Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Mace]

Honestly would love for that to happen tbh, with the already existing assets just being rearranged in different models.

It's a great idea, but I do not know if it's likely to happen soon if ever.

But like, imagine, the race being Thalassian Elf, and Alliance gets "Void and High" subraces, and Horde gets "Blood and San'layn". Same model, but some options are faction locked, and of course, there's a Racial System revamp.

Honestly I'd really love it.

I think it will happen. But more I. The sense of you can click elf and select Night elf, high elf or void elf.

But from the void elf screen you can select high elves and vice vers.

I think some fans came up with a pretty good arrangement once where many of the customisations that were actually sub races like wildhammer serves had their icons as presets rather than races. So whole you totally pick wildhammer types of customisations from just the Dwarf race screen, it would have a preset icon labelled wildhammer which would effectively grey out hide or rearrange the visible customisable options highlighting the distinctive wildhammer ones to the front and also locking the randomise option to always have the wildhammer features show up when you click as long as you had the preset activated.

This served to alert players that this look is wildhammer even though it’s Dwarf. And is not as detailed as a full alllied race like dark irons which could be accessed from the dwarf screen as well as from the race screen but will load the alDarknirons fully.

Like this you could have sub race groups and factions as priests. Racial groups like Sand Trolls and high elves, faction groups that have unique customisations like Farstriders , Highborne, Illidari

[Tanaria]

Like this you could have sub race groups and factions as priests. Racial groups like Sand Trolls and high elves, faction groups that have unique customisations like Farstriders , Highborne, Illidari

I'm very much against sub-factions being more class based. Farstrider is mainly just Blood Elf Hunters.
That doesn't work.

To get this idea to work, it needs to be sections within the respective societies like the Sunreavers. You can have Sunreaver Magi, Sunreaver Rangers or Sunreaver Paladins.
Farstrider is just minimizing things down to one class, whereas organisations like the Sunreavers, the Shen'dralar - they work, because they carry a variety of classes with them. They are not just Sin'dorei Mages or night elf mages.

Sunreavers as an example, could carry more red based tattoos and be the group of Sin'dorei that carry facial runes.

[Alanar]

Okay, now tell me how that translates to unique looks for Sin'dorei?

Because being protective of/hoarding features that aren't even Blood Elf ones but High Elf ones is clearly not working out?

The blood elves have a very clear style and colors, from warcraft 3 and wow continueing with these essets. We all know they used to be high elves before kael showed up, but silvermoon is the prime example what their style is about and this is high elven and blood elven.

I mean silvermoon city perfectly displays what style we are talking about.. its very out there. The gold, the red and phoenix symbol etc. So I am confused in what you are saying, the character costumization on blood elves already shows this.

Now that high elves are playable in the sense you can rp as one, its easy to get into a discussion that for some reason void elves feel like all the high elven essets belong to them including silvermoon and all the blue recolored blood elf essets. Which is obviously a awkward discussion since high elves or the majority of that race renamed themselves and is playable since Bc on the horde and void elves years later with a differnt name in legion.

[Beloren]

The blood elves have a very clear style and colors, from warcraft 3 and wow continueing with these essets. We all know they used to be high elves before kael showed up, but silvermoon is the prime example what their style is about and this is high elven and blood elven.

I mean silvermoon city perfectly displays what style we are talking about.. its very out there. The gold, the red and phoenix symbol etc.

So I am confused in what you are saying, the character costumization on blood elves already shows that.

And bear in mind architectural style and colour style can be different.

The architectural style for high elves and blood elves is the same, but the colouring is different.

The architectural style for night elves and Nightborne is the same but the colouring between the Moon white and blue with purple in Zin’Azshari is different from the arrangement in Suramar

Naga homes are just twisty Pearl variations of night elf homes

Void elf style would be a modified version of blood elves

[Alanar]

And bear in mind architectural style and colour style can be different.

The Naha homes notice

The architectural style for high elves and blood elves is the same, but the colouring is different.

The architectural style for night elves and Nightborne is the same but the colouring between the Moon white and blue with purple in Zin’Azshari is different from the arrangement in Suramar

Naga homes are just twisty Pearl variations of night elf homes

Void elf style would be a modified version of blood elves

Exactly if the architectural style would be different then this wouldnt be an issue.

Blue recolored blood elf essets is obviously not the way to go.I think they started to move away from that weird blue vs red elves which never made much sense, the tease on the alliance made this such a hated topic.
Luckily they gave void elves their own style which is perfectly shown on their herritage armor and it looks cool and differnt. Its not like they have purple phoenix jewelry or something like that.

So lets not try to reinvent the wheel here.

[Chain Chungus]

Well when you're a void elf that doesn't look like a void elf then theres something wrong. Even alleria doesn't stay normal when she's fighting.

So you agree Void Elves should look like Alleria?

[Beloren]

Exactly if the architectural style would be different then this wouldnt be an issue.

Blue recolored blood elf essets is obviously not the way to go.I think they started to move away from that weird blue vs red elves which never made much sense, the tease on the alliance made this such a hated topic.
Luckily they gave void elves their own style which is perfectly shown on their herritage armor and it looks cool and differnt. Its not like they have purple phoenix jewelry or something like that.

So lets not try to reinvent the wheel here.

Agreed. I like. Cool, different but relatable.


Problems happen when they do cool for one group and then shoddy for another. Personal, while I stopped begrudging alliance fans their highbelves. I felt void elves were very cool and kinda made them unnecessary as you could “play high elf”. On the horde.

If blizzard had organised it such that you could role play a high elf by having some sort of high elf contingent even underground, operating in blood elf society, that would likely have greatly mitigated high elf calls.

Another thing they could have done was making non traditional horde and alliance races more fluid in their allegiance and stand, making doing a blood elf toon as a high elf easier.

3rd option would have to increase the attractiveness of night elves by refining their models and introducing more of their pre sundering cities and civilisation a little earlier than 7.0, like with Cata when the highborne came back. Phoenix

[FossilFree]

Are they done with Void Elves now? Hair colors, ear sizes, and tentacle toggle doesn't really compare to all the options LFD, HMT, and Nightborne got.

[Kyriani]

Are they done with Void Elves now? Hair colors, ear sizes, and tentacle toggle doesn't really compare to all the options LFD, HMT, and Nightborne got.

I don't think any race will be "done" since more can always be added, but "done for now"? Probably? Don't forget that void elves got several skin and eye color options at SL launch. And yes I realize that void elves haven't gotten anything "new" outside of the tentacle toggle, but they've gotten what has been consistently and very vocally asked for: high elf customization.

Once 9.1.5 goes live void elves will have all the rp tools necessary to portray themselves as high elves if desired. I'd love to see more hairstyles added, but it would be nice if they weren't just hand-me-downs from blood elves again. Every race could stand to have scars, tattoos, blind eye options, make up, facial hair, jewelry etc., but I'd say that whatever void elves get next should probably be more void themed now that the high elf customization has been fulfilled. When that will happen is anyone's guess, probably not till 10.0.

Whatever void elves end up getting, since the tentacle toggle is now a thing, I hope that all hairstyles they get going forward have tentacles. That way people who like that aesthetic have more options, and those that don't can just toggle them off.

[FossilFree]

I don't think any race will be "done" since more can always be added, but "done for now"? Probably? Don't forget that void elves got several skin and eye color options at SL launch. And yes I realize that void elves haven't gotten anything "new" outside of the tentacle toggle, but they've gotten what has been consistently and very vocally asked for: high elf customization.

Once 9.1.5 goes live void elves will have all the rp tools necessary to portray themselves as high elves if desired. I'd love to see more hairstyles added, but it would be nice if they weren't just hand-me-downs from blood elves again. Every race could stand to have scars, tattoos, blind eye options, make up, facial hair, jewelry etc., but I'd say that whatever void elves get next should probably be more void themed now that the high elf customization has been fulfilled. When that will happen is anyone's guess, probably not till 10.0.

Whatever void elves end up getting, since the tentacle toggle is now a thing, I hope that all hairstyles they get going forward have tentacles. That way people who like that aesthetic have more options, and those that don't can just toggle them off.

A few new hairstyles (with optional tentacles) and tattoos might have made them feel like they got a whole pass, more jewelry and beard options too. Also, I think if they had something on par with Nightborne glowing hands, like starcursed options, it would be the icing on the cake.

[Kyriani]

A few new hairstyles (with optional tentacles) and tattoos might have made them feel like they got a whole pass, more jewelry and beard options too. Also, I think if they had something on par with Nightborne glowing hands, like starcursed options, it would be the icing on the cake.

I agree with you. While I would have liked to see a few new hairstyles for void elves at the very least, I would imagine that blizzard may have given void elves less attention due to the ire of some blood elf players upset about what they felt was their exclusive aesthetic being shared. Then again, it could simply be blizzard thinking that they could get away with giving void elves hand-me-downs instead of devoting time and resources to them right now.

With hindsight we can see that blizzard has been trickling the high elf customization to void elves over time. Whether that was intentionally done to avoid massive backlash from blood elf players, or done simply because of an evolving position on whether or not to allow void elves to have such options is anyone's guess. But now that void elves essentially have the high elf aesthetic, anything else they get will hopefully be new assets. There is understandably some amount of "elf fatigue" with so much attention on void elves, even if it was only copy/pastes of blood elf assets for the most part. With any luck, void elves will get some brand new assets with 10.0.

[Schwert]

I know everybody's hyped for the High Elf skins, but I just want to point out that with the tentacle toggle, a couple of the void skins, and the vast majority of the hair cuts available to them... you can make a san'layn look alike too with a void elf. The hairstyles are all very traditionally gothic/vampiric, more so than anything on the blood elf kit. It's pretty much 100% if you make a DK, especially considering red isn't the main eye colour for them.

I'm literally able to make all 3 sub-types of Thalassian I enjoy on Alliance on the PTR right now. (Quel'dorei, Ren'dorei, San'layn.)
It's actually insane how a few options gave us an insane amount of potential, and we're sort of sleeping on it.

Anything we get going forwards just expands on the high elf kit, and could potentially open doors to more unique stuff too.
We didn't get much on the PTR, but what we got is actually insane when you sit down and start fiddling with the character creation.

It's a pretty niche thing, but it's sort of... there.

[FossilFree]

I agree with you. While I would have liked to see a few new hairstyles for void elves at the very least, I would imagine that blizzard may have given void elves less attention due to the ire of some blood elf players upset about what they felt was their exclusive aesthetic being shared. Then again, it could simply be blizzard thinking that they could get away with giving void elves hand-me-downs instead of devoting time and resources to them right now.

With hindsight we can see that blizzard has been trickling the high elf customization to void elves over time. Whether that was intentionally done to avoid massive backlash from blood elf players, or done simply because of an evolving position on whether or not to allow void elves to have such options is anyone's guess. But now that void elves essentially have the high elf aesthetic, anything else they get will hopefully be new assets. There is understandably some amount of "elf fatigue" with so much attention on void elves, even if it was only copy/pastes of blood elf assets for the most part. With any luck, void elves will get some brand new assets with 10.0.

I mean, they don't necessarily need Blood Elf hairstyles, they should get unique ones. But I hear what you are saying. I do think it would be rather lame to hold back expanded customization from Void Elves and only give them copypaste stuff just because Blood Elf players will get annoyed though. It's not like the annoyance of Night Elf players prevented Nightborne from getting stuff.

The weird thing about "elf fatigue" is that elf requests keep topping the charts everywhere you look. I think there is a vocal minority that is sick of elves, but the majority seems to want more stuff for all 4 versions of them. By rights, Dark Irons and Mag'har should be up next for a pass, but you don't hear nary a peep about suggestions for those. The dwarf thread died pretty fast too.

I guess the players just love elves that much . Throw the Blood Elves a bone already so we can move forward finally, maybe a bloody bone even. Or maybe a glow in the dark bone? Flashlight bone? I dunno, the Blood Elf fans seem unable to settle on what it is they want. Maybe if they united behind one idea they would get it.

[Kyriani]

I mean, they don't necessarily need Blood Elf hairstyles, they should get unique ones. But I hear what you are saying. I do think it would be rather lame to hold back expanded customization from Void Elves and only give them copypaste stuff just because Blood Elf players will get annoyed though. It's not like the annoyance of Night Elf players prevented Nightborne from getting stuff.

The weird thing about "elf fatigue" is that elf requests keep topping the charts everywhere you look. I think there is a vocal minority that is sick of elves, but the majority seems to want more stuff for all 4 versions of them. By rights, Dark Irons and Mag'har should be up next for a pass, but you don't hear nary a peep about suggestions for those. The dwarf thread died pretty fast too.

I guess the players just love elves that much . Throw the Blood Elves a bone already so we can move forward finally, maybe a bloody bone even. Or maybe a glow in the dark bone? Flashlight bone? I dunno, the Blood Elf fans seem unable to settle on what it is they want. Maybe if they united behind one idea they would get it.

As an elf lover myself, I get what you're saying about elf popularity. You're also right in that it doesn't seem like other races get anywhere near as much activity in their threads as elves do. I don't think night elf players get annoyed about nightborne in the same way as blood elf players do about void elves because nightborne haven't been given straight up copy/pastes of night elf assets, while void elves have been given the skin colors, and now also hair colors, of blood elves. There's also the fact that the nightborne model is noticeably different from the night elf model, while the blood elf and void elf models are identical. And now that void elves have both the skin and hair colors of blood elves, the main things left differentiating them visually are class availability, hairstyles and faction allegiance.

Personally, I also feel that some of the anger over void elves getting high elf options stems from some players being annoyed at the high elf requests over the years and seeing blizzard "cave" on it finally. There's a small segment of the playerbase who simply felt that alliance should never have gotten anything remotely in the neighborhood of high elves, not because of lore reasons (because we all know that high elves exist on the alliance today), but because they felt that once tbc gave blood elves to the horde, that high elves were "theirs" from that point on. Some probably also took pleasure from seeing high elf requests they never believed would be fulfilled, and now they are reeling from consecutive blows (the model, the eyes, the skin, and now the hair).

On the official forums, all they've really had left to fall back on now are barbs about void elves not having access to silvermoon or the paladin class, and the fact that entropic embrace turns them blue. I can only imagine how apoplectic with rage those players would be if blizzard allowed void elves access to the paladin class and/or allowed entropic embrace customization. Obviously silvermoon is always going to remain a horde capital under blood elf rule (unless blizz decides to "burn it" along with the exodar)

I think the best hope for any "focus" on blood elf requests is for dark ranger/san'layn options. Those themes are present as in-game assets already, and are also a long time request. Fel blood, light themes, and blood magic themes, all seem rather nebulous or niche in their popularity compared to the dark ranger/san'layn themes.

[FossilFree]

As an elf lover myself, I get what you're saying about elf popularity. You're also right in that it doesn't seem like other races get anywhere near as much activity in their threads as elves do. I don't think night elf players get annoyed about nightborne in the same way as blood elf players do about void elves because nightborne haven't been given straight up copy/pastes of night elf assets, while void elves have been given the skin colors, and now also hair colors, of blood elves. There's also the fact that the nightborne model is noticeably different from the night elf model, while the blood elf and void elf models are identical. And now that void elves have both the skin and hair colors of blood elves, the main things left differentiating them visually are class availability, hairstyles and faction allegiance.

Personally, I also feel that some of the anger over void elves getting high elf options stems from some players being annoyed at the high elf requests over the years and seeing blizzard "cave" on it finally. There's a small segment of the playerbase who simply felt that alliance should never have gotten anything remotely in the neighborhood of high elves, not because of lore reasons (because we all know that high elves exist on the alliance today), but because they felt that once tbc gave blood elves to the horde, that high elves were "theirs" from that point on. Some probably also took pleasure from seeing high elf requests they never believed would be fulfilled, and now they are reeling from consecutive blows (the model, the eyes, the skin, and now the hair).

On the official forums, all they've really had left to fall back on now are barbs about void elves not having access to silvermoon or the paladin class, and the fact that entropic embrace turns them blue. I can only imagine how apoplectic with rage those players would be if blizzard allowed void elves access to the paladin class and/or allowed entropic embrace customization. Obviously silvermoon is always going to remain a horde capital under blood elf rule (unless blizz decides to "burn it" along with the exodar)

I think the best hope for any "focus" on blood elf requests is for dark ranger/san'layn options. Those themes are present as in-game assets already, and are also a long time request. Fel blood, light themes, and blood magic themes, all seem rather nebulous or niche in their popularity compared to the dark ranger/san'layn themes.

You make some good points. I do think its weird how people try to blame the fans when they make requests. If they want to be mad, they should blame Blizzard. One expansion after the release of Blood Elves in TBC, Blizzard went ahead and added the Silver Covenant, reputation and all, of Alliance High Elves. Then they kept creating more lore for them, especially in MoP and Legion. Should anyone be surprised that fans would start asking for that when our faces are being rubbed in it all the time?

At this point, making the High Elf options neutral to both makes the most sense. Then VE and BE each have their unique hook on top of that. Granted, VE got something a bit more unique, but BE still have their holy options too. Those could be expanded on a bit sure, as they aren't currently an equal number of options to the VE voidy ones. However, it doesn't seem like the holy options were super well-received, and San'layn ones seem to be more popular. A hit and miss for Blizz for sure.

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I know everybody's hyped for the High Elf skins, but I just want to point out that with the tentacle toggle, a couple of the void skins, and the vast majority of the hair cuts available to them... you can make a san'layn look alike too with a void elf. The hairstyles are all very traditionally gothic/vampiric, more so than anything on the blood elf kit. It's pretty much 100% if you make a DK, especially considering red isn't the main eye colour for them.

I'm literally able to make all 3 sub-types of Thalassian I enjoy on Alliance on the PTR right now. (Quel'dorei, Ren'dorei, San'layn.)
It's actually insane how a few options gave us an insane amount of potential, and we're sort of sleeping on it.

Anything we get going forwards just expands on the high elf kit, and could potentially open doors to more unique stuff too.
We didn't get much on the PTR, but what we got is actually insane when you sit down and start fiddling with the character creation.

It's a pretty niche thing, but it's sort of... there.

They almost do look like a San'layn that swapped out bloody themes for shadowy themes.

[Shayatu]

The fact that this thread is still going strong is a testament to how passionate people are about the high elves being playable for the Alliance. I know we have the skin tones and soon to be hair colors on void elves, but it isn't quite what we want.

[Mungho]

The fact that this thread is still going strong is a testament to how passionate people are about the high elves being playable for the Alliance. I know we have the skin tones and soon to be hair colors on void elves, but it isn't quite what we want.

Then what do you want?

[Kyriani]

The fact that this thread is still going strong is a testament to how passionate people are about the high elves being playable for the Alliance. I know we have the skin tones and soon to be hair colors on void elves, but it isn't quite what we want.

Once void elves were added, any hope of an alliance race called "high elf" dropped to virtually nil. Even still, with the customization options we can visually portray void elves as high elves. And maybe we'll see some lore additions in the future that tells us more about the elves joining the ren'dorei, and maybe moves the alliance high elf story forward as part of the void elf story.

[Ardenaso]

You make some good points. I do think its weird how people try to blame the fans when they make requests. If they want to be mad, they should blame Blizzard. One expansion after the release of Blood Elves in TBC, Blizzard went ahead and added the Silver Covenant, reputation and all, of Alliance High Elves. Then they kept creating more lore for them, especially in MoP and Legion. Should anyone be surprised that fans would start asking for that when our faces are being rubbed in it all the time?

there's also the High Elf tent in WoD that is exclusive for the Alliance

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At this point, making the High Elf options neutral to both makes the most sense. Then VE and BE each have their unique hook on top of that. Granted, VE got something a bit more unique, but BE still have their holy options too. Those could be expanded on a bit sure, as they aren't currently an equal number of options to the VE voidy ones. However, it doesn't seem like the holy options were super well-received, and San'layn ones seem to be more popular. A hit and miss for Blizz for sure.

or perhaps just let anyone alight with anything they want (of course make it harder for Alliance races to rep grind on Horde and vice versa since it's logical) to simply solve the High Elf dilemma (and perhaps the Alteraci Human, Lightbound Orc, etc. too)

[FossilFree]

there's also the High Elf tent in WoD that is exclusive for the Alliance

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or perhaps just let anyone alight with anything they want (of course make it harder for Alliance races to rep grind on Horde and vice versa since it's logical) to simply solve the High Elf dilemma (and perhaps the Alteraci Human, Lightbound Orc, etc. too)

Oh yea, I forgot about the tent.

I like the idea of letting you choose factions. Just start out at unfriendly rep or something and have Timbermaw Hold style turn-ins to gain favor with that faction.