Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Azrathel]

I'm hoping for Wildhammer dwarfs added either as an allied race or as customisation options for regular dwarfs (so we'd have two clans in one, Bronzebeard and Wildhammer, like the many mag'har clans are becoming available as one race). And adding Wildhammers would fit extremely well together with adding high elves, seeing as they have tight bonds and are found sharing living areas. Similarly, the Horde could get Revantusk trolls and, well, ogres. The four races (Revantusk options could similarly be added onto the already existing troll options, making Revantusks and Darkspears share racial abilities, just like WH and BB dwarfs, and the conglomerate of mag'har orcs) could ship together, in a story where the elves and dwarfs meet the ogres and trolls in open war, in a warfront taking place in the Hinterlands.

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Yeah, that's my point. I just picked the most egregious example. Blackrock Priests? Frostwolf Priests? Warsong Priests? Handwaved! Wildhammer Mage? How dare you butcher the lore like that!!1111!one

Draenei shadow priests? Void elf holy priests?

[Lumineus]

Those clans wouldn't have had either kind of priest though. So like, one eighth of the race (Shadowmoon) can potentially be one half of the class (shadow side) out of the other side of the mouth that said a couple of NPCs couldn't justify the effort to add Night Elf Paladins. It seems clear they're willing to bend a LOT to give Horde players more options. Several generations to remove fel taint... oh, did we say that, nvm, here's your golden eyes!

[Traycor]

And adding Wildhammers would fit extremely well together with adding high elves, seeing as they have tight bonds and are found sharing living areas.

We're hearing that the Wildhammer and High Elves are hanging out in the new War Fronts in BFA!

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Like I said the feedback has been heard loud and clear and it now comes to the question what Blizz wants to do about it....

I really, really can't believe Blizz is not allready in the process of adding them.

And now we have the blue acknowledgement today. That's another nod in this two week time frame. And the blue defends the existence of the thread by pointing out that it's not just a vocal few talking about it.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and feedback on this topic over the (numerous!) threads that have come and gone since BlizzCon last year.

As we do with all feedback, we've sent this along to the Development Team, and we will continue to monitor this discussion going forward.

I've gone ahead and upped the cap of this thread pretty significantly, and we'll try to consolidate discussions on this as we can so we can track this more easily. We'll probably pop back in as the thread gets larger to guide folks into a new space to prevent slow load times and such.

Poster then says it's just a few posters bumping over and over.

Just because there's an argument against something, doesn't mean we don't read it or send it along to the Development Team with notes.

If I look through the threads, there are thousands of contributors over the course of the entire discussion, so your point just doesn't ring true.

[FlubberPuddy]

We're hearing that the Wildhammer and High Elves are hanging out in the new War Fronts in BFA!

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And now we have the blue acknowledgement today. That's another nod in this two week time frame. And the blue defends the existence of the thread by pointing out that it's not just a vocal few talking about it.



Poster then says it's just a few posters bumping over and over.

Vindication BOYS!!

[Deleted]

We're hearing that the Wildhammer and High Elves are hanging out in the new War Fronts in BFA!

- - - Updated - - -



And now we have the blue acknowledgement today. That's another nod in this two week time frame. And the blue defends the existence of the thread by pointing out that it's not just a vocal few talking about it.



Poster then says it's just a few posters bumping over and over.

That is awesome news and again like you said a lot of ackknowledgement in a very, very short amount of time.
I also really like how Orynx pointed out that this rediculous claim, only a few people want that, is just false.

I mean Jeremy even said it is a fan favourit, how would it be possible that only a few want it. In fact it is the case the other way around. There is only a small, vocal minority who tries to spit into the soup of other peoples fun.

So great news again, stuff is in the moving.

Also I hope that our friends in the Highlands are thought of aswell.

Vindication BOYS!!

*Puts on a false beard and nods*


Also that thread is a few hours old and Orynx allready spoke about thousands of contributors.

edit:
Btw that PlayerSYTCMM guys way of writing reminds me of someone from here, probably pure coincidence.^^

[FlubberPuddy]

That is awesome news and again like you said a lot of ackknowledgement in a very, very short amount of time.
I also really like how Orynx pointed out that this rediculous claim, only a few people want that, is just false.

I mean Jeremy even said it is a fan favourit, how would it be possible that only a few want it. In fact it is the case the other way around. There is only a small, vocal minority who tries to spit into the soup of other peoples fun.

So great news again, stuff is in the moving.

Also I hope that our friends in the Highlands are thought of aswell.





*Puts on a false beard and nods*


Also that thread is a few hours old and Orynx allready spoke about thousands of contributors.

edit:
Btw that PlayerSYTCMM guys way of writing reminds me of someone from here, probably pure coincidence.^^

This actually adds more weight to Muffinus's "as a community favorite" so factually we know there are thousands wanting em.

[Azrathel]

For our European players, there's also a discussion going on on the general World of Warcraft forums. Seeing as we're being heard by the devs, and that they probably frequent the official forums more than these, adding your voices there might be an idea.

[Phaelia]

I can definitely see a 8.2 with four new races

Alliance:

High Elves
Wildhammer Dwarves

Horde:

Undead Elves
Forest trolls (raventusk)

Might be a bit too soon to add new elves but i doubt we'd see any other elves in the game until the end of time after this unless they want to make highborne an allied race which is very possible, not sure what horde would get.

Please no, that would be a Troll and Elf overload. If they do that, I’d hope they’d spread them out further down the line.

[Deleted]

Might be a bit too soon to add new elves but i doubt we'd see any other elves in the game until the end of time after this unless they want to make highborne an allied race which is very possible, not sure what horde would get.

There are Highborne, Darkfallen, maybe some redeemed Felblood Elves can get a shot at some point. There are still possibilities for more elves at some point in the far future. I also expect there to be loads of trolls and dwarves. Not sure who else has such a variety of subraces as those three. Tauren maybe are close.

[Phaelia]

they seem like good pairs, but they would probably be well after 8.2.

I'm still unsure of how many allied races blizzard plans to add.

On launch we already have 6, 8 if you count post launch but not patch allied races like zandalari and kultirans.

I’m not disagreeing, I might even race change my Blood Elf to a San’Layn or Undead Elf... just seems too soon for more Trolls and Elves in this expansion.

[RangerDaz]

We're hearing that the Wildhammer and High Elves are hanging out in the new War Fronts in BFA!

- - - Updated - - -



And now we have the blue acknowledgement today. That's another nod in this two week time frame. And the blue defends the existence of the thread by pointing out that it's not just a vocal few talking about it.



Poster then says it's just a few posters bumping over and over.

Hey Traycor, im not in north america, i cant post in that thread i believe.

Has anyone mentioned this thread there?

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I’m not disagreeing, I might even race change my Blood Elf to a San’Layn or Undead Elf... just seems too soon for more Trolls and Elves in this expansion.

I would also love the undead elves to come live.

[Traycor]

Hey Traycor, im not in north america, i cant post in that thread i believe.

Has anyone mentioned this thread there?

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I would also love the undead elves to come live.

Same here on North America. I got the post link from the Blue updates on the front page of MMO-C. I've not been looking at other forums to see if they've mentioned this thread or not. *shrug*

[Garfurion]

Looks like Blizzard isn't going to try to ignore the issue but the chances of them adding another Elven race any time soon is small. I expect they will announce further customization options for Void Elves once they have developed them. Potentially adding the WC2/Alleria look. Perhaps they will enable a pure High Elven look to be used out-of-combat. A lot will depend on the passion expressed for High Elves on the official forums.

[Traycor]

Looks like Blizzard isn't going to try to ignore the issue but the chances of them adding another Elven race any time soon is small. I expect they will announce further customization options for Void Elves once they have developed them. Potentially adding the WC2/Alleria look. Perhaps they will enable a pure High Elven look to be used out-of-combat. A lot will depend on the passion expressed for High Elves on the official forums.

Man, if our only 'High Elf' option bursts into Void Form every time I hit combat... that would just be terrible.

If High Elves and Void Elves were instead rolled into one option, like an alliance of High Elves and Void Elves where my High Elf didn't go goth in combat, I could maybe live with that. The void racials would still bug me.

[Garfurion]

Man, if our only 'High Elf' option bursts into Void Form every time I hit combat... that would just be terrible.

If High Elves and Void Elves were instead rolled into one option, like an alliance of High Elves and Void Elves where my High Elf didn't go goth in combat, I could maybe live with that.

Perhaps customization options for Void Form could solve that. What if they added class specific Void forms. Hunters could get Predator form, rogues some kind of special stealth form, mages arcane form, etc.. it wouldn't change the official race but it would allow for better High Elf RP-ing.

Based on Blizzard's response we'll know the future of High Elves as an allied race. If Void Elves stay as they are then High Elves will have been put on the list for a future date unless they explicitly stated High Elves will never be playable, which seems unlikely atm.

[FlubberPuddy]

Man, if our only 'High Elf' option bursts into Void Form every time I hit combat... that would just be terrible.

If High Elves and Void Elves were instead rolled into one option, like an alliance of High Elves and Void Elves where my High Elf didn't go goth in combat, I could maybe live with that.

They definitely won't shoe-horn High Elves into Void Elves. Them creating a group of silvermoon blood elves was intentional to not use High Elves. The big High Elf groups are still their own thing and I don't believe for a second that they'd suddenly just turn to the Void, doesn't fit their theme of lessening their magic dependence.

I think it's just thrown around because it's "simple and easy" and also so that High Elf opposers could "win" in the end, so this is the last case they can hope for. Since with all the traction in the last couple weeks, High Elf fans will definitely get something out of this. And it's clear the majority of those fans want an actual separate race option.

Even Void Elf fans were creating threads saying they don't want High Elf skins because it'd dilute Void Elves.

[Theodarzna]

Aight, good news, blue's noticed the WoW forum thread, I guess things are gaining some attention. I personally thank the Teliasen video.

[Theodarzna]

Looks like Blizzard isn't going to try to ignore the issue but the chances of them adding another Elven race any time soon is small. I expect they will announce further customization options for Void Elves once they have developed them. Potentially adding the WC2/Alleria look. Perhaps they will enable a pure High Elven look to be used out-of-combat. A lot will depend on the passion expressed for High Elves on the official forums.

The F'udged the whole thing up pretty hard via not tying Void Elves to the High Elves at all. If Void Elves were meant to be their answer it missed the mark on everything.

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Something came up on another discussion that I think also makes a valid diffusing of the Silver Covenant Elves will destroy faction balance! argument.

1. Blood Elves are avaliable in base game as soon as you start. Anyone can make a Blood Elf. An Alliance High Elf would be blocked behind needing a max level Alliance character, a signficant quest or faction grind or some other thing to force you to earn the ability to make them.
2. High Elven racial will be unlikely to be as good as Blood Elven races. In fact, Alliance races are usually very poor anyway and I doubt Blizz would suddenly feel kind to Alliance now.
3. Class restriction. All allied races have a fairly slim class selection list. HE will be unlikely to have DH, DK, or Warlocks, and could even be denied Paladins which is become a big thing for BE. So a slim class selection would be an even bigger barrier to just faction switching on mass.

[FlubberPuddy]

The F'udged the whole thing up pretty hard via not tying Void Elves to the High Elves at all. If Void Elves were meant to be their answer it missed the mark on everything.

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Something came up on another discussion that I think also makes a valid diffusing of the Silver Covenant Elves will destroy faction balance! argument.

1. Blood Elves are avaliable in base game as soon as you start. Anyone can make a Blood Elf. An Alliance High Elf would be blocked behind needing a max level Alliance character, a signficant quest or faction grind or some other thing to force you to earn the ability to make them.
2. High Elven racial will be unlikely to be as good as Blood Elven races. In fact, Alliance races are usually very poor anyway and I doubt Blizz would suddenly feel kind to Alliance now.
3. Class restriction. All allied races have a fairly slim class selection list. HE will be unlikely to have DH, DK, or Warlocks, and could even be denied Paladins which is become a big thing for BE. So a slim class selection would be an even bigger barrier to just faction switching on mass.

Not only that but this too!

Very interesting tidbit brought up by someone in the High Elves thread:

In the last Blizzcon there was a Q&A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oacj-mnnvkc
38:00

For those who don't want to watch it - An alliance player is thinking about faction swapping to play a Zandalari troll. He has a question:

Question: "Faction pride is an ongoing struggle. And so is faction balance. So How do you keep alliance playing alliance and horde playing horde so that doesn't become more of an issue?"

Ion: "I mean, sounds like you might wanna look within yourself and if you are looking at that Zandalari Troll and there is something there that speaks to you, maybe that is your answer. At the end of the day, right, that's a choice everyone has to make. And, play the game the way want to play it. I think in terms of faction balance on servers, across the game as a whole, you know, we have made a lot of improvements over the years. Whether it is cross realm auction houses as more of a default or improved matchmaking across servers so you can find people to play with regardless... to help address things on those levels. But play what you want to play. "

We want to play Silver Covenant High Elves. If Horde re-roll to play one, it sounds like that is their answer - to play a High Elf on Alliance.

There we go, we have "Word of God" chiming in on the whole "Alliance High Elves will destroy faction balance!!111eleven!!11!!!1"
Good ol' Ion stating they've made a lot of improvements on faction balance over the years irrespective of races guess they don't care as much about the faction wall as some here do!

[Theodarzna]

Not only that but this too!

Very interesting tidbit brought up by someone in the High Elves thread:



There we go, we have "Word of God" chiming in on the whole "Alliance High Elves will destroy faction balance!!111eleven!!11!!!1"
Good ol' Ion stating they've made a lot of improvements on faction balance over the years irrespective of races guess they don't care as much about the faction wall as some here do!

True, and I've always considered the faction balance issue to be a completely bogus point. But for the sake of argument, if we are that worried that the Horde will be depopulated of its precious, and hated, blood elves, I think those fears are radically overblown.