"All Races All Classes" potentially upsetting precedent

Community General Discussion
1

So, Blizz has been saying a little bit now that they intend on making all of our current playable races able to be all classes. Some examples include

  • Pandaren paladins, warlocks
  • Draenei warlocks
  • Mechagnome druids
  • Void elf paladins
  • Undead paladins, druids

Ultimately I am okay with this, despite some of the more head-turning race/class combinations, but at the end of the day, our playable characters are individuals and not necessarily complete products of the culture they come from.
However, I can also see how this detracts from the cultural flavor of each race. Many times we create a character, are are influenced by their background and one could argue that we attempt to create something reasonable given the environmental conditions given to us.

A good example of an odd race/class combination are Tauren paladins. The other eye of the Earthmother, just druids in plate (should be represented better though ingame IMO), sun worship and so on. They built it off of lore that already existed, and the conditions to allow them to be paladins made sense as well, and thus, despite being big goofy minotaur holy knights, it still doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.

My current issue with this philosophy however is I do not believe Blizzard will be able to create lore that will sufficiently satisfy players. Personally, even if our characters are individuals at the end of the day, I will never be able to accept or justify the existence of some seriously weird combinations, like Mechagnome druids, void elf paladins and so on.

Another problem here is that I do not believe we will get more playable races. If this philosophy is something Blizzard is taking seriously, which, based on the amount of combinations added recently, I believe they are, it sets an uncomfortable precedent for new races. It will be very… odd to apply this philosophy to new races. For example

  • Ogre paladins
  • Mogu druids
  • High elf death knights
  • Naga monks
  • Jinyu warlocks

Now some of the races I mentioned here are already odd, but I mentioned them specifically because I believe these races are the most likely to join our factions if we ever got them at some point… except high elves, I mean, the Horde has already had them for ages now and the Alliance just got some except a bit corrupted, but I digress.

With this philosophy, I do not think we could satisfyingly include these new races with every class. At that point I think it would be ridiculous, bordering on DeviantArt OC tier kind of lore breaking and exceptions. If there are exceptions to be made, it is for the player character, but even then, immersion would be rather difficult I would say for many players.

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Vulpera druids… yes please!

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I think it makes more sense than Vulpera warlocks to be honest.

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4

When did they say this? How have I not heard this

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5

I’d love to have an orc and undead pally.

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They said it as a part of the announcement that we were going to have Tauren mages and rogues and some other race/class combinations at first.

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You mean when they opened rogue mage and priest to everyone? Actually did mage get opened?? I don’t remember

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8

Do we have draenei rogues?

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Druids should be night elf male only.

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Yep, both versions of draenei can be rogues now.

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Too late. Dwarf druids FTW!

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It’s not too late to delete this

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Yes but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. Players will decide (and should decide) who their character is. Even players that don’t RP like myself will enjoy more options.

At this point they don’t even need to make new lore… we have been to worlds… and we have met countless trainers… that’s all a character needs to learn the role they want to play.

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We don’t need more people playing paladins.

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15

Forsaken Paladins!

Sign me up!

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Everyone just roll warrior - problem solved

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It is the player who chooses his lore.

void elf paladin with high elf customizations = high elf paladin.:wink:

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You’re a filthy undead. Your opinion means NOTHING.

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19

I would always assume the player characters can be outliers who might not conform to their species’ cultural norms.

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The problem is that people see a class as a rigid archetype: A Paladin can only be ‘X, Y, and Z’ when the lore even suggests that anyone can be a Paladin if they have certain ethics they live by.

For instance, you can have Worgen Pugilists and they would still be considered ‘Monks’. Scarlet Myrmidons are still considered ‘Warriors’, etc.

The other problem is that the lore also changes. Since Dread Lords can wield the Light and even disguise themselves as Light Wielders, the definition of a Paladin broadens even further.

8 Likes