Well, for the most part, despite my minor qualms, Dragonflight has been fun. Most of my complaints have been along the lines of, "This, but more of it, please," in some way. I feel like they're at least learning from previous experience, which is good.
I have a long and stupid list of races I'd love to be playable. Fortunately, over the years, at least some of them have become obtainable. I was perplexed at how long it was that High Elves with the Alliance were impossible, despite their prominent role in the original RTS games -- it just seemed a "no-brainer" option, and got all the weirder every time they added some new "flavor" of elf to either faction -- but at least now you can pick character appearance options for Void Elves to play the part.
What I'd really love would be if it were possible to play "faction neutral." Some new races I'd love to see don't clearly fit in one faction or the other ... and I feel like some of the existing ones have been kind of shoehorned in. I don't care for PVP, the Dragon Isles has largely deemphasized PVP combat (with a few select exceptions), and the storyline repeatedly bludgeons me with "Oh, you Horde and Alliance and your SQUABBLES!" -- it's kind of confusing when the story cutscenes tell me, "War bad! Shame shame!" and then the game turns around and offers me special rewards for participating in PVP battlegrounds. (Why, to unlock the Chef title, I *had* to go visit some PVP battlegrounds and put up some banquet tables and then get clobbered repeatedly -- okay, so the "get clobbered" part was technically optional -- to complete the achievement.)
Maybe let me, if I really want to, play as a "neutral" race on PVE servers. Say it'll lock me out of a bazillion faction-specific quests -- that hardly matters anymore, since it's fairly easy to quickly level alts, and the bulk of the new expansion content is NOT faction-specific. If I want to sign up for a battleground, and I haven't picked a faction, then I'm a "mercenary," and they have greater freedom in matching me up to a team for the event. If I really want to go into "war mode," then I settle on a faction first.
Anyway, a lot of the races I'd love to see don't immediately strike me as obvious choices for one faction or the other: * Gnoll. Heheehehehhehee! Racial ability? OM NOM NOM. Something that synergizes with the ideas that gnolls are always hungry, always eating. I.e.: a) a "light" version of Cannibalize (gives you a minor "well-fed" buff) when you chow down on a Beast. b) a bonus (minor) buff you get any time you are "well-fed" (even if the food you just ate is under-leveled). c) If you ARE NOT Well-Fed, you have a "HOONGRY" debuff. Maybe you hear growly tummy noises periodically.
* Murloc/Naga/Jinyu. Splish-splash! Racial ability? Indefinite breathing underwater, improved swim speed. Maybe some kind of minor stat buff while in water. Application to PVP will vary by zone, but that would naturally encourage such characters to thrive more in watery areas.
* Arakkoa. Racial ability? Feather-fall. Maybe they can't FLY, but at least they can GLIDE down, much like the "Flap" option for moonkin. PVP application? I dunno, not taking fall damage has got to free up your mobility in some situations.
* Saberon. Racial ability? Borrow a note from the druid cat-form abilities. So, reduced fall damage, and have some sort of a "cat-slash" ability that lets you do a sweeping slash attack with your claws in melee (with cooldown).
* Centaur. Racial ability? Faster running speed. Rather than making it like the worgen dash, make it either always-on, or have a "gallop" ability with a generous burst, but offset it with, say, poor centaurs don't get a leg-armor slot (no pants XD ). Racial resistance to knockdown/knockback effects?
* Dragonkin. Specifically, those dragon-taur types. Same trouble limiting their armor options, but instead of increased speed, they get that resistance to knockdown/knockback (sturdier stance), and some sort of elemental damage resistance (either a generic resistance to fire, or else pick a dragonflight and that will impact your character's visible color and elemental resistance).
* Old-style Mechagnome. This is purely cosmetic. I just want to play an "old-school" mechagnome, but like the original Titan type where the character has an entirely metal shell, NOT fleshy body but mechano-skeletal limbs.
* Mantid. Racial levitate ability (like the priest spell, only on self) to safely descent from cliffs, go over water, etc. Yeah, I know, that's apples-to-apples better than Arakkoa just gliding, but balance it out with some other perks and drawbacks.
* Tuskarr. Racial ability: Some sort of bonus to fishing (faster fishing? chance of bonus item on a successful catch?), racial resistance to cold damage.
OR ... just give me a whole laundry list of superficial "races" I can choose from, and it's really just about the APPEARANCE. I'm willing to deal with drawbacks such as limited animation, limited ability to show equipment on the character (witness dracthyr and mechagnomes for precedent), etc., just that I want to "play a mantid" or "play a gnoll" whatever for RP flavor or an interesting-looking toon, without having to resort to some TOY that just lets me look like it for 10 minutes out of every 2 hours, and makes it go away every time something hits me with a sword.
no subject
I have a long and stupid list of races I'd love to be playable. Fortunately, over the years, at least some of them have become obtainable. I was perplexed at how long it was that High Elves with the Alliance were impossible, despite their prominent role in the original RTS games -- it just seemed a "no-brainer" option, and got all the weirder every time they added some new "flavor" of elf to either faction -- but at least now you can pick character appearance options for Void Elves to play the part.
What I'd really love would be if it were possible to play "faction neutral." Some new races I'd love to see don't clearly fit in one faction or the other ... and I feel like some of the existing ones have been kind of shoehorned in. I don't care for PVP, the Dragon Isles has largely deemphasized PVP combat (with a few select exceptions), and the storyline repeatedly bludgeons me with "Oh, you Horde and Alliance and your SQUABBLES!" -- it's kind of confusing when the story cutscenes tell me, "War bad! Shame shame!" and then the game turns around and offers me special rewards for participating in PVP battlegrounds. (Why, to unlock the Chef title, I *had* to go visit some PVP battlegrounds and put up some banquet tables and then get clobbered repeatedly -- okay, so the "get clobbered" part was technically optional -- to complete the achievement.)
Maybe let me, if I really want to, play as a "neutral" race on PVE servers. Say it'll lock me out of a bazillion faction-specific quests -- that hardly matters anymore, since it's fairly easy to quickly level alts, and the bulk of the new expansion content is NOT faction-specific. If I want to sign up for a battleground, and I haven't picked a faction, then I'm a "mercenary," and they have greater freedom in matching me up to a team for the event. If I really want to go into "war mode," then I settle on a faction first.
Anyway, a lot of the races I'd love to see don't immediately strike me as obvious choices for one faction or the other:
* Gnoll. Heheehehehhehee! Racial ability? OM NOM NOM. Something that synergizes with the ideas that gnolls are always hungry, always eating. I.e.: a) a "light" version of Cannibalize (gives you a minor "well-fed" buff) when you chow down on a Beast. b) a bonus (minor) buff you get any time you are "well-fed" (even if the food you just ate is under-leveled). c) If you ARE NOT Well-Fed, you have a "HOONGRY" debuff. Maybe you hear growly tummy noises periodically.
* Murloc/Naga/Jinyu. Splish-splash! Racial ability? Indefinite breathing underwater, improved swim speed. Maybe some kind of minor stat buff while in water. Application to PVP will vary by zone, but that would naturally encourage such characters to thrive more in watery areas.
* Arakkoa. Racial ability? Feather-fall. Maybe they can't FLY, but at least they can GLIDE down, much like the "Flap" option for moonkin. PVP application? I dunno, not taking fall damage has got to free up your mobility in some situations.
* Saberon. Racial ability? Borrow a note from the druid cat-form abilities. So, reduced fall damage, and have some sort of a "cat-slash" ability that lets you do a sweeping slash attack with your claws in melee (with cooldown).
* Centaur. Racial ability? Faster running speed. Rather than making it like the worgen dash, make it either always-on, or have a "gallop" ability with a generous burst, but offset it with, say, poor centaurs don't get a leg-armor slot (no pants XD ). Racial resistance to knockdown/knockback effects?
* Dragonkin. Specifically, those dragon-taur types. Same trouble limiting their armor options, but instead of increased speed, they get that resistance to knockdown/knockback (sturdier stance), and some sort of elemental damage resistance (either a generic resistance to fire, or else pick a dragonflight and that will impact your character's visible color and elemental resistance).
* Old-style Mechagnome. This is purely cosmetic. I just want to play an "old-school" mechagnome, but like the original Titan type where the character has an entirely metal shell, NOT fleshy body but mechano-skeletal limbs.
* Mantid. Racial levitate ability (like the priest spell, only on self) to safely descent from cliffs, go over water, etc. Yeah, I know, that's apples-to-apples better than Arakkoa just gliding, but balance it out with some other perks and drawbacks.
* Tuskarr. Racial ability: Some sort of bonus to fishing (faster fishing? chance of bonus item on a successful catch?), racial resistance to cold damage.
OR ... just give me a whole laundry list of superficial "races" I can choose from, and it's really just about the APPEARANCE. I'm willing to deal with drawbacks such as limited animation, limited ability to show equipment on the character (witness dracthyr and mechagnomes for precedent), etc., just that I want to "play a mantid" or "play a gnoll" whatever for RP flavor or an interesting-looking toon, without having to resort to some TOY that just lets me look like it for 10 minutes out of every 2 hours, and makes it go away every time something hits me with a sword.