Vulpera break the trend

[Nomads]

For Worgen? As Pebrocks said - Saberon? But what's the lore reasons?

If we are getting cat people, I think it would be linked to the Ramkahen and the Uldum Accord. Either bipedal cats we haven't seen before, or Saberon joining the Accord in some weird lore stretch.

[Kathranis]

Yeah I can see the Mogu. But as others said - you have Pandaren on both sides. After what the Mogu did to them I doubt they'd be happy about working alongside them.

Rajani mogu have nothing to do with them. They're a new group of mogu created by Ra that are protecting the Vale of Eternal Blossoms from N'Zoth's forces.

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Indeed. But for the "recent" timeline and lore. Nightborne are literally Night Elves. Once also ruled by Queen Azshara.

So are the high elves and naga, then. We're talking about the exact same gap of time.

[huth]

they're NOT night elves. they're shaldorei, a new breed of elf, separate from night elf, just like blood elf is separate from night elf.

They're not. They're mutated Night Elves, but still Night Elves. Many of them were alive when Suramar was closed off. They're not a new breed any more than Void Elves are.

I think Vulpera use the Goblin skeleton.

They're completely unrelated as a race, though, and so far, are the only ones to be such.

How about Rajani mogu? Maybe flesh-cursed. Mogu are based on foo dogs after all...

Mogu are based on the Draenei skeleton, though.

[Lucetia]

I just don’t want it to come in small amounts. Give us 50+ allies races. The world would be so interesting

I'd like more allied races too and hopefully make the population look more lively rather than all the same. The problem comes into racials and people flocking to the superior one, etc.

[huth]

So are the high elves and naga, then. We're talking about the exact same gap of time.

Not if you're talking generations. The Nightborne are not just the same race. They're the same individuals as the Night Elf inhabitants of Suramar that were subjects of Azshara.

[Nomads]

They’ll certainly add more races.

I just don’t want it to come in small amounts. Give us 50+ allies races. The world would be so interesting

I think the main thing holding racial diversity back is that, most people don't want to abandon their "main" who has all the reputations unlocked. People don't seem to like having their reps farmed on several different characters. I think if Blizz would make reputations account-wide and just put a weekly cap on the amount you can grind, people would main a lot of different races.

[Bodakane]

that's not what he means, as you can see below here.



they're NOT night elves. they're shaldorei, a new breed of elf, separate from night elf, just like blood elf is separate from night elf.

The poster is talking about skins.

You are confused.

[Lucetia]

Why is why they should have been added as small questlines and then unlockable customization options.

At least in regards to the pathetically lazy and un-needed ones like Lightforged Draenei and HM Tauren.

Which is why I wouldn't mind it if every single character now and in the future got 1 free race change. Once you use it then you can purchase more if you want. That would help alleviate some of the things. Also, if you use the free race change you are still eligible for the heritage armor (which I think should be available earlier, but that's a different story)

[Destinas]

To me this isn't a big deal. They previously said they considered "anything with two legs" for Allied Races, meaning that they would have considered plenty of things that aren't related to current playable races anyway - mostly animal races.

Discounting lore, of course, Vulpera use the Goblin animations, making them a (fairly) standard Allied Race in that regard - Kul Tirans and Zandalari males broke that trend already. They could easily do the same thing for something like Saberon later on, updating how the Saberon look, while using the new Worgen animations.

Or, they could make more Allied Races that have completely new animations. The other major things that differentiate an Allied Race from a "Main Race" are:
a.) A reputation/achievement/questline required to unlock them.
b.) One racial mount (as opposed to 5-6).
c.) No racial small pet from pet trainers (every base race has one, every AR does not).
d.) Heritage Armor released with them (though, new "base races" could come with this too in the future).


In the end, I feel like this first pass of Allied Races was mostly just copying different animations of other races, with a couple outliers. They stated that they would add more Allied Races after BfA, just not as many. It's entirely possible they could move on to other races for a while, reusing some animations, and passing over each race again (like Broken that could use Tauren animations and/or Draenei animations, Taunka, Forest Trolls/Revantusk, Wildhammers, etc). Or, they could make any number of other races that people have wanted, related or not (Ogres, Arakkoa, Vrykul, Ethereals, and Naga are all races that people have asked to play for a long time).

[Aldo Hawk]

So far all of the Allied Races have been "subspecies" of the current races in WoW. Most of these have been minor reskins of existing races, which is fine since Allied Races were advertised more as unlockable cosmetics to add some NG+ value.

However, Vulpera seem to change that. They are an entirely new race added to the game, and the only thing they have in common with their counterpart race is that they are a small race. But Vulpera are in no way a subspecies or different tribe of goblin.

As the only completely new, unique race of BfA, this puts an imbalance between the Horde and Alliance. So, I'm thinking this implies that the last two AR reveals will include a completely new race for the Alliance side. This leads me to believe that Lightforged UD will be for the Horde (not Alliance as many were predicting), and the Worgen's counterpart race will be something completely new. Sethrak might be on the table but make little sense to me as Alliance has very limited interaction with them. Ankoan/Jinyu would probably make the most sense... but then again Gilgoblins didn't make the Horde cut.

At any rate, it seems the last AR for Alliance is still the biggest mystery of BfA.

People still say they are the 'Goblin subrace' because it use some Goblin rig.

I can't understand that kind of shortsighted view but it exist.

[Fahrenheit]

Last/next Horde AR gonna be fresh/light/or some shit Undead.

Last/next Alliance AR gonna be Sethrak or Dragonman or something using a modified Worgen rig.

[Amnaught]

nightborne are also a completely new breed of elf, and saying they aren't different is like saying a blood elf is just a night elf.

so we've gotten at least two new races through allied races.

Elves are a species. Subraces include blood, night, felblood, sanlayn, nightborne, high, and void. Zandalari trolls and darkspear trolls are more different from one another than night elves and nightborne.

[Kyphael]

Yep, they do, which means Alliance better get something cool that's not a sub-race next patch.

[diarx]

Saberon? But what's the lore reasons?

Anduin was out looking spiffy in his shiny lion armour one day and the saberon were all like.. hey, this guy likes cats, might be lions, but that's still one of us! They had a chat, found out they had tons in common, then went to a local establishment to get smashed on craft ales together. A new friendship was formed.

Anduin discovers the saberon are upset with the night elve slavery of their species, and he says.. hey guys, you better stop riding around on those cats and using them as pets or I'm booting you out of the alliance!.. the night elves agree and all alliance cat mounts, cat pets and cat meat/hide recipes are removed from the game.

Yeah that pretty much passes for lore as much as pandas.

[therealbowser]

What gives you the idea they'll be adding anymore ARs this expansion?

It's close to the end of the expansion and they've been slow releasing them. They are just assuming that's it.

IMHO, it's a good reason for them to add another. It's great content to tide people over during post-expansion boredom.

[Ersula]

So far all of the Allied Races have been "subspecies" of the current races in WoW.

Vupera use Goblin Rigging & Animations but they were mentioned as being a subspecies of Kobold. (Not sure how that works because did you know Human beings are more closely related to rats than rats are to dogs or foxes?) As for there being a imbalance of unique races for the Alliance, I think you're forgetting Kul Tirans share a few animations with Zandalari & are diagetically related to humans, are otherwise completely new.

The actual trend broken in 8.3 is that of gear always being expressed on your model, per Mechagnomes being the main arguement against Naga. Naga are a good potential new allied race. They might not have animations based on an already playable race, but they do have a full expression of animations already in game. And all new races after this point will likely be allied races because it lets blizzard skip making a 1-20 leveling zone for them.

Now, since the pre-order for BFA including 8 new races (4 available immediately) we have many strong candidates already. I originally assumed Vulpera & Mechagnomes would be part of them, but Blizzard surprised me there.

Forsaken Night Elves: People have been asking for Forsaken Blood Elves for years & like with void elves, it seems they want to give us ^something similar^ to what we want.
Gilgoblin & Ankoan: They even have their own factions ready to grind.
Mogu: Apparently the two new Factions to grind in 8.3 is Wrathion's, and a group of Helpful Mogu
Eredar: Yeah, they sided with the Burning Legion, but now they're homeless.
Tuskaar: The old Pandarian Brewmaster battlepet used their bodies as a base, so their new models can use Pandarian rigging as a base. And the Allied Race model uses an extremely recent faction to grind, but that's not necessarily mandidtory
Dragonkin: A lot of people want a Dragon race, but I think it would work better as a Hero Class, that way players can pick their own humanoid persona as their race & turning into a dragon can be a large cooldown, much like Alexstraza in HOTS

[Kathranis]

Mogu are based on the Draenei skeleton, though.

Yeah, but when they make the new playable models they could use the worgen rigs instead.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

they were mentioned as being a subspecies of Kobold.

Source on that?

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Yeah, but when they make the new playable models they could use the worgen rigs instead.

Why would they?

[Zantos]

It's close to the end of the expansion and they've been slow releasing them. They are just assuming that's it.

IMHO, it's a good reason for them to add another. It's great content to tide people over during post-expansion boredom.

Problem is, you're right. They have been slow releasing them. The statements they gave us and how they have been handling this so far just does not make sense. I wouldn't be surprised to not have any allied races after this for BFA considering how long we waited for Kul'Tiran and Zandalari.

Well, what story made since to even remotely include mag'har orcs? None, because there wasn't any story there. The perfect story was there for gilblin, but we don't get those.

Vulpera aren't really breaking the mold imo. There are no links on the Horde side for Nightborne. With them being Night Elves who turned into the Nightborne after they were closed off in that shell, they are more of a Night Elve sub race then anything.

So, maybe the Vulpera are unique in the sense that they are not really a sub-race to anything at all, but they don't even make sense story wise right now. If anything, they are at least showing us that any race can be used.

[Kathranis]

Why would they?

To create a worgen Allied Race counterpart, and to add mogu without reusing the draenei skeleton a second time.

Like I said, just something they could do, however unlikely.

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There are no links on the Horde side for Nightborne.

The blood elves. Did you not unlock them? They're constantly hanging out with the blood elves in BFA.