I remember tons of criticism about how classes were forced into homogenized versions - Paladins and Priests being particularly egregious. The Druid one was basically Night Elves and friends, as Druid lore tends to be, but this was over drive.
Some were popular with their fans - DK, Shaman, Rogue, and Warlock were fine. Even Rogues complained about being in the sewer instead of Ravenholdt manner. I hear Warriors roundly applaud their order hall.
I think maybe Alliance Paladins, Druids, and Mages were over the moon - it was largely the Horde that got folded into Alliance themes.
Yeah, my opinion on them hasn’t changed at all. I quite like the Warlock one, the DH one, and the DK ones. These especially cool because they’re essentially continuations of the existing class storylines - the Warlock one really works as a direct follow-up to the Green Fire questline.
I always found the Hunter hall painfully bland, the Paladin hall pathetically homogenous, and the Warrior hall a bizarre tangent into a culture that not only has nothing to do with my character but has nothing to do with any character.
Well, if Blizzard had been a little more original with the main city in Legion and not used Dalaran, maybe the Mage Order Hall could’ve been some long abandoned Highborne research laboratory, with wings dedicated to other races’ knowledge on magic (so there would actually have been a section with a lot of troll-mage stuff for example, and sections where Draenei mages could’ve brought in their crystals, etc…)
But, no. Let’s re-use Dalaran, and make it neutral again after kicking the Horde out of it in a brutal, buggy, hot mess from MoP. Because Horde players will surely love THAT.
Yeah sadly I think the intent for the class halls was to encompass the broadest interpretation of those classes as they’ve appeared in the lore. Sadly this meant that outliers like troll druidism and tauren sunwalkers kinda got left out.
I think they’re more enjoyable if they’re thought of as stories about specific groups. Like the mage order hall is just a Kirin Tor questline, or the rogue order hall is just the story of the Uncrowned. That’s really the only way I could tolerate the warrior order hall at the time because of how disconnected it was with everyone on Azeroth’s culture.
I’d argue the Kirin Tor is the largest, most relevant faction of mages that could be drawn from as most of the races had some kind of cultural tie in to the Kirin Tor, though in fairness those individual racial cultures got swept aside in favor of generic Kirin Tor aesthetic.
Funny enough I think one of the reasons why the warlock order hall worked is one of the reasons the warrior order hall (for me) was pretty awful. Warlock order hall largely ignored overall racial baggage to instead focus on what makes up a warlock and focus on their similarities and differences as a call.
Warrior order hall ignored the racial baggage and instead gave us great value Valhalla, while kinda ignoring the aspects that made up a warrior (to a degree)
But yes. Inconsistent is a good way to describe them in a lot of aspects.
The core issue with Warriors is that the Warrior class fantasy is inseparable from whatever race you’re playing. Orc Warrior players care about being Orcish Berserkers. Human warriors care about being Knights of Stormwind. Forsaken care about being Deathguard of the Forsaken, Night Elves care about being Sentinels of Darnassus. None of these fantasies can exist without the race.
The Warrior hall should have been the one place where the factions continued to exist. It should have been some kind of unified Horde/Alliance military command where every race’s armies gathered to face the legion together.
That would have been really cool to see. It could have some good story potential too as we explore the different beliefs each of these different warriors had from one another and kind of compare and contrast them.
This is why it took the Kul Tiran Thornspeakers and Zandalari Raptari to finally get me to make a Druid. Finally! Druidic orders that exist outside of the Night Elves and the Cenarion Circle.