During Gamescom Opening Night Live, World of Warcraft officially revealed Midnight, the second expansion of the Worldsoul Saga. This major release brings fans back to Quel’thalas, Silvermoon, and Zul’Aman for the first time in almost two decades, with completely revamped and expanded zones. Xal’atath is coming for the Sunwell, and it will take all the heroes of Azeroth to stop her – including the Demon Hunters. This popular World of Warcraft hero class is getting two awesome features in this expansion: the mid-range Void-themed Devourer specialization, and the ability for Void Elves to play them.
Even though these WoW Demon Hunter changes are ground-breaking, there’s one glaring problem: Alliance players now have two options for Demon Hunters, but the Horde still only has one. Even accounting for animation and lore restrictions, there are other Horde race options that could have been perfect fits for the class. Instead, Alliance Demon Hunters will soon have an unfair advantage over their Horde counterparts.
WoW: Midnight Breaks Demon Hunter Faction Balance
Alliance Gets a New Demon Hunter Race, But Horde Does Not
When Demon Hunters were first introduced in WoW: Legion, only Alliance Night Elves and Horde Blood Elves could play them. In all canon lore sources, these two races were the only ones who have been seen mastering the acrobatic fighting style used by Illidan Stormrage in Warcraft 3. As such, this restriction made sense, as it drastically lowered the number of unique animations that needed to be made.
Enter the Void Elves. This splinter faction of Blood Elves joined the Alliance in Battle for Azeroth as an Allied Race. Though they sport unique customization options, they use the same model as their Blood Elf cousins. A side quest in World of Warcraft Patch 11.2, Ghosts of K’aresh, helps fill in how the Void Elves learned how to be Demon Hunters ahead of Midnight, solving the lore issue alongside the technical ones. Unfortunately, the Horde received no such considerations.
Horde Races That Could Make Great Demon Hunters
- Nightborne
- Orcs
- Mag’Har Orcs
- Troll
- Zandalari Troll
There are plenty of Horde races that would be awesome demon hunters in the lore. Orcs have a strong vendetta against the Legion who tried to enslave them, and Trolls have a similar in-lore WoW class called the Demoniac that predates the first Elves. Demon Hunters of these races even appear in Hearthstone.
That said, these races’ models would require a lot of animation work to let them be Demon Hunters, which explains why they were not added.
However, that excuse falls flat with the Nightborne. This Elvish Horde race uses the basic Night Elf skeleton and animations with a few adjustments, meaning most of the work is already done. What’s more, the Allied Race had a close connection to Fel magic during Legion, with many succumbing fully to its corruption. Alas, World of Warcraft has not given any indication that Nightborne Demon Hunters could be coming in the future, despite the easy pathway.
Faction Bias in World of Warcraft
This is another unfortunate example of faction bias in WoW. The Alliance and Horde each have many races and heroes, making it hard for Blizzard to always give everyone equal screen time. And, over the last few years, the Alliance has received a disproportionate amount of attention. In The War Within alone, Alliance characters like Alleria, Anduin, and Jaina all received tons of time in the spotlight, while Horde heroes like Thrall got little. What’s worse, there isn’t a single Horde character among the NPCs on K’aresh in WoW Patch 11.2, while the Alliance has several.
Luckily, Midnight seems to be redressing this imbalance. Horde heroes Liadrin and Lor’themar were front and center in the epic WoW: Midnight cinematic trailer, and the Amani Trolls are getting the focus in Zul’Aman. Hopefully, World of Warcraft will eventually let a Horde race like the Nightborne play Demon Hunters to further balance the scales between factions.
