I’ve got a few questions about it. Maybe somebody here can help me understand, because from google 90% of the results were a variation of “Let us use Visage in combat for Evokers” (Which I do agree, but that’s another subject)…
From what I’ve gathered, the visage form seems to be a shapeshift ‘switch’ rather than concentration maintenance. I could probably associate it more closely with Druid shapeshifting rather than a conditional magic spell? I can assume that specifically an Evoker’s visage breaking in combat is more related than the necessity to fight in lizard form (breaths, wings, etc) rather than what happens with Worgen?
In the melee strength department, a Dracthyr would certainly be physically more limited with their visage form, since being a dragon seems to have a bigger, sturdier body. However, I wonder if it’s of no worry for a spellcaster. For example, a Dracthyr mage could perform the same in either form. Would that be a valid speculation?
Related to the above question, Visage seemed to be a more ‘social form’, so there’s would be any practical reason for a non-Evoker Dracthyr to prefer fighting in it? I could understand dragons doing so for some utility aspects (fitting somewhere, etc), but Dracthyr don’t seem to be much more cumbersome than a Tauren is.
Is Dracthyr visage form more limited than a Dragon’s in the sense that the only “option” available is the current humanoid body they have, as opposed to choosing freely between any race they meet? Which I can assume is there to justify the gameplay limitation.
Overall, I’ve long found Draconic visages to be a bit murky as far as their lore is concerned, where the specifics of how they work don’t seem to be fleshed out entirely; or at least not very clear. This could very well be a personal flaw as I’ve admittedly haven’t explored this subject quite as deeply as some others that interest me.
This is especially baffling to me. For a time, I was under the impression that there was no difference lorewise between the visage a Dragon and a Dracthyr can take. This is can arguably be supported by the little speech given by Wrathion and/or Ebonhorn in the quest where a Dracthyr player assumes their visage form for the first time. Some bits of dialogue later, regarding Emberthal’s arc involving her visage, could also be interpreted to support this. I somewhat something from another thread that seemed to imply that the two actually were different, but I was unable to find it anywhere else after cursory research. Neither the Dracthyr nor Dragon pages on the Warcraft Wiki mention them being any different from each other either.
The section in the Warcraft Wiki page about Dragons involving shapeshifting, which is pretty much all about visage forms might be of some help, especially if one is to assume that there’s not hard difference between Dragon and Dracthyr visages.
For one thing, Dragons can have multiple visages. Korialstraz had at least three, the ArchMasge Krasus, the Human Borel, and an unnamed elderly Orc who gives Thrall Broxigar’s axe.
I believe the only reason Dracthyr have visages and not dragonspawn or drakonids is because Blizzard wanted a convenient excuse to not support more items and armor on dracthyr outside shoulder pieces and belts.
It honestly does not make much sense for Dracthyr to even have visages. It just feels lazy with how its been handled. I RP my character as choosing not to have a visage like Emberthal, partially out of spite against Blizzard (especially with that stupid comment a developer made about how Dracthyr should be in visage form more then worgens do)
If Tauren were made in 2025, I bet Blizzard would try to find some way to give them a human form rather then support their actual true form.
They should have either not given dracthyr visage forms and fully support most armor items on them (i understand why back items can’t work, but all I ask is chest armor and clothing, and hats)… or just bit the bullet and made drakes/dragons fully playable. At least with a large quadreped dragon, there would be a genuine legit excuse to not support anything outside shoulder armor, aswell as an actual reason to use visage forms more
I think I read somewhere that their visage forms were created so they could properly handle tools from mortal races, but that’s quite strange since the Dracthyr themselves are already very small. At least small enough to handle most things.
I don’t feel it was meant to be a social form either because Dracthyr were created to be weapons. No wonder why they needed to “discover” that they can use the Visage form to begin with.
Definitely agree. IMO, they may be smaller than the real dragons but lets be honest, they can still be intimidating to the other races. Since they are not true dragons, they forms they pick are not a varied and not even a good replica necessarily.
Not only speculation, but backed by actual gameplay.
Even most Dragons only have one visage form. While there are Dragons that break that limit, there are no examples of Dracthyr doing so. In fact, I might posit that the Visage ability was not part of Neltharion’s design, but something that put itself in some Dracthyr during thier long sleep, as there do seem to be Dracthyr that don’t demonstrate the ability.
In actual play, a Dracthyr is taught visage once they reach their chosen capitol city by a dragon. If a dragon is teaching you, isn’t it more likely to be the same thing? And they say that the visage is already inside the Dracthyr…so that leads me to believe the limitation is artificially imposed by Blizz, not really lore.
Except Dracthyr already can use mortal tools well in their dracthyr form? It’s not like dragons or drakes
Like I said, had they made dragons or drakes playable I’d have no problem with visage form or dragon form limitations.
But since dracthyr are humanoid dragon people like drakonids, it feels like a lazy cop out so that WoW doesn’t have to give them more armor and hate support
I want my dracthyr to wear a top hat and a skirt, damnit!
This makes less and less sense the more you think about it. Basically zero resources are put into armor assets being race-compatible in World of Warcraft. Most clothes are a flat texture or a very simple shape. The rigging just means pinning the obtrusive 3d elements like shoulders or the 3d belts in a way that doesn’t cause really gross clipping.
Dracthyr have most customization options by multiple orders of magnitude than any other race and people still find reason to complain. It’s very weird from the outside looking in.
It’s too early to tell, but I think it will be a similar issue that Guardian and Feral druids had.
Legion introduced a bunch of new cool forms, but it seemed that after that, Blizzard just called it “done”, which in itself is troublesome because at some point the specs will be starved for novelty again. Other characters literally get the ‘boon’ of having access to the novelty of visible armor collections all the time.
Whenever a new patch hits, everybody gets excited for Wowhead datamining “what’s new to wear”… Some druid specs, not so much. Realistically, Guardian and Feral could get a one new form (borrowed from a patch relevant creature) every major content patch to make up for it.
Armor and transmog is a huge part of WoW, so ofc it isnt weird that people complain about dracthyr transmog
I would happily trade in less dracthyr customization options if it meant displaying more armor on my character.
All i need is scale color, horn options, snout shapes and jewelry, I don’t care much about the other things, and I certainly don’t care about the dracthyr form race armor, i’d rather display the armor im actually wearing or mogging
Exactly! No matter how 2x or 3x more a race has in comparison to others, it will always fall flat because past some point it won’t be enough compared to other races getting access to everything (armor related) released in a minor, major patch or even monthy through the Trading Post.
It reminds me of how when Viera and Hrothgar were implemented in FFXIV, they said they wouldn’t be able to use any of the extensive common hairstyle list or headgear because their own customization options would make up for it. And it didn’t turn out well at all, to the point that years later it’s one of the community’s biggest complaints and it’s been addressed on homeopathic measurements.
Answer: Warcraft has TERRIBLE worldbuilding. You will never get a real answer from Blizzard.
There are SO. MANY. QUESTIONS that are NEVER answered in this franchise because the writers never truly flesh anything out properly. It is so weird playing WoW and then trying something like D&D, only to see how incredibly fleshed-out everything is. Any question I could ever ask about Dragonborn, for example, can be answered, even down to something as dumb and miniscule as a Dragonborn never having to poop because of how their metabolism works.
You’re better off than a mechagnome. At least you have a visage that can show all armor pieces. And if you aren’t an evoker, you can be in that form full time.
You effectively have two sets of armor that you wear.
In the entire history of playing this character from pretty much the second day of WOW, she has pooped exactly ONCE… during the absurd Ambermill series… and I have never done that series on another character since.
…this is one of the few - I can count them on one hand with fingers left over - quests I wish I could physically find some way to undo. Like, erase the achievement. It felt like something someone who never got over being 12 would come up with.
