A first look at Blood Elf and Night Elf Player Housing exteriors

While we are currently in Early Access for the World of Warcraft Player Housing feature, there are still a number of aspects that won’t be available until the Midnight expansion launch, including some exterior options. Early Access is available to anyone with an active subscription who has purchased the Midnight Expansion and it is attached to their account. This means people who have ordered the physical CE will need to wait for that to arrive or purchase a digital license and wait for the physical copy to get a credit for the digital version.

Features that are not yet available notably include Endeavors, which function similar to the Trading Post, unlocking of a number additional housing customization features such as a the Daylight or Evening Circle Room types, and the Hearthlight Armillary. But one feature that has many players excited is the first of the new racial housing types — Blood Elf for Horde, and Night Elf for Alliance.

Night Elf Player Housing exterior options

Reminiscent of Ashenvale, the Night Elf racial housing style has the classic swopping roof and solid tower style design. I know many players hoped for the more open tree style design of many Night Elf buildings, but the current Player Housing format assumes a closed building with solid walls.

There are a number of customizations available, and I haven’t yet seen what a ‘medium’ sized Night Elf house may look like. While medium houses are unlocked at Level 8, I don’t know anyone who has unlocked it on beta as yet.

There are three base styles, that mostly impact the wall style for the base frame of the building:

• Embellished — a solid slab-wall type design with ornately sculpted footings.
• Woodland — vertical timber slats with a rough stone footing.
• Stone — made from oversized stone blocks with moss and vines creeping up the grouting.

These three styles set the core themes for customizing this building type.

Similarly there are three entryway types:

• Embellish entryway — with a soaring carved bow-like structure and carved pillars, steps and doorway.
• Rustic entryway — a far more primitive design with downward sloping timber slats, reminiscent of a Timbermaw log house than many of the Night Elf buildings we are more familiar with.
• Woodland entryway — a simpler version of the Embellish design, it has the same bones but is of ruder construction.

The roofs of the primary building, entryway, and any chimney, tower or window embellishments comes in one of six colors with a selection of roof ridgeline options available:

• Forest — a darker natural green
• Nutmeg — a warm dusty brown
• Ocean — a low saturation cool blue
• Ochre — a dirty yellow color
• Plum — a rich and warm purple color
• Violet — a strong dark blue-ish purple

There are multiple window, chimney and tower options available to add to the embellishment points around the building frame. The windows are bright and evoke the currently available Elvish Windows but cannot be dyed.

The tallest tower is the Embellished Tower, the chimneys are mostly low to the roofline. It is likely that many players looking to use the Night Elf building type will also have gravitated to Brumewood Hollow — it is the closest thematically to the Night Elf woods — however it washes out the colors of the Night Elf building type roofs, making them quite difficult to tell apart. I found the roof on the entryway appears greenish regardless of which color was set, with it changing slightly in tone but not much in chroma.

The entryway can only be placed in the front or the back of the building, with only a single anchor point as an option at each end. The shape of the building doesn’t change if the entry is places the a rear, giving it a strange back room effect, and the doorway or windows aren’t centered symmetrically if that is important to you.

While I liked and will probably plan to use the Night Elf skin on my Alliance house, it felt small and less thought out than the human house style, and certainly not as large as either of the Horde options.

Blood Elf Player Housing exterior options

Regal and ornate, the Blood Elf architectural style definitely evokes the feel of Eversong Woods and its shining city Silvermoon. Where the Night Elf houses felt compact, these tower over the player. Grand edifices of white marble, scarlet stone and gilt accents — they have a weight about them that implies permanence and presence.

Again there are three base styles for the Blood Elf building type:

• Engraved — sturdy marble walls with etched accents and doorframes.
• Arches — detailed Moorish archways adorn the outside of these buildings.
• Craftsman — whimsical scrollworks with inset timber panels hint at the long forgotten connection to the Night Elves.

Their large domed roof has multiple surface treatment options, they also have six color options

• Charcoal — a dark neutral grey
• Crimson — a deep dark red
• Emerald — a rich dark green
• Ocean — a rich dark teal
• Plum — a dark deep purple
• Sapphire — a medium cool blue

The from entranceway has three options:

• Elegant Entryway — a huge towering edifice that announces the entrance from a distance.
• Simple Entryway — comparatively understated, this appears more like a tradesman entrance or a secondary exit, than the front door of this grand building.
• Grand Entryway — this entryway is a compromise between the majesty of the Elegant Entryway and the subtle Simple Entryway.

It is important to be careful when placing towers or chimneys on the anchor point above the front Entryway as they can totally conceal the entrance — which may be a choice you wish to make, but can give the appearance of not having a front door.

The embellishments for the Blood Elf houses are not subtle. Many significantly change the silhouette of the building and are extremely large. With multiple selections for windows, chimneys, and towers, for most people less will be more as they will quickly overwhelm the look and feel of the house.

They certainly have substantially more height from the base embellishments than any other racial house type. And the lighting of Razorwind Shores allows you to see all the decorative elements of the ornate windows or other items.

What does the future hold for Player Housing exterior options?

The Elven racial housing types are the first of what will hopefully be many more libraries of appearances. The forums have been asking for Pandaren, Undead, and Troll. Personally I would like to see Ardenweald and Revendreth themed Player Housing exteriors. What themes do you want to see represented next?