Lightforged Shadow Priests?

[Trassk]

Is this even a viable thing? Lightforged are more obsessively light worshiping then regular draenei, a shadow priest regular draenei I could get since we saw auchenai in outland, who were 'death priests' to help the souls of the dead, also the ones in outland were driven mad by void energy, giving reason for their powers and use of necromancy.

But lightforged? I dunno how this one can be justified. Kind of like how holy forsaken, it would burn them, but you could make the excuse that a forsaken that wields holy magic is able to resist it to help others. Lightforged however, I honestly can't think of a legit means of validating them being shadow, which is kind of annoying in playing and leveling as one outside of being a healer.

[Ielenia]

Is this even a viable thing? Lightforged are more obsessively light worshiping then regular draenei, a shadow priest regular draenei I could get since we saw auchenai in outland, who were 'death priests' to help the souls of the dead, also the ones in outland were driven mad by void energy, giving reason for their powers and use of necromancy.

Can't restrict races from certain specs. Just like void elves can be holy priests, considering, as we've seen, holy+void = lots and lots of trouble. I suppose with some extra coding it could happen, but I doubt it's anywhere in the top half of Blizzard's priority list. Also, Shadow Priests don't wield necromancy. Just the void.

But lightforged? I dunno how this one can be justified. Kind of like how holy forsaken, it would burn them, but you could make the excuse that a forsaken that wields holy magic is able to resist it to help others. Lightforged however, I honestly can't think of a legit means of validating them being shadow, which is kind of annoying in playing and leveling as one outside of being a healer.

Rationalization is a powerful thing. One could make the argument that, being lightforged, it would give them increased protection against the temptation of the shadow, and allow them to wield it without worrying about giving in to its temptation.

[FelPlague]

void elves can be holy and disc
draenei and lightforged can be shadow priests
undead can be holy and disc priests

sadsly they cant limit specs, so they just have to go "would one of these specs make sense" then bend the lore to let the other classes be it, or just right out ignore the possability
like with the allied races

[zlygork]

They could see themselves as being able to enslave the shadows, through their powerful faith in the light. As far as consequences, I'd expect a similar deal to undead holy priests, with every cast causing them pain.

[Deleted]

void elves can be holy and disc
draenei and lightforged can be shadow priests
undead can be holy and disc priests

sadsly they cant limit specs, so they just have to go "would one of these specs make sense" then bend the lore to let the other classes be it, or just right out ignore the possability
like with the allied races

Difference is though, undead can actually channel the Light, even be physically healed by it, it hurts but it doesn't kill. I doubt it's the same with lightforged being targetted by shadow mending or void elves getting healed by holy light.

[Golden Yak]

Lorewise, I personally would just go with no. No, lorewise, Lightforged draenei cannot touch, channel, use, manipulate, or otherwise employ the Void safely, the way another shadowpriest might.

However, given that we've seen powerful Light-based entities like naaru fall into a Void state, it could be possible for Lightforged beings to fall to a Void-state against their will, going mad and coming under the influence of the Void. We've seen a number of examples in WoW lore that a powerful source of Light can attract the Void, which then attempts to convert the Light energy into more Void (this ties in with the origins of the Void in the first place as emerging from the Light). Likewise, under the right circumstances a Void-engulfed entity can emerge from the darkness and return to a Light state, as has happened with a couple naaru.

So Lightforged entities may fall under the same way. They either transform all Void energy that contacts them into more Light, or become overwhelmed and fall completely into shadow, all of their Light energy converted into Void.

'Voidforged' or 'Voidsworm' versions of Lightforged entities have some coolness potential too.

[Florena]

My first instinct is to say no for LF shadow/disc priests as well as void elf holy/disc priests.

While a normal mortal can be a disc priest and wield both, I feel like with Alleria and Turalyon being unable to touch one another that these two races wouldn't be able to interact with both. (Really the new spin on Disc just gives me a headache in general, blizz couldn't come up with something else beyond half holy half shadow?)

That's the issue with the priest class. Sure, some other classes have some significant differences between specs. A pirate and an assassin are not the same thing for example, yet both fit under 'Rogue.' But I can't think of any other class example where two different specs are drawing from cosmic opposite power sources like this.

If 'holy priest' and 'shadow priest' had been made as different classes I doubt many of the races that get priest now would have both. For example no forsaken holy priests, no dreanei or night elf shadow priests. But for gameplay purposes, the approach seems to be to give a race the class if EITHER side makes sense, and if the other doesn't oh well. This is why undead and void elves can have holy priest but not paladin. Why draenei and nelves can have shadow priest but not warlock. Except this is taken to a more extreme case because holy void elves and void lightforged can be argued to be a physical impossibility and oxymoron. Where as there's no physical reason draenei and nelves can't be warlocks, only matters of culture and racial identity prevent these class/race combos.

Darkened Naaru do nothing to sway me because they becomenvoid beings when they fall. They don't remain light and just start using void on top of light. A lf falling to the void in a similar way, well, wouldn't be lightforged anymore.

[Kyphael]

The simple answer is Lightforged Draenei and Void Elves were incredibly unimaginative and dumb allied race ideas. Draenei by definition were already well attuned with the Light, it's what set them apart from Eredar. The void elf spectacle I don't even need to bring up, its ridiculousness has been beaten to death. The undead inconsistency was acceptable because it was one race and two specs, and it was justified by their pain.

But holy void elf preists and shadow lightforged draenei is just a clusterfuck that Blizzard didn't care about lore-wise and was just looking for the cheapest, quickest way to give us two allied races without doing much work despite how redundant/stupid they were aesthetically, and lore-wise. There's no defending this, IMO.

[Deleted]

The simple answer is Lightforged Draenei and Void Elves were incredibly unimaginative and dumb allied race ideas. Draenei by definition were already well attuned with the Light, it's what set them apart from Eredar. The void elf spectacle I don't even need to bring up, its ridiculousness has been beaten to death. The undead inconsistency was acceptable because it was one race and two specs, and it was justified by their pain.

But holy void elf preists and shadow lightforged draenei is just a clusterfuck that Blizzard didn't care about lore-wise and was just looking for the cheapest, quickest way to give us two allied races without doing much work despite how redundant/stupid they were aesthetically, and lore-wise. There's no defending this, IMO.

That.
Not to forget that Void Elves are solely created to spite and troll Alliance Fans.

[Shalaator]

Of course, all the special snowflakes tend to make the outrageous class/race/spec combos to be "different" and "unique." The amount of void elf holy priests with fully flshed out TRP3 profiles vastly outnumbers void elf shadow priests on Moonguard with TRP3 profiles (likewise, in reverse, for lightforged shadow priests vs holy priests).

The best profiles for void elves that I've noticed are the monk void elves, claiming to use their monk training to retain their sanity.