Dracthyr Visage Customization – A Necessary Change for Immersion and Player Identity

Community General Discussion
1

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft since its launch, but my connection to the game goes even further back. My mother played the WoW beta in 2004, and while I used to tease her about it, I eventually joined her in Azeroth when the game officially released. She loved the Horde, and after diving into its lore, I did too. From that moment on, I was Horde for life—no matter what.

For years, my Warrior was an Orc, a reflection of my deep love for Horde lore, Thrall’s story, and the strength and resilience of the Orcish people. It wasn’t just a gameplay choice; it was part of my identity in the game. But recently, I made the switch to Dracthyr, and it’s been a conflicting experience.

Dracthyr racials are undeniably strong from a gameplay perspective. The knockback is an amazing utility tool, and their ability to double jump and glide makes them “immune” to knockbacks, which is huge in both PvE and PvP. As a Warrior main, a class that has always struggled with utility, I can’t deny how much these advantages help. But it comes at a cost—I no longer feel like my Warrior is mine.

The problem? Dracthyr’s visage form is extremely limited. Every Dracthyr is forced into either a Human (female) or Blood Elf (male) form when not in combat. This works fine for some, but for players like me—who deeply identify with a different race—this restriction is frustrating. Why should a shapeshifting race be locked into only two visage options?

I’ve come to terms with my Warrior being a Dracthyr, but I would love to be able to choose my own visage race. If Blizzard allowed Dracthyr to visage as any playable race, it wouldn’t affect gameplay balance in any way, but it would:

  • Improve customization and player identity, allowing players to better connect with their characters.
  • Align with Warcraft’s lore, as Dracthyr already have the ability to shift forms.
  • Encourage more players to try Dracthyr, knowing they wouldn’t have to abandon their personal aesthetic.

I know I’m not alone in this. Many players—Dracthyr mains and otherwise—have voiced a desire for expanded visage options. This is one of those quality-of-life and immersion improvements that could go a long way in making Dracthyr a more enjoyable race for a wider audience.

Blizzard has made big changes based on community feedback before—so let’s make this happen. Let Dracthyr choose their visage form!

3 Likes
2

While I really wish that dracthyr players had the option to actually choose their visage, I’m afraid that if it was ever on the table before, the decision to allow players to stay in visage form during combat probably destroyed any chance of it happening. It’d be one option or the other, but implementing both would mean dracthyr could effectively have free cosmetic race changes instead of having to pay for them like everybody else.

I think the best you can really do is pretend your dracthyr doesn’t have a visage at all, since I feel the whole identity metaphor falls apart from a horde-side PoV anyway.

3

I’m not denying that having Dracthyr go to the barber and “race change” at will would be amazing (and also what I would root for), but during the character creation screen when you pick race, Dracthyr, you have an option for your visage form i.e. any race you want. To change your visage form I believe that having to pay for it would suck, but allow blizzard to get monetary gains from dracthyr wanting to “race change”. I still think being able to go to the barber and picking my visage form would be better and still fit the theme and lore of the dracthyr. Just because I wish to be an Orc doesn’t mean I will get the Orc racials. Same goes for any other race. Allow my character who already has the ability to change into any race that it desires to truly make that choice personal. When you make a new Evoker Ebonhorn tells you it’s a choice that is personal. All I am asking for is to actually make that “personal” choice.

1 Like
4

If nothing else, grant Dracthyrs an ability called “Biology of Azeroth.” In the ability window, it functions like the Hunter’s pet ability with an expandable button showing all faction-aligned and unlocked races, each named "Visage of the [Specie] This would allow players to take on that appearance for about two or so hours with a reasonable cooldown. While it doesn’t exactly solve the issue of a “free race change”, it adds more roleplay opportunities.

5

You do realize these rules don’t apply to non evokers.

No, that would be like giving free race changes to non evokers.

1 Like
6

Personally, I think the visage should be completely removed from Dracthyr because there is no reason for them to have one.

They are not dragons so they do not need a smaller form to interact comfortably with the rest of us, their present visage with all its embellishments do not allow them to blend in, and it does not add anything constructive to the race.

On top of that, it makes no sense for drakthyr to have female and male visages since they are genderless or that that their visages are pre-programed to be either human females or blood elf males since neither of those races existed when the drakthyr were created.

The whole thing has been a half-baked :poop: show from the start, based more on a political agenda Blizzard needed to promote due to the bad publicity caused by the lawsuits than good, solid race concept.

Be a lizard or don’t be a lizard.

There is no reason to be a lizard pretending to be a different race. If you (general you, not specifically the OP) want to be a different race, just be a different race.

1 Like
7

Drakthyr should have been a class, not a race.

Whatever race you pick is your visage.

1 Like
8

I think dracthyr should have some of their customization taken away

I do not have anyway to defend this stance

9

I do. Scrap the armor customization and just let them wear clothes.

10

Always so much hate for dracthyr but I love them! I would absolutely enjoy being a cute dwarf and not a female human visage. :relieved: the human one is nice also but just a plain dwarf with dragon eyes would work for me. Heh

11

I don’t know what it is with this obnoxious and constant highlighting… but this is incorrect. You are not immune to knockbacks. You get knocked back. But you can move back sooner into the fray. The 3 min cooldown is still a 3 min cooldown. And you’re much slower than an Evoker with double jump. You can’t even keep up with a rogue or a DH.

Dracthyr currently have the most customization of any freakin’ race in this game.

Contribute to the megathread. We don’t need more separate threads and we certainly don’t need any more random bolded crap throughout a dissertation.

As someone who plays Dracthyr all the time… I’m getting very tired of the drama. It’s worse than Helfs at this point.

Helldamnno.

1 Like
12

I absolutely support letting Dracthyr choose any race for their visage. This is how is should have always been. There is no argument anyone can make against this that would sway me.

I personally would not use this feature, I would keep my Visage the same (Brown-skinned Blood Elf with Horns instead of massive eyebrows), but I 100% support the option for everyone else to choose.

Just don’t let them change the Visage race at the Barbershop or whatever, make them choose their Visage race at character creation and make it a permanent choice.

When it comes to transmog, Personally, I would settle for being able to transmog my Dracthyr Form separately from my Visage, if only so that I could hide my Shoulders in Dracthyr form while still having them in Visage. I actually like the Dracthyr Armor in the Barbershop, and if I can’t transmog regular armor sets, I would rather just be able to use those and hide the shoulders/belt in that form.

1 Like
13

We need a TRUE visage form that stays in combat for evokers.

1 Like
14

Why do people like you think like this? It’s not that deep.

Just give them the ability in the barbershop or through a dropdown tab in the spell book. Done.

Loss of $? Not significantly - Dracthyr are an insignificant portion of the player base.

1 Like
15

They never claimed that you’re immune but “immune” which is effectively a soft immunity due to being able to significantly dampen forced movement.

Reading isn’t that hard.

1 Like
16

Your nonsensical obsession over quotations doesn’t change anything. You aren’t “immune” either. You still get knocked back. You can just get back there a little quicker. The knockback still occurs regardless.

Comprehending how game mechanics work isn’t that hard either, but here we are. Guess you fell off ignore. I don’t engage with your brand of condescending hostility.

17

Calls a valid callout of an idiotic interpretation a nonsensical obsession. Got it.

Don’t care.

Kick rocks.

1 Like
18

Sorry, but I have to agree that you’re wrong here. The fact they posted “immune” in quotations is a clear indication that they don’t mean literally immune. For anybody familiar with how dracthyr play, it’s obvious they mean that knockbacks are trivialized aka “immune.”

2 Likes
19

I play Dracthyr all the time. You are still getting that knockback. You cannot counter the knockback. You are still getting interrupted with that knockback. The only thing you can do is get back into position a bit sooner. That’s it.

The semantics is irrelevant. I don’t need to put something in quotations for it to still be wrong.

You are not immune nor “immune.” You can shorten the time it takes to get back. Period.

This is a silly debate. My points are still correct, regardless of the petty semantics. I’m not derailing this thread over quotations any longer.

As a matter of fact… I can’t stand the spam of these threads to begin with. So I’ll save y’all any further replies by muting it.

20

It’s crazy you’re getting so hung up on the semantics when you’re saying it’s irrelevant.

/bye I guess

2 Likes