Ahoy everyone o/

Note: This post was intended for r/wow , but for some reason it was refused. That said, I do think it fits here :)

I've been playing with this idea from quite some time now. Nothing revolutionary, but still worth sharing I hope. Maybe one day it will come true :D

So, the basic idea is to get rid of the allied race :p
tl;dr;

Most important, the goal is to streamline the process, while making the race choice purely cosmetic, and without impact on pinnacle content.
Still, you will still chose a combat ability during this process!

This idea also came because I keep seeing a lot of people over reddit screaming about "no love for X or Y". While being true, at the same time we cannot blame Blizzard to favor some races when the stats for the game shows that half of the characters are just elves or humans if I recall correctly.

Decoupling the power from the cosmetic should help rectify those stats, and therefore Blizzard could put more work into races that are more liked, while not played today.

So,
The new process is a step by step selection like in many RPG. Overall, the big steps are the following:

1. Race
2. Body type
3. Customization
4. Training
5. Classe
6. First battle experience

Race, body type, and customization options

Those sections are purely cosmetic as they should be. Making it a multiple steps process should help reduce the mess of the actual race selection, especially for new players.

Some races don't have multiple choices for now, but obviously, this is where Blizzard could expand our options.

To make it clear, the animations your character uses are dictated by the body type choice.

Here are the proposed races choices, followed by body types:

• Dracthyr
  • What we have today
  • Something new, more bulky maybe?
• Draenei
  • Eredar (used for existing Ma'nari, Lightforged, or redeemed Eredar)
  • Krokul?
• Dwarf
  • Curse of flesh (used for any dwarf)
  • Stone (used for Earthern)
• Elf
  • Standard (used for any elves)
  • Thin (used for Nightborn)
• Gnome
  • Curse of flesh
  • Mechanized
• Goblins
  • Standard
  • Hobgoblins?
• Human
  • Bulky (Kul Tiran)
  • Standard
• Orc
  • Hunched (classic Fel orcs)
  • Straight (Mag'har orcs)
• Pandaren
  • What we have today
  • ??
• Tauren
  • Standard (Classic and Highmountain)
  • Taunka maybe?
• Troll
  • Hunched (Used for Darkspear)
  • Straight (used for Zandalari)
  • Bulky (Amani?)
• Undead
  • Corpse (classic undead)
  • Fresh (like Calia Menethil or Nathanos, with human animation)?
• Vulpera
  • What we have today
  • ??

Finally, the customization is what you expect.

I would blend most options for some races to ease the access and freedom. This means merging all dwarfs (Ironforge, Dark Iron, or Wildhammer), draeneis (Classic, Lightforged, or Eredar), or taurens (Classic or Highmountain) into a single body type for each race. Imho, it doesn't make sense to have some of them as allied race, while other are only customization options.

Training selection

This "new step", named training, is where you chose how the youth of your character went. In-game, it translates to a set of bonuses related to crafting. Some ideas would be garnison squire with bonuses to forge and leather working. Miner, Expedition scout, Mage apprentice, etc

Class selection

Once you're done with the "Roleplay" part of your character, you can now chose the classe you wanna play. Simple, straightforward!

First battle experience

Finally, this last step will be both for roleplay and here for the min-maxers. This is where you chose your combat ability.

The idea is to have things like "Forest ambush", which could mimic the really like night-elves ability, or "Stubborn defense" for the human ability. I think you get the idea.

Additional notes

As someone who has grown up with Warcraft 2, I would like the idea of an additional steps for some races, to be able to chose your origin. I'm talking classic war2 human factions, or orcs clans.

This would add nothing, but some flavor, and maybe a unique tabard?

Where is the faction choice?

Well, I don't know where Blizzard want to take the game honestly. And I don't mind. As I said, I used to be an Ally guy. But today I just want to chill and play with everyone. So, I left it out of this idea. Still, restrictions could still be applied to some races and body types depending on whatever I guess.

What about class restriction?

I don't care! It's not like anyone relies on the apparence today to guess anything. Just let people play what they want, especially since the combat ability would be decoupled from the race choice. If it's a concern, put some restrictions between the class choice and the first battle experience.

What do you think of this idea? Or of the character creation process? Or even the drive for race changes depending on the ability meta?

And thanks for reading!