I’m posting to share feedback on the Skyborn race in WoW Forever. This isn’t meant to debate whether they belong in the game, but to suggest changes Blizzard could make before launch, specifically to the race’s customization options.
WoW Forever offers both standard and high definition character models so it can appeal to Classic and Retail players alike. The Skyborn, however, appear to have been designed with only Retail models and Retail customizations. This seems to be a deliberate design choice rather than a limitation of older art tools, and it has produced bright, high contrast colors that don’t suit the Classic art style, including:
- Hair colors such as bright pink and blue
- Skin color contrast and brightness
- Eye colors
- Feather contrast and sheen
To be clear, I’m not questioning the blue skin tone or the overall color palette. My concern is how the contrast and brightness sit against the Classic art style and world. Immersion matters, and without a standard definition Skyborn model, the gap between the race and the old world breaks it.
I want Blizzard to get this right. My suggestion is to either add an SD model for the Skyborn or revisit the contrast and brightness of their palettes so the race fits naturally into the world. If the Skyborn truly feel like they belong, players will love it.
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IIRC we’ve had wild hair colors since Vanilla. Gnomes in particular stand out as having wild hair colors?
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Not related to your feedback on colors and brightness, but a comment on Skyborne customizations that is way too small to have its own thread. Maybe it matters to someone else like it matters to me.
Can we please get the old “Elaborate” (topknot ponytail) hairstyle back, instead of that weird abomination they changed it to in retail years ago? Originally it looked the same on the elf skeleton as it did (and I think still does) on the Draenei one. Then they added a really weird and jarring ponytail holder for elves only that makes no sense, looks terrible, and makes it bounce weird, and frankly I just can’t work with it. 
I’m aware of how insignificant this may seem to a lot of people, but that hairstyle was part of my characters’ identities for years until they arbitrarily changed it, and I’d like to have that back in this Classic setting.
Seems like a small easy change back to something as it originally was, so I figured why not ask.
Edit: I am also aware that Skyborne are not Blood Elves. But then I would argue that they would have sufficient good taste to use the version of the hairstyle that looks like the original (and Draenei) one. They seem a sensible enough lot, they wouldn’t just stick a random ponytail holder under an already fastened ponytail.
Edit2: Isn’t memory a funny thing? Apparently that hairstyle wasn’t added for Blood Elves until the barber shop was introduced in Wrath, so in BC I guess I only had it for Draenei. But it did exist for blood elves from Wrath to whenever the HD models were introduced and it was changed. And I stand by changing it being a terrible decision.
i would like them to fix the mismatching eye color of the beige/red bear form, it doesnt match with the rest of the forms of the same color and its the only form/color variation that does it 
I think it would be cool if we could choose the Classic druid forms in the barber shop. We do start learning druidy things from the Moonglade druids, so it shouldn’t be impossible lore-wise. If my potato form can be the same as a night elf’s, my other forms should be able to as well.
i don’t have the source but i do recall hearing that they will have SD models at launch. this was not a deliberate decision. this was a matter of not having enough time to implement them for the beta because the SD models weren’t planned in the first place and were implemented after feedback from the streamer playtest.
regarding colors, why are they a problem? gnomes have very bright and saturated hair as well. and so do the night elves. and the trolls. night elves have purple skin and trolls can be blue, teal, purple or green. orcs can be green and yellow. all of those are fairly bright and saturated as well.
if we look at the night elf and tauren HD druid forms they clearly are reflective of their respective color palettes. for skyborne the same is also true. if we gave trolls druid in wow forever the skyborne would not stand out next to them at all, and the troll druid forms were designed in cataclysm before any of the character models were upgraded.
i believe what’s mainly triggering people is association. the owlbears were implemented in dragonflight on retail- an expansion that despite being well received was only two expansions ago and thus is branded as “modern retail slop” by a certain subset of players who shall not be named. the other association being that some of them can be blue skinned. despite the fact that their blue skin matches azshara’s pre-naga skin tone- which makes sense because they are still considered highborne, many people associate it with either the void elves (alliance players in particular would have rather received high elves as an option), or kyrians from shadowlands- an expansion so poorly received that it ranked higher than both cataclysm and warlords of draenor as the worst expansion in WoW’s history. and finally, the fact that the race can be either faction. they share this in common with the pandaren, earthen, dracthyr and haranir. all races with poor reception for various reasons.
i have my own arguments as to why the skyborne are different this time and that people should keep an open mind and push past their initial discomfort, but that would be going beyond the scope of this thread.
Personally, what I’d like to see most is some more dimorphism between the two factions with them. That is, I’d like to see all the hair styles locked to one faction or the other, to maintain a distinct silhouette. Further, they’re blue because “sky”, which makes sense. However, the sky can be many colors throughout the day. Outside of the more high elf range of skin tones, I think the colored ones should be faction locked. The alliance get the noontime blues, while the horde should get sunrise/sunset reds and oranges. Maybe toss in a pitch black one with numerous little starlit “points” all over for good measure?
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Second this. But step further. Id like to atleast have there be some kind of obvious different between the 2 races.
Right now they just both look like free for all elves that can be used to RP as literally any elven race under the sun.
Not saying this exactly but like lighter shades for alliance and darker for horde or something.
i’d like them to keep a handful of customizations in common with eachother, mainly because that will be useful to roleplayers with faction neutral characters so they can create the same character on each side, but i do agree that each faction should also have a number of exclusive customizations. in particular, i love your idea of having different sky colors related to time of day. a starry sky skin would be epic. they could even take it a step further and have skin tones representing the aurora lights.
Yes people were complaining that Skyborn elves had pink hair. Spoiler alert - Gnomes have had pink hair since launch lol.
I see the argument for more dimorphism but it doesn’t really make sense from a lore standpoint for them. The two factions are split by ideology, not biology. It’d be like if you were a normal human because you like pepperoni pizza, and Gary was three feet taller and red because he liked pineapple on Pizza. Baller move, Gary.
Thank you, felt like I was taking crazy pills and I started questioning myself if I remembered wrong!
The “in common” ones I see as being the “high elf” looking ones, since I know a number of people are simply going to use this as a substitute for the ever missing high elves. By locking hair styles so none of them are shared between factions, there’s a pretty easy way just by a glance to see who’s a member of which faction just by shape. Perhaps even the accessories could be particular. Feathers are fitting decorations, though wind swept leaves caught in the hair are great too. (I know, this starts to tread on night elf identity a bit.) Both work very well for naturalistic classes, especially druids. But, one should be horde, the other alliance. I suppose the leaves make a bit more sense for the windshapers, so that could be the divide.
Not to mention that dying one’s hair goes all the way back to ancient Egypt and Greece. And, in the pseudo-medieval fantasy here, it also happened. The dark/middle ages peoples dressed far more colorfully and more expressively than people give them credit for. I’m not saying “weird self insert fan character free for all with heterochromia for everyone”, necessarily, because that feels more like a Modern aesthetic than a Classic one, but there’s room for some creative hair coloring.
It’s funny that here in the real world, blue hair is now seen as this youthful hippy dippy thing. When I was a kid in the 80’s, “blue hairs” were old grannies and aunts adding color to their greying heads.