In the War Within, we will hopefully gain some new classes for the Dracthyr.
When it comes time to add druids to Dracthyr, here are some ideas to make the base shapeshifting forms easily accessible so that the druid class isn’t postponed due to a lack of assets.
1) Guardian form: Drakonid
These guys are burly and strong and perfect for a tank class. You can change their skin colors, armor, and swap out a number of dragon weapons from the different dragon factions from Dragonflight.
2) Feral form: Tarasek
These guys are small and lean and look like they bite! Perfect.
3) Balance form: Dragonspawn
These guys are the main casters of the dragon armies. They can come with wings or sans.
I’m hoping Dracthyr get Druids, but could go either way. I think it does make sense lore-wise, and I have a name saved but yeah… Not getting my hopes up for Dracthyr Shaman or Druid.
I would actually be surprised if Dracthyr get Druids. Seems like a workload Blizzard just isn’t willing to tackle right now. They’re probably saving opening Druids to more races for a later patch or maybe in Midnight.
People love to get it in their own heads that something is going to happen with the game even with all evidence to the contrary, and then get mad at Blizzard when it doesn’t happen.
Tbf, saying they won’t get Druids or Shamans because of the workload, when they do make sense lorewise, is kind of silly. Black Dragonflight is inherently linked to the earth, and Thrall, a Shaman, filled in for an Aspect of Earth in Cataclysm. The Green Dragonflight is the protector of the Emerald Dream, inherently linked to Druidism. Dracthyr are empowered with the magic of all 5 flights.
We’re getting Earthen Paladins and they require some more asset work due to the paladin mount. Why would Dracthyr not get Shaman or Druid when they make sense lorewise?
The argument against Druids, Paladins and Shamans for every race has always come back to “Well they require more art assets.” I mentioned the lore because as of last month, Ion’s made it sound like they’re not doing Shamans/Paladins/Druids for everyone at the moment because they don’t make sense lorewise.
Is there another reason besides the extra art assets in which you’re basing your statement on?
That’s asking for a lot of work from Blizzard, and you and I both know they don’t want to do that work. There’s a reason so few races have druid as an option.
I know what you said. To be clear, I agree it makes sense lore wise, but I don’t think it’s silly, seeing Blizzard’s track record, to speculate that they’re not going to jump at Druids specifically because of the extra time with the assets despite that it may make sense.
Look, I might be completely wrong, and it’d be great if I am. Time will tell what we see and what we don’t see.
But after a very long time of seeing players’ requests and ideas and seeing what Blizzard actually does, I’m simply betting that we’ll only see the classes I mentioned previously, that’s all.
If they’re gonna be all no no no because workload even though it makes sense from lore, they should be like okay Blood Elf druids then because even though it makes no sense lorewise they can use Night Elf forms and it’ll look fine.
If money is really such a huge problem for Blizz that they can’t be expected to add things like druid races, then they should kickstart everything that needs disproportionate assets, and have the people who pitch in at least $100 get it first.
As far as I know, Dracthyr don’t have a gamebreaking racial and it would essentially be letting people purchase something cosmetic and not affect the game at all. So win-win.
Yes to dracthyr having druids. Hard no to most of these forms.
It makes no sense for a dracthyr to be using druidic magic to turn into other types of dragonkin instead of actual animals. Every other druid does the latter, regardless of whether their power comes from the Emerald Dream, the Firelands, or Ardenweald, so I don’t know why dracthyr would be the outlier.
It’s called “Bear Form”, not “Humanoid Axe-Wielding Dragonkin Form”. Other than stretching the definition of the former to its limit, this is just another way of making drakonid playable, only instead of a full-on race, it’s through a druid form that’s conceptually anathema to every other druid’s Bear Form, would have levels of customization that they don’t, and isn’t likely, anyway, because you’d have to rework and reskin the entire Guardian kit around it.
When I think of Guardian druids, I think of a bear clawing and biting at its target with the rage of the very gods of nature. If I wanted to tank as a humanoid wielding a two-handed weapon, I’d play a Blood DK.
We just got a dragon owl mount complete with horns, spines, and draconic eyes. I think a version without the saddle is more likely to be a potential dracthyr Flight Form. Just add some color options other than white and blue and call it a day.