Lorewise Are the Draenei underpowered

[BreakerofAzeroth]

Penny for your thoughts?
It seems in the game that the run of the mill Draenei are the same level as the rest of the races in azeroth orc, human, etc. and yet there demon counter eredar are the strongest race in the legion. that mean they are at least as strong pit lords and dreadlords which are far stronger than normal footmen, grunts, and hunters etc. and are more on the level of people which would normaly be on par with hero class to even faction leader characters. excluding the kil'jeaden who is vasty far above that.
if the Draenei were the heroic equivilent to the eredar, shouldn't it take heavy hitters like fully-trained mages, paladins and blademasters to down just the regular ones and they would need to have been 10 to 1 at least outnumber to loose the war against the horde in blackhands and llane time perioid

[Deleted]

Nope because they're not empowered by Demons

[Wyrt]

they would need to have been 10 to 1 at least outnumber to loose the war against the horde in blackhands and llane time perioid

The draenei were vastly outnumbered by the orcs, so I'm not entirely sure what point you're trying to make.

[Jokubas]

It's not that the draenei are underpowered, it's that the eredar have received a massive boost from being corrupted into the Legion. Most eredar are powerful because they have powerful fel magic, not because they're just innately stronger.

[Nadiru]

Not every Eredar is hyper-mega-strong, the ones we see are because the ones we see are the biggest and the baddest Eredar out there. Now, are the Draenei as powerful as the Eredar? Probably not on an offensive basis, Demonic empowerment does hella things to your ability to destroy people (see: Chaos damage in WC3) but I'd guess that on a defensive basis, the Draenic equivalents of the big bads we see from the Eredar can go toe-to-toe. I mean, damn, Velen can literally see the future.

[Trassk]

Eredar are powerful because they have been given demonic powers, the gift of power at the cost of there soul.

Draenei are like night elves in they live a bloody long time, so can accumulate a lot of knowledge and training, but it doesn't make them gods in anything.

[Caerule]

It's also not true that Draenei operate on the same level as orcs. Draenei live long lives and become very skilled. But they are not a warrior race. They have lived mostly peaceful lives, and have survived the Burning Legion chasing them, not by waging war, but by fleeing, time and again. They have powerful fighters and wielders of magic among them for sure, but they are not a warrior-race. There's engineers, farmers, innkeepers, auctioneers.

The orcs were a savage race. You're a warrior-hunter or you are a shaman. And either way, it is a dishonour to be unable to contribute enough strength to your clan to fight and hunt for both yourself and others. So orcs are a race of nearly all capable warriors, where the Draenei were not. The Draenei had superior magic and technology, which could have made them superior, even when the orcs clans united. However, add the element of surprise and fel magic and corruption to the Orc side, and the Draenei become clearly outmatched.

Of course in Warlords of Draenor, it's not fel magic, for the most part, that brings the Orc threat up to dangerous levels, but technology of enough destructive power to outmatch Draenei defences.

[Karnak]

The uncorrupted Eredar were powerful enough to be singled out for subverting (I know it is a ret con, but it is now the official version of WarCraft lore) so they either had hidden, latent potential or they are powered down for, entirely valid, gameplay reasons.

[Wyrt]

The uncorrupted Eredar were powerful enough to be singled out for subverting (I know it is a ret con, but it is now the official version of WarCraft lore) so they either had hidden, latent potential or they are powered down for, entirely valid, gameplay reasons.

It was because they were powerful magic users. They are the most powerful Light wielders outside of the naaru. We have no clue about the arcane because we just haven't seen draenei mages ever. They're meant to be more focused on magic than any of the physical things. Their primary military forces are paladins who heavily rely on magic.

Basically, draenei are the top Light wielders. They're good mages, but probably not as good as blood elves or other races that have been more focused on the arcane. Their strengths lie in magic, not physical strength or numbers. Numbers are the primary reason they've gotten their asses kicked so often.

[Matt0193]

It was because they were powerful magic users.

But they must've been the most powerful candidates at the time, or else the retcon would've been that he went to them after he had already begun assimilating races into the Legion. As it is, they were his go-to choice because they were the most powerful, presumably non-titan related, race he had available to him. From a quick search, I can't find anything for the Night Elves beyond the First Legion Invasion (The Sundering) though I'm sure there have been some other things mentioned. I know the timeline prior to the Sundering is lacking.

That said, I doubt the Highborne were around 25000 years ago when Sargers first approached the Eredar so I don't think they could be compared in power. What we can at least extract from the fact that the Eredar were approached by Sargeras was that 25000 Years ago, the Eredar were the most powerful magic-wielding autonomous race. That would indicate that their race is innately proficient at Spellcasting, which would imply they are almost unparalleled spellcasters in the Universe. I guess that's why we typically see Eredar as Warlocks and Mages rather than Melee combatants. Exceptions being Wrathguards who act as Guards and Footsoldiers, displaying basic spellcasting abilities but nothing like a True Eredar.

I would say it's quite likely that an Eredar in their prime would be equal, if not outright superior, to a Highborne in their prime. That said, we've only ever seen Priests, Paladins, Shamans, Warriors and Hunters from the Draenei, at least in the books, in-game and through cinematics (WoD teaser from BC), so perhaps their power was greatly amplified by their surroundings, much like the Highborne's magic was near the Well. There just hasn't been enough explanation about it, perhaps someone could tweet Kosak and ask him how powerful were the Eredar post-recon and pre-corruption, so you could get a defined answer.

[Aquamonkey]

A lot of the power the Eredar originally had came from the Ata'mal crystal given to them by the Naaru many thousands of years before Sargeras came to them. Velen took it when the Draenei fled Argus, but it has since been split apart and some of the pieces lost.

[Wyrt]

That said, we've only ever seen Priests, Paladins, Shamans, Warriors and Hunters from the Draenei

I think it was Loreology that twitted that the draenei did have powerful mages, we just haven't seen them. Also, what warriors are you referring to? I can't recall any other than the ones in the TCG, when there's a melee draenei it is almost always a paladin.