Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Syegfryed]

Do you know what whould be cool?

Blizzard introducing Wildhammer Dwarfs and Alliance High Elves at the same time with the excuse of being two groups working together.

you know what would be more cool? half dwarfs and half high elves as allied race,2 rabbits in one hit

Those who have played since vanilla?

so in vanila the dark irons were aligned and friendly with the horde? thats new to me, cause as far as i know they and the dark horde pretty much were enemies

[Sorrior]

you know what would be more cool? half dwarfs and half high elves as allied race,2 rabbits in one hit



so in vanila the dark irons were aligned and friendly with the horde? thats new to me, cause as far as i know they and the dark horde pretty much were enemies

No but they were pretty much sworn enemies if the alliance

[Deleted]

Yet those are the two groups Blizzard has specifically ruled out. High Elves were more emphatically ruled out than Wildhammer, but I reckon Wildhammer weren't considered because any perceived cultural differences were insufficient to justify an allied race when the physical differences are non-existant.

And no, it's not suspicious at all for the rename of the island team. It's just another example of the pro High Elf community looking at patterns in tea-leaves and seeing the potential for playable High Elves, conveniently ignoring the development team saying very plainly it isn't going to happen.

Sorry had to make a account and reply to this but after reading a lot of your posts you clearly hate High elves but you and a few of the other posters here constantly hang out in one where people are just trying to have a discussion just so you can try and get the last word in.

Question Why don't you just leave them to it? They're not harming anyone by discussing something they'd wish to have even if it may not be possible.

Also have you ever heard of bait and switch? Maybe thats why it was worded the way it was you don't specifically know these things unless you said it yourself to many other posters are an Blizzard employee.

[Obelisk Kai]

Sorry had to make a account and reply to this but after reading a lot of your posts you clearly hate High elves but you and a few of the other posters here constantly hang out in one where people are just trying to have a discussion just so you can try and get the last word in.

The discussion is not limited to a pro High Elf bubble. If you want a pro High Elf bubble I suggest you join their discord.

Question Why don't you just leave them to it? They're not harming anyone by discussing something they'd wish to have even if it may not be possible.

Because I believe playable High Elves undermine the faction identity of the Horde and the Blood Elves. And I won't 'leave them too it' for the same reason they won't stop, they hope to persuade Blizzard through the expression of their opinion and I want my opinion to be heard too. Which it was because Ion basically said everything on the matter I have ever wanted a Blizzard dev to say. So that felt good.

Also have you ever heard of bait and switch? Maybe thats why it was worded the way it was you don't specifically know these things unless you said it yourself to many other posters are an Blizzard employee.

Bait and switch? Ok, you got a laugh out of me. Yes, the developers are trying to trick us by publicly stating one thing whilst secretly planning to do another. I am sure they would just love everything they say in years to come to be challenged by people saying 'well you were secretly plotting High Elves so how can we be sure you aren't lying to us now?'

Take off the tinfoil hat please. If they ever decide to do High Elves, which apparently is when someone figures out how to make High Elves non pale and non majestic, we will know about it. Until that time all we have is the near decade and a half of statements and lore saying it's not going to happen.

[protip]

Bait and switch? Ok, you got a laugh out of me. Yes, the developers are trying to trick us by publicly stating one thing whilst secretly planning to do another. I am sure they would just love everything they say in years to come to be challenged by people saying 'well you were secretly plotting High Elves so how can we be sure you aren't lying to us now?'

Take off the tinfoil hat please. If they ever decide to do High Elves, which apparently is when someone figures out how to make High Elves non pale and non majestic, we will know about it. Until that time all we have is the near decade and a half of statements and lore saying it's not going to happen.

Because nothing says "we're just drumming up hype for later" like explaining the problems something might cause for the game as a whole.

[Deleted]

The discussion is not limited to a pro High Elf bubble. If you want a pro High Elf bubble I suggest you join their discord.



Because I believe playable High Elves undermine the faction identity of the Horde and the Blood Elves. And I won't 'leave them too it' for the same reason they won't stop, they hope to persuade Blizzard through the expression of their opinion and I want my opinion to be heard too. Which it was because Ion basically said everything on the matter I have ever wanted a Blizzard dev to say. So that felt good.



Bait and switch? Ok, you got a laugh out of me. Yes, the developers are trying to trick us by publicly stating one thing whilst secretly planning to do another. I am sure they would just love everything they say in years to come to be challenged by people saying 'well you were secretly plotting High Elves so how can we be sure you aren't lying to us now?'

Take off the tinfoil hat please. If they ever decide to do High Elves, which apparently is when someone figures out how to make High Elves non pale and non majestic, we will know about it. Until that time all we have is the near decade and a half of statements and lore saying it's not going to happen.

You are such an aggressive poster I'm not going to lie, I was only asking a question and you attack, it's not like the Dev's haven't pulled bait and switch before right?

Also your faction "Identity" does not exist anymore so why blab about it it exists as much as the alliance one does ie Panderen, Void Elves and Nightbourne those 3 races alone shatter that identity so you should really stop deluding yourself, I'm not here to fight with you as I'm not interested in High Elves but you clearly do not see whats right in front of you.

I found these images online and Void/Blood elves share the exact same combat animations as do the Nightbourn/Nightelf:

i.imgur.com/e9N1BSZ
.png

Same images now but with the results:

i.imgur.com/PB5W9eY
.png

Silly forum limitations.

I don't see a huge difference there personally, so yeah faction identity already doesn't exist stop pretending otherwise.

[Darththeo]

Yet those are the two groups Blizzard has specifically ruled out. High Elves were more emphatically ruled out than Wildhammer, but I reckon Wildhammer weren't considered because any perceived cultural differences were insufficient to justify an allied race when the physical differences are non-existant.

And no, it's not suspicious at all for the rename of the island team. It's just another example of the pro High Elf community looking at patterns in tea-leaves and seeing the potential for playable High Elves, conveniently ignoring the development team saying very plainly it isn't going to happen.

No, they quite plainly in English stated that there is no immediate plan not there is no plans. In fact, the quote was that they don't want to Blur faction lines in BfA not they never want to blur the line.

It's fine if you don't want High Elves, but it doesn't excuse you from acting just like the Pro Helfers by twisting the words of the Devs to suit your view while trashing those doing the same thing.

[protip]

No, they quite plainly in English stated that there is no immediate plan not there is no plans. In fact, the quote was that they don't want to Blur faction lines in BfA not they never want to blur the line.

It's fine if you don't want High Elves, but it doesn't excuse you from acting just like the Pro Helfers by twisting the words of the Devs to suit your view while trashing those doing the same thing.

Speaking of twisting words, you're exaggerating every point you make here. He said "no plans for the near term," and that they don't want to blur faction lines especially because of the theme of BfA.

[Darththeo]

Speaking of twisting words, you're exaggerating every point you make here. He said "no plans for the near term," and that they don't want to blur faction lines especially because of the theme of BfA.

That's literally not twisting words. I didn't make him say something he didn't. Unlike what Obelisk Kai is doing where he is saying they outright deny High Elf ever being playable.

Keep in mind, I am not saying we will or we will not get High Elves ... I honestly don't care. The pro-Helfers are at least more honest than the Anti-Helfers in my view. It is quite clear the Devs haven't shut the door completely on playable High Elves and for all we know we could get them in BfA depending on how the story plays out.

We know they have made changes mid expansion in both Legion and WoD.

[Obelisk Kai]

No, they quite plainly in English stated that there is no immediate plan not there is no plans. In fact, the quote was that they don't want to Blur faction lines in BfA not they never want to blur the line.

It's fine if you don't want High Elves, but it doesn't excuse you from acting just like the Pro Helfers by twisting the words of the Devs to suit your view while trashing those doing the same thing.

That was a platitude. You focus on the platitude while deliberately ignoring the meat of what he said when he ruled out playable High Elves.

He said no. He offered the reasons why he said no. And then he said things might change in the future.

Sure they can. Just like a future developer might decide to do playable Murlocs. Even though we know playable Murlocs aren't going to happen and the idea is laughable, but the theoretical possibility exists.

In fact, this attitude of focusing on Ion's platitude comes across like this

[Darththeo]

That was a platitude. You focus on the platitude while deliberately ignoring the meat of what he said when he ruled out playable High Elves.

He said no. He offered the reasons why he said no. And then he said things might change in the future.

Sure they can. Just like a future developer might decide to do playable Murlocs. Even though we know playable Murlocs aren't going to happen and the idea is laughable, but the theoretical possibility exists.

In fact, this attitude of focusing on Ion's platitude comes across like this

I don't think you understand the word platitude.

I don't think you understand the concept I am arguing for. I am saying you aren't better and using the same bad arguments you are getting annoyed at with the Pro-Helfers. In other words, you aren't more correct than they are and yet you like them feel you are.

I also disagree with the Devs that faction identity is actually a thing. When I think of what that means, I don't see it in WoW. Your side decided that "I must be crazy" rather than recognizing that people aren't all the same and some people will disagree over what a made up term means.

[Aldo Hawk]

I don't think you understand the word platitude.

I don't think you understand the concept I am arguing for. I am saying you aren't better and using the same bad arguments you are getting annoyed at with the Pro-Helfers. In other words, you aren't more correct than they are and yet you like them feel you are.

I also disagree with the Devs that faction identity is actually a thing. When I think of what that means, I don't see it in WoW. Your side decided that "I must be crazy" rather than recognizing that people aren't all the same and some people will disagree over what a made up term means.

Really dude do not even care about that guy, his points are totally delusional at this point...

Just time will put everything in it's place, nobody believed HE would be added like in the next patch you know? And while they do not plan nothing with HE for B4A, we should ask again in middle expansion when is where things got carried forward and more decisions are made, now we are just discussing about the points and how they would look and all those things, but the final decision is not going to come anytime soon, being it a yes or a no.

Just share your ideas, share some people's artwork, discuss points, and enjoy talking about what you like until you want, the end of this kind of threads is far from getting reached.

[Obelisk Kai]

I don't think you understand the word platitude.

I don't think you understand the concept I am arguing for. I am saying you aren't better and using the same bad arguments you are getting annoyed at with the Pro-Helfers. In other words, you aren't more correct than they are and yet you like them feel you are.

I also disagree with the Devs that faction identity is actually a thing. When I think of what that means, I don't see it in WoW. Your side decided that "I must be crazy" rather than recognizing that people aren't all the same and some people will disagree over what a made up term means.

Platitude: noun
a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful.

Saying anything can change in the future is a platitude. It is an almost meaningless statement that they can use when they deliver bad news to anyone and it is not so much to give the person receiving the bad news hope as to cover their own asses should, at some point in the future following an unimaginable change in circumstances, decide to do this.

At the moment they don't want to do this for reasons of gameplay, for reasons of lore, for reasons of faction distinctiveness. And just because YOU have decided that faction identity doesn't matter, an odd statement given how we are about to embark on the biggest war between the factions yet seen and the forums are filled with invective between the Alliance and Horde, does not mean that your singular opinion, the opinion of a fan with an agenda, needs to be accommodated.

After all, the faction divide is the greatest and almost certainly insuperable obstacle to playable Alliance High Elves. Your agenda demands that the faction wall, the very foundation of the game's world and lore, be denigrated and dimissed as much as possible.

Thankfully the developers disagree with this. The developers rightly prize the division between the factions and they are doing the utmost to ensure that the Alliance and Horde remain visually and thematically distinct. Where models have crossed that wall, such as the Nightborne and Void Elves, those groups have been been given distinct physical skins and, far more importantly, themes as far from their parents as it possible to go.
Who could ever confuse the urbane and magical Nightborne with the Druidic and arboreal Night Elves? Nobody save those few engaged in reductio ad absurdum, determined to pretend a Nightborne and a Night Elf are as close as a Blood Elf and an Alliance High Elf and thereby justify the later as a playable race.

[Deleted]

I have been playing my high elf paladin since early 2007 when the burning crusade released =)

[Obelisk Kai]

Really dude do not even care about that guy, his points are totally delusional at this point...

Need I remind you, one of us had their point of view validated by the developers last week and the other had their arguments completely rejected yet still seemingly persists in acting as if that didn't happen?

One of us is indeed making delusional points.

Just time will put everything in it's place, nobody believed HE would be added like in the next patch you know? And while they do not plan nothing with HE for B4A, we should ask again in middle expansion when is where things got carried forward and more decisions are made, now we are just discussing about the points and how they would look and all those things, but the final decision is not going to come anytime soon, being it a yes or a no.

Just share your ideas, share some people's artwork, discuss points, and enjoy talking about what you like until you want, the end of this kind of threads is far from getting reached.

As I said before, I thought the artwork and other concept art was an attempt at reinventing the wheel when it came to creating a 'pale, majestic High Elf'. After Ion's comments last week what you have to do now is akin to reinventing a wheel that is not round.

When Blizzard did it they came up with Void Elves.

[preludeoflight]

After all, the faction divide is the greatest and almost certainly insuperable obstacle to playable Alliance High Elves. Your agenda demands that the faction wall, the very foundation of the game's world and lore, be denigrated and dimissed as much as possible.

I disagree that it's the greatest obstacle. It's certainly the foundation of the world and lore, but it's a whole lot less than it used to be. Beyond just the Pandaren playable race being identical for both factions, the alliance and horde team up just about any time there's a truly existential threat. Sure that's less likely (at least to start) an expansion called "Battle for Azeroth", where it's made to look like the two sides are at the most odds again, but once the old gods start showing up or whatever, they'll start working with each other again.

Thankfully the developers disagree with this. The developers rightly prize the division between the factions and they are doing the utmost to ensure that the Alliance and Horde remain visually and thematically distinct.

Except for those darn Pandaren. Being dang literally identical for both sides.

[Ithekro]

And the problem with Pandaren, the reason Blizzard doesn't like the neutral race concept, is not the faction wall. Its that they made it so they couldn't tell a story with either of the Pandaren factions going forwards because they had no factional differences that relate to the Alliance or Horde. it was conceptual only, and they don't hate each other at all. (I seem to remember their faction leaders are about three steps from being a couple, and seven steps from making their own set of blue and red colored cubs)

That is not a problem for Blood Elves and High Elves (or Void Elves and Vampire Undead Elves for that matter). Each is already established in the lore in one way or another and a story can be told for each quite easily within their own factions. They aren't neutral like the Pandaren. They are politically split along faction lines, which can make for some great storytelling.

[Zorish]

That is not a problem for Blood Elves and High Elves (or Void Elves and Vampire Undead Elves for that matter). Each is already established in the lore in one way or another and a story can be told for each quite easily within their own factions. They aren't neutral like the Pandaren. They are politically split along faction lines, which can make for some great storytelling.

yes. Right just from Elisande point of view called "bedwarmers for human race"

[Ithekro]

Well people asked where all the High Elves are....Red Light District of Stormwind....which was near Player Housing, or was that the Cuttthroat Alley place near the Dwarven district? Also I seem to recall seeing a group of Void Elves that look like they are up to no good somewhere near the lake outside the Cathedral district. You can interact with them, but they more or less tell you to get lost.

[Obelisk Kai]

I disagree that it's the greatest obstacle. It's certainly the foundation of the world and lore, but it's a whole lot less than it used to be. Beyond just the Pandaren playable race being identical for both factions, the alliance and horde team up just about any time there's a truly existential threat. Sure that's less likely (at least to start) an expansion called "Battle for Azeroth", where it's made to look like the two sides are at the most odds again, but once the old gods start showing up or whatever, they'll start working with each other again.



Except for those darn Pandaren. Being dang literally identical for both sides.

There should be a swear jar equivalent for every time someone mentions the Pandaren in this debate. So here comes the rote response.

Pandaren were conceived of and implemented as a neutral race.

The Pandaren storyline was structured around their neutrality and the balance between the factions.

The Pandaren were an experiment to see if a neutral race could work.

While I personally think the Pandaren succeeded as a race, the more widespread view is that the concept of a neutral race failed.

The one dev who commented on Pandaren being neutral, Ghostcrawler, said that they weren't a fan of it overall. While of course this quote was attacked five years ago by the pro High Elf community as being the voice of one man (five years sheesh!) it is worth pointing out that there has been no neutral race added to the game in the past six years, that there were multiple opportunities to do so that have not been taken and that the last thing we heard from Blizzard (last week) is that a race identical to Blood Elves on the Alliance would be considered as blurring the faction wall too much.

They created a neutral race in Pandaren as an experiment and made their neutrality the core of their theme. The concept of neutrality failed, and Pandaren appear to be fated to be the exception to the rule and they get away with it because neutrality is their theme. Blood Elves, who are High Elves, have been Horde for eleven years now and their look and theme are an intrinsic part of the Horde faction.