Druids should have been NE only.

[Viorus]

Why the hell were Taurens given the choice to be druids? Most every ability that druids posess originate from NIGHT ELF in warcraft 3. In that same game, ALL of the taurens are strength based characters. There is no magic usage amonst the Tauren (save shockwave), not to mention magic that is MOON/STAR/FAIRY/NATURE BASED.

So much no in giving cows the ability to star/moon fire. Entangling roots? That's keeper of the grove's main ability. Rejuvenation? Druids of the claw. Starfire? priestess of the moon's level 6 ability.

I can't wrap my head around how the hell the taurens were chosen to become druids. The only explanation that comes to mind would be that they felt both factions needed druids in order to be balanced.

Anyways, I'm done ranting. Hope you guys found this interesting / entertaining. Hopefully a server comes out one day with the races/factions that fit the LORE, no the developers wishes.

[MoapChan]

You are completely correct, it was because it had to be present in both factions. I guess they could have also made Warlock horde exclusive and had 2 unique classes per faction, but obviously this is not the route Blizzard chose to take

[Garfunkel]

You're of course correct and a good solution would have been, as MoapChan said, to make warlocks Horde exclusive. Then you'd have druids/pallies on Alliance and shamans/locks on Horde.

My dream version of WoW would have been 3 factions instead of 2, each with only 2 races.

Alliance - Humans and Dwarves.
Horde - Orcs and Trolls.
Kalimdor(or whatever) - Night elves and Tauren.

No Forsaken, all undead are part of the Scourge. Gnomes the same as goblins.

Of course, there will never be a server/game like that.

[SlyFly]

So basicly what you are trying to say here is - ignore all tauren druids in their attempts to participate in roleplay since they are not quite canon enough?

The other amusing thing is that you based your statement almost solely on arguments that have a very little to do with roleplay.
You brought up character stats, character abilities and MMORPG balancing.
How is this supposed to be received seriously again?

[Charlatan]

Subjective nonsense. You are not speaking for the canon lore, you are only promoting own ideas.

The lore is compatible with the idea of nature-loving & druidic tauren. In fact, Tauren and Nelfs shows more similarities than any other hostile races share, and hints that Nightelves and Tauren had been relatively peaceful / avoiding each other before the whole Horde-Alliance business.

If you also accept the novels as lore, the Night Elven culture was even full of decadence, mages, warlocks and power hungry fools during the time Azshara was still around. So Tauren may or may not actually be closer to nature than them.

[MoapChan]

As Charlatan has said, its pretty easy to see Taurens becoming druids. The hard lore shows that before vanilla wow, Taurens were not druids, and druids were originally exclusive to night elves. I encourage anyone who disagrees to play through the Warcraft 3 campaigns, they are not only fun with a good story, it is a huge lore source for the game we are currently playing. I personally have no issue with Taurens being druids, its not that big of a stretch, but it was most certainly a change to the fluff of Warcraft 3.

And I have to say Garfunkel that Tauren are clearly shown to join the horde under Thralls banner, and are loyal to the horde due to Thrall assisting the Tauren with marauding centaurs. I would like to see a return to the Warcraft 3 factions, replacing Scourge Undead with Forsaken Undead, of course. And you CAN NOT group both undead factions together without again majorly retconning and really throwing out a good amount of the lore established in Warcraft 3. It is very clear that the Scourge and Forsaken are different beasts.

Gnomes have also been allied with Ironforge Dwarves since Warcraft 2, though I would have preferred alliance races in vanilla to be: Human, High Elf, and Dwarf. Here we are with what we have.

[Viorus]

You are completely correct, it was because it had to be present in both factions. I guess they could have also made Warlock horde exclusive and had 2 unique classes per faction, but obviously this is not the route Blizzard chose to take

Love this idea!

[Viorus]

You're of course correct and a good solution would have been, as MoapChan said, to make warlocks Horde exclusive. Then you'd have druids/pallies on Alliance and shamans/locks on Horde.

My dream version of WoW would have been 3 factions instead of 2, each with only 2 races.

Alliance - Humans and Dwarves.
Horde - Orcs and Trolls.
Kalimdor(or whatever) - Night elves and Tauren.

No Forsaken, all undead are part of the Scourge. Gnomes the same as goblins.

Of course, there will never be a server/game like that.

This is really cool. Three faction games are way more exciting.

[Viorus]

As Charlatan has said, its pretty easy to see Taurens becoming druids. The hard lore shows that before vanilla wow, Taurens were not druids, and druids were originally exclusive to night elves. I encourage anyone who disagrees to play through the Warcraft 3 campaigns, they are not only fun with a good story, it is a huge lore source for the game we are currently playing. I personally have no issue with Taurens being druids, its not that big of a stretch, but it was most certainly a change to the fluff of Warcraft 3.

And I have to say Garfunkel that Tauren are clearly shown to join the horde under Thralls banner, and are loyal to the horde due to Thrall assisting the Tauren with marauding centaurs. I would like to see a return to the Warcraft 3 factions, replacing Scourge Undead with Forsaken Undead, of course. And you CAN NOT group both undead factions together without again majorly retconning and really throwing out a good amount of the lore established in Warcraft 3. It is very clear that the Scourge and Forsaken are different beasts.

Gnomes have also been allied with Ironforge Dwarves since Warcraft 2, though I would have preferred alliance races in vanilla to be: Human, High Elf, and Dwarf. Here we are with what we have.

Yes! <3 the Wc3 campaigns. I agree, Taurens / orcs / trolls makes the most sense. Undead had to be placed somewhere and it certainly wasn't going to be with humans. Night elves was the logical choice for the alliance because of their WC3 popularity and strong moral code (Malfurion's leadership).

[Viorus]

So in terms of classes, ideally both factions would have access to: Warrior, Priest, Mage, Rogue, Hunter.

Alliance would have: Paladin, Druid (night elf only).

Horde would have: Shaman, Warlock.

It would have been awesome if they kept to the lore with expansions as well. Leaving Death Knight to the Horde (Undead only) and Blood Mage to the Alliance (Blood Elf only).

And here's to hoping one day they add a Night Elf expansion pack, with the addition of the Demon Hunter (Dual wielding, mana burning, immolating beast) or the Warden (Shadow striking, blinking, fan of knifing awesomeness)