The Unofficial Saurok Playable Race Discussion Megathread! šŸŠ

Community General Discussion
1386

A rep grind would have your usual rewards, though it would be interesting to see them offer other types of rewards. I imagine something like the Timbermaw Furbolgs, where you had to earn some rep with them to be able to go through the tunnels safely and even do some of their quests. Something like that would be interesting to offer as a shortcut to places along with quests and rewards, though not something that completely bars you from going to an area of course. A bit hard to explain this in words.

Then again, I come from liking to grind out rep in Everquest 1. It was really worth it to be able to bank and train in other cities. As such, Iā€™m a bit of a stickler for grinding out reps in general in this game. Granted, I get the criticism of having to do so in the game and how not everyone likes them. Itā€™s just something I do for fun, weird as it sounds.

Though give me a Horde friendly Saurok rep, and this will be me:

:meat_on_bone::crocodile:

1 Like
1387

Thereā€™s nothing wrong with rep grinds in general in my opinion, and things like the Timbermaw is actually something I really like.

But with a race being attached to expansion stories as time goes beyond that expansion, rep grinds become a bar reducing the range and interest in a race. Having to go back to irrelevant expansions if you come in late shouldnā€™t be required for a playable race imo.

Just seems bad for the health of the game.

A lot of folk still havenā€™t unlocked many of the ARs simply because they donā€™t want to do back.

Also an aside but I hate that you have to level to max for any of the races to get heritage armor.

Heritage armor is supposed to give you a bit of race specific lore and feel so you can be more in tune with it all. I feel like that should happen early rather than late.

Saurok would be really fun to play though and Iā€™ll do whatever is necessary to get them.

Anything. That is. Required.

Iā€™ll admit that was a very poor excuse to use that gifā€¦

Saurok for the Horde!
:meat_on_bone: :crocodile:

1 Like
1388

Which is one of the problems with the allied race system. Itā€™s exciting and something to do when the expansion these races appear in is current, but when you go through other expansions and it becomes old content, it can deter people. Especially if they have to play a throwaway character just to unlock them.

I feel like if the unlock system continues, weā€™d eventually see them just open for anyone to create at some point. Much as I do like the idea of unlocking them, Iā€™d want people to be able to make their character as soon as possible.

I do like the allied race system in general, but it does need to have some things about it redesigned with the long run in mind. I do think we may see future playable races both as core races and also utilizing the allied race system, so itā€™ll be interesting to see what happens to the allied race system in general in the future.

Now if only I could figure out how to unlock Horde Saurok as an allied raceā€¦ :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

2 Likes
1389

Came across a couple of interesting videos involving lizardmen race voices.

The first is showing a brief recording of someone doing sounds for Lizardfolk in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, shown here:

The other video is someone who explains how to voice an Argonian from the Elder Scrolls series:

Thought I would share both for some Saurok voice idea inspiration. If we come across Saurok again and if they hopefully become playable, it helps to see how Lizardmen races in other games sound like for potential idea inspiration of how Saurok should sound.

I lean more towards a raspy type of voice with hisses, usually on occasional S syllables. That is just how I imagine them, of course. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

1 Like
1390

This is how I would want them to talk.

Those videos are really neat.

1 Like
1391

I wanted to talk some about previous Iksar characters I had back in Everquest 1 and their importance to me, since it was a reason I was inspired to make this megathread in the first place.

I mentioned before how the earliest interest I had in lizardmen in general were the ones in Zelda II. I thought they were awesome looking and were one of the main enemies I think of when I think of that game.

Fast forward to when I got into Everquest 1, which was during its first expansion, Ruins of Kunark. That expansion introduced Iksar, which I also thought were awesome. I read a lot about their lore, looked at all kinds of screenshots.

I eventually picked on Shadow Knight as my first character class, along with a name for them. I did enjoy the game back then, though a bit of tragedy occurred. I donā€™t remember a lot of details, but when I was in an open dungeon called ā€œKurnā€™s Tower,ā€ I got into a bug of some kind that caused me to have to reroll the character. I think I was feared by a mob and died at the same time. Whatever the case, I had the make the hard decision to reroll the character.

Unfortunately, there was a bug with Everquest 1ā€™s character creation. Any time you deleted a character, there was a chance you couldnā€™t use the same name again. I think this was a bug that didnā€™t fully free up the name in their servers. This happened to others, which is how I knew about it, and many years later it still was in effect. They had given the ability to search character names and see their armory at some point, including level 1 characters, and although nobody had taken the names, I still couldnā€™t use that name.

A bit of a fun fact is that the name you see of this character was a result of that bug. My Troll Beastlord in Everquest 1 was orginally named ā€œBaglakā€ until I ran into that bug again. GMā€™s couldnā€™t do anything, I had to reroll, and the name bug happened. GMā€™s couldnā€™t help with that either, so I had to find another name, in which ā€œBagzakā€ came up in the random name generator in-game. It worked out in the end, since I preferred it. I actually ended up using ā€œBaglakā€ as the name for my Troll Hunter in WoW Vanilla/TBC Classic as a bit of nostalgia, so I suppose the original character I had is reborn, in a sense.

But my poor Iksar Shadow Knight, sadly, got afflicted by the name bug, so I had to find another name for them. Not exactly the best of feelings to lose a name you thought of and were attached, but I marched on with a new Iksar Shadow Knight.

Eventually, I did make an Iksar Necromancer, which was a class I did end up preferring over Shadow Knights. They were one of the best solo classes at the time, and were a lot of fun. Plus they looked really good in the right robes. Especially if they had a skull helmet on to go with it, though helm graphics for cloth wearers were few and far between.

With WoW, I have the names of all three of my previous Iksar characters in reserve for if we ever got playable Horde Saurok. They all have some importance to me, since I have a lot of fondness and nostalgia for the Iksar in Everquest. Itā€™s a reason I support Saurok being Warlocks (unless Necromancers become playable in some fashion), Death Knights, and Priests for them so I could recreate them someday in WoW (Demonology, Unholy, and Shadow specs respectively).

I think a lot of people have nostalgia and good memories of their Iksar characters as well, and having something like Saurok playable would likely cause a lot of excitement for them in general. Especially if they can recreate their characters, such as if Saurok could be Monks. Itā€™s a reason I think playable Horde Saurok would be received well and potentially be pretty popular.

So a love of lizardmen races, being able to recreate my previous Iksar characters, and the general lore and potential of Saurok are reasons I heavily support playable Horde Saurok. It feels like a bit of a pipe dream at times, but itā€™s something I feel worth marching for. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

1 Like
1392

Oh wow. That is a glaring bug!

Iā€™d be pissed if that had happened to me!

I love seeing how folk got their names and its touching to hear Baglak was reborn.

When city of heroes was new I made a test character because my computer at the time seemed to be having a graphic bug on the start screen. Named her Damned Focus and went in and sure enough it wasnā€™t just the start screen. I couldnā€™t see walls and barriers and the rest of the world was in negative. I could see through walls thoughā€¦

When I got a computer that could handle it I remade her and called her Damned Focus 2.0ā€¦she became my secondary character in that game and her story incorporated how she saw in the world to be like it was when my computer couldnā€™t handle it.

I want to play my lizardfolk Ranger from dndā€¦ With a healthy addition of wanting to taste all the world has to offer.

My brother wants one if they become playable to playout his Lizardmen fantasy from Warhammer.

Thereā€™s a lot of people that could be brought in with a lizard race.

Eh I think everyone feels that way about the races we want to see. Blizzard has been really strict with what they add in.

But Allied Races have opened a lot of potential there and I think the new Blizzard as they move into Microsofts hands and eschew the more toxic members of their team will be far more likely to bring such requests to bare.

:meat_on_bone: :crocodile:

1 Like
1393

I forgot to mention that Baglak and Bagzak as names came from the Everquest 1 in-game name generator. A lot of character names of mine came from name generators from different MMOā€™s. A few of them are ones I thought up of from scratch and others were inspired from different video games (nothing based on well known characters, so no variants of Sephiroth for example.)

The names Iā€™ve used in WoW have a lot of meaning to me, which is a reason I hope to see some new races come out so I can recreate the ones that are currently placeholders. WoW is close to being near perfect for me in that regard. All of my characters in general I have a lot of attachment to, so to be able to have almost everyone Iā€™ve played in one MMO would be pretty awesome and help keep me invested in WoW.

In a way, what happened to my first Iksar Shadow Knight worked out in the end. I have three potential Saurok names because of it, though one of them Iā€™m still thinking of using for if Sethrak become playable. A lot really depends which comes out first or not or if we got a dragon based race as rumored.

Still hope we get multiple reptilian races on that character creation screen someday. Horde Saurok included! :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

1 Like
1394

Came across a neat video about the scale colors on bearded dragons, which I figured would be useful for imagining potential Saurok scale colors and patterns:

With so many scale colors and patterns with IRL reptiles, I imagine Saurok would have a lot of scale customization options. The neat thing is that it can help to make Saurok player characters be really unique. You could see one Saurok player with a blue-green pattern, then come across one with black scales and orange stripes like a gilla monster.

Itā€™s a really cool thing to think about. Especially if you imagine a gathering of Saurok players, who would likely all have different scale colors and patterns. It is one of those things about playable races that just adds a lot to the game, in my opinion. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

1 Like
1395

If I remember right Saurok actually have a fair few skin colors in game right now aye?

Would love to see a whole gambit of options though!

:meat_on_bone: :crocodile:

1 Like
1396

Yes! The Saurok NPC models have quite a few scale colors. Many of which would work great as customization options, but with plenty of potential for others that could get added based on RL reptiles too. Iā€™m very partial to the blue-green NPC scale colors, myself, so I hope that would be an option for playable Saurok.

I need to make an updated post sometime that shows off all the NPC Saurok scale colors. I know I did it before earlier in the megathread, but I think there are more I need to add to it to make an updated list.

I do imagine playable Saurok having a big number of scale colors and patterns, though. It would be really interesting to see what all would get added and seeing if you can tell which RL reptile inspired it! :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

1 Like
1397

Had this video pop up in my Youtube recommendations. Itā€™s a sound design someone made of what Lizardfolk could sound like in their natural environment:

Thought Iā€™d share it for Saurok design inspiration for their capital city or where ever they would reside. :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

1 Like
1398

No. They would go to Horde. Taunka already joined the Horde in WoTLK during the events of the Wrathgate. They would have been playable too if Blizzard didnt have a massive change of staff for Cata launch.

2 Likes
1399

Sir and or madam.

This is a Saurok thread.

This is the Taunka thread.

2 Likes
1400

I mean, theyā€™re not wrong. Saurok and Taunka would go Horde if they became playable. :lizard: :ox:

Taunka are neat and shouldā€™ve had a presence in-game since WotLK. I imagine they would make great hunting rivals for Saurok. Especially since Saurok likely wouldnā€™t like the cold too much to want to stay in it long.

Taunka could share a lot of food they hunt for in cold weather too. Iā€™m sure Saurok would be very interested! :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

1 Like
1401

No doubt.

I did see they made the same post to the Taunka thread. Iā€™ve gotten threads mixed up before so I know that pain.

And yeah Taunka and Saurok would be Horde I think and have plenty to share in hunting techniques and probably even a little bit culture wise.

The Saurok arenā€™t all brutes after all, they clearly have some shaman among them.

:meat_on_bone: :crocodile:

1 Like
1402

Shamans and Priests! Theyā€™re capable of being healing and caster classes and arenā€™t all about brute physical strength.

I still think a good way to explain Saurok Warlocks and Mages would be from raids the playable tribe would do on Mogu vaults and such. Iā€™m sure they would have found some things that would both give intelligence and also learn spells.

Then we could have blizzard wizard lizards! :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

1 Like
1403

Came across a Youtube video that has the Lizardmen army soundtrack from Total War: Warhammer 2 along with some neat Lizardmen/Seraphon artwork. :musical_note: :lizard:

Something I thought would be useful to share for possible Saurok music and design/idea inspiration! :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

1 Like
1404

Imagine coming across a Saurok using the Lizardmen aesthetic. I know its close to Zandalari in many respects but Itā€™d still be awesome.

1 Like
1405

A lot of the themes of the Lizardmen/Seraphon are things I imagine Lizardmen in general to have. I wouldnā€™t expect a copy/paste of that onto Saurok, but I could see the Saurok having similar themes while also have unique themes.

And while Zandalari have a few of those themes, I do feel like Saurok would still be very unique compared to the Zandalari. For example, Zandalari have a focus on gold while Saurok could have a focus on hunts and meat.

Saurok could still have fierce reptilian beasts they mount that are either unique to them, depending where the playable faction lives, or devilsaurs, which seems really fitting. I imagine Zandalari do ride devilsaurs, but I feel like Saurok riding them more at ease would be very fitting and have the Zandalari amazed and intrigued how exactly they would do that.

Saurok could utilize dinosaurs in general, since there are some near Pandaria and in Unā€™goro Crater if Saurok ever resided there, but they arenā€™t the only beasts they could have. Mushans are another one they can use, as well as if the playable Saurok faction resides on another continent we have yet to go to currently.

I think it would be fairly easy to have a difference between Saurok and Zandalari, given their cultures. You can have similar themes but still be different. If Saurok are about strength, theyā€™d still be different from Orcs, for example. The good thing about Saurok is that there is plenty of directions you could go with them, and while I donā€™t know which one would be where we would go with them, I feel like having multiple options helps a lot when considering them as a playable race.

Itā€™s really exciting to think about, since I love Lizardmen races in general. Hopefully, weā€™ll see playable Horde Saurok as a thing someday! :meat_on_bone::crocodile:

2 Likes