the Blood Elf hair textures to Void Elves, at least not without doing actual work on them because the Void Elf hairstyles have to contend with the tentacles on some styles and the hair ornaments are different from the ones Blood Elves use. That stuff is all part of the hair texture files. Again that takes time they can't spare right now.

That's not petty to me. That's Blizzard prioritizing the launch of Shadowlands with the features they talked about at Blizzcon. Allied races will get their turn for some focused customization work. Consider the skins Void Elves are getting as an early sneak preview... a preview I might add, that is still using the Blood Elf underwear because they still haven't been able to devote the time necessary to update them with the Void Elf underwear.

It's crunch time for the devs and they are going through it during a pandemic which requires many devs to work remotely. Give them a bit of slack on this, especially since we weren't supposed to get much of anything for allied races right now. That we got this much for launch is a gift in my opinion. We should be grateful and appreciative.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

a rather crack question - which High Elf would be more suited for Anduin: Arator or Vereesa?

Arator, because Vereesa kinda has a lot of baggage that I don't think a 19 yo is prepared to deal with at all yo.

As far as crackships go, I dig the idea of Vereesa and Umbric; First her refusal to accept a date with what is basically her sister's coworker, then realizing that there's a lot of Umbric she likes -I mean of course Vereesa has a thing for mages- and then getting into it after Umbric pulls out the Marxist manifest.

- - - Updated - - -

well, I guess they used to be in WC3. In WoW, priestesses of the moon were transformed to fit more the general priest fantasy. You don't even see them using bow that often anymore.

Makes me wonder what would fit the Priestess of the Moon fantasy better: Paladins with a ranged spec, or Priests with a ranged spec? In terms of lore the later would be closer IMO, because they are definitely more of a caster even if they use a ranged weapon.

IDK, maybe one of the Legion Artifacts for priests could have been a bow, even if it was just an appearance for the Holy Staff.

[delus]

What does? That Blizzard hasn't provided more hair colors and styles to Void Elves yet?

I mean... allied races weren't supposed to get much focus as far as customization is concerned for Shadowlands launch. They told us back at Blizzcon that core races were the only ones getting focused on at the start. That they gave Void Elves the skin early (which is a straight up copy and paste that required little to no time or effort on their part to do) was a very nice surprise. Hair is another matter though.

While they could copy and paste all the Blood Elf hair styles to Void Elves, I think they may be trying to avoid that and give Void Elves something different, even if it's just variants of the Blood Elf hairstyles (like several Void Elf hairstyles already are). That takes time... time they don't have available as they put the finishing touches on Shadowlands to have it ready for October.

As far as the hair colors go, they actually can't just copy/paste the Blood Elf hair textures to Void Elves, at least not without doing actual work on them because the Void Elf hairstyles have to contend with the tentacles on some styles and the hair ornaments are different from the ones Blood Elves use. That stuff is all part of the hair texture files. Again that takes time they can't spare right now.

That's not petty to me. That's Blizzard prioritizing the launch of Shadowlands with the features they talked about at Blizzcon. Allied races will get their turn for some focused customization work. Consider the skins Void Elves are getting as an early sneak preview... a preview I might add, that is still using the Blood Elf underwear because they still haven't been able to devote the time necessary to update them with the Void Elf underwear.

It's crunch time for the devs and they are going through it during a pandemic which requires many devs to work remotely. Give them a bit of slack on this, especially since we weren't supposed to get much of anything for allied races right now. That we got this much for launch is a gift in my opinion. We should be grateful and appreciative.

I mean that some people don't want them to share hair colors.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

What does? That Blizzard hasn't provided more hair colors and styles to Void Elves yet?

I mean... allied races weren't supposed to get much focus as far as customization is concerned for Shadowlands launch. They told us back at Blizzcon that core races were the only ones getting focused on at the start. That they gave Void Elves the skin early (which is a straight up copy and paste that required little to no time or effort on their part to do) was a very nice surprise. Hair is another matter though.

While they could copy and paste all the Blood Elf hair styles to Void Elves, I think they may be trying to avoid that and give Void Elves something different, even if it's just variants of the Blood Elf hairstyles (like several Void Elf hairstyles already are). That takes time... time they don't have available as they put the finishing touches on Shadowlands to have it ready for October.

As far as the hair colors go, they actually can't just copy/paste the Blood Elf hair textures to Void Elves, at least not without doing actual work on them because the Void Elf hairstyles have to contend with the tentacles on some styles and the hair ornaments are different from the ones Blood Elves use. That stuff is all part of the hair texture files. Again that takes time they can't spare right now.

That's not petty to me. That's Blizzard prioritizing the launch of Shadowlands with the features they talked about at Blizzcon. Allied races will get their turn for some focused customization work. Consider the skins Void Elves are getting as an early sneak preview... a preview I might add, that is still using the Blood Elf underwear because they still haven't been able to devote the time necessary to update them with the Void Elf underwear.

It's crunch time for the devs and they are going through it during a pandemic which requires many devs to work remotely. Give them a bit of slack on this, especially since we weren't supposed to get much of anything for allied races right now. That we got this much for launch is a gift in my opinion. We should be grateful and appreciative.

I've been saying for a while more hair colors will only happen whenever AR actually get revamped; all of the stuff we have seen for VE's and other AR are minor QoL changes, but nothing *really* developed for AR, save for some eye colors, which are being built over a whole new infrastructure of how eyes work across playable models.

Sure, they could give Void Elves more hair colors now simply by doing some color edits and adding that, but that is not something done for any AR at this point really, and also it would be counter-productive if more considerable changes are meant for the future.

It's like, if it's not done now, there's room for more to be done when it's time, which includes actually more hairstyles, warpaint or tattoos, more jewelry, all the things that Core Races got on this revamp, but also some QoL changes specific to VE's, like the possibility of uncoupling tendrils from hairstyles -like beards/hair/sideburns have for some races- and the ability to toggle them -like vines on NE work- thus not needing new hair textures to include tendrils.

So yeah, would be fun to get more hair colors now, but we have to consider that AR will probably also get an update -hopefully sooner than Worgen and Goblins got their new models compared to other races- and whatever we are seeing now are small QoL changes. And to that degree, I do feel hair color is beyond the scope we have seen so far on AR -even when just adding more recolored textures would be rather easy- and part of that is because we don't know what the scope of expanded customization on AR will be once it becomes more of a priority.

Heck, for all we know, AR may end up merged with character customization in the future and a deeper shake up of player choice regarding factions will take place.

[Vaedan]

Arator, because Vereesa kinda has a lot of baggage that I don't think a 19 yo is prepared to deal with at all yo.

As far as crackships go, I dig the idea of Vereesa and Umbric; First her refusal to accept a date with what is basically her sister's coworker, then realizing that there's a lot of Umbric she likes -I mean of course Vereesa has a thing for mages- and then getting into it after Umbric pulls out the Marxist manifest.

- - - Updated - - -



Makes me wonder what would fit the Priestess of the Moon fantasy better: Paladins with a ranged spec, or Priests with a ranged spec? In terms of lore the later would be closer IMO, because they are definitely more of a caster even if they use a ranged weapon.

IDK, maybe one of the Legion Artifacts for priests could have been a bow, even if it was just an appearance for the Holy Staff.

I would say they are still close to the priest thanks to being primary casters in WoW. WC3 priestess was more hunter mixed with balance druid with trueshot aura and searing arrows and starfall. Priest using a bow fits only night elves, no other races qualify that... I had an idea for new set of racial skills.

Sentinel Training
night elf racial
You may equip and transmog warglaives and bows regardless of your class.

With this + unlocking wand slot to transmog to other ranged weapons (similar like you can tmog bows and guns freely), you'd have option to have a priest transmoging bows. It would also unlock night elves rogues with glaives, which is a must.

I can imagine some other races having similar racials too...

[FlubberPuddy]

I mean that some people don't want them to share hair colors.

It just shows the pettiness of some posters. It never made sense for instance that Horde could gain purple and human skin elves and then Blizzard used the the reasoning that VEs couldn't get human skins because Blood Elves were that choice already.

It was always a hypocritical answer, and it's so good they finally relented. They'll relent with hair color too because otherwise it would continue looking extremely petty. Lots of races share the same gradient of hair colors. Trolls, Night Elves, and Gnomes have very vibrant hair colors available to them (neon/pastel pinks/greens/blues etc), and there's a whole swath of races that have the various 'normal human' hair colors.

I recall many human players recently get so excited that they finally added a proper dark brown hair color. The positive feedback to something like 'normal brown hair' just continues to show that not everyone wants some 'never before seen style not already done by another race in any game' it shows the opposite - that many people actually love to be able to make some 'normal' or 'boring' (to some) characters to explore this fantasy game.

It's why gender changes can now happen through the barber as well. It would essentially look petty if for some reason every aspect of your character is swappable but not their gender.

This is what increased customization by Blizzard has opened the doors to, so it can frankly only be petty for others to keep denying more options from other players.

There is no point anymore to "no they shouldn't have this it makes them less unique" when that 'uniqueness' has already been blasted wide open for even more variety across the board. Now it'll always be, "what can this race get or use more of that it doesn't already have" which is what we've seen with all customization so far.

[Kyriani]

I mean that some people don't want them to share hair colors.

Ah I see. I got the wrong impression from your post, my apologies. It's true that there are some players that don't wish for Void Elves to get any hair color one might call remotely "normal" as far as human hair colors are concerned, and I agree such calls for exclusivity are petty. I remain hopeful however, that Blizzard will provide Void Elves with some standard human hair colors, including blonde, after Shadowlands launch. I can only keep my fingers crossed that it happens by 9.1. I'd be unhappy to wait longer than that for them.

[delus]

Ah I see. I got the wrong impression from your post, my apologies. It's true that there are some players that don't wish for Void Elves to get any hair color one might call remotely "normal" as far as human hair colors are concerned, and I agree such calls for exclusivity are petty. I remain hopeful however, that Blizzard will provide Void Elves with some standard human hair colors, including blonde, after Shadowlands launch. I can only keep my fingers crossed that it happens by 9.1. I'd be unhappy to wait longer than that for them.

And if void elves are supposed to have abnormal and dark colors, why do blood elves get light blue hair and void elves not get true black? The void elves should have gotten the DK hair color when they got DKs.

[Rhlor]

If there are people who use void in the same way like paladins use light, I think they should let them play void elves with that. obviously void aesthetic.

but i think the place to discuss something like this should be the void elf thread

[Wired-Lain]

And if void elves are supposed to have abnormal and dark colors, why do blood elves get light blue hair and void elves not get true black? The void elves should have gotten the DK hair color when they got DKs.

Yeah defining them as "void elves have dark hair colors and blood elves have light" is real stupid to me

[Kyriani]

Yeah defining them as "void elves have dark hair colors and blood elves have light" is real stupid to me

These comparisons were posted on the WoW forums too:



Seems to me that having both Void Elves and Blood Elves looking virtually the same isn't really a legit issue at this point. They already can (with the right selections) as we can see. So what purpose does it serve to hold back certain hair colors from them? None that I can see.

[Lahis]

The reason why Void Elves don't get any normal hairstyles is simple: Blizzard isn't updating Allied Races.

Only reason Void Elves got the Blood Elf skintones ported onto them (the underwear was never fixed afterall) was because giving blue eyes only to Blood Elves would have caused the biggest hissyfit ever.

[Wired-Lain]

The reason why Void Elves don't get any normal hairstyles is simple: Blizzard isn't updating Allied Races.

Only reason Void Elves got the Blood Elf skintones ported onto them (the underwear was never fixed afterall) was because giving blue eyes only to Blood Elves would have caused the biggest hissyfit ever.

Maghar got the new tusk, piercings and necklace customization from regular orcs. Void Elves also got new void-style eyes. Blue and purple shades.

We've also seen Kultirans and Maghar get their facial hair spread out into seperate options. Which to me seems like more work than altering hair textures to deal with the jewelry problem.

[Lahis]

Maghar got the new tusk, piercings and necklace customization from regular orcs. Void Elves also got new void-style eyes. Blue and purple shades.

We've also seen Kultirans and Maghar get their facial hair spread out into seperate options. Which to me seems like more work than altering hair textures to deal with the jewelry problem.

Yet Dark Iron and Lightforged didn't get their beards and mustaches separated.

Kul Tiran and Orc changes are probably just byproduct of Human and Orc changes. Humans got the Kul Tiran facial hair ported to them, and separated into categories, and orcs are just orcs with different skintones.

[Rhlor]

These comparisons were posted on the WoW forums too:



Seems to me that having both Void Elves and Blood Elves looking virtually the same isn't really a legit issue at this point. They already can (with the right selections) as we can see. So what purpose does it serve to hold back certain hair colors from them? None that I can see.

they are very similar practically the same

[Wired-Lain]

Humans got the Kul Tiran facial hair ported to them, and separated into categories, and orcs are just orcs with different skintones.

And void elves are just blood elves with different hair. Fact is, allied races have gotten new customization and the void elf hair is a similarly miniscule workload.

[delus]

And void elves are just blood elves with different hair. Fact is, allied races have gotten new customization and the void elf hair is a similarly miniscule workload.

That is the way I see it. They use the same models so it would be possible to import at least a few hair styles and colors.

[Kyriani]

That is the way I see it. They use the same models so it would be possible to import at least a few hair styles and colors.

It's absolutely possible (and quite easy) to simply copy Blood Elf hairstyles and hair textures to Void Elves just as they did the skin tones... with one catch. Much like the skin with faces, Blizzard could not allow us to be able to use the Blood Elf hair colors with Void Elf hairstyles and vice versa. The reason being that the Blood Elf hair textures do not account for the Void Elf hair tentacles and adornments and vice versa. This would cause... visual issues... when trying to use one with the other.

Remember, we aren't just getting all the Blood Elf skin color options, we are also getting their face options too. It's just that Void Elf faces 1-8 are identical to Blood Elf faces 1-8 except for Void Elf female face #5 (which is not identical to Blood Elf female face number #5 or its equivalent when using the new skin tones - Void Elf female face #13).

Blood Elf faces 9 and 10 (Void Elf faces 17 and 18) are minor variant faces that Blood Elves had that Void Elves did not, but Void Elves cannot use those faces with the original Void Elf skin colors. Realistically speaking, Void Elves will only have 10 unique face options at Shadowlands launch (11 for females due to face #13 not being a dupe of #5). But the fact that duplicate faces are used for the new skin tones inflates the number from 10 to 18 in the UI (10 Blood Elf faces and 8 Void Elf faces that are just dupes of Blood Elf faces 1-8 except for female face #5)

So while Blizzard could just copy all the Blood Elf hairstyles and hair textures over, we would basically be restricted to some degree in how we could use them. It's possible that this is one of the reasons hair is not being dealt with immediately and has to wait until allied races get their turn for focused customization option development. If during that time Blizzard decouples the tentacles from the hair styles and makes them work like the Night Elf hair vines (which can be done since the tentacles aren't actually part of the hair models), then we should be able to mix and match hair and textures between the two. I'd expect that Blizzard would still update the textures to use Void Elf hair adornments rather than Blood Elf ones though, much like they said they'll be updating the new skins to use Void Elf underwear.

For the sake of comparison so you can see what I mean about female face #5/#13, here's a picture comparing Void Elf female face #5 next to Blood Elf female face #5 which will also be Void Elf female face #13 when pre-patch hits.

As you can see, the lips are noticeably different between the Blood Elf and Void Elf face #5 whereas every other face is a duplicate. But now Void Elves will have both depending on which skin tone they use. Blood Elves have no faces with lush full vibrantly colored lips like Void Elf face #5. They should probably get a version of it with their skin tones since Void Elves are getting their face #5 as face #13.

[FlubberPuddy]

And void elves are just blood elves with different hair. Fact is, allied races have gotten new customization and the void elf hair is a similarly miniscule workload.

SOME Allied Races have gotten new customization. That's a fact, but it's besides the point @Lahis was making.

Which is that, regardless of SOME AR getting new customization, it isn't "their time to shine" by Blizzard's pipeline. They said it will happen later.

Think about it like this, you're in one circular room with 26 different doors (arranged in order like the alphabet so A is next to Z and B. Door J is next to doors K and I, etc etc.) but there's only 7 people to go into each door and do whatever it is inside.

Then obviously it's easier for whoever is working on Door A to go to Door B vs the person who went to Door J to get to Door B.

Now just replace the doors with Allied Races and the people are the artists. The limited amount of artists can only work on so many races (original + allied) at any given time, and some races AR are ancillary to their original race (Void Elves and Blood Elves) so it's easier for an artists working on one to do some of the same work for another.


That doesn't mean that every race (original + allied) will all get finished at the same time. It means what Blizzard stated: Original races will have all their customizations available on release, and Allied Races updates will come later.

Treat whatever few Allied Races have gotten as just a bonus, that's all it is.

Yet I see players with the expectation that if some got worked on then it should all be worked on and released at the same time, that's pretty ridiculous from a resource standpoint.

[Luck4]

I think would be cool if down the line Blizzard bring a pack of Dark Fallen/San'layn customizations for Blood Elves based on Lanathel or Kael'thas from Revendreth and a Wood Elf/Ranger pack based on Alleria for Void elves.