World of Warcraft’s recently-announced Dragonflight expansion pack is adding new features, zones, and a new race and class with the Drakthyr Evoker. However, World of Warcraft just announced it would be lifting the race restrictions on several classes in the game when Dragonflight goes live.
When the Dragonflight expansion pre-patch event begins, players will be able to create Mages, Priests, and Rogues of any race. This unlock will not apply to the new Drakthyr race, however, as they will be locked to the draconic Evoker class for the time being.
This means World of Warcraft players will have eight new race/class combos they can create. Both regular and Highmountain Tauren can become mages now, presumably after being taught by their Blood Elf, Troll, or Nightbourne allies. Orcs can become priests now like their Mag’har Orc Allied Race counterpart, as can Highmountain Tauren like their Mulgore-dwelling kin. Finally, both types of Tauren, as well as normal and Lightforged draenei, can become rogues.
World of Warcraft has gradually relaxed the class restriction for races over the years, with the largest example coming in Cataclysm. Though the restrictions were thematic and fun, to begin with, they have gradually grown less popular, especially considering players have seen NPCs break those rules, like the tauren pirates Mr. Smite or Fleet Master Seahorn, or the draenei Rangari or Akama and his Broken Ashtongue Brotherhood from Burning Crusade.
Generally speaking, players are pleased by the relaxation of the race restriction on classes. Many players will be able to fulfill some class fantasies that were previously impossible. Highmountain Tauren especially, who currently have the least options for playable classes in-game, benefited the most from this decision. What’s better, the “tauren rogue” has been a popular meme in the game since Vanilla WoW, and players can’t believe they are actually going to be real after close to 20 years.
However, some players are not satisfied with the options that have been presented so far. Some race/class combos, such as Night Elf Paladins, are still not available in-game, despite there being precedent among NPCs, like Delas Moonfang from Legion. World of Warcraft Lead Combat Designer Brian Holinka, who revealed this information to Twitch streamer MrGM, said Blizzard wanted to “move towards a world where the race of a character is not a limiter for what they can become in the World of Warcraft,” and that other combos will hopefully come in the future, so there is still hope for these fans in the future.
World of Warcraft is available now on PC.
Source: Wowhead