Right now, with just female human and male blood elf, it’s so…limited.
I’m sure many of you (if you browse reddit) have seen the beautiful, absolutely amazing fanart that is going around of the Dracthyr.
While this artwork appears to be very Disney inspired. It’s just such a shame that we’re so limited to two races for our humanoid forms. The most well-known and popular aspects, Alexstraza and Ysera take a female elf form, why are players unable to replicate their favorite dragons?
So many have wanted playable dragons for such a long time. It’s bonkers that we’re so restricted with their humanoid forms.
I love the lore behind the race, I really do. I think the writing team did an awesome job; these guys are supposed to be super soldiers which Neltharion created. But are these two the only ones Neltharion wanted? Human female and Blood elf male?
I think it should be the opposite. This will be the first time the Horde get to use the human female model. Why not allow them to use the human male one as well?
Just from a story standpoint, Dracthyr are turning into ‘mortal form’ to fit in with their new Allies. If you’re trying to fit in to Orgrimmar, choosing a human visage makes no sense.
I haven’t found much lore for them aside from what WoWwiki has. But while that makes sense, why not allow them to choose their own mortal form? All the other dragons do it!
Just seems like such a huge swing and miss. This could be the first “race” that could use assets from all other races.
Although I wish they didn’t have a visage form at all, if they are going to have one, I think you’re right and they should be able to choose it.
However I think for Blizzard it’s a matter of resources. The human/elf forms seem to have a lot of non-normal human/elf customization and creating that for every available race model would probably be a huge resource sink that they simply don’t want to invest in.
Dracthyr don’t have a visage form to look like other races. They have a visage form because they’re an amalgamation of mortal races that existed over 10,000 years ago and Aspect magic. They are not dragons, they’re an experiment.
They should not look like other races. They should have a unique model, considering they’re a mix of Tauren, Troll, Night Elf, Vrykul and primitive Human.
I’m obviously not someone involved in much art or coding, so I haven’t a clue as to the time required to make this stuff. While I imagine you’re right and the resource sink is very large, I just want to be a lady elf dragon like Alexstraza.
I’ve read the very limited lore that Nelth made them, but it says he tried to combined dragons and mortal races. If they were from 10,000 years ago, surely elf ladies would have been around.
I want mine to be a mix of 99% elf and then 1% of those others you listed.
Belfs did NOT exist over 10,000 years ago. Night Elves did. And again, they’re an amalgamation of those races, not individual ones.
He took the essences of those races and combined it with Aspect power. They’ve never seen a mortal, they shouldn’t look like any mortals we know.
I’m actually pretty cheesed that Blizz said, “this is what happens when you combine all of those races, they look like current humans and blood elves, because that makes sense!”
That art looks nice, but honestly I am tired of the anime cliche looks. I enjoy watching anime like others, but as a designer, if find the genre a bit over-saturated, like the chrome look back in the 80s. I personally turned away quite a few anime artists for illustrator jobs. When a high paying client says “Looks like Dragonball, and I hate Dragonball”, that usually ends the negotiations.
Not saying Anime art is bad, I have seen some incredible work on Deviant Art and Pixv, but it’s a niche market, and clients hire for that are kind of cheap when paying for it, from my experience.
This is what I wanted really bad. I feel like the art/writing team really wanted to add something new to the dragon lore so they ultimately ended up making the Dracthyr, but to me the greatest appeal of dragons was what was already established. Playing as a weak dragon whelp who had to transform into a mortal form (like Wrathion and Chromie) would’ve been so simple yet so charming. Perhaps they’ve would’ve felt too lazy just reutilizing other races’ models? Yet I think I would’ve much preferred it. I’ll still give Dracthyr a chance though.
