Looks like the Dalaran portal got an update in the Stormwind Portal Chamber on the PTR. I kind of hope all portals start looking like this one.
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Please change all the portals to this Blizzard.
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Blizzard I know it is a ton of work but you need stop stop teasing us and actually make an effort to get the entire old world updated by the end of next expansion. Just do a little at a time.
I expect orgrimmar and stormwind to be fully remade by the end of BFA though so get on that.
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Iâm glad that they didnât replaced the High Elves there, ty Blizzard, itâs been a long time since i said that without being sarcastic.
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Utherâs tomb was also updated. I wonder what their plans with that are?
If Void Elves were such a failure to appease people who wanted to play a High Elf then why are so many people playing them? Why are most players sporting the same 2-3 hairstyles (the tentacle-free ones) and skin tone #3 (the closest you can get to normal looking ⌠and itâs still awful)?
I tried 3 times to sate my desire to play an actual High Elf in the game by playing a Void Elf ⌠think the longest stretch lasted for 2 weeks. Iâd look at the pale skin and terrible tmogs and Iâd HATE my character. Finally, when my Alliance guild died I said âscrew thisâ and faction changed to play the Elf Model Iâve always wanted to.
Itâs worked out well ⌠Iâm 100% Horde now and loving Trolls as much as Blood Elves. Joined a great guild. All is well.
I do predict that High Elves will NOT be added to the game because:
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Theyâd have to get Ion to admit his stance of High Elves being Blood Elves was wrong. Unlikely to happen.
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Void Elves are THE most played Allied Race so that does imply that all Alliance players wanted was a High Elven model to play. They gave it in the form of an original race and theyâll consider it âjob well done!â and move along. Nothing to motivate them to make another.
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At best, they MAY consider adding High Elven customization to the existing Void Elf options as they did say they would like to look at improving AR customization at some point. Again, no real impetus to create a new AR of High Elves when they could just give void elves some less voidy customization options.
If you want High Elves in the game then stop playing Void Elves. Make a statement. Otherwise youâre setting yourselves up for an echo chamber of defeat.
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apparently it was a student project or something.
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Ion isnât game director forever. Unless he really turns things around this actually likely his last expansion. All game directors so far have only been in that position for 2-3 expansions regardless of how well they did.
The fact is he isnât good in that role. He canât effectively manage the entire game. He comes from class design and he is good at that. MoP had great class design as well as WoD and legion. BFA he seemed to put more focus on other things and everything suffered because of it.
I just donât believe he is cut out for it. Let him go back to heading up the class design team and let someone who can better manage all departments take the reigns.
Regardless as has been pointed out many times you can walk around in game and ask random void elf players and most will tell you they would have preferred high elves.
From a story standpoint there is no reason not to add them. From a business standpoint it is detrimental to not add them especially with allied races being a thing now.
For those that believe it would blur faction lines then you truly donât understand the differences between them. They can easily and justifiably be made to look different and culturally they are practically opposites.
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I agree with you to a point that storywise there is no reason to add them ⌠or WAS no reason. They decided they were going to add a blood elf modeled elf to the Alliance. Instead of the existing race in the game, they made one up ⌠and THEN they made them defected Blood Elves. This is even more a sign that their belief is Blood Elves ARE the only High Elves in the game that constitute a ârace.â
Business-wise Iâm going to disagree with you to a point. Again, with Allied Races being the most played AR (and likely some race change money coming along with that) there is nothing from a business sense that says âHigh Elves MUSTbe added.â Do i think theyâd make money off High Elves? Yes, Definitely. Do they think High Elves would bring in coin? Probably ⌠but I doubt theyâre going to hitch their wagon to it right now.
I think it would take an actual expansion where the High Elves are more of the story than the barely supporting NPC characters for them to add High Elves at this point.
Right now we have Alleria handing out useless upgrades on the boat in Kulâtiras and one High Elven NPC that opens a portal for ya to Arathi. Legion had a great set up to High Elves being added with Alleria returning and reuniting with Vareesa. They could have run with so much momentum and given High Elves a go.
You got Void Elves instead. Congrats. RIP.
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That looks pretty spectacular, portals definitely could use an update like this. Theyâre looking a bit dated.
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You understand the reasons why people play Void Elves: They are the closest thing of a High Elf on the Alliance this game has to offer, and many, just like you did, dislike their visual aspects, normally hiding their blue skin and hair with the most armor as possible.
They want High Elves in the game so they can stop playing Void Elves and actually have their High Elven fantasy fulfilled
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To be fair most Kul Titans, especially the story centric ones like the Proudmoores are not fat.
Which is something that annoys me about the Kul Tiran allied race, and why I will not be making one.
That being said I have no particular desire to see a muscular elf model for high elves. Not only would that drastically decrease the likelihood of us seeing them cause Blizzard will go, ânew models is a lot of workâ I donât see any reason for it.
I like the idea of adding some tattoos like you see on Alleria and going with a sod blueish underglow on the skin to counter the blood elves red one. Thatâs pretty much all I want (or expect) to see.
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Canât believe this is still going. Weâve reached chicken or the egg levels of controversy here.
There was no reason to make a bunch of Blood Elves dab into the Void following the Legion story, remember, Void Elves are a Legion Allied Race, and in that expansion the High Elves were present in multiple patches, it was a really strange decision by Blizzaard. There was a story to add High Elves that was build on Legion, just as you said:
Actually this is a signal that the devs didnât wanted to turn High Elves into Void Elves opting to use Blood Elves instead to keep the High Elves as a long term future possibility.
I agree, and that expansion was Legion, but BfA still have a lot of content and lore to be uncovered. I donât think High Elves are going to be added in BfA honestly, but we might see them as one of the pre-order Allied Races for the next expansion like the 4 ones we got for preordering BfA.
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This is assuming that they keep adding more Allied Races in future expansions. Do you really think they will?
Ion said himself this expac is about the faction experience. Adding Allied Races is a natural extension of that. You need soldiers to fight a war. He used this justification to explain why classes feel worse than Legion ⌠Legion was the âclassâ expansion.
More Ion hyperbole but I donât think Allied Races is going to be a key component of every expansion going forward. I think where it makes sense to introduce them they MIGHT but Iâm not betting on it.
As I said previously: The best to hope for at this point is less Void-like customization for the Void Elves.
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Yes, why not? Allied Races are easy to make, most of them just recolors of existing models with different hair styles and features, not that this is a bad thing, itâs efficient. Itâs very rentable too, in a greedy perspective from Actiblizzion, doing more is the way to go.
Excluding the idea of AR being just money grabs, some of the most active threads and communities in the game are the ones dedicated to Allied Races, they have a large support from the playerbase.
World of Warcraft as a whole is about character experience, Allied Races were designed with character customization in mind, and they still have a lot of ground to explore in terms of possible future Allied Races.
About the secont statement, i doubt that Ion said that, but the class design being bad as it is have nothing to do with Allied Races, this is purely class designers and balance team fault. Allied Races are designed by the art and lore team probably with the exception of their racials.
If Ion was trying to use the Allied Races and the faction feeling of the expansion as a justification to poor class design, i have even less respect for him.
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Oh absolutely. Itâs one of the systems theyâve added to the game recently that has shown majority approval by players. Not everyone is happy about the requirements to unlock them, but players are pretty stoked at the idea of new races to play.
At the end of the day, so long as the rigs arenât completely new, Allied Races are pretty easy to implement. They achieve that metric of increasing those hours played since they have an incentive to take an Allied Race to maximum level, and even if people donât do that, if they want to play the Allied Race, theyâll pace to race change/faction change/level boost.
For minimal work, incredible profit can be had. Allied Races will stick around for sure. I doubt weâll see as many added in future expansions as weâre seeing added in BFA, but I wonât be surprised to see some added spontaneously if the Quarterly Reports need padding.
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Uh, I play a Void Elf and I actually like their void themes. Iâve also been enjoying their involvement in the War Campaign. If I only cared about having ânormalâ skin and hair, then this character would still be a Blood Elf.
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exactly and due to the backlash of the playerbase in regards to the choices they have made with them I would not be surprised at all if they are planning another 4 race pre order themed around âold allegiancesâ. This likely wouldnât have been the original plan but allied races are successful, easy to make, and a large chunk of the playerbase really wants those classic faction races that are not playable yet.
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Good for you. The majority want high elves over void elves. That isnât to say they donât like them for what they are but they in no way, shape, or form can ever cover the want for high elves.
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