The Queue: These races aren’t (yet) playable

Players have been begging for certain races to become playable for years now. How should they be added to the game? Vrykul and Ogres could become counterparts on the Alliance and Horde, respectively — but aren’t they a bit too large? Would you play a character that keeps getting stuck in doors? Or would you accept it if those races were made slightly smaller — perhaps Tauren-sized?

How would your Naga character wear armor without legs? Sure, we do have the Dracthyr who shun a lot of armor pieces due to their design — but that decision has not proven to be very popular with a large contingent of players. For Naga, could they perhaps turn pants into “tail armor” instead?

While we ponder these and other questions, let’s Queue, my Tuskarr-starved friends.

That’s a tough one for me. I know hair under hats is a hugely requested feature, and I’d love to see it as well — and although it was never directly mentioned, there’s a slight possibility they might actually be working on it  — but true mounted combat appeals a lot to me as well.

I mean, if we go back to the Warcraft RTS games, Paladins and Death Knights were originally mounted units, and it’s no surprise that those classes have their class-specific mounts, and even a mount skill, Divine Steed, in the case of Paladin. And those classes did get to taste true mounted combat in Legion (even if only for an hour a day), with the Silver Hand Charger and Ebon Blade Deathcharger from their Class Halls. Furthermore, back in Warlords of Draenor every class had the ability to engage in true mounted combat in a single zone, Nagrand, by mounting the Telaari Talbuk available from the Rangari Corral upgrade in that zone’s outpost.

Mounted combat felt amazing. I loved it so much… and if the developers did it twice, there’s always the chance they could bring it back. I’d be willing to have it as a talent, even if only for those two classes, and with some big downside to compensate for it, of course.

But since I know this would be very hard to balance as a permanent thing, I guess I’ll pick hair under hats like everyone else.

Capybaras. I know we got some of them as battle pets back in Mechagon, but I want the actual creature, that a Hunter could tame. I’d never use a different pet again. (Probably.)

But if that answer doesn’t count and it needs to be an animal that we haven’t seen yet in any form, I’m gonna go with quokkas.

Cataclysm.

One of the main goals the developers had with the world revamp in that expansion was balancing out the number of zones between Alliance and Horde — because the game had shipped with more Alliance than Horde zones. However, the main story beat they used to justify having zones change from Alliance-aligned to neutral or Horde-aligned was having those zones be taken over by the Horde.

Both Garrosh and Sylvanas launched invasion campaigns, and in the process, ended up causing major devastation to previously Human and Night Elf lands. The issue here is that WoW is a game where players can pick either of the two factions, and neither is supposed to be a “villainous” faction… yet that’s what the perception of the Horde ended up becoming for much of the playerbase. Always the aggressor, always launching greedy, often unjustified invasions, and taking from the Alliance, who never pushed back — since the gameplay goal was, in fact, to even out the number of zones between the two factions.

The aftermath of this enormous “gameplay trumps lore” decision is still felt to this day. Characters like Garrosh and especially Sylvanas were taken in directions that were very different from what those characters used to be — and all of those war crimes couldn’t go unanswered forever, so they ended up paying the price years down the line.

If I could turn back time, maybe I’d still change ownership of those zones for gameplay purposes, but I’d find more intricate ways to do it. Some of it could be a direct result of the Cataclysm. Other parts of it could still be related to the faction war, but ideally it wouldn’t be centralized on one or two faction leaders, so that those characters wouldn’t have to forever bear the burden of those decisions.

This is spaghetti slander and I will not stand for it.

Savory Deviate Delight. Imagine having the ability to transform into a ninja or a pirate for an hour after consuming some free food!

If I turned into a ninja, I’d stealth around and infiltrate places I was not supposed to be in.

And if I became a pirate, I’d illegally download TV shows! And watch them! Just try and stop me!!!

K: Very nice. Had Odin Sphere + Final Fantasy Tactics + Ogre Battle vibes. I still know very little about this game, but I’m intrigued.

M: I’d keep the winning formula from Persona 3-5 going, of course, but I’d shift some of the character stories from the Social Links back into the main story. Make those character moments more cohesive and integrated into the narrative.

A: Wrecked Ship from Super Metroid. It would be like a fallen Tempest Keep; dark, lights flickering, eerie music, haunted, full of ghosts.

Which other races that aren’t yet playable in WoW would you like to see implemented into the game? And how would you work around issues such as those races being too large, lacking legs, or being too invested in making soup to stop and save the world?

Do let us know — but in the mean time, leave lots of questions for Cory the lovely Liz Patt, who’ll be covering for Cory next Monday. Take care, and if you’re going through a rough time, hang in there! It’ll get better. <3