I’m very happy with everything you’ve shown with DF
but… I’m worried that the Allied Races are… once again being left out. I was wondering if Blizzard has any plans for the current allied races…they said they want to bring new heroes to the fore.
I don’t think they will do anything in dragonflight, but… in the future… maybe?
Part of me wonders if the new Gnolls might be considered as possible Allied Race candidates? They honestly look pretty fantastic (not PERFECT – I’d like to see them a little “chunkier”, should be roughly same height as Dwarves imo), and they could make a really fun race in general.
Just not sure what their “Horde counterpart” would be.
Maybe there will be some. Just not at launch.
I would really prefer they focus on customizations for the core and neglected allied races we currently have (Zandalari and Kul Tirans weep).
The lineup we have is becoming absurd.
Ian said No plans for allied races at DF launch.
Which is vague and may mean they’ll pop some in a later patch. Let’s hope.
Personally… I would like them to develop more the history of the Vulpera and Troll Zandalari
As far as I am aware, allied races were meant to be part of the BfA narrative - literally allies joining quickly to assist to factions at war with each other. Since we are not at war, there is no need for allied races.
And we are getting a new allied race in DF - it’s called the Dracthyr.
The reason I am generally not a fan of allied races is because the one thing Blizzard does better than any other MMORPG is racial identity. The racial start zones are signature to WoW, with only Guild Wars 2 having any analog, and players experiencing 10 unique 1-20 levels (I deprecated all the races that had only 1-10 “instance” zones you never return to) to me is far more valuable than just throwing a dozen different skins with no narrative connective tissue.
So Firbolg - I’d love to see the Firbolg as a playable race. Maybe have them start in the Night Elf start zone where their story is how they rebuild their alliance with the Night Elves (something that the Satyr sorely taxed prior to BfA). It would be far more interesting to have the Firbolg play through “new Teldrassil,” “new Darkshore,” and Ashenvale - maybe assisting in taking down tribes of corrupted firbolg while establishing the new tribe in these areas. Far more interesting than a furry bear thing just appearing in Stormwind one day with a 5 minute “tutorial” on the history of the Firbolg.
The thing is, to add races right - to give them their 1-20 unique questing experiences, takes time. Allied races were a stop gap to scratch players itching to get out from under the thumb of the faction divide, hence why we have Nightborne and Void Elves - literally bringing one faction’s silhouettes to the other faction. But really, many of the allied races are no more than customizations (Void Elf/Blood Elf/High Elf, Tauren/Highmountain Tauren, Dwarf/Dark Iron Dwarf, Gnome/Mechagnome, Draenei/Lightforged, Orc/Maghar) and that’s what happens when you don’t think through an idea, but just rush something out.
I absolutely agree that Blizzard needs to add new races, and it’s beyond time that Blizzard start adding races that don’t have dimorphism (Wildstar did it). All the beast tribes are great candidates for new races and this should be done right, not in a rush. The idea of just throwing out new shapes without having any story or lore - or give players time to see the world through the eyes of these new races just feels like it does a disservice to the player.
That’s the elephant in the room. You will get nothing great. That’s the bitter truth.
The Alliance needs Tuskarr, Arakkoa and Sethraks to compete with the Horde.
Being honest, I think that the vulpera are the allied race that has much more content to develop, after all… it is a new culture and society within the horde. with their respective faction leaders. I would really like to see Kiro start to show what the vulpera can do for the horde in future content.