I had seen your suggestion already, it’s very cool! Ethereal Elves are a very interesting suggestion!
Personally, however, I would rather have Ethereals be their own thing. They have their own history, their own lore, their own planet and their own habits. Mixing them with Void Elves I feel would not be a good way of introducing the race. Moreover, giving Ethereal customizations to Void Elves, to me, would be turning them into something they’re really not. Ethereals were turned into what they are because of too much Arcane energy, not Void. Their transformation processes are different.
But, again, I appreciate your work, those options you show there are very cool and do look awesome. I guess we’ll see what Blizzard has in mind!
the issue is, any race with odd body type, like ethereals, naga and 4-legged races would have to have 100+ levels of gear, both gender types, as well as tier, dungeon, heirloom, pvp, rep and arena gear, created in cloth, leather, mail and plate. this is why they would have to share body type with an existing playable race.
my solution for actual ethereals is to make them a shapeshift change associated with a new spec for a specific class like mage so their gear is preset but the spec gives them unique talents. all the odd body type races could benefit from this because the devs dont have to generate 100+ levels of gear but the new spec allows abilities associated with the odd body type in question, like a faery magic druid spec with shapeshift of dryad for females and keeper of the grove for males. or a necromancer spec for warlocks with a lich(male) and banshee(female) shapeshift for alliance and a san’layn shapeshift for horde. etc.
all the new specs could have pet helpers to round it out, like faery magic druids have fae drake pets and necro locks have undead (alliance) or bats (horde). and so on
yea blizzard is so lazy these days i dont think they will ever do ethereals plus their themes and aesthetics would be similar to void elves. people who actually like the void elves would be going, well why cant we have that too? after all they wouldnt even give us the actual nightborne model but a botched player night elf model. allied races are all cheap and lazy so this route is much more likely
ethereal customization for void elves makes sense and i cant post this image enough
Hope everyone is doing well. I just wanted to make a quick post before my single day of free game time runs out.
I am personally very much against the idea of Void Elves getting Ethereal customization. They are inherently different races with very different themes and aesthetics.
As much as I love void elves, and have a soft spot for ethereal wrapped void elves, I would be very sad to see that keep ethereals from being playable.
Their culture and themes I think would be good for the Alliance.
Hell no one else is talking and I have little shame at this point…
Any idea what sort of city they would show up with? I’m thinking some sort of flying thing like the LFD hang out on for the Ehtereals that join the Alliance. (Not one made for combat just for interstellar trade.)
I think something similar to the Mechanar would be neat, since it would fulfil the techno/sci-fi vibe. They’d just have to remodel it to fit with the Ethereal design rather than a Draenei one.
Most of that is just existing models hooked onto locations on the player model…shoulders, helms…capes
Everything else is just part of the player model. It’s just a texture or geometry swap. Nothing has to be created.
There’s no reason Naga couldn’t be playable. Some of the newer versions of Naga would make great playable versions. I still really liked the heavy armored one from the raid in BFA. Only thing that didn’t really show up was boots, and that’s no big deal. Other allied races have the same issue.
Ethereals could easily be adapted to an existing set of animations. They’re a pretty generic humanoid shape.
Agreed. There’s a bunch that really should have been playable by now.
thats not what the devs said. see they dont want a naga running around or rather, slithering around, in a dress. it looks ridiculous, i’ve seen attempts at it.
We’ve already had it in game.
The last raid, they wear everything except boots.
The leg texture is just wrapped around their lower body, same as any other player character. The only thing that makes it look dress-like is some additional geometry that’s turned on when a dress-like bottom is added. Don’t have to have that part.
What’s weird looking on a regular character is turning on the geometry while still using the base skin texture…you get this icky looking skin skirt lol
If you want to see an in-game example of how it’d look, check out the Adventure guide, go to BFA, The Eternal Palace, and look at “The Queen’s Court”. Both naga have leg gear, it’s just nicely modified for their bodies.
That’s how it’d need to be handled for a playable version. Those two models are great examples.
You can do the longer skirt version too, it’s actually in the game files. You can view it via the geosets on the naga male and female models.
The “Naga witch” npc has it on by default. She’s also wearing the same outfit I’ve got mogged on my night elf priestess.
Screenshot a better image, the one on wowhead is kinda low res.
Think I like the way it was handled on the raid boss a bit better Looks cooler
I really don’t buy into the idea that the armor is really a hinderance. They can find a way, and normally when its actually applied it looks fine.
I often feel Blizzard is just looking for why they don’t want to do a thing because it would be a lot to put into the game and it doesn’t jive with where they want to go.
Ethereals and Naga would be amazing additions to the game, and I do not believe for a second that armor is the reason they haven’t been implemented yet.
Agreed. Armor is easily doable. Anything can be made to work.
I even liked the Naz’dorei concept that was over on MMO-champ. Which had a group of Naga worshipping Elune who regained their original elven forms but adapted to the sea and could shapeshift back into Naga.
Having two forms solved some issues players had like mounting and such, although just making a mount animation where they’re sorta coiled side saddle would be fine.
Having them be alliance for this variety made sense as they’re shapeshifters like the worgen, as well as worshippers of Elune that turned from Azshara. So I don’t see why Tyrande would have an issue with them.
I also want her and Malfurion to go wake/recruit the Night Elven Worgen. At this point, with the way the story has gone, it makes no sense to leave them asleep.
Wanted to wish the Ethereal megathread a happy U.S. Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it!
Came across a neat video that goes over a few facts on Ethereals I wanted to share for fun:
I hope Ethereal fans get their wish to come true someday. I know they have been requested for a long time, so I know a lot of people would become happy to see them as a playable race!
Looks cooler
