The Unofficial Saurok Playable Race Discussion Megathread! šŸŠ

Sorry that is the worgen animation.

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That would explain it then. I figured it was just a leftover from the male Worgen animation. Thank you both for confirming! I wouldā€™ve been surprised if it was something unique to Saurok. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

Both me. Posted on wrong toon. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Had a thought of a potential recruitment scenario for Saurok. During a mission a Horde party is ambushed but saved by a mysterious band of Saurok. Seeking to thank these strangers you are sent to find them. Once found you discover that this group seeks to build a society for themselves but being born as weapons they havenā€™t a clue where to begin.
Bringing them before the Horde Council you tell them of the Saurokā€™s desire and the council agrees to accept the Saurok into the Horde to add their strength to the Horde and guide them on how they can build their own future.

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Saurok wouldnā€™t work for the same reasons Ogres donā€™t work. They are primitive and stupid compared to other races.

I dunno, Ogres managed to build an empire back on Draenor and there have been cases like the Ogriā€™la Ogres who were rather intelligent.

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Two headed ogres are smart, but thatā€™s it, and they are supposed to be rare.

Donā€™t mind Zaeliss. They just come into threads about ARā€™s to be negative.

(theyā€™re upset they havenā€™t unlocked mechagnomes.)

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The thing about Ogres is that most are seen as stupid, but they have made quite a few innovations. Orc ship designs actually come from Ogres, and the Stonemaul Clan, who are already part of the Horde, did sail to Dustwallow Swamp. They may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I donā€™t see how that would bar them from being a playable race. If anything, being dumb and primitive-like is a great character trait for them that offers some flavor among the Horde races in terms of worldbuilding. Not to mention some Ogre clans had empires in the past.

I have admitted, however, that some creative writing is needed for Saurok to make them work, but it isnā€™t impossible. An example I use quite a lot are the Gilblins, who went from dumb angry mooks who obsessed over shiny treasures and loot to potential allied race with some more intelligence and personality. If Blizzard can do that for Gilblins, then why not Saurok, who are smart enough to work in pirate crews?

Anyway, Ogres and Saurok are both my most wanted races, and Iā€™ll continue to support both best as I can as playable Horde races, allied or core. :japanese_ogre: :crocodile:

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Where do people get this idea that sauroks are braindead slobbering knuckle draggers incapable of any form of coherent thought? Theyā€™re plenty smart enough to coordinate and organize themselves, speak (They donā€™t often, but when they do they donā€™t speak in broken english as you would expect a ā€œstupidā€ race to do), craft very well made and stylish armor, etc.

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A lot of the Saurok we did see in MoP were not exactly civilized, with Lorewalker Cho even saying they were pea-brained. Some were above the others slightly in that regard while others tended to be feral-like at times, sorta like the recent Clearscale tribe. Though, we did see some like the Brinescale more civilized than we had seen previously.

The thing about being primitive is that it shouldnā€™t be too much of a hindrance. Way back in Warcraft III, the Darkspear Trolls were primitive in many ways, albeit not stupid of course, and were welcomed into the Horde. In some ways, you could say even the Orcs at the time had some primitive characteristics, which can be argued as a defining characteristic of the Horde in general, though not for all races of course.

Some time has passed since MoP, and itā€™s weird how some Saurok are still rather primitive and some have evolved some to engage as part of a society with others. Whether itā€™s natural evolution, part of the flesh shaping magic that created them, or if some gained intelligence from looting Mogu artifacts, there are Saurok out there that arenā€™t as we saw them before. They wonā€™t be making their own space crafts and lightsabers, of course, but theyā€™re far from being on the same level on a whole as something like Troggs.

Not to mention that there are multiple tribes that weā€™re meeting that have left Pandaria, so who knows what other tribes are out there and what civilization age theyā€™re at? If the Brinescale can work with others as pirates, I still say there is a chance a tribe out there can work with the Horde in a bigger goal. Just my opinion, of course. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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A lot of the whole thing with the gilblins probably has a lot to do with tribe too since as there is probably dozens of them all over the seas of Azeroth, but Kelfin just happen to be especially selfless.

EDIT:
What this means is that theoretically there could be a tribe of Sauroks that could someday see themselves as allies.

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I mean, we see Saurok pirates working with a variety of other races. All the time. Constantly.

The ā€˜Nope theyā€™re too stupid to work with peopleā€™ excuse fliiiiiies right out the window when you realize that part. Not to mention theyā€™re also plundering islands, like Vryā€™kul, Mantid, GOBLINS (oh hey theyā€™re playable), Trolls (Also playable) and etc for resources. Generally you need coordination for that, and organization. The fact that people still think Saurok are unintelligent is kinda laughable.

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Another thing to note is that, in terms of current NPC races, the Forest Hozen did join the Horde in MoP, and theyā€™re both primitive and are a few bananas short of a bunch. The Horde even let one become a Korā€™kron Vanguard:

Hozen, in my opinion, would function just fine as an allied race, and if Hozen can become elite units of the Horde, Iā€™m sure Saurok would work just fine as members of the Horde and be able to work together with the other Horde races.

Besides, Iā€™m sure the butchers in Orgrimmar would love the booming business they would get with Saurok becoming members of the Horde. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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I was thinking about that on my Horde toonsā€¦ Why does the Horde get to see their Hozen but we never see Jinyu on the Alliance? o-O

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If I were to guess, it might be because the Pearlfin Jinyu want to be close to fresh water so they donā€™t dry outā€¦that or Hozen are more cute and marketable. :v

So I thought of a fun World Quest that could be a neat reference. Thereā€™s an arcade game called ā€œRampage,ā€ a game series I grew up playing a lot, where one of the playable characters is a giant lizard named Lizzie:

Each of the three playable characters is a human that turned into a giant monster. Lizzie was actually a woman who swam through a radioactive lake. I think you can guess who I played the most. :lizard:

Anyway, my World Quest idea is that of a giant female Saurok, named Eliza or Elizabeth as the reference, attacking an Alliance base somewhere, where you need to take her down by jumping into a tank to shoot explosives. Tanks are one of the more annoying enemies in the games, so it makes sense to use them here.

Alliance NPC: A Saurok just swam through a lake the Goblins dumped some chemical waste in and grew in size and hunger! Quick, get into one of the nearby tanks and take them down before they cause too much damage!

You and other players would have to keep shooting her while trying to avoid getting kicked around and knocked out of the tank.

Alliance NPC: (When finishing the world quest) That lizard went on quite the rampage! Those Goblins really need to figure out a better waste-management system!

Just a fun idea I had for a world quest I wanted to share with a game series I like.

More Saurok research to continue in the future! :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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Today I wanted to look at another lizardman race for some Saurok idea inspiration, and this one both is a very important one to me and has been a long time coming. Letā€™s look at the Iksar from Everquest.

Original models:

Luclin Models:

https://giantbomb1.cbsistatic.com/uploads/scale_medium/0/1992/965952-race_iksar_luclin.jpg

Everquest 2 models:

Also in ā€œChampions: Return to Armsā€ on the Playstation 2, a male Iksar Shaman was a selectable character. You can see a few customization options here:

This was the race that both got me interested into Everquest, MMORPGā€™s in general, and of course lizardmen as a fantasy race.

There is quite a bit to their backstory, but Iā€™ll talk about it briefly. It starts with them having been enslaved by a group of snake people, known as the Shissar. Eventually the god of fear, Cazic-Thule (who had created the Iksar), used green mist which killed the majority of the Shissar, setting the Iksar free.

When freed from slavery, the Iksar decided to make their own empire, experimented with dark magic such as necromancy and combining two creatures to make new ones, and set off conquering the land of Kunark. They enslaved several races on the continent and fought wars with the Ring of Scale dragons. However, like with most empires, it crumbled as the enslaved races fought back and destroyed many of their buildings and structures before eventually fighting each other for territory. The majority of Iksar did survive this, however, and lived in the ruins of their capital city, Cabilis.

Iā€™ve mentioned before how itā€™s a common theme that a lot of lizardmen races in fantasy media often start out as slaves. Iksar, Saurok, and Arogonians are examples. A shame that people tend to be so mean to these races!

Now that Iā€™ve talked about their backstory briefly, letā€™s look at the type of racials they had in Everquest 1 and see what Saurok ideas they can inspire:

Natural Regeneration- Another lizardman race with natural regeneration. Something Saurok should have in some fashion, in my opinion.

Natural armor- Iksar start with a higher natural armor, which was to offset their inability to wear plate armor. Having natural scales, I do think Saurok would benefit from having a form of natural armor, specifically against physical attacks. Highmountain Tauren have something similar with Rugged Tenacity, so Iā€™m sure something could be thought of.

Infravision- Being able to see heat signatures is a neat idea that could have some neat functionality, especially in something like PvP against stealthed units. Iā€™m sure there could be some PvE uses also.

Starts with 100 skill points in Swimming- Iā€™m still of the opinion that playable Saurok should have a faster swimming speed and be able to hold their breath longer compared to other races. This especially since a few tribes are able to swim through the ocean, so it just makes some sense to me.

Being able to forage- I donā€™t really see a forage skill working the same in WoW, but being able to have some extra skinning skill bonuses and being able to loot more meat/bones off mobs is a neat idea. Not to mention being able to eat dead mobs like the Forsaken racial is an amusing idea.

+5 fire resist, -10 cold resist - Being cold blooded, it would make sense for Saurok to be a bit weaker to cold attacks, but taking less damage from fire magic or other magic types in general (reflective scales maybe?) would be an interesting tradeoff. Just adds some flavor in characters, although I donā€™t know how you would balance this with frost mages in PvP.

I attempted to look for their racials in Everquest 2 and couldnā€™t find much information. Although Iā€™m sure they have some similar racials, I know that Everquest 2 operates a bit differently, so Iā€™m unsure if they have anything in Everquest 2 that they didnā€™t in Everquest 1.

Their classes in Everquest 1 are:

Beastlord
Monk
Necromancer
Shadow Knight
Shaman
Warrior

In Everquest 2, all races can be all classes.

There is quite a bit to Iksar that I know Iā€™ve left out, such as more to their backstory and even some notable lore figures, but I wanted to focus on some general gameplay designs of them. If I find anything else of interest regarding them that could inspire some Saurok ideas, Iā€™ll be sure to share them here.

Iksar mean a lot to me and were the first characters I ever made when I first played Everquest. If Saurok ever got to be playable in WoW, I would love to be able to recreate my Iksar characters in the game. Iā€™m sure there are several others who would love to do the same. With any luck, weā€™ll see Saurok as members of the Horde someday.

More Saurok research to continue in the future! :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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Regeneration does seem to be common along with armor abilities for lizard men in many settings.

I wonder if blizzard would do it given trolls have regen but Iā€™d bet anything theyā€™d do something for the armored scales.

Swim speed and water breathing also seem common and id love to see it.

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I would like (and am expecting) to see playable Saurok. :+1::lizard:

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This likely comes from many lizards in real life having the ability to regrow parts of their body. I do think it is a defining characteristic of lizardmen as a result, and is a reason Iā€™m in support of Saurok having passive regeneration as a racial.

As Iā€™ve mentioned before a few times on the forums, my opinion is that a currently playable race having a particular racial should not mean that no other future playable race canā€™t have it, assuming it is within reason.

I often cite the example of Forsaken not needing to breathe underwater along with playable Gilblins and Jinyu/Ankoan. It doesnā€™t mean sense for the aquatic races with gills to be able to drown, and one of them getting in should not deter the other from being able to breathe underwater as well.

Passive regeneration is a defining feature of lizardmen, and would work great as a passive racial. Currently, Darkspear Trolls have a 10% health regeneration while Zandalari have a button for regeneration you have to activate. I lean more towards passive regeneration because lizards would naturally have it, as opposed to needing to channel it. Somewhere around the 10% mark would work just fine without it being too overpowering. There would be plenty of other racials that would be unique to Saurok, so sharing one or two isnā€™t that big of a deal to me.

Speaking of, I was thinking of the Hunter pet system and how food is separated into categories. I thought of the idea of a Saurok racial consisting of gaining a buff of some sort from eating meat and fish food items. It wouldnā€™t be too overpowering, but I figure a Saurok with a full belly of meat is a happy Saurok that would function better in combat. It would also inspire players to work more with their cooking and fishing skills. Not to mention the various meat and fish recipes Saurok cooking trainers would have.

Considering several tribes have swam off Pandaria across huge distances in the ocean, it makes a lot of sense to give playable Saurok faster swim speed and increased breath meter underwater to me. Would also be amusing to have Saurok swim and board Alliance ships to help take them down, seeing as Saurok are also great climbers.

In terms of racials, there are plenty you can do to make Saurok unique, even if they share a racial or two. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

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