Please add lore-friendly options for original races from retail to keep their HD models as customizable as the Skyborne.

[u/SeranaDawnsinger]

For example, the human model would look far better if these HD hair options were available. If the technology is available, please decouple the HD and classic models so we can have options like this, or Wildhammer tattoos for dwarves etc. Even an announcement of the intention to do something like this would do wonders, as it stands it feels unfair on the other races just how much customization Skyborne receive by comparison.

[u/Taunako]

Let’s pick as an example the painting on tauren models. That is part of their HD models and they’ve never existed for the SD ones.

What would your toon look like if a player uses SD models and you use HD and put this tattoos on?

I think this is the reasoning of Blizzard now. Each HD model should have a SD version.

[u/SeranaDawnsinger → u/Taunako]

They already do that with the foremanes (bangs) options for tauren males with the HD model and makeup for the femme human at the moment, I don't see why even temporarily they can't add them in for the HD models before making an SD equivalent later down the line. They've done it with the entire Skyborne model as well.

[u/Taunako → u/SeranaDawnsinger]

I get you but I still think this is their current vision of an upgraded classic WoW.

It will probably change someday but I don’t expect this to happen too soon. I’m also longing for the not hunched orcs but… it is what it is, it’s classic.

[u/MakitaNakamoto → u/Taunako]

I'm all for SD models, like them better, will be using them

THAT SAID, why don't HD models have their options is beyond me

Just don't show those options on SD

There are 5 new faces with no SD equivalent? Cool, assign them to random faces, who cares. It's not like currently these option pairings look anything alike anyways

[u/InfinityIsTheNewZero → u/Taunako]

Having the toggle at all is admitting that it doesn't really matter if players see the same thing when they look at a character. I don't see why we can't have retail customization options either be invisible to SD players or have SD options represent multiple HD ones i.e retail hairstyles 1-3 show up as SD hairstyles 1 and retail 4-6 be SD 2 and so on.

[u/yakattak → u/Taunako]

If I’m using HD, quite frankly I don’t care what my character looks like to someone using SD.

[u/sionnabhan → u/yakattak]

same. i don’t understand the hullabaloo about them having to match at all, honestly. i really can’t think of any situation where it would come up when playing with randos, and as far as socially like with friends.. i think it’s fairly clear how divided we are as a community so we’re unlikely to be best pals who show off our characters to each other on discord. besides, our characters already look different since most sd users will also have transmog disabled. at this point if they actually care about people’s immersion just give the purists an entirely new ruleset so they’ll stop whining.

[u/KKylimos → u/Taunako]

Why tf would I care how an SD user is viewing my model, I don't understand. It's a personal choice to turn on SD or HD, why should I be affected by what preset another player is using? If it doesn't translate to SD, it doesn't translate, end of story. They don't see it, they opted out of seeing the feature, why is it my problem as an HD player to get taxed for SD player choices?

[u/SlipperySlimyTerry40 → u/Taunako]

There's a lot of things like this though. You can edit your eyebrows and face shape as an HD human but can't as SD. There's also a number of HD hairstyles they've given to the SD models but downscaled the texture. The HD model is also divorced from the SD model in character creation. You can edit them separately and it doesn't effect the other. Your HD model could have tats while the SD doesn't.

[u/CurseOfZeal → u/SlipperySlimyTerry40]

Which hairstyles did they downscale? As far as I'm aware, all the hairstyles of the core races are from Vanilla, Wrath, or Cata.

And not to be argumentative, maybe I'm misunderstanding, but saying the model's appearance options are "divorced" from one another isn't really correct at all. There are a few components that are exclusive to the HD, but editing most changes them on both models.

[u/VooDooBooBooBear → u/Taunako]

Or... just dont show the non-SD bits? Frankly, I couldn't care less what my toon looks like in SD, all I care about is what I see Give me tattoos, give me options and just dont show them for the people who choose to see bad charecter models imo

[u/The_whole_taos]

Even the retail customization is pretty barebones compared to the 2026 industry standard and they definitely should add additional features for us to create unique characters. Give us long beards for humans and night elves, give us more beard options for Gnomes or any beards for Trolls really. Give us 2-3 body variants for each race. The troll berserkers in Warcraft 3 were already a lot more muscular than the standard Darkspear model. The lore has prominent characters with these features yet they never bothered to implement them. For the endless tons of money Blizzard likes to collect, they should put at least some work into it.

[u/Coffee_Conundrum → u/The_whole_taos]

What I don't understand is why they don't target the roleplayer or Second Life crowd and continuously add emotes and hair customization and such. Even simple stuff like making emotes not auto post text into chat.

Like FF14 has a metric shit ton of people just hanging out and staying subscribed so they can hang out in Limsa or Balmung's Uldah and all they do is just chat with each other, transmog, or go to those dj club thing and everyone's got variation since they add a hairstyle or two every patch.

Roleplayers when catered to are notorious for staying subscribed through raider and pvper content patch lulls as long as the lore is sound and theyre thrown a bone or two every now and then (like with housing in retail).

[u/Kooky-Insect5646 → u/Coffee_Conundrum]

I would tape this to blizz headquarters, i'd imagine they'd be quite upset... if they could read

[u/ModernWarBear → u/Coffee_Conundrum]

Yeah it's honestly bizarre. The ultra casual players are what is keeping FF14 afloat.

[u/Jake-of-the-Sands → u/The_whole_taos]

I would say it's below barebone. I mean, with that many races I don't expect it to be like Aion 2 for instance, but I mean, but we have so little customization options that it's silly.

[u/tinylittlebabyjesus → u/The_whole_taos]

Agree with everything except making Troll mega jacked. Part of why I've always liked Trolls is that their bodies are a little more realistic.

[u/Valuable_Advisor_941 → u/tinylittlebabyjesus]

Every troll that has been featured in Warcraft has been jacked until Blizzard decided to unexplicably make trolls into lanky, hunchback potheads. Look up Headhunters in Frozen Throne, they were absolute units.

[u/tinylittlebabyjesus → u/Valuable_Advisor_941]

I like my lanky, gamer posture potheads. And in WoW, honestly they are pretty strong and muscular looking, they just don't have an over the top mega buff Ronnie Coleman/NFL linebacker build like Orcs.

These guys aren't huge:

https://classic.battle.net/war3/orc/units/trollheadhunter.shtml

https://classic.battle.net/war3/orc/units/witchdoctor.shtml

https://classic.battle.net/war3/orc/units/shadowhunter.shtml

Berserkers and Bat Riders are more buff though.

https://classic.battle.net/war3/orc/units/trollbatrider.shtml

https://classic.battle.net/war3/orc/units/trollberserker.shtml

[u/chinin111 → u/The_whole_taos]

It was barebones even in 2004, compared wow customization with Star wars Galaxies, Aion, even everquest 2 that offer more races

Lotr and Swotor also have similar but better customization

[u/tinkerbr0 → u/The_whole_taos]

I use the really big handlebar mustache on my retail gnome character. That option alone would account for most of what I want added to WoWF. I’m a simple man.

[u/Enajirarek]

Skyborne don't even have that many customization options. Like compared to Haranir, they're nowhere near as customizable.

Everything needs massive improvement

[u/TheDeceiver43 → u/Enajirarek]

Most retail races don't even have nearly as many options as Haranir.

[u/360_face_palm → u/Enajirarek]

honestly I'm sure they'll add more as time progresses - but it's probably not that high up their priority list since they probably think most people playing are coming from classic and will be playing with SD models. Whenever you've got a feature that impacts less people it's likely to be lower on the list, but doesn't mean they wont do it.

[u/roseumbra → u/360_face_palm]

The sd models is the one less people will be using. That’s why it wasn’t originally in the game and sky elves don’t have it yet.

[u/360_face_palm → u/roseumbra]

I doubt it. You barely even see footage of anyone using them on streams/youtube - granted that doesn't mean players aren't using them but I very much doubt it's the majority.

[u/roseumbra → u/360_face_palm]

Streamers and youtubers are not the majority. I can also anecdotally say things like no one i know is using SD models. And even if it was a minority they already have the assets and just have to unlock them for the HD players.

[u/ufointrovert → u/Enajirarek]

how do you have the gall to say "don't even have that many" when they have more than literally every body else?

[u/Enajirarek → u/ufointrovert]

Because they literally don't have that many and WoW customization is incredibly outdated compared to pretty much everything else?? Like Just because the other races have 3 options doesn't mean 7 is that much better: 7 is still low and doesn't deserve praise.

They should all be Haranir tier in terms of customization at this point.

[u/roseumbra → u/ufointrovert]

Well if you give all the retail options to everyone then it’s more on par.

[u/Exastasis]

lol I like the addition of “lore friendly” what non lore friendly customizations are we afraid of?

[u/SeranaDawnsinger → u/Exastasis]

Darkfallen for night elves as it does not fit vanilla wow.

[u/KKylimos]

Some character creation choices are wild. Orcs are always depicted standing upright, in trailers, in the RTS games, movies, you name it. The only Orc who is constantly depicted as being a hunchback is Gul'Dan and yet the playable orc model has the head shoved in the sternum. Retail has upright pose, why not us?

Also, there are some super cool Orc hairstyles, even simple options like Kargath's long hair, but we get the Undead wacky punk ones that honestly don't fit orc AT ALL.

Night Elf dudes are almost always depicted with long beards in artworks, the best they've got in-game is a goatee.

Just give us more customization please, it's not even new stuff, it's already in retail.

[u/Darthbobz]

They needed to release with A LOT more customization and things as unlocks but we got WoTLK hairstyles.

[u/Nomnoms04]

We probably had them until they were persuaded to add SD models at the last minute. There's no way to introduce them while we have a toggle and SD models lack the option.

[u/Maximelene → u/Nomnoms04]

There's no way to introduce them while we have a toggle and SD models lack the option.

Display that option in HD, display nothing in SD.

[u/Di_Bastet]

It will be added, don't worry. Let the controversy die down a little bit, and more customization options will come as a way to keep interest high. The assets exist, it is possible to have HD features without affecting SD models, and the purists don't need to interact with HD features at all (except for the temporary issue with the skyborne). Once the loud voices forget this and find a new thing to scream about blizzard can trickle down more stuff at a leisure, sales-improving pace. Is it cynical? Yes. But we also know that's how it works.

[u/MacLaser]

If I don't want to see one thing it is male humans with the effing bloodelf/varian haircut... specifically in Paladin Tier 2.... never met a sane player in that combo

[u/SeranaDawnsinger → u/MacLaser]

You'll see a lot less of it with more customization!

[u/b44l → u/SeranaDawnsinger]

I think you’ll just see more options like it

[u/TheFerroSovian]

Is it that hard to have us have 2 customizations; one if the player has HD enabled and one if the player has SD enabled? It'd be far easier than making a 1:1 connection between each SD and HD option wouldn't it? Customization is literally set up in code as face1,eye2,beard1,ear2 aren't they?

[u/Immolation_E]

Adding character style options as quest rewards and boss drops in dungeons might be cool.

[u/Goodbye_Kenny]

Beard??? What you think you are? A human??

[u/deldour]

Feels rough having a cool appearance idea that can’t be done on HD models when the drip exists officially elsewhere

[u/SkyAnyaWoW]

more customization is always a win for any RPG, there is nothing to debate about it, more is actually more on this.

[u/tinkerbr0]

There doesn’t need to be 1:1 parity between HD and SD customizations. Let us set our HD and SD loadouts separately.

[u/Cloud_N0ne]

I would even say back-port certain ideas to the SD models, like blind eyes and new beard options. Obviously make them SD tho.

[u/Shagrindleton]

The retail customization sucks lol

[u/Outofmana1337]

Boobslider is what we need clearly