Given HRose’s incessant “I told you about this a year ago” posts, he earned a nice stfu with his sarcasm.
edit: but Stroker, relax, man :P he’s always like that.
It would probably be cool if the pandaren become a playable race, but I’m not sure that would fit with the story, since one of the Pandaren heroes helped Thrall in Frozen Throne fight against the humans of Kul Tiras and Theramore Isle. I’d have wagered they would be part of the Horde rather than the Alliance.
If they don’t use the Pandaren (which a lot folks seem to want or hope for), what other races would they use? Anyone have access to any of the lore out there? Are there any possible candidates they’d use for the Alliance race?
Well that totally goes against the lore, but I guess blood elves are a horde race after all.
People keep saying the Dranaei, but they’re so unappealing they’d need some amazing racial abilities for anybody to play them
I agree. They would be more at home as an independent faction than either a horde or an alliance race.
As for the new alliance race, I really can’t think of anything. Since Draenor will be accessible through the Dark Portal, it’s possible the Draenei, the uncorrupted denizens of Draenor along the orcs, could become the alliance race, but that would be a really boring choice.
I think the Pandaren will eventually be the alliance race, not for any lore reason, but just because it would be cool.
It would be cool if they added the uncorrupted Nerubians as a playable race.
Obviously lore means nothing since they will re-write it as will. Those crypt guys were extreemly evil to begin with, so I could not see them as alliance, however, it would be cool. Hopefully the alliance race will be very differant, although at this point I would not put it past blizzard to give us ‘good orcs’ since the horde got ‘evil elves’.
I think Orcs are already “good”, or at least not controlled by any demons. Whoever the new race is, they’ve gotta be bipedal for the purposes of using existing armor sets.
Just doing a search for info about the Pandaren from Warcraft 3, it sounds like their backstory could potentially mesh well into WoW
http://www.battle.net/war3/pandaren/
Had ties originally with the Night Elves, were in conflict with the Tauren when they moved to the Stonetalon mountains…
The hubbub around Pandaren is that they were originally planning to announce Pandaren as the alliance race, but encountered a roadblock in project management when someone at their Chinese publisher clued them into the fact that the Panda is a cherished animal in their country, and it would be wiser not to make them a playable race.
I’ve got no proof of this, however, only heresay from heretofore well-informed insiders.
That would make some sense though.
Ya know, ever time Blizzard plans a new game or expansion I get worked up about the tantalizing bits to be revealed on their website. Then I see it and remember that they rarely release anything of substance outside the occassional trailer. I really ought to know better by now.
Maybe I missed something while I played WoW back at launch, but what is the big deal with races? I mean they are all generally the same with the exception of a few negligible racial talents. All new the races mean is you get to stare at a new pink elf ass or panda ass for a couple hundred more hours. They could put 8 headed flying cockroaches in as a playable race but it really wouldn’t add to the gameplay.
Are there not going to be any new classes? Or has this info just not been released yet.
New classes and new noob zones (the latter of which have been indicated in the Blizz blurb) are indeed what would interest me. It’s not just about staring at a new ass, though. It’s also about watching a new dance emote, hearing a new voice do the “Train” noise, and sundry other tiny pleasures.
Grindy grinding my main from 60 to 70 would probably be fun as well, as long as there were some cool new abilities to unlock along the way. (Mortal Sweeping Cleaving Sinister Strike, perhaps?)
By then I could stop solo-grinding Scarlet Monastery and start solo-grinding Sunken Temple. Just in time to pay for my shantytown apartment that costs 40,000 gold to buy. w00t!!
You know the thing that really interests me in the whole of the expansion is the idea that you can use the caverns of time to travel back in time and witness events that were crucial to azeroth, like the opening of the dark portal, or the defence of the world tree against Archimonde. Those are all cool stuff if you really can witness them firsthand like the trailer implies.
There’s actually two types of Nerubians. There was a massive battle in Northrend between the Lich King and his minions and the Nerubians. Eventually the Lich King won and raised most of the Nerubians as warriors under him, but some Nerubians remained uncorrupted and stayed in Northrend in hope of one day regaining their place.
I don’t know where I read this, but I think a supercool instance would be for example a 100 man raid in Northrend to kill Arthas, with 50 horde and 50 alliance uniting to kill him. Imagine killing him and dropping his sword Frostmourne. That one ought to be a lot more powerful than the hand of Ragnaros.
Or since Outland will be a new zone, maybe the victim of such a raid would be Illidan.
That’s what excites me as well.
Thinking a bit more about the expansion and the complications of introducing a new alliance race, and how they would fit in (I mean come on, if a race belonging to the alliance hasn’t appeared so far prominently in Azeroth, it can’t be THAT important. It’s different for Horde because not all have the same goals, they just share a common hatred of alliance). The idea was that it would have made MUCH more sense to have a third faction with several new races that are actually allied, not forced into an alliance because Blizzard feels like it. If they bothered to spin so much lore, they might as well not mess it up.
The new faction would be under the collective rule of Illidan, encompassing the Naga, Blood Elves, Draenei and Demons. This would make a lot more sense than bundling Blood Elves in with the Horde. First of all, the only interaction between blood elves and orcs are the early battles between the alliance and horde before the burning legion came, when they were still high elves. Their encounter with the trolls was a really long time ago when they built Quel’thalas, and they were almost annihilated by the trolls before being saved by humans. And the undead completely mutilated Silvermoon and destroyed the Sunwell, so they ought to be pretty pissed with them, whether the undead are under the Lich King’s rule or under Sylvanas, they robbed the high elves of their magic source. None of these encounters were friendly, and I don’t see how the blood elves can be a horde race.
I agree that that makes sense LOGICALLY, but it makes no sense PRACTICALLY. They would have to come up with content equal to nearly half the existing game for them to grind through to reach 60, add third faction outposts to many major zones, redraw the lines between Horde and Alliance territory to give all three equal access to each other, and find a way to rework the BGs to rotate through the three possible matchups. Oh and find a way to balance populations, which htey can’t even do with 2 factions.
Beautiful idea, but it’s not gonna happen. Any new content is going to have to woven into the existing Horde vs. Alliance frame work, including new races and etc., even if it means wild contortions int he fluff to make it all fit.
Stuff that’s allegedly going to be shown at Blizzcon, according to an ex-Blizz employee
http://www.wowguru.com/ First story, titled “The Burning Crusade, Starcraft 2, and DIABLO 3!”
So, allegedly Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 (as an MMO instead of an action RPG), and Pandaren as the Alliance race. Among other things.
The Blood Elves are scattered and lack leadership - Kael’thas is in Outland with Illidan, and those remaining on Azeroth perhaps do not have the means or knowledge to join them. They ally with the Horde, since they most likely have the knowledge and strength to open the Dark Portal.