Allied races should have been

Community General Discussion
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chosen from the many beloved races of Warcraft lore that we have already seen, that players have been clamoring to be made playable for over a decade. These races include but are not limited to:

-Ogre
-Broken
-Furbolg
-High Elf
-Forest Troll
-Quillboar
-Centaur
-Dryad/Keeper
-Naga
-Ethereal
-Arrakoa
-Satyr
-Murloc
-San’Layn
-Nerubian/Mantid
-Tuskarr
-Vrykul
-Jinyu
-Mogu
-Hozen

While many of these races introduced mechanical dilemmas for Blizzard, at this point in the game with transmogrification and their better models, I think that some of if not all of these races should be revisited as potential additions to the playable roster. If even one of these races were introduced I would be interested, however many allied races should’ve just been additional customization features. The Void Elf, Lightforged and Mechagnome truly stand out among the rest as uniquely weak and uninspired.

That is my main point, but if you want to continue reading more I will go into more detail on these three allied races.

In the case of the Void Elf, there were already Alliance allied elves thriving within the Silver Covenant, with two of Sylvanas’ sisters and all of their followers being of this flock. There are many high elven settlements strewn across EK. If there was ever a time to be lazy about adding a race, the High Elf was it. High Elf was a win-win for both Blizzard and fans, as it would have settled lore and relaxed faction lines. The Void Elves in hindsight were a complete asspull.

The second alliance allied race at the end of Legion was the Lightforged. These guys are indeed grand, as the draenei are grand themselves. There is something about the male draenei that is just heroic, and the females have an excellent model for casting animations. Rather than liberating the Broken (Krokuul) of Argus and Draenor cannonically, Blizzard chose to capitalize on the Legion developement work they put into the Draenei models. This was a lazy move in hindsight, and it is truly a shame that the Broken may never become “Unbroken” and Velen may never have this moral dilemma explored. He was the leader chosen by fate to leave his people behind on two different worlds. Could he not have used the Keystone to unite his kin and bring them to salvation? What exactly happened to those Krokuul across the 3 planets? We may never know.

The third and final alled race is these junker gnomes. Let’s be real, none of us wanted cyborg gnome frankesteins. It was Mimiron or bust. These gnomes should’ve been completely reverted much like the gnomes in Borean Tundra, giving the Alliance an ally more closely resembling the Titan constructs. That would’ve been amazing giving the Alliance a closer connection to the Titans.

If you made it this far, I appreciate you stickin’ through. Just feel like allied races are, in hindsight 20/20, a low effort cash grab and not about bringing in more beloved races of Warcraft lore into the fold.

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A large portion of these ideas would be better as core races.

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you got a point. others could certainly be done on the current models. Namely ogre(kultiran), broken(tauren/draenei), furbolg(orc/pandaren), high elf, ethereal(any elf), satyr(draenei), sanlayn(any elf), tuskarr(dwarf), jinyu(nelf)

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Jinyu/San’layn/High elf

are the easy ones but yeah i do agree

they handled allied races VERY poorly

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The problem is that very few, of the reported 4 percent who visit the forums (By Blizzard), players actually have said they wanted Jinyu/Hozen/Broken etc.

So a lot of the ones in that list, would only be played as a novelty and then eventually be played even less than Pandas.

Remember that Vulpera was a race people clamored for, while I even saw posts asking for Mechagnomes (which I thought was odd… )

Blizzard never tells us statistics, such as how many players in game use the suggest feature to suggest a race. If, according to them, less than 4 percent of players ever post on the forums then think what it would do in game if 1 million players independently suggested Mechagnomes as an allied race?

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Yes.

Please no.

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We already have High Elves.

Which is most Alliance races.

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I don’t think they did a bad job. The choices could have had more fan service for sure, for instance with the ones you mentioned.

The problem is that so many of the races chosen are niche vs. some of what you and the OP mentioned, clearly Ogres and High Elves as 2 large looming examples.

In some cases all they made was pretty art assets LFD/VE but in almost all cases they missed the fan service mark, especially Alliance side.

They could be better but they aren’t the worst thing ever put in the game. I hope they keep it up and do better over time.

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Might I add Highmountain to your list of -meh- AR. Thats how I see it at least.

Kul Tirans of course are the least succesful ones but…however bad they might be, can’t blame lazyness on this one. Still felt like another case of poor handling.

I think the most deserving playable races (preferably “core”, rather than AR) would the classics Stonemaul Ogres for Horde, Wildhammer clan and Quel’Dorei for Alliance. To balance they should add in the mix Amani tribe for Horde, though they have done little to actually deserve it.

Edit: I just thought of a potential AR that would be a major failure, but nonetheless possible…I actually don’t recall ever seeing anyone asking for it :

Alterac Human.

You know , Syndicate guys xD. Would bring back an Alliance founding member :x

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Agreed. I want to see Blizzard continue on with allied races in some form or another. The world of warcraft universe is bigger than our playable race/class combos can provide and many of these races that we love really deserve their day. Take the Furbolg for example, which would be a niche pick for sure, but also a very lore friendly longterm ally of the Night Elves. They made more lore sense than Worgen considering Cataclysm’s focus around Hyjal.

In the case of more popular picks. High elf, san’layn, vrykul, ogre, even ethereal, murloc, naga… etc. there is so much money to be made in these races it’s nutty.

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Not to mention Draenei. Stillpines quite literally offered their help whenever needed (at least to Draenei).

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Earthen would also be easy. Regardless, at this point they need to stop inventing new races and start using the ones that are already there. With too many intelligent species on a planet people will start to lose their suspension of disbelief, especially if half of them are anthropomorphic animals.

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Nah, I’d rather have variants of existing races, with fresh faces like nightborne and Zandalari, over generic trash mob races that a few people will play before going back to their elves.

Too many legs for riding mounts without looking ridiculous. I can’t imagine either of them being able to fill the minimum of five classes per race, either.

Far too evil. Nerubians generally aren’t even humanlike as with the current playable races, and mantid females are few and far and too different from males.

No one over the age of 10 wants this race unironically.

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You bring up valid points about nerubian and quadripeds. But maybe that says more about the design corner blizz has placed themselves in within their own fantasy world. but I digress. Murlocs have the power of meme. Never underestimate them. Would’ve been awesome to have murlocs be sailors who drowned beneath the waves and swore an oath with N’Zoth, much like the fabled people of Innsmuth in HP Lovecraft. Lot of missed potential there too

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Yes i hope they don’t get discouraged by the criticism. I think folks just want certain things and so they complain some but i think AR’s are a very good idea for the game and would like to see them expanded.

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~https://i.imgur.com/TGD8eAC.jpg

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The thing that makes Junkergnomes come off even worse than what they are is the fact they’re a subrace (not even genetically like all the others are) whereas the Horde got a brand new race with the Vulpera as well who have custom well everything put into them.

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Or as customization for existing races.

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Yeah, makes me wonder what sub-race is getting turned into customization.

I’m ready for the salt posts on these forums regardless since it involves…

e.l.v.e.s

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Personally, I’d say the only times we should be getting allied races (as opposed to customization options) would be either if it’s a totally different model and not just a recolour, and if their capabilities (and choice of classes) is distinctly different to the original race’s.

  • Every flavour of troll could just come under the Darkspear model.
  • Jinyu would be a new AR, but ankoan features should just be customization unlocked through Exalted Waveblade rep
  • San’layn have the whole blood magic thing going on, and would be better off as a new AR as opposed to customization for blood elves

That’s how I’d go about it at least. Broken (hunched-over and upright) could get away with sharing a starting zone with regular Draenei, though available classes would be different (no Paladins or Priests but they get Rogues and Warlocks).

Man’ari eredar would definitely need to come out a new race since they’d be great on the Horde, but I reckon High Elves feaures could just come as a Void Elf customization option.