I was recently looking at all the race and class restrictions currently in WoW, and I noticed that there is nothing really stopping every race from being every class on a physical level. Yes, there are significant cultural boundaries built up within the Warcraft races. For example, I don’t think Draenei would take kindly to would-be Warlocks training in Azuremyst (I don’t know if any of the crashed Draenei would want to in the first place), and I think Tauren who wanted to dabble in the shadier classes would be looked down upon within their clans. However, these restrictions are all cultural.
With Exile’s Reach being the new canon starting zone for most classes, what is stopping more races from trying out previously off-limits classes – away from their homelands? I find it hard to believe that after being exposed to them, zero Goblins would want to be Monks, or zero Night Elves would want to be Paladins, etc. The Pandaren Monk trainers all over Azeroth (and the many non-Pandaren Monks who have trained under them) have shown that anyone is teachable if given the opportunity (except Lightforged Draenei, apparently… good one Blizzard). The PC is already a unique/special character within the Warcraft universe, so they shouldn’t be bound to arbitrary cultural norms.
When Blood Elves were given the opportunity to play Warriors and Gnomes were given the chance to play Priests and later Hunters, the sky didn’t fall. When Dwarves could learn how to be Mages, Warlocks and Shaman and Tauren were allowed to start playing Paladins and Priests (all overnight), the World of Warcraft didn’t end.
Hello I want gnome druids! Not only would they be very cute, and adorable, but they would also have teeny little owl form and kitten form and I love it!!
The restrictions are cultural, but the player character isn’t even LIVING within their racial culture. We sod off into the sunset and across the world to help our larger faction and the world itself almost immediately.
Additionally, the player character is an individual, not part of a hivemind. It’s OKAY to pick up a skillset that’s counter to their typical culture.
If anything, it would be a good opportunity for some added flavor. Let the player character Draenei be a Warlock. Yes, they’ll get dirty looks from Draenei NPCs. So put that in the game. Get NPC Whispers on occasion if you walk by Draenei. Start your Exodar rep at halfway through “Disliked” with key NPCs kept Neutral so you can still interact with them. Stop the whispers and emotes and such when you raise that rep out of Disliked. Maybe throw some kind of extra tax on generic vendors and services that are being used while Disliked (which could be avoided by… going to another city).
Boom. Extra flavor that doesn’t negatively impact the game in any way and doesn’t bend or break any lore. Your character may be a weirdo, but that’s okay, and now you have the opportunity to work through your poor reputation.
And that’s an extreme example. Several combinations aren’t even taboo, they’re just not “typical”, and wouldn’t require any extra bits like that.
I’m tired lol Don’t get me started on my silly things today, because it won’t stop. I just typed out a whole time gate joke, only to delete it because it went too far
I’d say exploding or phasing out of existence is a BIG physical boundary… Fel, Light, and Void do not mix… in fact their explosive results is why the WoW equivalent of the big bang even happened.
Priests channel the Light externally, it’s one of the major differences between a Priest and a Paladin. This was explained/shown in the book Arthas.
Besides demon hunters I don’t really see a need to have any class/race restrictions.
Especially with the way Blizzard handles the current lore/story of the game it wouldn’t take much to create some stupid why certain combinations could all of sudden make sense.
Exile’s Reach really isn’t a different thing. You start off as a green adventurer sailing on a ship and unexpectedly crashing on an island.
Prior to that you’re still from the culture of your race. You were a draenei from Azuremyst who’s lived a whole draenei life up until that point. You were a dwarf from Ironforge, or an orc from Orgrimmar. You grew up among your people and so still usual class restrictions apply.
It’s not about capability, it’s about making races feel like they have unique identities and pros and cons. Opening all classes for all of them reduces races to just empty cosmetic skins with no self-identity whatsoever. Because now there’s no real meaning to your race choice anymore and Blizz has stopped caring about their world. I think the game would suffer more for it.
I’m sorry, but no, Draenei do not turn into Eredar because they use some Fel Magic. Sargeras literally turned them into Demons. That’s a bit different. WoD even had non-red Draenei using Warlock spells.
It’s more of a vague “corruption” thing than an “oh no they casted Implosion” thing.
I mean, every single restriction is because Blizzard says so. Blizzard/Danuser could wave their hands next week and say Paladins now channel the light externally. It would cause confusion, but its their game and lore.
I hope they get rid of the race/class restrictions next expansion. Let people have fun. Let them pick the race and class they want. Fuse the allied races with the parent races on the same faction. Let us choose what we want to be called. That includes things like high elf identities, choosing your orc clan or troll clan. Maghar/ fel orc. Etc.
They need to make changes to make this game fun again and not a chore.
Ironically, you play a race/class that wouldn’t exist if Blizzard didn’t have the Pandaren teach it to you in Northshire. Human Monks have no self-identity. Everything in their class is Pandaren-themed.
You’re playing with a cosmetic skin for your Monk because you didn’t want to be Pandaren.
