I wanted to check with people on the forums if my mindset on this topic is shared by others or not and to give a baseline suggestion on how it could work.
For Classic I created an Orc Rogue for the sole reason that I was convinced that the Classic community would not accept anything else in raids. This proved partly true as long as the server had high enough population to support it.
Now I find myself in the same position, but instead it’s Undead for PvP (My original favorite race on the Horde side). This leaves me with an unusable main that I most likely will have to delete to open up the name option for an Undead counterpart with no progression whatsoever getting transferred from Classic, which would sting bad.
In the original launch of TBC, the community where race-picks for Arena mattered was much smaller than it is today, which meant everyone could enjoy it without leveling a new character with the same class. Now when that has changed, I personally think heading into TBC without the Achievements from Classic would be a bigger change to the game than adding a restricted Race Swap for the Classic playerbase.
My suggestion:
Existing Classic characters can in-faction, one-time, permanent race swap (paid) within the first month of TBC release.
No race swaps to the new races (Blood Elf and Draenei), since this would hurt the leveling scene and be a large hit to the overall feel of TBC launch.
While i would gladly change this character to an undead.
I think race change is bad because it make choice less matter and because it’ll add an another paid service to Classic.
Which will lead to : “Since there is race change in Classic, can you add [Retail shop service] in Classic ?”
Your main is completely usable. If the community doesn’t accept it because of minor differences in racials-balance, that’s not the games fault.
I am not at all a #nochangeer. I am fine with things like Paladin Seal-Balancing, and tuned-up bosses in a 2.4.3 setting. I also advocated for things like removal of WBs back in the day.
But this is the kind of change where I stop my support.
“Choice matters” is a central tenet of classic and TBC.
Abandoning it, was one of the most damaging things done in retail.
No need to delete it, if you really wanna play undead for tbc, you just leave your orc in classic, and level a new undead in the Prepatch, and bring over your assets with a different character.
Then you would still have access to your orc if you want to play some classic, and have your new prefered race in tbc with the name.
If im not mistaken, orc is still best for PvE in tbc, and its very common to have two characters, one for PvE and one for PvP. So the only thing holding you back here is the name of the character, and i do not believe it is worth making such a big change to TBC because you arent willing to let go of the name.
I already know for a fact my guild won’t be utilizing an IEA rogue in TBC so there is no place for me on the Rogue which is why I’m now leveling a Hunter, a Warlock, a Druid and a Paladin before TBC release.
Now leaving it in Classic might actually work to clear up the name (dunno how Blizzard will do it), but I still personally feel like not being able to bring your main into the new content is going to be a bigger change towards the feel of original TBC than a restricted, in-faction race swap would.
There is no place for a non IEA rogue in any serious raid roster sadly. Melee in general is not good in TBC for PvE-content and the only reason to bring a Rogue is for IEA, just as the only reason to bring a non-tank warrior is for offtank purposes and damage aura to increase the tanks threat.
The difference with IEA in TBC is that it heavily affects the main tank if it’s a Warrior since Devastate is introduced. It is entirerly possible to main tank with a Feral druid instead to get around it and a good warrior tank can play without it for sure, but it’s tedious and we’ve made the call to go the standard route for TBC start.