I’m just going to say it, letting every race be every class just ruins the feel of the game and makes races far less unique. Most of the time the lore is bent out of shape to accommodate these things, making the overall feel of the universe worse and it’s harder to suspend your disbelief.
Some of the additional classes they have added to races do make sense, such as humans, gnomes and Undead changed to being able to become hunters. Dwarves being able to become Warlocks, etc.
But Tauren Paladins? Draenei, Worgen, Tauren, Night Elf Death Knights? They completely bent the lore out of shape to accomodate that.
And that’s just the early changes.
Nowadays you have Lightforged and Tauren warlocks and all sorts of goofy crap.
I know a lot of people are going to freak out but I know I’m right, it’s better when races are more unique.
Druids being a night elf and Tauren only thing was cool, it made those races unique.
Yeah it was pretty dumb how they added things like tauren rogues and paladins, but oh well they ruined a lot of stuff from an aesthetic/world-building standpoint to cater to casuals.
Also beyond that opening up the restrictions has completely DESTROYED faction balance
If you are going to open up class restrictions, then balance the damn racials @ blizz
World pvp is damaged from it
Mythic+ is damaged from it
Instanced PvP is damaged from it
Night Elves and Dwarves are ruining it all
Edit: majority of people are no longer choosing races for flavor and aesthetic (which was the entire point of removing the restrictions), they are just choosing races to min/max
I never wanted this game to turn into races being just a skin. I liked when they stuck to their racial cultures. It made things more immersive and more RPG to me.
Now we’ve got full fledged demon Paladins and Lightforged Warlocks.
I completely agree with you. There was a time when specific race and class pairings felt intentional and had a strong tie to the in-game world and its history. For example, Night Elf Druids and Tauren Druids felt like a deep connection to the natural world that was essential to those races’ identities.
Now, when you have combinations like Lightforged and Night Elf Warlocks, it just feels off. As someone who grew up with Warcraft 3 and early WoW, it’s just very jarring to see Night Elf and Tauren warlocks running around. Those combinations completely clash with the core values and identities of these races.
I actually completely agree with you. I feel like classes had more value and were more iconic when they were limited. Like an Orc Shaman, Human Paladin or Forsaken Warlock… now everyone can be what ever and nothing matters.
The devs started handing out more classes to more races for engagement metrics and because it meant they didn’t have to produce actual content in its place. Now, there’s an overwhelming amount of content but the damage to class and race identity has been done.
I doubt it. They just realized how relatively inconsequential much of the gating was. It’s true that the limitations cause diversity, but WoW isn’t a leveling game anymore. You aren’t necessarily sticking with one character for a protracted period. In Classic, that matters more because you’re making a much more permanent decision.
I feel the opposite. It should be choose faction>> choose any class>> choose (any) race>> choose (any) four racials.
This is the way. This is the future.