Posting this here because my post on the forums got deleted :(. Whoever reported it- grats, bet you didn't even read the thread originally when you reported it.
Anyways: keep in mind- some of this is common sense stuff. Unfortunately, since the thread got deleted, I can't post some of my further explanations.
Every week for the last 6 months, there’s been some sort of “Why can’t XX race be XX class” thread. I decided to just condense the answers down- that way, we have something to link when these questions are asked.
Forsaken Paladins- why it ain’t gonna happen:
From the Cdev post: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1008430853#2
Can you please explain how "light" works? The lore states that undead are physically incapable of using the light, much like the Broken, but then we have Forsaken players casting healing spells, and Sir Zeliek in Naxxramas using pseudo-paladin abilities.
Without spoiling too much, we can tell you that wielding the Light is a matter of having willpower or faith in one's own ability to do it. That's why there are evil paladins (for example, the Scarlet Crusade and Arthas before he took up Frostmourne). For the undead (and Forsaken), this requires such a great deal of willpower that it is exceedingly rare, especially since it is self-destructive. When undead channel the Light, it feels (to them) as if their entire bodies are being consumed in righteous fire. Forsaken healed by the Light (whether the healer is Forsaken or not) are effectively cauterized by the effect: sure, the wound is healed, but the healing effect is cripplingly painful. Thus, Forsaken priests are beings of unwavering willpower; Forsaken (and death knight) tanks suffer nobly when they have priest and paladin healers in the group; and Sir Zeliek REALLY hates himself.
Forsaken generally do not have the willpower to sustain long periods of being touched by the Light. Paladins and priests use the light in different ways- paladin’s are infused with the Light at all times. Priest’s are not.
Well then how come Forsaken can use holy spells?
Simple answer: Game play reasons. Would it make much sense to have one race in the game that can only use one spec for a class they can play?
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Worgen/goblin monks:
There are a couple of different reasons why worgen can’t be monk. I’ll go into the more obvious reason first.
Monk has to have self control.
From wowpedia:
Worgen must always control their emotions lest they lose themselves to their form's feral instincts. Rage and guilt are two known emotions that illicit a worgen's transformation. One way worgen can temporarily keep their sanity is by injecting themselves with a serum created by Gilnean chemist, Krennan Aranas. Another method is undertaking a night elven ritual that makes peace with traumatic events, thus bringing balance between the human and worgen sides. This ritual involves eating a piece of Moonleaf (to help the mind prepare for the ritual) and drinking holy water from moon wells that recalls traumatic and peaceful events so that a person may gain understanding and balance of one's self.
Worgen have no control over their rage- as stated, being a monk also means being able to have full control over their emotions. As for the Forsaken argument- forsaken still have self control.
Now, onto explanation #2- this involves both goblin and worgen. Time line restrictions:
1) Both the goblin and worgen starting zones occur right around the time the Cataclysm starts happening.
2) Unlike the dreanai and the blood elf starting zones, these two zones are LITERALLY stuck in one time line.
On the first point: How much sense would it make if 1984 took place in 2014? Meaning, it’s set in a specific year in history. This is how the goblin/worgen zones are.
We can compare #2 in this way:
Shakespeare stories are adaptable. How many times has Romeo and Juliet been remade with the story taking place in modern times? Some of his stories are created in a way in which they can be adapted to modern times. The BE and Dreanai stories aren’t phased, they are completely adaptable.
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Gnomes: shaman/hunter etc
Gnomes aren’t interested in anything naturey. Seriously, what use would a gnome have for a pet, when they can just build a better one? What use would a gnome have for an elemental?
While goblin shaman don’t make a lot of sense (this is coming from one), goblins are all about one thing and one thing only: profit. Another way to look at it is this: “All magic comes with a price”.
Now does it make sense?
Now goblin hunters: the Kezan goblins lived on an island for years. It would only make sense for them to have befriended the animals on the islands to which both would “profit” from such a friendship. The pet gets room and board, the goblin? Food.
Gnomes are your typical closest cases. They prefer to stay indoors making blueprints and the like. In fact for years, gnomes lived underground:
From wowpedia (On Gnomes):
Gnomes are a diminutive, wiry race of tinkers who live underground. In the Second War, they built gadgets and vehicles, such as submarines and flying machines, for the Alliance to combat the Horde. They are great mechanics and inventors, renowned for their knowledge and eccentric natures. The gnomes had a city, Gnomeregan, built into Ironforge Mountain, but invading troggs destroyed it and slaughtered its citizens. Many survivors now live with the Ironforge dwarves, a few traveling with their dwarven friends to Kalimdor. The gnomes are still reeling from the destruction of their home city and are loath to leave the safety of the dwarven tunnels.
Being technical in nature and more prone to stay inside, gnomes have no use for pets. If they want a pet, they can just tinker one up.
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Tauren/Draenai rogues: Hooves
One of the biggest reasons I can see for neither of these to become playable are simply this: both races have hooves. Hooves aren’t exactly “stealthy”.
Now, you can argue the Grimtotem. Okay, the Grimtotem are the same people that plotted to kill Cairne.
The Grimtotem tribe[1] (aka Grimtotem clan, Grimtotem tauren) is one of the mightiest tauren tribes. They stand as an aggressive extreme of the usually pacifist tauren. They wish to eradicate the "lesser races" from Kalimdor and retake the tauren's long lost ancestral holdings. The Grimtotem tribe fights to eliminate the enemies of the tauren; to the Grimtotem, almost all races are enemies of the tauren. They are known for unprovoked attacks, slaughter and mayhem, in great contrast to the peaceful, spiritual nature of the other tauren clans.
That doesn’t exactly fit the stereotype of the Tauren being a peaceful race. In fact, the Grimtotem clan can be called the complete opposite of what the Tauren nation stands for.
Draenai- what’s left of them- are also a peaceful race. They aren’t a bunch of “backstabbers” (pun intended).
Anyways: keep in mind- some of this is common sense stuff. Unfortunately, since the thread got deleted, I can't post some of my further explanations.
Every week for the last 6 months, there’s been some sort of “Why can’t XX race be XX class” thread. I decided to just condense the answers down- that way, we have something to link when these questions are asked.
Forsaken Paladins- why it ain’t gonna happen:
From the Cdev post: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1008430853#2
Can you please explain how "light" works? The lore states that undead are physically incapable of using the light, much like the Broken, but then we have Forsaken players casting healing spells, and Sir Zeliek in Naxxramas using pseudo-paladin abilities.
Without spoiling too much, we can tell you that wielding the Light is a matter of having willpower or faith in one's own ability to do it. That's why there are evil paladins (for example, the Scarlet Crusade and Arthas before he took up Frostmourne). For the undead (and Forsaken), this requires such a great deal of willpower that it is exceedingly rare, especially since it is self-destructive. When undead channel the Light, it feels (to them) as if their entire bodies are being consumed in righteous fire. Forsaken healed by the Light (whether the healer is Forsaken or not) are effectively cauterized by the effect: sure, the wound is healed, but the healing effect is cripplingly painful. Thus, Forsaken priests are beings of unwavering willpower; Forsaken (and death knight) tanks suffer nobly when they have priest and paladin healers in the group; and Sir Zeliek REALLY hates himself.
Forsaken generally do not have the willpower to sustain long periods of being touched by the Light. Paladins and priests use the light in different ways- paladin’s are infused with the Light at all times. Priest’s are not.
Well then how come Forsaken can use holy spells?
Simple answer: Game play reasons. Would it make much sense to have one race in the game that can only use one spec for a class they can play?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Worgen/goblin monks:
There are a couple of different reasons why worgen can’t be monk. I’ll go into the more obvious reason first.
Monk has to have self control.
From wowpedia:
Worgen must always control their emotions lest they lose themselves to their form's feral instincts. Rage and guilt are two known emotions that illicit a worgen's transformation. One way worgen can temporarily keep their sanity is by injecting themselves with a serum created by Gilnean chemist, Krennan Aranas. Another method is undertaking a night elven ritual that makes peace with traumatic events, thus bringing balance between the human and worgen sides. This ritual involves eating a piece of Moonleaf (to help the mind prepare for the ritual) and drinking holy water from moon wells that recalls traumatic and peaceful events so that a person may gain understanding and balance of one's self.
Worgen have no control over their rage- as stated, being a monk also means being able to have full control over their emotions. As for the Forsaken argument- forsaken still have self control.
Now, onto explanation #2- this involves both goblin and worgen. Time line restrictions:
1) Both the goblin and worgen starting zones occur right around the time the Cataclysm starts happening.
2) Unlike the dreanai and the blood elf starting zones, these two zones are LITERALLY stuck in one time line.
On the first point: How much sense would it make if 1984 took place in 2014? Meaning, it’s set in a specific year in history. This is how the goblin/worgen zones are.
We can compare #2 in this way:
Shakespeare stories are adaptable. How many times has Romeo and Juliet been remade with the story taking place in modern times? Some of his stories are created in a way in which they can be adapted to modern times. The BE and Dreanai stories aren’t phased, they are completely adaptable.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gnomes: shaman/hunter etc
Gnomes aren’t interested in anything naturey. Seriously, what use would a gnome have for a pet, when they can just build a better one? What use would a gnome have for an elemental?
While goblin shaman don’t make a lot of sense (this is coming from one), goblins are all about one thing and one thing only: profit. Another way to look at it is this: “All magic comes with a price”.
Now does it make sense?
Now goblin hunters: the Kezan goblins lived on an island for years. It would only make sense for them to have befriended the animals on the islands to which both would “profit” from such a friendship. The pet gets room and board, the goblin? Food.
Gnomes are your typical closest cases. They prefer to stay indoors making blueprints and the like. In fact for years, gnomes lived underground:
From wowpedia (On Gnomes):
Gnomes are a diminutive, wiry race of tinkers who live underground. In the Second War, they built gadgets and vehicles, such as submarines and flying machines, for the Alliance to combat the Horde. They are great mechanics and inventors, renowned for their knowledge and eccentric natures. The gnomes had a city, Gnomeregan, built into Ironforge Mountain, but invading troggs destroyed it and slaughtered its citizens. Many survivors now live with the Ironforge dwarves, a few traveling with their dwarven friends to Kalimdor. The gnomes are still reeling from the destruction of their home city and are loath to leave the safety of the dwarven tunnels.
Being technical in nature and more prone to stay inside, gnomes have no use for pets. If they want a pet, they can just tinker one up.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tauren/Draenai rogues: Hooves
One of the biggest reasons I can see for neither of these to become playable are simply this: both races have hooves. Hooves aren’t exactly “stealthy”.
Now, you can argue the Grimtotem. Okay, the Grimtotem are the same people that plotted to kill Cairne.
The Grimtotem tribe[1] (aka Grimtotem clan, Grimtotem tauren) is one of the mightiest tauren tribes. They stand as an aggressive extreme of the usually pacifist tauren. They wish to eradicate the "lesser races" from Kalimdor and retake the tauren's long lost ancestral holdings. The Grimtotem tribe fights to eliminate the enemies of the tauren; to the Grimtotem, almost all races are enemies of the tauren. They are known for unprovoked attacks, slaughter and mayhem, in great contrast to the peaceful, spiritual nature of the other tauren clans.
That doesn’t exactly fit the stereotype of the Tauren being a peaceful race. In fact, the Grimtotem clan can be called the complete opposite of what the Tauren nation stands for.
Draenai- what’s left of them- are also a peaceful race. They aren’t a bunch of “backstabbers” (pun intended).