- Not a fan of Valeera.
Her recognition is Heathstone, and why she was the rogue of choice there boils down to tokenisim for ‘variety’ . She brings “variety” where other rogues (like Shaw or Garona) are ‘filled’ by other characters.
Druid, pally, shaman, warlock all have out-standing characters that are known for their ‘class’ – Garrosh I would argue isn’t known as well for being a “warrior” in doing “warrior” things, but he has orange skin, and anduin isn’t a good choice for the duality of the shadow/light priest stuff that’s been thrust onto him due to Hearthstone.
For Heathstone, I’d probably have gone with Garona as rogue, despite being “another orc” because she’s a halfbreed which is a unique ‘representation’ as a hefty bit of strife in warcraft is cause by actual racism and in the fun of the books, canon, whatever, just about all the half-bred characters have been ‘done dirty’ and tossed to the wayside.
Trouble with a ‘rogue’ is those that stand out for being one, arguably don’t do a good job at it, or rather, the ‘best’ rogue, is one that wouldn’t ever stand out. Sans, that, Garona is about the best at being an assassin for assassinating things.
(Priest I’d then put as a forsaken priest as those ‘represent’ the duality of the light/shadow for the context of heathstone – which brings in ‘variety’ thrust onto another male human.)
after that, whatever ‘variety’ could be slotted for the warrior cuz every faction has those. Trolls and Taurens didn’t get their ‘variety’ and could fill for choices as well. So the ‘reason’ on her choice falls flat there.
- ‘Representation’.
The closest sort of unit to the ‘rogue’ cerca pre-WoW is akama. However, ‘lore’ has “fixed” the old draenai, so the not-being-a-faction wayback when has kicked unique possibilities in favor of cliche ones. So clearly we didn’t get that one for ‘first dranei’ nods.
- Hots is the ‘playable rogue’.
The playable warcraft rogue is the playcharacter of WoW. However, Valeera doesn’t tote around with player/rogue things, so the things going for her are lanky legs, long-blonde ponytail, and elf that doesn’t have to deal with the addiction stuff.
So all the stuff that could stand out for a unique character, has been tossed away for “variety” that really isn’t that. Well, i guess if going by faulty rationalizations, lies, and counter-production self-deception are noteworthy attributes of a rogue, then sure, Valeera fits fine there
- She’s too pigeonholed.
She’s a ‘representative’ of a lot of WoW stuff, but WoW rogue stuff doesn’t carry-over to other genres well and stuff that was tolerable in the context of WoW was due to things that weren’t brought over to HoTS. So in that regard, what she’s supposed to ‘be’ (as a representative of ‘variety’) doesn’t work by way of character choice, action, realization, and so on.
She’s not even really ‘herself’ she’s “Valeera” the token rogue and has to wear her gender more than anything else.
Doesn’t help that rogue-stuff doesn’t “make sense” but oh hey, here’s this WoW cinematic to show that rogues LEGIT! turn ‘invisible’ in plain sight. It’s not ninja bombs, distraction, and whatever else to explain being sneaky, NOPE they have forreeels disappear powers.
In a way, she’s Qhira before Qhira was Qhira and whatever stuff associated to Valeera was done for ‘reasons’ that could rationalize a lot of other options.