The Unofficial High Elf Discussion Megathread

Drede-cairne · March 25, 2019, 5:36pm

I appreciate how you can look through the perspective of your characters without making the arguments personal.

Elenedhel-moon-guard · March 25, 2019, 6:15pm

Let them come! They will find us all ready, with cold hard facts, passionate desires and…
Tea.
Flips hair and then sips some of that tea.

Elenedhel-moon-guard · March 25, 2019, 6:21pm

Back in the day:
In Wrath, many Belf DKs were rolled up and RPed as ‘High Elves’ i.e., the blue eyes.
Mea culpa.
Some still do, in fact.
Mea culpa.
So yes, there does seem to be a definite ingame call for them.
Flips hair, sips tea and then admires his lovely golden eyes in a fine Sin’dorei hand mirror

Ozrhyel-dawnbringer · March 25, 2019, 6:41pm

Im not sure it has been mention before as this post keeps growing and evolving…

But I had this idea…we know for a fact that the Dragon Island is coming sometime in the future… What if the existing High Elves made a “Life Binding Pack” with the remaining Dragons where they bind their soul to a Dragon egg… in order to protect their both dying races.

They High elf could then become protectors of these. As a passive you get a personal Dragon whelp, you can pet battle with. When you gain more levels it becomes a Companion (powers would depend on the color race of dragon) like hunter pets, then a Dragon Mount, then you can fuse to become a Flying mount Dragonspawn that can give rides to a party member and when you reach max level with your class you can activate a racial that fuses you turning you temporary, into a "Drakonid " giving you a buff depending of the Dragon you chose in the beginning.

In the character customization you get to customize your Dragon Companion and your fuse form. Even add dragon features to them would be cool.

I know its really a crazy idea that came to me when reading on how Dragons prefer to use High elf form…sorry if it sounds silly.

Elenedhel-moon-guard · March 25, 2019, 6:47pm

YES! THIS! So VERY much THIS!
Let the Dragonborn come!
Flips scales

Lydon-emerald-dream · March 25, 2019, 6:49pm

I mean, I agree High Elves were perfect for the Allied Race system. Ticked every box in my mind. Most obvious choice for the system, to me.

But clearly, Blizzard had an issue with them being either too similar to Blood Elves, too scattered and undefined, too bland to write, or some other unspoken reason. I personally feel High Elves were probably too boring. They’re Blood Elves without all the interesting story they’ve had for their people for 16 years. While I’m not saying High Elves have sat on their hands, they certainly haven’t had major impact beyond that of supporting actors.

On citable source, they’ve claimed they went with Void Elves primarily because playable High Elves would have blurred faction lines, to which I still agree.

Pandaren as a counterpoint to this is equivilent only in pure technical function. The actual, tangible impact of Pandaren on both sides (a mere 2.5% per faction), is nothing like identical Thalassian Elves on both sides would be (~34% of the Horde, likely 15-20% projected for Alliance), i.e., a situation where nearly 50% of all players would look pretty much identical, compared to the Pandaren’s current 5%. Not even remotely equivilent conversations.

I don’t think High Elves were passed up out of spite, more that internal design debates reached an impasse very much identical to the one the Pros and Antis find themselves in on the forums, so they took a middle ground in Void Elves instead.

This had a side effect of allowing darker stories to be told under Alliance banners, and to be able to write new lore unhinged from Blood/High Elves due to being transformed and warped directly by the Void. It’s basically a blank slate, which is always more appealing to storywriters and artists alike.

Vexander-wyrmrest-accord · March 25, 2019, 7:00pm

I mean, I’ve suggested the High Elves becoming Dragonsworn and getting some additional customization options through that such as horns and skin colors relating to the color of the dragonflights or their forms (such as Ysera having purple skin, yes I know she technically takes on the form of a Night Elf, but uses that modified Blood Elf female model still).

It wasn’t a popular suggestion as many felt High Elves would lose their lore and just end up being an extension of Dragon Lore.

Ozrhyel-dawnbringer · March 25, 2019, 7:06pm

Really? Aw, sorry I miss that! I would have totally support your post… As I do agree that High Elf need a bit more to go on… to be at par with the Darkfallen Horde contemporary Race.

I probably should get back to playing I’m getting way to exited about these 2 races and they are not even plan or mention to come up in the future, don’t want get my expectation to high…specially how things are coming up lately.

Vexander-wyrmrest-accord · March 25, 2019, 7:07pm

It was quite some time ago. Like, about a year, a little less.

Fyrebusche-kiljaeden · March 25, 2019, 7:09pm

tbf, like Ion said, we still dont know who they are. they dont really have an identity that makes them distinct from blood elves. did they just leave quel’thalas because the idea of siding with trolls and orcs was too much? are they not interested in faction conflicts and just live ordinary lives as farmers or w.e? i mean theyre just not out there like the allied races were, theyve literally just been relegated to flavor NPCs every time we see them

Nicodemùs-argent-dawn · March 25, 2019, 7:11pm

So basically you’re admitting they have a lot of story to tell. Thanks for that.

Talendrion-wyrmrest-accord · March 25, 2019, 7:13pm

Jesus Christ

Lavinya-moon-guard · March 25, 2019, 7:14pm

So Void Elves are intentionally bad so that we don’t see too many Thalassians, then?

And 20% of a faction being an Allied Race seems pretty wild of a claim. If they’re boring, why would 1/5th of the Alliance be playing them?

Lydon-emerald-dream · March 25, 2019, 7:18pm

Because they’re pretty. Lore doesn’t matter to the average person playing this game, regretable as that is.

I also said 15-20%, which is a fair estimate between where Void Elves are now, and where Humans/Night Elves are. Any number in that spread would make half the players of this game Thalassian Elves.

Also, I don’t think Void Elves are intentionally “bad”. I think they were intentionally different. The idea of an identical race for both factions hasn’t been repeated in 3 expansions past the one that last happened in.

Fyrebusche-kiljaeden · March 25, 2019, 7:19pm

those are really the only 2 named high elves i can think of easily. and alleria is a void elf now

Fliktarg-thrall · March 25, 2019, 7:21pm

due note ari is an arcane being. We don’t know what she actually is but she isn’t mortal.

Talendrion-wyrmrest-accord · March 25, 2019, 7:22pm

Are you sure? I got the idea she was a High Elf that suffered an arcane accident from the quests.

Lavinya-moon-guard · March 25, 2019, 7:23pm

So you genuinely think over 1/10 of Max Level players would either race change to High Elf or level one from 20 to 120 and main that?

Because if so, Blizzard made some terrible financial decisions. That’s a damn gold mine.

Fliktarg-thrall · March 25, 2019, 7:24pm

that may be the case. She is a rather simple character and not erribly complex though. I knew an accident happened but I thought that caused memory loss and is the reason why she acts so weird.

Though I figured she wasnt mortal because she was said to be around for thousands of years.

wait nope. Just read up and she is just a normal mortal high elf. A powerful archmage in fact at least until the accident.

Lavinya-moon-guard · March 25, 2019, 7:27pm

I honestly dunno what idea is more laughable - Blizzard not making an Allied Race that they know would bring a fortune, or the writing team being behind Void Elves because they wanted blank slates.