Allied races for Alliance are a joke

[Aliandrin-fizzcrank (Aliandrin)]

Horde gets , Nightborne , Highmountain Tauren, Brown Orcs, Zandalari Trolls and the newest edition Vulpera.

Alliance gets…Purple blood elves, Blessed Goats, burned dwarves, Fat humans and the newest Edition…damaged gnomes… . . . . . . . .

Horde is the clear winner and Alliance needs to get something awesome to make up for it.

[Lannisteros-proudmoore]

I am a huge advocate for Void Elves at the end of the day though, void exclusive race, with a we don’t trust you type vibe all around the alliance (the cathedral of storm wind, dialogue between Umbric and Shandris) very reminiscent of how forsaken used to be the untrusted ones with personal goals in the Horde, could end up getting some very interesting lore development. heres to hoping

[Ollin-uther (Ollin)]

Alliance players seem to have thrown themselves into a malaise over their allied races actually fitting the pattern of being based on core races/not being what they begged and pleaded for, combined with their ongoing resentment of some of the Horde’s allied races not being neutral.

Complaints about Mechagnomes have nothing to do with them being anything approaching low-effort anything. In fact, they’re one of the highest-effort races anyone received, which just makes things even worse.

Mechagnomes are a swing-and-a-miss purely because their aesthetic is garbage. They’re ugly. Ugly to the point that people refuse to play them in spite of their just bonkers racial abilities.

There are two reasons to play a race: Mechanics and Fantasy, and the two are a sort of weird three-dimensional spectrum. So it’s more complicated than “do you want mechanics or fantasy?” (as you can have an attractive fantasy AND amazing racial mechanics at the same time…see bloodelves for an example of what happens when you do).

We learned something very important this expansion: racial abilities aren’t enough by themselves to sell a race, and mechagnomes are the living proof.

They have the best racial abilities in the game, but are butt-ugly and it’s nearly impossible to take them seriously. As a result, nobody plays them because in spite of the mechanics, there is nearly zero fantasy attraction. And, surprisingly, players actually care about that (care about fantasy, in a fantasy RPG? Get out!)

If we’ve thrown ourselves into a malaise, it’s because the devs have demonstrated that they have absolutely zero understanding of their alliance playerbase.

They don’t know us. And if they don’t know us, they can’t make a game for us.

[Seymur-zuljin (Seymur)]

Honestly i didnt care much about this until 8.3 landed. So lets compare the 2 factions allied races.

Horde gets , Nightborne , Highmountain Tauren, Brown Orcs, Zandalari Trolls and the newest edition Vulpera.

Alliance gets…Purple blood elves, Blessed Goats, burned dwarves, Fat humans and the newest Edition…damaged gnomes… . . . . . . .

Ok, so lets compare…

Alliance got: Void Elves (Amazing!), Dark Iron Dwarves (Kick A**!), Lighforged Drannai, Kul Tiran Humans (yeah!), and MECHAGNOMES!!! Awesome!

And Horde gets what? Different horns on a cow, a brown-covered Orc (what s the brown stuff they are covered with, yuck!), another silly Troll, a poor-man’s Nightelf, and stupid little tiny furry thing (I’m not judging, you do whatever you like behind closed doors!)

Each faction got a new race (KTHuman and Vulpera) and a bunch of re-skins. Not sure what the problem is. I like what Alliance got. Horde got by far the poorer selection this time around.

[Taivora-dark-iron]

Gnomes needed an allied race far more than the game needed another playable night elf reskin.

Uh, no. Customization fits the bill FAR more for what mechagnomes bring to the game. We needed a completely new RACE for the Alliance. Not a gnome paint job.

[anon18431011]

I just want to be able to use the Lightforged Horns on my normal Draenei

Off topic: Why are they called Lightforged Draenei and not Lightforged Eredar? The Draenei are already an offshoot of Eredar and the Lightforged where never Draenei.

[Ruzzko-thrall]

Complaints about Mechagnomes have nothing to do with them being anything approaching low-effort anything . In fact, they’re one of the highest-effort races anyone received, which just makes things even worse .

I didn’t say anything about mechagnomes being low-effort, but okay.

Mechagnomes are a swing-and-a-miss purely because their aesthetic is garbage. They’re ugly .

Subjective.

Ugly to the point that people refuse to play them in spite of their just bonkers racial abilities.

The current playerbase is obsessed with vanity, color me shocked.

Uh, no. Customization fits the bill FAR more for what mechagnomes bring to the game.

The devs weren’t going to go through the effort of retrofitting mechagnome cosmetics onto classic gnomes after dedicating an entire zone storyline to the former, especially when Lightforged, Highmountain, Dark Irons, and Mag’har are allied races when people previously wanted them to be cosmetics. That’s just backwards logic and design. Mechagnomes in-universe are a separate race from Gnomeregan gnomes, being able to play as one in the gnome starting zone would cause a continuity snarl a bit similar to monk trainers being added to old zones. Hell, mechagnomes have their own new animations, imagine trying to bake those into classic gnomes without breaking their models.

We needed a completely new RACE for the Alliance. Not a gnome paint job.

Like many people, you’ve missed the point of allied races entirely, which is to tell stories and add subraces that are related to core races somehow, not to provide fanservice. Before 8.3, five core races didn’t have an allied race counterpart; gnomes got mechagnomes for obvious reasons, goblins got vulpera because they reuse the goblin rig with their own spin on it, and the only alternative was gilgoblins whose models are horribly outdated. Ignoring pandaren, the Alliance’s AR after Kul Tirans was going to be either gnomes or worgen. Gnomes badly needed some attention and a conclusion to Mekkatorque’s storyline following Dazar’alor, so they won. Imagine the break in the pattern of allied races if mechagnomes were demoted to cosmetics:

Blood elves: Do rep with Argussian Reach to unlock void elves as an AR
Night elves: Do rep with Nightfallen to unlock nightborne as an AR
Draenei: Do rep with Army of the Light to unlock Lightforged as an AR
Tauren: Do rep with Highmountain Tribe to unlock Highmountain as an AR
Dwarves: Do rep with 7th Legion to unlock Dark Irons as an AR
Orcs: Do rep with Honorbound to unlock Mag’har as an AR
Humans: Do rep with Proudmoore Admiralty to unlock Kul Tirans as an AR
Trolls: Do rep with Zandalari Empire to unlock Zandalari as an AR
Goblins: Do rep with Voldunai to unlock vulpera as an AR
Gnomes: Do rep with Rustbolt Resistance to unlock mechagnomes… as barber options?

But please try to convince me that it would’ve made more sense for gnomes, a historically mocked and mistreated race that’s been with the Alliance since vanilla, to be denied a full allied race so the Alliance could get the snake-men that they interacted with for less than 15 minutes or the samurai fish-men with the characterization of wet cardboard.

[Mozzez-tichondrius]

maybe the problem is the guy we have in charge is a Horde lover and scoffs at the Alliance.

[Nuskurghain-eonar (Nuskurghain)]

you know, on one hand im tired of seeing this thread too, but on the other im tired of getting mashed 7v1 at every rare during the new assaults because everyone and their brother would rather play horde.

When I fought the Horde in 8.0 by myself, I had to suck it up realizing no help would come. I got my revenge in 8.2. So now in 8.3 the Alliance gets to suck it down, every drop from the tall glass. I’m not coming back to help the Alliance, exactly the same as they never came to help me in 8.0.

Nobody wants to play for this sorry faction anymore, no matter how much free AP, gear, and CQ Blizzard gives them.

[Azshrà-hyjal]

I rerolled to Horde after getting all of the Allied Races for the Alliance. I mainly play male characters and you definitely can’t say Zandalari Troll are just copy paste Trolls, they stand straight and it makes them the tallest playable race in the game which is really cool ngl and their forms are dinosaurs which is unique to only them. Mag’har Orc’s are actually enticing because of the same thing being able to adjust their posture and the different skin textures. Vulpera looks super cute, which is a first for the Horde, combined with their camping racial ability which let’s the more casual players like myself who enjoy farming gold get around a million times easier. Nightborne are more regal and high res Night Elves whereas Void Elves are just cool toned Blood Elves with shorter hair. And lastly who doesnt want Antlers. Not saying I don’t like the Alliance races, because I wouldn’t have gotten them if I didnt like them, but the Horde ones are just better overall. I was super excited when I got Mechagnomes and then I realized they cant transmog a lot of pieces and it kind of makes them look awkward, especially if you like a whole cohesive armor set.

[Kotoe-area-52]

i mean theres a reason a majority of the community plays horde