No new allied races were announced at Blizzcon this year, but given the volume of them that we've gotten, a lot of players are now looking at every new NPC race and thinking "is it an allied race to be?"
We know we'll be getting Zandalari Trolls and Kul Tiran Humans some time after the Dazar'alor raid opens (likely in 8.1.5) and as excited as I am to make my horror-druid (like, really, really excited) we're always looking out for what's coming next. And while there were no actual announcements of allied races, there were a ton of teases.
I'm sticking here with only the races that have officially shown up in game or official published stories, or that have been announced for 8.2.
Vulpera:
These fox-folk showed up in Vol'dun and stole everyone's hearts. They play a big role in the zone's story and have a reasonably distinct culture - resourceful desert scavengers - that would fit pretty well with the Horde. While other allied races that share a "skeleton" with existing races have been variants on those races with a shared history, the Vulpera, despite using the Goblin skeleton, don't appear to be related in any way. That being said, the diversity in looks for them and the ability to rig them with armor would make them a rather easy and likely popular new race.
Sethrak:
Often the conversation around Vulpera has raised the question of who the Alliance equivalent would be. Some have suggested the Sethrak, who also play a big role in Vol'dun. The issue I have with this is that the Alliance only interacts a little with them while the Horde - having quests in Vol'dun - sees a lot of them. Given that they'd make more sense as a Horde race, I really doubt they'd be added.
Mechagnomes/Junker Gnomes:
Before Blizzcon I'd have been much more skeptical of these guys. But with a journey to the land of Mechagon and a fight to liberate these cybernetic gnomes (who seem to be kind of halfway between standard gnomes and mechagnomes) would give us the perfect reason to recruit them into the Alliance. Might the Horde feel annoyed that all their efforts only served to give the other faction an ally? One word: Suramar.
Naga-Like Race... I want to say Ankura?:
When we travel to Nazjatar, Horde and Alliance players will be working with different people. The Horde will be liberating slaves of the Naga like Sea Giants, Makura, and Gilblins, while the Alliance will fight alongside a new race that looks suspiciously like a Naga that has legs and might be on the Worgen skeleton. While players have wanted playable Naga for a long time, there's always been a massive logistical problem in how you'd address boots, pants, and mounts. Giving us something similar but with legs might solve it. This might be the perfect counter-balance to Vulpera, too.
Gilblins:
Gilblins are the only real variant on Goblins we've ever seen in the world. While goblins have been divided politically (primarily we've seen the Horde-aligned Bilgewater Cartel, the faction-neutral Steemwheedle Cartel, and the enemy-to-all Venture Company) they are physiologically more or less the same. Gilblins would thus fit as a classic allied race (if a feature that is less than a year old can have a "classic" type.) But is that something players would be all that excited about? I suppose if they're fleshed out a lot in Nazjatar it could be the case, but for now Gilblins have little more personality (maybe less) than Murlocs, and I guarantee you people would be way more excited to have Murlocs playable than Gilblins.
Drust:
The biggest issue here is that the only living Drust we know of is in permanent bear form. It's not clear that any of them still exist in a living, humanoid state. I suspect that the Drust are some sort of Vrykul off-shoot, perhaps afflicted by the curse that led to humanity (I'm still not convinced that that is the Curse of Flesh, because that would mean it hit the Vrykul twice) but maybe not as much. I realize Kul Tirans are bigger and broader probably just to reflect the diversity of body types in, you know, humans. But it could also be that Kul Tirans actually intermarried with the Drust in the early days (something that might have driven Gorak Tul to rage) and that could explain why the Kul Tirans are so big. But as its own allied race, I can't really see it happening.
Ultimately I don't know if BFA needs a ton more playable races. In previous expansions we never got more than two at a time, not counting vanilla (which was of course not an expansion if we want to be technical about it.) Allied races might just be a new thing they can add at a frequent rate like Overwatch or Heroes of the Storm characters, in which case just about any of these could be a thing.
But I think if we were to get the announced eight all together, I don't think we could complain they hadn't given us enough.
One thing I will note, though, is that while Void Elves likely signaled that we're never going to get High Elves, upon reflection I actually think that the existence of Highmountain Tauren, who really look nearly indistinguishable from the standard Tauren aside from the antlers. Considering that, I actually think that High Elves with different hairstyles and coloration wouldn't be such a crazy thing to make playable. And it would certainly fulfill the wishes of a sizable chunk of players (I find Void Elves more interesting, but that's just me.)
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