Blizzard Entertainment is continuing to expand World of Warcraft’s race-class combinations in Dragonflight. Blizzard announced today that with the launch of Patch 10.1.5 later this year, Warlocks will be made available to every race in the game, bringing even more potential combinations to fruition.
The races that will be receiving Warlock as an option in Patch 10.1.5 are Draenei, Highmountain Tauren, Kul Tiran, Lightforged Draenei, Mag’har Orcs, Night Elves, Pandaren, Tauren, and Zandalari Trolls. If you’re one of those people who have been chomping at the bit to play an evil Pandaren or Night Elf Warlock, now’s your chance.
Earlier in Dragonflight, Blizzard issued an update to the Monk class, allowing it to be playable by every race except for Dracthyr. Warlocks will join Warrior, Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Priest, Monk, and Death Knight as the classes that are available to all races in the game (except for Dracthyr, who can only be Evokers).
Related: Evokers finally get third spec in upcoming WoW Dragonflight patch
With this change, six of the nine classes introduced to WoW when the game first launched in 2004 will be available to all of the game’s races. Although race-class restrictions still exist in Classic WoW (as they should), the retail version of the game is wide open for experimentation.
World of Warcraft has come a long way in making more classes available to the enjoyers of a certain race. The first big race-class combination update came with the launch of Cataclysm in 2010, when races like Humans, Gnomes, and Undead were given access to the Hunter class, and since that point, only more developments have been made.
Although it’s a minor change, the expansion of the Warlock class coming to every race in WoW is still welcome—it brings the game one step closer to complete race-class unity. Only three classes (not including Evoker) are still locked to certain races: Druid, Shaman, and Paladin. All three of those classes have race-specific spell animations and flavoring that would need to be created in order for them to be available to other races. Druids’ various shapeshifts, Shamans’ totems, and Paladins’ Divine Steeds would all need to receive animations that are specific to the races using the class. While it’s possible that we may see total race-class unity one day, those three classes present the most obvious roadblocks.
Warlocks’ pets and animations, however, are streamlined across the board, making them an easy choice to add to the whole roster. Furthermore, another customization option for the Imp pet will be coming in Patch 10.1.5, while all Warlock pets will be available to customize completely in the barber shop.
