One of the cooler aspects of BFA were I thought the Heritage Armor idea. Now how well they looked or were implemented - conceptually I think unique things for races are interesting.
I think a cool expansion of that would be glyphs that could effect the aesthetic of classes based on your race.
Take a Blood Elf Destruction Lock. Why not give their abilities a distinct Blood Mage flavor? Verdant sphere soul shardeffect, a phoenix instead of an infernal etc.
Or perhaps Worgen Fury Warriors. Let them have claw attacks for their attack animations so they finally get to maul people.
LForged SPriests and Velf HPriests could have something that would recolor their spells to fit their races aesthetic.
Forsaken Monks could have their mists turned a more blight green and have the jade dragon replaced with a tesla coil for that Apothecary goodness. Nelf Priests could have their spells colored in a more Elune appropriate azure as well.
And so on.
I think these options would make the game’s story come alive a lot more. Make things feel more lore compliant without actually changing anything from a gameplay perspective.
As someone who made his main troll druid an inscriptionist when inscription was the new profession purely for the ability to make my own glyphs I whole heartedly support this notion.
One of the biggest advantages to glyphs is that it lets you customize your aesthetic a little more in a new and interesting way. Racial glyphs that give you more flavorful animations would be an amazing use of the thing.
I might actually roll a paladin if I can be a Zandalari who actually manifests dinosaur-themed light projections as an homage to the fact you worship Rezan and had nothing to do with eagles, naaru, or human kings and queens.
It’d also be nice for my troll druid’s travel form to be something a little more troll flavored than the stag I currently turn into without losing the ability to carry people.
It’s odd because some of the glyphs seem extremely raced theme. The whole spirit raptor angle seems pretty much designed for Darkspear.
What I think was neat about Classic is that they did give races and factions unique things. Fun but literally impossible to try to balance. So instead just add aesthetic changes that can make the races/factions feel more unique while not effecting the nuts and bolts of the gameplay.
I’m rather baffled that Blizzard hasn’t added more unlockable customization.
People will spend months farming transmogs. How many MAUs could Blizzard get with even fancier customization? How much time will people spend customizing characters, creating alts to match new customizations, and so on? Why aren’t they adding this?
And while it would be more work and thus unlikely to happen, I would love for there to be multiple sources for customization.
Let scribes make the bulk of glyphs.
Have boss-themed glyphs drop from those bosses.
Have reputation-unlocked glyphs to change abilities to fit the faction’s theme.
Have heritage-based glyphs unlocked with heritage armor or with yet another quest chain.
Have NPC hermits or wanderers out in the far corners of the world that the player can track down to learn unique effects from.
There’s so many options!
They did this a bit when Blood Elf Paladins first came out. They had their own versions of a couple of Paladin spells w hich still worked the same, but were named different and had their own graphics.
Night Elf Priests used to have their own unique spell which was Arcane schooled.
Seriously. I can not tell you how long I spent unlocking the Crusader title and all their mounts just for the ability to portray my character inarguably as an Argent Crusader.
And he’s retired. I wear that mog and use that title very rarely but when it needs to shine, it’s there damnit.
I spent equally an absurd amount of time to get my Belf Locks Blood Mage look right. Magister’s Collar, Robes of the Sindorei, the red and gold Nemesis shoulders variant that took weirdly long to drop.
To say nothing of the Purple Judgement variant I launched a determined genocide to get for my Undead Death Knight. And Balnazaar still won’t drop the sword that completes the look to the point where that portcullis trap in Stratholme seems to mock me.
Now imagine if unique glyphs were behind that. You’d have a whole subset of players with dedicated alts outside the locations just for it. It’d be an ultimate time sink.
All Priests did. The Forsaken had the disease debuff Devouring Plague. I played a Priest in Classic though and could see why it was removed. Because coupled with Vampiric Embrace it was a “I win” button.
They all have them. Forsaken and Dwarves had the best. Devouring Plague was a disease debuff that did damage that healed the caster. Sort of a proto Vampiric Touch. But this stacked with Vampiric Embrace so - total win button.
Additionally they had Touch of Weakness which was a magic debuff. Dwarves though had Fear Ward which did exactly what it sounds like.
Suffice to say - really cool idea but it imbalanced the factions like a mother. From a story perspective I think that stuff is so cool but as a PvPer I get the vitriol that’d cause. I still think cannibalism needs a buff if the Zandalari get Regeneration.
So how about keep that unique stuff but make it fluff not crunch. Keep it to the anesthetics of gameplay. In my earlier example outside apperance and animations would behave exactly like an infernal outside look. Doesn’t change anything in the moment to moment gameplay but allows a racial fantasy to be better realised and makes WoW’s story and lore come alive more.
Yeah, like how Paladins could use Exorcism or something something Undead vs Forsaken players which was imbalanced AF, or Druids being affected by Beast-related spells while shapeshifted.
As I understand it that was nixed in the beta. Forsaken had that weakness but were immune to all the sorts of stuff undead classified NPCs are. Fear, charm, polymorph etc
I really do love this idea of making the story so important and it’s a shame how back seat it went in BFA. Like the Forsaken behaving as humanoids and being able to be Holy Priests was explained. Bit of a throaway (they have imperfectly attached souls but still have souls) but the attempt was made.
Compare that to today. I go out of my way to kill every last Velf HPriest and LForged SPriest I see because their existence offends me. How hard would it be to add a glyph that just changed around the color scheme?
There is the argument changes like that would make PvP confusing but speaking as someone who prefers that gameplay- at worst you’ll lose a match before catching on.
It’s so antithetical to the setting. The neat thing about RP is it does let you take creative liberties which is fun. But that should not work. The Light and Shadow are an antithesis. It’d be like a bunch of Forsaken druids running around. No these forces are at odds trying to channel one while you’re the apotheosis of the other should be like splitting atoms.
This I’ve actually addressed in my own RP. Blizz kinda left the note blank on what happens next. Does a Forsaken that can taste their own rot just suffer for religious purposes or do they go about solving it through alchemy or surgery or a healthy diet of troll marrow and dwarf livers or what? We don’t know. It’s an example of a fun place to leave player imagination to fill in the blanks. Having lore breaking class specs available with no explanation given is not.
You have no earthly idea how mad I was when I spent a heafty cost for the fel tinged shards - only to learn they were invisible. I get showing how many there always are would be a bit much and telegraph your abilities in PvP. Just have it as always three visible- problem solved.
I now have to wear the OG or Red Nemesis shoulders on everything because Blood Mage! If you won’t let me have the glowing green stuff behind me I’ll wear shoulders with at least two fel orbs.
Worgen Druids need a wolf for their Cat Form/Feral spec. Maybe even just their Worgen form, ala Claws of Shirvallah, to keep from having to rename all the attacks based around clawing and scratching. I get by RP-wise by using the wooden cat skins from Legion, and playing it more as becoming a Nature construct than a wolfman-becoming-a-whole-cat, but something genuinely lupine would be greatly appreciated.
This absolutely needs to happen. I’m going crazy trying to find weapons that match the Dwarf heritage armor. They already introduced the concept of weapon caches in Legion. Heritage weapon caches need to be a thing.
As far as class glyphs go I particularly want races based druid forms. A worg DPS form for Worgen, a raptor DPS form for Trolls etc.
I think Warlocks need purple and pink fire. Eredar should be permanently enslavable because they are full fledged demons.
Hunters should be able to ride their pets.
Warriors need glad stance back so people can actually use the Stormwind uniform as a legit pvp outfit.
Priest/Paladins need faith based light hues.
DKs should have a glyph that turns their ghoul into those high resolution wights. Unholy needs a glyph thats turns more of its spells purple. FDKs also need to get 2h as a cosmetic option. Frostmorne can even be increased into 2h.
Love some heritage weapons too. I was so bummed out that the Nelf glaive, an iconic huntress weapon, was only usable by DHs. I wish it was a fist weapon at least. That way nelf rogues and monks could use it with DHs.
By what standards? Or rather by whose? The Army of Light fought for centuries in the timey wimey nature of the Twisting Nether under the direct guidance of the Light to the point they were transformed by it. A group of renegade Blood Elves got exposed to Void energy to the point where they were almost devoured by Chaos.
In a setting as Craptastically fantastic as Warcraft, what makes their existence so problematic?
That’s my main problem with a lot of the allied races. A lot of them have “gimmicks” and it’s hard to find weapons that match their themes. Those cache’s were some of my favorite parts about Legion. I was so happy when paladins could FINALLY have proper warhammers like the paladins in WC3.