Thank heavens for Twitter. Twitterer
@kreeoni tweeted a scoop detailing the Night Elf
Druid bear forms following the exciting revelation of
Tauren Druid bear forms yesterday. And oh boy... do they look spiffy. I particularly like the fellow on the lower right, with the
Spike-like white stripe and matching sideburns. Our girl
Allison is already jumping up and down from excitement (or is it envy? I can't tell with Tauren females...), probably impatient that we don't have the cat forms yet. But here you go, savor the first look at these new Druid bear forms with nastier growls and face paint. Man, Druids get excited over the tiniest things...
UPDATE: Apparently, Allison was jumping up and down from, uh, being underwhelmed. She's kind of weird that way.
ALLISON UPDATE: Hey, I am
totally whelmed here. Maybe they're less a shock to the senses after the initial change to Tauren bear form!
Tags: 3.2, bear-form, breaking, breaking-news, breakingnews, druid, druid-bear-form, news, news-item, newsitem, night-elf, night-elf-bear-form, Patch-3.2
Filed under: Night Elves, Druid, News items
Transmog yourself into an Avenger!
6 blue posts to read before Diablo 3's launch
Cross-realm zones coming soon
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria news
May 27th 2009 at 5:20PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Allison Robert May 27th 2009 5:22PM
Hrm. I have to say that the Night Elf forms seem less visually interesting than the Tauren forms, but lore-wise it seems appropriate. Tauren forms match the majority of the Tauren fur colors, whereas Night Elf forms have the muted coloration of pale Night Elf skin.
The one at top left irresistibly reminds me of Ebenezer Scrooge for some reason...
Aedilhild May 27th 2009 5:45PM
The face resembles the bronze knocker invested by Marley's ghost, I suppose.
thevitruvianman May 27th 2009 8:11PM
I think it's the eyes to be honest. The new tauren bear forms had much more expressive eyes than the old version. Any artists among us will know that the eyes are the most important part of any face, as we are naturally drawn towards them. Unfortunately, night elves in wow don't have any iris or pupils as such, just glowy gold or silver orbs. The lack of proper eyes seems to detract from the faces when comparing these to the tauren ones, and for me they just don't seem to have the same impact.
Still, the new textures look a lot better than the old, and the models have been tidied up a bit as well, the same as the tauren ones. Having a bit of choice and variety is going to be nice as well.
Eisengel May 27th 2009 8:34PM
For me it's the little collar with a bell on to keep them from "scraggin' the wee burdies".
Evelinda May 27th 2009 10:54PM
you know, i totally agree, the tauren forms look much cooler so far... which makes me a little bit sad, because the only reason that i rolled a nelf druid instead of a tauren was because i couldnt stand to look at tauren cat form for 50 levels (at the time).
As people have said before, its the eyes... theyre creepy and wrong. i'm also not that big a fan of the sideburns. i know nelfs are kind of tree-huggers, and druids are in particular, but come on, its not woodstock... get a haircut, you hippie bear!
In saying that, however, i really dont want to come across as looking a gift horse in the mouth. I'm REALLY excited about getting new skins, i really am. I freaked out all over our guild chat when i found out. I'm looking forward to seeing some kitty skins, and i'm looking forward even more to seeing some ToL skins (even though they appear to be a long way off at best)
Elarion May 28th 2009 6:27AM
Agree, the Tauren forms do look better BUT we've had the better cat all this time so cant really complain and I still love the look of these new forms.
More excited for 3.1 than I was for both BC and Wrath put together >
Oink May 27th 2009 5:26PM
What Allison said tbh
Karilyn May 27th 2009 5:27PM
Meh, my opinion is that these ones still look hideously ugly. The Tauren Bear Form always looked best out of the two, and with the new changes, it looks better than ever. But it seems like nothing can save the Night Elf Bear Form.
It's times like these, that make me glad I'm a Tauren Druid, not a Night Elf Druid.
Allison Robert May 27th 2009 5:31PM
I think the single best "classic" form overall remains NE cat form and, well, that may still wind up being true when all's said and done.
The more I think about it, the lack of pupils on NE bear form really plays a huge role in how "off" it looks. That distinction seems better suited to cat form.
Karilyn May 27th 2009 5:48PM
I've always found the lack of eyeballs on Night Elves to be creepy. I've always been confused about why people think Night Elves are sexy. To me, they are rather horrifying looking, and with their soul-less eyes, the most monstrous and evil-looking player race in the game.
I understand why Blizzard has been trying to make the bear purplish from the beginning, to make them closer to the night elf skin colors. But the end result, seems to make me think that their fur look somewhat moldy, like a sloth.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/set/1478/sloth20052small.jpg
AlexW573 May 27th 2009 11:28PM
I'm kinda sad how most of them look like a cross between a standard boring bear and the original Night Elf bear... I bet I'd appreciate new models if I spent more of my time in bear form, usually I'm in Moonkin form. All these new forms are great, but I'm pretty sad about how there is no new Moonkin one.
I hope they make it so you can choose what model you want separate from the way your character looks, I hope that's just a technical difficulty why they can't right now.
Passerby May 28th 2009 2:46AM
Actually, Allison, I don't have much qualms about the new forms having no pupils. If you look at the bottom variety, they don't have pupils because their eyes are GLOWING BLUE. If having a bear-form Death Knight isn't cool, I don't know what is.
Sev May 27th 2009 5:32PM
Hrm, well the Tauren forms do look betterm but these still are a very large improvement from Ye Olde Bear. I do quite like the bottom right one.
Ozymandias May 27th 2009 5:32PM
Is there any word on the ability to customize the bear? The thing that I do not like about druid forms is that all forms, no matter what level or gear looks exactly the same. Being able to change the look of the forms, even if it is just a little thing or two would make a huge difference in my eyes.
Super Guest Man 9000 May 27th 2009 5:40PM
How your form looks depends on hair color (Nelf) or skin color (tauren) so depending on changes via barber shop translates to changes in the form. I don't think its anything like being able to change your mane, eye color, accessories. But rather overall skin swaps based on the previous barbershop related factors
BulletzBill May 27th 2009 5:40PM
no customization beyond being able to change between which color you want via the barbershop.
tatsumasa May 27th 2009 5:52PM
if you didn't read it on the forums, the under-development page on wow, the first wow.com article on this, or any of the other five thousand people who have posted about it, why would you read the answer this time?
JamieG May 27th 2009 6:15PM
I think he means being able to change the physical appearance of the form, rather than just the colour, e.g. the mane and jewellery styles.
Adamanthis May 27th 2009 6:28PM
Any guesses on which is which?
I'd say:
Top Left: Green hair
Top Middle:White hair
Top Right:Purple hair
Bottom Left: Light blue hair
Bottom Right: Dark blue hair
There doesn't seem to be a clear correspondence though. I would have expected the feathers or something to indicate the hair colour.
Ozymandias May 27th 2009 8:32PM
"I think he means being able to change the physical appearance of the form, rather than just the colour, e.g. the mane and jewellery styles." That is what I was going after. Sorry I wasn't more specific.