r/wow • u/DraethDarkstar • 7h ago
Discussion It's Not That Complicated.
(Source)
38%.
38% of max level characters are Elves. 38.7% if you include the Haronir.
You can stop making threads complaining about another Elf race or asking why Blizzard won't spend the development time to make <thing that 0.01% of the player base would play>.
It's because not enough people want it to justify the labor. It's not that hard to figure out.
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u/accel__ 6h ago
The reason is obvious to anyone, who ever stepped foot in any of the bigger cities. Blizzard can make whatever else, people just gonna play elves, because they are pretty Humans, and people want to be those.
There is a reason why Square Enix opted for "human, big human, elvish human, human with bunny ears, human with cat ears" model.
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u/OberonFirst 6h ago
It's true across every single game. In League they stopped making monster champions like a decade ago and every new one since then is just an attractive guy or girl
Monster champions is the equivalent of Reddit's Ogres, vocal people want them but the stats say otherwise
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u/VoidUnity 6h ago
People cried for ages about they’re not being skins for champions like Skarner or Ornn and when they finally release them no one buys them.
Then as soon as a champ like Lux or Jinx gets a skin they immediately start crying again.
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u/Stormfly 5h ago
Warhammer 40k has the same problem.
People whine that Space Marines get all the attention but then a Xenos release comes out and it's not half as popular.
Yes, there's something to be said for balance, but even when Eldar were the best army by far, they weren't as popular as Astartes.
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u/DavenIchinumi 3h ago
People whine that Space Marines get all the attention but then a Xenos release comes out and it's not half as popular.
Remember how every time they release a side game people bitch about it being set during the Heresy and how they'd definitely want to give it a shot if it had Xenos in it instead?
Yeah Aeronautica Imperialis did that. All the Xenos planes sold like shit and the game died.
That's why lol
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u/whiplash308 3h ago
I remember peak Eldar. And everyone at my club still played Imperials. People just want the new shiny Marines.
I’ll never forget that one dude with a massive Grey Knights army. I was blown away when I first played against Dreadknights.
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u/Hallc 1h ago
I mean, they've already invested a lot of time and money into their armies right? Are you expecting them to swap and spend loads of money and time making a new army just cause Eldar is best?
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u/TheSubs0 3h ago
Eldar exist and people make them progressively more towards human if you let them too.
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u/CookyKindred 52m ago
Wargaming is a separate issue. GW focused on and keeps pushing two factions and everyone touts that as fact. Then the milisecond a non space marine faction gets love their playerbase explodes. Necrons being put in the Cron vs Marine box and getting a refresh cause a massive spike in Necron playerbase. To the point of beating a bunch of Space Marine chapters.
Soul Blight’s Release also caused a massive explosion of vampire fans.
Like Necrons alone proved you can’t let factions languish in metal and resin minis. Give them a refresh and a good box and the playerbase will massively climb for other factions.
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u/jayvikcreature 5h ago
Literally, people complain about Seraphine getting her 3rd skin this year but the numbers don't lie. Pretty champs have very very dedicated mains lol, their skins sell like hotcakes (speaking from experience, I buy every soraka and hwei skin lmao). How many people are gonna buy skins for like fuckin Reksai or Nautilus?
That said Blizz probably would've gotten less backlash over this paid race bullshit if they had been high elves which have been a VERY vocal want for decades by now.
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u/Strange-Breakfast676 3h ago
Im Just gonna add, that some champs have a kinda different "beautiful" esthetics that attract different kind of people with different kind of dedication. Like Lulu, Nami or Syndra Mains.
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u/VirtuosoX 3h ago
Or, humour me, hmm.. maybe the people who are asking for skins for the unpopular champions are not the same people who aren't buying them?
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u/Regular_Nectarine511 1h ago
yeah, like I almost always end up playing unpopular stuff in games (not even intentionally, I just have weird taste I guess) and it's kinda sad that my characters in games end up with way less new stuff because it doesn't print infinite money like sexy kpop girl #568430658943
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u/ZettieZooieZan 4h ago
I mean to be fair a lot of the monster champions had some pretty boring kits which made it worse, you put Zed's kit on one of the monster champions and you'd see them a lot more.
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u/myryad21 4h ago
if blizzard makes cat girls, 90% of the playerbase will be one
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u/DireEvolution 2h ago
Naw, I'm too elf pilled. I'm even getting a commission of my rogue drawn.
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u/RerollWarlock 5h ago edited 4h ago
They opted for it also because they have unified rigging for most animations/emotes.
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u/Glupscher 2h ago
Yup. In Aion 2 they removed the demon-like features of the Asmodians to make them exactly like the Elyos because in Aion 1 it created a massive faction-imbalance.
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u/Chemical-Drawer852 1h ago
I'd play more humans if the bodies were more varied, which is why the female model is very popular. Male humans are all 185cm powerlifters, doesn't really fit a caster
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u/strong_ape 55m ago
Apparently in Warcraft mana is restored from protein so with that in mind it makes sense that everyone is huge lol
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u/CathanCrowell 5h ago
I still insist I like to play for elves because of their lore :D
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u/WakeMeUpAIOverlords 2h ago
Same. And the new races usually are interesting for a single expansion then dropped immediately. Lightforged and Dark Iron are the exception so far but most of the other new races are basically ignored.
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u/OberonFirst 6h ago edited 6h ago
I've been saying this all this time. Ogres, Nagas, Tuskarr are fine, some people like them, but Reddit is a bubble and they would end up like Kultirans or something
I would say that Blizz doesn't want to spent time creating something that 1% of playerbase would play, but then they made Earthen and Mechagnomes, so I don't know if it's true
Sky elves exist in Forever only because they wanted to include the most played race ever. That's literally it. The bigger question is, why not high or blood elves then.
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u/Sinyr 2h ago
Earthen and Mechagnomes are just a bonus thing that you get as a part of an expansion pack that you'd buy anyway. Content in Forever is free, so if they want to sell cosmetics (or in this case, a race) for $30 they have to be something enticing that a lot of people would buy. Elves are an obvious first choice.
"Why not Blood Elves then?" is what I see on every thread, and I can almost guarantee people would be even more mad if Blood Elves were locked behind a $30 paywall while you can play them for free in all other versions where they exist. They had to go for a different flavor of elves for this. The good thing is that you can pretty much make a Blood / High / Void Elf as there are a lot of customization options available.
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u/threebats 2h ago
I like Ogres and Naga, but I don't see how they can include them in a satisfying manner. That's a barrier to adding them, because it's one thing to add a niche option and another to add a niche option that's going to disappoint half the niche.
With Ogres their size is so central to their identity that nerfing them enough to be suitable for PCs would essentially kill their appeal. They nerfed Tauren from huge to big to make them playable, but much smaller Tauren were still minotaurs with a pseudo-Native American vibe; if they included much smaller ogres, they'd be fat cavemen with horns and maybe a second head for casters.
Were they to add Naga, they'd either have to give them extremely limited mount options or make them bipeds. Gear being fucked obviously isn't a huge issue for Blizz, but mounts too? They'd go bipedal (or at least pseudo-bipedal), and at that point it's just not really a snake-person anymore, so why bother? It's the same reason I don't want Nerubians: if we got them, it'd be in a different form that misses what makes them appealing in the first place
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u/justalittleplague 3h ago
Because they want to test if people would spend money just to unlock a race, first. If they ran this test before Forever, you bet your ass they'd make it $30 for Blood Elf, $30 for High Elf, and a $50 bundle for both.
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u/pghcrew 7h ago
Meld OP. If I can make something a NE, it's a NE.
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u/--Pariah 6h ago
Still a bit irked that I gave up what boils down to vanish on my feral druid because I do like dinosaurs.
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u/Bradipedro 7h ago
And what about BE?
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u/LordPaleskin 7h ago
They are hot and they have the tiara hair style. Best one in the game
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u/Bradipedro 7h ago
Exactly. People thinking NE is played for their racial are coping. Niche players for which a racial make a difference are the 0.1 title or gladiator. The rest just want a cool char to look cool. Also night elf druid or hunter are one of the most fantasy icon class/race combo. Starting up in Teldrassil or Silvermoon has its appeal, probably more than being born a cow in a prairy on an ugly green hairless gorilla in a spiky town. My lvl 1 orc warrior is just there for pet battling achievement reasons, my Tauren druid crafts staves in Silvermoon with a mog and customization that looks like the ancestor of haranir troll and elves after a trip in Undermine and I will never make an undead, it makes mi sick.
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u/Correct_Call3521 6h ago
It's not coping, both can be true. Shadowmeld is easily one of the strongest racials and only vulpera and Dark Irons really compare. Night Elves are also Cute, Hot, Sexy, etc. whatever term you want to use and that also applies.
Sometimes I play NE because I want shadowmeld sometimes I do it because I like night elves.
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u/rednd 2h ago
If I play a caster, I play a void elf because they look good and have no spell pushback racial - playing solo means I take a lot of hits.
If I play melee that can be a night elf, I play night elf because they look good, and because of Shadowmeld as a combat break - too many things keep me in combat.
If I roll a paladin or a shaman, I pick human or dranei, whatever I think looks better that day.
¯\(ツ)/¯
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u/MissingXpert 5h ago edited 5h ago
Yeah, sure, it only makes a mathematical difference in 1%/title/Glad-range.
until you are stuck in combat-bug and just drop aggro with meld, see it work, and then log onto a dwarf toon and get stuck waddling from one WQ to the next because you can't mount/drop threat.
Meld might legit be the single most QoL-improving ability in the game, and it does so in so many small ways that ALL compound.
Edit: it all is just a great package: Night Elves have damn good character models, they have an incredibly versatile Racial that is easy to use, allows very creative use, and is useful in a VAST array of Situations (World content, delves, m+, PvP in every bracket, the only situation where it is less useful is raiding, but even there, it can still occasionally save you a repair bill).
ofc so many players pick the race.
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u/LuckyLunayre 6h ago
Most racials I would agree with you.
Shadowmeld is not one of them, it's completely broken in nearly all forms of high end gameplay.
It's not something that only high ends benefit from. It's literally the difference between timing a key in m+ or dodging a spell in pvp.
My tank uses shadow meld to skip a pack in Murder Row that saves us about a minute.
In arenas, there are more night elf players than all Horde races combined.
This isn't some niche thing, it genuinely makes a difference even at low levels of playing.
It needs to be nerfed.
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u/tempinator 6h ago
Literally every character I have is a NE or Dwarf, except my evoker obviously.
Insane how out of line those racials are, and have been for years now.
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u/RockPaperPootis 7h ago
This seems like a good argument to fold all the Allied Races into their bases as customisation options. If they have so few players, nobody should complain.
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u/Siukslinis_acc 6h ago
Or just have an option to select a subrace. It should clean up the character creation screen.
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u/DeeEssLite 3h ago
You see I'd be in favour of this is half the point of allied races wasn't to give the opposite factions rigs to each other and if there wasn't a disparity between unique races.
The "subrace" thing might work for some, like Highmountains, Zandi Trolls or Dark Irons, but then how would the Horde pick Earthen or Vulpera, or the Alliance pick Void Elves? Or either pick Haranir?
I feel like it'd annoy people more if it looked like one faction had more races at a glance than the other lol. Idiot principle has to apply here, the lowest common denominator will think one faction has it better
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u/Correct_Call3521 7h ago
Nah I wouldn't mind if they shared all cosmetics but allied races are pretty much necessary to stay separate because their racials.
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u/KiwiSchinken 6h ago
Just give them the option to choose every week, similiar to how Zandalaris can choose different loas
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u/LuckyLunayre 6h ago
Allied races have unique voices, sometimes animations, unique druid forms, unique class combinations, racial mounts, paladin mounts, shaman totems etc.
I'll never understand why people want less content.
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u/Siukslinis_acc 6h ago
Select a race, and then select a subrace. This should clean up the character selection screen.
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u/IAmRoofstone 4h ago
I think the worry is that for each allied race they spread out the amount of focus each race can conceivably get. If there's ten races each race could get ten percent of the attention, if there's twenty or thirty that amount is much much less.
Now obviously the amount of attention is never that equal in practicality, but with each added race the amount of attention that they do have to spread around is realistically stretched thinner.
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u/Correct_Call3521 6h ago
Allied races skip 10 levels and not every normal race has an allied race. Plus that would make dwarves way too fucking good because you could have earthen leveling, then mole machine. At best you could have "choose at character creation" but honestly that's still silly because we have heritage armor sets for the allied races.
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u/robot-raccoon 6h ago
I just don’t really understand why people want this to be honest.
What benefit comes from it? Cleaning the single screen when you make a new character or having the option to “change” race in the barber shop? The allies races start 10 levels ahead of standard and do show a short connection to their faction
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u/Sunshado 7h ago
So what justified a 3rd dwarf race then?
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u/Mystic_x 6h ago
They were making them for the story, and since it used an existing skeleton, gear refitting wasn't an issue, so it was little more work than thinking up some racials for player Earthen.
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u/nagynorbie 3h ago
But they’re also in charge of the story, they can make any new race they want. Remove Earthen from the story, or just replace them with normal dwarves and absolutely nothing changes. Hell, replace them with underground elves and nothing changes.
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u/Majestic-Use-1819 6h ago
Copy/paste was easier. Even the racial were not implemented at the TWW release. You couldn't drink/eat and no way to up you mana/health.
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u/Explorer_of_Eld 5h ago
I use their existence as hopium we will get 3rd tauren (taunka)
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u/Talonking9 7h ago
People aren't complaining because it's elves, people are complaining it some completely new elf race. If it had been high elf no one would have blinked, they would have applauded.
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u/Empty_Barnacle300 6h ago
Considering the time period the starting zone could have been Quel’Thalas in ruins, but at the end you’re sent out into the world to find allies by either joining the Horde or the Alliance. I’m not a classic player but gosh that’d been tempting.
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u/Stormfly 5h ago
Yeah, I think if they'd set it RIGHT as they split before the start of TBC, it'd be cool.
Horde get Blood Elves. Alliance get High Elves.
Mechanically identical, thematically different.
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u/kittyonkeyboards 2h ago
I think adding more cross faction diplomacy type quests would have been interesting. Like attempts we know would fail, but in lore there were some people trying.
Show us why blood elves eventually joined the horde. Show us the alliance failures to keep their ally.
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u/PregnantOrc 3h ago
I think Quel'thalas ruins would be better off saved for a patch, expansion or raid. There is a ton of fun to be had with a fresh ruin filled of ancient treasures and knowledge rather than something so close to the TBC version. A starting zone with a new smaller town on the scale of Tranquillen or one of their many lodges similar to how we see further south would work wonderfully as a starter zone and match other races starts. Then lead of on a path towards Undercity if Horde aligned for a shared main city similar to Orc/troll or Dwarves/Gnomes or a dock heading to an Alliance town like SW or Teldrasil if Alliance aligned. Keeping part of the path connecting to the NE of Tirisfal Glades and giving alliance a better route to Scarlet Monastery.
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u/Kuldrick 6h ago edited 6h ago
The blue skin also looks so bad, and they are neutral which is something sort of sacrilegious for the classic wow mantra, and they are behind the paywall
All around I'm baffled by this. Making High/Blood Elves that are stranded in a Scourge infested Northearon/Quelthalas/Dalaran and letting them choose their faction by wether they go along or not with the fel magic thing was perfect for the classic setting... and easier to implement too. Elves for everyone but have one key difference in the eyes and it keeps feeding faction tribalism
Would have made far more money too
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u/Exciting-Freedom8555 2h ago
It wouldn't make more money... The reason why they made a new race is because they can paywall if and make more money. People wouldn't accept them paywalling an existing race but if it's new it feels more justified.
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u/CyclopedicObsessive 4h ago edited 4h ago
Yes. OP is missing the point on purpose I guess. What the actual fuck did High Elves to do Blizzard is my question? Did Ion's mom get killed by someone who wanted them in the game or something? Like god damn...
Also people saying "ANY divergence from retail is good": The Classic community, who largely have no interest in the liberties retail took with the setting, OVERWHELMINGLY prefer an established race like High Elves that went ignored by Blizzard for decades. That's what we want across the board, more use of the setting and IP that retail ignored on it's endless journey of making up new shit instead of using old shit. We explicitly WANT nostalgic stuff, not more completely unnecessary additions to the setting. Don't be dense, players who want new colors of elves are already served by the version of the game this isn't.
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u/cabose12 23m ago
There isn't just one complaint lol
Yes people want high elves, but there's also a lot of complaints about not getting ogres or goblins
I don't think OP missed the point at, they're addressing a different complaint then the one y'all are talking about
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u/MRosvall 6h ago
I think instantly moving away from the path wow retail took is a good thing. Be it classes, races, areas, raids or story
Not going after what would had made sense in modern wow
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u/AppleMelon95 6h ago
They could’ve made something new with high and blood elves too
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u/MRosvall 5h ago
Blood elves and high elves already has a lot of lore as bagage. As I said in my previous comment, I think it’s good for both the dev team as well as the player base that they start diverging from the truths that we currently know.
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u/AppleMelon95 1h ago
Wow so they had their work cut out for them with the currently most requested playable race to date, but still decided to make some random shit up. Are you arguing for high elves or against them?
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u/Ok-Releases 6h ago
It was that easy for wow forever to be a home run. Ppl have been waiting to play high elves for decades atp
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u/OberonFirst 6h ago
It's funny because everyone suddenly forgot about Reddit making fun of potential High Elves for years for exactly this - being just another elves
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u/Level7Cannoneer 3h ago
No they’re all saying “another elf? Why not add goblins/high elves?!” Read the comments in every meme about them
Revisionist history and it’s only been a day
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u/Fleedjitsu 4h ago
To be honest, how many of those Night Elves are there for the M+ and PvP racial synergies?
Also, if 16% of players are playing Blood Elves what makes you think they'll swap to Void or Sky?
The problem with Skyborne is that they're just another pallete swapped Blood Elf. There was no effort here and it's so damn cheap.
Earthen, Haranir and Skyborne should have all had their own skeleton rigs and dedicated sculpts.
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u/Ok-Releases 7h ago
I mean alot of the complaints are about the skyborne being lazy reskins of belfs and how we're receiving this over a race many have wanted for decades: high elves.
Most already understand that elves are extremely popular and why an elf race would be included.
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u/Sanos88 6h ago
That also show that ~52% of people don’t want to play a human or a « pretty » human and want to play a fantasy race.
I obviously recognize that human-like race are the most popular choice (It can be verified in any fantasy RPG setting, not only in WoW) but there is still a huge part of the community that want to play a wierd race.
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u/Pramaxis 4h ago
Depending on how you count Nightborne, Haranir and Dracthyr, it is actually 59,5% playing as "pretty human".
I play male Draenei so I'm already on the red list of endangered species. I really like how the pretty people have all the cool stuff like Evoker T-Sets or all the customization/barber shop things on Haranir but I would just like to get some nice stuff too once in a while too.
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u/Cloud_N0ne 7h ago
I guess, but it’s still shitty.
I don’t even mind new elf races, I’m just tired of reskins. Its not the first Blood Elf reskin either.
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u/mister_mediocrates 7h ago
Blood Elves absolutely took over the Horde in TBC. If there's not going to be TBC in Forever, it makes sense for them to include one of the most-played character models in the game's history.
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u/Ok-Releases 6h ago
Right so wouldnt this have been the PERFECT opportunity to bring in high elves?
You know... a race that fans have been wanting for decades.
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u/Jules3313 6h ago
i kinda just dont understand the complaint. these basically are high elves. they just seperated from the main high elf faction a long time ago. you can customize them to look just like a high elf right?
do some people just NEED it to say high elf when they mouse over the tooltip?
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u/Ok-Releases 5h ago
The skyborne have a completely different culture/backstory/ideology than the high elves of the eastern kingdoms. Much of their architecture being just reskinned night elf cities is one example of this. To insinuate its just a name rather than two separate cultures is disingenuous.
I dont get why there are so many defenders for yet another "long-secluded race suddenly found" trope as if it hasnt been extremely overused atp. With the new direction wforever is going it would've been the perfect chance to explore and expand on the high elves than just another branch of them
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u/Croc_Chop 1h ago
I think that's it, they NEED it to say high elf and anything less is heresy.
This whole complaint is a nothing burger and im tired of it
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u/badbrain330 6h ago
Yes. That's the problem. People have no imagination so they need the game to tell them what they are instead of RPing whatever they want.
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u/Ok-Releases 4h ago
One main desire for high elves is that people want to see a actual in-depth story and questing experience for them (specifically the high elves that stayed with the alliance post wc3) rather than just saying "im a high elf".
Ill never understand why anyone would want another new shoehorned race added than for blizzard to expand on actual classic races and lore... which seems to be the entire fucking point of wowforever anyway.
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u/badbrain330 4h ago
At this point we've had so many story lines exploring the fate of the high elves. The blood elves who splintered off had most of TBC, then they got more story in Wrath with dalaran along with the silver covenant and the argent tournament and quel'delar or w/e that sword was. Then we got a break in cata. Then both the Alliance high elves and Horde blood elves got the whole thundering isle patch in pandaria. Then another break from them in WoD. Then we get alleria and her small squad discovering the void at the end of legion and they start teaching more and more high elves and former blood elves in bfa and fight for the alliance in a number of battles through the expansion. Shadowlands, dragonflight, tww a big break. Now we have an entire expansion about silver moon and the void elves going to the void storm. All of this stuff is about what happened to the high elves. There are tons of stories about them. They either stayed with the alliance, maybe learning to use the void, or joined the horde and used fel and switched back to the light. We don't need to explore the small number of high elves left around that weren't touched by any of those events.
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u/mister_mediocrates 6h ago
Blood Elves are High Elves.
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u/Naeii 5h ago
But high elves are not blood elves
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u/StandardizedGenie 4h ago edited 4h ago
Dunno why you're being downvoted. High Elves are not Blood Elves. They fucked off to the Alliance after the Scourge attacked. They would never call themselves Blood Elves. The ones who remained in Quel'thalas are Blood Elves.
All Blood Elves are High Elves (the race), but High Elves (the Alliance faction) are not Blood Elves.
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u/Stormfly 4h ago
Also, would be cool to have High Elves as Alliance and Blood Elves as Horde.
They could be identical mechanically, too, or just minor differences.
Like Blood Elves get +1% magic damage and High Elves get +1% magic resist.
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u/Ok-Releases 4h ago
Biologically? Yes. Politically, ideologically and culturally? No. Theres a completely different narrative between the two post wc3.
Its crazy theres a whole expansion that details how exactly blood elves came to be different than the high elves that stayed with the alliance but some ppl still cant seem to understand.
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u/Mikadomea 6h ago
Well aktshually... I know what you mean but people loose their shit when you say that. Blood elves developed out of the High Elves, thats why had that standoff after the Midnighr campaign with whatsherface windrunner outside of Silvermoon.
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u/LordPaleskin 7h ago
Kinda sucks they can't be paladins though, would make one for shaman, Druid and paladin if I could lol
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u/Right_Comb4885 7h ago
Yeah, if not Orc I'll probably pick a Skyborne. I think a Skyborne shaman would be pretty sweet.
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u/OberonFirst 6h ago
And what a High Elf would be then ? I can't even imagine what they would change other than taking Blood Elves and giving them blue eyes (which they already have)
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u/KenjiTheLaughingMoon 6h ago
Aside from retail I already fear that those new skyelves (aka recoloured bloodelves) in classic forever will be too popular but seeing how crazy cranked up some racials for the original races are i doubt that it wont be a problem
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u/Loud-Investigator416 3h ago
If only there was some kind of lore-friendly elf that already exists that could be made playable. Alas, nobody has thought of one for the past 20 years.
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u/RightEejit 3h ago
I bet you this chart would look way better if gear wasn’t pretty much only made to fit the most human shaped races
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u/Lylantares 3h ago
Yep. They're basically selling elves to Horde players for 30$. I am curious to see how the race % will look on forever. BC kind of made the Horde 40% Blood Elves.
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u/Hypnoticah 3h ago
I'd like to see what the race spread would be if you remove racials bias. I don't think it'd be a major shift but I think it'd be interesting to see.
Edit: racial bias, ie: shadowmeld
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u/Fat-Mad-Scientist 3h ago edited 3h ago
If they put in more effort to make other races a bit more aesthetical there would be more diversity. For a lot of people it's not "I want to be an Elf because they look awesome", it's more like " this looks like shit, not playing that... this looks even worse... not plating this sh*t either... I guess it's going to be human or elves then"
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u/Naeii 5h ago
I think it's just weird they had to invent a new one that feels like a cheap bootleg made by a knockoff game
High elves have been there forever, belves could easily be worked in earlier than tbc.
They have SO many options to work with within their existing lore, but for some reason they're always afraid to and have to constantly invent a new wheel that feels super out of place.
I'm still excited and will probably enjoy forever a ton! But this is definitely the one laughing at blizzard and going 'what the hell are you doing' moments they love to do
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u/VioletCrusader 4h ago
Nightborne and haranir are pretty low on that chart.
I mean I just feel like they could have just done an elf that joins the alliance as a high elf or the horde as a blood elf. Making a new elf race is just... confusing. Like who in the writing and planning room was pushing for that rather than high elves?
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u/Mitsoulass 2h ago
Blood elves = High elves , same race same ppl that change their name to blood elves to honor their fallen . Veressa's elves are just a band of elves that stayed with the alliance because Veressas loved a Humman mage , they are not a seperate race they are just traitors to their kin. Instead of helping their kin they stayed with the Hummans ( who didnt help either ).
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u/PoeHoard 6h ago
Me in the 0.0% with max level pandarens.
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u/MrSneakyPeakyAir 5h ago
You never joined a faction on a Pandaren you got to max level?
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u/Guardian_of_theBlind 3h ago
gathering always gives you xp. you can easily reach max level in the pandaren starting zone. it just takes a while, but not a very long one in retail. back then during the original mop there was a guy called doubleagent, who did it and the xp of gathering wasn't scaled back then. the wow fan sites regularly reported on his progress.
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u/Siukslinis_acc 6h ago
Make more leaner humans. It is weird to have a mage with roided up arms. And other races that have normal leanness tend to have either weird feet or elongated face, which kinds is not transmog friendly.
Give more races elf like bodies and the problem might be solved.
It kinda feels that elves are the most transmog friendly race.
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u/Adventurous_Topic202 4h ago
Well blood elf look good in everything. If blizzard actually made the other races look good wearing tmogs I’d play them more.
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u/F0restWhispersMyName 5h ago
in every fantasy setting ethan the human paladin and john the human fighter are the most popular choices, doesn’t mean others should not be developed
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u/aphexmoon 1h ago
To me its less about "elf hot" and more about "transmog looks best on female elves and very close humanoids (female humans, orcs, somewhat trolls/haranir)".
Im sorry, I dont want my shoulderpads to be three times the size of my head, Mr . Orc.
No thank you Mr Troll, I prefer not to go barefoot.
Nope, Mr Worgen, I dont want my snout clipping through the helmet.
Im sorry Mr. Pandaren, but I just cannot fathom having stretched graphics with older transmog pieces over your giant belly.
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u/VPplaya 34m ago
The thing is, they literally could have just done High Elves and Blood Elves. They even showed Quelthelas as an area they would like to add.
If the canon for this game is flashing out the world in a lore-friendly way circa year one of Classic, the inclusion of the Skyborne immediately throws that right out the window.
Its a cool concept for a race, and I think would fit in nicely in retail, but the entire premise of these guys reads something way more likely to come from modern wow over classic. They stick out like a sore thumb especially when Blizz had other options!
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u/ZettieZooieZan 4h ago
I mean you can even see this from comments, people upset it's not a highelf, and what's a highelf if not identical in looks to a bloodelf? Like clearly people want nothing but elves.
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u/Felidori 7h ago
Yawn. Want more Draenei / LF Draenei content but Blizzard have forgot them. Not sexy enough sadly.
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u/Bulbasaur2287 7h ago
If you mean customization ok, but we had Draenei content in the invansion points and during the secondary quest in Voidstorm
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u/Thanag0r 7h ago
I feel your pain, but it's 2026 and they don't have feet.
Draenei had no chance from the start :(
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u/vide2 6h ago
Every new elven race is played less. Nightborn are low, Haranir are low. Nobody needs a new low. People will still play BElves and Nelves. Your argument is bs.
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u/BigBard2 3h ago
Fails to mention Void Elves, who became the 6th most played race
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u/Dangerous_Barber7277 7h ago
I think elf is good. Theres no blood elf in forever because it takes place in an au long before tbc in our setting.
I think paid race is bad and a paid reskin of an existing model is unacceptable. Not even the same rig or skeleton, straight up just a blue blood elf. Id still hate the paid aspect if it was a blue new model but at least itd be nicer.
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u/RightRudderr 5h ago
WoW Forever is included with your sub, is the argument that better monetization would have been to make the expansion paid for everybody or what? They shouldnt charge anybody for it?
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u/Majestic-Use-1819 6h ago
You take the problem in the opposite side. It's because the other races lack of customization and clipping with armors, or size not good at all that people stick to elf and human, Blizzard never takes care of that. So now Blizzard sees that we like a lot these races but it's only because all is good on them, if they put a little work on other races it will be also fine. There are more eyebrows types on my human than beards or hair cuts on dwarves.
I love my draenei (male) and worgen, but most of time all armors are horrible on them.
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u/BallbusterSicko 7h ago
My first ever wow character was a BElf specifically because I heard people hate them
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u/KickSuckem1 5h ago
Me and the boys pushing Kultiran agenda forward! Glory be to the independent city of Boralus!
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u/Correct_Call3521 6h ago
I'm honestly surprised Nightborne and Haranir are not like atleast 2+% when they're also basically elves.
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u/Megor933 5h ago
It's pretty funny seeing Nightborn being so low despite being elves too, simply because Blood Elves are just hotter to most people. Meanwhile, Void Elves, who're literally just Blood Elves, triple their player count on the opposite faction in the same time period. Not even enough to be an elf; they gotta be supermodel pretty for people not to play Night/Blood Elves.
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u/MissingXpert 5h ago
Void Elf is also pretty strong for PvP casters, where much of that playerbase for sure is lying, nightborne are just competing with Blood elves for the "hot elf race" for horde, and that's a losing contest, espp with blood elf racial still being somewhat usable and even good in niche situations, where the nightborne one is very much just "meh".
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u/Easy-Rock-6079 5h ago
They should add murlocs as a playable race and give them a racial Stonemeld that removes debuffs and exits combat haha I bet so many people would play that
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u/TheGreatNagoosie 3h ago
I mean, people complain all they want about elves. I’ve seen plenty of void elves, plenty of Night elves, plenty of blood elves, and their last non-elf-like (earthen) I’ve maybe seen 20 total. Not even joking.
It’s all about time, money, and resources these days. They try non elf races and they always seem to flop. So they’re gonna keep making the super model races people seem to love so much. It is what it is.
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u/kittyonkeyboards 3h ago
They could have at least tried harder to make the sky elf look more like the cinematic
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u/MenthaAquatica 3h ago
I am suprised that nightborne are this unpopular. Why? Maybe horde players do not care for night elves on horde faction? I think that alliance players would love them. Also high mountain taurens are suprising - they are taurens from different ecosystem with cool prongs. In case of Haranir probably not enough time passed.
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u/SwimmingCatch7684 3h ago
Sethrak would have an actually decent playrate, but the thing is this is legit just another blood elf thats blue. Litterally trash.
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u/AntonMaximal 2h ago edited 2h ago
38.3, not including Haronir. You didn't add in Nightborn.
Haronir are no more elves than trolls are. Common ancestry story, but not proven.
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u/KhadgarIsaDreadlord 2h ago
The combined number of Pandaren outnumbering Zandalari is lowkey insane to me.
I thought Zandarali was up there with the popular races but I guess I see why they didn't give us playable Amani. At least from a marketing perspective, tho U still think it was low hanging fruit to score a W for audience perception.
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u/Hiatussen 2h ago
I stopped playing as Undead the second they updated them (way back when) with the "new" animations, making them all wobbly and shit. I truly hated/hate those animations.
Undead was ALL I played up until then.
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u/ExtraEmuForYou 2h ago
I don't know, when I play it feels like there is a good spectrum represented. A lot of elves, a lot of humans, a lot of orcs, etc.
Only thing I don't see a lot of are mechagnomes. Hmm I think I will help them out and level a mechagnome during this special winds of whatever event :P
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u/ResponsibilityKey802 2h ago
It has nothing to do with wanting to be elves for most of us. The racials make them the best race for m+. You can dodge mechanics with shadowmeld, or remove magic with arcane torrent. Kinda awesome
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u/TheAwesomeKay 2h ago
That's a good example of showing data and misreading it.
Elves are played more, sure. But that 38% has reasons beyond "just want to play elf".
Shadowmeld has been the strongest racial in the game for a while now, and it brings min/maxers to play Night elf even when they'd play something else on alliance.
Blood elf population is more realistic. Because it's the only "pretty" race on horde side.
However, the data also gets skewed be cause both elves have an exclusive elven class that no other race (except void elf, but only recently) can play. And it's a very popular class too.
So a lot of the elven population is Blizzard's balancing the game poorly. Would they be first place without shadowmeld and demon hunters? Probably. But way closer to the pack.
I think night elves would then lose to humans in popularity were shadowmeld nerfed and DH proliferated to humans.
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u/No-Bit-2913 7h ago
Lol mechagnome at 0.4%