Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Traycor]

I like the idea of sea-nomadic High Elves a lot!

What if their heritage armor was based more around the sea rather than the forest and the wilds?

Scales on their armor, and fins on their helmets? Have their guards wield tridents and so on, would that be possible without stepping on the Nagas' identity?

Maybe if it was subtle, such as one of the faceguard helms that leaves the hair open in the back. Fortunately it's already a classic High Elf theme from WCII and with the Silver Covenant in WoW, so it doesn't require going all the way.

[Goldielocks]

They are okay to step on each others feet, as long as the color pallet differs, evidently. That's the pattern I see.

That's exactly what allied races are. As much as Blizzard begs us to think otherwise, they're subraces. The model is shared; the aesthetic changes.

These "mental gymnastics" you replied to are perfectly valid. It makes perfect sense that the model exchange between factions will happen only once, to give some form of appeasement and to give Horde players NE models / vice versa. High Elves would use BE models, and that's not going to happen without a model from the Alliance going to the Horde. Can you not see the surmounting problem here?

[Redzonetode]

It's impressive this has more thought and effort into it than void elves and lightforged.

[Directionalk9]

The High Elf proposal in this thread are no longer High Elves.... they are as divergent from quel’dorei as Void Elves are at this point. Nomadic sea-farer druids, c’mon mate, just embrace that sweet succulent void.

[Gurluas]

The High Elf proposal in this thread are no longer High Elves.... they are as divergent from quel’dorei as Void Elves are at this point. Nomadic sea-farer druids, c’mon mate, just embrace that sweet succulent void.

Even if they're different from the original Pre-Wc3 High elves, the core of them remains High elf, which is the point.
Void elves are more Blood elves ideologically, and are Blood elves in such a bad way that they got exiled by the Blood elves for dealing with magic too corruptive and dangerous, and they're part void monsters. I'd rather take Sea elves, Snow elves, or Forest elves as long as they're the High elves from TBC and kept their core ideology.

Forest elves would be called Thas'dorei for the record. Not sure what the Snow or Sea variety would be called.

[Traycor]

The High Elf proposal in this thread are no longer High Elves.... they are as divergent from quel’dorei as Void Elves are at this point. Nomadic sea-farer druids, c’mon mate, just embrace that sweet succulent void.

The High Elves were always sea-farers. In WCII you took their ships into battle, and some of the text under that concept in the thread is pulled directly from WCII. The Silver Covenant in WoW still has a fleet of ships, and some of the quests in Northrend involve heading out to their ships. Their ships were also in Pandaria.

It's a core High Elf concept.

Druids are a different deal. That's never gotten much traction, but we are trying to brainstorm changes to the High Elves that don't violate the core of who they are. Even if an idea like druids doesn't pan out, it can lead us to other ideas that might work better. It's the gradual process of design, which involves a lot of trial and error.

[Deleted]

Yeah I don't think druids will work.
The sole reason why High elves exist is that after the War of Ancients these group refused to take on the teachings of Cenarius and thus got exiled from the Night elf society.

Taking on druidism later would be a bit strange.

I personally would go with Shamans maybe. Water elementals for ship guiding, wind elementals für archery enhancements. Rough land and seas they travvel through could give them a more connected view on the elements.
And it would be the first elven shaman race and thus very unique.

[Gurluas]

Yeah I don't think druids will work.
The sole reason why High elves exist is that after the War of Ancients these group refused to take on the teachings of Cenarius and thus got exiled from the Night elf society.

Taking on druidism later would be a bit strange.

I personally would go with Shamans maybe. Water elementals for ship guiding, wind elementals für archery enhancements. Rough land and seas they travvel through could give them a more connected view on the elements.
And it would be the first elven shaman race and thus very unique.

The reason why I'm pro druids is that I like the idea of the High elves realizing that perhaps there's more than Arcane, especially after experiencing losing their homeland and being at the bottom. It makes you reconsider life when you used to believe you were invincible and had the highest culture, yet your entire people fell and 90% of your kind got slaughtered.

Although I don't want them to be Night elf rip offs, I'd want their own take on Druidism. Perhaps mages and druids working together?
The Arcan'dor was made by early druids and mages working together, perhaps the High elves can revive that sort of cooperation.

I'm also pro Shamans, but obviously I'd want them to be different than the standard "We worship the spirits" shaman, I'd prefer if they were perhaps using the Arcane to control elements?

[Deleted]

The reason why I'm pro druids is that I like the idea of the High elves realizing that perhaps there's more than Arcane, especially after experiencing losing their homeland and being at the bottom. It makes you reconsider life when you used to believe you were invincible and had the highest culture, yet your entire people fell and 90% of your kind got slaughtered.

Although I don't want them to be Night elf rip offs, I'd want their own take on Druidism. Perhaps mages and druids working together?
The Arcan'dor was made by early druids and mages working together, perhaps the High elves can revive that sort of cooperation.

I'm also pro Shamans, but obviously I'd want them to be different than the standard "We worship the spirits" shaman, I'd prefer if they were perhaps using the Arcane to control elements?

I am personally not against druids, it's my favourit class.
But I don't think they would fit given the lore. Granted if Kul Tirans or Trolls can be druids nowadays everyone can.

So if it would happen, i wouldn't be mad at all.

But Blizz is traditionally very relucant with classesand druids might be a bit too much.

[Traycor]

I'm also pro Shamans, but obviously I'd want them to be different than the standard "We worship the spirits" shaman, I'd prefer if they were perhaps using the Arcane to control elements?

They could use Wardstones for their totems. That would certainly give it the arcane feel!

[RangerDaz]

The High Elves were always sea-farers. In WCII you took their ships into battle, and some of the text under that concept in the thread is pulled directly from WCII. The Silver Covenant in WoW still has a fleet of ships, and some of the quests in Northrend involve heading out to their ships. Their ships were also in Pandaria.

It's a core High Elf concept.

Druids are a different deal. That's never gotten much traction, but we are trying to brainstorm changes to the High Elves that don't violate the core of who they are. Even if an idea like druids doesn't pan out, it can lead us to other ideas that might work better. It's the gradual process of design, which involves a lot of trial and error.

I would honestly remain with the proposal i gave a few days ago about the High Elves classes:

- Warrior (brute combat class, base class for all races)
- Hunter (the ranger class, iconic elf class)
- Rogue (agile and stealth class, also rangerish but more melee)
- mage (iconic elf class, dalaran is filled with them, the class that made high elves split from night elves ages ago)
- monk (don't see why not, chi energy and melee combat fit their theme)


Then i would propose only ONE of these two:

- Priest (iconic elf class, however the high elves do not have physical access to the sunwell and they could have stopped being priests for this reason. But if people want the classic high elf, this is the class to chose)
- shaman (if high elves are cut from the sunwell, they could try to find alternative sources of energy, and shamanism could be their new class, considering who close their relations are with the wildhammer dwarves, who could teach them the shaman way of life, and could also explain that high elves evolved after being cut from the sunwell)

If the high elves are cut from the sunwells energy and can't be priests anymore, i would chose shaman as the new alternative. If they still can be priests, than i would put away the shaman idea.


Also the other classes i would not add and why:

- Paladin: There must be a difference between Blood Elves and High Elves. I would say that all high elf paladins have remained in Silvermoon and none was sent to exile. They all did what had to be done to survive like Lady Liadrin. Maybe only a few alliance high elf paladins from wacraft 2 survived in outland or a few exceptions like Arator, the half elf. They wouldn't be in enough numbers to create a class, especially as they are physically cut off from the sunwell.
- Druid: I don't see any reason why they could be druids. If people want the classic high elf, this class doesn't make sense for me at least.
- Warlock: High elves were not corrupted by demonic energies. Their eyes are blue (or green), not FEL green, so they are pure, just like the mag'har, who do not have warlocks as well.
- Hero Classes: Death Knight and Demon Hunter: Technically they could be both, as they were killed by arthas and were in outland when illidan was training demon hunters. However no allied race has hero classes anymore, and the blood elves have those hero classes represented already.

[Deleted]

I think a race should have one of the more Lore heavy classes.

So Paladin, Shaman, Druid.
One of them is personally a must. I consider priests as a basic class like mages and warriors.

So with Druids being not really suiting it comes down to Paladins and Shamans. I'd go with shamans as the Alliance doesn't have a highly played and represented shaman race.

[Traycor]

Also the other classes i would not add and why:

- Paladin: There must be a difference between Blood Elves and High Elves. I would say that all high elf paladins have remained in Silvermoon and none was sent to exile. They all did what had to be done to survive like Lady Liadrin. Maybe only a few alliance high elf paladins from wacraft 2 survived in outland or a few exceptions like Arator, the half elf. They wouldn't be in enough numbers to create a class, especially as they are physically cut off from the sunwell.

Reading this, I was thinking about what sammygm said:

But there are cases of High Elves becoming a Paladin, and there is a case of a High Elf becoming a Paladin in the Third War. Mehlar Dawnblade was a member of the Silver Hand and an apprentice of Uther. And then you have the High Elf Paladins that are members of the Silver Covenant. If the playable High Elves would be Silver Covenant, then I definitely think they should be allowed to be Paladins.

I kind of like that idea that if paladins were not allowed as a class, it's left open for them to be added in the future. So maybe you can't pick a paladin at first, but later on down the road it's an option Blizzard adds in. The concept of "too few" to constitute a class works well with this idea. It would be the idea that High Elf paladins are rare exceptions. This could be emphasized by having High Elf paladin NPCs to show it's not impossible.

[Obelisk Kai]

I'm also pro Shamans, but obviously I'd want them to be different than the standard "We worship the spirits" shaman, I'd prefer if they were perhaps using the Arcane to control elements?

You mean forcing the elements to obey their will?

That's Dark shamanism. That has exceptionally bad consequences for all concerned in the long term.

Shamanism is predicated on a give and take relationship with the elemental spirits.

Even the Goblins form a business contract with the elemental spirits to use their powers.

What you are suggesting, while trying to maintain the arcane theme of thalassian elves, is actually really evil.

[RangerDaz]

Reading this, I was thinking about what sammygm said:



I kind of like that idea that if paladins were not allowed as a class, it's left open for them to be added in the future. So maybe you can't pick a paladin at first, but later on down the road it's an option Blizzard adds in. The concept of "too few" to constitute a class works well with this idea. It would be the idea that High Elf paladins are rare exceptions. This could be emphasized by having High Elf paladin NPCs to show it's not impossible.

My main reason to restrict them is to create a difference between blood elves and high elves. The differences must exist and be clear for everyone.
For me, alliance high elves right now are more military guys and arcane users. I wanted to leave the holy light users for blood elves because of the sunwell.
Maybe priests could be an exception, or else shaman could take their place as their alternative for holy classes. They also could have become more connected to the spirits (shaman theme) because of all the dead high elves in warcraft 3. Blood elves focused on the past after Arthas destroyed Silvermoon on getting energy on alternative sources as fel, but high elves went on a different path.

[Gurluas]

You mean forcing the elements to obey their will?

That's Dark shamanism. That has exceptionally bad consequences for all concerned in the long term.

Shamanism is predicated on a give and take relationship with the elemental spirits.

Even the Goblins form a business contract with the elemental spirits to use their powers.

What you are suggesting, while trying to maintain the arcane theme of thalassian elves, is actually really evil.

I'm not saying they'd use the arcane to enslave elementals, more than they use Arcane to control elements. Similar to how mages can control water using the Arcane to make artificial water elementals.

[Obelisk Kai]

I'm not saying they'd use the arcane to enslave elementals, more than they use Arcane to control elements. Similar to how mages can control water using the Arcane to make artificial water elementals.

That is not shamanism, and hence that would not be a shaman.

[Traycor]

You mean forcing the elements to obey their will?

That's Dark shamanism. That has exceptionally bad consequences for all concerned in the long term.

Shamanism is predicated on a give and take relationship with the elemental spirits.

Even the Goblins form a business contract with the elemental spirits to use their powers.

What you are suggesting, while trying to maintain the arcane theme of thalassian elves, is actually really evil.

A fair point.

As for the visual/gameplay end, a wardstone totem seems like a cool art direction.

[Deleted]

A fair point.

As for the visual/gameplay end, a wardstone totem seems like a cool art direction.

I like the idea of ward stones. They fit.

In terms of how they are in contact with elements, maybe some kind of mutual respect for each other or so. Not worship like orcs do, no trade like goblins, just some kind of coexistance and ackknowledgement that both have their place in the world or something like that.

[Deleted]

It is depressing how a fan with good will and imagination could come out with something this interesting, while the best Blizzard could make was "Void Elves": "Hey Alliance, aren't you happy with the purple and blue elves you already have? Don't worry, we are offering a brand new option: another kind of purple and blue elves!"
I mean, seriously...