Class Skins Concept

(This is an archived post to put everything in one convenient location. Bear in mind these are somewhat dated, certain things such as unlocking class/race combinations are already implemented.)

The Lost Codex and myself began developing ideas on Class customisation. There are two main parts - Racial Paladins and then General Classes. In an ideal world, you’d see more racial skins for other classes like druids, priests, and shamans but obviously the scope of developing so many concepts quickly outgrows what can be previewed reasonably.

So what exactly is a “Class Skin”?

For those familiar with the “Warlock Green Fire” questline, this is very much the same idea. The idea of a Class Skin is a purely cosmetic overlay that would change the icon, name, and spell effects of one’s class. Ideally, your class name would also change, but for the sake of PvP and mechanical reasons, there would be a clear indication of what your base class really is. These wouldn’t necessarily be locked to a single class either - in particular with paladin, the vast majority (if not all) of the thematics would also extend to priests. The main difference between classes would be of course icons and names.

The goal with these class skins is to provide specific race-class combos as a way to feel unique to their class while still fitting within the lore. This could also allow for new race-class combos to be playable while expanding some of the older, untouched class lore of others.

Paladin Racial Class Skins

Sunwalkers: Tauren & Highmountain Tauren Paladins

Connection and exchange with their shu’halo brethren lead to the discussion of An’she to establish teachings of the Sunwalkers to their united Highmountain Tauren allies.

The Sunwalkers were the first “radical idea” for the Paladin class, expanding the lore beyond a knight wielding holy power (even the Blood Elves gave off evil-vibes of that concept in early Burning Crusade) so Sunwalkers would be one of the top candidates for a custom Class Skin.

The idea here is that the Sunwalker Class Skin could apply to Tauren & Highmountain Tauren Paladins, Priests, and Balance Druids. Their spells would take on a more raw, fiery appearance and their spell icons would slightly alter to reflect something more fitting to a devotee of An’she.

One idea (not shown) was that casting Avenging Wrath (called Blaze of An’she) would, instead of sparking large angelic wings behind the character, instead show a glowing, fiery totemic backpiece that would encompass the Sunwalker in a blaze of holy-fire.

Nightblades & Moonblades: Night Elf Paladins

Night Elves, worshippers of Elune and inspired by the Night Warrior, these champions of the moon herald a new age of justice for the Kaldorei.

Perhaps one of the most highly requested unavailable Paladin races, the idea of a Night Elf Paladin pulling their strength directly from Elune is something we’ve seen in WoW a few times before (notably, Legion). The idea here is to provide them with a “standard Elune devotee” class skin with a secondary option that leaned more heavily into the Night Warrior aesthetic seen with Tyrande and the “Dark Side of the Moon”.

Valewalkers & Craneguards: Pandaren Paladins

Skilled templars of combat, the Valewalkers defend their homeland of Pandaria with their fierce magic to preserve balance and rid the Sha from Pandaria once and for all.

Craneguards, devoted champions of Chi-Ji, seek to bring hope to the war-torn lands of Azeroth.

In the wake of the Vale’s regrowth and the expulsion of the Black Empire in Battle for Azeroth, the Golden Lotus have taken up a new mantle within their order to protect and defend their land using the magic of the Vale.

In the south of Pandaria, the Order of the Crane expanded their temples’ teachings with “Craneguards,” an armoured monk who utilises the teachings and magic of Chi-Ji, the Red Crane.

The idea behind the Valewalker would essentially utilise the same sort of holy-chi mix that Pandaren Priests use to expel the Sha (and by extension, the Void), however the Craneguard would use a modified spell effect kit with more red-orange themed abilities based upon the Red Crane.

These visuals, combined with the martial art style combat animations, would allow for a unique and new-age style of Paladin. This specific spell kit could also be applied to a variety of Pandaren classes, such as priest, mage, and even monk.

Lightblades & Shadow Knights: Forsaken Paladins

The Forsaken, shattered by a lack of leadership, began to discover new paths. An attempted second Council arose, with Calia Menethil and Alonsus Faol to research the Light, while the Cult of Forgotten Shadows tests new concepts delving into the teachings of the Void.

Perhaps the most requested (next to Night Elf Paladin) unavailable Paladin race, the Forsaken Lightblade concept is essentially a new order of Paladins within Lordaeron, perhaps lead by Leonid Bathalomew.

In contrast to the Lightblade, the Cult of Forgotten Shadows has created a new guard within their order that utilises the Shadow in tandem with the Light.

The idea isn’t necessarily to have the Forsaken wielding Void magic as a paladin, but rather fully embracing the old lore of the cult and their beliefs within the Light. Both Lightblade and Shadow Knight would be a unique name for the Forsaken, but the Lightblade would essentially use as-is paladin spell effects while the Shadow Knight utilises a unique spell kit that incorporates both Shadow and Light magic (similar to Moira from Overwatch). The spell kit would also be available to Forsaken Priests.

Led by Calia Menethil and Alonsus Faol together, these two concepts would open up a highly sought after class concept without fully destroying the ideals of Paladinhood and the Forsaken belief system.

Blood Knights & Sunblades: Blood Elf Paladins

With Liadrin’s Blood Knights and Shattered Sunblades, there has always remained a rift in the teachings of the Light. After the Mag’har’s tales of Yrel, and what was witnessed in the Vindicaar, some believe the Light is to be controlled, not called upon.

Blood Knights have been in lore forever, even though their story changed at the end of Burning Crusade.

The idea of the Sunblade concept would be to keep the original purpose of the Blood Knights in the wake of the Sunwell’s purification, causing a rift to form between them and the Paladins who take back the mantle of Blood Knight. By incorporating some fiery elements to their abilities to give them a “Sunwell flare” without taking too much from the Embersworn / Sunwalkers.

The new concept would be to take the more recent aggressions of the Light - Shadowlands, Xe’ra, Yrel - and bring that concept back. Blood Knights swear up a new oath to keep the Light in check, rather than suffer under it (without going full evil like they were in Burning Crusade), giving contrast to any sort of plot that Turalyon pokes back up in as Regent of Stormwind.

Riftblades: Void Elf Paladins

With some Blood Knights exiled for their research in M’uru, it was realised that so too can other Dark Naaru powers be bent to their will.

With the teachings of old former High Elven paladins of the Silver Hand, some void Elves have begun to attempt to cleanse their void.

Blood Elves can be Paladins - why not Void Elves?

The idea here is one that builds off the old Blood Knight lore. Back in the day, Blood Elves drained magic from the Naaru M’uru to acquire their power which later led to the collapse and creation of a Dark Naaru. The concept here was to build upon that old idea of using energies from the Naaru to acquire Light-based powers, but flip it upon itself to drain those energies from Void-themed powers. This of course could lead to a rift within the Ren’dorei and lead some to lean more towards the Light side of Naaru while others fully embrace its dark, twisted form.

The concept on the left (above) would essentially grant Void Elves a base-paladin skin (for all those High Elves out there) while still leaning into the Void theme with the idea of a “Void Paladin”. The Riftblade spell kit would easily transfer to Void Elf Priests, Mages, and Warlocks to give them access to a more Void theme.

Tideguards & Embersworn: Kul Tiran & Human Paladins

The Order of Embers, looking to completely purge the Drust from Kul Tiras, took inspiration from their Stormwindian cousins. Taking upon the essence of Silver, Liquid Fire, and combat, Azeroth may yet stand a chance against the ongoing Drust Threat.

The Tideguards, heavily armed protectors of the Storm’s Wake, utilise the same magics as the Tidesages. Where many others look to the Light for guidance, members of the Awakened find a much deeper connection to the seas.

Kul Tiras introduced two new concepts that would make for the perfect Paladin. The first and most obvious one was the Tidesage (or in this case, Tideguard). With the Kul Tirans putting their faith mostly within the sea itself and the Tidesages seen in nearly every aspect of their island culture, it makes sense to form a “Paladin Order” from it. The spell kit would introduce mostly water and air themed spell effects and could also apply to other classes such as Mages, Shaman, Priests, and Monks.

The second concept builds on the Order of Embers within Drustvar - witch hunters! Using Silver, Liquid Fire, and prowess in battle, these ancient templars dedicate their watch to fighting back the evils of the Drust. This would essentially be an expansion upon the tauren Sunwalker kit in similar nature of holy-fire, but without the unique tauren aspects (such as totem pieces etc.)

Lightfangs & Lightguards: Worgen Paladins

Lightguards and Lightfangs, forces old and new to Gilneas, were one of few. Though there has always been some devotion to the Light, very few select Gilnean soldiers of the original Order of the Silver Hand remained. Now they look at renewing the Light’s Dawn.

Gilneas worshipped the Light just as Lordaeron did and there have been a few Gilnean Paladins mentioned throughout the years. The idea here is to simply introduce a new class-race combo without much of a themed visual kit. They worship the same Holy Light as their Stormwind/Lordaeron cousins, but we wanted to create a visual concept for “Old Gilnean Templars” and “New Age Worgen Paladin” - hence the variation in names.

Flamekeepers: Wildhammer & Dark Iron Dwarf Paladins

The Dark Irons wield a devotion to Elemental Fire, serving as an elite form of soldier. Though some are rumoured to worship Ragnaros, most establish their firm belief and devotion to the new firelord, Smolderon.

For Dark Irons, these would pull from a similar fiery spell kit as the Sunwalkers, (with a darker, fiery tone) and embrace the idea of “worshippers of the Molten Core” as their faith (not too unlike the Kul Tiran Tideguards). With the teasing of action within the Firelands happening in the Allied Race questline, these Dark Irons have taken up an oath to the primal powers of the Firelands while still maintaining their faith in the Light, creating a literal Flame Paladins.

It’s possible the Wildhammer have viewed Fire as an enemy for so long - the explosion of Blackrock Mountain hundreds of years ago (and the expulsion from Grim Batol), the Dragons in the Second War with the Horde, and the Cataclysm and Deathwing. However, after seeing their mountain cousins and fiery cousins brandishing their faith as a weapon (with the latter using both faith and fire), the Wildhammers have taken up a new mantle as wielders of the Sacred Flame; a more shamanistic, tribal feel to the Paladin class.

Prelates: Darkspear & Zandalari Troll Paladins

Inspired by the Zandalari and rekindling relations between the tribes lead to an exchange in teachings and culture. Darkspear Prelates of the rebirth Loa, Vol’jin, enact servitude to defend against the darkness.

In Battle for Azeroth, we met the Zandalari Prelates and there stands no reason why they can’t teach the Darkspear how to wield the Light of the Loa. The Prelate’s main themed kit would be using Holy light with a more focused theme on the Loa themselves. The idea here would be that they call upon the powers from a single source - like Prelates of Rezan once did - but rather calling upon the might of multiple Loa. Potentially some specific spell effects could match the Zandalari racial currently chosen. For example, “Fury of the Loa” could turn into a visual representation of a loa, such as a Golden Tiger roaring for Kimbul, or a Deathmask and golden bones for Bwonsamdi.

Vindicators: Lightforged Draenei & Draenei Paladins

The Draenei are no strangers to the Light, and after deep understanding and millennia of teaching, their devotion to the Naaru make them capable of harnessing power befitting their knowledge.

This idea wouldn’t stray too far in terms of spell effects (perhaps more glowing gold with crystalline themes) but focus on the idea of the Naaru aligned Paladins and them being the most ancient of the playable Paladin races.

Mechaknights, Titanguards, & Junkblades: Mechagnome, Gnome, & Goblin Paladins

Research and rivalries between the Goblins and Gnomes lead to using new methods to harness the Light in ways only observed by the Titans. The newly established Mechaknights, Titanguards, and Junkblades use newfound technologies to their advantage.

The idea that Gnomes, members of the original Alliance of Lordaeron, can be priests but not Paladins is a little silly. They can also be Warriors and Death Knights, so there’s no reason physically they can’t be Paladins.

Gnome Paladins would essentially be Silver Hand Paladins, while their Mech-cousins introduce a new flair.

With Mechagnomes, we wanted to create something a little different by connecting their Paladin abilities to the Mechagnomes as a creation of the Titans. We incorporated a few themes taken from Mechagon - the Lightning / Shock spells used, added with more references to Mimiron, the Discs of Norgannon, and more.

Titanguard / Junblade were an idea that took the Gnome Paladin concept, the Mechagnome Concept, and combined them - essentially, Goblins / Gnomes would have a similar kit as the Mechagnomes through means of stolen Titan technology. We used a few themes here - the Titanguard uses the default Lightning-blue themes as seen on the Mechagnome as she’s wielding the very same tech, while the Junkblade (with no real difference in concept) uses Titan-defense technology. We used the red theme as often in Uldir / Ulduar you see the bright red security lasers and protocols come online, and we wanted to reflect that with “Paladin abilities” that were 100% just tech-based without saying “Oh yeah, Goblins can be Paladins.”

General Class Skins

A bit of a recap:

Class skins as a concept are a purely cosmetic change to a particular class which would include new icons, spell effects, and spell names. A Class Skin would not override glyphs used. Some class skins would only affect particular spell schools, while others would change the class in its entirety. Class skins may be applied per spec, so that switching specs would not require swapping out a class skin similar to glyphs. Most class skins would be obtainable as a reward to a questline, similar to how the Warlock Fel Fire questline functioned. Some class skins will be rarer or even more challenging than others, but none would become unobtainable. As such, this is content that’s also never intended to be made obsolete and would be scaled to fit every expansion. Obtaining a class skin on one character will unlock the skin account-wide for all eligible alternate characters. Some class skins would be obtainable only by a particular specific race, while others may span several different classes which overlap in themes and magic. All class skins are meant to build upon and expand lore, with some even providing new class options to existing races. Some races would have their default racial spell kits despite no questline being completed (to be determined). Questlines are optionally repeatable.

In this particular example, I feature a wider array of more generalised concepts. This is not a complete list of all ideas generated so far, 2 per class (excluding paladins as that was done previously in Part 1). None of these are meant to be racially-specific, though some may tie in to the lore of races by coincidence. As opposed to last time where ability icons were reskinned and featured, this time this delves into a more lore aspect. I found that the icons were more time-consuming than intended, and I wanted to feature more skins in exchange. The same ideas still stand that icons and spell names may be reskinned, they’re just not featured here.

Death Knights

Blightreaver

While some members of the Black Harvest ventured into Maldraxxus in search of new power, others turned their gaze to a different source of magic - one that threatened the Shadowlands and beyond. As strange reports of Gorak Tul and Gorak Zhar once again stir in both Drustvar and Ardenweald, Death Knight and Warlock champions have been called upon to venture into the Blight Lands of Thros.

Soulsmith

In the absence of a Jailer, Torghast and its workings seem to function differently than before. Noting this disturbance, Bolvar Fordragon states that valuable resources remain untapped. A prominent fiery wing of Torghast, the Soulforges, was once used to smelt souls into weaponry and armour. Rather than letting the cinders and ashes of souls go to waste, it would only seem fitting to study schematics deep within its halls and forge armaments for the champions of Azeroth

For the Blightreaver, I really wanted to capture something that felt in line with the Death Knight design and could help tie up some loose ends with the Drust storyline. The ending of Gorak Tul has always felt a little… not great. He basically dies at the end of a dungeon, and is then finished off in a small portion of Thros in a campaign quest - something only the Alliance saw. I felt it may be nice to bring better closure (or build up more) to the Drust story and lore, including giving more of a feature of Thros and the sort of “society” outside of its invasion points of Ardenweald and Drustvar.

The concept behind the Soulsmith is one more in tune of a “flame Bolvar” or “fiery DK”. A while back, when the DK option was given to allied races, a few flame-themed weapons were also given. The core of this fire is a bit different than generic fire, where there’s a sort of undertone of black to the fire. It’s meant to be very reflective of Bolvar, even though the creation may not be the same (where he was scorched by red dragon fire).

Demon Hunter

Soulhunter

After securing an Ethereal Decoder with the aid of the Uncrowned, the Illidari tracked a Naaru vessel commandeered by a rogue ethereal cartel. With the leaders of the Uncrowned in hot pursuit of the shadowy Crime Lords, the Illidari turn their attention to the Naaru detention block that held a vast collection of void-shrouded entities. With the void prisoners slowly tearing away the foundation of the ship, the Illidari find themselves in a unique position to study the void as they did the fel.

Flamereaper

After detecting demonic activity on the planet of Xoroth, the Illidari enlist the aid of the Black Harvest to infiltrate the former Legion world. Guided by the imprisoned Nathrezim, Ulthalesh, the Illidari and their warlock allies discover the origins of xoroth’s fall and the dormant weapon left behind by the Mad Titan millennia ago. Fate will tell if these demonic magic-wielding heroes can rise to the threat which looms over a planet of conflict and strife.

These two concepts of Demon Hunter actually build off of their already-established magic, it’s just mainly to lean into both a little bit more. Shadowy abilities are already seen heavily with abilities such as Darkness, Netherwalk, Spirit Bomb, Soul Cleave, and the consumption of souls with Soul Fragments. Almost all of the shadowy abilities seem to have “Soul” in common, and so I felt it only natural to base its namesake upon such.

The “red fire” demon hunter is almost a sort of inverse of the green fire warlock skin. The closest implementation to this so far is done with the Glyph of Crackling Flames. The main aim of this is more geared towards an older style of Demon Hunter as seen close to vanilla and warcraft 3. Additionally, I would hope that a sort of glyph that actually “removes” metamorphosis and just show wings or something instead rather than a full model change. Another heavy inspiration is also the design of Sargeras that’s been seen in game - while the rest of the Burning Legion retains a green fel look, Sargeras himself is very much more yellowed flames. Though the appearance of Sargeras is not planned for such a scenario as it would feel far too important to the story, I felt it better to possibly explore the world of Xoroth and maybe harken back to perhaps why Sargeras is yellow-flamed. We know only a little bit about Xoroth, only that their people didn’t join the Legion willingly, and a planet called Xerrath (possibly a twin planet) was destroyed as a show of power. Below is a bit of concept and setup flavour text that couldn’t fit properly in an image.

The Illidari, in their ever-vigilant state, monitor known Legion worlds for activity in the wake of Sargeras’s imprisonment. They may not have orders from Illidan, but they still know their duty. They detect a massive disturbance of power surge on Xoroth which prompts an investigation. While some Illidari have been to the planet - with it always being massively inhabited by demons - none of them knew what sort of base of operations that could have caused such a flare. The Illidar agree to find text or records of a demon who could tell them about Xoroth before they dive in blindly.

Matron Mother Malevolence speaks up about a demon that was present for the original siege of Xoroth: Ulthalesh. The demon hunters seek the Council of the Black Harvest to question the demon-scythe, with big lore reveals about the origins of Xoroth.

“Xoroth was one of the first worlds to fall to Sargeras’s… ‘Burning Crusade.’ A testing ground for his newly released army of enslaved demons - well, those that sided with him… cowards.

“Unlike most worlds where Sargeras used subterfuge and promises of power to convert his subjects, the people of Xoroth were defiant from the very beginning, and thus invoked the Mad Titan’s wrath. I was there, you see. Not as a Nathrezim, but as the weapon you now hold. I was given to the Forward Commander of the Legion’s and for days I fed on the souls of the defiant Xorothians. And for days, the Legion faltered.

“Before long, Sargeras grew impatient and sent down his Avatar to deal with the Xorothians himself. These people, strange beings of stone and ancient magics, warped and twisted the very earth around them to shield themselves from the Legion’s attacks. For every city we felled, two more arose to house the masses of Xoroth.

“Sargeras’s avatar marched on the very capital, shattering its runic doorway with his colossal sword. As his armies stormed the citadel, Sargeras gazed upon a statue the Xorothian’s had built - an apparent source of power for their strange runic magic…“

Ulthalesh cackled within the scythe, before continuing.

“There, the Mad Titan gazed upon the face - a face carved in the likeness of Aggramar - the Mad Titan’s former protégé. It would seem the great noble Titan himself had once visited this world and helped given rise to the very people of Xoroth. The children of Sargeras’s brother - one he viewed as a traitor to his cause - were those who defied him now.

“I’ll never forget the howl of rage that escaped the Avatar of the Demon Lord. His wrath was uncontained, his fury unmatched, and in a gesture of pure rage, the Avatar struck down the statue of Aggramar. His wrath did not subside and even as thousands of demons burned alongside the Xorothian - collateral damage to Sargeras’s unquenchable rage - his Avatar did not stop. Xoroth, to this day, still burns in the fires of Sargeras’s fury; fury and rage he harboured for the brother he felt had betrayed him.”

The scythe appeared to delight in the retelling of the story. As it’s revealed, it’s likely demons discovered the inactive Avatar of Sargeras in an attempt to resurrect it, probably to do with Sargeras’s recent imprisonment.

Druid

Druid of the Flame

After aiding the Dark Irons in transcribing some of Fandral Staghelm’s old texts, the Cenarion Druids of the kaldorei join the Dark Irons in their expedition into the Firelands. They discover a small sect of former Staghelm loyalists, now enslaved by High Justice Grimstone, as he attempts to dethrone Smolderon and resurrect what he believes to be the true lord of the Firelands.

Druid of the Fang

Naralex, Muyoh, and his disciples discover the Botani in the depths of the Wailing Caverns below the Barrens. Though they attempted to thwart their efforts to channel the remnants of the Overgrowth into a new genesaur seed, they ultimately retreated. Now they call upon brave adventurers on an opportunity to defend the balance of Nature and learn just how deadly the realms of Life can be.

These two concepts were something that immediately came to mind which weren’t necessarily racially tied. The Druids of Flame were previously seen allied to Ragnaros in the Firelands raid, while the Druids of the Fang were former followers of Naralex that became corrupted by the Emerald Dream. Say for example that the same process happened with the Druids of the Flame, but with the new Firelord Smolderon, hypothetically these druids may be more willing to ally themselves. Given that the flame cat form is an option available to druids already, it doesn’t seem too far fetched. Similar can be said about the followers of Naralex - he can always get more, and with how wild the oases magic is in the Wailing Caverns, perhaps their shapeshift forms were something that occurred before their corruption. I felt that this could also be an opportunity to tie in some lore to none other than the Dark Irons and the Botan. The Dark Irons could establish closer relations to the Night Elves as well as provide more drama and split factions within the Darnassians who may wish to embrace revenge for Teldrassil. The Botani and Saberon are a loose thread that were set free to roam upon the Barrens, last seen in the Mag’har Orc scenario. It seems only fitting to tie them in for the return of the long-requested saberon shapeshift forms and pick up on that story.

Though not initially planned, the option of Night Elf Shaman was added as it felt like a fitting introduction.

Hunter

Spellbow

Much mystery surrounds the bow of Stars’ Fury, Thori’dal. Resurfaced texts indicate it was first crafted on the shores of the Well of Eternity by an ancient order of Highborne archers known as Arcane Fletchers. With the help of the Kirin Tor, hunters will accompany the Silver Covenant and the Farstriders in their mission to uncover the weapons mysterious history. Travel to Eldre’Thalas, Suramar, the Sunwell, and beyond to learn of its past and decide its future.

Dark Ranger

During the third invasion of the Burning Legion and Fourth War, new generations of Dark Rangers were raised. Though some remained loyal to the Banshee Queen, most reflected upon her betrayal and chose new leadership. With the overpowering presence of the Lich King silent, many undead threaten to swarm the world. Crossing paths with the Ebon Blade, many Dark Rangers identified a common goal with the Death Knights. Join these dark forces in cleansing Lordaeron of the feral scourge.

The spellbow is probably the one I’ve personally wanted the most. However funny enough, I wasn’t actually sure how they should be implemented. I saw some Hearthstone art of the Arcane Fletcher, and some of the concept work helped form the idea of how animations could vary more than just making arrows glow. In some of the art that’s made more clear in concept work, arrows actually hover and float around the hunter, ready to be launched. This provided the key in some of the design, which could act similar to a Frost Mage’s Icicles. Rapid Fire could not only be a volley of arrows launched from the bow, but around the Hunter’s general vicinity as well. I also felt that this was a good opportunity to build upon the lore of Thori’dal, which essentially has nothing other than being a Sunwell bow currently in possession of the Blood Elves. Based upon the lore that elven weapons are made stronger when reforged, I wanted to extend that to Thori’dal. Not only would it illuminate its past and its creation, I wanted to also offer more appearances that can fit more races than its current Alliance / High Elven scheme, similar to the Artifact weapons. Therefore, the idea with reforging the bow comes with literally reforging it in various magical wells across the world, such as the Sunwell, Hyjal, the leftover bit of the Nightwell, and so on. Of course, all colours would be available to choose from, but in lore effectively the hunter would choose a bow and it would receive a colouration befitting the magical well it was reforged in. By the end of the storyline, the Hunter would be a sufficient Spellbow, and return the bow to a neutral-ground area that unites together the involved factions. I think in the end, the usage of transmogrification would be literally in use rather than having the actual bow (and an actual legendary as a form of gameplay player power when Class Skins are meant to be purely cosmetic). After all, transmogrification literally exists in lore, so I don’t see why not to use it.

The Dark Ranger was a more difficult one to make work. The subject is a bit touchy, between how controversial the Night Elf Dark Rangers are and of course the former leader the Dark Rangers follow(ed). Given that Dark Rangers exist for Night Elves, Blood Elves, Forsaken, and (Undead) Humans, and paired with how every hunter can learn how to tame undead and has been able to choose talents before such as Black Arrow, I felt that perhaps this should be a more generalised skin rather than one specific to those races. Though it’s true that the Dark Rangers were Thalassian rangers raised in undeath, it’s also been explicitly shown that Sylvanas and Nathanos raised new generations of Dark Ranger for her forces. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that Dark Rangers are effectively a flavour of Unholy Death Knight with a bow instead. The Ebon Blade - aside from the Forsaken and the possible current leadership of Lillian Voss/Calia Menethil - seem like the go-to faction that the Dark Rangers would find themselves gravitating towards. Though not really explained in detail, I wanted to possibly reference back to the scrapped Patch 8.1.5 Velonara Scarlet Halls Scenario, but I had a difficult time really fleshing out and inferring a storyline from it that could work in introducing the skin.

Mage

Azuresworn

Tragedy befalls the Azurewing after a beloved dragon passes. Determined to play a more active role as custodians of magic, the Blue Dragonflight return to the affairs of mortals. As part of the funerary rites, Valtrois and a champion are given the opportunity to learn blue dragonfire. In the wake of her grandfather’s natural end, Stellagosa contemplates her relationships and future as heir of the Azurewing leadership.

Chronomancer

When the veil shattered above Azeroth, so too did the flow of reality. It is not known when or why, but the Infinite Dragons appear to have stirred the timelines once again. Seeking dangerous and powerful artifacts throughout time, it is up to the champions with the aid of the Bronze Dragonflight to stop the unmaking of history. Time will tell if they are truly successful.

Blue fire is another concept I’ve wanted to see, and felt it fitting to tie it in as part of a Blue Dragonfire quest. From there, it was about deciding which particular location, and I felt that revisiting the Azurewing was more interesting than going to the Nexus yet again. It’s established that Senegos is particularly the oldest of the dragons, so we know that his end is also coming at some point as well. I wanted to peer more into the relationship between Valtrois and Stellagosa, as well as take a look at how dragon culture handles the funeral of their leaders and what sort of roles are expected of a leader of dragons.

The Chronomancer was another difficult one, as literally any point in history is an option to visit when it involves the Bronze Dragons. In this particular case however, I thought about how the most recent encounter has been in Tazavesh and how something often brought up about the Shadowlands is the passage of time and how it’s different from Azeroth. So in this, I decided to explore that a bit, perhaps the motives of why the Infinite Dragonflight is around in Tazavesh, and the effects of time being disrupted with a giant rift in the sky. Though not pictured, one of the concepts I’ve had was a priest that wields the more friendly time magic in one hand and the more sinister infinite magic in the other, akin to a Holy vs. Void equivalent. However, I didn’t want to give the impression that this would necessarily be the case for Mages.

Monks

Runemaster

After detecting an unknown surge somewhere north of Uldum, the Uldum Accord, the Reliquary, and the Explorer’s League have rallied heroes and archaeologists alike to delve into an unexplored vault. Uncovered within are the origins of titanic runic magic, an undiscovered workshop of Highkeeper Ra-Den, and a mysterious tribe of rune-wielding Tauren who’ve settled within the cliffs between Un’goro and Thousand Needles.

Elementalist

As the planet reels from the Blood War, the Elemental Lords seek assistance in calming their restless kin. Determined to tap into the largely-absent element of Spirit to calm the four planes, the Earthen Ring calls upon the Monks, masters of the element of Spirit, to guide them in their quest. As monks embark on this quest to further their connection to all elements, shamans accompanying the monks discover the long-hidden secrets of Azeroth’s most finite element: Spirit.

Heavily inspired by the RPG class Runemaster, and given the sort of overlap they have with Monks, I wanted to primarily gear this towards them. What I also realised was that much of the concept is essentially a fistfighting mage, and it would also be a good opportunity to introduce Tauren mages. Although much of the art features the Tauren, it’s not necessarily been something locked specifically to the race. Initially in concept for their introduction, Jesse brought up that they would be discovered along the border of Uldum and Un’goro due to its Titan influences. However, I disagreed with this as there isn’t very much space allowing for their inclusion in the game world - at least not without digging deep into the ground. Instead, I proposed the location between Un’goro and Thousand Needles. It’s not too far fetched to discover any Titan facilities nearby, given the waygate right next to the location. Plus, there was a giant location of empty space and a large mountain that seems to be the second highest on Kalimdor. Given these factors, I felt if there were any location, it should probably be this.

The Elementalist is a big in the same idea to bridge a connection with the Monks and Shamans. Monks often reference elemental-lite abilities, such as Storm, Earth, and Fire, various water, mist, lightning, fire, and so on. Though the stated reason that monks differ from Shamans is due to their inability to commune with the Elements, it’s never exactly explained in depth as to why. I feel that this could be an opportunity to explore that, where perhaps they flip entirely from using inner spirit to external elements and vice versa, or perhaps even explore the ability to utilise both. This would also tie in with the Shamans of course in the exploration of Spirit, and continue on in the exploration of Azeroth’s World Soul Spirit.

Although I want to explore the introduction of monks to Goblin, Worgen, and Lightforged Draenei, I didn’t feel that either of these two were fitting scenarios to introduce them. Instead, I feel a Class Skin scenario that explores the mastery of a particular August Celestial would instead warrant such. Such a skin would include reskinning abilities to particularly fit Jade Serpent Fire, Black Ox Earth, White Tiger Lightning, and Red Crane Mists. However, properly previewing that would become very complicated and isn’t easily differentiated from a regular Monk, and so it wasn’t chosen for this particular selection of General Classes.

Priest

Sinshaper

When Denathrius betrayed the venthyr, a schism divided the people of Revendreth. Much remains in question of what is to become of the land of pride with its Eternal One dethroned. With the Nathrezim awakened to the call of their master, adventure and mystery take a champion of the Venthyr to uncover plots and schemes. Along the way, the origins of the San’layn and the first Azerothian Vampyr curse become unveiled.

Soulmender

A future of the Kyrian looks as bright and promising as ever as the Forsworn rejoin the Ascended and the tenets of Compassion and Devotion make their mark. Searching the archives, inspired mortals uncover a series scripture that predate the Trials of Bastion. Texts describe how the Archon imbued the first Kyrian with the ability to traverse the Veil. With each Paragons’ help, the most devoted and compassionate of Azeroth’s children are granted the very essence of the role of the Kyrian Watchers.

Frankly, the primary reason I wanted to explore this was for San’layn lore. Given that we have their progenitors, the Venthyr Vampyrs, and they were featured during BFA, it seems odd that there’s so little information divulged about them. The connection to the Nathrezim, the current leadership and lack of an Eternal One, and what’s going to happen felt like a nice tie-in to everything. Additionally, it could also double as a sort of homage to the Bloodmage / Blood Wizard (not necessarily to be confused with the Blood Elf Blood Mage) and has a lot of other blood magic casters it could fit, such as various other troll, human, orc, and even gnome blood magic users. Though blood magic is more geared towards the vampyr curse that afflicts Vrykul, Human, and Elves, it didn’t feel right to limit such to only one or two races. The San’layn options might be shown only on Elves, but it doesn’t mean that it’s locked to only them. They’re just the strongest concept to show off. There would likely be a lot of overlap with the Dark Ranger customisations in this case as well, given the red eye and necrotic skin options, so they would likely just unlock the same thing.

The Soulmender is essentially meant to reflect an opposite, where Blood magic may be more in tune with Shadow, the kyrian soul-anima is more akin to Holy. The Kyrian influence upon Holy is already very strong, given that upon death they can literally turn into a Spirit Healer which is essentially a Kyrian (though not always). I wanted to explore that concept more, where the origins of the Spirit Healer on Priests comes from and perhaps why the spiritual anima magic of Spirit Healers isn’t quite the same as the Holy of Priests. Another thing is Kyrian customisation, which essentially consists of “tattoos” for hair, eyes, and other special facial options. These would of course be optional and aren’t really intended to be locked to these skins (so you could be a demon hunter with these options despite the class skin not being available). What’s interesting is that these textures actually work well, particularly with hairstyles, as hair UV is mostly uniform similar to how most races share the same body texture UV for armour. Minor adjustments would need to be made for some particular things like tusks, but nothing that’s especially difficult.

Neither of these scenarios felt appropriate as unlocks for a Kyrian or Venthyr playable race. As much as I would like to see that, I feel that the scenario to introduce such should be separate and given its own moment to shine.

Rogue

Nightblade

After assisting the Illidari in securing a rare Ethereal Decoder, the Uncrowned join the Demon Hunters on board the Fel Hammer and give chase to a rogue ethereal cartel. As the Illidari move to secure the breached detention levels, the Uncrowned chase after a notorious ethereal crimelord on board a hijacked Naaru vessel. Dodging traps, security measures, and traversing an endless maze of ethereal portals, mastery of stealth and subterfuge will be the ultimate test of survival.

Felblade

After being discretely hired to track down the stolen Warlock artifact, the Skull of the Man’ari, the leader of the Uncrowned finds themself teaming up with an unlikely ally: Val’zuun. It was in fact he who took Thal’kiel’s skull and intended to summon himself to a Legion world to track down and defeat an old enemy. Along the way and by a twist of fate, it turns out that Val’zuun was not the only man’ari defector who sought to one day bring a permanent end to the Burning Legion.

It’s pretty often that rogues, particularly Subtlety spec, are more heavily based upon a nondescript Shadow. I wanted to provide an opportunity to really delve into it and go on a more crazy adventure. Paired up with the Demon Hunter Soulhunter skin, I felt this would be a good opportunity to explore that aspect. Although the name (and by extent part of the character design) is based upon the Hearthstone Nightblade, it’s not actually meant as a Night Elf-specific skin and has been built a bit beyond that concept. A bit unique to this one would be a proposed small Tazavesh room / bar. It isn’t supposed to necessarily act as player housing however, but perhaps more of an early prototype or something akin to just a small roleplay / hearth location not too unlike the Vindicaar.

The Felblade is only tangentially related to the Demon Hunter, in that they both wield fel and are agile melee fighters, with demonic tattoos. However, this is more geared towards the exploration of demon society after Sargeras’s imprisonment and has little involvement with Demon Hunters themselves. This is more of an exploration upon a sort of “what if” scenario, where we’ve seen a previous exchange between a Man’ari named Val’zuun in relation to the subtlety artifact. I felt it appropriate to explore who Val’zuun was, and pose whether or not more like him existed. Although this wouldn’t necessarily act as an unlock for an “eredar allied race,” it would explore its possibility as a groundwork and allow the rogue to tie in to their cause. The demon renegade cause is still supposed to be especially secretive however, as most races would not be immediately accepting of the Eredar into the factions so soon.

Like the Monk, there was another skin that was planned but couldn’t be properly showcased based upon Pirates that would unlock the rogue class for Draenei, Lightforged Draenei, Tauren, and Highmountain Tauren. However I had difficulty really showing off the “magic” of a pirate and differing it from Outlaw, so it’s been slated for a future project.

Shaman

Electrician

When word of the elemental plight reached Kezan, the new Mogul of the Venture Co. set out in search of power. Sent undercover, adventurers “join” the Venture Co. on a mission: Travel to the Isle of Thunder and delve into a Mogu vault housing a thunder-infused gauntlet. After recovering the Thunder King’s relic, the Venture Co. will regroup with- wait, do they seriously plan to infiltrate Skywall and steal Thunderaan’s sceptre while he rests? For the sake of Azeroth’s thunderstorm regions, the Earthen Ring better act quickly.

Champion of Azeroth

After harmonizing the raging elements with the help of the Monk Order, Magni calls upon champions to join him in the Chamber of the Heart. MOTHER informs that the shattering of the Veil caused an unnatural surge of energy, stirring the World Soul. Spirit and Decay begin to gather and bind to a large pocket of pooled Azerite. If left unchecked, Azeroth’s lifeblood could manifest into a twisted elemental lord with the unrestrained potential of a slumbering World Soul.

The Electrician skin is more geared towards a sort of engineering aspect, similar to how a Goblin Shaman and their totems work, but much more focused upon the electrical component. The idea isn’t to necessarily forceful use the elements like a Dark Shaman (or most engineers) necessarily would, but instead to utilise technology that enhances and guides normal elemental casting. In this particular instance, the lightning component of Air is channeled. The same basic rules of shamanism would still apply. Using the Mogu / Venture Company’s tech against them while working with the air elementals, the shaman becomes an ultimate conduit for their fury. Hypothetically, an engineer of every element could exist but I just liked the pun.

An Azerite skin just seems like a given, and with how much of Azerite’s manifestation being Elemental, who better than a shaman to handle it. The story concept is a bit of an exploration on what’s still going on back in Azeroth with the wounds of the world (given that the Sword of Sargeras is still kind of a problem), as well as the concept of what an elemental lord of Azerite would be like. Also, the Heart of Azeroth should have been something the player literally wears on their character model as a customisation option, and I feel this is an opportunity to make amends. The Heart of Azeroth wouldn’t however be coming back, nor would Azerite powers, as this is intended for pure cosmetics. It would be neat however to introduce something where each legendary (rank 4) essence power gained from BFA grants a new modified necklace appearance. The hope would be that it brings some life to content which is otherwise no longer relevant.

Warlock

Necromancer

Having witnessed the unrelenting might of Maldraxxus in both the Scourge armies and the Shadowlands campaign, the mortals of Azeroth have taken a keen interest in the birthplace of Necromancy. With the Council of the Black Harvest now reconvened and the Ebon Blade seeking to rebuild their ranks, these two otherwise mistrusted organisations have united in their pursuit of power.

Drustweaver

While some members of the Black Harvest ventured into Maldraxxus in search of new power, others turned their gaze to a different source of power - one that threatened the Shadowlands and beyond. As strange reports of Gorak Tul and Gorak Zhar once again stir in both Drustvar and Ardenweald, Death Knight and Warlock champions have been called upon to venture into the Blighted Lands of Thros.

The Necromancer is probably the one I’m most excited to show off, and the one I worked on first. I’ve long posited the concept that a Necromancer could work very well with just a “simple reskin of their demon minions into undead.” Maldraxxus and the Primus is likely my favourite zone / covenant, and it would be a shame if the opportunity for both a Necromancer and the Necrolords lore wasn’t carried forward in the expansions to come. Additionally, I know that the Necromancer / “old death knight” options (such like Thassarian has) are a long-requested customisation option, and this would be a decent opportunity to introduce such. You could indeed look exactly like Jandice Barov.

The Drustweaver is essentially the same exact thing as the Blightreaver, there’s not much to say about it. The Wicker minions work well for the warlock (given that they share animations with the Felstalkers) and would be different from the more fleshy minions that the Death Knights control.

Though the inclusion of Zandalari warlock is planned as an option, I feel it more fitting to tie it in with a more racial skin pertaining to Witch Doctors, which wasn’t fitting for this general theme post.

Warrior

Dragonsworn

Much has changed since Deathwing ravaged the world. Now, in the years following N’Zoth’s defeat, his own progeny seeks to unite two of Azeroth’s greatest protectors: the disparate Titanforged races and the scattered dragonflights. With the mortal races called to serve as intermediaries, those who answer Wrathion’s call will learn of Azeroth’s earliest Dragonriders and the order that was founded by Tyr in the days following the blessing of the Aspects.

Blademaster

Legendary are the skills of Blademasters throughout history, as are the weapons they wield. Often adventurers seek these armaments, not realising the true technique of the blade. Although at first reluctant, an old half-draenei half-orc blademaster agrees to teach not only how to forge the special fiery swords of war, but also the weaving of magic and blade. Only the truly resilient and prepared warriors will pass his training.

The Dragonsworn has been a concept I’ve been thinking about for a bit, inspired by some of the dragon-based abilities Warriors have had before. It’s probably no surprise that some particular class skins play a bit into building potential next expansion plotlines, and that’s intentional. For the past while, the Dragon Isles has been hinted at a bit every now and again. However, this would also revisit some of my favourite bit of lore regarding the Dragon Riders of Loreth’Aran. For example, what did these dragon riders do to be blessed by Ysera? Can the same be done with the other dragonflights? What of the wrongdoings of the Dragonmaw and Vrykul?

The Blademaster thematically is sort of a cross between a monk (mirror image / storm, earth, and fire and wind walk) and a warrior (bladestorm). Primarily they’ve been seen as a part of the Burning Blade, and so of course I leaned in a bit to that a bit more and explore some of its forming. However, there have been a few blademasters that aren’t orcs nor burning blades throughout the world (Draenei and Ankoan). Particularly in this case Lantresor of the Blade makes a return and players would get a blademaster weapon to their liking. I didn’t design many yet, but they would range in design fitting for both the Burning Blade and other clans/styles, as well as various pennant flag backpack items.

Extra & Commentary

I wanted to again give thanks to The Lost Codex (Jesse) for helping me bounce some ideas that I had during the course of the project. There’s a lot more I have in mind to come and am hopeful to preview soon. It’s been really difficult to not just post these on a whim. During my initial twitter post, some things weren’t well explained (and I had posted a bit early without realising that more was written, which was put mostly in the reddit post.)

Many of the ideas are to still maintain a sort of “Paladin” ideal - that is, a warrior devoted to wielding divine magic with faith and a righteous cause. I’ve often wanted more class/race combos, but putting a night elf in gold and blue armour and wielding a giant Silver Hand logo sword didn’t feel right.

There were other decisions I had instead scrapped because I felt it may steal from the uniqueness of others, such as a Tauren Mu’sha “Moonwalker” skin. I didn’t want to potentially anger people with featuring such as a “main option,” so I stuck with just Sunwalker.

Some, such as the Forsaken, were something I wanted a lot more heavily and had actually disagreements on how to implement such in lore. What I don’t want to do is say “Forsaken are under the leadership of Calia” however. I had written some notes here on a “lore backstory”:

With the teachings Alonsus Faol has given to Calia Menethil, the Forsaken have begun training priests and paladins into their ranks. Under her guidance, Calia will lead the new Order of the Eclipse, creating the Lightblades. Many fallen Scarlet Crusaders will also be welcomed in their ranks so long as they vow allegiance to the Forsaken and the Horde. Though some may find this new union convenient, many have begun to believe the new rightful ruler of Lordaeron to be Calia Menethil. Though Calia and Faol’s goals are to prove visible efforts to route corruption from the Forsaken and bridge the rift with the Alliance and Horde, it remains to be seen if the Forsaken will truly ever abandon their former Banshee Queen.

The Cult of Forgotten Shadows have begun to experiment with creating an opposition to the Paladin. Recent motivations and concerns in the balance of Light and Shadow influenced the creation of a Shadow Knight, capable of calling upon the power of the Void with surprising efficiency and resistance to its whispers. While many may not see eye-to-eye with the recent addition of the Lightblades, they are both in agreement that both are necessary powers to battle the new evils on horizon.

(Also something something creation of more human-like Forsaken like Derek Proudmoore, Calia Menethil, and Nathanos Blightcaller as a new allied race / customisation option complete with human skeleton and the like.)

The Mechaknight underwent a few different variations. I was trying to test an idea where they utilise a mix of Titan and Mechagon Hologram tech. Ultimately, the more “holy” Titan theme was scrapped in favour of a more Lightning theme seen with Mimiron’s creations.

I had previously made mention in other tweets as well regarding Void Paladins, and that was approximately the time where I decided to try testing out a Class Skin overview.

My plans for the original Class/Race combos started much earlier as well, where I had some rough ideas of what I wanted to include and balance out, and what themes each would be based off of. Most of it still holds true.

Some concepts felt like they needed to be really emphasised more than others. For example, I often saw the complaint that Blood Elves felt “tuned down” once Sunwell concluded, and I wanted to figure out a way to rekindle that as well as tie it into Void Elf lore. Void Elves were also the first that I had worked on.

These ideas also didn’t technically leave humans out as well, but I didn’t want to make it the “main feature” of a human paladin class skin. The idea is more mainly because Kul Tiran humans exist as more than the playable versions, and I felt it may be neat to at least acknowledge that.

There are also other ideas that I scrapped because I wanted to showcase them alongside other races instead, as they felt less racial-specific. One example is the Darkspear & Zandalari Trolls - Originally I was going to just have it be a Sand Troll and Darkspear, but it felt bad not including the Zandalari who brought in the idea of a Prelate.

Some other skins that I haven’t really touched upon include such as a “nil magic” skin, where all magic is removed from the particular class. This would apply in particular to Monk (with exception to healing spells), Rogue, Hunter, and Warrior. Others move in the opposite direction, such as a “Spellblade” / “Spellbreaker” skin, applying to similar classes. The Spellbow would essentially be the Hunter equivalent to such. For shaman, there were some that include skins for Elemental Spirit / Chi, and mastery of specific elements. For mages, some include the Tricaster / Archmage, where they wield all 3 magic schools at once, and a more silly Pastry-mancer that uses conjured food as bolts of magic. One particular one for priests includes a “magic swap” skin, where Shadow and Holy literally swap magic schools. This would be especially and particularly nice for races such as Void Elf and Lightforged Draenei, where it’s often a spec is antithetical to the race such as Shadow spec for Lightforged and Holy spec for Void Elf. Others include just utilising more “evil” magics that we’ve seen before, like Emerald Nightmare red-black magic and the Sha magic from Pandaria. And finally, a super rare “rainbow” skin that’s literally just rainbows and sparkles galore, but it’d be a very rare one, likely tied to fishing or something silly.

Below are some other WIP shots and some of the decision making that went into why they may have been rejected or not shown as main features.

Azuresworn Horn Styles

These were the various attempts at making a pair of Azuresworn horns. Some of the initial designs were retextured Demon Hunter, but I felt it should be a bit more unique and reference closer to Senegos. These would essentially be horn helm items however. These particular horns are reshaped to fit the character silhouette better.

Chronomancer Customisation Options

Higher resolution versions showing off the Chronomancer (Bronze Dragonsworn) options more. In particular, the tattoo texture from Nozdormu is used on the Vulpera’s body.

Demon Hunter Metamorphosis

These options are actually made to be dyeable. Some of the ideas I had were to include more horn styles and some variations of armour, but it felt like a lot of work for a short preview.

Dragonsworn Mounts

This uses Wrathion’s Drake model and retextures the colours around a bit to roughly match a more modern colour scheme but also still recall back to the vanilla drake colour options. Included are the Red, Bronze, Blue, Green, Black, Twilight, Albino, and the Dragonmaw “dragon rider” one seen in Blackrock Mountain. It’s my opinion that the old dragon mount models are in need of a bit of an uprez.

Druid of the Fang

Originally I was going to go with the base Druid of the Fang set, but I really didn’t like how low resolution it was, especially with Lady Anacondra’s recent design in Hearthstone Mercenaries. Although it didn’t come out how I wanted exactly, I felt it was still an upgrade from the old version.

Elemental Mounts

Higher resolution versions of the Earth / Combined Elemental mount models.

Rejected Runemaster Tattoos

The first tattoo was actually the first one I had thought of, but felt it was too arcane / kirin tor mage rather than a runemaster. The second and third felt too vrykul, and so they’re likely the designs I would use for the warrior Dragonsworn. The third and fourth felt more like a nondescript magical design that’s more random rather than an organised runemaster.

Runemaster Tattoo Colourations

These are some of the different colourations for the Runemaster tattoo design. Ultimately I decided to mix all of them together.

Runemaster Magic Colourations

Some of the colouration attempts for the Runemaster. I still hold a special place for number 3, but I decided to just mix all of them together. In the end by coincidence it turned into the same colours as Fire, Frost, and Arcane, but this actually wasn’t intentional.

Thori’dal Recolours

The various colours of Thori’dal, intended for Farstriders, Default (High Elves), Blood Elves, and Night Elves (or possibly Void Elves). Because this was made dyeable and uprezzed it could technically be made into any colour combination of course, these are just the ones I decided to showcase for the sake of brevity.

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