The Unofficial Saurok Playable Race Discussion Megathread! 🐊

Bagzak-rexxar · September 13, 2021, 10:29pm

Saurok Druids could be interesting. I’ve mentioned the idea before that them being Druids could have to do with them taking care of the ecosystem so that they have prey to hunt, if we go with hunting and meat being important parts of Saurok society. I’m not sure how likely that could be, but I’d be curious to see their Druid forms if they were able to become Druids.

It’s hard for me to see any new capital cities unless they act as a hub for new expansions, sadly. Thus a possibly that they’d get the core race treatment and have a capital city on a continent we discover.

A city of sorts in Un’goro Crater would be interesting, though I’d need to fly around it in game to see where they could reside. I haven’t been there in awhile to see where they would build. I would expect more of something on the smaller side as opposed to a grand capital city there, much as I’d love to see a Saurok capital city.

I suppose in Un’goro Crater, there could be platforms that go up into the trees of the area. Sorta like how in Everquest 1, the Wood Elves had their city in the trees or one of the NPC Froglok factions on Kunark had in the Swamp of No Hope. Then again, a lot would depend on what type of architecture Saurok would utilize.

Not to mention that bodies of water would be important to have for Saurok, so I’d expect some big areas of water to swim in. Having some underwater tunnels leading to underground areas would also be cool to have. I remember the Iksar capital city in Everquest 1 had a flowing canal in the majority of the city, where you could swim to an underground maze of sorts.

Seems like another thing to think on, but it does seem like there are plenty of possibilities of what you could see from a Saurok city.

Fallynn-wyrmrest-accord · September 14, 2021, 4:27am

Ah, I would play a Saurok Druid. I feel like they 100% should get a Saurolisk form of some sort. Saurolisk feral?

(why aren’t these a mount though?)

Côrn-illidan · September 14, 2021, 6:49am

I am down for a lizard/dragonkin race, but I honestly feel that the current Saurok model is just clunky and ugly.

Blizzard basivslly don’t wanna make any new race unless they share the same model as the old race now.

Fenelon-wyrmrest-accord · September 14, 2021, 6:50am

Any player race will go through changes between its old npc models and the player one.

Fallynn-wyrmrest-accord · September 14, 2021, 6:56am

Yeah, it’s been shown especially with Zandalari trolls that the model quality can increase based on what is added.

looks at Nightborne

…We’re hoping for a situation unlike that in the future.

Bagzak-rexxar · September 14, 2021, 3:59pm

When it comes to playable Saurok, there are two ways I can see it:

Either new models for male and female Saurok would be made from the ground up, with some similar features to the NPC models with some unique customization options and animations.

Or the Worgen model skeleton will be used for male and female Saurok that playable models of them will be attached to, similar to how some of the allied races were created.

I assume that taking a NPC model of any sort and editing it to become a playable model might be a lot of work and cause a lot of headache and limitations than building something from the ground up. As such, I wouldn’t expect playable Saurok to be exactly like their NPC counterparts, though I would expect some features to come from the NPC models (scale colors, customization features, etc) to at least resemble them some.

Regardless of how they’re made, the important thing would be getting playable Saurok on the Horde side of that character creation screen!

Bagzak-rexxar · September 15, 2021, 6:15pm

Just for fun, I was thinking about potential Druid forms if Saurok Druids were to become a thing. I’ve thought up some for a few forms, though I’d like to hear what ideas others have.

Bear Form - Alligator Snapping Turtle

Since bear form is the tank form, turtles immediately come to mind. In particular, alligator snapping turtles seem like they would fit very well for this form, given they have claws, teeth to bite, and a shell to act as a tank.

Cat form- Saurolisk

This form seems like it would fit the best with Saurok and how they would look morphed into one. They have the claws, the teeth to bite, and some IRL reptiles are quite stealthy. For example, komodo dragons are known for being quite stealthy and fast despite their size.

Travel form- Flying dragon lizard

While not perfect, a flying dragon lizard could work for both ground and flying forms to make things simpler. I imagine the ground form would run on all fours as opposed to the green basilisk lizard, which is the lizard you usually see running on its hind legs across water. Also, I realize flying dragon lizards glide more than fly, but seeing how flying physics work in general, let alone how physics in general work in Azeroth, I think it would be fitting to have them fly and flap their wings at will.

Swimming form- Threshadon

Seeing as these exist in the game as a model already, it seems very fitting for Saurok as an aquatic form. The face with a smile full of teeth would be an awesome sight to see.

So far, that’s all I thought of. There is the moonkin form, which I haven’t been able to think of one yet. If anyone has any suggestions, please share!

As for Saurok Druids in general, while something could be worked out for them, I don’t know if they would have high chances of being a possibility. Not impossible, but if it could work, there is quite a bit of potential for Saurok Druid forms.

Like I said, I just did this for fun, but the idea of a Saurok Druid does sound neat.

Grayphus-nemesis · September 16, 2021, 1:36am

Perfect. It would be the proper feral form.

Bagzak-rexxar · September 17, 2021, 6:35pm

On the subject of Un’Goro Crater, I went and took a few screenshots of a Saurok, via Glyph of Disguise, at a few spots in the area.

I didn’t realize most of my screenshots were taken from behind the Saurok looking at things. Glyph of Disguise has a 5 minute time limit when used, so I had to quickly fly around to different parts of the area and take it quickly. I barely had a few seconds left when I was done, so I while I tried to position a good angle, I had to make sure I didn’t take up a lot of time doing it. If I take more screenshots there, I’ll try to have a bit more variety.

Here is what I took for this session:

A Saurok arrived in Un’Goro Crater to survey the land for a potential home for his tribe!

The Saurok looks from a cliff to see the type of prey in the area. Can’t start an exploration mission on an empty stomach!

The Saurok, having a huge lunch, takes a quick nap. A full Saurok is a happy Saurok!

The Saurok looks at the lava at the top of a volcano. He determines that this pool of lava would make for an excellent spot to have a BBQ!

The Saurok arrived at the hot springs in the area. He has never tried swimming in this type of water before, but he heard it can help people relax!

Of course, a quick snack is also a good way to relax!

After a day of hunting and exploring, nothing beats swimming and a good meal!

That is all I took for this session. I’ll likely look around and possibly take more screenshots as I get inspired. All in all, a fitting place for Saurok to reside in. Not the only possible place, but it’s good to consider several options!

Of course, the best place for Saurok would be on the Horde side of that character creation screen!

Bagzak-rexxar · September 18, 2021, 8:05pm

I came across some more neat fan videos of the Lizardmen/Seraphon from Warhammer which were made by the same creator of the neat video that Grayphus linked several posts up. I wanted to share them as the animations for them look great and could inspire some Saurok inspiration.

Both of these videos were done by Paul1748 on YouTube and DeviantArt.

The first video is a mock-up of a Warhammer and Path of Exile crossover. Note that again, this is a fan animation, and they have not actually crossed over officially to my knowledge:

The other video I have to share is a humorous one. A Skink Chief challenges a Saurus Warrior to a contest of hitting a target with a spear. The Saurus Warrior gets a creative idea of how to win said contest:

These videos make me wish I was more creative. I’ve love to create stuff like this with Saurok to show off how awesome they would be if given some love and creativity.

Grayphus-nemesis · September 19, 2021, 5:56pm

First video.

I love good teamwork.

Second video.

HAHAHAHAH

Bagzak-rexxar · September 20, 2021, 5:06pm

I’d like to think Saurok would be cunning in a similar fashion. In a contest, why throw a spear at a target when you can throw a rock and break the target completely? Seems like the better show of strength to me.

Sometimes, you gotta think outside the box…other times, you have to break open the box and stand outside of it.

Fenelon-wyrmrest-accord · September 20, 2021, 5:07pm

They did break into the Mogu vaults.

Bagzak-rexxar · September 20, 2021, 5:34pm

Even better: they did break several Mogu in general.

I do have to wonder what all would be in the vaults the Mogu had. It’s a reason I feel like the Warlock and Mage classes would be possible for Saurok, depending on what artifacts were found within there and their effects on other beings, like enhanced intelligence or so. Mogu likely plundered the land for quite awhile, though I’m unsure if they were able to get in and out of the mists around Pandaria, but it stands to reason that there would be some magical items within those vaults.

Another interesting part of Saurok that would be fun to research!

Fallynn-wyrmrest-accord · September 21, 2021, 4:34am

Saw an adorable gecko today. I should have taken a picture to share. Lizards are awesome and playing intelligent ones would be a ton of fun.

Bagzak-rexxar · September 22, 2021, 1:03pm

I’m not entirely sure if this would be fitting for Saurok, but I thought I’d share a video of some alligators bellowing:

Alligators and crocodiles have the ability to bellow, which is a sign of them defending their territory and also used for mating purposes. As you can hear, it sounds a bit like an engine of some kind of heavy machinery.

Part of me can imagine a particularly miffed Saurok letting out a similar bellow as a way to intimidate their enemies or as a warning to not mess with them. I can also see them letting out a hiss of some kind as another form of showing their displeasure. Between the two, I see a hiss being utilized much more than a bellow and a bit more fitting.

What do y’all think? Would bellows be fitting for Saurok?

Bagzak-rexxar · September 24, 2021, 5:07pm

I thought of another fun mini-game/world quest idea involving Saurok that I wanted to share for this post. Previously, I had talked about a mini-game of tossing meat to hungry Saurok that run down lanes (a spin on “fast food”) inspired from the Tokay mni-game from Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages. This time, it’s another Zelda-related inspiration.

Let’s talk about where I got my inspiration, and then I’ll talk about my idea.

So Zelda II: Aventure of Link is one of my favorite video games of all time (yes, really). It was one of the earliest examples I can think of seeing a lizardman race in some fashion, though it wasn’t the only reason I love the game of course. The enemy in question are called Geru (apparently different from Lizalfos), which you can see in this wiki link here:

During the game, there is a point where you have to go through a mountainous area to get to a section of the world map. However, a bunch of Geru in multiple sections of the path are perched high and proceed to throw rocks at you to make your mission much harder than it needs to be.

You can see this in the following video, at the 1:59:16 mark if the video doesn’t take you to that timestamp:

It’s a fairly infamous part, among several other infamous parts of the game, and can be an utter nuisance to try to get through there and to where the hidden town is with minimal damage.

Now that I talked about my inspiration, let’s talk about my idea!

Imagine a Horde outpost somewhere, with a high wall around the entrance. At the top stand several Saurok, ready to toss stones at invaders. As a mini-game that can work as a world quest, you’re tasked with tossing stones at invaders coming towards the fort. You’ll be armed with different types of rocks, that do different damage and have different cooldowns and cast times (imagine chucking a boulder every now and then for bigger groups, for example).

Of course, one of the biggest obstacles to this would be the WoW version of Link, who has been in the game since Vanilla:

This of course would be the hardest part of the mini-game, where you have to damage him enough to send him running.

Now, this mini-game could also work for the Alliance. Instead of defending the outpost, you instead have to help invade it. Likely shooting stuff to knock Saurok off and maybe using magic to polymorph them into something, which in Zelda II is a way to get by using the Spell spell to turn them into slimes (yes, it’s a spell called Spell. Go figure).

Obviously, this idea would need fleshing out, but it’d be a cool reference to the game, and it’d give a use for Linken, who we haven’t see in the game in a long time. You could also add in a scoring system to try and get high scores for fun or even some small rewards of some sort or keep it simple as a for-fun mini-game to keep as part of a variety of world quests in an expansion area.

As you can see, Saurok have quite a bit to offer in more ways than one!

Terranox-stonemaul · September 24, 2021, 5:20pm

I would love a reptillian race, whether it’s Naga, Sethrak, Saurok, or any cool new reptile race!

Farscape had Scarran which I liked. Quite reptillian.

Doctor who had Silurians which were ancient earth terrestials that went into hibernation.

The Sargan from Jupiter Ascending were also cool

I am biased more to Naga though… But I hope we get some reptilian race.

Saurokscale-moon-guard · September 24, 2021, 6:53pm

I do hope Blizzard are listening and considers Sauroks for one of the next allied races if they go that route again. Considering so many animations are shared with worgen and they have a very similar skeleton, it shouldn’t be too much work to asset flip the helmet edits over in comparison to brand new races like Kul Tiran. I would far prefer an exotic beast race over more reskins.

Like some other players in this thread, you currently have to jump through many burning hoops to play as a Saurok for even a few minutes. The time it takes to find/pick pocket one makes it hardly worth the trip, since by the time you make it back to Shadowlands or your hub city you will be running out of your disguise. There currently is no Saurok battlepet or toybox item which would help give players a little bit of fun but for now we need to get more creative.

For now I’ve resorted to farming the Hunter’s saurok armor set and stuffing a Worgen inside of it. Since the skeleton it the same, it will do the job if your on an RP server but your options are so limited. It would be so much more fun actually being able to transmog a saurok and getting to mess around with all the dinosaur/Zandalari troll armor already in the game.

You could either ally them with the Zandalari so that horde has a way to play a race that is worgen-esque or give it to alliance so they have a race with an aztec/jungle theme. It really is quite a flexible race and I do wish it’s being considered as playable or at the very least partially playable as a toy soon. We finally got Arrakoa with 100% uptime thanks to the new moonkin form, it’s possible to see other fan favorites get some love.

Terranox-stonemaul · September 24, 2021, 7:17pm

Seeing as the Mogu made them, maybe they would do well as duel release with the mogu? Would be cool.