the best of the rest

Further thoughts on this week’s Blog Azeroth shared topic from PvE Rogues:

Perhaps your favourite race is the one that yields the best DPS or raid utility? Perhaps you’d rather have a certain race because it seems to suit your class best or your characters back story. Maybe you like PVP beneficial racial traits or just like the look of those sexy draeneis or blood elfs.
If questing and alts are more to your liking which race has the best questing racial traits or the most interesting starting quest zones/chains?
If you run a personal blog perhaps you want to simply talk about what you think about the races, which ones look best, which ones have the best emotes and /dance animation?

As indicated in my previous post, I wonder sometimes if the Tauren are my favorite race mostly because my first introduction to the world of Azeroth was through Tauren eyes. If I had played some other race first — an Orc or a Troll, given that I wanted to be a Horde Shaman — would that race be my favorite now?

the short version

for the tl;dr version, continue past the cut

If I were ever to change Kamalia to another race within the Horde — not that I would, because then she wouldn’t be Kamalia anymore — she’d become a Troll. Troll women have a lithe grace and I love their vibrant haircolors and styles. Troll dances are a hula and capoeira — how awesome is that? I think the Troll dungeons and raids are some of the most fun and interesting instances, both in lore and in visual design. I actually miss the twisty, multi-level maze of old Sunken Temple and wish there were some way that I could still explore it. Trolls have the longest history of any race on Azeroth, yet their relatively short lifespans make the history of an individual Troll character fairly approachable.

I rolled up my first Blood Elf character to play a Mage, and quickly fell in love with that race, too. For a while, I had a Blood Elf of every class available to the race, as well as a Tauren of every class. The things I love about the Blood Elves are a study in contrasts to the things I love about the Tauren. While the Tauren appeal to my love of the beauties of the natural world, the Blood Elves appeal to my love of the beautiful things that people create. Silvermoon is a gorgeous city; I think only Dalaran equals it as a city built to celebrate the artistry of its people. Mulgore is to the Eversong Woods as wild mountainside woods and meadows are to a carefully planned and tended botanical garden — I love walking through both types of outdoor spaces. Blood Elves are petite and dainty, always surprisingly tiny when I log into them after I’ve been playing with my Tauren. Their silly hairstyles and prissy voices aside, I like the physique of Blood Elf men — it seems less over-muscled than other races, and more like the shapes of the men I’ve been attracted to in the real world. I enjoy the stories told by the quests in Eversong Woods and the Ghostlands, and the quest and Tranquillien rep rewards are so nice that I routinely bring characters of other races to the Ghostlands for some of their level 12-25 experience.

Despite their philosophical opposition to the Tauren, I was totally excited to play a Goblin character come Cataclysm because Goblin NPCs were cute and funny scalawags. Kezan, the Lost Isles, and post-Shattering Azshara are a blast to quest through. I love the jazzy Goblin theme music, especially the sound of marimbas and related instruments in the percussion tracks. Goblin characters look cool, have awesome animations, and sport the sort of attitude that one either loves or loves to hate. I’m not a great fan of Goblin building aesthetics, though, nor of the way they pollute their surroundings. It makes me sad to see what they’ve done to Mirkfallon Lake in Stonetalon Mountains. I wonder how, given the disputes with the Dwarves over their relatively benign archaeological digging in Mulgore and the Barrens, the Tauren can put up with having Goblins in the Horde.

I don’t have anything in particular against the Orcs, they just don’t interest me very much. Orcs are a challenge to my fashionista side because their standard of attractive is so different from that of a Blood Elf or any of the Alliance races. Playing an Orc Enhancement Shaman felt reckless and physically powerful in a way that none of my other characters have, though. She felt more powerful, relative to her size, than my Tauren Warrior or Death Knight, and one of these days it would be fun to pick her up for a little more leveling.

The Forsaken are the only race in the game that I really dislike, and I dislike them for many of the same reasons that others love them (and I have nothing against those of you who do). Their history, their city, their aesthetics, their quests — ugh! I dislike what I see the Forsaken doing to the world even more than I dislike what I see the Goblins doing to the world. Silverpine used to be the only Forsaken zone I liked; now, the best parts about it are the quests involving the Orc Sea Dogs. I don’t like the Forsaken, and I definitely don’t trust them. Now that Magatha Grimtotem is gone from Thunder Bluff, why aren’t the Forsaken gone, too? I would be very happy to see the Forsaken evicted from the Pools of Vision and all the Forsaken trainers found there replaced with Trolls.

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If I were ever to faction change Kamalia, she’d become a Dwarf. Dwarves also have a racial personality with which I identify — generally cheery and optimistic, though quick to anger and prone to bouts of off-temper — more like what I am, whereas the Tauren are what I would like to become. I like the scenery and the questing in Dun Morogh and Loch Modan. I’m fascinated by all the lore having to do with the Titans, of which the Dwarves are an integral part. The Museum in the Hall of Explorers in Ironforge is one of my favorite places in the game. I love Dwarven braided hairstyles, and they have adorable casting animations.

Despite their funny tails, Draenei are graceful and elegant. Their hooves, horns, and blue-toned skin make Draenei fun to draw. Azuremyst Isle is a beautiful zone, and both Azuremyst and Bloodmyst have excellent storytelling in their questlines. Draenei fashion is utterly droolworthy.

Stormwind is probably my favorite Alliance capital. It has such rich detailing, so many small things to discover and observe. As I quested through the Human zones last year, I discovered that their stories were a lot more interesting than I’d been expecting, and I’m looking forward to exploring how they’ve been updated in the Shattered world.

I enjoyed playing through Gilneas. The Worgen experience is rather different from the Goblin experience, but it is no less awesome. My sympathies, in the Forsaken-Gilneas conflict, are definitely with the Gilneans/Worgen. My Worgen character would be cuter with a tail, though, and the poor girl sounds like she has either a perpetual cold or terrible, terrible allergies the way she snuffles all the time.

I like my Gnome. She’s cute and quirky and fun to play with. I like how Gnome culture embraces geekiness. Gnome men have the awesomest facial hair options in the game. I don’t really get all the hating on Gnomes.

I like the way Night Elf women look and move. The men, not so much. I have trouble relating to their thousand-year lifespans. I’m not sure why I find the arrogance of the Night Elves more off-putting than the arrogance of the Blood Elves. Though I don’t actively dislike the Night Elves in the way that I dislike the Forsaken, I was rather turned off to them by the inn at old Auberdine — open to the sea as it was, it must have been a chilly, damp, clammy sort of place to rest. I couldn’t imagine it really being comfortable, even to a Night Elf. My opinion of the Night Elves has also been soured by players of Night Elf characters on my server; the world PvP incidents that make me the most upset to remember involved my character riding past Night Elf characters, doing nothing at all to provoke them, and the other players leaving what they were doing and chasing me down just to gank me, and most of my other experiences of being ganked have involved a Night Elf as the attacker as well. My interest in the Night Elves has been revived somewhat by the addition of Night Elf Mages, which are awesome, but I do struggle with what my Night Elf Mage’s story should be.

In summary, of the remaining Horde races, I love the Blood Elves and Trolls, like the Goblins and Orcs, and dislike the Forsaken. Of the Alliance races, I love the Dwarves and Draenei and like all the rest moderately well, with the Night Elves lagging somewhat behind the others.