wow Allied Races: Are Mechagnomes and Vulpera Next?

[Stan 5,024]

With Kul Tirans and Zandalari Trolls confirmed for Patch 8.1.5, it's time to speculate about the next set of Allied Races that will be added later in Battle for Azeroth.

Mechagnomes

At last year's BlizzCon, Blizzard talked about Mechagnomes on the What's Next panel. The plan in Rise of Azshara is to release Mechagon, a Mythic-only dungeon, that will later be split into two wings, similar to Legion's Karazhan. Here are eight mechagnome variations that were teased at BlizzCon.

With a new zone and dungeon, the Allied Race would definitely fit the story of Patch 8.2.

Vulpera

Vulpera have been rumored as a possible Horde Allied Race in Battle for Azeroth for some time now. They currently have more customization options that Kul Tirans. Sure, they're probably intended for NPC generation for now, but it would be a waste of resources if they were left unreleased.

The Vulpera are closely tied to the Horde and the story of Vol'dun in Battle for Azeroth. Check out our Vulpera Allied Race Preview for more information about the race.

Which Allied Races would you like to see next?

[Ogerscherge 43]

I like the concept of the Mechagnomes, but I am not at all sold on the Vulpera yet. Helmets certainly will look terrible on them.

 

Edit: Then again it would also be kind of a shame to hide all those cool metal parts of the Mechagnomes under armour, so I would hope for an option to hide some more equipment pieces for them.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Ogerscherge

[Xaethron 36]

No. I don't want Mechagnomes... At least not before we get Sethrakk. Not getting Sethrakk (after getting Void Elves pulled out of someone's *filtered* instead of making High Elves a thing) would be a complete unjustice I could never forgive. Make Snek Rogues a thing.

[Valks 2,373]

2 hours ago, Ogerscherge said:

I like the concept of the Mechagnomes, but I am not at all sold on the Vulpera yet. Helmets certainly will look terrible on them.

 

Edit: Then again it would also be kind of a shame to hide all those cool metal parts of the Mechagnomes under armour, so I would hope for an option to hide some more equipment pieces for them.

I just hope they don't follow the same trend as the Undead - a horrible in-between where you can't choose to hide the bones, yet they somehow always break through armour and are always present in all gear. 

[Baharok 234]

3 hours ago, Ogerscherge said:

I like the concept of the Mechagnomes, but I am not at all sold on the Vulpera yet. Helmets certainly will look terrible on them.

Have you ever played Tauren / Highmountain Tauren ? i know a true Tauren doesnt wear helmets, because horns will take all the shots.....but...

[Nxc 21]

5 hours ago, Blainie said:

I just hope they don't follow the same trend as the Undead - a horrible in-between where you can't choose to hide the bones, yet they somehow always break through armour and are always present in all gear. 

i love the forsaken china models ... they look soooooooooooooo much better

[Steveson 193]

3 hours ago, Baharok said:

Have you ever played Tauren / Highmountain Tauren ? i know a true Tauren doesnt wear helmets, because horns will take all the shots.....but...

Same problem with trolls and their tusks

[Valks 2,373]

2 hours ago, Nxc said:

i love the forsaken china models ... they look soooooooooooooo much better

They really are. The armour looks so much better suited to them. It'd be great if we got it as an option to toggle on/off.

[Odi 10]

I don't know if we needed any more allied races. At certain point in the past I thought naga will be a race to play.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Odi

[Prophet001 545]

I really am not a fan of just blanketing the game with a surplus of races.

I like the core races.

[Evincare 39]

I personally couldn't care less about mechagnomes... I never liked gnomes to begin with, so why would I like mechanized ones... I think gnomes look and sound just plain stupid - but that's personal taste. Vulpera - I know, everything is laid out for the taking but I have the same reservations you have. I think gear would be a problem - nothing new to fellow Tauren, Trolls and Draenei, though. Then, they are just furry goblins...

I'd much rather see some allied race tied to the forsaken. I know we already live in world of Elfcraft but why not add some undead ones - it's not like that would be a new concept /cough san'layn. Maybe they could even make some  completely different races playable instead of re-skinning existing ones. There's plenty, not that I would actually play all of them, but Jinyu could be a thing, Ogres, as was stated before Sethrakk, Tuskarr or Vrykul along with the Valarjar, especially the female shieldmaiden-themed ones. That last one is maybe a bit over-the-top-wishful-thinking as I played warrior during Legion and I really liked the whole class order hall/campaign

[Ragingwolf 286]

To be honest I think we have enough Allied Races as of now....even if Vulpera alongside another Race can be playable in the near future there is going to be a list of requirements along Gated quests/content to unlock them.  If anything they need to go back and re-do the character design for the ones we do have to.....like the Forsaken.  The Forsaken really do need a make-over and it's past due.

[Badadada 184]

Furries could be a featured fully autonomous race but they just don't seem to fit the role of being an allied one. Besides that I don't see a clear motivation of why would they join the Horde. I didn't hurt them as an Alliance player, that's for sure. I would love to see more vulperas in future content, since they are funny creatures, but it would be stupid if they joined the faction war.
Mechagnomes are a likely addition based on what they said about Mechagon area at Blizzcon, but likely not before 9.0. Whether I'm interested in them is really dependant on how will their story evolve, but I have high hopes for the Mechagon patch - fingers crossed.

[NoahMcGrath 4]

From a purely aesthetic perspective, Sethraks are a lot more unique than Mechagnomes or Vulperas. I personally think Mechagnomes are really stupid, as few people like normal gnomes. So, why add gnomes with robotic limbs? And aren't those limbs covered by armor anyways?

A snake race would be really flavorful and nice. Void Elves were a weird addition, but thematically they are supposed to be the opposite of the Lightforged. Sethraks and Vulperas would make more sense to be added together, one to each faction, as they are somewhat enemies in BfA. Plus, WoW would get a lot more players if they catered a bit to furries by adding furry/reptilian races than if they add a weird robo-gnome.

[PatrickHenry 293]

I like the races that seem to be 'in the chute', but id also like to see more variety.

Sethrak, Naga that refused Azshara (hell, why not, really), Ogres, Vrykul...

[Arcling 877]

14 hours ago, Xaethron said:

No. I don't want Mechagnomes... At least not before we get Sethrakk. Not getting Sethrakk (after getting Void Elves pulled out of someone's *filtered* instead of making High Elves a thing) would be a complete unjustice I could never forgive. Make Snek Rogues a thing.

Void Elves are Blood/High Elves, only infused with void magic. Nothing really that new in their lore, considering they are arguably the most magical race with having the highest amount of mutations through magic, including the original High Elves coming from Night Elves. There were Felblood in TBC, and many other things like Naga, Nightborne, Wretched etc.

Sethrak are unlikely due to their necks and heads. Naga aren't bipedal, they've got tail instead, so no boots and leg armor, hard to adapt them for mounts. No reason for them to join any faction, as they were Night Elves transformed by the Old Gods and most of them still seemed in their service, besides some defectors to Illidari or Burning Legion. Too much work for them, and most of them are just reskins, only Kul Tirans and maybe upright male Zandalari as well, can be considered as new models. As for Vulpera, they are boring and don't have any purpose in my opinion. If they were to be added, they would have been quickly forgotten, just like most races, only few npcs here and there, that's all (and if they reused goblin skeletons for playable race, horrible clipping). Mechagnomes are also uninteresting to me, at least as separate race, would have been fine though as customisations for Gnomes, like dark eyes Nelves.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Arcling

[Ogerscherge 43]

17 hours ago, Baharok said:

Have you ever played Tauren / Highmountain Tauren ? i know a true Tauren doesnt wear helmets, because horns will take all the shots.....but...

Yes, that's what I am affraid of for the Vulpera. Tauren not only are unable to wear helmets without looking stupid, their extraordinarily big hunch also makes body armour and capes look weird. I always liked Tauren for their lore and calm demeanor but I just can't bring myself to play one, because I feel like Blizzard did a kind of poor job with their model. ?

[Aegrotat 80]

5 hours ago, Arcling said:

Void Elves are Blood/High Elves, only infused with void magic. Nothing really that new in their lore, considering they are arguably the most magical race with having the highest amount of mutations through magic, including the original High Elves coming from Night Elves. There were Felblood in TBC, and many other things like Naga, Nightborne, Wretched etc.

While I agree that they aren't mechanically pulles out of no where, the problem is that their lore kinda is since they just showed up and suddenly had their own kinda culture, clothing, way of life almost? That and my biggest issues: Blood elves were already a rather small selection after the whole Arthas thing, and the stuff in BC so... how is there suddenly enough to make a whole new "race" of elves from?

(Yes I know some were high elves now that became void elves, but even then we didn't get high elves as a race because 'there weren't enough of them after Arthas went through to make them a race')

[Granis 12]

1 hour ago, Aegrotat said:

While I agree that they aren't mechanically pulles out of no where, the problem is that their lore kinda is since they just showed up and suddenly had their own kinda culture, clothing, way of life almost? That and my biggest issues: Blood elves were already a rather small selection after the whole Arthas thing, and the stuff in BC so... how is there suddenly enough to make a whole new "race" of elves from?

(Yes I know some were high elves now that became void elves, but even then we didn't get high elves as a race because 'there weren't enough of them after Arthas went through to make them a race')

There is a pretty good video that covers this topic and, despite the clickbaity title, was a very logical argument as to why high elves should be a thing. That very point is discussed within it. If you are interested its something along the lines of "Allied Race Blizzard Doesn't want you to have", I forget the exact title but something along those lines. Interesting watch for any that are interested.

As for the topic of mechgnomes, I frankly think it would make more sense of them being customization options for gnomes then a whole "new" race. Unless Blizzard has stated somewhere for a fact they are an allied race, I believe the community is jumping to the wrong conclusion on this subject. Mechgnomes being customization options seems to be more in line with how already established races have been treated this expansion. Of all of the allied races we currently have are basicly slightly modified versions of existing races (outside of Kul'Tirans and Zandalari whom, unless I am mistaken, have more art assets that are unique to them despite at their core being human and trolls respectively.)

[Radek 9]

10 hours ago, Badadada said:

Furries could be a featured fully autonomous race but they just don't seem to fit the role of being an allied one. Besides that I don't see a clear motivation of why would they join the Horde. I didn't hurt them as an Alliance player, that's for sure. I would love to see more vulperas in future content, since they are funny creatures, but it would be stupid if they joined the faction war.

I know the faction war has been the theme through 8.1 , but I increasingly get the impression it's going to swivel in a new direction with the rising of the Naga, Old Gods and the exploration of the Mechagnomes. It could well be that by the time Vulps join (Say 8.3.5, as a random patch), they're simply grouping up with races that have helped them (And/or they can profit from ;P ) , rather than going in to all out faction conflict. 

[Seksi 208]

The posts in this thread convinced me:

Vulpera makes the most sense as the new Pandas, neutral at first and able to pick the faction of their choosing.

[Arcling 877]

17 hours ago, Aegrotat said:

While I agree that they aren't mechanically pulles out of no where, the problem is that their lore kinda is since they just showed up and suddenly had their own kinda culture, clothing, way of life almost? That and my biggest issues: Blood elves were already a rather small selection after the whole Arthas thing, and the stuff in BC so... how is there suddenly enough to make a whole new "race" of elves from?

(Yes I know some were high elves now that became void elves, but even then we didn't get high elves as a race because 'there weren't enough of them after Arthas went through to make them a race')

I agree, at one point (around when TBC was announced) people even argued that there are not enough Blood Elves and already back then they were so fragmented! Those in the Horde, neutral Scryers, Illidari and those who followed Kael to join Burning Legion. Quite a lot for a race whose 90% of population Draenei lost most of their race too, either joined Legion or was killed by it and there are more examples, like gnomes.

One can only wonder how there are still enough armies to fight, with a major war almost every year, but there aren't any exact numbers of populations.

[Evincare 39]

On 1/17/2019 at 1:32 AM, Granis said:

"Allied Race Blizzard Doesn't want you to have",

I don't know if that's the one you meant, but this is a vid dedicated to High Elves specifically. It could tie in with what you said, as to me the title sounds a lot like something Taliesin would do - and the vid I found is indeed by Taliesin and Evitel. They have quite a lot of videos about allied races so check them out if you like. I am in no way affiliated with them so this is no promotion but I do like their videos a lot so I don't feel too bad about advertising them ? Please feel free to remove anything about - or the entirity of - that post, should this violate any terms of the forum.

 

On 1/16/2019 at 10:41 PM, Ogerscherge said:

Tauren not only are unable to wear helmets without looking stupid, their extraordinarily big hunch also makes body armour and capes look weird. I always liked Tauren for their lore and calm demeanor but I just can't bring myself to play one, because I feel like Blizzard did a kind of poor job with their model. ?

I personally think gear looks awesome on Tauren - having a big *filtered* sword or axe even bigger? Sign me up! Helmets are a problem, I agree. But the worst part for me are the hooves... why Blizz. I see it doesn't make much sense to put shoes on a cow. But does it make more sense to give them, say, a gun?

[Ogerscherge 43]

8 hours ago, Evincare said:

I personally think gear looks awesome on Tauren - having a big *filtered* sword or axe even bigger? Sign me up! Helmets are a problem, I agree. But the worst part for me are the hooves... why Blizz. I see it doesn't make much sense to put shoes on a cow. But does it make more sense to give them, say, a gun?

I agree, weapons and shoulder pauldrons look amazing on them, but when the fur on their hunch for some reason is on top of their armor and cape, I immediately lose all will to play one of them to at least level 90, at which point you can just transmog the Orgrimmar guard armour over whatever they're wearing, which, in combination with a hidden helmet and cloak, makes them really look all sorts of badass. But that's too much work for me just to make them look not weird anymore. ^-^

As for the shoes, I personally would prefer the more classical minotaur design, with human legs and feet as well, but by now the hooved minotaur is pretty much the default version in pop culture and most people would find it weird to see them with a more humanoid body. ^.^

 

[vl3x 2]

Do we need more allied races? Just make the mechagnomes an option for regular gnomes or something. Don't need foxlings or snakelings, walrus folk, or anything else. It's a little much.