There won’t be any new race and class combinations during Shadowlands

New combinations of what World of Warcraft races can be what player classes have been something that is always on people’s minds. During the BlizzConline Shadowlands Q&A today Game Director Ion Hazzikostas was asked if there was going to be any new combinations coming to Shadowlands given how customization was a major part of the expansion. His answer was that they feel they’ve gone about far enough with current combinations and that some of the current restrictions have major lore reasons for their existence. He went on to say that while it’s there likely won’t be any changes in the middle of Shadowlands —  it may be something that happens down the line. They are constantly resisting these decisions and they never say never.

This won’t be a popular answer, there are lots of people out there who really want their preferred combination. Especially when combinations like Night Elf Paladins aren’t available to players, but were a major story moment during the Legion expansion. Any class that can be both Warrior and Priest feels like they should be a shoo-in for Paladin. Since you’re just combining the martial prowess and discipline of a Warrior with the piety and connection to the Light of a Priest. In other cases we have the situation where Zandalari Trolls can be Paladins, but not Darkspear Trolls. They’ve been hanging out together for a while now, why can’t the Zandalari help the Darkspear to communicate with their Loa and get a piece of that power? I’d love to see a Paladin Raptor mount!

There are other combinations that Ion mentioned in regards to Warlocks and Demon Hunters that make less sense. These are the major lore reasons he was talking about. It wouldn’t make sense for a Goblin to suddenly be able to choose to play a Demon Hunter, or a Draenei to become a Warlock. Demon Hunters are very tied to Illidan and the Burning Legion, and we’d need a major reason to expand their recruiting pool that just hasn’t been given yet. While Warlocks can be extremely hostile to some very core beliefs that races like Tauren and Pandaren hold to. They just don’t have the same driving behavior of power at any cost that Goblins and Gnomes embrace wholeheartedly.

So for now all we can do is keep hoping that in the expansion after Shadowlands they take another pass and some more options open up. After all, Gnomes have only been able to be Hunters since Legion.