The Night Elves, and Their Current Art-style

General Discussion
1

Okay, so I think that the Night Elves will be about my only complaint in art-style…sorry everybody.

See, for the most part, everything Reforged has done has enhance or update the models of before. They have remained incredibly loyal to the original looks, while bringing a new breath of life to them. Heck, there are details I didn’t even realized existed in the old models, until I saw the same details better outlined in Reforged!

But…I’m not sure how I feel about these Night Elves, specifically the females. In the original, they actually had more armour, whereas now, they all look like priestesses who randomly decided to pick up a helmet, massive oversized shields, and gigantic weapons- Wardens (Both Hero and Unit), Sentry, and somewhat the Runner, excluded. Primarily when I look at the Huntress, I wonder where her…well, where her everything else is. Her nightsaber is more armoured than she is! I understand how the Priestess of the Moon may look like this, even if I still have doubts as to the idea, but all the others aren’t even that!

It’s just really strange to see these dedicated-warriors armed in nothing more than a dress, who are also somehow wielding these thick shields which appear to be made fully of metal with their small lil’ noodle arms. And, in the original, this issue was fixed by having the shield be far thinner (a limitation at the time which actually assisted the model), and by giving them some actual friggin’ armour. I LIKE the Night Elf Armour! I like the deep-violet shades of the night seeming to be captured by what they wear (again, Wardens excluded), I like how their plates give them that little bosst which makes them just look cooler, and make more sense.

So, I say that their old armour should be updated to Reforged, and then applied to the female Night Elves, they’ll only look better because of it. Resize their weapons and shields, as well! They are far to massive an object for them to be using one-handedly, even two-handedly.

P.S- Please for the love of goodness, recolour the hippogryff back to the original scheme XD. It looks pretty right now, but it doesn’t look right.

Edit: I forgot to add the Archer to the exclusion list.

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I totally agree with the Hippogryph! It looks pretty and it’s very clear they took inspiration of exotic birds to give the NE a more exotic/jungle feeling, but I don’t think it fits the theme/vibe that well.

About the armors and NE in general:

  1. warden does have armor. Pretty much i would say
  2. DH Never had real armor
  3. according to art of WoW NE archers etc have intentionally less armor till no armor
  4. in my eyes many old models already had just few armor/were less to no covered it’s just the pixelated artstyle
  5. they reduced the boobsize of all female models cause with the old design heads and boobs looked huge - shell they fix this too then?
  6. I don’t think that especially archers which are a low tier and range unit should be well armoured at all
  7. NE are more related to nature and are more tribe like even they are elegant in many ways. Do you see tribe like, nature related ppl who are well armoured like idk Native Americans, Inca, Aztec, African tribes etc.

Just my two cents about this topic.

  • I think orc and human wise they sometimes stuck too much to the original regarding Tauren, Knights etc (but that point is really totally my own opinion and nothing more objective like the stuff above with the NE)
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most of them like archers have more armor so what the hell are you talking about

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4

Hippogryph is the oddest design choice.

And its even worse when you realize they even changed the Hippogryph upgrade icon to the parrot beak instead of the archer feeding a Raven-type hippogryph.

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5

Incas had bronze scale armour (one of the few NatAm peoples that actually used metallurgy), and thick cotton full body armour.

Aztecs used full body cotton suits in the shape of sacred animals, reinforced with silex, jade, petrified bark, and even aligator skin, that was actually extremely effective vs the dreaded obsidian blades that they fough with and against.

Many African tribes and kingdoms had full body metallic armour and large metal-plated shields. They even developed weapons specifically made to combat heavy metallic armour, such as the Shield-breaker Sword, and several helm-splitting axes and polearms.

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6

I’m actually ok with the huntress having almost no armor. She has the armor type Unarmored after all. In the early days of Warcraft 3 huntresses had the armor type Heavy which caused massive balance issues. It eventually got changed to Unarmored, but the model never got any updates to reflect this. Now it fits.

On the other hand the old archer basically had no armor at all despite having the armor type Medium. With the new model she actually wears more armor which too, is consistent.

I agree with the hippogryph coloring though. It looks like a clown bird now. The original colors were great and matched the rest of the night elf style pretty well.

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Actually Night Elves gain much more armor than they had in original game!
Night Elf archer in classic Warcraft 3:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/wowwiki/images/4/47/Warcraft_III_TFT_Sentinals_Night_Elf_Campaign.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20060514033601

Night Elf archer in reforged:
https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/889843.jpg

btw, regarding naked armor comparing to the real world:
Where do Elves live really? In Japan maybe? No, this is fantasy world! A magic ring can give you more armor than a shield! You can destroy an iron tank with an arrow!

And anyway how much armor do orcs melee fighters has? Or Taurens? Or Trolls? Does the fact that they are naked makes them weak?
Why only when people talk about Nigh Elves they complain, saying that its not real?

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Personally i don’t have anything with the NE arts, for me looks great but archers stand and moves…disappoint me. They look somehow similar to the “Wretched” from WoW:Legion just the archers doens’t scratching themself :joy:

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https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/wowpedia/3/30/Naisha_TCG.jpg

This is from the TCG.
I think Blizzard had this style in mind for a real long time.
:man_shrugging:

10

They cry because night elves are female and we all know how feminist double standards work

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Yes. They would be Arrow/Javelin/Shotte fodder, and die before reacing the frontline, while being skirmished to death.

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The NE archer is fixed now. And others archers will certainly get this pose.

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If you think night elves in the original game had more armor than in reforged, then you are clearly smoking something strong bro

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14

I always imagined the Night Elf and High Elf skins were translucent, smooth and colorful

Now they just have recolored human skins

15

can you say the same about orcs, trolls or demons?

16

I agree with this statement 100%

The things look like macaws.

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17

Yes, since they are made of flesh, and susceptible to weapon attacks.
You could probably get away with Demons, and say they are made of energy infused matter, and therefore have some degree of intangibility, But Warcraft Orcs and Trolls would have been extinct by now, if the setting was more accurate, specially since the Humans and Dwarves have effectively entered an Industrial Revolution, and are using Rifles (not even Arquebuses or Muskets, but directly Rifles).

Pike and Shotte would become the bread and butter of Alliance armies, and naked people fare very poorly against that, even worse than against arrows.

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18

magic rings, though.

19

One of the most underwhelming item types in the game, though.

20

Why are we discussing armour realism in the High Fantasy of Warcraft of all places lmao

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