Skinning Tauren for leather
by Mike Schramm 
Dec 13th 2007 at 7:00PM
We've definitely had this conversation before, but Bhou on the EU forums brings it up yet again: why don't we treat the various races like they, y'know, are those various races? He asks why we can't skin Taurens for leather, but that brings up all the other race issues in Azeroth. Why aren't Undead immune to fear? Why aren't Gnomes tameable? Oh wait, that last one might not be right (though it would be funny).But besides the game balance problems, the fact is that the racial abilities are about as well-represented as they're going to get (and in fact, if there are any changes in the future, they'll probably be towards conformity rather than radically away from it). You can't skin Tauren because, guess what, they're humanoids. Undead can't be immune because guess what, they're humanoids, too, and while a weakness to holy spells might make the game interesting, it won't help towards balance.
The Warcraft world is a mean one, but would the Alliance really go so far as to skin fallen Taurens on the battlefield anyway? For game balance or for lore reasons, it just doesn't make sense.
Filed under: Tauren, Skinning, Items, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Lore
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Sage of Vengeance Jan 23rd 2008 9:46PM
I think the reason they don't allow it is because people would come back to find their corpses without skin. Rezzed people who were skinned would be just gross.....
Dave Hill Dec 13th 2007 7:12PM
What's next? Orc skinning dead humans?
Longbow Dec 13th 2007 7:58PM
Undead already performing cannibalism on any Alliance players' body, why not skin the cows?
jumb Dec 13th 2007 7:15PM
"You can't skin Tauren because, guess what, they're humanoids."
There is actually one skinnable humanoid race in the game: the Yetis.
Zakk Dec 13th 2007 7:24PM
I'm pretty sure you can skin Worgen, too.
crazyjake Dec 13th 2007 7:16PM
Never mind skinning Tauren why can we not skin human and non human creatures in the game? It would certainly give the game a different edge and you would probably stay farther away from the undead rogue wearing the cloak made from human ,and dwarf skin.
skbid Dec 13th 2007 8:59PM
What a cool idea, craft an awesome cloak with the skins you collect. Depending on the type you get is what specs it would have....Undead skin gives Fear Resistance, Tauren gives Defense, Orc gives Stamina, and Troll gives Attack Power, and Blood Elf skin could be Spell Damage and Healing. The same thing for Alliance skins.
You could even combine skins to get variations or even randomize the effects.
I think we should take it a step farther tho with the taurens..... I mean hey they are cows.....it's what's for dinner. Let's cook em up too!
Ichigo Dec 13th 2007 7:21PM
If other races get to skin Taurens, then Taurens should be able to skin all humanoids in return. Fair is fair.
Dave Dec 13th 2007 9:27PM
The Undead can eat their kills, so why can't we skin?
PDKM Dec 13th 2007 7:34PM
So we can't skin a Tauren, but Undead can eat my corpse & regenerate health from it?
Balance
Charlie Taylor Dec 13th 2007 7:38PM
hm, well the last few comments seem to confirm what blizz doesn't want to go down that road.
Mike Dec 13th 2007 7:40PM
If I remember correctly, undead *were* immune to fear during open beta or right after launch...but I could be completely wrong.
Ik Dec 13th 2007 7:49PM
Yeah, WoTF was a passive skill.
Coherent Dec 13th 2007 7:47PM
If you want to go down that road, then technically you can skin ALL creatures, including humans, dwarves, gnomes, trolls..! I guess undead would yield pretty poor quality skin, but you could do it and it would be useful.
Iain Dec 13th 2007 7:49PM
The game could be banned in some countries if humans can be skinned, e.g. wow in China is much more sanitized than the western version, in order to comply with local laws.
Burg Dec 13th 2007 7:52PM
@ Mike --
Undead were immune to fear at some point in the beta, BUT lest you think that made them imbalanced, at that time they could also be shackled by Priests AND Pallies could use all their undead spells against Undead players O_o
White Rabbit Dec 14th 2007 12:02AM
so they want to make sure that every race is the same? Cause you know, race differences = OP am I right lawlz? *sacrasm*
TurnUndead Dec 13th 2007 8:48PM
So much for the Undead immuned to fear. Blizzard really cocked up. Holy Paladin for alliance has this skill called "Turn Undead" basically fearing those undead species away. Yet... it can't be use on Horde's side of Undead...
Scylloga Dec 13th 2007 9:06PM
@15 yeah umm Blood Elf Pally have that ability to...also L@read the tooltip when mousing over a Undead player we are Humanoids....
theRaptor Dec 13th 2007 10:42PM
That is because in beta they discovered that making Forsaken vulnerable to some extra CC, in turn for fear immunity was a bad idea.