Battle for Azeroth Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Mythabay]

Hearthstone implemented alternate heroes years ago and just now got around to introducing one for every class.

Let's not pretend they have to have subraces for everything.

That is perfectly true. And it makes perfect sense.

[DeicideUH]

People in this thread is assuming too much.

- The datamined info is evidence, not proof, that subraces are being worked on.
- The subraces available in the file may be placeholders for testing and can change.
- The subraces that will be available in 8.0 may be a lot more than just the four we have found so far.
- The evidence of subraces do not mean we can't have more customization options in main races.
- The evidence of subraces also do not mean we couldn't get new races instead of or in addition to them.

Again, keep your arms and heads inside the hype train at all times, or you may lose them.

[EbaumsTipster]

How are Nightborne related to the new expansion? Their story arc is literally finished. How are Highmountain Tauren related?

Because Blizzard may feel as though adding subraces players became attached to in Legion may be a more profitable idea than simply adding new races that are arguably more contested against. With the exception of Void Elves of course, but that just feels like a way of giving Alliance the High Elves they've been requesting forever.

Look at how many people bitch about Naga, or Ogres, or whatever. People would get mad if they added one over the other. However if they add four "sort of new" races with only a few new animations and new cultures/zones there would be a less angry response.

This idea of races that take less effort to implement than, say, rigging Nagas entirely differently or creating Nagas with legs makes me think that they are more probabe than new races. Blizzard can also pump out a lot more of them faster. Say if these four get well received, then we might see a small new campaign for Dragonmaw orcs or Draenor orcs in 8.1

Less effort + something novel makes me think it is more probable than simply Nagas or Ogres.

[Darkhallows]

But that's exactly my point. The last race we got was neutral. One starting area, one mount etc. ONE set of assets. What you are advocating for is FOUR. Four in one expansion.

You are continually debunking your own theories. Nightborne require a whole new set of rigging to wear player armor. They also require a full set of animations. Have you seen how shit the animations are when you have a Nightborne disguise on? Using the Night Elf animation set doesn't fit the model. In any way shape or form.

Adding the Nightborne is as much work as a whole new race.

@bold, not necessarily. It's an assumption, especially considering they can tweak the existing model, polish it up, and have it be perfectly viable. Building them off of a tweaked Night Elf skeleton rather than just slapping one on makes sense, and is technically less work than a full race full stop.

That said, your point is they won't get their own starting zones, to which I agree, but I think they'll still largely look like they do but not with such shit animation or textures.

Explain to me where Void Elves come from. Thematically. If they are to get a starting zone as old-mate keeps claiming they should.

Has Alleria started up a Void Factory? Where Elves line-up for infusion. Inbetween defeating the Legion and Azshara attacking Alleria has managed to infuse a whole race of Elves.

I mean... Really?

Who knows? Why make it sound so far-fetched? it reminds me of people shitting on Tauren Priests and Paladins. Why were there a viable number of those in such a short amount of time? Does Alleria have a number of followers who want to embrace the void like she does? Maybe? The amount of time is really irrelevant. It can even be part of a pre-expansion event and the "conclusion" of Alleria's Argus arc.

I don't get the logic that it can't just be fit into the story between now and then somehow.

[Mythabay]

It's very obvious some races get more customization/alternative options then others.

One thing that will always piss me off about customisation is that you are not allowed a clean-shaven dwarf male. I don't even bother making them anymore or changing hairstyles.

[Hitei]

These four also include two different types of Elf. One which would probably just be a re-skinned Blood Elf(High Elf). With Void Eyes instead of Blue/Green eyes? If it wasn't just a re-skin then how does Blizzard thematically explain that Alleria has(in the course of a few months) somehow created a whole new race of Elves?

Did she start a factory up? Where scared little elves line up at the door and walk in for Void Infusion? It's literally retarded.

How are Nightborne related to the new expansion? Their story arc is literally finished. How are Highmountain Tauren related?

Shrug. Like I said, I'm not advocating it. Just pointing out that the lack of other readily apparent subraces doesn't necessarily mean anything.

It's possible there'll be a time skip after the conclusion of Legion. I have to imagine that the Nightborne, after 10,000 years of confinement, might want to get out and about and see the world, and the Highmountain might be fairly interested in learning more about their kin in the Horde.

In response to the "factory" problem (legitimacy and likelihood aside): It would be pretty cool if, assuming the race starts at level 1, your character has a 1% chance per level to enter void form upon combat (granting your racial stats and maybe some leech or something) so that at 100 you are always in void form in combat, and then at max level you have a quest to learn a spell similar to two-forms, where you can shift into void form even out of combat.

Thus she isn't just pumping out void infused Elves, there are just a pool of new recruits with weak void infusion who are training and becoming better at it.

[EbaumsTipster]

Explain to me where Void Elves come from. Thematically. If they are to get a starting zone as old-mate keeps claiming they should

We have no idea where they come from at the moment. They could be Silver Covenenant folks who follow Alleria or Vareesa. They could be formed in response to some tragedy that occurs before 8.0. They are no more ridiculous than "a bunch of ex-Kaelthas high elves who locked a naaru in their basement and joined the Horde because Garithos sucked".

[TriHard]

The likelihood of the Naga and Ethereals being introduced as PRs is unlikely. But people hope to be surprised.

Yeh, I hope for Naga but I seriously doubt it'll happen. Had Chris Metzen been there then we might've had a chance at getting them but as it is now, I doubt it.

[Deleted]

- The datamined info is evidence, not proof, that subraces are being worked on.

no its not even the bird said so.

[Mythabay]

Explain to me where Void Elves come from. Thematically. If they are to get a starting zone as old-mate keeps claiming they should.

Has Alleria started up a Void Factory? Where Elves line-up for infusion. Inbetween defeating the Legion and Azshara attacking Alleria has managed to infuse a whole race of Elves.

I mean... Really?

I don't even understand how someone came up with the Void Elf concept... Sounds silly to me. And nobody considers the racial ability aspect of things, why do people never think about it.

[EbaumsTipster]

I don't even understand how someone came up with the Void Elf concept...

Data strings added to the character race database that show Void Elves being a part of the Alliance with Alliance character creation screens, as well as items with a purple and gold color scheme labeled "Void Elf". To clarify none of these items are used by Alleria.

[TriHard]

I don't even understand how someone came up with the Void Elf concept... Sounds silly to me. And nobody considers the racial ability aspect of things, why do people never think about it.

I hope it doesn't work like the worgen form / shadow priest form. I want the void shit to be purely cosmetic not something required for combat. I prefer being able to see my gear and weapons instead of it being covered in some shitty form that you're forced into.

Also, void elf just doesn't seem to have any personality to me (though I am judging this solely based on Alleria in the dungeon), it just looked clowny to me.

[EbaumsTipster]

That's my point though. The silver covenant are some of the last remaining pure High Elves. Why would they beg for Void Infusion? Its just ridiculous.

No more ridiculous than THRALL meeting up with a VERY SPECIFIC bunch of Goblins from a UNIQUE CARTEL on an island and taking them into the Horde with their MURDEROUS AND TRAITOROUS LEADER as their faction chief.

Just the fact that Goblins exist as Horde-specific is ridiculous. Ridiculous shit is normal.

[MabusGaming]

Ooooh what if the void elf items are starter weapons for the race that accidentally got leaked? Did anyone bring that up? I know initially when we saw the void elf items we had no idea what they were for.

[Medievaldragon]

UPDATE - Re: WoW 8.0 Subrace Character Customization.

I edited TheRedShirtGuy's article to add this update. A fan over at WoWHead, velicela, pointed out that senior art director Chris Robinson confirmed they would work on subrace character customization. The question was answered during the BlizzCon 2015 World of Warcraft Q&A panel. I put together a short audio clip where you can listen and read the quote.

Jesse Cox: Our first online question. Is there any hope of sub-races such as Taunka, or Dark Iron Dwarves being playable in the future?


Chris Robinson: Actually, this is like the most voted or one of the most voted-up questions amongst our community. There are like tens of thousands of votes for those. So I feel like a couple of things… number one: I think it is important for us to sell the fantasy behind the races and the classes on our game. That is like the core feature of something that we consistently try to support and grow.

If we have successfully done that, I think the second part becomes then supporting that, and adding more variety in customization within that system. So, the easy answer is: yes, we are going to do that.

We really love the idea. We have the characters in-game. We are connected to them. We feel very strongly about that.

The more difficult answer is: How are we going to do that; and whether we continue to work on that and make it happen.

[Nyeara]

Wow! Would you look at that. An Apache Attack Helicopter flew right into my ignore list!

Anyone else wanna leap onto it, too? Saves me the trouble of actually working up some kind of relationship with you before you land on my ignore list.

Anyone?

So yeah... I'm vibrantly hoping Tides of Vengeance is what they name it. I know the logo was almost certainly BS, but it's cool. I also hope we get Naga 'cause damn it I wanna make a Naga really badly! >_<

The image of the different planes is amazing, by the way. It clearly separates Necromancy from Shadow, as well, which I wasn't 100% sure on. Woo! Necros for 9.0!

Dude posing as a chick online, or an apache helicopter.. I think I'll side with the apache helicopter. Go ahead and ignore me too.

[MabusGaming]

Data strings added to the character race database that show Void Elves being a part of the Alliance with Alliance character creation screens, as well as items with a purple and gold color scheme labeled "Void Elf". To clarify none of these items are used by Alleria.

Ooooh what if the void elf items are starter weapons for the race that accidentally got leaked? Did anyone bring that up? I know initially when we saw the void elf items we had no idea what they were for.

[EbaumsTipster]

Ooooh what if the void elf items are starter weapons for the race that accidentally got leaked? Did anyone bring that up? I know initially when we saw the void elf items we had no idea what they were for.

No a couple of us have guessed that, but it's a good thing to bring up now. The gold color used in those items are strikingly similar to the gold used in Stormwind. We have a sword, a shield and a lantern that's been mentioned often: all we need is a staff.

[Hitei]

Read my previous posts though. WHY?

The Legion has been dealt with. The Void probably won't show up for a while(maybe 8.3) if Azshara is really what we are getting in the next expac. If Naga attack the Horde/Alliance then really what reason will Elves have to be begging Alleria to infuse them with Void?

The whole story for the Illidari is that they were DESPERATE elves who had their homeland and families massacred and they hated the Legion with every ounce of their being. Enough to "sacrifice everything" and be infused with demonic powers. Enough to trek to Outland and beg for training from Illidan.


Void Elves..... Most Elves haven't even had contact with the Void - since it's just shown up on Argus. They haven't lost anything to the Void. The Void isn't a massive threat yet etc etc etc.

How does it make any sense? Why would they be running off to Alleria begging for infusion.

Don't think it has to be begging. The Illidari have to be desperate because fel infusion is unbelievably risky and fel magic automatically corrupts, it's just a matter of when that corruption takes control.

Void magic is a lot less dangerous to the user when treated carefully and with a guiding hand. It's large-scale sudden exposure that causes problems. So Void infusion is just like any other sort of magical option. The High Elves are few in number, one of their own has just returned with a solid mastery of a new form of empowerment that is a balanced part of nature... seems pretty reasonable some of them might be interested in trying it out.

People have this skewed vision of the Void, because it's frequently depicted as a threat or used by villains. But it's fundamentally just part of the natural dichotomy of the universe. Properly balanced and utilized it's as pure and natural a form of magic as Light. Hence the whole Nether crucible thing.

[Beloren]

I hope it doesn't work like the worgen form / shadow priest form. I want the void shit to be purely cosmetic not something required for combat. I prefer being able to see my gear and weapons instead of it being covered in some shitty form that you're forced into.

Also, void elf just doesn't seem to have any personality to me (though I am judging this solely based on Alleria in the dungeon), it just looked clowny to me.

It probably is something similar to the Nightborne arcane runes and conjured armour. If my suspicions are correct, the Nightborne model will essentially be a night elf model with the runes and conjured additions. and will also be an option night elves can pick in their character customization but only at character creation. It has to be a separate race option on the horde because the horde doesn't have night elves, but only the Nightborne version of night elves would be available to the horde, not the normal version.

Likewise, void elf would be a certain customization of the blood elf which would be available to blood elves as one of their customization options, but as no blood elf race selection is available on the alliance, the high elf void elf will only get the void elf customization range and not the normal blood elf ones.. I expect as nightborne will look night elven enough just a fancy slightly different geared and runed up version. So would the void elf. I am willing to bet you will be able to customize it having the barest minimum of the unique traits if you want them looking as close to blood elf or night elf