I’ve already done a thread discussing the night elf models in general so this one’s goal is to go a bit more in depth for a very specific unit in particular.
THE DRYAD
So positive stuff out of the way first:
-The overall color looks pretty good no matter what team color you choose.
-The additional armor looks great.
-The Spear upgrade is bloody awesome.
-There are a lot of other neat little upgrades and details that just work.
-the movement and attack animation work just fine.
And now for the negative stuff
-The head, doesn’t reassemble the original, it resembles Lunara from heroes of the storm and not in a good way.
-Her hair looks like it took some ques from Frankenstein’s bride and then added a shrubbery.
-Those ears aren’t just long they are a parody of all ear-kind!- Both the original head used in warcraft 3 and the one used in world of warcraft are frankly better.
-For a creature of nature the gold metal hoops are out of place.
-And the weird dots behind the eyes look like something out of an old glam band.
(Side gripe) They removed “that” one voice line.
Overall it seems like they’ve based the new dryad on some of the old concept art.
And I have to wonder, given that they did not go with that one in the first place, perhaps there was a reason they didn’t go with that in the original?
I don’t know that I would say she resembles Lunara, but I agree that the head is off-putting. For me it looks like the dryad put on some make-up before entering the battlefield, looks completely wrong.
Not sure what you mean by that, though I’m too lazy to go look into War3:O right now to see what the spear might have looked like. The spear should still be a wooden spear imo, like Lunara’s, not like the dryad raided the NE’s steel spear supply.
i think i REALLY like the approach of making the dryad look like Lunara from HotS. i always hoped they would do it personally. and i think the dryad is one of the best drastic changes in models of reforged. + keeping her female sexyness (which some female untis lost)
the hooves which i didnt give any attention should be really changed if this is true,
otherwise i love the hair, the ears, body, spear, movement, death animation.
Respectfully, I disagree.
If this was an example of one of the “best” drastic changes, I would be absolutely horrified by the rest.
And as for “female sexyness”, right… look I’m not one to judge another persons “thing” but that hairdo is not even remotely attractive.
Especially compared to the original and the wow version.
Agreed, the dryad is one where they, relatively speaking, kinda dropped the ball, especially if we consider how awesome the Druid of the Claw is, for example.
hey ofc you can respectful disagree, thats the forum and opinions are here for.
i personally - again - like the change and if you look at Lunara in HotS she has these hair too. and i like them, making them more alife and magical and still feminine.
i googled the dryads you refering to (wow ones cause i know the wc3 one). and personally i think that you can’t tell much about the appearance of her face etc cause old WC3 is so pixeled and clunky/cartoony.
the wow one tho… well i do like the hair but it looks less fierce and again - they always wanted to give Lunara a place in hole wc world - a better connection.
the hair on the wow one look feminine but these could be the hair of a mermaid, or sea-witch in my opinion or maybe for a char who moves less and less fast.
in my opinion its a great option even the wow one doesn’t look bad. but i don’t see many other options
Once more, with respect.
I disagree and with several key points.
Lunara’s hair is better than the warcraft 3: reforged dryads.
In this looks like a shrub mixed with tentacles.
Red tentacles if you go with player one colors.
Alive certainly but not even remotely natural.
You could tell a fair bit about their appearance and after looking at it I never had to ask why a creature of nature has gold hooped earrings and that much makeup…
The original dryad was about as fierce as rum pudding.
I dare you to listen to that voice and tell me it sounds “fierce”.
For further examples of better options I recommend that you google Mylune, Drella, Ilyana, jasani, nightmare corrupted dryads, crystal dryads and nymphs.
Although I like Lunara, the regular dryad should still look different/inferior to her, since she’s, after all, the First Daughter of Cenarius. (I’d certainly be fine with a Tavern Dryad Hero modeled after Lunara having her HotS skills. Just saying.)
That and a steel spearhead…
I’m not sure that this should be an objective of unit design for an RTS. (And I’ll do myself a service and not even start on deconstructing the statement.)
In any case, she’d be “sexy” enough without ridiculously out-of-place makeup.
lol I don’t know why, but that specific enumeration also kinda troubles me haha.
I think before the NE beta release there was a group preview image showing the dryad with a different hair style than the one we got now. It looked more Greek tied up above her neck.
Aren’t the earrings part of the human call gag? (before they removed it) Isn’t she playing the nymph angle?
I wouldn’t mind if they had a random chance to spawn with different hair styles. The current one looks ok front and back view. Side view just needs to be closer to her back.
