As an additional incentive to unlock Heritage Armor AND as an alternative to unlocking more class/race options, I propose each Heritage Armor unlock be accompanied by the addition of a disguise toy.
Orb of the insert race here
(Working name. I’m sure somebody could come up with something better, like, say, “Essence of Shu’halo” for Tauren)
These orbs would be faction-locked disguise toys mechanically similar to the already-present “Orb of the Sin’dorei” from Magister’s Terrace (or like the Battle for Dazar’alor mechanic, if you prefer): they’d swap the player’s apparent race but not their gear.
Ideally they’d apply a persistent death-proof buff with no cooldown, like how Moonfang Shroud works. Alternatively, the duration of the buff and the cooldown of the toy could overlap.
It might seem like this would trivialize the race change paid function, but keep the following in mind:
Each toy’s primary purpose is to disguise classes unavailable in your race of choice, a matter that paid race changes cannot address.
Toys do not affect racial abilities
Each must be unlocked by already having a max-level character of the specified race, as such is the price of unlocking heritage armor.
I believe such content would invigorate players of highly restricted classes. It would also give players of hero classes incentives to level allied races.
I do not like that idea, I feel like it would really undervalue those who chose to play the rare combinations like Mag’har Mage, Lightforged Mage, and of course Troll Monk.
What value you ask? Just the awe factor of seeing those fellows.
Toys that give racial flavor would be better. Like the toy you get after doing the gnome heritage armor questline that turns the mount that picks you up for the flight master’s whistle into an airplane. Toys that give you the appearance of another race arent a good idea though.
It’s already possible with various disguises in the game. Heck, you can be an earthen demon hunter for 30 minutes and they aren’t even playable. All I’m asking for is more consistency in selection of the disguise, as is already present in the aforementioned “Orb of the Sin’dorei”, and a more reasonable cooldown.
I don’t see the suggestion as having any impact on these choices. Those are already playable options. But someone wanting to play a Tauren Mage has no option, save crossing their fingers with the Coin of Many Faces, and even then only for a few moments each day.
Classes are the way a player interacts with the game’s mechanics. Races, however, are the central aesthetic a player must face for the entirety of their playtime. The two should have never been interlocked, but being that they are a reliable disguise is a viable alternative to having no option at all. Want people to stop asking for more class options per race? Give effective disguises.
Why? There are already appearance-swapping toys in the game. Players can look like a blood elf, an earthen, an ironforged, a goren (of all things), a pandaren (but only in a lame outfit), any Draenor follower, or countless others.
It’s not like somebody’s going to walk up to a vendor and instantly unlock these things, they would take a serious time investment (or significant monetary investment in race changes) to unlock them all.
