Naga/Sea Elf Race When?

Community General Discussion
1

Look, people have asked for Naga since like EVER.

For the longest time people have thought, how would that work with Transmog or Mounts?

With the bew technology showed by Dracthyr & Worgen’s newest racial.

As well as the precedent set by Mechagnomes & Dracthyr for transmog not having to show on your body.

Its highly possible now for them to make a playable Naga.

In my opinion, the best version of this would have 2 forms.

A Naga form, which would have a few mog items like shoes and helemts missing.

And a Sea Elf form, that would preferably use a modified version of the Zandalari Trolls for the men, and Night Elves for the women. I say this because the Night Elf male form has a weird thing going on with its hip. The Nightborne & Zandalari don’t have this. Despite all 3 races sharing a skeletal base. So perhaps Zandalari lower body and Night Elf faces with unique ears?

Most fantasy sources have several types of Elves, something that WoW has also taken into account. However the universe’s Sea Elves/Naga are not yet playable. And I think allowing for the two forms would increase their popularity as players could be a traditional Sea Elf type race or a Naga at their discretion.

As for any clipping, I mean, the Dracthyr form currently clips like a MOFO.

Lore wise, we see Ashara changing into a LIGHT BLUE night elf throughout various moments in the story. Yet no elven race currently has that light blue skin option. So it’s possible that other naga could also take on a more Elven form that they were changed from.

I saw a REALLY cool concept idea recently, on it, and with the potential of 11.0 being a sea based expansion, I could easily see a chance for them to introduce the Naga/Sea Elf race as an option.

Here’s the concept idea I’d seen:

https ://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/2471956-Nazdorei-(Playable-Naga-Concept)

EDIT: For those against the idea of a separate Elven form.

How would you feel about them still looking more Naga like in the face and body, but having the option to have 2 legs, like the Naga Brutes?

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the way i see it - if they’re opening up all races/all classes - we should def be seeing playable races like Nagas, Ogres, Centaurs, etc. as well. :100:

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With dracthyr not being able to see gear, I could see that happening. Would be cool to be a centaur or dryad.

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It’s been almost 20 years since vanilla, and in that time, they’ve become heavily ingrained in the franchise’s bestiary with the only outliers being Vashj and the few naga in the Illidari. Fan demand ultimately doesn’t matter when the majority of a race plays a role that’s in stark opposition of the current playable races, is already loyal to a leader who is openly and unambiguously villainous, and faces too many technical hurdles for the devs to bother making them work.

A race having legs but no visible pants and shoes is not the same as a race having more or less than two legs, because the former doesn’t need to have parts of the game tailored just for them. Everyone asking for naga and four-legged races (dryads, centaurs, tol’vir, etc.) needs to stop equating the two.

No more elves.

We have four elven races, five counting dracthyr in visage form, and they attract the worse discourse, bar none. Look at all of the threads complaining about how Blizzard treats night elves, claiming that high elves can draw millions of people back to the Alliance, complaining that nightborne should’ve been neutral, etc.

We also don’t need more races with glamor abilities; two is enough. I hate seeing the concept used as a Hail Mary pass to add certain races.

I will never not despise this godforsaken concept because it cannibalizes elements of night elves to warp a largely neutral evil NPC race into something it’s not for the sake of making it playable.

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Let’s not lean into this. Those were both mistakes, transmog availability-wise.

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We don’t need even more stinkin elves.

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Eleven point zero

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Never hopefully.

We just got lizards though so maybe it’s a step in the right direction of what you want.

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Honestly it is disheartening to see devs taking AGES to give us races we actually asked for.

It took 15 YEARS for them to give us something similar to high elves. Let that sink in. FIFTEEN YEARS.

And we STILL haven’t got ogres or naga. Or our beloved Sethrak :frowning:

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Or just make them just be Naga. No more elves, this game has too many and they’d just be night elves again anyway. No need to shoehorn some ugly form onto a race that has no reason to have one just to appease dressup sim players.

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Blizzard will give us “Water elfs” or “Mechanagas” before giving us Forest trolls, so, maybe you will get fish-people in a few years.

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Two forms is the stupidest idea for naga. Please stop perpetuating this incredibly dumb idea. They’re naga, let them be just that. Stop overcomplicating things.

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I mean, Naga are literally the Night Elves that got turned into fish, and can breath water.

They wouldnt not be naga to have an elven form as an option, and if you didnt want to use said option, you wouldnt have to.

I dont think its over complicating anything to allow for a race to have a more humanoid form. Especially when at least 1 NPC already does it. Granted its Ashara of all people, but still.

It honestly probably Decomplicates things.

As lets be honest, the in game naga are kind of like Dracthyr form. Ie: a weirdly codded model that functions like a druid form to begin with.

So adding on a Sea Elf form, would increase customization over-all.

Plus, lets be real, MOST people enjoy elves. Elves sell.

And I dont see Blizz ever going back and giving us Ankoan or Jinyu at this point, lmao.

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I used to like elves, specifically blood elves for their story and concept.

After what I’ve seen become of elves by WoW and the player fantasy obsession…yeah…nah.

The elf market is clearly over saturated and bordering on hated.

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Adding a humanoid form is just reason for Blizzard to neglect the entire naga form and aspect which is literally what the race is. Want customization, working animations, and transmog? Switch to your elf form! Don’t mind being forced out of naga form while using mounts (because blizzard will see no reason to add a simple and easy mount animation to naga), having mismatched transmog pieces between multiple forms (just like dracthyr), etc.

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17

Did you know much of Elves before? Honestly how WoW handles Elves as Fantasy Eevees with different magic. Is how several fantasy sources such as DnD and Elder Scrolls have depicted them for years.

We’ve got Sun, Moon & Wood & Fey Realm, Drow & Astral, Shadow & Space(they looked like Shadar Kai death in WoW imo). The only traditional one not in game is the Sea Elf.

Which we ALL know Naga as is, is WoW’s Sea Elf race. Thats literally what they are, even without a bidepdal more elven look.

Actually, I played before the released the Xpac.

Dracthyr were being focused on for their Dragon Form solely. With Visage form being the random “well, if you wanna look super pretty, heres a ‘in town’ look”. Which is what Visage was.

Initially the visage form was Very limited. But after mass outcry of being “forced” to be furries, they gave Visage form the ability to glide and use some combat spells (mainly pres spec) without shape shifting.

During Beta there were even times when mog would show up on the Dracthyr form. But that all stopped after players wanted the Elf form instead.

Which, every patch has included more Dracthyr animations. They can as of now, do Hunter & Shaman spells in Dracthyr form.

So adding essentially a Visage. Especially one that copies an already made skeleton, wouldn’t take focus or development away from the Naga form. Unless the community ree-ed about “Having to be a Naga” when playing the race. Despite having two forms.

Out of the gate though, adding two forms doesnt take anything away, it adds more to players.

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Naga would be awesome as a playable race.

Not quite true, the bfa zandalari model is not made from the nelf one but it’s a common misconception since the old zandalari NPC model from MoP was based on nelves.

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It’s more than just eevees. Let’s take Elder scrolls for example. Each elf race had extensive back-stories, lore & characteristics that made them unique and at times relatable. There was very little overlap.

For WoW originally with Night and High/Blood elves was a good take on the high elves and wood elf trope, especially with the adaption of the blood elf story which was clearly a fan favourite.

This became lost in translation and it went from the idea of new concepts to simply slightly adjusted varieties. It felt like more elves for the sake of elves rather than actual unique and engaging storylines.

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we need all the elves people.

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The only WoW Elf currently without much backstory or meaning, honestly is the Void Elves. Maybe the Dracthyr Visage Elf…if you count that one.

Nightborne were given extensive lore and culture, to be the Drow concept that Night Elves failed to become from their original conception.

If we got a Sea Elf form ontop of the Naga, as I’m mentioning/wanting. It wouldnt detraft from their lore. Just give them a more Bipedal look as an option. That would likely have Finned Ears & Gill marks, as well as scales somewhere.

Honestly the only loss of meaning for WoW’s elves comes from reading people talk about them on the forums. Or the amount of people who drone on with the Void Elves should be complete High Elves. Which I’ll admit, gets exceedingly tiring to hear, even as someone who would’ve enjoyed having a High Elf on the Alliance.

And the current Blood Elven arc is putting them more inline with the Sun Elves of other franchises. Which is a nice counter foil to Coid Elves. Provided Void Elves get lore sometime in the next 10 years…lol.

Although I miss seeing the Blood Elven savagry in their tactics.