I get that, but many features across all the races, are not specifically class-bound.
Blood Elf features don’t really have a specific “class” associated with them…maybe only “Priest” as the lavish jewelry is symbolic to that of the Blood Elf Priestess in the TBC cinematic.
But I go back to my point of - Blizzard can’t design features that work for every single race/class combo - in this case, Night Elf Mages. It’s a lot of work and the fact of the matter is, nobody can truly define what features a night elf/highborne mage actually has. We can speculate with purple eyes and arcane tattoos, but aside from that - we really only have the Highborne Archaeology items, where we can see crowns and necklaces.
It’s the same for Farstriders - nobody can tell me what exact features they have, other than Alleria having blue tattoos. Well, that doesn’t really tell me a whole lot because Sylvanas was the Ranger-General and she didn’t have any tattoos. Lor’themar was a Farstrider Captain and he didn’t have any and Hauldoran is the now, Ranger General and he doesn’t have any.
Vereesa is also the Ranger General of the Silver Covenant and she has no tattoos either.
The only Blood Elf character, who is in Silvermoon, who has tattoos is Rommath and he’s a Mage.
See what I mean? We can speculate and we can put good money on some features that we’d like to see, being completely accurate - but we’ve got so many things to factor in.
Like - Not all Highborne were Mages. Majority were, let’s not kid, but some were not. They had Rangers (High Ranger Valarian), Warriors (Varo’then), Hunters (Illyanna Ravenoak) and Priestesses (High Priestess Siralen).
That would be such a shame, and I don’t really understand it.
Farstriders are iconic in Thalassian lore, we got 3 windrunner sisters and a good portion of quests for them, a leader that’s from them - it’s hard to think that some scars, tattoos (like the nelf males got and Alleria has) would be too hard to give with some colour variations - gold, red, black, green and possibly blue (or they could leave blue out for void elves). Then add some messier beards and more martial hunter type hair styles like we saw in the Night elves to make the farstrider look.
Doing an icon that says farstrider would help or alternatively just naming the tattoo options Farstrider tattoos, then having farstrider pre-fix the hair style e.g. farstrider mohawk, farstrider swept.
For Night elves:
Highborne are again an iconic caste of the kaldorei, leaders of their pre-sundering civilization, their most prolific spell casting group. The Shen’dralar famous for their wonder engineering for the Queen and were so highly revered, the Farondis famous for their justice, and ofc Queen Azshara and the palace Highborne notorious for their descent into the evil people they became.
Highborne are such an iconic facet of the night elven history and culture, and capture the dark elf caster side of the NElves well, surely it warrants a bit more than we’ve got?
Where are the fancy headresses? the arcane effects like glowing hands or stars or arcane tattoos instead?
Noticed NElf males have lost that really neatly groomed beard style, that seemed like the level of neat highborne would have.
But the problem is that tattoos only appear on one Farstrider and that’s Alleria, who’s a Void/High Elf.
Vereesa, Sylvanas, Lor’themar, Haldoran and the other Farstrider forces - none of these Elves had tattoos, so how can we say they would look any different to that of a Magister, Warlock or Blood Knight?
The only other character, who is in Silvermoon, who has tattoos is Rommath and he’s a Magister.
So are tattoos really a “Farstrider” thing or are they a “Mage” thing?
But if you’ve read my post - they can’t. They don’t have time to making every single race/class combo have some sort of representation. What about Human Mages? They are so iconic with Agewynn and Khadgar and Jaina and Rhonin and Medivh, but what are they getting? Wonky purple eyes…?
What about Blood Elf Mages? Iconic and most proficient Elven Arcanists on Azeroth…what about a Magisters tab? But this again, is completely ridiculous because they won’t please everyone and I would rather they be done with the features now and move to the in-game stuff and make sure that is alright.
WoD is a clear indicator that no matter how good the artwork is - if the in-game stuff fails, all that artwork is for nothing.
Blizzard have chosen a very good and very safe focus, because the new features aren’t class-bound. They are simply racial-bound.
None of the Blood Elf features truly resemble “Mages” or “Farstriders” or even “Blood Knights.” I’d say, the inspiration behind their jewelry was the Blood Elf Priestess in the TBC cinematic.
They can actually. They have Azshara’s Night elf model as inspiration. Hairstyles like hers (something styled and elegant like the blood elves and Nightborne have), jewelry like hers (bracelets, leg ring, tiaras/crowns, necklaces and they can add golden jewelry recolors (the one with the purple pendant would work so perfect with gold), her skin color, makeup around the eyes as she has (those aren’t markings), the ladies could have long nails as well. Honestly adding this (which they won’t) would be just what Highbonre options are.
Edit: and these options wouldn’t be just for Highborne they could be used by any class, they would only give that ancient styled vibe to Night elves not the feral Druidic ones they are only gonna get.
Why are Blood Elves entitled to farstrider tattoos when the only elf whom really has them is Alleria and she’s a High/Void Elf, if anything, Void Elves should get ranger and voidy tattoos, not Blood Elves. Body jewelry if more fitting for Blood Elves imho, and since almost every race in the game is getting tattos, that would make them feel more unique.
They aren’t exclusively a Highborne feature as Illidan was also born with such eyes.
The skin colour isn’t a defining “Highborne” factor. It’s an “Azshara” factor.
Like I say, Blizzard don’t have time to be going into each race/class combo and making separate tabs and trying to include every possible idea that people have. Tattoos are NOT and I repeat, are NOT a Farstrider exclusive thing…especially not in Blood Elf society as the only one to have tattoos is Grand Magister Rommath.
Indeed, the High Elves didn’t appear to have them either, since Sylvanas didn’t have tattoos either.
Well since Void Elves were once Blood Elves, tattoos could work for the Ren’dorei Magisters as well, considering one of their leaders is a Mage.
It saddens me too, it was unique and really fit Blood Elven fantasy and identity, they were regal, elegant, luxurious. They probably view tattoos as a lowborn and savage thing, specially now that farstriders are seeing as retrograde group in their society as per NPC lines in Silvermoon.
Yes I know that’s not an Highborne feature. But since Azshara is a Highborne it’s just normal to call her skin color something Highborne would have. And I’m sure Blizzard have time they just don’t want to. And it really begs me to question why do we even bother into giving them our ideas if at the end of the day they won’t use them anyway…
The new jewelry seemed to resemble that of the Blood Elf Priestess from TBC.
I’m sure it’s something they’d have loved to bring in, but with Covid 19 and the pandemic as well as other contributing factors…I’m sure they wanted to create the best features for the core concepts of each race and they have done so.
But here’s the thing - do these little things (because they are little, let’s have it right), like a new skin tone or tattoos, do they truly warrant a whole seperate tab where you then start restricting what classes can have those features?
That’s a problem, they’d create with this. What if I want my Blood Elf Paladin to have a Farstrider look…or even my Blood Elf Warlock? Are you going to restrict that feature to only Blood Elf Warriors, Rogues and Hunters? You can’t do that.
Um no, the Highborne options would also be for every class not just Mage, as I said they would give the ancient regal style back only. Same thing for Farstrider options, any class can use them. Those options would give a wild look (besides the tattoos) which anyone can use if they are into a more windy look or regal one.
But what’s the difference between the tattoos that Rommath uses? He is not a Farstrider - he’s a Mage, so doesn’t that warrant a Magister’s tab…? He’s the only current Horde Blood Elf who has tattoos…no Farstrider, even when Sylvanas was Ranger General, had tattoos.
Sylvanas and Haldoran are the primary characters here. Alleria is the only character we’ve got and she isn’t a reliable source considering she is not a Blood Elf and was never Ranger General and isn’t part of Blood Elven life.
I was just talking in general with the hair options for Farstrider look. Tattoos could work anytime doesn’t matter if you like a more regal or wild look.
So it’s not a Farstrider feature then - it’s just a Blood Elf extra feature which doesn’t warrant any forms of new tabs.
That’s the point I’m making. We can’t use an unreliable source like Alleria to make such claims about the Blood Elves, when not even Sylvanas herself had tattoos and neither has Haldoran or Lor’themar.
We weren’t asking for every combo, we were asking for Farstriders for Blood elves and Highborne for Night elves. Iconic roles in the customisation expansion that is meant to allow you access to more fantasies.
You’re welcome to make a topic about them, or start discussing them if you really want them, but I hadn’t noticed anyone doing that, because I would assume they are presumably fine with the fantasy presentation of humans as mages using the current options.
I’m glad for you, that you are content with what’s been given, good for you, but as much as I like the new stuff, and some of it is really cool, I still haven’t gotten the stuff for the two specific groups I want the most.
So excuse me for pointing this out and asking about it. I wasn’t aware I was doing anything wrong or objectionable.
I would love more customization options for blood elves, so I fully agree with OP. Most of the criticism to more than just blood elves - most elven problems are shared between all 4 current elven races (though Blood Elves and Nightborne look to be worse off than Night Elves and Void Elves).
I personally want:
optional more athletic body type (not all blood elves are mages and priests. A lot of them were more physically inclined - warriors, rangers, spellbreakers, hawk riders, etc - those I’d expect would not be as anorexic looking. I mean males are barely fine, but females are just spindly)
option for short eyebrows (elves would look 100% better without 40cm long eyebrows. How do those even work? they look like they need a frikkin BONE in them to be that long)
option for tribal tattoos (farstriders ftw. They look awesome on Alleria)
more hairstyles (you’re going to FIGHT, not dance at a frikkin ball. If we could just ‘borrow’ kul tiran hairstyles, or some of the new troll or draenei ones, they look epic)
NARROW EYES option (I’m tired of the wide eyed look. All elves look like they’re hard at work at their privy, fighting the hardest turd of their lives, with the lightbulb ‘eyes’ bulging out)
ACTUAL EYES option (I hate the blind lightbulb eyes. Give us normal eyes… don’t necessarily have to have pupils, but at least a normal, white sclera and colored irises. Heck even Tyrande has normal silver eyes (without pupils) on Warcraft 3 promo art)
ACTUAL CHIN/jaw option (aka one that ain’t sharp enough to be weaponized)
PS: right now I’m so unhappy with blood elf customization that come Shadowlands, I’ll probably racechange or start playing trolls instead (If I don’t just fully convert to Alliance, since Horde seems to be dead with the conclusion of fourth war anyway… turned into hippie federation of alliance lovers). And I’m creeped out by 3 toed limbs. But apart from the toes and somewhat ugly faces, everything else is just flat out better. Animations, body, eyes, hairstyles, tattoos… think they even got HD underwear now.
But what you want isn’t “Farstrider” or “Highborne.” They are just Blood Elf and Night Elf features, which can also work with Sin’dorei Mages and Kaldorei Druids.
Tattoos aren’t “Farstrider.” I need to make this point extremely clear. Sylvanas never had them, Haldoran and Lor’themar don’t have them. Vereesa doesn’t have them. Only Alleria, who’s not a Blood Elf.
In Blood Elf society, one can easily argue that tattoos are more of a “Mage/Magister” thing, because of Rommath. It’s slim, but the argument is there. It doesn’t work for Farstriders.
Same goes for the Highborne. Yes, they typically dressed more gaudy and had interesting hair styles and were mainly mages, but they came in all shapes and sizes of night elf, from the white-ist of hairs with the gaudiest robes you could see, to the average light-weight armor with bright green hair and marking.
Bottom line is they aren’t currently there, and if you have no issue with them, then at least give your support with an acknowledgement or a like. But you seem to be objecting and even defending blizzard (not that they’ve done anything wrong), which to me feels a bit like, you’ve got what you wanted in the options so far and now are telling everyone else they should not expect more nor want more, because blizzard has a lot to do or can’t cater for everyone.
Cheers dude, way to show solidarity with your fellow fans.
