Aggrend says the unusual race and class combinations in an overview video weren't intentional

Blizzard's official WoW: Forever podcast released its seventh episode on 12 November, a lore special with senior game designer Josh "Aggrend" Greenfield, lore historian Sean Copeland and two guest creators, PlatinumWoW and Nobbel87. A little over an hour in, the panel asked Greenfield about race and class combinations that had appeared in an overview video but are not in the game. His answer was short: they weren't intentional.

He didn't rule new combinations out. He said the team would have to earn them with story content first, and he gave no list, no date and no plan.

The footage question

The question was about what the questioner called the big overview video for Season of Discovery. They said it showed a lot of race and class combinations that are not in the game right now, and asked whether that was intentional.

Greenfield said he hated to be boring, but no. He thought the team that made the video simply liked how those characters looked, though he said he didn't really know. Still, he said, never say never. He would personally love to see more races get shamans and more Horde races get priests, he said, but any change like that has to be earned: the team needs to put in content that supports it and makes it fit.

Earning a new combination

Just before that, the panel had asked whether players should expect more new race and class combinations, with lore to justify them, in Forever's future.

Greenfield said that when the team first talked about the new combinations it wanted to add, the message it got back was that it had to earn them, by creating content that supports each one and makes it make sense. It is not something the team does lightly, he said. Forever didn't come out of the gate with tauren priests or tauren paladins, and that is the kind of thing the team would want to build towards. He mentioned a sun priest who can be found in Thunder Bluff and said he didn't know where that might go. He also suggested that a clever player might be able to put one and one together from the characters the team adds.

The glowing blue eyes

Nobbel87 followed up about the same video. It showed a model with glowing blue eyes, and players had wondered whether that meant death knights might arrive early.

Greenfield explained that when the team creates non-player characters, it can randomise their facial features, and every now and then that accidentally gives a character an option players can't choose. He said he didn't know for sure that this was what happened in the video, but from his own experience dressing NPCs, he thought it probably was. It could be cool someday, he added, without suggesting it was planned.

Someone else on the panel then riffed on how early death knights might fit the story. Copeland said that is exactly why details matter: people regularly ask him whether an eye colour or the shape of high elf ears is right, because players can riff for days about a small detail that may turn out to be a red herring.

What this doesn't tell you

No new race and class combination was announced. Greenfield named none as planned and gave no date, patch or phase. His wish for more shamans and more Horde priests was a personal hope, and the sun priest in Thunder Bluff was a hint he didn't explain, not a promise. The glowing eyes in the video were, by his best guess, a randomised NPC detail rather than a sign of early death knights. A combination seen in footage is not a sign that it is coming.