Do you think that the hero specs are part of the canon lore for each race. This is kind of hard for me to explain. For example, a tauren paladin isn’t necessarily called a paladin, they are called sunwalkers. So let’s say we have a troll dark ranger. Is that actually a troll dark ranger…. Or perhaps they float into a different class associated within the troll culture, like let’s say a shadow hunter? Like a dark ranger in name only?
Stats and classes are in the main… gaming conventions, abstractions that make consistent gaming experiences possible.
The answer lies in the history of the Dragonlance modules, the early stories which tied themselves to the game system sucked in comparison to the later modules where the authors decided to kick game adherence to the curb.
The Taurens do not use the term Paladin, Their origin doesn’t even connect to those of other Paladins, being inspired by discontent with Night Elf druids’ fixation on the the Blue Moon. They honor An’she the Sun and they Walk in Her Light, hence their name for themselves.
I think you already have a great idea on how to go about it, each culture is diferent so like Drahliana said, it might play the same because of gameplay limitations but in an RPG setting the visual, rituals, and abilities could just be more in theme with the Players racial culture IMO… That’s what I would do anyway.
If WoW actually did made Classes at least visually look to fit their culture theme players probably would have an ALT for the same class that looks unique!
It be a very attractive game feature specially for players who love to get immerse in the MMO atmosphere, since not many games can or are willing to put that amount of detail and uniqueness to Classes, to match the theme of their race. (IMO)
But for now doing it the way you mention is one of the ways to solve that problem with the in-game average homogenization limits we find in most online services with different races. At least WoW has done some tiny changes with Eredar Skin with their racials… I hope they keep doing this details especially with the Darkfallen skin.
That said, the Paladins do have race specific class mounts and with a bit of work you can get appropriate transmogs. And a couple of the heritage sets, (especially the Human and Zandalar Troll ones) fit the class to a T. For a night elf paladin, I’d use the silver variant of the Warden armor. For my Lightforged Warrior who sees herself as every bit the Paladin, I use the Lightforged armor transmog set from the Darkmoon Faire. (to really honk off the Herberts, I also use that set for my Blood Elf Death Knight)
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There is a darkmoon fair lightforge armor?
There’s replicas of all that early armor so my Monk has the Wildheart and Feralheart transmogs. You have to buy the sets piece by piece. So you can have warlock wearing the priest devotion tranmog.
As a worgen, I have no issues being Sentinel because we have close ties with the Kaldorei.
Dark ranger, however, I’d have some complicated history with, since the forsaken had all that nasty business in Gilneas. Maybe using the skills of the enemy? But don’t you have to be dead to be a dark ranger? I don’t want to die to do more dps (after the upcoming rework)
Yeah I can see sentinel working well with night elves, nightborne, and worgen. But dark ranger, in itself, could be hard to justify for some. Thats why I figured that perhaps the spec bends to be something else. Similar to how Tauren paladins are actually sunwalkers, but for gameplay purposes they play exactly like a paladin. Maybe a worgen dark ranger is actually called something else.
I feel the same way about mountain thane. I read on a wowwiki type of site (not sure how accurate they are with lore) that only the bronzebeard clan are known to be mountain thanes (kings). But the lightning and thunder parts of the spec could tie into fun cultural aspects of other races. Such as the shamanistic ways of the orcs or wildhammer clan dwarves. Heck it could be fun role playing the idea of a Dracthyr “mountain thane” taking inspiration from Raszageth.
Ludo-narrative dissonance. Ain’t no way an orc hunter will be a sentinel, for instance. But you can make one in the game.
Its just a gameplay mechanic that has some ties to the lore, but doesn’t really knit itself into it. Sure you can headcanon your character however you want, but from a game design perspective, lore just bites the bullet and thats that.
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Almost all classes and specializations with a few exceptions are just skills you can pick up. There is nothing stopping an especially dedicated Orc from learning the ways of a Sentinel from a Night Elf or the ways of a Dark Ranger from a Forsaken Elf.
Names are tricky things. One of my favorite Western series characters was named Paladin. He was however a killer for hire as the title went. “Have Gun, Will Travel.”
Class names are not how people see themselves and others. The first Stormwind Paladins were priests, men of the clothe who became warrior clerics. My character sees herself as a Ranger, but she also applies that title to the mages who serve under her.