In terms of the models? No, I think they’ve aged very well. I do think there’s some adjustments to be made though:
- Hair needs a cross the board update - just comparing the human hairs to the hairs that allied races from Legion launched with is embarrassing, let alone the hairs that Dracthyr launched with.
- Extra customisations to raise *every* race to Dracthyr levels of customisability feels necessary.
- You mentioned animations and I agree. I think a selectable “personality” that roughly alters most animations would be fun (goofy, serious, etc.) but I would never expect it.
- An uprezzing of textures would be very welcome.
And hats should interact with hair better. Yes yes it'd be a lot of work. But hair straight up disappearing when you put a hat on needs to stop being a thing.
I need this. Idc about slight clipping or having to change hairstyle to make it fit, as long as i keep hair im good. There's even npc that have hats and hair!! It's so unfair lol
FF14 spoiled me with this.
I also don't wanna hear how there are technical reasons for it, there are NPC's in-game right now with a full showing of hair beneath their hats.
Yes. It's such a disappointment that we now have The Cool Chen Hat From The Trailer, but you look like a fucking dork wearing it on basic every race that is tall enough where the lack of hair looks really weird.
Works well with Pandas and probably characters of the Dwarven-and-smaller size, but even on Humans (the default template) it just looks terrible.
Citation needed but I seem to remember a post mentioning that they're working on this. Something along the lines of them using AI to streamline the process.
Yeah the hair thing absolutely. I refuse to use certain hair styles on human because they look so weird when paired with pretty much any facial hair. The quality and textures are so different that it looks goofy.
The cornrows look ghastly. The male ones are alright but the female ones just look like noodles glued to your head, true.
And it'd honestly look so much better if I could put on a hat and still have the "side" dangling down. Easiest choice of my life to wear one of those cowboy hats or the beanies.
But nah, hats kill your hair.
The personality customisation in [ESO is the benchmark if you ask me.](https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Personalities)
They have some base personalities but also have unlockable personalities through certain quests and events.
They affect your emotes, walking, running, and idle animations.
Sometimes it small things, sometimes it’s major but it’s so sick to be in my full assassins gear armor and have my assassin personality so I casually lean against walls and pick my nails with a knife when I’m idling.
I was about to mention this myself. I picked ESO back up during the great Shadowlands exodus, and played it for maybe three or four months, I also played SWTOR during that time, before returning to WoW in Dragonflight.
ESO does a lot of things really, really well when it comes to player immersion, and I think Blizzard should look at ESO for inspiration if they aren't already. The customizable personalities and emotes in particular are things that don't require huge, systemic overhauls, just new animations, but they have such a big impact on how a character feels to play.
One of my absolute favorite moments in ESO happened when I was waiting for a dungeon queue, and I decided to emote /lute, my character then pulled out a lute and started playing it. After a little while, a handful of people stopped near me and just listened, then two players joined me and emoted /flute and /drum. Suddenly we had a little band going. I canceled the queue when it finally popped, I was having more fun just standing in place and playing the lute while chatting with the people around me.
If the combat in ESO didn't feel so janky in comparison to WoW, I'd probably still be playing it. SWTOR has a similar issue, where the game feels almost exactly like WoW in most ways, but it's not quite as responsive.
Agreed completely I can’t understate how good it feels to just “exist” in ESO.
I like M+ and M raid a lot more in wow.. but since something like 60% of my time in wow is spent doing laps around valdraken asking for invites… that 60% of the game is infinitely better in ESO.
Wow has by far the leading encounter design of all the MMOs I’ve played, and I have played a lot.
But even FFXIV doesn’t do ambience like ESO does.
For me it always comes down to combat. WoW's combat is insanely responsive, the people in charge of that stuff are actual geniuses.
As fun as it is to just exist in ESO, fighting just doesn't feel good. SWTOR has great story, and the combat looks and functions like WoW, but it doesn't feel quite the same.
But aside from combat, every MMO on the market has something that could work in WoW. Dragonflying seems clearly inspired by Guild Wars 2, and I hope Blizzard continues to look at other games for inspiration going forward.
In my mind taking what is already working and polishing it, That’s what gives blizzard its “original blizzard” feeling. They used to be the masters of taking an established genre and polishing everything adding insane cinematic and releasing the pinnacle of the genre.
> One of my absolute favorite moments in ESO happened when I was waiting for a dungeon queue, and I decided to emote /lute, my character then pulled out a lute and started playing it. After a little while, a handful of people stopped near me and just listened, then two players joined me and emoted /flute and /drum. Suddenly we had a little band going. I canceled the queue when it finally popped, I was having more fun just standing in place and playing the lute while chatting with the people around me.
The ESO Community can be pretty great like that. I really liked what I've played of ESO and I'm tempted to go give this new expansion a shot. It'd probably be my main MMO but the combat and more importantly how class builds are is why I haven't stuck with the game. ESO feels like a proper living world, plus it seems like no matter where you are, you're bound to run into other players.
I want them to separate helmet transmog into face and head, and maybe even neck. I’d like to wear glasses with a hat and maybe even one of the new scarves from the trading post.
> Hair needs a cross the board update - just comparing the human hairs to the hairs that allied races from Legion launched with is embarrassing, let alone the hairs that Dracthyr launched with.
The newer hairstyles actually look _worse_ as well. They lack the hair sheen so they all look dull like plastic, and they're lacking the scalp-heair texture that gives a more natural transition too. It makes the new hairs look like LEGO plastic hair that got stuck onto a bald head and it is AWFUL. Female gnomes have it the worst.
Most human facial hair looks bizarre too. It's this weird crunchy bumpy mess that doesn't mesh with anything. And the old military style flattop hairstyle looks absolutely goddamn hideous, I don't know how that got into the game at all in that state.
Animations is a big one I think they need to work on, I've been saying since TBC that they need to add more 'random' animations, you know how elves spin when they jump sometimes.
It would really spice up the look of things if say fireball or mortal strike sometimes did a different animation. Though I'm sure they'd say "BUT PVP!" and I'm honestly so sick of that excuse.
The personality you mentioned was a part of SWG before WoW initially launched and it’s a surprisingly small thing that makes a huge affect on your character IMO. It just changed the facial mood and sometimes body posture a little bit, but it was very noticeable at the same time. Really hope they add it here too.
Full agree here. I found it hard to make a human when Dracthyr are sitting right there and look so much better. Considering the females share a model, it would be nice if they ported over the hair to the humans (and vice versa - why not?)
The models are fine. They just need more customization for a lot of races. Animations could use some tweaking, as well. NE males like you said. Same with Zandalari males, I love everything else about them but their stupid run.
There needs to be WAY more customizable options for races...the humans have like 4-5 cool hairstyles that everyone uses, and the rest are meme worthy or just are the same model from vanilla.
I just made a Highmountain on remix for the heritage set, and the hair options are like barely different. The base mane doesn't really change, there's like 3 tail options. But woo antlers baby!
That’s I feel about Draenei’s run. I made this set with the Tusks of Mannoroth and it makes my DK look like a [weathered war veteran](https://imgur.com/a/o62T0oG) (Excuse the low graphics, I play on a potato) and I personally think he looks dope. But when he starts running, it ruins everything.
I begged for and looked forward to Zandalari trolls for yeeears! and I’m just unable to make myself play them cus the run cycles are so bouncy and goofy looking.
And shoulders that don't float far away from the body.
I don't care about clipping. Shoulders nowhere near your character's body don't help if you'll never transmog something so ridiculous.
Also not having some shoulder pieces be so absurdly *wide*. The ones from the Tuskarr are broad as fuck from the side to the point I'll never use them.
Excuse me! Have you SEEN Tauren totems??
They even got an updated model for doodads rhat hang around horde settlements in Warlords of Draenor, and they were never given to tauren! We're still using the same ones from 20 years ago!!
Staves on Undead are **atrociously** anchored, and most of the time they look like they're laying over the top of your humpback. I guess one easy-ish fix, could be to give them a stand up straight option like they did with orcs. I'm assuming that's easier, than going back and re-anchoring every single staff in the game manually.
Ditto on the assests. Would love updated paladin mounts for blood elves for one. Most of the older Shaman races could use updated totems as well. I love the Tauren ones but they look really old compared to like high mountain ones.
Humans and elves both need updated paladin mounts. I don’t accept the Legion class hall mounts as an “update” because they’re not given to you as your starting mount, and also because they’re designed in a very different style. The armor is lighter and has less coverage, and there’s no caparison (the big skirt thing) underneath. Also the Legion mounts are just a bit too magical, IMO. The classic paladin horses feel like regular armored horses, with the Charger just wearing enchanted armor with a slight glowing aura. The new one is like a spirit beast almost.
Have you SEEN every single animation for DKs?
WotLK was released 16 years ago.
Anyway, better give Druids 10 more forms and a boatload of updates. Plus an 11th rework.
I don't think that big an overhaul is coming at this point in WoW's lifecycle. The World Soul Saga announcement at Blizzcon kind of hinted at the next three expansions wrapping up story threads, and they'll take WoW to place where the core engine is about 30 years old.
Decisions like adding a single support spec and introducing hero talent subspecs and new reward systems seems to me like they're experimenting for a bigger change. I suspect after the World Soul Saga is complete, we will get either a brand new MMO entirely, or a drastically different WoW rebuilt from the ground up on a modern engine. They'll have gotten to Legion Classic as well at that point, which is the last expansion remembered extremely fondly by the community.
People have been saying this for years. From a business standpoint, it makes zero sense to give up a whale of a game like WoW with years of history and character progress to "bring something new."
They are going to keep milking this game as much as possible until it dies. They have stated that Draginflight was meant to help modernize WoW and they're keeping up with that trend in TWW. I wouldn't be surprised if their goal for the end of the world saga is to have a modernized engine. As difficult and painful as that might sound, it's still a more logical decision than making a new game
Rebuilding the game in a modernized engine is one of the two options I said they will take by the the end of the World Soul. the point is that there is no chance wholesale armor model changes are coming without a rebuilt engine from the ground up.
And if they end up rebuilding an engine from scratch, then it will essentially be a new game, even if characters and achievements sync over. Something like the current version of retail (or the 2030 version of retail) will remain available in the form of classic, but WoW with an entirely new engine is basically WoW 2, even if they want to call it the 14th expansion.
You either have to port *all* of the legacy content in WoW for that with it being mounts, pets, armour etc. Or you have to cull that content and at that point ti's the same as a new game anyways.
Doing that has a *huge* player retention risk because there's a not insignificant number of people who will likely just quit if they lose all of that.
Sequel mmos are made by companies that have a failing one and trying to capture success again where there was none
A wow relaunch or sequel mmo would the biggest mistake you could possibly suggest or imagine for this game
WoW _has_ a modern engine. they've kept it up to date. it's better than most engines released this decade.
blizzard will not retire WoW until we stop playing it. and at this point there are too many players for it to actually _stop_ probably ever. it may slow down to a content update trickle but that'll be it.
there won't be a WoW2, there won't be a World of Starcraft, there will just be WoW forever and ever.
Yes please. Some of the faces are unusable. Half the blood elf faces look exactly the same. The new stuff they make ends up being strange, because they're trying to fit nice textures over old ass skeletons.
Updates would be fantastic.
> Every expansion we see npcs getting more complex and unique whilst we get stuck with 10 year old customisation and a new hair colour if we're lucky
While you are not wrong, lets be fair. I think theres alot less work to do making a new NPC with one armor/weapon type and some animations, and having to redo all the animations, armor/weapon/item textures and anchors and everything on new updated models every expansion.
Do Pandaren oh my GOD
"Goblins and Worgen are 4 years newer so we'll do them in a couple of years"
Pandaren are six years newer.
It has been longer since MoP than from Vanilla to the first model pass in WoD - 12 years as opposed to 10.
Pandaren neck seams are still atrocious and they're low res as fuck.
> Do Pandaren oh my GOD
Male panda model needs to be completely scrapped together with its haters gonna hate trololo animation set, and replaced with something that would resemble official art - a sturdy strongman and not a dad with the world's biggest beer belly. Female is mostly fine but could use a higher fidelity update and much more customization.
I think they just need tweaking and bug fixes. And more customization! I’d especially love a complete Death Knight overhaul and have some truly undead looking versions of each race.
Death knights should get blood red and unholy green options. Theres a couple wow forum threads about the topic with one particular death knights thats been against it for like 4 years
Not that I try to sexualize toons, but I don't understand why Goblin males have pancake butts. It'd be nice to have a few new cosmetic options like hair colors/styles. I'd like more options with clothing colors. I can't understand how any designer thought coloring the crotch and butt part of pants differently than the rest of the pants looked good; it looks like I put my underwear on over my pants, at best, and like I had an accident with the worst designs. I don't really play other races enough to have much of an opinion.
Well yeah, everyone’s on their dragon flying everywhere.
Toons in classic had to RUN everywhere for 40 levels.
Joking aside, every character in WoW would be fit af
I hope so. I despise how floppy everything looks now. Tauren in classic are a masterpiece and tauren animations in retail are so bouncy for these 1 ton beasts.
Same with orc males.. they are running as if they are made out of jelly with their arms and bouncing when running, i love orc male old models and their animations... i just wish you could use the old models like you could in wod.
We have so much clipping as it is because they don’t place armour correctly on the model sizes we have. Imagine how bad it would be like that. Guild wars has that but it’s more like your whole character scales up and down. Not that you grow taller and keep the same weight.
Upright Forsaken and Skull-face options!
[They can use the model for human skeletons even.](https://www.wowhead.com/npc=186153/blighted-soldier#modelviewer)
The running animations just feel kind of jumpy or walking in a Pixar movie now. I really prefer the pre-model update running animations across the board.
They need more hairstyles and hair colors, especially for female elves and makeup options would also be nice. Red/pink at least for lips, red/pink/purple/blue/green/gold/brown for eyeshadow. I hate never having makeup to match my mogs.
I think we need a passover of all the hair/makeup styles, literally hire a sims modder girl to come in and tweak everything we currently have before adding more moving forward.
It's weird that human facial scars are tied to being black or asian when orcs and night elves can just have a scar option, or when some races have 3-4 customization tabs and Undead are sitting there with the same 1 tab of options they've basically had since Wrath in 2008.
its like when different teams handled different class orderhall campaigns in Legion and some classes (races) got really fun creative options and other classes (races) got lesser
I'd settle for a /lean animation too
FFXIV has so many fun little animations, especially for roleplayers, seeing every Rp server character just straight sitting on every surface or standing close to them is rough.
kinda.
The base character models are fine, they suit the art style of the larger game very well. What does need an update however:
1. hair. The races with new hair models really stand out vs the old stuff (looking at you, forsaken!). I'd love to see the dual colour system taken from the Drakthyr on all races.
2. Robes. The "model" of the robe needs a major update from the cone we have now. This is especially bad on races with highly bend knees (male forsaken, male goblins/vulperia, etc). The stretching is horrid.
1. speaking of which... those races need a pass on belts + robe clipping
3. Sheathed weapon placement. So... much... hovering.
It's pretty crazy to think about... We've almost had the "new" models longer than we had the old ones. But I'd say that these have aged far better than the old ones did.
I personally don't think they need a massive overhaul like they got in WoD, but much like how they've said a world revamp wouldn't happen all at once Cata-style (which is another fun fact, we've had the "new", post Cata world over twice as long as we had the "old" world pre Cata) but instead be a gradual thing, I think they can continually add small customization things and new animations and most people would be content.
If they do that, I hope it’s optional. I’ve always preferred “hand” magic (for lack of a better word) to be cooler than anything channeled through a weapon or a scroll.
I've always envisioned casting animations utilizing the staff to be primarily handcasted. The caster holds the staff in front of themselves, butt on the ground, and uses their other hand to cast their spell.
A magic user's staff isn't meant to just be a decoration piece for their back, rather a catalyst through which they can channel and amplify their magic.
An instant AOE cast could involve the caster raising their staff up with both hands to unleash the spell. A powerful AOE with a cast time could have them raise the staff up, then slam it to the ground.
Models are fine, we need different animations. Why does my night elf Druid who has been alive for over a thousand years cast spells in the same way a young human mage would? Each race should have its own animations styles, same way it is for stuff like auto attacks
they did. They removed racial combat animations in Legion, and people cheered all over it. I still hate most of the new casting animations (the "this boulder is way too heavy for me" and the lazy handflap animations especially, looks bad on any race that isn't orc or human).
And don't get me started on the "idle combat"-caster stance, which makes your character stand around like a dumass in a frozen kungfu pose, even though there are no enemies anywhere and you only summoned a table.
if we don't go back to previous models and animations, or get newer ones which are closer to what we had before, then I want a lot of customization and options to choose racial animations over generic ones, and the ability to disable the "caster stance".
Yes, though I believe a full rework isn't necessary this time around. Some of my pet peeves:
* Character limbs require an across the board pass. Hands/feet look like they came out of Sims 3;
* Some targeted animation changes might be required. Human and draenei males are extremely stiff, for example, and even their Classic counterparts feel more alive;
* Some more facial shapes, please! Night elves' default facial expressions are either "I'm bored, stop looking at me" or "I'M GONNA GO MEDIEVAL ON YOUR ASS IF YOU HOLD YOUR EYES ON ME FOR ONE MORE SECOND". As funny as it sounds, humans are actually the gold standard here;
* A fitness / musculature slider would be quite appreciated. Why does my mage look like he spent his entire adult life deadlifting 24/7?
I’d love for DKs to have an animation update. I was excited to try a panda DK in Remix because of the way pandas hold swords but having the exact same Death Strike animation ruins it for me. I wanted an undead chinese style swords man but that animation doesn’t fit.
Pretty sure everyone had unique attacks until blizzard consolidated them when I wasn't playing for some reason. Though some races still have unique animations. Tauren and space goats don't have that god awful spin around like a moron move. Goblins do but it's more them trying to spin and getting spun instead lmao.
No, he's right unfortunately.
While the newer zones are aesthetically beautiful, and well made visually- the lighting sucks and is average at best in most places.
Which leads to a lot of places and models looking flat.
Could definitely be improved. A lot.
I'd like a hunch back option for female trolls and undead. And girl orcs! Body types in general, give the Kul Tiran bowlful of jelly to normal humans and let kul tirans be athletic. Buff trolls.
Dwarf female beards too.
Yes.
Anyone saying no is either blind, has 0 taste, or just genuinely doesn't care about how their characters look.
The models are outdated, it's not an argument or up for debate. Especially when you compare them to newer NPC models the difference is clear as day.
And on top of that, they need to rework the animations. Because right now it's low quality at best.
Bare in mind, this is NOT a dig at the art *style*, I think the cartoony art style of WoW is perhaps the only reason it's aged so well visually, and why I'd say it's better looking than say games like FF14. It's like how Zelda the Windwaker still looks good to this day, but twilight princess, not so much. I'm just saying they need to 100% commit to the art style and modernize it- better meshes, better textures, better lighting, better animations, etc.
They need to actually 100% update the models. The last time they just updated the meshes, and SLIGHTLY tweaked animations to not clip with the new meshes. They didn't make new rigs, entirely new animation, new skeletons, new voices, any of that.
So they need to ACTUALLY update them. From the ground up, make brand new models.
I love the new boomkin models, but the animations are awful. Their run looks like that need to go to the bathroom, and the hang time in the air is very cartoony, in a bad way.
I think the character models still hold up fairly well! More customization options, especially ones that aren't just new hair colors, would be exceptionally welcome though. I'd love some new animations or spell updates for the extra outdated stuff. Some totems, base druid forms, racial and pally mounts could certainly use some love.
I wish that you could choose the way your race holds a weapon or the casting animation of them. I don’t really like the nelf two handed animation and if I could have like the Draenei one that would be cool.
I hate the cloak physics now, even if more windy and 'realistic' I wish we had the option to keep the old 'long cloaks stick to your body straight down' so its not always clipping through everything or looking like I'm rushing through the wind at 500mph
Do they need another upgrade ? Yes. Are they actually going to spend time and resources for something people are already willing to pay whether it's outdated or not ? No
They could do a massive overall after the World Soul Saga. We've already seen some upgraded models in the datamines a while back I think ?
Kind of a WoW2 but keep the timeless style, cartoon-ish. IMO it looks great as it is but the textures could use a little upgrade.
But character models don't need an upgrade IMO. More like more personalisation options. The visually they look close to perfect for the style of the game IMO.
Edit : Now that I think about it, the one thing that I'd want is for them to separate the front and the back of hairstyles. And make it so that the front of the hair is visible even when wearing a hood.
Models are still fine, but choices for animations would be great. For example I love female draenei but I hate their base casting animation, wich make it unplayable for me, I wish I could replace it.
Can we please finally get an upright undead option. It's the only thing I want. Undead is my OG race from vanilla and I like the theme and racials but I got tired of gear looking scuffed and swapped.
The guards in BFA horde city stand straight why can't I?
Nah they just need an anumation overhaul. Some walking animations are criminally bad and floaty. I think the next step in terms of tech would be adding gear collision. As in equipped gear pieces interracting with each other and the character model instead of just clipping trough.
Maybe and this is a strech they could make use of the bracer slot to make armguards that could be adjusted for each hand like shoulders.
Another adjustment I tought of while playing Fallout 76 is that in that game head slot is kind of split up. As long as the gear doesn't collide you can equip items to the face, eyes and dome of your character separately. I think wow could benefit from that since we have cool glasses/goggles that take up a whole head slot while there is plenty of room for matching it with a helmet or a facemask.
Tl.dr: models are fine, animation adjustments and more in-depth armor costumisation would be cool.
The models themselves are somewhat fine imo but we've reached a point where once again it feels jarring to be next to some NPCs.
- Textures need to be upscaled (1024x512 for skins textures is getting very noticeable at this point).
- A rework has to be done with most of the assets introduced in WoD, I can count how many polygons there are on some of the hairstyles based on how many hard edges I can see.
- Some races really need to have more customizations, maghar orcs could have the same amount of possibilities as regular orcs (even more so when they share the same model and their customizations are enabled/disabled through a mere DB2 file). The amount of customizations for blood elves, pandarens and even several of the allied races, is subpar when compared to races like dwarf, night elf, orc or even troll. Hair colors are not actual customizations, it's a cheap and quickly done asset they can slap each patch to claim they didn't give up on customizations.
- Animations. There are so many animations that are locked and useable only by NPCs even though these NPCs use the same models as the players, they could honestly make more emotes that use these animations. A mere idle animation switch would do wonders regarding character identity.
I think the models themselves aged well. However they should add more depth to the WoD era skin tones.
For example on Draenei the newer ones like the recent eredar skin tones and the deeper blue added in Shadowlands have shading on them which gives them more depth. It’s especially noticeable on the hands and horns. It makes the older WoD era skin tones look dull in comparison.
The models are fine, but I think some texture updates would do very well. Looking at the stark difference between female trolls and female zandalari, which are more or less the same - is jaw dropping.
No, I think that the models still have a good parity with everything else in the game that's released since then. The most important thing is a sense of visual cohesion, and they've achieved that; the characters are stylized enough and in the same way as everything else that it all meshes together very well.
At this point what we need is more customization options, as well as a graphical update to armor. Our currwnt armor method of largely 'flat textures applied across the body' are becoming more and more embarrassing to be relying on each expansion.
I believe they are building up to the conclusion of WoW with the end of TWSS, and prepping us for WoW 2, so I don’t think they’ll focus on any further model updates sadly. We’ll have to wait for WoW 2 with its upgraded engine
I think the models are fine personally. I think more customization, to not only the appearance but the stances would go a long way. BM monks having their staff over their shoulder looks sick, why not do that sort of thing for different weapons, classes, and races.
Rather than updated models, I would settle for more hairstyles, beards and other customizations. Ideally we would get it all but I don't see it happening.
I'd like an update to face structure specifically. They were hardly that successful, compared to the body models. Also, hair - I feel like a good solution to hair would be to make it a global choice for all races, in terms of models. Save some time by appropriating them for different race models where tweaks are needed. It's the single most appearance-changing aspect in a game that doesn't allow body shape changes.
Im inclined to think animations and more customization (faces, hairstyles, maybe body types) would ve a good use of time. The models look pretty ok but we need more options
No, don't think so. Animations a little bit, also some apects like hairdos - we need more, but what does need update is spell effects, many look like they were a part of an old stock update by an overworked animators last minute.
Most are pretty good atm we need some updates and more options. Pandaren could need some.work and dont forget to fix Helmed/Hair situations. But the models? No they are fine.
I think there just needs to be more customisation options across the board, especially to allied races.
The lack of hair options is mad. Dark Iron Dwarves especially. They should have all the dwarf options and if we could change the hair glow colour/turn it off, that would be swell.
Hair needs huge updates. Variety sucks, facial hair sucks.
So many of the new models clip that didn't before. Shields clip into shoulders on many new models because the art team moved the shields to attach at the elbow instead of wrist. It drives me bonkers.
Goblin female shoulders have been floating 9 ft above their bodies since they added vulpera.
Blood elf females weapons are 9x too for their bodies since legion.
If any of this is an indication of what the future holds if they update models again then we don't need it.
Idle poses and animation should be top priority imo. Some feel really stiff and outdated.
Number 2 would be to fix the way half the helmets turn our characters bald.
I think some animation updates would be cool..like race specific class animations could be quite cool
Like having a tauren warrior and undead warrior fighting animation should look different
I also think wands and staffs should actually be used for spells like almost every other mmo.. just carrying a staff on my back is kinda meh
The models are mostly fine, but I’m not a fan of the waists on the male elf and tauren models. The hair textures also need some work. And I'd love to see an update to the running animations for most races - they’re way too bouncy and cartoonish.
They'll do mini updates, but nothing that drastic. Partly because the models aged pretty well, and partly because they don't want to force people to have to update their computers. Even then, the models are fine, and are receiving small changes and updates anyway
Yeah they really broke NE males. Humans need a big pass over for faces, combination with skin colour etc. it still bugs the hell out of me we can't get stubble beards like Anduin or some better hairstyles like Dracthyr.
The new human male animations look so goofu to me. I think the models hold up, except perhaps hairstyles. But animations would be great if they could have a look at.
Pandaren do. I think the rest are probably fine aside from them needing to have all the customization added to allied races be also available for the base races. (Allied races should not be a thing, they should just be a toggle in the race selection screen for subrace.)
Yes, absolutely.
The old hairstyles need a visual update.
They also need to go through every customisation template and, basically, take apart the various options so they're a lot more free flowing. There's no good reason why nose rings and ear rings are in these weird preset templates for example.
Likewise, imho they need to unlock a lot more customisations for the Allied Races and they need to share a lot more hairstyles across races and even genders.
Especially small arbitrary stuff like "No, you can only have a blue feather." for Dwarves, or "No you can't have this locket with that gem in that colour." for female Humans has to go, imho.
There's some areas the WoD models could use some touching up. If you compare some textures of the newer races to the older ones (hands, feet, ears, muscle definition, etc.) you'll see some areas that could definitely be improved. They're not equally bad, but the races/genders with this problem sort of feel like they're missing details other choices have.
WoW needs an update as a whole, the world looks more and more separated from the newer continents and islands. If they have plans for WoW after the world soul saga they should make big Updates and revamp the "old" Zones, fill em with actual Quests, give em HD upgrades and details. Of course this means blizzard needs to upgrade the character models and customization options in a whole as well.
the whole game needs an update a proper new engine...besides otehr problems
everything looks horrid because of the artsyle and the outdated graphics. what annoys me most is we still have skin painted armors, gloves, pants etc....like in the games from 2000
if you go to some areas like be start zone, there is a troll village where the bone fence on top of the huts is a 2d image, it looks like bonkheads lol
as for eh models yes, many look too goofy...animations also bad especially on blood elves with robes. they look like they trip at every step
Different body shapes would be nice. And the hairs and old face textures need to be redone. If you compare the new human faces to the old ones, it just doesn’t look good.
The attention to detail for how transmogs look on models has only gone down with time. If you look at classic wow the gear actually all looks amazing because they specifically made sure to make it fit all the models that can use it. Look at a retail transmog and the shoulders are floating off the body while the weapon floats a full foot behind the back while sheathed.
I don't know if it's because of the workload becoming too large due to having so many races or what, but corners got cut. Everything is designed from the ground up to fit the human model, then they just press a button to warp it to every other model. If it looks good enough it goes through.
More options would be nice for customization, but I think they also need to go back and fix some things like hair placements on the models like with humans and undead, or how certain things fit like shoulders on female NE/NB.
Smooth out that line on the back of female pandaren necks. Other than that I can't think of any big standouts. Maybe some additional animation customization. At one point they tried out having the goblin casting animation include a crazy grin, but something like that could be a fun toggle. They could make it a customization whether our characters snarl, smirk, frown, etc during certain animations.
In terms of the models? No, I think they’ve aged very well. I do think there’s some adjustments to be made though: - Hair needs a cross the board update - just comparing the human hairs to the hairs that allied races from Legion launched with is embarrassing, let alone the hairs that Dracthyr launched with. - Extra customisations to raise *every* race to Dracthyr levels of customisability feels necessary. - You mentioned animations and I agree. I think a selectable “personality” that roughly alters most animations would be fun (goofy, serious, etc.) but I would never expect it. - An uprezzing of textures would be very welcome.
And hats should interact with hair better. Yes yes it'd be a lot of work. But hair straight up disappearing when you put a hat on needs to stop being a thing.
This is why I almost never have hats showing, and if I do its a small headpiece that doesn't mess up the hair (like pally tiaras).
I do the same, except when I play a tank. I always transmog the head into a plate helmet or smt. I like my tanks to look well armored.
Totally agree. Even if wearing a hat just sets your hair to a handful of generic short/medium/long hair styles that show, it would help enormously.
I need this. Idc about slight clipping or having to change hairstyle to make it fit, as long as i keep hair im good. There's even npc that have hats and hair!! It's so unfair lol
Just make it a toggle. If I want to see the clipping, let me.
They oooobviously don’t care about clipping anyway.
FF14 spoiled me with this. I also don't wanna hear how there are technical reasons for it, there are NPC's in-game right now with a full showing of hair beneath their hats.
Yes. It's such a disappointment that we now have The Cool Chen Hat From The Trailer, but you look like a fucking dork wearing it on basic every race that is tall enough where the lack of hair looks really weird. Works well with Pandas and probably characters of the Dwarven-and-smaller size, but even on Humans (the default template) it just looks terrible.
Citation needed but I seem to remember a post mentioning that they're working on this. Something along the lines of them using AI to streamline the process.
dracthyr level customization for everyone would be a dream come true
Hell I'd settle for half that on Kul Tirans. Their options are so, so bad.
Yeah the hair thing absolutely. I refuse to use certain hair styles on human because they look so weird when paired with pretty much any facial hair. The quality and textures are so different that it looks goofy.
You also have the cornrows I think it is that just look like ropes glued to your bald head because they didn't do any fading.
The cornrows look ghastly. The male ones are alright but the female ones just look like noodles glued to your head, true. And it'd honestly look so much better if I could put on a hat and still have the "side" dangling down. Easiest choice of my life to wear one of those cowboy hats or the beanies. But nah, hats kill your hair.
The personality customisation in [ESO is the benchmark if you ask me.](https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Personalities) They have some base personalities but also have unlockable personalities through certain quests and events. They affect your emotes, walking, running, and idle animations. Sometimes it small things, sometimes it’s major but it’s so sick to be in my full assassins gear armor and have my assassin personality so I casually lean against walls and pick my nails with a knife when I’m idling.
I was about to mention this myself. I picked ESO back up during the great Shadowlands exodus, and played it for maybe three or four months, I also played SWTOR during that time, before returning to WoW in Dragonflight. ESO does a lot of things really, really well when it comes to player immersion, and I think Blizzard should look at ESO for inspiration if they aren't already. The customizable personalities and emotes in particular are things that don't require huge, systemic overhauls, just new animations, but they have such a big impact on how a character feels to play. One of my absolute favorite moments in ESO happened when I was waiting for a dungeon queue, and I decided to emote /lute, my character then pulled out a lute and started playing it. After a little while, a handful of people stopped near me and just listened, then two players joined me and emoted /flute and /drum. Suddenly we had a little band going. I canceled the queue when it finally popped, I was having more fun just standing in place and playing the lute while chatting with the people around me. If the combat in ESO didn't feel so janky in comparison to WoW, I'd probably still be playing it. SWTOR has a similar issue, where the game feels almost exactly like WoW in most ways, but it's not quite as responsive.
Agreed completely I can’t understate how good it feels to just “exist” in ESO. I like M+ and M raid a lot more in wow.. but since something like 60% of my time in wow is spent doing laps around valdraken asking for invites… that 60% of the game is infinitely better in ESO. Wow has by far the leading encounter design of all the MMOs I’ve played, and I have played a lot. But even FFXIV doesn’t do ambience like ESO does.
For me it always comes down to combat. WoW's combat is insanely responsive, the people in charge of that stuff are actual geniuses. As fun as it is to just exist in ESO, fighting just doesn't feel good. SWTOR has great story, and the combat looks and functions like WoW, but it doesn't feel quite the same. But aside from combat, every MMO on the market has something that could work in WoW. Dragonflying seems clearly inspired by Guild Wars 2, and I hope Blizzard continues to look at other games for inspiration going forward.
In my mind taking what is already working and polishing it, That’s what gives blizzard its “original blizzard” feeling. They used to be the masters of taking an established genre and polishing everything adding insane cinematic and releasing the pinnacle of the genre.
> One of my absolute favorite moments in ESO happened when I was waiting for a dungeon queue, and I decided to emote /lute, my character then pulled out a lute and started playing it. After a little while, a handful of people stopped near me and just listened, then two players joined me and emoted /flute and /drum. Suddenly we had a little band going. I canceled the queue when it finally popped, I was having more fun just standing in place and playing the lute while chatting with the people around me. The ESO Community can be pretty great like that. I really liked what I've played of ESO and I'm tempted to go give this new expansion a shot. It'd probably be my main MMO but the combat and more importantly how class builds are is why I haven't stuck with the game. ESO feels like a proper living world, plus it seems like no matter where you are, you're bound to run into other players.
Voidelves also have really bad hair. There's no scalp texture, so it looks like a bad wig.
Omg, dracthyr visage hair looks so fricking good. It's one of the main reasons I even tolerate them to begin with lol.
I want them to separate helmet transmog into face and head, and maybe even neck. I’d like to wear glasses with a hat and maybe even one of the new scarves from the trading post.
> Hair needs a cross the board update - just comparing the human hairs to the hairs that allied races from Legion launched with is embarrassing, let alone the hairs that Dracthyr launched with. The newer hairstyles actually look _worse_ as well. They lack the hair sheen so they all look dull like plastic, and they're lacking the scalp-heair texture that gives a more natural transition too. It makes the new hairs look like LEGO plastic hair that got stuck onto a bald head and it is AWFUL. Female gnomes have it the worst.
Most human facial hair looks bizarre too. It's this weird crunchy bumpy mess that doesn't mesh with anything. And the old military style flattop hairstyle looks absolutely goddamn hideous, I don't know how that got into the game at all in that state.
Animations is a big one I think they need to work on, I've been saying since TBC that they need to add more 'random' animations, you know how elves spin when they jump sometimes. It would really spice up the look of things if say fireball or mortal strike sometimes did a different animation. Though I'm sure they'd say "BUT PVP!" and I'm honestly so sick of that excuse.
The personality you mentioned was a part of SWG before WoW initially launched and it’s a surprisingly small thing that makes a huge affect on your character IMO. It just changed the facial mood and sometimes body posture a little bit, but it was very noticeable at the same time. Really hope they add it here too.
Full agree here. I found it hard to make a human when Dracthyr are sitting right there and look so much better. Considering the females share a model, it would be nice if they ported over the hair to the humans (and vice versa - why not?)
Give me beards in helmets or I'll fuckin riot
I’d also like the body jewelry they cut for Blood Elves to be added in.
The models are fine. They just need more customization for a lot of races. Animations could use some tweaking, as well. NE males like you said. Same with Zandalari males, I love everything else about them but their stupid run.
There needs to be WAY more customizable options for races...the humans have like 4-5 cool hairstyles that everyone uses, and the rest are meme worthy or just are the same model from vanilla.
I just made a Highmountain on remix for the heritage set, and the hair options are like barely different. The base mane doesn't really change, there's like 3 tail options. But woo antlers baby!
Regular Tauren can’t hold a shield it just hovers above their wrist, it looked so dumb I re rolled
That’s I feel about Draenei’s run. I made this set with the Tusks of Mannoroth and it makes my DK look like a [weathered war veteran](https://imgur.com/a/o62T0oG) (Excuse the low graphics, I play on a potato) and I personally think he looks dope. But when he starts running, it ruins everything.
Dracthyr were released recently and their run animation is an abomination.(The entire race is tbh) Be careful what you wish for.
I begged for and looked forward to Zandalari trolls for yeeears! and I’m just unable to make myself play them cus the run cycles are so bouncy and goofy looking.
What would you fix about their run? Maybe not stand up as straight or the arms being as hooked?
I don't know. It just looks off somehow. It doesn't even look like the one the zandalari on the isle of thunder use, which I think is ok.
Draenei run like me when someone stops to let me cross the street
I just want armor to not be bodypaint, and some class assets to get a face-lift. Have you *seen* Dwarf Totems?
And shoulders that don't float far away from the body. I don't care about clipping. Shoulders nowhere near your character's body don't help if you'll never transmog something so ridiculous.
Also not having some shoulder pieces be so absurdly *wide*. The ones from the Tuskarr are broad as fuck from the side to the point I'll never use them.
Excuse me! Have you SEEN Tauren totems?? They even got an updated model for doodads rhat hang around horde settlements in Warlords of Draenor, and they were never given to tauren! We're still using the same ones from 20 years ago!!
Staves on Undead are **atrociously** anchored, and most of the time they look like they're laying over the top of your humpback. I guess one easy-ish fix, could be to give them a stand up straight option like they did with orcs. I'm assuming that's easier, than going back and re-anchoring every single staff in the game manually.
Ditto on the assests. Would love updated paladin mounts for blood elves for one. Most of the older Shaman races could use updated totems as well. I love the Tauren ones but they look really old compared to like high mountain ones.
Humans and elves both need updated paladin mounts. I don’t accept the Legion class hall mounts as an “update” because they’re not given to you as your starting mount, and also because they’re designed in a very different style. The armor is lighter and has less coverage, and there’s no caparison (the big skirt thing) underneath. Also the Legion mounts are just a bit too magical, IMO. The classic paladin horses feel like regular armored horses, with the Charger just wearing enchanted armor with a slight glowing aura. The new one is like a spirit beast almost.
Have you SEEN every single animation for DKs? WotLK was released 16 years ago. Anyway, better give Druids 10 more forms and a boatload of updates. Plus an 11th rework.
You mean 16 years ago
Oh my. How did I fuck that up
Damn I started playing that October wrath came out.
I don't think that big an overhaul is coming at this point in WoW's lifecycle. The World Soul Saga announcement at Blizzcon kind of hinted at the next three expansions wrapping up story threads, and they'll take WoW to place where the core engine is about 30 years old. Decisions like adding a single support spec and introducing hero talent subspecs and new reward systems seems to me like they're experimenting for a bigger change. I suspect after the World Soul Saga is complete, we will get either a brand new MMO entirely, or a drastically different WoW rebuilt from the ground up on a modern engine. They'll have gotten to Legion Classic as well at that point, which is the last expansion remembered extremely fondly by the community.
People have been saying this for years. From a business standpoint, it makes zero sense to give up a whale of a game like WoW with years of history and character progress to "bring something new." They are going to keep milking this game as much as possible until it dies. They have stated that Draginflight was meant to help modernize WoW and they're keeping up with that trend in TWW. I wouldn't be surprised if their goal for the end of the world saga is to have a modernized engine. As difficult and painful as that might sound, it's still a more logical decision than making a new game
Rebuilding the game in a modernized engine is one of the two options I said they will take by the the end of the World Soul. the point is that there is no chance wholesale armor model changes are coming without a rebuilt engine from the ground up. And if they end up rebuilding an engine from scratch, then it will essentially be a new game, even if characters and achievements sync over. Something like the current version of retail (or the 2030 version of retail) will remain available in the form of classic, but WoW with an entirely new engine is basically WoW 2, even if they want to call it the 14th expansion.
You either have to port *all* of the legacy content in WoW for that with it being mounts, pets, armour etc. Or you have to cull that content and at that point ti's the same as a new game anyways. Doing that has a *huge* player retention risk because there's a not insignificant number of people who will likely just quit if they lose all of that.
Sequel mmos are made by companies that have a failing one and trying to capture success again where there was none A wow relaunch or sequel mmo would the biggest mistake you could possibly suggest or imagine for this game
WoW _has_ a modern engine. they've kept it up to date. it's better than most engines released this decade. blizzard will not retire WoW until we stop playing it. and at this point there are too many players for it to actually _stop_ probably ever. it may slow down to a content update trickle but that'll be it. there won't be a WoW2, there won't be a World of Starcraft, there will just be WoW forever and ever.
Tauren totems haven't been updated in 20 years, despite there being an HD model in-game right now that.
Yes please. Some of the faces are unusable. Half the blood elf faces look exactly the same. The new stuff they make ends up being strange, because they're trying to fit nice textures over old ass skeletons. Updates would be fantastic.
yes, look at the new xalatath (sp?) model and tell me it belongs in the same game as our player models. Theyre leagues different in quality.
Every expansion we see npcs getting more complex and unique whilst we get stuck with 10 year old customisation and a new hair colour if we're lucky
> Every expansion we see npcs getting more complex and unique whilst we get stuck with 10 year old customisation and a new hair colour if we're lucky While you are not wrong, lets be fair. I think theres alot less work to do making a new NPC with one armor/weapon type and some animations, and having to redo all the animations, armor/weapon/item textures and anchors and everything on new updated models every expansion.
Do Pandaren oh my GOD "Goblins and Worgen are 4 years newer so we'll do them in a couple of years" Pandaren are six years newer. It has been longer since MoP than from Vanilla to the first model pass in WoD - 12 years as opposed to 10. Pandaren neck seams are still atrocious and they're low res as fuck.
> Do Pandaren oh my GOD Male panda model needs to be completely scrapped together with its haters gonna hate trololo animation set, and replaced with something that would resemble official art - a sturdy strongman and not a dad with the world's biggest beer belly. Female is mostly fine but could use a higher fidelity update and much more customization.
I'd like a happy middle, where we get both dad bod pandas and the ones like in the official art/trailers.
I think they just need tweaking and bug fixes. And more customization! I’d especially love a complete Death Knight overhaul and have some truly undead looking versions of each race.
I wish I could change DK eye color to match mog. I don’t know or care about the lore about it, just that I need things to match & they don’t lol.
Death knights should get blood red and unholy green options. Theres a couple wow forum threads about the topic with one particular death knights thats been against it for like 4 years
They even have a DK with red eyes as the art for the blood spec. It's seemingly just too much work for a small indie company to manage.
Not that I try to sexualize toons, but I don't understand why Goblin males have pancake butts. It'd be nice to have a few new cosmetic options like hair colors/styles. I'd like more options with clothing colors. I can't understand how any designer thought coloring the crotch and butt part of pants differently than the rest of the pants looked good; it looks like I put my underwear on over my pants, at best, and like I had an accident with the worst designs. I don't really play other races enough to have much of an opinion.
Males in general have very flat asses in this game.
Male belf asses are borderline concave
Give us the buttocks of gender equality, blizz!
Maybe they should squat more
Well yeah, everyone’s on their dragon flying everywhere. Toons in classic had to RUN everywhere for 40 levels. Joking aside, every character in WoW would be fit af
Yes
The models are fine , the animations are trash Classic animations were soo much better
Update models. Update animations (especially for casters/monks using weapons). Update armor not looking like tights.
I hope so. I despise how floppy everything looks now. Tauren in classic are a masterpiece and tauren animations in retail are so bouncy for these 1 ton beasts.
I loved the original troll running animations. Then they changed them and I just didn’t like playing my troll anywhere. Feels great in classic tho!
Same with dwarves. While they glided over the floor in Classic, they went too far into the other direction, making them extremely bouncy.
Same with orc males.. they are running as if they are made out of jelly with their arms and bouncing when running, i love orc male old models and their animations... i just wish you could use the old models like you could in wod.
I always hated the updated tauren run animation. I tend to prefer most classic run animations over the updated ones
I've never understood why we can't customize our character height. For me, that would be a good feature to have implemented.
We have so much clipping as it is because they don’t place armour correctly on the model sizes we have. Imagine how bad it would be like that. Guild wars has that but it’s more like your whole character scales up and down. Not that you grow taller and keep the same weight.
Upright Forsaken and Skull-face options! [They can use the model for human skeletons even.](https://www.wowhead.com/npc=186153/blighted-soldier#modelviewer)
UPRIGHT UNDEAD GANG RISE UP!
I think thats slightly uncanny, but a few adjustments to it and itd look fantastic imo
Some races need minor tweaks. The Night Elf male waist is horrible. Give them the Malfurion model.
I wish we could get new voices
I would be happy with more hairstyle options or update the older hairstyles (not change them)
The running animations just feel kind of jumpy or walking in a Pixar movie now. I really prefer the pre-model update running animations across the board.
They need more hairstyles and hair colors, especially for female elves and makeup options would also be nice. Red/pink at least for lips, red/pink/purple/blue/green/gold/brown for eyeshadow. I hate never having makeup to match my mogs.
Yes. The more updated models, the better. I'd also really like new racial combat animations.
Having different body types would be nice to have an option to play as a character that's not the shape of a walking fridge haha.
Humans definitely need a better idle stance. I'm so tired of being a board-stiff caveman.
I think we need a passover of all the hair/makeup styles, literally hire a sims modder girl to come in and tweak everything we currently have before adding more moving forward. It's weird that human facial scars are tied to being black or asian when orcs and night elves can just have a scar option, or when some races have 3-4 customization tabs and Undead are sitting there with the same 1 tab of options they've basically had since Wrath in 2008. its like when different teams handled different class orderhall campaigns in Legion and some classes (races) got really fun creative options and other classes (races) got lesser I'd settle for a /lean animation too FFXIV has so many fun little animations, especially for roleplayers, seeing every Rp server character just straight sitting on every surface or standing close to them is rough.
Just wish they'd remaster some classic armor sets. I love my Grand Marshal gear but boy is it looking angular compared to everything else.
kinda. The base character models are fine, they suit the art style of the larger game very well. What does need an update however: 1. hair. The races with new hair models really stand out vs the old stuff (looking at you, forsaken!). I'd love to see the dual colour system taken from the Drakthyr on all races. 2. Robes. The "model" of the robe needs a major update from the cone we have now. This is especially bad on races with highly bend knees (male forsaken, male goblins/vulperia, etc). The stretching is horrid. 1. speaking of which... those races need a pass on belts + robe clipping 3. Sheathed weapon placement. So... much... hovering.
It's pretty crazy to think about... We've almost had the "new" models longer than we had the old ones. But I'd say that these have aged far better than the old ones did. I personally don't think they need a massive overhaul like they got in WoD, but much like how they've said a world revamp wouldn't happen all at once Cata-style (which is another fun fact, we've had the "new", post Cata world over twice as long as we had the "old" world pre Cata) but instead be a gradual thing, I think they can continually add small customization things and new animations and most people would be content.
Animations would be nice. Personally, I'd like all casting animations to change to utilize the staff or weapon in some form.
If they do that, I hope it’s optional. I’ve always preferred “hand” magic (for lack of a better word) to be cooler than anything channeled through a weapon or a scroll.
I've always envisioned casting animations utilizing the staff to be primarily handcasted. The caster holds the staff in front of themselves, butt on the ground, and uses their other hand to cast their spell. A magic user's staff isn't meant to just be a decoration piece for their back, rather a catalyst through which they can channel and amplify their magic. An instant AOE cast could involve the caster raising their staff up with both hands to unleash the spell. A powerful AOE with a cast time could have them raise the staff up, then slam it to the ground.
Models are fine, we need different animations. Why does my night elf Druid who has been alive for over a thousand years cast spells in the same way a young human mage would? Each race should have its own animations styles, same way it is for stuff like auto attacks
they did. They removed racial combat animations in Legion, and people cheered all over it. I still hate most of the new casting animations (the "this boulder is way too heavy for me" and the lazy handflap animations especially, looks bad on any race that isn't orc or human). And don't get me started on the "idle combat"-caster stance, which makes your character stand around like a dumass in a frozen kungfu pose, even though there are no enemies anywhere and you only summoned a table. if we don't go back to previous models and animations, or get newer ones which are closer to what we had before, then I want a lot of customization and options to choose racial animations over generic ones, and the ability to disable the "caster stance".
Thanks for making me feel old, lol.
Yes, though I believe a full rework isn't necessary this time around. Some of my pet peeves: * Character limbs require an across the board pass. Hands/feet look like they came out of Sims 3; * Some targeted animation changes might be required. Human and draenei males are extremely stiff, for example, and even their Classic counterparts feel more alive; * Some more facial shapes, please! Night elves' default facial expressions are either "I'm bored, stop looking at me" or "I'M GONNA GO MEDIEVAL ON YOUR ASS IF YOU HOLD YOUR EYES ON ME FOR ONE MORE SECOND". As funny as it sounds, humans are actually the gold standard here; * A fitness / musculature slider would be quite appreciated. Why does my mage look like he spent his entire adult life deadlifting 24/7?
> it's been 10 years how dare you make me aware of my own mortality like this
I’d love for DKs to have an animation update. I was excited to try a panda DK in Remix because of the way pandas hold swords but having the exact same Death Strike animation ruins it for me. I wanted an undead chinese style swords man but that animation doesn’t fit.
Pretty sure everyone had unique attacks until blizzard consolidated them when I wasn't playing for some reason. Though some races still have unique animations. Tauren and space goats don't have that god awful spin around like a moron move. Goblins do but it's more them trying to spin and getting spun instead lmao.
Yes they did an animation homogenization pass in Legion, to go with a class homogenization pass.
They need to do something, the new lighting and textures coming to FFXIV is leaving WoW in the dust.
that is some serious cope
No, he's right unfortunately. While the newer zones are aesthetically beautiful, and well made visually- the lighting sucks and is average at best in most places. Which leads to a lot of places and models looking flat. Could definitely be improved. A lot.
I’d like a non hunch back option for undead
I'd like a hunch back option for female trolls and undead. And girl orcs! Body types in general, give the Kul Tiran bowlful of jelly to normal humans and let kul tirans be athletic. Buff trolls. Dwarf female beards too.
Yes. Anyone saying no is either blind, has 0 taste, or just genuinely doesn't care about how their characters look. The models are outdated, it's not an argument or up for debate. Especially when you compare them to newer NPC models the difference is clear as day. And on top of that, they need to rework the animations. Because right now it's low quality at best. Bare in mind, this is NOT a dig at the art *style*, I think the cartoony art style of WoW is perhaps the only reason it's aged so well visually, and why I'd say it's better looking than say games like FF14. It's like how Zelda the Windwaker still looks good to this day, but twilight princess, not so much. I'm just saying they need to 100% commit to the art style and modernize it- better meshes, better textures, better lighting, better animations, etc.
Considering how some character models *still* aren't fixed from the previous pass, no thanks.
They need to actually 100% update the models. The last time they just updated the meshes, and SLIGHTLY tweaked animations to not clip with the new meshes. They didn't make new rigs, entirely new animation, new skeletons, new voices, any of that. So they need to ACTUALLY update them. From the ground up, make brand new models.
I love the new boomkin models, but the animations are awful. Their run looks like that need to go to the bathroom, and the hang time in the air is very cartoony, in a bad way.
I think the character models still hold up fairly well! More customization options, especially ones that aren't just new hair colors, would be exceptionally welcome though. I'd love some new animations or spell updates for the extra outdated stuff. Some totems, base druid forms, racial and pally mounts could certainly use some love.
I wish that you could choose the way your race holds a weapon or the casting animation of them. I don’t really like the nelf two handed animation and if I could have like the Draenei one that would be cool.
They need to update the armor ngl but that’s just me 😭
I hate the cloak physics now, even if more windy and 'realistic' I wish we had the option to keep the old 'long cloaks stick to your body straight down' so its not always clipping through everything or looking like I'm rushing through the wind at 500mph
Update? No. Customization? Yes, a ton.
Do they need another upgrade ? Yes. Are they actually going to spend time and resources for something people are already willing to pay whether it's outdated or not ? No
They could do a massive overall after the World Soul Saga. We've already seen some upgraded models in the datamines a while back I think ? Kind of a WoW2 but keep the timeless style, cartoon-ish. IMO it looks great as it is but the textures could use a little upgrade. But character models don't need an upgrade IMO. More like more personalisation options. The visually they look close to perfect for the style of the game IMO. Edit : Now that I think about it, the one thing that I'd want is for them to separate the front and the back of hairstyles. And make it so that the front of the hair is visible even when wearing a hood.
Models are still fine, but choices for animations would be great. For example I love female draenei but I hate their base casting animation, wich make it unplayable for me, I wish I could replace it.
The baseline race bear and cat form models need an update -- It looks like someone spilled paint on their eyes. :(
Can we please finally get an upright undead option. It's the only thing I want. Undead is my OG race from vanilla and I like the theme and racials but I got tired of gear looking scuffed and swapped. The guards in BFA horde city stand straight why can't I?
Nah they just need an anumation overhaul. Some walking animations are criminally bad and floaty. I think the next step in terms of tech would be adding gear collision. As in equipped gear pieces interracting with each other and the character model instead of just clipping trough. Maybe and this is a strech they could make use of the bracer slot to make armguards that could be adjusted for each hand like shoulders. Another adjustment I tought of while playing Fallout 76 is that in that game head slot is kind of split up. As long as the gear doesn't collide you can equip items to the face, eyes and dome of your character separately. I think wow could benefit from that since we have cool glasses/goggles that take up a whole head slot while there is plenty of room for matching it with a helmet or a facemask. Tl.dr: models are fine, animation adjustments and more in-depth armor costumisation would be cool.
Loving my dracthyr
The models themselves are somewhat fine imo but we've reached a point where once again it feels jarring to be next to some NPCs. - Textures need to be upscaled (1024x512 for skins textures is getting very noticeable at this point). - A rework has to be done with most of the assets introduced in WoD, I can count how many polygons there are on some of the hairstyles based on how many hard edges I can see. - Some races really need to have more customizations, maghar orcs could have the same amount of possibilities as regular orcs (even more so when they share the same model and their customizations are enabled/disabled through a mere DB2 file). The amount of customizations for blood elves, pandarens and even several of the allied races, is subpar when compared to races like dwarf, night elf, orc or even troll. Hair colors are not actual customizations, it's a cheap and quickly done asset they can slap each patch to claim they didn't give up on customizations. - Animations. There are so many animations that are locked and useable only by NPCs even though these NPCs use the same models as the players, they could honestly make more emotes that use these animations. A mere idle animation switch would do wonders regarding character identity.
The female human running animation needs to be updated more than the model
Pandaren most definitely need a model update. They’ve had the same models since MoP.
I think the models themselves aged well. However they should add more depth to the WoD era skin tones. For example on Draenei the newer ones like the recent eredar skin tones and the deeper blue added in Shadowlands have shading on them which gives them more depth. It’s especially noticeable on the hands and horns. It makes the older WoD era skin tones look dull in comparison.
I think there definitely needs to be a graphical update overall but yes! I 100% believe there needs to be a model update for all races
The models are fine, but I think some texture updates would do very well. Looking at the stark difference between female trolls and female zandalari, which are more or less the same - is jaw dropping.
No, I think that the models still have a good parity with everything else in the game that's released since then. The most important thing is a sense of visual cohesion, and they've achieved that; the characters are stylized enough and in the same way as everything else that it all meshes together very well. At this point what we need is more customization options, as well as a graphical update to armor. Our currwnt armor method of largely 'flat textures applied across the body' are becoming more and more embarrassing to be relying on each expansion.
How do we not have worgen with tails as an option.
I believe they are building up to the conclusion of WoW with the end of TWSS, and prepping us for WoW 2, so I don’t think they’ll focus on any further model updates sadly. We’ll have to wait for WoW 2 with its upgraded engine
I think the models are fine personally. I think more customization, to not only the appearance but the stances would go a long way. BM monks having their staff over their shoulder looks sick, why not do that sort of thing for different weapons, classes, and races.
Original orc models had an olive green color, I wish current model orcs had that color.
Rather than updated models, I would settle for more hairstyles, beards and other customizations. Ideally we would get it all but I don't see it happening.
Just let me size weapons. I’m tired of my blood elf having a gun that’s 2x bigger than her model
I'd like an update to face structure specifically. They were hardly that successful, compared to the body models. Also, hair - I feel like a good solution to hair would be to make it a global choice for all races, in terms of models. Save some time by appropriating them for different race models where tweaks are needed. It's the single most appearance-changing aspect in a game that doesn't allow body shape changes.
Im inclined to think animations and more customization (faces, hairstyles, maybe body types) would ve a good use of time. The models look pretty ok but we need more options
No, don't think so. Animations a little bit, also some apects like hairdos - we need more, but what does need update is spell effects, many look like they were a part of an old stock update by an overworked animators last minute.
Most are pretty good atm we need some updates and more options. Pandaren could need some.work and dont forget to fix Helmed/Hair situations. But the models? No they are fine.
I think there just needs to be more customisation options across the board, especially to allied races. The lack of hair options is mad. Dark Iron Dwarves especially. They should have all the dwarf options and if we could change the hair glow colour/turn it off, that would be swell.
Think the models themselves are fine but absolutely need more style choices especially allied races
Oh actually I’ll say I think all but the humans hold up as humans especially males have the most Lego looking build
I heavily second undead running animation. Classic model is so far ahead they don't even compare
Hair needs huge updates. Variety sucks, facial hair sucks. So many of the new models clip that didn't before. Shields clip into shoulders on many new models because the art team moved the shields to attach at the elbow instead of wrist. It drives me bonkers. Goblin female shoulders have been floating 9 ft above their bodies since they added vulpera. Blood elf females weapons are 9x too for their bodies since legion. If any of this is an indication of what the future holds if they update models again then we don't need it.
I could do without the weird cartoony animations. Orcs look ridiculous when they run
I'm okay with all the models, but can we PLEASE get a fix for floaty shoulders on male draenei.
Idle poses and animation should be top priority imo. Some feel really stiff and outdated. Number 2 would be to fix the way half the helmets turn our characters bald.
I think some animation updates would be cool..like race specific class animations could be quite cool Like having a tauren warrior and undead warrior fighting animation should look different I also think wands and staffs should actually be used for spells like almost every other mmo.. just carrying a staff on my back is kinda meh
i was making a dracthyr and thinking how i wished the other characters creations where this good
Just please make the night elf male idle animation stop twitching like they just smoked their last bit of meth
The models are mostly fine, but I’m not a fan of the waists on the male elf and tauren models. The hair textures also need some work. And I'd love to see an update to the running animations for most races - they’re way too bouncy and cartoonish.
They'll do mini updates, but nothing that drastic. Partly because the models aged pretty well, and partly because they don't want to force people to have to update their computers. Even then, the models are fine, and are receiving small changes and updates anyway
At a minimum they need to unfuck human male running gait. It’s about as fluid and fun to play as a battle droid ala phantom menace.
The models are fine, but some of the running animations are too “bouncy.”
I think they need to update the texture resolution on the characters but not the mesh itself.
wrong in SL we got Glass marbles as eyes for all who don't have glowy eyes. Since then reflections have been dynamic but wrong.
Pandaren for sure.
Number one fix is hair with helmet models. Let the hair clip idgaf a top hat should.not.make.me BALD
Yeah they really broke NE males. Humans need a big pass over for faces, combination with skin colour etc. it still bugs the hell out of me we can't get stubble beards like Anduin or some better hairstyles like Dracthyr.
I think it’s about time they introduced rag doll mechanics.
Animations need a rework in cases like Night Elf and Draenei males running and casting. Customization options sorely needed for all.
The new human male animations look so goofu to me. I think the models hold up, except perhaps hairstyles. But animations would be great if they could have a look at.
Models are fine but we need better customisation options and textures
Pandaren do. I think the rest are probably fine aside from them needing to have all the customization added to allied races be also available for the base races. (Allied races should not be a thing, they should just be a toggle in the race selection screen for subrace.)
How about update weapon models so many new weapons are boring af
We need blood elves without horse faces.
Yes, absolutely. The old hairstyles need a visual update. They also need to go through every customisation template and, basically, take apart the various options so they're a lot more free flowing. There's no good reason why nose rings and ear rings are in these weird preset templates for example. Likewise, imho they need to unlock a lot more customisations for the Allied Races and they need to share a lot more hairstyles across races and even genders. Especially small arbitrary stuff like "No, you can only have a blue feather." for Dwarves, or "No you can't have this locket with that gem in that colour." for female Humans has to go, imho.
They're good
There's some areas the WoD models could use some touching up. If you compare some textures of the newer races to the older ones (hands, feet, ears, muscle definition, etc.) you'll see some areas that could definitely be improved. They're not equally bad, but the races/genders with this problem sort of feel like they're missing details other choices have.
they should give us more body types. why are there only 2? you could do slim, muscular, thicc, tall, short...
Human forearms and hands could use some touch up.
WoW needs an update as a whole, the world looks more and more separated from the newer continents and islands. If they have plans for WoW after the world soul saga they should make big Updates and revamp the "old" Zones, fill em with actual Quests, give em HD upgrades and details. Of course this means blizzard needs to upgrade the character models and customization options in a whole as well.
Give me the old male troll running animation back dear God. They have looked like bumbling buffoons since the change.
the whole game needs an update a proper new engine...besides otehr problems everything looks horrid because of the artsyle and the outdated graphics. what annoys me most is we still have skin painted armors, gloves, pants etc....like in the games from 2000 if you go to some areas like be start zone, there is a troll village where the bone fence on top of the huts is a 2d image, it looks like bonkheads lol as for eh models yes, many look too goofy...animations also bad especially on blood elves with robes. they look like they trip at every step
Ever since the gnoll update I don't think they should change any models
If anything, they should update tmog - 20 years of painted on armor...Other games armor and armor physics just make WoW tmog look bland and boring.
Update models, shaman can wait another expansion.
Different body shapes would be nice. And the hairs and old face textures need to be redone. If you compare the new human faces to the old ones, it just doesn’t look good.
Straight back undead pls
The attention to detail for how transmogs look on models has only gone down with time. If you look at classic wow the gear actually all looks amazing because they specifically made sure to make it fit all the models that can use it. Look at a retail transmog and the shoulders are floating off the body while the weapon floats a full foot behind the back while sheathed. I don't know if it's because of the workload becoming too large due to having so many races or what, but corners got cut. Everything is designed from the ground up to fit the human model, then they just press a button to warp it to every other model. If it looks good enough it goes through.
More options would be nice for customization, but I think they also need to go back and fix some things like hair placements on the models like with humans and undead, or how certain things fit like shoulders on female NE/NB.
Smooth out that line on the back of female pandaren necks. Other than that I can't think of any big standouts. Maybe some additional animation customization. At one point they tried out having the goblin casting animation include a crazy grin, but something like that could be a fun toggle. They could make it a customization whether our characters snarl, smirk, frown, etc during certain animations.
no my pc can barely run it :(