If we had to replace Baine as the leader of the Tauren who would be the best option?
My first choice would be Mayla so we can have one leader for both tribes. My second option would be Sunwalker Dezco. He has a good backstory and we don’t have a paladin as a primary leader for any race in the Horde.
Any other good options?
Hamuul perhaps. It would tie the Tauren closer to their roots.
someone more badass like one of the good grimtotem
Honestly, I’d prefer they return to being proper tribes of their own. This doesn’t solve the issue of Bloodhoof leadership, but similar to the issue with Anduin and the Alliance as a whole, the tauren have no reason to follow someone like Baine for the actions of his father. Dude’s done pretty much nothing but put them at more losses and constantly get kidnapped, and I’d rather see a council of Elders style leadership for the Tauren as a whole, with someone new, or just Baine if it has to be, leading the Bloodhoof specifically.
Jevan Grimtotem would be perfect.
There’s only one Thunderbluff though. and what would be the point of cutting off settlements such as the one in Feralas?
I find the Tauren painfully boring, especially in their role as the Horde’s token sympathetic “good guy,” so I tend to lead towards someone with a bit more of an aggressive edge. Jevan fits that bill the best, I think.
Especially if they take the opportunity to really flesh out why the Grimtotem tribe became so different rather than just leaning on them as “the dark ones.”
For races who aren’t so fortunate to have a strong supporting cast, their leader’s story arc tends to be the whole race’s story arc, which is why my preference is for a leader that represents the race the best. For me, that person is Hamuul Runetotem.
Honestly anyone with an actual Backbone that doesn’t constantly break or bend over for their factions rivals.
Hell, my constant frustration towards baine makes me wish Magatha Grimtotem was in the story more so maybe he’d actually toughen up by having to be around her
Hamuul is the best bet. Dezco has been MIA for a hot minute and poor Jevan isn’t even in the game.
Besides Aponi, that’s all they really have. That’s kinda disturbing.
And Hamuul is a pretty cool dude. I love him. He’s the very meaning of Gentle Giant, but you don’t want to see me angry 
Honestly I don’t remember him for anything other than being flambe’d in Cataclysm with the daily quest to replace his oozing pus-filled bandages. Has he done anything important in-game?
He recovered and saved Malfurion and the player from Leyara, then helps kill Ragnaros in the Heroic version of the fight, then is a champion in the Druid Class Hall.
He plays a big role in the Stormrage novel, and gets some kind of blessing/powerup from Cenarius (I think? Did I dream that?). He was also present for the Ragnaros fight in Firelands.
Hamuul definitely should take over. He’s likely the second most powerful druid alive, and the Horde needs more strong characters to play a role in the story to make up for their recent deficit in them.
I’m not sure switching out Baine will do much.
The functional problem with his character is not his underlying character concept. There is nothing wrong with a Tauren leader who’s inclined towards peace; Cairne was. The issue with Baine is that his needs as an individual character have never really been allowed to come before his need to be a “Token Good Horde Plot Device” to counterbalance other Horde characters when Blizz goes off the rails with them. And, sadly, since all that is good and virtuous is the Alliance … naturally Baine being a “good and virtuous” counterbalance aligns him with them.
Because this is the root of Baine’s character issues, trading him out is not going to solve anything. Because Blizz clearly believes someone is going to have to fill that role, and odds are its going to be either a Tauren and/or an Elf. Whoever you plug into his current role is going to be turned into the same thing he is. Especially Tauren like Hamuul and Muln.
Like I said, nothing is wrong with his character concept. Even Golden wrote in War Crimes that he has an unbelievable wrathful side; and his physical strength is downright absurd in the AU he allowed that wrath to take over. Allowing him to literally rip Garrosh in half with his bare hands. Golden even wrote that Baine had accepted this darker half as a part of himself back then.
But … he’s never been allowed to show it. Its there. Its established. But it can’t be allowed to exist. Due to a combination of his need to be the counterbalance, the general neglect for Horde character development as a whole, and especially the massive neglect towards Tauren storytelling in general. Baine never really gets focus outside of those instance he’s gotta be “Anduin’s Good Boy”.
By War Crimes it was already too late for me. Golden describing his ‘dark side’ and how he could rip Garrosh in half if he wanted to made me not take it seriously in the slightest because I had already known that his character was just a more pathetic Anduin.
I truly do not know what people were expecting from a Young Tauren rep. He wasn’t going to be this aggro beast, especially not after what happened to his dad. Baine being generally chill, self reflective, and peace oriented is not the problem … and never really has been. He’s had plenty of instances of combat in the books, and his few “betrayals” really were blown out of proportion to absurd degrees. The issue is Blizz has overdone it, and because he’s that counterbalance for Horde Goodness … he’s also the most obvious character to feel the effects when the Alliance needs to “show their virtue”. Baine needs a counterbalance either internally or externally.
Honestly, I like Baine. His friendship with Anduin has never bothered me, and him being in a diplomatic role isn’t that big of deal. The issue I have is that with Blizz’s track record using him, I don’t have faith that they’ll take the truly immense opportunity of finally letting his characterization come first in SLs. He’s one of two Horde reps that made it in, and he’s isolated from Anduin. Its time. Rather, I’ve got this awful feeling that both Baine and Thrall weren’t chosen to get much needed course corrections to be more palatable racial leaders, but rather because they’ve become safe-space Horde characters Blizz relies on for “Alliance Character” driven stories that weren’t designed to be inclusive for the Horde. As I suspect SLs will largely be Arthas-Demption focused.
Baine’s a symptom, not a disease.
The trouble is the Tauren haven’t really had a place in the Horde narrative, outside them being the heart of the Horde gentle giant types. And making a whole race the straight edge peaceful voices of reason is going to lead to them being pretty boring.
I’d say letting Baine and the Tauren cut loose would be the solution here. Remind everyone they’re gentle not just because they’re good natured, but because to them they’re living in a world made of cardboard.
Seriously they’re nine foot tall, made of muscle, and their heads are an edged battering ram. Baine actually gets a great bit in Shadow’s Rising where Sira’s a whirling dervish of blades mincing anything that comes close, and Baine one shots her by tanking the cuts and knocking her with the tree trunk Tauren use as a weapon.
Obviously stuff like that has to be cut down for the sake of gameplay, but just give them even an in game cutscene where the Tauren are shown as the powerhouses they are.
There’s one nice bit in the quest where the Horde are setting up their Boralus adjacent base and in a cutscene a Tauren just effortlessly picks up a fully armored, grown man, and yeets him off a bridge with the same amount of effort most use to flick a cigarette butt.
That sort of energy I think would benefit them. The 'Let’s all just be happy they’re peaceful" vibe.