Because they have weird heads.
Blizzard artists have to adapt all helmets to the playable races so they can wear it.
That’s easy when your head has a regular head-like shape. It’s a lot harder when you have a weird head.
Because the Sethrak have weird heads that are completely different from every other race we have right now, that would mean a lot of work.
And that’s a perpetual increase in dev work. Every old and new helmet ever would have to be reworked to fit a Snek’s head.
Highmountain Tauren have a weird head as well, but their weird head shape is the same as the good old lowhill Tauren, so there’s no additional work. They would have to adapt the item for the lowhill Tauren anyway.
Worgen helmets fit them surprisingly well.
Not that I think they’ll be playable.
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they wont be playable for the simple fact that they are inconsequential to the story, not because they have a weird head.
which is a shame because they’re a really cool looking race.
as for your headshape theory, they cut our 12 sets per tier down to 4 sets per tier, I think they can afford to spend an extra 15-30 minutes per helmet to fit it to their head.
You’ve outlined the work needed to be done to make this a possibility, but this doesn’t necessarily preclude sethrak.
Are you saying we’ll never get a race like tauren or worgen again because they have “weird heads?”
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I feel like both are true.
They are not involved enough to justify the effort and Dev Time to add a race with weird head and retroactively fit every helmet in history to them.
To be fair, the Sethrak’s head is MUCH weirder than a Worgen or Tauren. Hats would be fine, but I can’t imagine how they would possibly fit an actual helmet to the Sethrak’s head without looking absolutely hilarious lol
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This is sad for taurens, highmountain tauren and worgens too, I wish they were playable.
Oh wait.
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that’s true, fitting every helmet to them would be an enormous task, but once they got through the backlog I doubt it would take that much effort to adapt future helmets to them since they’d be making them in roughly the shape needed anyway for tauren and worgen. helmets would for sure always look goofy on them, but that’s what we have transmog for!
but yeah, they haven’t done anything storywise (that I’m aware of) since 8.0, unless they start doing stuff in 8.2.5/8.3 I doubt we’re going to see them.
Honestly, I wouldn’t care if any helmet that didn’t work on the sethrak model was just permanently hidden. Draenei and tauren have similar situations when they try to wear boots.
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Worgen and Tauren say hello.
they’ve been handling boots on at least draenei weirdly recently.
the elite plate boots from the darkshore warfront make it look like we have actual feet, it’s weird.
EDIT: if they can put this much effort into protecting draenei hooves, they can make a helmet fit awkwardly on a sethrak.
https://ptr.wowhead.com/dressing-room#sqzz0zJ89cMfz0m9m8WaK8zxN8WaQ8zxN87MWaF8zxN87oWaJ8zxN8WaS8zxN8WaP8zxN8WaH8zxN87ow
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They won’t be playable because people want them and Blizzard has this weird thing about not giving people what they want, especially when they’re Alliance.
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Sethrak can just not wear (visually display) helmets. let them choose from a couple different sethrak specific helmets at the customization screen. problem solved.
Blizzard wont do it though.
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Or you can skip that kind of work load and just create some lore behind tiara-like head dresses. In the case of older expansions the head pieces just don’t show up on the model period. Problem solved. I want to play a Sethrak to see that gorgeous snake head, not hide it. In before someone suggests a little top hat that’s purchasable from common vendors. I’d so rock it. Elegant danger noodle/nope rope inbound!
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There are races where boots are either heavily modified or (for some shoe models) just don’t show up at all. I don’t see why they wouldn’t do the same for helmets if it was necessary.
Lore and issues like armor don’t really matter since Blizzard can fudge whatever they want. I think the main problem against sethrak at the moment is there’s no distinct difference between male and female models and we’ve never had a race with only one model (because it would feel kind of cheap).
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But it would be accurate. For snakes there is no difference between the two, though some species can be separated by the tail’s tapering. I wouldn’t have an issue with the same model being used. It makes sense. Hell. They could have the females wearing a tail ring to separate them from the males.
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I wouldn’t have an issue with it either. I’d be satisfied if all that changed based on your gender choice was voice lines and accessories. Though I think it would be neat if the females were taller and bulkier, if they ever are made playable.
I just don’t see it happening because it breaks from tradition.
Don’t look for a complicated solution when a simple one is available. Just don’t have helmets show on Sethrak at all. Give them a lot of head ornaments to choose from instead in the barber shop same as earrings for other races. Easy.
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The Sethrak are really cool, (their voices, animations and character models) but is there enough demand for them?
