Well, this was a result of the “old” dev team philosophy. Those people are out and the newer executives listen more the customers, the fixes done on NB are a proof.
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Not really the point I was going on for.
Firstly, not sure how much you can incorporate phoenix themes into physical appearance.
What more would need to be added for light or fel? I mean, I guess lightborn is now a thing, but in general light is a stance not a look, I don’t know how fel works with blood elf society as it is. And there’s the debate over undead outside of forsaken.
My point is more that while there’s options, to me none of them feel like they naturally flow from the story, or that there’s anything near a consensus of what people would like, one person’s dream is another person’s hard no. And it’s a problem that only exists because the void elves are now a better option for that elf model. We can’t just have our own thing anymore because there’s reasons to copy it over to the other side, so now there’s this search for something to call one’s own that didn’t exist before.
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I didn’t know it was a new team? And yet they’ve still managed to not return the same energy to Blood Elves they’ve given to VEs in two passes now but in both cases they managed to allow BEs to lose more visual uniqueness.
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I kinda wonder too how much of this is also easy stuff to pump out while they figure out where to go with the big stuff especially if there’s some stuff that people who were shown the door pushed over objections of other team members. Doesn’t have to be anything wrong per se, just where maybe story lines are changing up behind the scenes.
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I meant the executive team especifically. Brack et al were of the same cliqué of Afriasiabi, and it showed in the attitude they had previous to the lawsuit.
Apart from a rune or a tattoo -or MAYBE hair effects? None indeed-.
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Agreed.
Almost tempted to make another list just for the Runes/Jewelry ideas just make sure they get it right this time.
It is a nice collection. Might be the biggest one around.
The DeviantArt links always care me though…
The thing about Blood Elves is they “Branched”. But that isn’t a negative or a mark against anything.
Void Elves and High Elves are just two separate groups of similar elves in the same faction. (Though there is potentially some crossover)
Same for Wildhammer.
So Dark Rangers are already set in all regards. With San’layn and FelBloods there might need to be a bit more explanation, but its not a hard set requirement.
Jewelry and ‘Makeup’ could also at phoenix.
Or they could go with the Farstrider Hanzo route.
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Again, I’m just saying that the need for a new “theme” for blood elves is an artifact of the fact that Void Elves got customization that looks like blood elves. If void elves just stayed voidy then there wouldn’t be as many people wanting new themes and uniqueness for blood elves, b/c they never would have lost their uniqueness.
Basically just saying that a lot of push for new themes (not all, there are some people who have wants for a while, but I’m not talking about them here) is coming out of the way the models were handled, not out of the story. So like for me for example, I feel like without the changes to void elves blood elves wouldn’t have needed any drastic new path to branch down, they just could have been refined and expanded on naturally as the story went on. But because of art changes they’re left in an inferior space and need drastic work to bring them back up to a comparable state, and there’s nothing that screams out to me as “This is an obvious path to open up new options in the story that drastically modify the appearance.”
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It’s because people have rejected Belves visual identity, a lot due people being obsessed with them still being high elves, despite the fact that Belves had changed their cultural looks a lot.
Makeup, runic tattoos, accessories, other eye colours that could be mixed with fel or phoenix like markings/tattoos. Floating orbs, Fel scars (or whatever type of scars you want to call on the BC box’ face, not the design but the damage the elf has). All are pretty recognizable Belf stuff no one would confuse for helf.
Velves will always look “more different” because, effectively they are mutated. But that’s just how the lore goes. Ultimately both races are completely different however and hey being in opposite factions only accentuates that. And makes one model having vastly different stuff less of a problem than HM or LFD for example which end up being objectively just a direct worse/better option than their counterparts.
The obsession of looking for one special thing Belves should get as a “gotcha we also have another theme”, ultimately feels fake. And is no wonder the artists at Blizz aren’t running to think of a magic solution to that.
You can say whatever you want about Velves. But with Helves being on the Alliance since forever , even more than some of our actually playable races. The request for them as a customization subrace always had merits.
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They’ll just reject anything and everything then wonder why they didn’t get anything.
It’s actually hilarious.
The sunwell isn’t holy and I don’t want that. - literally the most obvious one, but nooo.
I don’t want fire themes. Pheonixes? No. My character doesn’t use that so no.
We were done with Fel in TBC.
Also, rejecting basic stuff because Alleria has it, like Void Elves and Blood Elves aren’t the same type of elf just slightly mutated in different directions.
You’d think people highly invested in a race would actually notice what motifs Blizzard has been using for them during their appearances, and pay attention to general story beats.
Also, same people rejecting pretty much anything demand dark ranger - or even san’layn (lol?) skins for them, but then go and start hassling void elf players for asking for paladins, even though a dark ranger paladin makes about just as much sense as a void elf paladin.
Secondary aesthetic clashes for me, but not for thee?
There have been tons of suggestions that work with their current story and aesthetic, but people will just reject anything and everything, and then hassle anybody who presents something that even slightly treads on their ground while derailing a thread constantly to be about themselves.
Anyways,
Void Elves have been pretty simple in their requests.
All I want is red eyes because red is a void colour and we look like vampires with the tentacle toggle, don’t have paladins, and are a type of emo elf.
Goin’ for that full goth aesthetic. Starcursed stuff would just be a bonus for me at this rate.
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Jewerly we already have and believe me, it was a fail… those necklaces are criminal regarding safety measures.
I´m all ears regarding the makeup though… what ideas do you have regarding this?
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blood elf players just want whats already there. farstrider and magister themes
void elf customization should be new and unique reflecting of their choice to become corrupted by the void. but those posts dont usually get likes. if you post more blood elf culture for void elves all the pros like those. its interesting
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Yeah not only did VEs skip into a time the focus was said to be core races, it resulted in the loss of any uniqueness for Blood Elves, while giving Void Elves two themes to choose from now.
I’d like to see that same energy returned to Blood Elves now, but it is an issue now where as before it wasn’t, not only did they not get impactful new options, BEs lost visual uniqueness, its not cool. One could argue people would still take notice but it wouldn’t be as annoying to have not gotten impactful options if at the same time we didn’t see our favorite playable race also lose any sense of uniqueness.
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Until the usual suspects demand them too for the Velves cause “these were former Belves”… you yourself in a way pointed to this. Why do you think people like Lann attached to “undead” so strongly? Cause apart from Forsaken -that are Horde-, no Alliance player can claim “ownership” to red eyes and white skin no matter how Belfy their current Velf was, period.
Doesn´t this kinda contradict what you said above? The issue is that the Alliance has a race that was used as a vehicle for Helves BUT that came from Belves, so posters feel entitled to basically everything and anything Belfy when it´s convenient for them.
And that´s not something even the LF or the HM or the Mag´har or the DI Dwarves have managed to. It IS unfair to expect Belf players to be subjected to a different set of standards and not “false” to want to get AT LEAST something visually unique for our race just like the other core races have managed regarding their AR, period.
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San’layn and dark ranger customizations being added to Blood Elves would help fix this and since most of it already exists it’s just not useable for players yet it wouldn’t take much time to add most of it so we can use it. 
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I just want a lot more effort put into belves than they put in for the initial pass, with attention paid to what belf fans are asking for.
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Why do you think I´m one of the few ones that DON´T like the “subraces” chart going around in the forums? Cause it reduces the aesthetics to “this group / faction or GTFO”. And I want the red eyes NOT to RP a Dark Ranger, but because I think it´s one way to represent the current Blood magic via Dark Animus the Belves have going around.
If the very devs don´t literally care -like, at ALL- for how lore friendly are the aesthetics they provide, why should we players be subjected to this standard?
Let people play with cosmetics as they want, if nobody here “hurts” when a Velf uses his/her toon to RP a Helf, they nobody should hurt when a Belf uses his/her toon to RP a Dark Ranger or San´layn, period.
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I’m fine with the status of RP tools, but I also think its set up nicely with Exiles Reach (the new start point where we start as members of our faction not our racial starting zone) and also Velonara’s comments on staying in the Horde and referring to BEs and Forsaken as her kin.
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It can still be expanded on to have less bad options.
Also I am including the Metal Feathers/Feathers as jewelry. Metal Feathers being like all the Armor Decorations in WC3 Blood Elf units. Just expanded to Hair/Jewelry. PRESUMABLY getting more metal colors with the other jewelry.
(And male characters could get them.)
Basically two tone Eyeshadow/Lipstick and something like that art from Izabelle you’ve linked perhaps. Like you pick a pattern called “Phoenix” and select red or orange for phoenix colors.
Remember the large eyeshadow from WC3 Sorceresses? Something like that.
Also the marks on the sides of the eyes like Naruto’s Sage Mode could work. <.< (Unashamed weeb-ery on this one)
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Sure. People can ask whatever.
I can ask we kill all trolls every day. Doubt that will happen. Despite the fact that trolls should be exterminated in account of them being the worst race.
If you base your requests in account “what other people won’t ask” you’ll always get a second hand prize, not what you want.
And yet some stuff will always be belf and not velf because, velves also changed their visual identity a lot (beyond mutations obviously).
Ultimately, again, doesn’t matter who asks for what as long as you don’t go harassing other people for their requests.
Sure, but the point is, there are clear options for that as I’ve mentioned.
But scattering around looking for a super different thing just for a gotcha ultimately only brings the satisfaction of “muh, they can’t have this”.
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Isn’t this more about claiming the high elf identity for the group that abandoned their race and pretending that the actual high elf society isn’t high elf anymore?
Blood elves are high elves.
Then they should have stayed mutants.
People pushing helves really shouldn’t talk about obsessions.
And there it is…
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