The Weekly Innervate - World of Warcraft - Expansion Theories: What Races Could Druids Be?

Welcome back to the Weekly Innervate where every week I talk about something healing related going on in the video game world! One tiny little announcement, the Weekly Innervate is going back to Thursdays starting this week because I realized that I sleep through the maintenance and have too much to do on Tuesdays to actually get any serious work done. With that out of the way, we're going to start a month long series of what could be fun to have in the next expansion that will end with Live Blogging Blizzcon 2014. And this week it is all about Druids!

I've played a Restoration Druid since the launch of the game and it will be a class that I always stride to be in all things that I do now. Even in other games I tend to lean towards Nature classes or plant like races. Druids as the game stands right now currently have the shortest stick when it comes to Race/Class combinations. For nearly 6 years we only had one race to choose from depending on the faction we chose. In Cataclysm we received two more races for a total of four yet we still have the smallest number of races we can be across all 11 classes. The highest number is Warrior which can be all 13 races and the median is 9 race/class combinations. We all know why it takes Blizzard longer to put out new races that Druids can be, and that's the Druid Forms which have to be unique for the race that they do.

I'd like to personally thank Kittlore who had about a 2 hour conversation with me which brought up this series in the first place! There will be a few things we looked into when it came to coming to a consensus. Lore trumps all - if it is not supported by the lore or couldn't be then it's a no.

So let's go down the list shall we?

Human Druids? - Survey Says: Yes!

Not a lot of fan art for human druids sadly. Regardless, we think that Human Druids are possible. I originally said no when it was first brought up because I remembered reading somewhere that the only reason that Gilneans could be Druids (since they are technically human from the start) was because of their Worgen Curse and could only shapeshift after they were cursed. However, it is pointed out that the Gilnean Druid Trainer, Gwen Armstead, is human and not afflicted by the curse of the Worgen. We have never seen her change and there hasn't been any instances of other humans shape shifting but she is a keeper of the old Druid religion which differs from the Night Elf teachings of Druidism. So to say that a Human could not learn to shape shift with extensive training isn't entirely clear but there are obviously humans who study the religion.

Dwarven Druids? - Survey Says: No!

Yes, Dwarves can be Shaman but Shamanism and Druidism are almost nothing alike even though sometimes it seems like they are. Dwarves are very much tied to the Earth and spend much of their existence underground. We don't feel as though Dwarves should be tied to Priests or Paladins either as they don't seem to be tied to the Light however Shamans do make some amount of sense. But Druids definitely are more tied to Nature than the Earth and it just doesn't feel like it fits the motif.

Gnome Druids? - Survey Says: No!

Don't get me wrong, Gnome Druids sound super cute in theory as their models would no doubt be small animals like cubs or kittens instead of full ground forms and I would definitely roll one. But Gnomes just don't make sense as any healers and we're still confused as to why Gnomes can be priests. Gnomes are the same as Goblins in the way that they have no Nature, Elemental or Holy Light ties and their strengths come from their engineering. If they wanted Gnomes/Goblins to be able to be healers then a class that heals using healing concoction bombs and healing lasers (which would be awesome). Gnome Priests make absolutely no sense to me other than to give Gnomes a healing class and nothing else makes sense (Priests don't make sense either).

Draenei Druids? - Survey Says: Yes!

Draenei are the liberalists of World of Warcraft. They have shown to have been able to learn outside views from other philosophies since coming to Azeroth. They came into Burning Crusade being able to be all of the healing classes aside from Druids and also able to be Monks as well. It was also learned in Cataclysm that the lands of Exodar were open to any stranded Gilneans who landed there similar to Darnassus. Which means that Draenei have been exposed to the Gilneans (including Gilnean Druids) for as long as the Gilneans have been in the Alliance. With how open to learning other cultures and religions to understand them they are it wouldn't be surprising that some of them picked up on Druidism.

Orc Druids? - Survey Says: No!

This one was a pretty difficult one in all honesty. I originally said yes but later changed my mind the more that I thought about it. To me, Orcs are extremely savage and have very low intelligence as a general population. They are the race that picks up the closest heavy weapon they can find and start bludgening things with it. They do not seem the nature loving, peace keeping kind. Even if they went into a form of Dark Druid I still don't see them as Druids based on just their general base nature. However, they can be Monks which surprised me in all honesty but if they can be Monks then that leads me to believe they might be Druids because Monks are very much about inner peace and serenity. I still say no in general however.

Undead Druids? - Survey Says: Yes!

Now before we start the hate, let me explain my reasoning and how they could do this. First, my reasoning behind this is that when you die and rise as a Foresaken you retain your free will as well as your memories. Which makes me believe that if you are a Druid and are killed and resurrected as a Foresake wouldn't you still be a Druid? The only thing would be that Gilneans cannot be ressurected but all other races of Druids could be. Also, if Undead could be Druids then I don't think they would be the same as a Night Elf Druid, they would have their own kind of Druidism. The would become Dark Druids that instead of harmonizing with Nature they would twist and control it. This would make their forms also be twisted and deformed.

Blood Elf Druid? - Survey Says: Yes!

First and foremost - the Lore supports it. It begins all the way back in the Warcraft 2 Game Guide where Elven Druids (note this is separate from Night Elves) are mentioned but are never followed up on or mentioned again. Also, when Blood Elves were introduced in Burning Crusade the Botanica was filled Blood Elves that used Restoration Druid spells and one of them even shape shifted into a Treant. This shows that we have back lore that supports not only Druidism in Blood elf culture but also the ability to shapshift as well.

Goblin Druids? - Survey Says: No!

Pretty much the same reason as Gnomes. They don't seem to be particularly tied to any elemental/natural spells and I feel like they are only Priests/Shamans so that they can have healing classes and so that people would race change to them during Cataclysm. They're definitely more like Engineers and not focused on harmonizing with the Elements.

Pandaren Druids? - Survey Says: Yes!

I feel like Pandaren makes the most sense out of everything else and if Blizzard does decide to give Druids another race it would be Pandaren. I feel like the only reason they weren't Druids in the first place was because they had no instruction on how to be Druids and now that they have influence from the other Druid races they could be Druids. Very similar to Draenei they seem very open to learning new things.

All in all that gives us five classes for each faction that can be Druids out of a total seven. Which makes class balance for Druids even which is always a good thing because Druids have always been super balanced when it comes to having the same amount for both factions. Personally, I'd really like to see at least two new races (one for each side) that could be Druids. However, I feel like Blizzard would go with the easy way and go with Pandarens which would disappoint me. I really don't like Pandarens for my main race, they're just too chubby which makes gear look terrible since they're so compact (which is why I generally just don't like short races because the gear patterns end up being squished and look bad. I would never race change my main to a Pandaren Druid but I would consider rolling an alt. I would really like to see either Blood Elf or Undead druids for Horde. I don't know if I would race change my main to an Undead because it's just not my style unfortunately but I would change to Blood Elf in a heart beat and never look back. I would be happy with either Human or Draenei but would like Draenei more because Humans are just boring in general in a fantasy MMO.

What do you think? What do you think will be the next race to receive the pact of the Druid? Would you race change your main to something particular or would you keep your main the same and maybe roll an alt? Next week on the Weekly Innervate I go over what a cool race would be for WoW and how it could work.