I wanted to bring up a topic that has been on my mind for a while now. and that topic is class availability on the games Races.
Each race in WoW has a set of classes that are available to them, and those that are not available to them. these reasons come down to lore reasons, but recently I’ve been asking myself… does that reason really matter? our characters as individuals aren’t really cannon, we’re not really intricately woven into the story. we are simply a champion among many others. is what I could say to justify an idea, the idea of Full class availability. Every playable class on every playable race. to allow anyone to be whatever they want, even if it’s not canonically correct.
I just think it would be fun… a human shaman, a Tauren Rogue, a Draenei Warlock and more fun or comical combinations.
Anyway… that’s my ramblings and wishful thinking. if you came by, thank you for reading.
If a discussion actually starts in here, please be nice. we all are passionate about this game in one way or another
Dragonflight is already going to bring us Rogue, Mage, and Priest to all the races that don’t currently have it. I believe everybody can also already be Warrior and Hunter.
As for the rest of them, I don’t personally want to just abandon the lore surrounding some of them even if the game hasn’t treated lore terribly well recently. Based on what we know, things like void elf paladins should be impossible without them simply just exploding.
What I’d want to see is a bunch of class reskins added. They don’t change any mechanics, but the names and spell effects are changed to give it a new thematic.
Then they could have skins be limited by race to give racial identity, and we could have things like a void elf “void knight” or something that is mechanically a paladin but doesn’t have the lore issue with void + light.
It really doesn’t. If we’re the chosen one of Azeroth, out here slaying literal gods and represent Azeroth itself more than our faction/race…then restrictions really shouldn’t apply.
I think in cases like Lightforged Draenei being restricted from like Warlocks & Demon Hunter, that’s ok.
There’s no lore reason why Dwarfs can’t be Druids. Wildhammer Dwarfs have been around since Vanilla, it’s about time some of them evolve into Druidism.
Blizzard has thrown the lore out the window the past couple expansions. Honestly at this point they should just go all in and open it up. It’s increasingly pointless.
There are some race/class combinations that simply do not work due to massive conflicts with racial lore. That being said, there’s a lot of room for expansion too, and I’m all for expansion.
But the idea of all classes being available to all races is horrible and it removes some of the very unique flavour that World of Warcraft has other other MMOs.
I mean, only one that requires special circumstances aside from Hero Classes are druids, it’s the only class that would get it’s lore significantly diluted if everyone was able to just wake up one day and go “Man, I kinda feel like connecting to nature and dedicating my life to it, let me see if Cenarius is busy, I need a quick connection to the Emerald Dream.”
The rest is whatever, they just require training, no special blessing or innate connection.
Oh yeah, I guess there’s Void Elf Paladins that is quite a bit of a stretch, but 90% of Void Elves roleplay as high elves at this point, so whatever. After all, didn’t stop them from making Lightforged DKs even though all of them would probably go completely insane because every second they exist they can feel their flesh rotting, skin burning and general decay in their body.
This conversation is ancient but since it’ll probably continue until the game finally dies, and I have somehow found the energy to contribute again, I’ll say this:
The whole idea of race/class restrictions preserving racial lore is far weaker than its supporters seem to think it is. I understand the sentiment behind it, but I also believe that, like many things regarding setting canon, the fans care far more about it than the creators. Beyond the lack of creator support, the idea is rather draconian, arguably implying that the only way to convey the racial/cultural nuances and peculiarities of select combos is to simply make them the only ones people can play as.
Unless they care enough to pay attention or look it up, Johnny Casual likely doesn’t know or even care which religions which race’s priests belong to, or the origins of Night Elf Magi. Restriction alone isn’t going to change that any more than the lack thereof. There are other means of conveying these pieces of lore, representation, dialogues and literature, peculiar aesthetics. We have some of this in game already, to varying degrees. We should have more, and to an extent there was a time when we had a bit more, back when class quests were still a thing, but I digress.
We don’t need to act as though new combos were always a mainstay of the race. We already have an example of how alternative combos could be represented in the Monk, and to comparable extent the hero classes. Monks carry strong ties to one particular race, yet nearly every other race can be one. This dynamic, the other races being relatively new to the system, is reflected in the teachers (with Peak of Serenity as the rather baffling exception). How would it not be acceptable to do with others?
I’m not going into the argument of X race wouldn’t be able to do Y because of Z. The more time I devote to this post the more bitter I become at the futility.
The lore is just an excuse for Blizz to continue to be lazy and NOT open up all races to all classes. Which is why I bring up Dwarf Druids, all the time. There’s no lore reason why they can’t be. They can only push the lore reason card so far.
True, but some races just can’t be some classes because of what they are. Like Undead. Lorewise, Undead Priests are Shadow Priests. Paladins are made of pure Light so it will probably kill the Undead (again!) if they tried to wield it.
I’m a firm believer that every race should be available for every class.
Whether it’s a simple fun run, or a 5k or even a marathon there’s no reason to say that a priest can’t put on a pair of running shoes and not keep up with a warrior. And even if they can’t keep up, why deny them the fun of competing?
Personally, I think it is It’s just one more step down the road of rendering distinct, meaningful framing and features irrelevant in order to add ‘new’ things without having to spend any resources on substance. Just like the Allied Races and various customizations like Darkfallen and Wildhammer Dwarfs. Heck, even the Drakthyr, the main selling point of the new expansion, are a cheap-out.