What racial fantasy captivates you the most?

[Beloren]

Warcraft has many fantasies, most are brought to the player through the faction or race you play, and some of the big ones like humans, orcs, night elves, blood elves - are multi-faceted - meaning they hold several fantasies and facets hat appeal to you..

For example, the Dalaran human living in floating city fantasy si very different from the Lordaeron paladin or the Stormwind warrior.

it is also the first fantasy that I have ever seen other races like elves, trolls and orcs have more than one thing to them. Elves like night elves and Thalassian elves are each multi-faceted.. with Night elves you have warrior priest female fantasy - Amazonian or temple priest, but then yo have the primal forest lord fantasy - full of walking trees, moving forest and weird and wonderful creatures, then you have dark elf high magic caster with a ridiculously gorgeous civilization and high magic under midnight star-filled moonlit night, followed by an edge-Lord demon hearted powerhouse, consuming dangerous magics to bring hell fire to hell itself.

With Thalassians, it's even more intriguing - near perfect society, with hig magic, nature love, forest wood elf type ranger experts as well as Light warriors wielding magic and the light like an Eternal (if you watched that movie), as a blood elf you're rich in the fantasy of a high elf arcane wizard close to the sun or a blood mage, or can switch to the Farstrider wood elf type a master of the forest paths and skilled with the bow, or paladin/priest. With a high elf, it's pretty much the same but you bat for the other side, you care more about your pristine morals (not just appearance), rather than doing what needs to get it done no matter the cost. Or you can choose the Dracula tinged fantasy of the void elf, if you could harness a dark power and resist it's corruption maintaining high ideals - o(sadly the capability to play an actual vampiric elf - i.e. darkfallen/san'layn is not available yet).


This is just a taster - f the many fantasies in wow from the werewolf fantasy, which is human but with a werewolf twist, to zombie apocalypse, - as a forsaken you're as diverse as your living human counterparts but you have the undead world thing to you which sets you apart. Other races are really one trick ponies. Gnomes are all about engineering gadgets and goblins about blowing everything up with alchamaeic engineering.

But whether a high mountain dwarf or deep dweller dark iron, an ancient roll Lord, priest to many loa in the voodoo arts of magic or a darkspear.. and that's not even shifting to Tauren - the fantasies are many.

Did we even touch on the Draenei ? Space goat? Angel-demon? Holy demon? With arcane technology, magic, tech as advanced as spaceships, now with a shaman tinge (still can't play the warlock Eredar though), but their Rangari hunters have a fantasy. (mage fantasy iss there, it's just not been highlighted yet, but it's a core part fo the race a huge part of it's history is dedicated, and survives in the present.)

Now, most of you have more than one toon you play of a different race. Is a different outlook into the world.

Which ones captivate you the most.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

There are three categories of race fantasies:

• Race fantasies you can actually get in WoW.

• Race fantasies that you see in Warcraft art and lore but can't actually play in WoW.

• Race fantasies that are just weak.

Let's start with no. 1: compelling race fantasies that WoW nails:



WC3 Night Elves had pretty strong savage Dark/Wood elf aesthetics, but sadly these didn't really carry over into WoW and just became generic fantasy elves, but they still had strong aesthetics.

Early Blood Elves have pretty strong vibes when you were coming off of WC3 and their starter zone. Their kingdom had been ruined and now they are crack addicts, trying to hold on to a shred of dignity in spite of all that. After the Sunwell was cleansed, they just sorta became generic fantasy elves and faded into the background.





Humans in fantasy are usually boring, but in WoW they're pretty compelling because they are survivors of ruined kingdoms. If you play the games and read the books, you get a sense of loss for the humans. When Moon Guard RP was at its height, there was always some RP event going on Alliance side about human survivors trying to retake their fallen kingdoms. That's pretty compelling. Sadly, like the Dwarves, the most boring kingdom (Stormwind) hogged the limelight. At this rate we'll never see Gilneas, Lordaeron, and Arathi retaken and rebuilt. Kul'Tirans have stronger aesthetics than Stormwind in that they are an island kingdom of seafarers and sea witches, but still don't have the compelling story of ruination like the fallen kingdoms.





Worgen are gnarly cool. Sadly their story never continued after Silverpine Forest.





Draenei had compelling lore early on in WoW, when they were on a space Exodus wandering the wilderness for 25,000 years following angels of light and fleeing from space satan. Atmospheric music in BC, and very unique aesthetics. Sadly they were forgotten after BC, and then their lore got washed down in WoD (but they got an art update that was good!), and have been pretty much forgotten outside of the Legion context.





Orcs are probably the definitive Warcraft race and I don't think I need to elaborate on them too much.





I was drawn to Tauren because they were the "good guy" beastrace. They feel strong and inhuman beastmen, yet also sympathetic and relatable. Their capital is comfy, open air, and has bright colors. Strong aesthetics. Too bad you still can't wield logs as weapons.

Forsaken also have strong aesthetics but they didn't appeal to me.

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No. 2: strong Warcraft race fantasies that WoW does not provide ingame:




The Wildhammer dwarves had strong aesthetics in the art and the books. Shamans who are in tune with the spirits and ride Gryphons. Sadly you can't play as a Gryphon rider in WoW. The Black Iron Dwarves also had very strong aesthetics in WoW, being an underground volcano kingdom that practiced rune magic and made deals with devils of fire. Sadly they too were neglected and you couldn't look as them until it was too late, let alone play as their classes or use their capital city. It's a shame that whenever Dwarves were onscreen in WoW, the focus was on the boring Bronzebeards and the boring Titans.






Gnomes and Goblins are depicted as clever engineers, but you can't play as one. Goblins are also advertised as loan sharks and gamblers, but again you can't actually play as such.






Trolls had strong aesthetics in WC3, but in WoW you get the Darkspear trolls and they're sorta boring and washed down compared to the other troll tribes. You don't get to perform blood sacrifices in WoW. The bad tribes do and that's why they're more memorable.

The strongest thing Zandalari have going for them is the whole "riding T-rexes, triceratops, and teradactyls into battle" part, but sadly like the Wildhammer dwarves you cannot play as the iconic mounted warrior archetype.



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Now, for the playable races that don't have strong fantasies, period:

Pandaren have very expansive lore, but they're not particularly distinctive. Strong aesthetics I suppose (you can be a Panda monk) but not very distinctive like the other Warcraft races.

Void Elves had terrible fantasy. I conceptually do not like the "Void is not inherently evil! It's just another side of the same coin of materialistic elemental power as the Light!". Also, I just don't like the aesthetic. They should have just been plain High Elves. High Elves aesthetically are just generic fantasy elves, but the Silver Covenenant had a compelling story in that they were sticking by the Alliance and their morals even though that was unpopular with the rest of Quel'thelas.

I guess Vulpera are cute, but I don't have a strong sense of what their culture or aesthetics are. While Vulpera look like a Horde race, they don't have a convincing story that justifies their inclusion in it.

Nightborne are pretty boring and the magic crack addiction is just a less interesting retread of the Blood Elf story.



I guess I should also mention the strong Warcraft race fantasies that aren't playable in any form whatsoever:

Naga have a compelling story in that their nation was drowned and they have been warped into sea serpents. They have a strong aesthetic in being savage sea serpents and mermaids and underwater kingdoms.

Mantid and Nerubians are aesthetically very unique, particularly Nerubians as they are not humanoids. Furthermore, they have different castes with different models that gives them even more variety. Very cool environments with the underground kingdoms (or kingdoms carved out from trees).

People keep bringing up Ogres. The bickering two head gimmick makes for fun RP potential. They don't have strong lore outside of that.

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it is also the first fantasy that I have ever seen other races like elves, trolls and orcs have more than one thing to them. Elves like night elves and Thalassian elves are each multi-faceted.. with Night elves you have warrior priest female fantasy - Amazonian or temple priest, but then yo have the primal forest lord fantasy - full of walking trees, moving forest and weird and wonderful creatures, then you have dark elf high magic caster with a ridiculously gorgeous civilization and high magic under midnight star-filled moonlit night, followed by an edge-Lord demon hearted powerhouse, consuming dangerous magics to bring hell fire to hell itself.

Night Elves really should have been a playable faction unto themselves. Their races should have been Night Elves, Fae Dragons, Treants/Ancients, Owlkin, and Stone Giants. Maybe throw in Dryads and Centaurs in there. Keep the Night Elves as rough and savage as they were in WC3. Make Druids, Priests of Elune, and Wardens into their exclusive faction exclusive classes.

With Thalassians, ti's even more intriguing - near perfect society, with hig magic, nature love, forest wood elf type ranger experts as well as Light warriors wielding magic and the light like an Eternal (if you watched that movie), as a blood elf you're rich in the fantasy of a high elf arcane wizard close to the sun or a blood mage, or can switch to the Farstrider wood elf type a master of the forest paths and skilled with the bow, or paladin/priest. With a high elf, it's pretty much the same but you bat for the other side, you care more about your pristine morals (not just appearance), rather than doing what needs to get it done no matter the cost. Or you can choose the Dracula tinged fantasy of the void elf, if you could harness a dark power and resist it's corruption maintaining high ideals - o(sadly the capability to play an actual vampiric elf - i.e. darkfallen/san'layn is not available yet).

Blood Elf politics were interesting early on when you had multiple different sub-factions: The newly established Blood Knights, hated by the Alliance paladins for torturing an angel. The Farstrider rangers. The Magisters who went to the Horde because they would tolerate their magic sucking addiction. The Sunreavers that leaned more neutral, and the Silver Covenant who held on to their oaths and remained loyal to the Alliance, even if that was unpopular back home. Lor'themar considering declaring himself king. Made for some fantastic RP but sadly Blizzard never wound up doing anything with it in the end.

This is just a taster - f the many fantasies in wow from the werewolf fantasy, which is human but with a werewolf twist, to zombie apocalypse, - as a forsaken you're as diverse as your living human counterparts but you have the undead world thing to you which sets you apart.

You are right in that a lot of Warcraft's most memorable races are traditionally "evil" races like orcs or zombies, but given a sympathetic PoV. Or typically good guy races like elves but given a dark twist (but still have a sympathetic PoV). In WC3 every faction is somewhat sympathetic to the player because you get to play as them, even the zombie horde of Scourge. The only faction that comes off as sympathetic is the Legion, namely because you don't get to play as them. I'm sure if you got a PoV from their perspective, you'd have people wishing that they were playable.

[Varodoc]

The Ren'dorei Fantasy



- Alien/Otherworldly
- Elusive
- Secretive
- Shadowy
- Cunning
- Thirsty for knowledge
- Thirsty for power
- Cursed, in a way (they hear the whispers of the Void)
- Ambitious (they seek to master those whispers and use them for their goals)
- Very idealistic (they believe in the Alliance's ideals, they despise how the goblin people are oppressed by their ruler, they want to prove wrong those who mistrust them)
- Ruthless and Methodical in their approach (see Umbric's strategies in the BfA War campaign)
- But also fair, beautiful, elegant, ancient, since they are still elves

This is the fantasy that appeals to me the most, which is why my main has always been a Shadow Priest, even before the Ren'dorei became playable.

Just listen to the Ren'dorei theme, it conveys how mysterious and alien they feel better than words ever could, and it also highlights their insatiable quest for knowledge:

[Al Gorefiend]

I would say Goblins. They have little respect for life and their fellow kin, only in pursuit of their own desires and currency with which to obtain those desires. In the meantime, its all about living fast and free, and being true to yourself above all others. They boast a higher intelligence than others, they do not weigh down the pursuit of progress with political correctedness and charity or welfare. Its all about achieving the means to your own end, the only purpose we have on this planet.

[Thelxi]

Night elf. The starting zone music, art and nature/night theme is quite genius.

[Teriz]

Goblins. I love how crazy and greedy they are. Their technology is also very cool.

[Mace]

Val, beautiful post, I know it took a while to put together, but very well done. Just gonna comment on the ngiht elf bit ofc.. hehe.. but thanks for sharing this. Well done.

Night Elves really should have been a playable faction unto themselves. Their races should have been Night Elves, Fae Dragons, Treants/Ancients, Owlkin, and Stone Giants. Maybe throw in Dryads and Centaurs in there. Keep the Night Elves as rough and savage as they were in WC3. Make Druids, Priests of Elune, and Wardens into their exclusive faction exclusive classes.

Agreed they should have been and still should be their own faction, but it's far more than your savage dream for them.. there is much more to them than that, and it would be a shame to just pigeon hole them to that. Fortunately for you, there is a part of them that hearkens to that, and fortunately for me, there are many other things to them that I can enjoy. This is the beauty of multi faceted fantasy.

That was just the start - not the be all of night elves, they had the arcane and high civilization side and the priesthood side which didn't have much visualisation in the first roll out. They are not limited to the introductory aesthetic, as time proved when Dire maul, then Suramar and then Zin'Azshari showed up. It's a shame it took so long. We also finally saw proper temples to Elune, the Cathedral of Eternal Night, and the power of Elune in the night warrior ritual.

There are many parts tot he night elves that were written into them from the very start but not shown.. they were not just meant to be savage wood elves.. which brings me to this picture.

This picture was NEVER the night elf. Read the notes on it. And the wikipedia entry that shares the picture. It states quite clearly it is early concept art. Night elves have never been like this, not in WC3, nor in Wow, nor in the books.. it was an example of one of the ideas for them, not what they are. Metzen toyed with making them this and shared this picture in his panel, it is not how the night elves are or have ever been, and is not what the team thought for the night elves, they wanted both the dark elf high fantasy and the wood elf fantasy, best of the dark elves and the forest elves the devs said.

and not once have we ever seen night elves portrayed like savage blood dripping animals - ofc, it was not that.. nor do they need to be. It's not even official art of what night elves are but you can never be, it's pre-concept, but it can fall into the category of fantasy you can never be, but exists as a vision of what they can be.

i'm fine with the primal druid forest lord, but that has never been a savage one, more like a powerful forest witch that lives a natural life but is full of knowledge on how to make trees move and command the wind, earth, branch to do their bidding to keep the natural balance - never was it a aa beast like animal.

Now an element of that can easily be part of a night elf DRUID (not all night elves) when they transform into a huge cat or bear and rip a head off,, but it is certainly not the elf in his elf form, nor the MO of the race - their story is an advanced people, of which a portion felt they had to live without their advanced stuff to prevent the legion's return.

Now while one of their paths, the druid path (not the priest or mage path) revelled in that because their fascination and dedication was entirely to the natural world, this wasn't the ideal for others despite their love for nature.. yet they bore it out of necessity for their cause was just and urgent, and they felt they owed it.

This is the mind set I feel one must approach the night elves and bear in mind.

Also separating that not all are druids or druidic minded, and not all are Darnassians too, some went to Fel and demon hunting and can be pretty damn savage their, but they are full with power and not a tall like the others, some are still very much into arcane, and whether learnt their lessons (like the new Highborne caste) or not like some of the others) that's what they do, They are also part of the night elf race and it's a huge part of their past that cannot be ignored.


I like that it's multi-faceted.

[Pakheth]

For me the Tauren has always appealed to me even though they have very little lore. It's mostly the aesthetic and image of a noble beast race that wishes to live in harmony with the land and won't fight unless threatened. Their calm demeanor and speech made them to me truly the aspect of peaceful without becoming silly. They also aren't stoners like their Darkspear brethren even though they take a wiff of their pipes to commune with the spirits now and then.Their free roaming nature and airy natural cities make them very appealing for me who enjoys nature. Also unlike Nelf their initial visuals weren't designed around being oogled at(bouncy boob idle animation, must I say more?).
It's no wonder my three first characters were a hunter and a shaman, followed by a druid, all Tauren females; Anuket Swifthoof, Pakheth Thunderhorn and Seshat Deeproot.
I still wish we could wield totems as weapons, though the totems from the harnesses and heritage set helps on the aesthetic.
Also, Mulgore has some of the most relaxing music in the game.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

This picture was NEVER the night elf. Read the notes on it.

Perhaps I should have elaborated more. It's not just the aesthetics, but the story. In WC3 the Night Elves were depicted as being much more powerful, and they didn't take crap from anyone. They were a force to be reckoned with and you did NOT want them as your enemy. Then you get to WoW, where you have the Horde stomping around Kalimdor and invading Ashenvale and yet the Kaldorei just spent the entire game up until 8.1 just chilling in their trees. If Horde territory was invaded, they would most certainly not just sit around; they would mobilize to fight. Occasionally the Nelves got to do something military in a book or a scenario, but never anything that had a meaningful impact or at the forefront of the story. They were conspicuously passive when they should have been a major player in throughout WoW, but in WoW whenever the Alliance does anything military 9 times out of 10 it's a Stormwind army that's doing it (with some auxiliaries from other races). 9 times out of 10 Nelves are depicted as druids who give quests out to Horde and Alliance adventurers, so that contributes to the feeling that the Nelves were more aggressive and then got pacified.

A race's story is important to it's fantasy. If the story isn't compelling then that makes the race less compelling. People typically say that they find WoW humans to be meh, but what they're talking about is Stormwind's story is rather meh compared to the other kingdoms. People find the Horde council to be meh right now because it feels like the Horde has lost its fangs compared to the older version of the Horde, and so on.

[Nzx]

The Wildhammer dwarves had strong aesthetics in the art and the books. Shamans who are in tune with the spirits and ride Gryphons. Sadly you can't play as a Gryphon rider in WoW.

There are a lot of words here, but I don't understand this. You can almost literally cosplay the exact picture you posted referencing this in game right now - there are plenty of Wildhammer customization options, plenty of gryphon models, plenty of mace models exactly like that one, you can Shaman-enchant your weapons, you can use lightning shield..

If you set your expectations based on being able to play the literal units from the RTS, you will always be disappointed, because it'll never work in the context of World of Warcraft. Even the "Gnome engineer" archetype you're talking about is playable right now. Wear the goggles, use Mechagon gear, level up engineering.. The only thing stopping you from experiencing a bunch of these things is that you're allowing impossible mechanics (i.e throwing hammers at people from your flying mount, having 150 different classes) to impede on your imagination/suspension of disbelief.

[Mace]

Perhaps I should have elaborated more. It's not just the aesthetics, but the story. In WC3 the Night Elves were depicted as being much more powerful, and they didn't take crap from anyone. They were a force to be reckoned with and you did NOT want them as your enemy. Then you get to WoW, where you have the Horde stomping around Kalimdor and invading Ashenvale and yet the Kaldorei just spent the entire game up until 8.1 just chilling in their trees. If Horde territory was invaded, they would most certainly not just sit around; they would mobilize to fight. Occasionally the Nelves got to do something military in a book or a scenario, but never anything that had a meaningful impact or at the forefront of the story. They were conspicuously passive when they should have been a major player in throughout WoW, but in WoW whenever the Alliance does anything military 9 times out of 10 it's a Stormwind army that's doing it (with some auxiliaries from other races). 9 times out of 10 Nelves are depicted as druids who give quests out to Horde and Alliance adventurers, so that contributes to the feeling that the Nelves were more aggressive and then got pacified.

A race's story is important to it's fantasy. If the story isn't compelling then that makes the race less compelling. People typically say that they find WoW humans to be meh, but what they're talking about is Stormwind's story is rather meh compared to the other kingdoms. People find the Horde council to be meh right now because it feels like the Horde has lost its fangs compared to the older version of the Horde, and so on.

Night elves have largely been neglected and put down to boost other races, rather than have their story fleshed out as originally planned. The delay i firmly believe was because raising the profile of the horde became a top priority after classic, and took over from classic to WoD. So night elves, who should have had a lot more Elune and arcane stuff fleshed out, had it in drabs, and while they should have been getting stronger and shown as powerful, had to be shown as weak to make the horde look tougher and more attractive so players would go horde. Teh long delay is why people thing night elves are children of the forest instead of the stars, because they only had classic visualisation and WC3 for many years before new updates finally came, and it was also years long gaps before Legion actually shoed a much better overall picture of the night elves, by which time many people had the treehugger fantasy stuck in their minds as the main thing about the night elves even though they are actually first dark elves, with a forest elf twist, and were meant to be the best of both worlds. Another compounding fact is much of the arcane world, demon hunting lore is in the books, in fact much of the night elf story, while they were neglected in game and shown as weak, is actually the opposite in the books that has most of their activities, but people don't see this fuller dimension to them because they only play the game, don't read the books and don't read the quests. So they see forest from the classic presentation and well for 14 years till you finally get a proper night elf city in Suramar - barely ever showing what priests can do , it's no surprise you have a different impression of night elves than what the wholelore says as an average fan ofc. (I'm not referring to the likes of yourself and me that read the lore and books)

To be honest, I have been drawn more to the Elune arcane side.. the Moon and star fantasy, and a civilization that explored the stars magically to me is mysterious and the largest capacity for wonder.

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of wonder in the forest elf side, with talking trees, turning into animals and that primal feel, the reis also wonder to a super advanced magical civilization like they have in their cities, with cool stuff on a different level..

But both of these have been done by other fantasies, n one have taken to focusing on the stars, and making a lot more of magic from the stars and the moon, having a fantasy around that.

This is in the description but not really shown. Elune hasn't been shown much nor the priesthood's magical side. We see the sentinel army side for sure in WC3, but little spell casting. We read about the priest side's regal civilization part in the War of the Ancients, but we don't get to see it. We get short glimpses into the traditions like the cooking kmich and rice to the ancestors quest,,but little else.

There is much that is baked into the night elves that hasn't really been fleshed out.

Even the heart of druidism, which is the balance between nature and arcane, core to the night elves who've known what it is to be out of balance hasn't been talked much on, they ignored the core theme tot he druid class to just show the cool turning into animals and the very popular "green earth" let's save and protect nature which are current political themes.. whereas their heart... balance has little on, the star culture, an the full impact of being children of the stars, the lore and creed of Elune and what that means or looks like has not been shown much. And t his is their unique original vein - it's a shame they made it secondary to tree hugging green peace and animal transformations or magical arcane advanced cities (which is also rather unique as most fantasy of elves while having magic, aren't actually advanced), but then nor are wood elves quite expressed with such wonder as we've seen either with the night elves.


But as @Beloren was showing in another post, there are many aspects blizzard doesn't show, and their are some core aspects of some of the core races that still need fleshing out. For night elves, Elune and the magical caster side of the order are still a large mystery, as is the star culture that the race is named after and has many lines, so to the balance druid side..still left unfleshed, and this is what is the most unique about the night elves to be honest, not the forest elf bit or the high arcane civilization even though their versions of it are a bit unique and the combination makes it more unique..the heart is elves that use star and moon magic and are based on that for both the arcane and nature.

Current mages are fire/frost based mostly and their arcane stuff is general stuff, to have star magic side of arcane is very unique and very night elven, same too in the druidism having an arcane component, this is unique to night elves, druidism normally is pure roots, trees, plants the elements of nature and animals. Night elves have this unique arcane side to it to that is tar and moon heavy.

This is a fantasy expression I would like them to focus more on, and bring the Nightborne, a night elf sub race a bit more into that too.. it would also be wrong if they only did this for the Nightborne who are the children of the dark or the night, but didn't have the night elves - the children of the stars involved..although if they emphasized the Nightborne as a specific group of Kaldorei then that could work, but it would still be odd not to have the night elves namesake be the chief defining factor for them and just relegate them to forest elf only.

I feel the forest elf side for the night elves should be carried on by a new sub-group. I mentioned this a while ago and i know @ravenmoon really loved the idea. Using night elf worgen to be a full on forest elf expression of the night elf fantasy, while Nightborne a full on arcane expression, allowed the kaldorei to be a balance and shot how much more wholesome being in balance and having everything is. like you get the full picture, with the kaldorei, but you get to focus in on the two halves separately in the Nightborne and the night elf worgen allied race.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I think Nelf had the best racial fantasy before wow, all of the WoW races are kinda watered down, mostly to fit the MMO mold. I enjoy belfs mostly for the looks and arcane theme, in general I'm more enamored with the fantasy of the Kirin Tor and Knights of the Ebon Blade, way more interesting than the racial lore in WoW. Not to mention that 3 of the core races come in tribal flavor..

Nightborne had some cool elements, especially in nighthold, but sadly as the player you practically don't get any of it.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

If you set your expectations based on being able to play the literal units from the RTS, you will always be disappointed, because it'll never work in the context of World of Warcraft. Even the "Gnome engineer" archetype you're talking about is playable right now. Wear the goggles, use Mechagon gear, level up engineering.. The only thing stopping you from experiencing a bunch of these things is that you're allowing impossible mechanics (i.e throwing hammers at people from your flying mount, having 150 different classes) to impede on your imagination/suspension of disbelief.

Dark Age of Camelot released in 2001 with 3 factions and 31 different classes (pretty much all of which were faction exclusive), each with different specs. The last expansion that dropped in 2007 raised that number to 45 classes. DAOC had that many classes yet didn't rake in the billions and billions that WoW did. Blizzard could have been just as ambitituous as DAOC and had many classes from the start, and after they were raking in billions of dollars they could have easily hired the required number of game designers, artists, and QA testers to implement many more.

Even if WoW didn't add more classes, Blizzard could have created class skins as a stand in for those unplayable classes. For example, Tauren "paladins" are classified as such for gameplay purposes, but in lore they are actually sun worshipping druids who wield the power of the sun and fire. They should have been appropriately themed spell effects and animations (which has been brought up with the class skin idea). Class skins could have been used to allow Night Elves to play as star mages, as @Mace suggested.

[Ashleyxoxo]

idk I like elves in games

[Chadow]

Asian, kung fu, search for enlightment, self sacrifice

[Julmara]

pandaren eating lotsa delicious food relaxing most of the day and being with friends and family

[Doffen]

WC3 Night Elves(Priestess, Druid, Warriors and Huntress) and WC3 High/Blood Elves and Blood Elves in WoW overall with their arrogancy and beauty.

Dalaran Humans is nice too. Lightforged Draeneis as well with their war against the Burning Legion in space.

[Chadow]

pandaren eating lotsa delicious food relaxing most of the day and being with friends and family

That would be my second most favorite...
Nice one

[Morgaith]

Elves 10 chars

[Nzx]

Dark Age of Camelot released in 2001 with 3 factions and 31 different classes (pretty much all of which were faction exclusive), each with different specs. The last expansion that dropped in 2007 raised that number to 45 classes. DAOC had that many classes yet didn't rake in the billions and billions that WoW did. Blizzard could have been just as ambitituous as DAOC and had many classes from the start, and after they were raking in billions of dollars they could have easily hired the required number of game designers, artists, and QA testers to implement many more.

Even if WoW didn't add more classes, Blizzard could have created class skins as a stand in for those unplayable classes. For example, Tauren "paladins" are classified as such for gameplay purposes, but in lore they are actually sun worshipping druids who wield the power of the sun and fire. They should have been appropriately themed spell effects and animations (which has been brought up with the class skin idea). Class skins could have been used to allow Night Elves to play as star mages, as @Mace suggested.

Uh, cool, I guess. Runescape released with whatever number of different fish types, I'm not sure how that's relevant. DAOC looks like garbage, has old-school "stand n grind" leveling, blocky landscapes etc etc. Blizzard chose (correctly, given they "raked in the billions and billions" and DAOC.. didn't) to create fleshed out, unique classes, open them up to both factions, give them class sets every tier, create fleshed out professions, whatever else.

I agree that having different animations for Draenei paladins vs Tauren paladins and Undead priests vs Human priests would be cool. I'd also rather they focused on literally anything gameplay related first, so I'm okay with that not happening.

Regardless, I'm not sure how anything you said changes the fact that Wildhammer "gryphon riders" and Gnomish engineers already exist in the playable version of World of Warcraft.