Blizzard is changing how the Skyborne, the new elf race introduced with World of Warcraft: Forever, look in the game, after beta players said the race's models clashed with the rest of the MMO. In a blog post on the World of Warcraft site, the development team said its aim is to "uphold the original WoW era aesthetic" and acknowledged that some of its ideas "didn't quite meet the consistency and cohesion we are aiming for," as reported by Eurogamer, PC Gamer and Wowhead.
The first change applies to the high-definition Skyborne druid forms. Blizzard said it removed some of the models' softness, added more detailed fur textures and adjusted the color saturation, and it published before-and-after comparison images. PC Gamer described the revised forms as having harsher lines and a more muted palette in place of the smooth, bright blue gradient of the earlier version.
The Skyborne are from an exotic environment, and their Druid forms reflect that, but we don't want that to be dissonant with the visual language of other creatures in the world.
Blizzard also confirmed that standard-definition Skyborne player characters and SD druid forms are in development and will arrive in early 2027. The post said the studio agreed with feedback that the HD Skyborne could be jarring alongside the game's SD models and world, and it shared an early work-in-progress image of the low-polygon versions. More information is to follow closer to that date.
Eurogamer reported that the community first heard a change was coming on a recent episode of the official WoW: Forever podcast, where senior game designer Josh "Aggrend" Greenfield acknowledged the feedback on the Skyborne humanoid and druid models and said the team hoped to have something more substantive to say soon. PC Gamer noted that the Skyborne, which resemble The Burning Crusade's Blood Elves but are presented in the lore as a faction of High Elves, cost $30 to unlock, and that Blizzard had said it would respond to the visual feedback before launch.
Reaction on Blizzard's forums and the World of Warcraft subreddit has been largely positive, according to Eurogamer, which also pointed to two other recent feedback-driven changes: lowering the rarity of dungeon loot so quest rewards are not devalued, and switching the character creator's race headshots from modern WoW's to those used in Classic. World of Warcraft: Forever remains in beta, with its server cap raised to meet demand, and launches in full on November 4.