Compared to the Taunka or the Yaungol, I always felt that the Highmountain magi-mutants were the laziest design that Blizzard has mustered yet for a Tauren offshoot. I was never happy with the knowledge that limiting their artists’ workload to building some antlers and painting on additional body hair was the only way they’d be motivated to build another cow-like humanoid species that came with an actual female model included. Despite that, I thought I’d throw out some requests for customization optiions that could make the HMT more diverse and unique. Here’s what I got so far;
Coat Colors:
First off, let’s have Blizzard finally grant access to the White and Silver/Gray options that the NPCs around Thunder Totem have … as well as the DK NPC skin options shown during the latest expansion intro/DK AR Starting “Zone” that they copied over from the original Tauren. As for new stuff, there are plenty of color arrangements that they could still implement by mimicking real moose patterns. Heck, some moose even have piebald patterns (white splotches on their body) that aren’t too different from the cow-like markings of their un-moose-ified cousins … but still different enough.
Body Paint:
I don’t know if too many people will agree with me one this but, ever since the OG Tauren got their new Warpaint options, the HM’s tribal colors look so over saturated that they feel less like they were handmade and more like they were bought from a hardware store’s half-off sale. Toning them down is more of an alteration than a new option, but I’m not sure how easy it would be for the devs to add new colors when the present three tie so strictly into their culture/lore.
Even MORE Moose-ification:
Even though I know that these particular ideas would probably never get approved, I wanted to throw out the idea of some of these HM Tauren giving more of themselves over to the power of Eche’ro’s likeness. I’m suggesting new options like a more slender body-form, a stubbier tail, more bulbous noses, maybe even that bell/dewlap thing that hangs from a moose’s neck. Since we have no clue whether or not the cow wild-spirit/loa of the original Tauren is still around or could ever come back, why not have a few members of this group that decide to go full-on “moosefolk” to better honor their more recent heritage?
I think that’s enough to start off a conversation or, at the very least, vent some of my weird thoughts. Have at it! Any takers?
Pretty sure the HM Tauren customisations isn’t in 9.1.5, sounds like a 9.2 or 9.2.5 thing from the wording of blizzards post
Hey, with some of the stuff I just suggested, the further out the update is means a better the chance of somebody in the art department seeing my crazy ideas. I don’t really have a problem with that … if it gets somewhere.
They could shrink taurens no offense but there annoying to play with as well as giant elemental dumb hunter pets so big. I can’t play melee with tauren and won’t make one for that reason as well as I play mm and my ele is junk as enh so. Nice new tails would do wonders. A choice of making toons the size you want as well as pets etc. Would be awesome. When I see a big tauren taking my screen up boo alli forever.
Briselody
Those should absolutely be added as optional skins for Tauren.
While I appreciate the encouragement, I must respectfully disagree on the matter of reducing the Taunka or Yaungol to nothing more than mere skins. I believe that the whole Allied Races concept has been woefully underutilized in what it can provide for players. If rebranded as “Allied Sub-races”, this feature could function as a way for certain core species to gain access to classes that were previously thought unattainable.
Taunka come from a land where they are far from being the biggest humanoids around, and many of the larger creatures hunt them for food. This could grant them the capacity to be Rogues, if Blizzard decided to grant them a role in the Horde that is more active than NPC flight-masters or stable keepers.
The Yaungol, in their struggle to claim safe areas to call home, have dabbled effectively in magic here and there. Ergo, a more civil group of their kind could be welcomed into the Horde with the capacity to be Mages.
Add real mooseface at a minimum. The harelip on vanilla Tauren, which was copied to HMT, came outta nowhere when they up-res’d the models in WoD. OG vanilla mouth was like :] not :3
Since both HMT and vanilla Tauren only have 4 faces for females and 5 for males, there is plenty of room to add moosey faces and non-weeb-mouth faces.
Different mane styles. That severe, straight line part needs some rakish alternatives: messy 80s rocker mane, mohican (y’know, fitting that whole borrowed Native American theme), half-mane falling on one side of the neck, braided mane, tufted mane, flair in the mane.
Separate mane color so I can have a dun color scheme (black mane, buckskin tan body).
More than just braids for hairstyles. In addition to looks based on historical Native American styles (like pompadour bangs), feel free to let HMT have modern, non-traditional hairstyles like Trolls.
Not just braids! Even some dreadlocks:
Totally agree with you there! I didn’t notice that, initially.
OMG, you’re reading my mind. I’ve wanted that for ages!
Absolutely, yes!!!
WE ARE KINDRED SPIRITS! Also, it wouldn’t hurt if the animators made the regular/HM tauren tails amp up the wag during battles with more of that whip-like motion you see some bulls do when they’re mad. Who’s with me!?
Indeed! Considering how prominent their feet are, AND the fact that very few footwear pieces show up on the regular/HM tauren hooves, I feel that idea has been an overdue MUST for some time.
I’m SO GLAD this thread caught your attention. Thanks for the help!
This is one of my favorite concepts of a tauren warlock. Since the highmountain had members that turned into the feltotem I would like feltotem stuff. And the bloodtotem clan maybe have inspired looks after this tauren warlock fan art. I would like some scary and intimidating looks. I would have liked this as a grimtotem customization for taurens, but maybe they can work some of these aspects and warpaints into the highmountain as well. I would love grimtotem stuff as well.
I would prefer they merge highmountain and base taurens though, but regardless hope to see more dark and tribal art for theme. The intimidating minotaur aspect should reflect these tough warriors.
Please take a quick look at my earlier post about “Allied Sub-races”, or what I’m about to say won’t make as much sense.
I never got the impression that the classes that Blizzard lazily chose for the HM Tauren made too much sense;
Druids: Unless everyone missed a whole campaign branch about their Night Elf neigbors bullying these guys out of practicing druidism until the Horde showed up, it seems pretty weird that nobody encountered ONE HM Tauren NPC in all of Highmountain that was a frickin’ druid. The only distraction that’s time-consuming enough to explain why else they’d never master this class on their own, prior to the player-character’s arrival, sadly leads into my next point.
Paladins & Priests: How the heck can a sub-race of Tauren that mention An’she The Sun God far more often than the regular guys NOT have a long-standing tradition of training Sun Walkers and Seers!? Something tells me the answer has to do with Blizzard’s even longer-standing tradition of all Tauren groups being introduced in the likeness of helpless damsels that need to be saved by the players and their supporting NPCs.
However, these people did just recently have an uncomfortably close encounter with the Fel which claimed one of their tribes in it’s thrall. Wouldn’t it be nice if Blizzard’s decided that there was some in-game closure which could maybe utilize that particular tragedy and turn it into a new strength?
I’m of the belief that Blizzard’s recent choice to eliminate the “hero class” status and bring DKs and DHs down to normal staring levels should mean that every class gets unique customization options from here on out.
If Blizzard chose to actually put the time in and do so, and also granted the WARLOCK class option to the HM Tauren based off their experience and the welcoming back of some of their Feltotem brothers, then I could see some of those features becoming available under said circumstances.
Highmountain had a druid rare. The blessing of Malorne is also of druidic origin, since highmountain got blessed they looked like regular tauren before highmountain got blessed, we are descendents of highmountain.
I agree they should have gotten priests and paladins, I wanted a highmountain priest or warlock. They have a highmountain warlock rare, it was a shame blizz decided to be conservative with race/class comboes for highmountain and lightforged. I appreciated having nightborne warlocks at least. It was the perfect chance to introduce a tauren race to warlocks. Our next hope is Taunka, Yaungol or grimtotem stuff as destruction/affliction warlocks.
I personally don’t think the Grimtotem are a proper candidate for for AR in the same way I don’t think Wildhammer Dwarves should be considered. They aren’t a different species compared to the original, they just adopted a different culture. There haven’t been any dramatic changes in their anatomy or experiences to properly warrant different racial abilities, body proportions, or even outstanding Heritage Armor that wouldn’t be better used as rewards from a dungeon/raid.
If the Grimtotem were going to be added to the player selection later on, I’d prefer it if they gave new development to the tribe’s story that either altered them into something genetically different from the rest of Thunder Bluff tribes OR just welcomed the tribe back and added the Grimtotem warpaint options to the customization lineup through a special quest unlock.
