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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsNew Tauren cat forms revealed
by Eliah Hecht 
Jun 2nd 2009 at 1:17PM
So far we've already seen the bear forms for Tauren and Night Elves. Today, Blizzard unveiled the replacements for the much-maligned Tauren cat form. You can see the results above. My initial reaction is that they're still a bit ugly, but way better than the previous Tauren cat form (which is marked "Old Cat form" above).
Here's what a few of our staff members thought:
Elizabeth: "A million times better. Still not as cool as night elf, but better."
Allison: "The eyes are way too small. Still going to be glad I play a bear."
Lesley: "Those horns are evil."
Alex: "I'm gonna roll a Tauren Druid so I can play that black one with the grey mane. I'm going to RP an old grizzled war vet Druid."
What do you think?
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 10)
Randomrestodruid Jun 2nd 2009 1:32PM
Absolutely Beautiful! SO much better than that pig-snouted, wingless wyvern THING that they tried to call a cat form.
If anyone actually heavily complains about these, I may have to smack them upside the head.
Mongolor Jun 2nd 2009 1:36PM
So very much better then before. I might dust of my drucow and get to slashing.
Tricia Jun 2nd 2009 1:34PM
I don't know about them. Yes, they are a marked improvement on the old form IMO, but I still think they look kinda ugly. The face is very bovine and with the nosering just seems masculine. I'm sure I'm not the only Tauren female druid out there, and hopefully not the only one wishing we'd gotten a cat model that could be male or female, like a tiger or something.
I'm kinda disappointed, overall. They hyped these up so much I was expecting something as cool as the bears, and I don't think they are much of an improvement. Makeup and jewelry doesn't make them unisex, or amazingly different.
knm1288 Jun 2nd 2009 3:09PM
I agree with you.
I really do love the new models. I think they're much better than the old one. BUT they are still obviously male. Manes= male lion in the real world and in WoW. Remember the Savannah prowlers? I guess it's too hard to make a female or androgynous version? They couldn't even make the mane slightly less pronounced in one of them?
IDK. I guess it's not really that important to most people, but I'm a girl who likes to play feminine looking characters. I always resented the fact that a female Tauren druid turns into a male when she hits cat form. This is why when I rerolled horde I couldn't make myself level another druid. I had a 70 NE druid at the time. I loved druids. I got to 20 on my Tauren druid and couldn't make myself keep going.
I know. I'm shallow.
Meg Jun 2nd 2009 4:08PM
See, I'm a girl who wishes my female druid could get a nose ring. :( I have one IRL, it can be very feminine/cool.
On that note, maybe the in-game cat models won't have a ring unless your character does. It wouldn't make much sense to get nose piercing everytime you switch forms. ;)
MooGooGaiPan Jun 2nd 2009 1:35PM
Eyes look weird.
Nose ring is, odd.
Paws look too small.
Horns too big.
Still looks very...Male.
Its a lot better than before, but I cant help but be a little disappointed. /sad
Rylka Jun 2nd 2009 1:46PM
The male only thing continues to bug me some too, especially considering how Blizzard has done such a nice job of creating male AND female lion-based cat models out in the game world that could have been used for inspiration.
I agree, that these forms are much better than before, and they do look decidedly more like predators.
It just would have been nice if they were going to pick a creature like a lion that has such distinctive male/female dimorphism for their inspiration, to make use of that gender distinction among player characters.
Perhaps in a future patch. :)
Mr. Crow Jun 2nd 2009 1:36PM
If anything is an improvement over the original form, this is pretty good.
The warpaint, the nosering, the braids in the mane, and the generally smoother look of all the models really improves the look. It's not just a lion with horns; instead, it's much closer to really characterizing that these are humanoids who are transforming into animals, taking on those animalistic traits while keeping some humanoid accoutrements alongside.
While the Night Elf cat form, for the most part, already looks pretty good, it'll certainly be interesting to see how they diversify it with the different Night Elf color sets.
My one gripe: Can someone explain to me why anyone is insistent on having gender-specific forms? Aside from the "female lions don't have manes" rationale.
Valartha Jun 2nd 2009 1:46PM
It's not that people want gender-specific necessarily... people would like gender-*neutral* forms. Stuff that doesn't appear to be overly masculine or feminine, so that it would be a form that makes sense for both sexes to transform into.
The new bears have beards (tauren) and more-obvious-than-before sideburns (nelf); the new tauren cats have manes and nose rings. These are traits that suggest masculinity, and some people don't find that kind of thing appropriate for female characters.
I don't call for separate models for males and females, since bears and most cats don't have much sexual dimorphism. I can live with the new forms. But I can also see how someone would rather the forms lose the beard, the sideburns, the nose ring, etc. so that the form corresponds better to the character's original one.
Rylka Jun 2nd 2009 2:00PM
Well stated Valartha.
Dzur Jun 2nd 2009 2:11PM
Exactly. Because a woman turning into a bear to rip someone's face off suggests "feminine" to me. Practically REEKS estrogen. Maybe blizz could give the Tauren an option in the jewelry section for udders.
Teah Jun 2nd 2009 2:27PM
Definitely agree.
To those annoyed at the request for more less male forms, just make it a mountain lion, or any other cat where it is not distinctly male to have a mane. I do not play feral on my tauren druid specifically because of the male look. You can be ass kicking feral cat without being specifically male.
However, definitely a big improvement on the old model. Still will be a lazerturkey, however.
Lykofos Jun 2nd 2009 1:36PM
Those models/skins are a huge improvement over the old Tauren cat model. They do look what a bovine type of creature would look like when it shifts into a more feline form.
pmcdaniel84 Jun 2nd 2009 1:37PM
Amazing...
At first I was a bit bleh, but the more I looked at em and compared them to the surroundings, ie the barrens savanah type look it made alot more sense that they resemble lions. The only potential downfall I see with this is the NE forms. If they go with the nightsaberish forest type cat, hopefully they put alot of detail into those as well.
Could they do better? Probably, but ill take what they give and be happy, anything is better then staring at 5 year old forms.
Rylka Jun 2nd 2009 1:38PM
The ability to change your animal-form skin colors in the barbershop will be a great addition in my mind.
I would prefer it though if you could sit in the chair in animal form and change your appearance without affecting your humanoid or other animal forms.
As I understand it now, you make one change (to humanoid hair or skin color) and you change all your other forms at the same time. This give no ability to have say a light colored cat form and a dark colored bear form while having the humanoid hair/skin you prefer.
As someone who obsesses about the details of my toon's appearance as much as the creation screen allows (up to the point of creating a toon, starting the game to see what it REALLY looks like, then deleting the toon, and starting again with a different variation, repeat until happy) the idea of having to arbitrarily change my humanoid form to affect my animal forms bothers me.
As it stands, it looks like I'll have to pick one form that I like the most (humanoid, bear, or cat) and just let the other forms be what they will be.
I love the idea of different new forms, but I would strongly prefer a finer level of control.
Arawn Jun 2nd 2009 1:55PM
The issue with having independent forms comes down to a database issue. There is a slot for skin tone and hair, but they'd have to add a database field or add info into a meta-field in order to store each form individually. Sure, it can be done, but that's a little more in depth than a major content patch would likely carry. That would more likely be something that you'd see hit with a new expansion as they have to do some re-arranging during that anyways.
They've said that they'd prefer to have the forms selected separately, but it just isn't in the cards at this time and is something they'd like to do in the future. My guess is patch 4.0.1.
Rylka Jun 2nd 2009 1:58PM
Thanks for the polite explanation and information.
I think Blizzard is going in the right direction with this and hope they do move forward in a future expansion as you have suggested might be possible.
RogueJedi86 Jun 2nd 2009 4:31PM
Plus how do you sit a bear or a cat in a barber chair? That'd be awkward.
Cheese Jun 2nd 2009 1:39PM
I think a lot of people are overlooking one thing: the new cats/bear have resemblance to a Tauren. Look at both the cat and bear. While they look like animals you can see the Tauren in them. This is what Blizzard is trying to achieve I believe. It's a perfect mix of the lore of Druids and yet the "humanity" present in the actual character. That is art at its finest.
Kole Jun 2nd 2009 1:39PM
Sooooo do we get to choose the skin we want or is it chosen for us by how we spec? Yeah dumbass noob question but as you can see we only had one choice before now we have several...