Is it time to remove race restrictions on Classes?

[wommy]

if i was able to play shaman and druid as blood elf i would definitely play them alot more

[froschhure]

I cannot get behind the idea of a Draenei Rogue because of the hooves. Hooves can't flex, so a Draenei can't possibly stealth without sound when walking in any way.

With Orb of Deception and one Bloodelf male rogue, you can try out for yourself. I love the stealth animation and weapon size <3

[Sharby]

I dunno; Blizzard seems horribly inconsistent with itself, so I can see what you mean about they themselves blurring the lines of some of these restrictions.

In all honesty, part of me almost feels like the best thing Blizzard could do is flat-out remove the non-Lore-friendly choices, and just offer free race-changes to those characters.

Still, I see what you mean. I feel like that shift (no restrictions vs. tight restrictions) represents a fundamental different between WoW and, say, FFXIV. I love both worlds, but FFXIV's races are fundamentally quite different. In WoW, one's race isn't just "how they look", but represents a lot about who they are, and what culture they hail from.

I agree, adding lore can help "sell" a lot of those kinds of options. I think there can be major problems there too, though.

Take Tauren Paladins. They aren't even Paladins in terms of lore, but "Sunwalkers", which are effectively Sun-worshipping Druids. That is so fundamentally different, is winds up doing a disservice to the Paladin class. And to those who play and enjoy Paladins, they are left feeling their class was "watered-down" for the sake of "more options".

Now, Zandalari Paladins, on the other hand, were brought in with a little more backstory. Even though their brand of "Light" is still quite different from other Paladins', there is enough analog that it feels far more organic. Furthermore, they still make the attempt to adhere to similar "themes" that define the Paladin, with their heavy emphasis on Gold, with bridges the gap between "traditional Paladin" and the Zandalari's Mayan influence.

I think there are probably instances Blizzard could add a *few* more options. For example, maybe a Draenei Demon Hunter isn't off the table, or a Tauren Warlock from the Grimtotem tribe. But there is a definite risk those options could also muddle what defines some of those races, as well.

I agree wholeheartedly that there would be consequences and some uniqueness would be lost.


But I feel like this is def a problem that is holding the game back new-player-wise and as a veteran player(since late-vanilla) who's explored other games its starting to seriously grate on me too, as unlike other MMO's there's so many barriers attached to cosmetics.

Let's say your friends get you into the game, you like the way a race looks? Its on a different faction so you can't pick it, you like a class? Too bad none of the races you enjoy can be said class. You want to be a mage that wears heavy armor(appearance only obv) too bad, robes and robes for you. Its frustrating because Blizzard's reasoning is always: The Story!; but then they allow you to be almost entirely naked or wield weapons 2x your character's size, etc.

Most of these aren't attached to the original topic but suffer from the same root, WoW has REFUSED to loosen or remove their traditional barriers, which is fine for players who have already established themselves in the game, but from an outside perspective it seems so overly restrictive.

I'm of the mind that there is nothing wrong with wanting to only play a single race, but there is something wrong with forcing you to play a certain race. Shadowlands isn't the appropriate xpac to put changes in, but my wish for 10.0 is that they seriously shake up the traditionalism holding WoW back(imo) and give us a completely fresh take on it. This doesn't mean WoW2 or anything but a soft reboot like Cata was.

[Merryck]

Absolutely; the player character is obviously exceptional and thus race-cultural restrictions should not apply. Even so, the races have been interacting with each other for so long now under the same roof that they must've shared their ideas and almost certainly some individuals would have adopted them. Take gnomes and dwarves, they have coexisted in ironforge for decades now. Some gnomes should have taken an interest to shamanism, no? Surely they are not all techno-monkeys, evident by the fact gnome monks exist.

At this point, I think most races of the alliance should be able to be paladins.

So either way, the restrictions should be heavily loosened or removed all together.

[Soon-TM]

I'd prefer not.
I like the notion that a race's history and culture affect what they do; it makes races feel more distinct to me.

That would be the ideal approach - in a vacuum. But after seeing stuff like gnome/goblin/vulpera prot warriors, female BE fury warriors, orc rogues (especially the males) or goblin shamans ("deals with the elements"? WTF Blizz), everything else should be fair game imo.

[Foxxi aka Fallingangel]

Absolutely, you should be able to play each race combined with each class