I see more mechagnomes all the time. I think the main reason they are rare is they’ve only been available since 8.3, and no doubt relatively few people managed to complete the reqs so they had them on patch day. I remember getting VE back in legion and feeling somewhat rare, now they are everywhere, probably the most common AR.
One of the things people need to keep in mind about mechagnomes is that, granted, they are a subrace. But so is every other AR, even the “totally new” Kul’Tirans and Zandalari are just subraces of humans and trolls with different proportions.
Mechagnomes are part machine. That’s utterly unprecedented in this game, and since I already have a gnome mage (and gnome mage was the very first character I played) it wasn’t a far stretch, it really took seeing the model to convince me though. From the moving gears on the joints to the utter crispness of the model itself, well, if people don’t like them it probably says more about people just not liking gnomes than anything else. If Vulpera had been, say, Gilgoblins, people would likely be saying the same stuff.
This was my third AR, my second totally intentional one (I just sort of got lightforged while grinding VE). I do dislike that process and am glad I both have no capped horde characters so getting their races is off the table, and I wouldn’t play a Kul’Tiran so I’m good without them.
What made me do the ARs despite not totally enjoying the experience of getting them was that, unlike say pathfinder, you have them forever. I can make as many characters of that race as I want until the game shuts down. If pathfinder unlocked even just all the zones available now (ie BfA pathfinder would unlock Draenor and Legion) I’d be ever so slightly more likely to do it. But I digress. I don’t regret my ARs at all at the end of the day, and void elves burned me out so bad I quit playing for several months after capping my first VE. It was just too strenuous to grind on a BE shadow, then raise up a new shadow that looked almost identical. Not the best thought out process, I ground this race on an alt that will likely serve no other purpose, it’s weird you need to play with a character you may not even really like or want anymore just to get to the character you do. I do know people who’ve quit over it, and believe me I wish they were still around, this game with RL friends has always been where it, well, was at.
