Allied races are increasing the options for playable races at an explosive rate. Announced races in BFA alone are going to give us just as many as the original World of Warcraft had, and Blizzard has explicitly said that more will be coming (though not explicitly in BFA itself.)
This actually means that some old sacred concepts are starting to change: Druids, for example, have been mirror-image balanced between the factions since Vanilla, but as the Horde gets both Highmountain Tauren and Zandalari Troll druids, the Alliance is only getting Kul Tiran Humans (who, in my opinion, have by far the coolest druid forms, though I can also appreciate the appeal of the Zandalari dinosaur forms.)
We don't know if the "Allied Race" term will always refer specifically to these variants on existing races, or if we'll get brand-new races that follow a similar pattern, starting at level 20 and not really having a starting zone.
But one issue that seems to arise is the question of hero classes.
Hero classes, of course, are a bit different than the other classes. Generally, the way I'd define them is that most classes in the game are something that an ordinary person, perhaps with certain talents, but none that go beyond natural ability, can pick up, and with enough training and willpower, can grow more and more skilled in the techniques of the class.
A Hero Class, by contrast, requires a fundamental change to the character's physiology. Their class is not like a job or lifestyle that they can quit and just become a regular person when they're done adventuring - it's ingrained in their very being. Death Knights are straight up undead. They literally start to suffer from withdrawal symptoms if they stop hurting living things. Demon Hunters have become half-demons, with a demonic soul sharing their body, and if they ever stop struggling with that demon within, they will become its instrument.
It's a big commitment, basically, and not always one taken by choice.
The fact that it's a physiological change sort of justifies the fact that you start at a higher level. So much of your power was imbued into you that you do sort of emerge from the process far more powerful than some guy who just took up a bow and decided it's time to be a Hunter.
But I think another aspect of Hero Classes is that they have a far more specific story. Of the non-hero classes, I'd say Druids and Paladins had had the most specific backgrounds and traditions. Yet we're seeing the mololithic nature of these class traditions break down, even as Legion had them join together in class orders. In Vanilla, all Paladins were Knights of the Silver Hand, because you only had Humans and Dwarves. Then you got Vindicators and Blood Knights (Blood Elf Paladins even got a different ability that Alliance Paladins during BC that pushed them more toward Ret while Alliance ones got a better ability for Prot,) and then Sunwalkers. While these all boiled down to using holy magic to fight off evil monsters like demons and undead, the source of that tradition varied widely. (A Draenei Vindicator who hears Uther the Lightbringer described as the "first paladin" would, very respectfully, call that absurd.)
Druids have been more explicitly a single tradition, but we're seeing that break down as well. In Vanilla, you only had Night Elves and Tauren, and the latter, while they claimed an ancient and vaguely-remembered period of having practiced Druidism long in the past, ultimately learned the tradition from the Night Elves, before the Alliance and Horde turned them into adversaries. While Gilneas had Harvest Witches who practiced a rudimentary form of druidic magic, it wasn't until they were afflicted with the Worgen curse and taught by the Night Elves that they learned true Druidism. The Darkspear are a little trickier - Blizzard has gone back and forth on whether the tradition had existed earlier or if they had mostly learned it from the Tauren.
Well, there's none of that ambiguity in the new druid races. Sure, the Highmountain far more explicitly are connected to Cenarius and Malfurion (Huln was blessed by Cenarius with those moose antlers,) but the Zandalari connection to their dinosaur Loa looks like it has nothing to do whatsoever with Malfurion, and one even wonders if the tradition long-predates Malfurion or even the existence of Night Elves. Meanwhile, the Kul Tirans' Thornwatchers almost certainly derived their form of Druidism by learning the magic of the Drust, which makes them unique amongst Druids as mistrusted outcasts amongst their people.
But if there used to be a specific origin for Druids, the two existing hero classes are way more specific. Because they have a unique starting experience, both classes have a specific time in which they start, within a specific organization, regardless of race.
And the fact that the time period is specific makes adding new races complicated.
Death Knights begin right on the eve of Wrath of the Lich King, when Arthas has left the Frozen Throne to begin his campaign. Demon Hunters actually begin a little before that, literally during the raid on the Black Temple (like, literally the Raid where you might have fought Illidan during BC) before having a ten-year time jump.
That means that adding new races is complicated, especially if they're literally new races. The Void Elves, for instance, seem like they'd make perfectly good Demon Hunters. They clearly have no qualms with experimenting with dangerous magic, and as former Blood Elves, they have just as much of a reason to hate demons as any son or daughter of Quel'thalas. But, you know, there were no Blood Elves when Illidan was training his demon hunters. Similarly, Nightborne existed, but they were trapped in their bubble while Illidan was traipsing through the Tomb of Sargeras, just across the narrow waters from their city.
The only time either hero class got new races was in Cataclysm, when they decided to give them Goblins and Worgen (DKs are even the default class for Worgen when you start a new character.) Goblins were easy, as they had been plentiful in WoW since vanilla (though the connection to the Bilgewater Cartel and the Horde specifically was less obvious.) Worgen had been in the area, for sure, though generally in Silverpine, where the Scourge was less of a threat. Still, despite the fact that the Worgen of Shadowfang Keep (for those who came into the game in Cataclysm or later, SFK used to be "the Worgen dungeon") were all feral, the notion was that some had escaped Arugal's abuses and been taken by the Scourge, and that the process of Death-Knighting a Worgen calmed the rage enough to make them useful soldier for the Scourge.
But Blizzard hasn't done this since, and they've even backed down on ideas of adding things like Dark Iron Dwarf Death Knights.
Now, one reason is that this makes the earning of heritage armor sets way easier if you can do it on a hero class, to the extent that people might feel pressured to play a DK or DH in order to earn this achievement.
Still, the prospect is that these classes might not get any new race options for the rest of WoW's lifetime, even as the other classes get more and more.
Personally, I think that as long as new races are getting added, every class ought to get a new option or two. So how would you do that?
First, I think you could just think logically:
Illidan had more than Night Elves and Blood Elves in his employ. With Naga and Broken Draenei NPCs within the Demon Hunter class hall, it would make perfect sense if either were to be added to make them an option for the class.
Death Knights could really encompass anyone who might have been in Lordaeron prior to Wrath. Kul Tiran humans, for example, would not become isolationists until after the Third War, meaning you could easily have some Kul Tiran death knights dating back to those early days. There was, after all, a rather prominent Kul Tiran mage who was fighting the Scourge in the very early days. If we ever get an Undead allied race, they would probably fit this too.
But another option would be to change the way that these classes start:
Allowing the story to move forward for these classes, you could craft a different starting experience - maybe a shorter one, more like the allied races, who more or less get a welcome package and boot in the ass.
While the threat of Demons specifically is probably far smaller than it was during Legion, Demon Hunters could easily start training new recruits in their methods, perhaps offering a path to revenge against other supernatural threats.
And with the way that Bolvar is acting, we've seen three very prominent new Death Knights created during Legion - there's absolutely nothing preventing them from raising new DKs from amongst the other races, and the Ebon Blade doesn't seem to worry too much about whether people want to become Death Knights either.
I don't know if either of these are likely to happen, though I think the former is more likely, as it would require less content design work.
But it also remains to be seen how Blizzard is going to keep implementing new races.
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