Mr. Crow

When there are three separate reputation groups for the same Dragonflight, and a fourth that implies a healthy pre-existing relationship with them, that's precedent enough for how they'll do things. Lore-wise, we are exalted with the pack of trolls who hired us to assassinate their high priests who'd been corrupted by Hakkar, and then to kill Hakkar himself. While their gossip text states that Rastakahn, King of the Trolls, refers to us by name and honors us for our work, this could easily be a lie. Sure, these are the world's most honorable trolls, but we're still a bunch of mercenaries hired on for hatchet work. They'll tell us whatever we want to hear.

As the lorekeepers of the Troll race, the Zandalar tribe and Rastakhan himself will likely know who it was that helped Yeh'kinya bring Hakkar's egg back into this world. (Hint: it was us!) If Blizzard's stated design alone wasn't enough reason for us to start out Neutral when we bump into whoever's running Zuldazar, then the fact of our involvement in that whole affair would suffice.

Again, the stated design is that they don't want old reputation grinds giving older players a leg up on newer players. So yes, anyone who is Exalted with the Zandalar Tribe isn't going to see any advantage. I'd just like for there to be SOME kind of recognition when we roll onto Zuldazar where there's one Zandalar Tribe NPC who notes your exalted rep and remarks "I rememba you, mon. Yojamba Isle, yah? Hey, mon, rememba when yah roll up with de five channelas heads on a rope? I never seen a <race> look so sick! BAAHH HAHAHHAHA"

There are plenty of ways for Blizzard to reward players who accomplished past goals that don't disadvantage new players and are worth more than just an achievement points total.

EDIT: Good call, Chicken.

 

• Chicken

There is actually a single example of this in the game currently, High Overlord Saurfang in the Borean Tundra has different things to say depending on whether you ever handed in Nefarian's head to him. If you have he'll reminisce about you the time you brought him Nefarian's head.

Unfortunately that's pretty much the only example of something like this I can think of, though it does show it's technically possible for things like this to be done.

buff /bʌf/ Pronunciation[buhf]
–verb (used with object)
- to reduce or deaden the force of

 

• Arawethion

Saurfang also has an added comment if you're a Scarab Lord. And Shade of Aran had an extra piece of VO if you had an Atiesh in the raid.

Answers to Moonkin questions:
0) Read the TTT/use the spreadsheet: http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t66856-moonkin_pve_dps/
1) Maintain high DoT uptime. Use WiseEclipse.
2) Nothing beats 2T8.
3) Yes, sometimes you cast many Wraths and no Eclipse procs. Deal with it.

 

Starfire

There are other small examples. Pretty sure Bolvar does a similar thing for Alliance players with Onyxia (and Nefarian?).

 

Mr. Crow

Drakonids: That's certainly an interesting suggestion, with the biggest question being which side they'd fall on. I think the bigger thing to take away from the quote is Chilton's statement that they don't want to shoehorn a race into the game like they did with the Draenei. My impression at that point was driven entirely by Metzen's oft-quoted statement of "first you'll be like 'huh?' but then you'll be like 'oh cool!'" The Draenei always made sense as the fifth alliance race because they had something to do with Outland, but there wasn't enough to the Draenei that we saw in the game to give that any credence. This led to all the speculations about ogres and centaur and other races that we could see in the world, because the Draenei seemed like such a weak proposition. When Metzen retconned the lore to make the Draenei story much more awesome and set up the narrative for Burning Crusade, suddenly the Draenei made sense again, but it was totally a bait-and-switch.

Thus, this lends a lot of weight to the proposition of furbolgs, ogres, and even drakonids joining the fight. The only issue after that becomes making the narrative for those races mesh with the narrative of the expansion they're introduced in. For my piece, I'm certainly not expecting a new race in the next expansion.

Hero classes: The veiled threat of "hey, we might do two classes back-to-back" is kinda frightening, not because of the yoyo-balancing that's been going on since the introduction of Death Knights, but because of that preposterous dose of "insider information disguised as a leak" that's come up a few times. That post stated there'd be two hero classes, Archdruid and Blademaster, and suggested starting locations for them that were just off-the-wall enough to match Blizzard's style.

Given the set-up of a split in philosophy amongst Tauren Druids, it's entirely possible we'd get a new druid-like class (that right now has the development name "arch-druid" because they haven't nailed down the ultimate name for it) introduced. When it comes down to it, absolutely anything is entirely possible, it's just a matter of what Blizzard offers to justify it.

 

Kumar

Well, the next Hero Class can work differently, so in the case of Archdruid, it could be that you play as a Druid till level 80 and then branch off into becoming an Archdruid (with the NE Archdruids based on the Sun and Tauren ones based on the moon).

 

Mr. Crow

I highly doubt that will be the case. Such a design was considered for Hero Classes prior to Wrath, but got rejected when people realized that it was a permanent decision to swap out an existing character for a new character with different abilities. What if they don't like the New Hotness? They can't go back to what they had before? It wasn't Fun, so they nixed it.

I really think the implementation for Hero Classes will be the same. Sorry to all the people who have 10 characters on a server already; you are likely out of luck.

 

Granger

If Drakonids are to be the next playable race there's no reason they couldn't be playable for both factions. Drakonid's from two different dragonflights could join the Horde/Alliance as part of some larger conflict among the dragonkin. Having one for each faction would effectively halve the development time as they'd share models. It might be a bit of a cop out but it would be interesting anyway.

 

Monocle

Maybe. I would expect if Blizzard went this route we would end up getting distinct types for each faction, just because of PVP reasons.

What flights would be good choices?

Red: Very good choice, and a possible starting area with Grim Batol, but I can't see the Reds siding with any faction.

Green: This one would fit very well with the Alliance thanks to the Night Elves, but then the Tauren get slighted. It would be a good way to have another race that could be a Druid.

Blue: After the Nexus War, doubtful.

Bronze: Can not see these guys joining any faction either, there concerns are a bit above simple factions.

Black: Insane and evil, I can not see any faction accepting them based on the Black Flight's history.

So that knocks out the five traditional flights, however, what about the Chromatics? Currently they would have no direction, and Deathwing was apparently tossed them aside after Nef's death now that he has his new Twilight Flight to play with. It would also open up a lot of color options for character creation choices. No idea what side they would fit, and I admit this is just me having a little fun with the possibility.

 

Douglas

On The Other Hand...

If there were a renegade faction of the black dragonflight that rebelled against their evil overlord, tried to strike out on their own, and then made an alliance of convenience with someone for the sake of survival, wouldn't that be exactly analogous to what the Forsaken and the Blood Elves (ultimately) did in joining the Horde?

Green for Alliance, Black for Horde, I could see it happening.

 

Illyra

Thinking about it, Drakonids being explicitly mentioned in this interview makes them exceedingly unlikely to be implemented, to my mind at least. Rather, I'd expect some other race that has been around since Vanilla. That said, Drakonids would certainly be more awesome than most of them. A lot of the options have already been mentioned. Non-playable, but reasonably well-defined old-school races that I can think of right now are Goblins, Furbolgs, Naga, Worgen, Murlocs, Gnolls, Kobolds, Centaurs, Ogres, Quillboars, Makrura, Yetis, Troggs, Silithid, and Qiraji. In addition, there are sentient elementals, and Satyrs could also be considered a race. Then there's Dryads and Keepers. Any missing? I doubt anybody would want to play Murlocs, Kobolds, Gnolls, Quillboars or Troggs, really. Centaurs seem to be devoid of any higher culture, but maybe there turns out to be a Centauri-La somewhere. Yetis are more beasts than men. Quiraji and Satyrs are probably so corrupted that they are gone for good. In terms of likelihood of implementation, I would speculate that Naga and Goblins are the most likely, followed by Furbolgs, Worgen, Makrura, and Ogres. Elementals and exotic creatures (Dryads etc.) remain outside possibilities though.

 

Roehm81

Going with the Chromatic theme you could have the Drakonids on both sides and then the tree that you choose could be the color the assume. The three easy ones off hand could be the Black with the earth background would be the default Tank spec, Red would be a dps slot and green would be a healing tree. The problem would be is how you integrate the Bronze and Blue into the mix.

 

Camaris

I think an exciting possibility hides in the fact that the Naga apparently have many different mutations and forms.

Naga

One of the major fantasy races that hasn't really been featured in WoW are the classic Mermaids and Mermen (?). Wouldn't it be cool to have a "fair" race of naga, more akin to their high-elf roots, but never having left the Maelstrom? They could be fighting their wars with the naga down there.

Although it possibly would have the same "out of nowhere" aspect as the Draenei, I can't really see any NPC race being turned into a playable race without considerable cosmetic changes.

 

Kraith

If they do add a new class, the character slot issue is a completely different one than it was with DKs. Then, you could play all ten classes unless you wanted to sacrifice one for a bank alt. A new class and no new slot would mean you'd have to sacrifice a normal toon, which Blizzard seems to be against (they don't care about bank alts or twinks!).

 

Aditu

Having a new hero class is unlikely given GC's and Tom Chilton's recent comments about 'not expecting a new class per expac.' I think DK's have been hard enough to tune as it is, and introducing a healing/dps or healing/tank class would really just introduce something to the game thats already covered by other hybrids:

Healing/DPS Physical/AND tanking - Paladin / Druid
Healing/DPS Magic - Priest / Druid

"But but but healing through DPS!" - Buff Divine Storm? JoL? Vampiric Embrace?

Just rearranging the trees on any one of these classes would easily make them cover nearly all of the "hero healer" abilities discussed here.

 

Mr. Crow

The problem is that thus far, we haven't really had any sense that members of the Flights are really able to break off and act independently of the desires of their Aspect. Up until Wrath, the Blue Flight was not actively belligerent, even engaging themselves in mortal affairs when it suited the greater good (noting Kalecgos and Arcanagos, with some points for Azuregeos). When Malygos comes back into the game and starts the Nexus War, there is absolutely no indication from any lore source that any blue dragon would go so far as to act counter to his wishes. Even Kalecgos in "Night of the Rhonin-is-a-douche" book stated that while he disagreed with Malygos about the Nexus War, he remained loyal.

In fact, the only instance where dragons act against their flight's method has to do with corruption. Vael was corrupted by Nefarian, Eranikus and his drakes were corrupted by the Nightmare. When Neltharion was corrupted by the Old Gods and created the Dragon Soul, we get the impression that it started a domino effect where the rest of the Black Flight became "evil" and adopted ruthless methods, whereas previously they were good guys. The entirety of the Black Flight rallied behind Neltharion and aided him in his rebellion against the other four flights -- only now, with the Nexus War and the impending threat to the one thing that all five flights treasure (Wyrmrest) is there enough justification for Nalice and Serinar to call a truce and play ball.

As for Black Drakonids joining the Horde to hopefully repent for past ills... I imagine that Thrall would not be so quick to take a group of questionable loyalty in AGAIN. The problem with the Forsaken has always been trust, exemplified well at the Wrath Gate. The Blood Elves are a bit of a different issue -- Kael'thas' betrayal didn't dramatically affect the Horde much, but I imagine the likelihood of pretty double-agents crossed his mind once or twice. As for the Death Knights -- the fact that the Ebon Blade, as a faction, gets nominally accepted by the Horde and the Alliance always felt like it was a little too convenient to be believable.

Something tells me a rogue organization of Black Drakonids joining the Horde in an obvious alliance of convenience when Thrall's having trouble trusting members of his own race (Garrosh) would be seen as really silly by anyone paying attention to the lore.

 

Ufthak

I think it likely that we can discount any race that is too far from humanoid as being a new palayable race. There will be an awful lot of work to remodel armour sets for Naga or Centuar for example.

 

Granger

Why would the Black Drakonids have to join the Horde? I could imagine a scenario where the Black's join the Alliance as a sort of parallel to the situation with the Forsaken, perhaps in response to another dragonflight's drakonids aligning themselves with the Horde. I can see this working into a possible Emerald Dream expansion where the drakonids want to help us root out the corruption that has been infesting the Dream.

With Malygos out of the picture now I could see this as a good opportunity for a power struggle within the Blue Dragonflight as various dragons vie to be the next aspect. This could easily result in splintering of the flight or one of the contenders reaching out to either the Alliance or the Horde backing their play for power. If that were to happen you can bet there would be a backlash from at least one of the other dragonflights, opening the door for the drakonids of an opposing flight to ally themselves with the other faction.

 

Talgog

Yeah, Varian will sooooo go for that, what with the whole evicting Onyxia from Stormwind thing.

 

Tyrn

Branch off as in a Prestige class? That would be interesting.

I would like to see a blighter class. However that comes close to warlocks.

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/8412/tar2fv0.jpg

 

Jessamy

You mention satyrs specifically, but in WoW demons generally behave as one race, whether satyr, felguard, doomguard, succubus, sapper, or shivan. (Voidwalkers don't seem to be sentient, and behave more like elementals than demons.)

Demon NPCs have already been used filling traditional class roles. Satyrs are frequently rogues and mages. Felguards are often hunters, typically with felhunters as pets. Doomguards can be destruction warlocks; shivan can be shadow priests or fury warriors. Succubi, imps, and sappers are exceptions, they seem to be their own unique classes.

It would be interesting to see character model art vary based on class. Unlikely though, given the added development cost, even if a demon race were available to both factions. Further, most of these subspecies of demon are already tied to the warlock playable class.

Satyr and shivan aren't tied in game to warlocks. They're humanoid enough to wear armor, while distinctive enough to be artistically a new class. They already have higher resolution artwork than many non playable races, without artwork limitations like a succubus perma-wield whip.

I can't see a demonic paladin, shaman, or druid, but the remaining 7 class roles fit the lore, and except for death knights are all already represented in game. Even a holy priest makes sense in a roundabout way. Most belief systems and mythologies consider demons to be fallen angels.

Edit: I just thought of a simple but effective block to any non-bipedal playable race: mounts.

 

McInaction

Why do the Drakonids have to join the Horde? Why can't they be subjugated and enslaved? Orcs have a history of using dragons and their kin in battle, hell there's an entire clan dedicated to it. It would be a far more interesting and arguably believable scenario then 'Oh hey, yeah we're renegade Drakonids shelter us thanks'.

What if instead, after assaulting Nefarion's lair and taking him out, his research was confiscated and used to create Drakonids for the horde? It would also be a cool starting area, the horde-run blackwing lair filled with turn-coat dark orcs and goblins cranking out and training Drakonids. The leveling experience could involve removing the last of Nefarion's loyal men from the lower parts of the spire and whatnot.

 

Mr. Crow

I don't know if subjugating and enslaving sentient beings is really in Thrall's kit. Of course, the counter to that is the Blood Elves' treatment of M'uru, but that was something the resolved itself relatively quickly.

I don't buy the Horde enslaving an entire race just for bonus muscle. It's a great idea, and it certainly sounds like tactics Garrosh wouldn't mind using, but THrall wouldn't stand for it. He must be getting wary of anyone he calls an ally at this point with how things have been going.

 

Vaccine

There is just no way that they are going to give the same race to both factions, different colour or not. I also don't see Drakonids as working too well due to armour modelling, mount problems and the like. I'd look to a few of the newer introduced races as possibilities, Wolvar maybe as they would seem easy enough to model. Furbolgs are always touted. Gorlocs run into issues with armour again due to their legs and size. A new amphibian race could be a possibility I guess.

 

Duilliath

3 words: Flight Form, Plainswalking.

I dare say that's sufficient proof Blizzard can come up with creative enough ways to get around that 'mount' problem.

At any rate, I have the feeling people are taking up this Drakonid-thing a bit too eagerly. It just read as him throwing out the single most outlandish option for the sake of (exactly this sort of) speculation and to demonstrate in the most extravagant-without-committing-to-anything way possible that they really could implement anything, as long as there's some sort of connection to the existing creature database.

If he'd had said 'Ogres' instead of 'Drakonid', most of the eager beavers would've taken it as "We're getting Ogres!", rather than an example. Not to mention all the Ogre-lovers that would hunt him down when it turned out to be something else instead.

An thenn tehy wuz al ded. Srsly. (Exodus 1)