Unofficial Naga Playable Race Discussion Thread

[Liangni-azshara]

I am really impressed with the amount of work you have put in this post!!!

I really want to play a naga since warcraft 3!

I really like the fact that you are pushing for the actuaal naga with actaul tails and not some 2 feets or 2 forms concept that imo would make the race lose their identity.

To anyone sceptical about the tail, and animation, especially with mounts, i can tell you that it is not a major problem and i will put here the reasons :

The issue prople have is to imagine how the way characters stand on mount work, actually, it is not like if your character was actually sitting on it, actually no, you summon a mont which “transeform” you into “your char on this mount”, its not 2 entities put over another, but one block, one being, that your character turned into, you can see it by the fact, even the playable race at the moment lack some animation and feel like “glued” to their mount.

Now if you paye attention, when you use your mount on a vulpera, or a draenei or a dracthyr, you can see that their tails gets into a very specific position which happen only when they are mounted (again its because they “turn into this”)

Knowing this, there is no issue with the naga regarding mounts, blizz just need to come up with a posture that can make them be on the mount, they actually need 3 and for these 3 there is simple ways of doing it :

1 - Horse spread legs mount pose : On this nagas can use the amazon way of seating, or they can roll their tail around the mount.

2 - The “chair” mount pose : Easy one, you just need to imagine yourself, putting your legs together, on your chair and thats it, just like naga have one leg, you have one too if you put them together!

3 - Seating on ground : Another idea could be to make them be coiled like a cobra, this pose can work perfectly for their drinking/eating or even simply seating animaiton!

Now, their a big avantage with the naga, and that is, both male and female will use the same animation set for their lower body, (if blizzard want that is they can make different for both) which means, if blizz want they can just work only on one model and then the other will be done!

Now the “problem” is, that this model will be hard to recycle, as we know, blizzard love to reycle their model, and unless they make up a lot of snake people, the work they will do on the playable naga will be hard to re use outside of the nagas.

I want to add one more point :

Myself i would love if our naga leader would be Azshara, to me she could be an ally in the future, a bit like Illidan, and i would say her relationship to the playable naga would be the same as the one Illidan have with the playable DH, which means, that she would not be around much, but still the playable nagas would aknowlodge her as their suprem leader.

The one that would then lead the naga in the spotlight would be Nar’jira, the battle maiden from Vashj’ir!

[Fairlight-emerald-dream]

I think on desktop you type “b” to bring up the bookmark interface. If that helps

[Valynx-moon-guard (Valynx)]

While I’ve always wanted the Naga as a playable race, I always have resigned myself to it never happening for the exact same reasons why it didn’t happen. And when I say “didn’t” I mean they were 100% in the original running for races.

Problem is… the anatomy. And yes, it’s the mount issue, but beyond that, any instance where “legs” are required, used, or referenced would have to be adjusted. And no, a Blizzard who’s only gotten lazier with time is not going to do a 180° and make that happen.

Sadly, at best we’d get some sort of pseudo-naga “Sea-Elf” variant with some Fishy Night Elves and that’s about all we could hope for. Because that’s what WarCraft needs!
MOAR ELVES!!! … *gag*

⠀
But seriously, they’re not even doing unique, fully rendered races at this point. We don’t get fully realized races with models and textures and capitals and cultures and lore - we get half-baked reskins. Asking for playable Sethrak feels like it would be a tall order at this point, sadly, and that’s a lot more doable. Naga? …

I’d love to play one, I’d love to be wrong on all this, but I just can’t see them putting in the effort to make it happen.

[Leotheras-baelgun (Leotheras)]

@Valynx-moon-guard

but beyond that, any instance where “legs” are required, used,

Ah, but you see, I had this very issue in mind when suggesting they could simply poof some legs onto them for all those instances, and ONLY in those instances, while keeping the other aspects of their appearance the same. I also explained why that isn’t a problem canonically. Add a quest or two that explains it becoming more common recently for naga to use magic to don a pair of kicky limbs, though only when absolutely necessary.

@Valynx-moon-guard

or referenced

Do we really care about slightly inconsistent references at this point?

@Valynx-moon-guard

Asking for playable Sethrak feels like it would be a tall order at this point, sadly, and that’s a lot more doable.

Gonna have to agree to disagree on that last part. Unless perhaps you see a problem with the solution to the leg issue I suggested?

Simply popping legs on naga temporarily when needed on its own makes them seem more feasible than Sethrak imo. The effort gets substantially reduced to the point that you end up with fewer issues and effort required than with the Sethrak.

@Valynx-moon-guard

MOAR ELVES!!! … gag

I’m right there with ya. Need fewer elves, more beast races. It’s getting a bit farcical.

Which is part of why I want naga. Not elves with a naga form. Naga. Even if that means Naga that occasionally have legs.

[Sappington-wyrmrest-accord (Sappington)]

I want them, will always want them, and will continue asking for them until it comes to pass or the game finally ends.

For Nazjatar.

[Zimos-dark-iron (Zimos)]

For classes if the faction follows Neptulon, you could make an argument for a Druid of the Flame, but instead of Flame Water to justify both Shamans and Druids fairly easily. Basically getting their Powers from the Water Elemental Plane like the Druids of the Flame got theirs from The Firelands.

This is hilariously also how I can see Night Elf, Worgen, and possibly Dark Iron Dwarves getting Access to Shamans for the Former 2 and Druids for the Latter (Along with customization options for them.).
(Druids of the Flame I mean, seriously them letting some of them back into the Alliance clears 3 whole combos easily lorewise.)

[Leotheras-baelgun (Leotheras)]

@Sappington-wyrmrest-accord

For Nazjatar.

For Najatar!!!

@Mianyaue-moon-guard

Done.

Made another edit to the post, if you are willing to get to it, whenever it’s convenient for you!

At the end of the Mounts section inside the dropdown under Issues and Solutions, I have added another bit of text saying “Bear in mind, I am not talking about a visage form like Dracthyr have where they would turn into scaley elves. I am talking about naga with legs, and only when mounting or whenever else mechanics require legs. This wouldn’t even be a “form” the player would be able to choose to swap between. It would just be what happens when Blizz is to lazy to change the game to accomodate their tails. Not only with mounts, but whenever else.”

You may want to just repost my OP all over again while editing, because I clearly also made some spelling and grammar errors I want to fix.

Sick of this yet? Lol. If so, I completely understand you backing out and not working on your repost further. I made more mistakes than I thought.

[Liangni-azshara]

@Valynx-moon-guard

Problem is… the anatomy. And yes, it’s the mount issue, but beyond that, any instance where “legs” are required, used, or referenced would have to be adjusted. And no, a Blizzard who’s only gotten lazier with time is not going to do a 180° and make that happen.

You say that, but in the other hand they made a ton of customizations and animations for the dracthyr, you can argue that the visage is belf male and female human, but still for the dragon form they made a lot of animations.

To me the nagas are not that hard to make, just have imaination.

[Mianyaue-moon-guard]

@Leotheras-baelgun

Made another edit to the post, if you are willing to get to it, whenever it’s convenient for you!

What is new?

[Fenelon-wyrmrest-accord]

@Valynx-moon-guard

Problem is… the anatomy. And yes, it’s the mount issue, but beyond that, any instance where “legs” are required, used, or referenced would have to be adjusted. And no, a Blizzard who’s only gotten lazier with time is not going to do a 180° and make that happen.

Mount issue isn’t much of an issue. The tail just slightly wraps around the mount.

Legs being gone isn’t much of an issue at all, even for armor and such.

[Liangni-azshara]

@Zimos-dark-iron

For classes if the faction follows Neptulon, you could make an argument for a Druid of the Flame, but instead of Flame Water to justify both Shamans and Druids fairly easily. Basically getting their Powers from the Water Elemental Plane like the Druids of the Flame got theirs from The Firelands.

To be honest, you dont need to go that far off the track to imagine nagas druids, in HS there is naga druids that take care of the kelp and other submarine plant lives!

[Felendren-baelgun]

I corrected a few grammatical errors and it appears I botched another link. The Aszh’ari Stormsurger link under Gear in the Issues and Solutions section needs to be replaced with https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/853115-azshari-stormsurger.jpg

Also, I added you to the acknowledgement section, if you’d like to add that in.

At the end of the Mounts section inside the dropdown under Issues and Solutions I need you paste this:

Bear in mind, I am not talking about a visage form like Dracthyr have where they would turn into scaley elves. I am talking about Naga with legs, and only when mounting or whenever else mechanics require legs. This wouldn’t even be a “form” the player would be able to choose to swap between. It would just be what happens when Blizz is too lazy to change the game to accomodate their tails. Not only with mounts, but whenever else.

You may want to just recopy and paste my whole post from inside the dropdown.

[Mianyaue-moon-guard]

It’s done.

[Leotheras-baelgun (Leotheras)]

Tyvm Mian. That should be all that’s needed for a long while. Hopefully we get people making more suggestions and contributions so that we’ll even need to make more edits.

[Blackwayke-wyrmrest-accord]

Here’s a shot out of a cannon: the legs disappear underwater and that’s when they get the tail. When they’re on land / air they do the little mermaid thing and get legs. Could handwave it as some magical curse / enchantment or whatever in their starting zone.

I’m aware this is a really silly idea but it does side-step the most glaring issue with them.

As far as racials go…idk, maybe they get like a dynamic flying thing when they swim that’s on a CD. It’d be an extremely situational thing for obvious reasons but still more useful than what they’re making the human racial to be.

[Furijan-trollbane (Furijan)]

I have always wanted them as playable. I know the excuse is usually armor, and mounts. But I also think it’s the male model, it would be like being stuck with a dracthyr face at all times. If they do become playable they better not have the weird 3 tails, what was up with that?

[Leotheras-baelgun (Leotheras)]

@Blackwayke-wyrmrest-accord

When they’re on land

Naga should have legs as rarely as possible. There is no need for them to have legs while just moving around unmounted on land. Using a smoke effect to switch to legs for monk kicks and whatever else legs will be needed for should be sufficient, and is already a compromise from what the Naga crowd actually wants, which I acknowledge would be too much to ask from the lazy devs we have today.

@Furijan-trollbane

I know the excuse is usually armor, and mounts.

It’s mostly just mount and mechanics that require legs at this point. Armor seems to have been figured out. Helmets and pants now work for the most part.

@Furijan-trollbane

I also think it’s the male model, it would be like being stuck with a dracthyr face at all times.

That male naga model is literally the iconic, and original face of the naga… I don’t think anyone who wants to get rid of it actually wants to play a male naga. Also, as I recall, the issue most people have with dracthyr isn’t their faces, it’s their body shape.

[Sappington-wyrmrest-accord (Sappington)]

@Blackwayke-wyrmrest-accord

I’m aware this is a really silly idea but it does side-step the most glaring issue with them.

I have never, and will never, believe the lack of legs are an issue for naga. There are a multitude of easy solutions fro various concerns, whether it be riding (sidesaddle), crouching (their kneel emote is basically the worgen crouch with both hands down), or kicking (a tail whip works practically and thematically). Transmog issues are annoying at best (no different than mogging worgen or tauren) and irrelevant at worst (not ideal, but even without pants or shoes npc naga have more transmog options than mechagnomes and dracthyr).

@Furijan-trollbane

But I also think it’s the male model, it would be like being stuck with a dracthyr face at all times.

That’s kind of the appeal male naga have; they are monstrous. Females only just so, as the closer you look the more monstrous they appear (no nose, tentacles, and scales of course).

[Silpher-malganis]

Only if they get a racial called “Naga please”.

In all seriousness i think it would be awesome to get playable naga.

Though potentially problematic with leg/boots armor.

[Blackwayke-wyrmrest-accord]

@Leotheras-baelgun

should

I agree with you, but I find it best to manage my expectations. Sometimes they really do a thing justice (the draenei heritage questline) and sometimes they miss the mark (the draenei heritage armor). I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they give us Naga or Ogres and they don’t cut corners and make something cool and unique but then I see things like the Drakthyr or the Harronir and think they lost something as far as character design and implementation is concerned.