Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Traycor]

Well at blizzcon ion referred to them as an "elite squad"

SQUAD
1 : a small organized group of military personnel; especially : a tactical unit that can be easily directed in the field
2 : a small group engaged in a common effort or occupation

The entire green Orc population fit on three boats when they left the Eastern Kingdoms for Kalimdor. AND they had room to pick up the entire Jungle Troll population on the way as their island sank.

We've directly seen in game that High Elves fill more than three boats. You could argue that the remaining High Elf population doubles that of the Orcs and Jungle Trolls.

[Traycor]

Having said that, i thought all High Elves lost in Warcraft II ended either dead, or gathered in the Allerian Stronghold. Blizzard never cared much for them since the Burning Crusade release. Actually, all Outland elves were simply forgotten.

Like Alleria, they just never addressed it. I've been waiting for the WCII High Elf rangers from Outland to show up since Vanilla. It was the #1 thing I was looking forward to in TBC, and it was never mentioned. But all is not lost, it took over 10 years, but they finally brought Alleria back!

[Obelisk Kai]

Which is my entire point.

Population isn't an argument anymore for high elves.

You continue to miss the point.

The population issue isn't an argument you can have a disagreement on. It's a stated fact.

[Obelisk Kai]

Ummm okay? It's stated as fact by blizzard who continue to be hypocritical in the matter. I'm not going to suck them off because it is not a valid argument or "fact" from them.

But until they change their minds and change the fact, the Alliance High Elf population is too low to be viable as a playable race.

That is not debatable.

[RangerDaz]

Like Alleria, they just never addressed it. I've been waiting for the WCII High Elf rangers from Outland to show up since Vanilla. It was the #1 thing I was looking forward to in TBC, and it was never mentioned. But all is not lost, it took over 10 years, but they finally brought Alleria back!

I believe it was never mentioned, because they wanted to focus on the new races of the expansion Blood Elves (horde) and Draenei (alliance), so they sacrificed the high elves from warcraft II instead.


Also related to the canon / non canon novels, there is a very famous case of a character from a novel that people keep asking for and blizzard never addressed it formally, but they unofficially say they prefer that this character would be non-canon: Med'an.

http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Med%27an

Blizzard even joked about it in chronicles 3, by putting his name in the number 404 page (a joke related to the 404 error, webpage not found).

https://blizzardwatch.com/2018/03/30...aft-chronicle/


So it is quite difficult to know what is canon and what is not. Blizzard also likes these gray zones, because they can pretend they forget lore for gameplay issues, or even bring that story back when they feel its good for the game.

So novels, manga, comics, etc are always a bit problematic.

Another example, this time related to an animated video released by Blizzard: will the vision of old Anduin with Velen in the flying exodar ever happen in the future? It was officially released by Blizzard at the release of legion, but they can decide to retcon it at anytime.

[Garfurion]

Nice image. Maybe consider adding feathers to their hair style to make it really part of their theme (gear can be replaced). Something like this maybe:

Edit: The Beyond the Dark Portal book is still canon and since it was co-written by Christie Golden who now works on WoW I can imagine it will stay canon for a while. It was written in 2008 so after TBC was released so it should not conflict with current lore too much.

[Syegfryed]

[
The entire green Orc population fit on three boats when they left the Eastern Kingdoms for Kalimdor.

this.is.NOT.CANON

argue that the remaining High Elf population doubles that of the Orcs and Jungle Trolls.

and this is blatantly false, rly, stop making false assumptions to back up your nonsense

The HE are few and are not organized, the only thing close to that is the silver covenant and even in MOP they are half human with Jaina

the void elves playable are a squad among other void elves, organized

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It is debatable. If blizzard suddenly said ogres have too low of a population to be playable, but they create void ogres with only 50 members, and make them playable, would you still take the word of "god" or use your brain?

or they could just say there are more void elves than high elves, cause they came from a actually big population of elves

[Traycor]

this is blatantly false, rly, stop making false assumptions to back up your nonsense

It was obviously tongue and cheek to point out how ridiculous the population talking point is. And it's just that, a talking point.
You seem to get very riled up about this. We're just here to have fun and enjoy a game after all.

[protip]

The population of high elves doesn't matter, and calling out Blizzard for those things is entirely pointless. Any lore argument is pointless. The fact that they give it as an excuse is the only thing you need to understand. They have their own reasons for doing things, and population is a deflection because they don't want players to be a part of the real conversation. It's their product, and they make the choices that they think are best for the game.

You can have a problem with the excuse, but it doesn't matter. You can even have a problem with how they make the game, and you've clearly voiced that. They know. What they do with that information is a part of a conversation that they have/have had/will have internally. Blizzard has developed the game this way for a very long time, and it's been very successful. If it's not working for you, perhaps you're one of those they couldn't reach.

[Traycor]

The population of high elves doesn't matter, and calling out Blizzard for those things is entirely pointless. Any lore argument is pointless. The fact that they give it as an excuse is the only thing you need to understand. They have their own reasons for doing things, and population is a deflection because they don't want players to be a part of the real conversation. It's their product, and they make the choices that they think are best for the game.

You can have a problem with the excuse, but it doesn't matter. You can even have a problem with how they make the game, and you've clearly voiced that. They know. What they do with that information is a part of a conversation that they have/have had/will have internally. Blizzard has developed the game this way for a very long time, and it's been very successful. If it's not working for you, perhaps you're one of those they couldn't reach.

Great points all around. I believe the internal reason is design, which is why we're here to discuss new design options.

[Linkedblade]

What do I have to do to get this? Just this.

[Syegfryed]

It was obviously tongue and cheek to point out how ridiculous the population talking point is

no its not ridiculous, you are using game mechanics to prove lore point

if we are using game mechanic the silver covenant would not be 30, and half died in TOT

population still is a point to use, since they never said whattis the HE population number exactly, they just said they are nearly extinct, the players think there are a lot of then, is completely headcanon and part of their fanfic


with this information we can even assume there are more VE than HE: why blizz use BE and not HE to make VE? because there are not enough HE to become even a VE squad

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What do I have to do to get this? Just this.

play horde and mog it in a warrior/paladin

[Linkedblade]

play horde and mog it in a warrior/paladin

Have a link to it by chance?

[Syegfryed]

Have a link to it by chance?

is a mix of paladin sets, but he make a custom color, so im afraid you will not get exactly like this, but with the current gear color

[Biotec]

What do I have to do to get this? Just this.

You would have to play a BE fury warrior and for some reason wield a shield. That sword is a 2 hander.

Also some of those are recolored versions of generally red stuff.

[Garfurion]

You would have to play a BE fury warrior and for some reason wield a shield. That sword is a 2 hander.

Also some of those are recolored versions of generally red stuff.

The tabbard requires Silver Covenant rep though so you can't get that on a Horde character.

[Traycor]

Have a link to it by chance?

You could play a red colored Blood Elf Spellbreaker with most of these items. The robe would need to replaced with a red themed one and the Tabard could either be replaced with a Silvermoon one or dropped entirely. It was built using the Mogit addon in game, so I don't have a link to the specific items.

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You would have to play a BE fury warrior and for some reason wield a shield. That sword is a 2 hander.

Also some of those are recolored versions of generally red stuff.

It would be an RP thing only unless you can find a red melee robe mog that you like. Even then, the Fury/shield thing would be a problem.
If you want it outside RP, a one-hander could be easily substituted.

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is a mix of paladin sets, but he make a custom color, so im afraid you will not get exactly like this, but with the current gear color

And that belt clips very badly with robes, from what I saw. Had to photoshop it to make the draping part of the belt show. It may work differently in the actual game though.

[Zorish]

What do I have to do to get this? Just this.

helm - http://www.wowhead.com/item=152376/c...onus=3614:1472
sword - http://www.wowhead.com/item=29993/tw...of-the-phoenix
shield - http://www.wowhead.com/item=35094/br...rs-shield-wall or http://www.wowhead.com/item=34185/sw...eakers-bulwark
shoulders - http://www.wowhead.com/item=105157/m...oming-darkness
hands - http://www.wowhead.com/item=152012/m...onus=3610:1472
waist - http://www.wowhead.com/item=152020/n...onus=3610:1472

for other colors look "same model as" tab. But you won't be abble to use sword and shield. because it's 2handed sword.
Plus autor let his fantasy fly there and he recolored most of it to blue "Aliance" color.

[protip]

Great points all around. I believe the internal reason is design, which is why we're here to discuss new design options.

I doubt the reason is down to the design of the race, but rather how the race fits into the bigger picture. We already have 4 types of elves, and high elves already have a story and a model.

[Ithekro]

Five elves on high.