The allied races are one of the great features of WoW: Battle for Azeroth. Yet, they are designed very strangely.
With World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, there were several new features that enrich Azeroth now. Besides island expeditions and warfronts, the new allied races were especially promoted. However, they are a gameplay contradiction and thus annoy many fans.
At the end of World of Warcraft: Legion, the system made sense. It was essentially a “drought” period where players had little to do. So a system came just in time, where you could unlock and then level new races. Players could already level their void elves, highmountain taurens, lightforged draenei, and nightborne and now start in the new addon Battle for Azeroth.
But Dark Iron Dwarves and Mag’har Orcs are different. They appear at the launch of a new expansion and thus at the most inconvenient time. Because now most players want to prepare for the first “season” of BfA. After all, the first raid “Uldir” starts on September 5th, and the “Mythic+” dungeons will also be available then. This means the character needs to be geared and prepared.
But that is not possible if you want to play a Dark Iron Dwarf or a Mag’har as your main character.
The absurd situation now is that you first have to “rush” a main character through all the new content, to unlock a new character at the end of a weeks-long farm grind. You also rush level this one from level 20, just to repeat all the new content again at level 110.
So anyone planning to play a “new” main character as an allied race is completely overwhelmed if they do not want to lag behind in raid content for several weeks.
This is not well thought out. Perhaps it was planned as a time sink, but releasing such a time sink at launch is not a well-considered idea.
I welcome more variety in World of Warcraft, and the new races contribute to more diversity. But releasing allied races at the start of an expansion – coupled with high reputation requirements – makes no sense. It creates stress and frustration.
I am lucky that none of the new races appeal to me and my urge to play them is correspondingly low. However, among my friends, “the whining” is significant. And I can understand it.
What is your opinion on the allied races that are released at the start of a new raid tier?
