Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Maxilian]

I admit that the release date in late October (thus prepatch only one month away) destroys the chances of seeing any more customizations being added before 9.0. If next week’s build does not come with anything of notice, then what we got is pretty much what we will have for launch.

Next chance only in 9.1.

They added a couple of new options for human females a couple of days ago, so i still have hopes that we will get more stuff. (At least just the VE/BE option for the eyebrows)

[Frenchvince]

They added a couple of new options for human females a couple of days ago, so i still have hopes that we will get more stuff. (At least just the VE/BE option for the eyebrows)

The Void Elves might get their underwear update, that's one of the things they need for the pre-patch release.

[Kyriani]

Actually in the few days I played on the PTR I saw a lot of void elves with their dark skin tones. Looks like the haters were wrong, a lot of people truly do appreciate the void elves for being unique and special compared to the traditional fair-skin elves.

My Void Elf Mage will use one of the new skin tones but my Void Elf Warlock will retain his current skin

Having more options makes me happy!

[Varodoc]

My Void Elf Mage will use one of the new skin tones but my Void Elf Warlock will retain his current skin

Having more options makes me happy!

Indeed it is, and do you know what's even better than new customization options? New customization options that make perfect sense lorewise. After all, the void elf leader Lady Alleria Windrunner retains her fair-skin form.

[Kyriani]

Indeed it is, and do you know what's even better than new customization options? New customization options that make perfect sense lorewise. After all, the void elf leader Lady Alleria Windrunner retains her fair-skin form.

Yup! It also makes sense that since new recruits weren't subjected to the same forced transformation that was interrupted, that they would retain their original skin and hair. Now we just need Blizzard to get on the hair part :P

What's nice is now you can RP your Void Elf as either one that was part of Umbric's original group, or one of the new recruits (a Silvermoon Scholar or High Elf Wayfarer).

[Ardenaso]

Probably quite good actually, the Draenei and the Highvale High Elves have a joint settlement in the Hinterlands, probably because the Highvale don't seem to use much magic and seem to just be Farstrider Exiles. It's the largest cooperative agreement we see between them.

that's nice! I wish we could see some like interactions between Draenei and High Elves in the 7th Legion; and then blue eyed Blood Elf and Forsaken, Orc, and Darkspear

[Strippling]

If anything, hairstyles should be shared more often, I'd love to see Mag'har and Orcs share their assets, gnomes and mechagnomes, LF and Draenei etc. All it does is flesh out both sides. Given that its the one thing that can be changed on a whim even in reality, and we've let the void elves change their skin and eyes, why is hair so out of line? How far must the goalposts be moved?

If Mag'har orcs and regular orcs were to share hairstyles, they'd still be distinguishable by their skin colors. If gnomes and mechagnomes were to share hairstyles they'd still be distinguishable due to mechagnomes being part mechanical. Your logic is flawed with void elves/blood elves. If you give void elves the blood elf hairstyles/colors then you pretty much take away the only significant distinguishing feature between the two. Yes void elves could still choose to be voidy, but they'd have the option to also pretty much be a carbon copy of blood elf. So your analogy for mag'har/orc and gnome/mechagnome isn't really comparable. Furthermore, giving void elves access to blood elf hair styles and colors would mean void elves would have the option to look like a void elf or blood/high elf, whereas a blood elf would only have the option to look like a blood/high elf. That'd be downright unfair if the AR had access to pretty much all of the core races aesthetics PLUS have access to their own unique aesthetics.

Honestly I didn't expect the point of contention around playable high elves to one day come down to "hair", but everythings a battle I suppose.

Blue eyes was once the point of contention for the HE community. I'd be careful with what arguments you try to use.

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The Void Elves might get their underwear update, that's one of the things they need for the pre-patch release.

I'd expect the underwear update to come through before the xpac releases, along with fixes to the faces that are bugged currently.

I would have thought ear options would have been made available to void elves too before the xpac. I mean, no guarantee they'll get the ear options that blood elves have but I'd wager that they likely will at some point,

Hopefully blood/void elves also get eyebrow options and tattoo options (runic/farstrider for blood elves, void-esque for void elves)

[FlubberPuddy]

To add to this, blizzard have already expressly stated the new void elf customization is to give them high elf options. Which if this thread is often to believed, means they should be identical to blood elves anyway. Hairstyles have been shared and swapped amongst a myriad of races since the dawn of the game, with only the most minimal of alterations (see gnome pigtails vs belfs, female human "styed" vs belfs, hey they're even named the same go figure!), they are in no way sacred or special.

That pretty much seals the deal.

If there are already completely separate races using the exact same hairstyles (gnomes and belves, humans and belves) then it's completely reasonable for players to ask for hairstyles from either their same race counterparts or even from separate races.

People have been doing that here, asking for hairstyles to come from either Belves or even from Kul'tirans/Humans.

Looks like if Blizzard has already been doing this in-game for many years/a decade then it's a completely reasonable request and anyone else calling it unreasonable/asking for too much is simply being ignorant since precedent already exists by Blizzard themselves.

Honestly I didn't expect the point of contention around playable high elves to one day come down to "hair", but everythings a battle I suppose.

The point of contention has come down to the most pedantic point because those who were against Alliance getting High Elves have already lost the most major battle: Alliance gaining access to skin and eye colors of High Elves.

Now the remnants of that anti-movement just come in here to basically 'go down fighting' when the 'war' has already been called off and an agreement was negotiated. Kinda like the last person to know the party is over

[Wired-Lain]

you pretty much take away

People keep using those words, I'm not sure they know what they mean. Nothing is being taken. Things are being added. I didn't pick blood elves decades ago because they were some lofty unique toy. Likewise I won't be abandoning my blood elves if void/high elves looked identical. If your only appreciation for your character is "nobody else has this hairstyle!" then you're probably very, very shallow.

And the point is, they already are indistinguishable. A high elf wearing a hat = a blood elf. So I say again, should they have transmog restrictions? If seeing the purple hair is absolutely critical to the function of the game? The difference is so minute at this point that holding off on something as basic as hair only serves to frustrate people that play them, it doesn't benefit anyone.

Blood Elves still have;
A city
A racial mount
Heritage armor
Light and Fel eyes
Paladins and Demon Hunters
Fitting voice lines
More customization than void elves could ever hope to even if they gained some belf hairstyles/colors. (Go ahead, count them)
Racials that dont break the illusion whenever they punch a dude
As well as all the main character story focus

Blood Elves are not in any way under threat.

The point of contention has come down to the most pedantic point because those who were against Alliance getting High Elves have already lost the most major battle: Alliance gaining access to skin and eye colors of High Elves.

Now the remnants of that anti-movement just come in here to basically 'go down fighting' when the 'war' has already been called off and an agreement was negotiated. Kinda like the last person to know the party is over

Dare I say at this point its, splitting hairs?

[FlubberPuddy]

Dare I say at this point its, splitting hairs?

LOL, spot on!

But yeah, the nice thing is that one can safely ignore those who are splitting hairs (lol) because that's what Blizzard did when they decided to give High Elf customization to both Blood Elves and Void Elves.

So since Blizzard ignored those that kept going 'no no no no no absolutely no way can Alliance get High Elf aesthetic as that's property of Horde only!' then even more so now that gives players who want more High Elf customization authority to ignore such comments as well!

It's really great!

[Beloren]

If Mag'har orcs and regular orcs were to share hairstyles, they'd still be distinguishable by their skin colors. If gnomes and mechagnomes were to share hairstyles they'd still be distinguishable due to mechagnomes being part mechanical. Your logic is flawed with void elves/blood elves. If you give void elves the blood elf hairstyles/colors then you pretty much take away the only significant distinguishing feature between the two. Yes void elves could still choose to be voidy, but they'd have the option to also pretty much be a carbon copy of blood elf. So your analogy for mag'har/orc and gnome/mechagnome isn't really comparable. Furthermore, giving void elves access to blood elf hair styles and colors would mean void elves would have the option to look like a void elf or blood/high elf, whereas a blood elf would only have the option to look like a blood/high elf. That'd be downright unfair if the AR had access to pretty much all of the core races aesthetics PLUS have access to their own unique aesthetics.

Blue eyes was once the point of contention for the HE community. I'd be careful with what arguments you try to use.

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I'd expect the underwear update to come through before the xpac releases, along with fixes to the faces that are bugged currently.

I would have thought ear options would have been made available to void elves too before the xpac. I mean, no guarantee they'll get the ear options that blood elves have but I'd wager that they likely will at some point,

Hopefully blood/void elves also get eyebrow options and tattoo options (runic/farstrider for blood elves, void-esque for void elves)

As someone posted here a while back:

To quote:

The distinction would have been blue eyes, but then they gave blood elves that too, I am fine with void elves having hair and skin colours from blood elves, but I agree with you something should be different, and that should be hairstyles.

I would also limit the skin colours and hair colours they both share, I would give void elves 1 blond and 1 red ish based hair, that's it, and possible 3 skin colours, one pale white, 1 with a slight tan, and one brown.. that's it.

The hues should be different too.. like void elves get a pitch black black hair and silver white hair colour, which is different from the blood elves' black and white, but also their blond hue should be different.

This is EXACTLY how they did the eyes, they gave the blood elves 3 versions of blue, but the void elves have like 5 versions because blue eyes are native to them.

The natural skin colours on void elves should not be the same as on blood elves, but maybe that's all to do with the racism thing going on atm, so if we exampt skin colour, then hair colour is the one i think the sharing should be limited and roughly the same as the eyes.

- - - Updated - - -

In summary:

From blood elves:
3 new void elf skin tones: normal pale, rose pale, and brown
3 new void elf hair colours: blonde hue, the ginger hue, brown

1. New void elf skin tones and effects: Void elf hues >> than the imported ones from blood elves
2. New void elf hair colours and effects: e.g. pure silver white, midnight pitch black, more purple and blue variations
3. New void elf hairstyles - none of these from blood elves.

[Varodoc]

It really says a lot about blood elves if their fanboys are scared at the mere notion of void elves getting fair-skin tones and blonde hair. Are blood elves that trash of a race that they cant find other ways to remain popular?

[Phaelia]

It really says a lot about blood elves if their fanboys are scared at the mere notion of void elves getting fair-skin tones and blonde hair. Are blood elves that trash of a race that they cant find other ways to remain popular?

No, dude, it’s because Blood Elves aren’t getting anything comparable in return. All this talk of all these new customization options and the only thing BE’s are exclusively getting are jewelry, the rights to their original hair styles/colors, and ear modifications. That isn’t NEARLY enough. We don’t even get an exclusive skin color.

[Beloren]

No, dude, it’s because Blood Elves aren’t getting anything comparable in return. All this talk of all these new customization options and the only thing BE’s are exclusively getting are jewelry, the rights to their original hair styles/colors, and ear modifications. That isn’t NEARLY enough. We don’t even get an exclusive skin color.

It's spilt milk now, the reason void leves look so close to blood elvs is because alliance fans want high elves really.

Void elves imo is a more interesting spin if you ask me, seeing you can already play "high" elves as blood elves right?

Except the players don't often see it that way, because they have to pick a faction and grow loyalities to it, while high elves are techincially availalbe, because they're not on the alliance it' s a significant shift for them.

I've seen this amongst the alliancece fans, but really it's the wow fanbase as a whole because of the faction system. The same is repeated with Highborne and nightborne, Nightborne are essentially the highborne night elves, but they went horde, while some of the allinace night elves are highborne, you have a bunch of them that want to play and look like proper highborne, which means more nightborne esque appearnaces, highborne pre-sundering kaldorei cities like Suramar etc.

While this option is already there via the Nightborne on the horde, and is literally your kaldorei highborne but with a slightly different name and literally 1 body slider tab down, it's not enough for them. They won't accept Nightborne as the horde and would keep desiring highborne on the alliance night elves in a more visible way.

Blizzard has now realised what the alliance fans really want isthe high elf and night elf kingdoms and their distinguished background, void elves looking identical to blood elves so they can play as high elves is actually quite popular amongst the alliance fanbase, even the void elf lovers are fine about it.

One would imagine if highborne got more advnaced treatement like nightborne the same would happen.


I think the community at heart perceives elven races as alliance. And whle we have a core horde elf strong group, we will always lose, becaue the majority of the fans on both the alliance and the horde perceive elves as an alliance thing. We get enough non-elf horde race fans complaining about elves ruining the horde, and alliance fans always unsatisfied that blizzard basically ripped their elves from them, and dressed them up better for the horde (blood elveS) or because they were dressed very well, were given to the horde (nightborne).


I made a long solution post somewhere else, that blizzard should actually make the elven races neutral in the lore (not a 3rd playable faction) and players who pick any of the 4 elf races can play in whichever faction they choose like Pandaren.

The other alternative is to allow near blood elven like void elves or rather high elves on the void elf race and do the same for the Highborne on the nigh elves, so the alliance who really wants the full elven access (i.e. high elves and highborne), get them, while the horde continues with blood elves and nigthborne as is.


I think they are better served taking the horde/alliance focus out of the elves, and while elves as players must fight in one of the factions, the races actually are primarily focused on non-faction things - the problem with that is blizzard doesn't do enough racial storylines anymore, the main quest lines is always faction based where all the races pool together, so you never really see what they'd be mainly focused on.

Which is why rather than have it always 2 faction based, it should be horde, alliance and the elves - i don't think we would have this problem if you could roll a blood elf and actually not care about horde matters even though your race was allied there, but it was a rather fringe thing, they would have void this.

THe elves were mde too u nique to be part of the factions, the night elves were meant to be a full faction race of htier own according tot he interview, and the high elves were part of the alliance units - even in WC3 as blood elvs, having their own campagin, it was all the high elf assets, it's part of the allaince. Blood elves beame a huge race inTBC of it's own, and when they did that, they didn't change their identity enough to make them feel more horde and less elf, so they still felt alliancey to many of the players

[Kyriani]

No, dude, it’s because Blood Elves aren’t getting anything comparable in return. All this talk of all these new customization options and the only thing BE’s are exclusively getting are jewelry, the rights to their original hair styles/colors, and ear modifications. That isn’t NEARLY enough. We don’t even get an exclusive skin color.

I do feel that Blood Elves should get the San'layn/Dark Ranger skin and eye options. Not because they shared their skin tones with Void Elves, but simply because they are cool and often asked for. The jewelry is also kind of downer since much if it won't be seen with most armor and only females get to use it. The Blood Elf options essentially boil down to 3 new hairstyles for male and female, 3 new hair colors, 2 new ear sizes, 3 new beards for males and too much jewelry that only females get to use. Scars, tattoos, eyebrow sizes, etc are all absent and that's disappointing

I wouldn't mind seeing Blood Elves get ports of the Void Elf hairstyles though (minus tentacles of course). This hairstyle in particular would look wonderful on Blood Elf females:

[Varodoc]

No, dude, it’s because Blood Elves aren’t getting anything comparable in return. All this talk of all these new customization options and the only thing BE’s are exclusively getting are jewelry, the rights to their original hair styles/colors, and ear modifications. That isn’t NEARLY enough. We don’t even get an exclusive skin color.

New jewels? Point me to the arm jewels or crowns that void elves have.

It's spilt milk now, the reason void leves look so close to blood elvs is because alliance fans want high elves really.

Speak for yourself maybe? I don't give a flying fuck about high elves, I wanted fair skin tones because Alleria is a void elf who retains her high elf form, I've been explaining that for 3 years.

[Vaedan]

As someone posted here a while back:

To quote:

The distinction would have been blue eyes, but then they gave blood elves that too, I am fine with void elves having hair and skin colours from blood elves, but I agree with you something should be different, and that should be hairstyles.

I would also limit the skin colours and hair colours they both share, I would give void elves 1 blond and 1 red ish based hair, that's it, and possible 3 skin colours, one pale white, 1 with a slight tan, and one brown.. that's it.

The hues should be different too.. like void elves get a pitch black black hair and silver white hair colour, which is different from the blood elves' black and white, but also their blond hue should be different.

This is EXACTLY how they did the eyes, they gave the blood elves 3 versions of blue, but the void elves have like 5 versions because blue eyes are native to them.

The natural skin colours on void elves should not be the same as on blood elves, but maybe that's all to do with the racism thing going on atm, so if we exampt skin colour, then hair colour is the one i think the sharing should be limited and roughly the same as the eyes.

- - - Updated - - -

In summary:

From blood elves:
3 new void elf skin tones: normal pale, rose pale, and brown
3 new void elf hair colours: blonde hue, the ginger hue, brown

1. New void elf skin tones and effects: Void elf hues >> than the imported ones from blood elves
2. New void elf hair colours and effects: e.g. pure silver white, midnight pitch black, more purple and blue variations
3. New void elf hairstyles - none of these from blood elves.

This is actually reasonable. While I'm glad void elves are getting natural skin tones, I don't think giving them all of blood elf tones is necessery. I would avoid those black and tanned skin tones, leaving void elves with their own pale void skin tones, natural skin tones and dark void blue/purple tones.

Pitch black and white/silver hair colors are a must. Every single race have white hair option, safe for void elves. Those two colors definitely matches dark void aestetics and should be included to the race from the very beginning.

[Beloren]

This is actually reasonable. While I'm glad void elves are getting natural skin tones, I don't think giving them all of blood elf tones is necessery. I would avoid those black and tanned skin tones, leaving void elves with their own pale void skin tones, natural skin tones and dark void blue/purple tones.

Pitch black and white/silver hair colors are a must. Every single race have white hair option, safe for void elves. Those two colors definitely matches dark void aestetics and should be included to the race from the very beginning.

I actually agree with you here, i don't think the void elves need the tanned/brown skin tones the blood elves got because they have their own dark versions which are a darker purple/ dark purplish brown, and that's what they should get.

I think with a limit on the skin colour and hair colour imports from blood elves on void elves, just like we got for the eyes and beards blood elves get from void elves.

As I mentioned above, top 2 or 3 skin tones and hair colours from blood elves, just like we had 2 hairstyles from blood elves make it through the rest were different. Should have far more void elf variation versions.

I like that the void elf eyes have a different range/spectrum from the blood elf.
So it should be with skin tones, hair colours, hairstyles etc, while i having just about 2-3 in common, because your void elf can be a high elf or blood elf in natural form but is mostly distinguished by the other.

[Vaedan]

I actually agree with you here, i don't think the void elves need the tanned/brown skin tones the blood elves got because they have their own dark versions which are a darker purple/ dark purplish brown, and that's what they should get.

I think with a limit on the skin colour and hair colour imports from blood elves on void elves, just like we got for the eyes and beards blood elves get from void elves.

As I mentioned above, top 2 or 3 skin tones and hair colours from blood elves, just like we had 2 hairstyles from blood elves make it through the rest were different. Should have far more void elf variation versions.

I like that the void elf eyes have a different range/spectrum from the blood elf.
So it should be with skin tones, hair colours, hairstyles etc, while i having just about 2-3 in common, because your void elf can be a high elf or blood elf in natural form but is mostly distinguished by the other.

Truth be told, blood elves are in pretty delicate spot. Addition of other elf AR drew heavily into thematics which were somewhat exclusive to them only. Before that, we had the opposition of night elves, mostly sneaky and primal elves oriented to druidism, Elune worship and deadly sentinels, and blood elves on the other hand, fullfiling fantasy of Imperial elves with strong affinity to magic, reckless use of power And strong will to survive, which lead to pragmatic decisions.

Nightborne now share the archetype of gifted elven spellcasters with Imperial past and void elves turned to be pragmatic group which does not hesitate to explore dangerous sources of power in order to protect their people. The only thing that that remain unique for blood elves is their orientation to the light and sun.

Given this, I believe dark and tanned skin tones should be blood elf exclusive. Hairstyles are not that important feature for me, since many haircuts are shared between races anyway, same goes to hair colors. There are much more features blood elves could get, like arcane/runic tattoos.

[Kyriani]

Given this, I believe dark and tanned skin tones should be blood elf exclusive. Hairstyles are not that important feature for me, since many haircuts are shared between races anyway, same goes to hair colors. There are much more features blood elves could get, like arcane/runic tattoos.

It's far too late to change what skins Void Elves are getting at this point. I mentioned it before, but I think what Blood Elves need is a different kind of diversity. They'll have a plethora of skin tones to choose from in Shadowlands, but they are still stuck with just the sunwell/light-centric theme as their only option really. The Dark Ranger/San'layn skin and eyes open up an entirely different theme to them, and one players have been asking for for some time. Scars and tattoos are also a popular request and I do believe they should be given as well.

I don't think we should focus on what we think this or that race shouldn't get, but rather focus on what we think this or that race should get. I believe this is far more likely to see results. If we spend our time saying "no! don't give them that" instead of saying "please! give us this!" then whatever the devs do decide to give us is going to be a roll of the dice instead of targeting what we want because we wasted time giving useless feedback (asking for a race not to get something), instead of giving useful feedback (asking for a race to get something).