it’s a system more archaic and counter-intuitive than faction-locked races.
There is basically no reason for this to continue.
the only combination I would have pause over is Velf Pally,
but that’s only because I’m a lore nerd and we have LF S-priests so that ship has sailed.
it has no reason to continue existing.
8 Likes
I want some Worgen totems!
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In short, no. Some restrictions need to stay.
For example as much as I love my Goblin friends… Goblin Druid is one big “no”. Makes 0 sense.
Do some restrictions needed to be lifted? Yes.
Do a lot of them? No.
We only have Lightforged Shadow Priests due to gameplay mechanics.
Same with Void Elves being able to be Discipline or Holy.
I can imagine the outcry if they made it so you cannot be either spec due to lore.
…although I myself have a “Voidforged” Draenei (a tragic character mind you) who is Shadow spec, but in RP she can’t call upon the Light anymore.
4 Likes
Gnome paladins yes please!
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While I support the end of both race/class and faction locked races the reality is that it is a no.
And it has nothing to do with story. I theorize that the reason lies with certain devs and their love of dunking on the Alliance. But that is completely unsubstantiated.
I’ll take 2.
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It’s not archaic or bad. It shows that Blizz actually values their lore and wants races to have their own unique identities. The class restrictions represent their cultures and history. And gives them pros and cons for a more impactful choice.
Going free for all sandbox mode I think removes something important from WoW and it would also mean Blizz has completely stopped caring about their story. Which is bad.
Also there are no lightforged shadow priests, just as there are no void elf holy priests. For gameplay it has to be a thing, they can’t bar off specs. But in lore they wouldn’t and cannot exist.
6 Likes
I would rather they nuke the faction wall first and open up what people can play to every race than have it restricted to two sides.
And when I say open it up so people can play every race, I know they can do that now, but they can’t play with their friends. My best friend would come back to WoW if they could be a Night Elf or a Draenei with my Tauren, as an example. Plus it gives everyone so many more options to be able to play on their respective sides, the race/class restrictions won’t be as bad.
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In addition to that the Devs wouldn’t have to work on 2 AR simultaneously any more. They could literally do 1 at a time without the WoW community blowing up.
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Honestly from a lore perspective, I think the restrictions don’t make a whole lot of sense any more.
For going on 7 years now (since start of WoD), we have been increasingly treated as special. And as of Legion, we’re entirely unique. We, the player character, are treated as a total anomaly and special within the lore.
While the cultures of the various races may dictate what is common for a particular race, we the players do not have to abide by that same commonality.
The real reason why this will never happen as much as I think it should happen is because they would have to figure out how they want to do druid forms (do they share forms with other races, or do they go through the effort to make new models for everyone?), and you could see even bigger race disparities than we already do (like, a ton of blood elves).
This should also happen and is much more likely IMO.
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Exactly. Imagine removing the faction wall and them working on things like Sethrak or Arrakoa (unlikely but MAN I wish) and it isn’t favoring a side which gets what, but everyone has the opportunity to play them.
I sincerely hope so, I’ve wanted it since MoP. And the worst the story gets, the more I think it would be the last hope for me to continue with WoW.
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Humans and skinny elves don’t need more classes.
Races with a few classes, like HMT and LFD, and unpopular races like Mechagnomes and goblins, do need more.
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MAKE TAUREN ROGUES A THING rofl or locks tauren locks would be lore justified
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The other nice thing about your suggestion along with OP’s suggestion is it opens up more RP potential for those who actually do enjoy RP. There’s of course the obvious gameplay benefit of no longer segregating the player base as well.
Hell, neither of these are even that outlandish. Tauren rogues are already a thing with the Grimtotem Clan and there was that clan of Tauren who sided with the Legion in Legion.
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Honestly I see that as the only way forward. The more the devs try to cling to past balance concepts the more of the player-base they will lose.
Players are growing increasingly disinterested in the various systems and content the devs produce. An easy fix would be to take out the walls and let players play what they want. The RP groups in general are already pretty pissed about the “lore” we get. Taking out the barriers would at least please most of them. Especially considering the results of BfA. Many ex-horde simply left the game because they couldn’t stomach being “with the Horde.” And many alliance players crave that combat advantage of the Horde races.
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the mental image of an alliance player hearing very faint clip clop clip clops coming up behind them before getting opened up on is hilarious*
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No.
/10chars
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Oh 100%. I know that a lot of RPers try, there are a lot of big events that use I believe Pandaren, Blood/Void Elf, and Demon Hunter translators (or the Elixir of Tongues), but it’d be cool to have the whole worlds of World of Warcraft for RP, and that’s difficult to do right now when you can’t group up.
Beyond that, it just removes that feeling of “I have to play something I don’t want to to be with my friends, or I play something I do want to and be separated from my friends.” Once upon a time, the faction divide was a source of pride in the community. But thanks to the story (and passage of time), the faction cries at Blizzcon have lessened each year, and people just want that freedom.
I honestly managed to stomach my way through BfA by completely ignoring the story. And I’m enjoying the Shadowlands specific lore, but the over arching narrative is dead for me. My character hasn’t been “Horde” since Cataclysm, and I just have a really hard time associating with it anymore. Ironically after two “what does being Horde mean” type expansions, I still don’t have an answer but I don’t feel like I’m part of it.
But yeah, in regards to the thread specifically, I don’t know if I agree with completely opening up classes and races. But removing the faction divide should help players not feel the impact as much, hence why I will advocate for that instead.
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I hear ya. That said aside from a couple of instances most race and class options should be acceptable. The only one I can think of off the top of my head would be a goblin druid. Mostly because the Goblins have a love for all things that explode, which isn’t very druid like. Demon Hunter restriction shipped with the Murlocs developing similar abilities during Legion. That was the last one I can think off that could have had any real restrictions.
2 Likes