Not my premise. Blizzard’s premise. That’s the entire narrative thrust of the Dracthyr storyline. Play it so we can discuss reality instead of arguing against your headcanon.
The issue with this is the word “expense.” We see Dracthyr with weapons, armour, and the like. They use them in tandem with their draconic abilities. Evokers do not have a monopoly on that. And anyone with power poorly developed enough that a sword alone would compensate would not exist in the present.
This is why they do not already have access to other classes. Those draconic abilities are not “Evoker” abilities. They are Dracthyr abilities. Evoker is merely the purest form of that.
Again, you’re misunderstanding what Dracthyr are. We do see a diversity within their singular purpose. We see them using Warrior-like abilities are equipment, outside of the Evokers. But they use them in tandem with their inherent Dracthyr abilities. That doesn’t mesh with the strict class system WoW has.
The entire narrative thrust of the Dracthyr is they’re waking up in a world far removed from what they remember to the absence of old masters and the openings of new possibilities. Deciding ‘well the old masters were right after all, no need to do any introspection or change anything’ with this newfound free will is dumb from any angle you look at it.
You realize every other race has the exact same dichotomy with their classes; some have odd hybridizations to them, but by and large the ‘purest’ form of any art is a playable Class. A Warrior doesn’t mix their weapon proficiency with magic, even if the race is inclined toward magic use. This is true for Gnomes, for Night Elves, for Blood Elves, and can easily be true for Dracthyr. Similarly, races attuned to the Light don’t let it seep into their Warrior training; Draenei and Humans, for example.
Mixing arts or studying them with less intensity potentially makes things less potent. This is why studying to be a Warrior or a Mage would effectively ‘cost’ proficiency in those other areas.
But not all Dracthyr are the same. Every Night Elf can stealth, but not every Night Elf is a Rogue.
And we have Footmen and Grunt NPCs that do the exact same thing. NPCs are not relevant to what the PC can do. It is also grievously stupid that a ‘soldier race’ has no idea how to take a hit, which is why they need classes like Warrior or Paladin or the like so badly.
Yep. I think the backlash Dracthyr received and their resulting perception in the community would have been drastically muted if they were announced alongside Drakonid.
Well, during the initial Dragonflight press blitz, they did namedrop Drakonid in tandem with a comment about Allied Races being added where they make sense. I still feel they’re more “likely” than Earthen ever were. But as Earthen (and Void Elves and Vulpera and…) demonstrated, Blizzard will often defy expectations even in the face of what it seems their setup was.
“When it comes to expanding [the Dracthyr] to other things I think that’s a future conversation that we’ll have about what opportunities make sense, and even opportunities for allied races, too,” Dawson tells PCGamesN. “We’re always having conversations about how can we include more things in that, too. I think going to the Dragon Isles offers us more opportunity to consider things there.
I actually misremembered the context. Amusingly, it directly addresses a recent conversation in this thread.
I do think that we’ll see playable Drakonids before the expansion is over, though. They would be a truly meaty addition at this point in the patch cycle - the kind of addition that would make the point they’re trying to make with the patches between now and TWW.
Your messaging is a little problematic. Drakonid traits aren’t inherently masculine, nor are Dracthyr traits inherently feminine.
The point is, they exemplify different traits. The Drakonid satisfy a desire that Dracthyr do not, and the Dracthyr satisfy a desire that Drakonid cannot. Having access to both - each leaning into their respective strengths - is the solution.
