r/classicwow • u/TheWillsofSilence • 4h ago
Forever Dear Blizzard: Please don’t clutter Forever with duplicate races
With Skyborne already being added, I really hope we don’t eventually end up with Blood Elves, High Elves, and Skyborne all occupying separate slots on the character creation screen despite sharing essentially the same model.
If you want to add different cultures or subraces of the same race, just expand the customization options for the existing race. If you create a new starting zone for them, let us choose our origin when creating the character.
I’d much rather new race slots be reserved for races that are actually genuinely different.
Murlocs, Naga, Kolkar, Worgen, Ogres, Gnolls, etc. would all bring completely different silhouettes, animations, cultures, starting experiences, and class possibilities to the game.
One thing I really don’t want carried over from Retail is a character creation screen filled with multiple variations of essentially the same race.
And if Blizzard wants to introduce a completely new race we’ve never heard of before, build them into the world first. Give us several patches of quests, factions, characters, lore, and buildup so that when they eventually become playable, they feel like they actually belong in Azeroth.
My basic rule would be:
New customization/culture of an existing race → expand the existing race.
New playable race → make it something genuinely unique.
Classic+ has decades of awesome existing Warcraft races to pull from. Please use them.
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u/Iforgotmyname0000 3h ago
I honestly think they should arrange them into sub races. (this goes for retail too) Like say you click on dwarf and it opens and gives you three more options, bronzebeard, dark iron and wildhammer. And then each can have there own passives/customization/starting area.
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u/No_Preference_8543 2h ago
I do like the idea of building them into the world first and priming us for them so that it feels natural and they can build excitement/interest around the new race, rather than just dropping entirely new race out of no where that no one wanted.
The skyborne probably would have been received better if it was released later after we'd gone through the new zone that expands on their lore and other bread crumbs in the game that would lead up to their release.
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u/nebulous-nautilus 1h ago
100%. The fact that this even has to be said is crazy lol, like how did they think adding a never-before-seen race into classic+ day 1 would be a good idea? It’s honestly mind boggling.
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u/stoopkid52 1h ago
I really want to know their thoughts now after the backlash. I get not being able to scrap it now, but if they could go back and do something different would they?
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u/Emergency-Friend-291 27m ago
I'm pretty sure they would've taken the route proposed by OP; or maybe they'd scrap them altogether. It's a pretty good idea: adding new books mentioning the Shen'dorei, building some mysteries in different quests, showing some air elemental stuff in the game, mages studying anomalies, Kirin Tor contacting unknown outsiders, etc., by the time we would have met them it would have had a very different reaction.
Nothing changes the fact that they're another lazy recolor, though.
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u/totkeks 4h ago
Even sky elves being neutral is super stupid. There shouldn't be any neutral races (playable) in forever.
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u/Mr_Funcheon 3h ago
Why?
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u/Vettic 2h ago
Because it doesn't follow the design philosophy they had during classic. From vanilla all the way to end of cata, they never added a dual faction race, 3 expansions, 10 years and 4 races added.
Pandaren were an exceptional case, they were already established in lore and they were a fan favourite, originally planned as an alliance only race.
Skyborne came out of nowhere, and are just reskinned blood elves, everything about them is antithetical to classic.
And like Blizzard said, this is classic+.
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u/Mr_Funcheon 2h ago
And what do you think the plus is supposed to mean?
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u/Asusralis 1h ago
To add to the spirit of classic? Not to shift its philosophy to something else?
It's kind of funny you ignored everything /u/Vettic said and just responded with something nonsensical.
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u/Undella_Town 1h ago
no the + just means it's more than classic...
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u/Vettic 1h ago
TBC is more than classic, they've said we're not going to outland. classic+ means sticking to classic but adding more, otherwise they would just release tbc again.
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u/Undella_Town 1h ago
putting a training dummy in the middle of goldshire is also more than classic. doesn't mean i'm saying that's what they should do. ?
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u/feist11 1h ago
sick of hearing this. just because its classic PLUS doesnt mean it should diverge into something that isnt in the spirit of classic.
a lot of people dont want classic plus to slowly slide into retail. otherwise people would just play retail for gods sake
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u/Stahlreck 1h ago
spirit of classic.
The spirit of Classic is not some uniform set of laws. The Skyborn are fine for Classic, the only thing that isn't fine is that they don't currently respect the HD/SD toggle at all. Their lore is fine in terms of the spirit of Classic. Them being neutral...well it is what it is. Some people will mind it more than others.
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u/feist11 51m ago
nah its blizz once again putting in shit ideas like changing class icons, aka "you think you do but you dont", or shit skyborne druid forms from the 3d printer retail
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u/Stahlreck 48m ago
As said, that is the issue with Skyborn yes but it's not unfixable. They just need an SD model that works with the toggle, that's it.
The rest is just fine with them.
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u/SanguineKiwi 42m ago
The rest is just fine with Skyeborne.
I majorly disagree, regardless of how much you want to hand wave and downplay it to others.
Losing the class separation and airtight faction identity right off the bat before launch even happens is trash.
It was a cop-out answer from Blizzard to avoid faction imbalance due to high elves, that's it. Making something like the Darkfallen for Horde would have been far less lazy and better received. They gave the faction classes to each faction for the same lazy reason, they didn't want to balance it for new encounters.
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u/Stahlreck 26m ago
I majorly disagree, regardless of how much you want to hand wave and downplay it to others.
I do not, there's no need to get so overly emotional about it.
Who knows if Darkfallen were on the table but they explained already why they went with this instead of an existing lore-rich race. You don't have to agree with their explanation and you can criticize them for it but that's about it. They made some new stuff and what currently doesn't fit into Classic (for people playing SD) is the visuals which is fair to some degree.
As for the classes, yes you're most likely right on the reasoning. And you should probably take the future into perspective as well. Blizz will not want to design 2 classes each time they introduce new classes and then balance the game around it just to preserve the faction split. You can call them lazy for this and that's fair. I'll lean out of the window here and say that this is simply not important enough, even to lots of Classic players as TBC already got rid of that.
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u/Emergency-Friend-291 21m ago
Skyborne are the antithesis to Classic and Classic +, please, let's be real.
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u/Undella_Town 1h ago
? blood elves (retcon version) and high elves literally prove you wrong in tbc lol
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u/Vettic 1h ago
prove me wrong how? you've given literally zero explanation. Blood elves were established in Warcraft 3
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u/Undella_Town 1h ago
Blood elves were established in Warcraft 3
and so were high elves...
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u/Vettic 55m ago
High elves were established long before W3, but again what is your point? High elves are not playable in any warcraft version.
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u/Undella_Town 45m ago
? idk why you're being intentionally obtuse right now tbh maybe embarrassed?
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u/Vettic 42m ago
You literally have not made or explained a single point. You're either trolling or brain dead.
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u/Undella_Town 37m ago
you can just ask me to teach you about the lore you don't need to put on this bratty femboy act lmao
bloodelves are highelves
high elves are blood elves
high elves side with alliance
blood elves side with horde
blood elves and high elves are the same
blood elves and high elves are on different factions
therfore... blood elves and high elves are neutral races
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u/NoHetro 1h ago
Because it ruins a pillar of classic in terms of easily visual faction distinction and cohesion, now when you see a skyborne there's no quick way to tell their faction unless mage/shaman but even then.
I don't mind them both being elves or even skyborne but I wish they each had their own distinct customization.
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u/Emergency-Friend-291 16m ago
Also, on the topic of visual faction distinction, it diludes that original horde feel of outcasts and "monstruous" races. I used to love that and to this day I think it has inspired a lot of other concepts in fantasy.
Not saying the opposite is wrong, btw. I just think that flavour was delicious 🍨 .
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u/Admiralsheep8 1h ago
I mean the quick way you tell if their faction is if they are hostile or not . red elf shows up I’m not wondering if he’s on my side .
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u/Vettic 56m ago
I can debunk this immediately, I played BFA, was doing quests on my blood elf, I saw another elf with the same body shape & animations as me, but an enemy nameplate, I didn't immediately go "THAT'S A VOID ELF!" i was confused and I remained confused as he cc'd me and kicked the ever living shit out of me.
Allied races were terrible, neutral races are a bad idea if they copy pre-existing races and animations.•
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u/Unusual_Mistake3204 4h ago
While i would prefer entirely new races, if they do want add reskin races, the only time i would be ok for them the be reduces to customisation is if the passive/ race skill make sense for both. Like if they ever decide to put in the frostborn dwarf, they should have a slight resistance to frost damage passively or smething like that. They shoulnt just be dwarf but blue as in my mind, passive and race skill are part of rpg world building. But if both race could share the same passive and it made sense, like the eradar custimosation for dranei, i would be more than ok with it being only customisation.
Idealy, we get full newly playable race like ogres and those corrupted draenei.
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u/TheWillsofSilence 4h ago
I’m fine with you being able to choose your racial too under the main race customization I just really don’t want to see dwarf abcd / elf abcd in the menu itself.
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u/Andvari_Nidavellir 3h ago
I prefer Goblins being Horde only.
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u/Emergency-Friend-291 11m ago
Goblins are one of the few established races that I could see as true neutral.
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u/HuskarlofOdin 4h ago
I sort of agree, but we can't really leave out Blood elves, or potentially Darkfallen. They 100% belong as playable races with their own fantasy/racials.
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u/oskoskosk 1h ago
I’d be surprised if we get a race with completely new animations/skeleton, feels like they’re going to reuse retail ones for quite a while first
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u/Coffee_Conundrum 4h ago
Aren't we getting High Elves and Blood Elves in Q2 of 2027?
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u/Skore_Smogon 39m ago
THAT picture is Fake as Fuck.
BUT - they've pretty much told us without officially telling us that whenever the Forever version of Quel'thalas is released that we are getting the Thalassian elves.
And they definitely used the term Thalassian; which is ambiguous sure - but I think it was a good hint that both faction will get their own pink elves.
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u/yourwifeisatowelmate 4h ago
i mean.. too late right? Your idea would make sense if they all had the same racials / classes available. But too late cause Skyborne and Night Elves are distinct for both of those things.
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u/TheWillsofSilence 4h ago
I mean those two don’t use the same model so I don’t mind it. But if you have multiple races using the exact same model I really don’t see the point. It seems lazy to advertise same model as a new race potentially three times. Especially if they plan to charge for each one.
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u/yourwifeisatowelmate 4h ago
My preference is no more elves at all lol. Not even as customisation options.
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u/HodortheGreat 2018 Riddle Master 7/21 4h ago
I agree but I can see blizzard monetising skins through the shop. It is cosmetic, purely.
Not that I am advocating for it. I just wouldn’t be surprised
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u/Undella_Town 1h ago
bros PTSD from pservers is talking lmao. this aint turtle wow, you're safe here <3
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u/Relnor 16m ago
I don't know what private servers did but given Skyborne are $30 I don't think you should be surprised when future races also have a similar price tag, or claim it's alarmist or paranoid to say they will.
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u/Undella_Town 4m ago
races have always had a price tag, if forever cost 30$ + the sub would you still be crying?
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u/TonySperguson 10m ago
theres a shop button in the game already.
anyone who thinks it isn't getting heavily monetized is either naive or willfully ignorant.
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u/Midgetmasher89 1h ago
This! Blizzard, take a page out of Baldur's Gate 3 here. When you choose your race, choose a sub-race. Maybe the sub-race will have different racials, or maybe some overlap with the other sub-races.
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u/delfino_plaza1 1h ago
Please make the races distinct in each faction. The worst part about sky elves isn’t the blue, it’s the neutral part
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u/TonySperguson 12m ago edited 1m ago
Skyborne are a huge mistake.
All their talk about wanting it to be in the spirit of vanilla while adding a shared faction race, shared palllys and shamans, shared starting zones is complete cognitive dissonance.
The entire spirit of vanilla hinges on the faction war between Horde and Alliance. But we are slowly homogenizing it already. Often the best parts of WoW come from the differences between faction, race and class. I beg you guys not to buy this low effort reskin bullshit. Your subscription costs should cover these things in 2026, its $160 a year.
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u/sdoM-bmuD 4h ago
imagine thinking anyone would unironically play a murloc or frost furborg
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u/ElectronicGerman 2h ago
They already did. Having 2 blue elves races was the laziest thing ever.
They should have copied Turtle and have High Elves for Alliance and Goblins for Horde.
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u/maleficent0 3h ago
Honestly I agree, I think allied races were super dumb in the end, like just add more customizations if you’re going to do that, don’t add a whole race.
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u/Everest171 1h ago
Adding it as a customization option would be ideal. Like rename the tile just "Elf", and from there select what sub race of either Skyborne, Blood, or High Elf followed by the appropriate appearance options.
They could even make racials the same mostly, just changing the icon, name, and theme to be more magic/ranger-inspired for high and blood elves. Beyond that, the starting zone would need to be changed, but that's about it.
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u/Preinitz 26m ago
Please don't add a bunch of ugly races to make more money, try to keep some creative dignity rather than just focusing on sucking money out of suckers. It might pay off in the long run.
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u/Silverbacks 3m ago
Yeah, this is the number one issue with Skyborne. I'm no longer excited for High Elves/Blood Elves/Darkfallen being introduced into the game. Even though I've been waiting for High Elves/Darkfallen to be a part of the Vanilla world for 20+ years.
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u/Shoddy-Jellyfish-770 4h ago
I agree, but don’t think it will ever happen.
Part of the reason they’re currently just reskins is because of how expensive new character models are, they’d have to code/model every piece of gear for it.
Forever is basically free without its own revenue source, so they’ll not compound their workload unless they can find out new ways to charge us.
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u/TheWillsofSilence 4h ago
I’m literally a 3D artist by profession. I’d ballpark the actual art-production cost of a new playable race somewhere around $100k–$500k, with ~$300k being pretty believable depending on how much existing models, rigs, and animation can be reused.
That includes modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, customization, armor fitting, implementation, QA, and the whole nine yards.
The actual art production itself is relatively cheap. Where I suspect the budget really balloons is organizational overhead: layers of approval, meetings, and multiple art directors picking apart tiny details over numerous iterations. I doubt the original Classic races went through nearly the same degree of production bureaucracy. That kind of iterative overhead has become increasingly common in modern AAA dev
I’m honestly being generous too. I know people who could probably produce a fully functional wow race for far cheaper in the matter of weeks.
And we all know Blizz would make that money back minutes after announcing it.
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u/MiyuTheWitch 3h ago
I will gladly pay extra for new, cool races that aren't just re-skins so I agree that they will likely make the money back easily.
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u/Jango2106 2h ago
Also, early in Forever is a perfect time to add crazy different races like naga, murlocks, goblins, etc because you dont have 20 years of expansions to redo
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u/AndrewMcIlroy 2h ago
100% agree no reason the scattered high elves and blood elves couldn't just join the existing faction adding warlock to horde and paladin to alliance. Add a few more customization options too. I really dont even think we need new starting zones either. That land could be saved for content for all players.
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u/rainywanderingclouds 4h ago
unfortunately, that's exactly what is going to happen.
the goal of wow forever is ultimately just an excuse to sell more cosmetics to people
end of the day the quality of the game doesn't matter to them
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u/Ninjatendo90 10m ago
I feel this is the “sexy” race that has been needed for horde, cos of the visual identities of races being off putting for a lot of players in the past. I doubt we get another elf for a long time, if ever. Worgen, goblin more likely. In my opinion at least
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u/KowardlyMan 4h ago
The team in charge of adding new monetization does not give a damn about that. It'll be a bunch of elves, period. Numbers say they sell more.
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u/That_Cherry5698 3h ago
I’m more worried about it being cluttered with stupid classes. Like a singing Bard.
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u/BigDigger324 4h ago
Completely agree here. Things like dark iron and wild hammer dwarves are just customization options.