Midnight's Haranir makes other playable races look bad

World of Warcraft: Midnight adds the Haranir as a new playable allied race. These reclusive underground naturalists reside in Harandar, one of the new zones in the expansion, where they watch over the roots of the world trees and the former cradle of their goddess, Aln'hara. After their appearance in The war withinmany World of Warcraft fans hoped that Haranir would become playable, and in Midnightthese dreams are becoming reality.

With a robust set of customization options, Haranir is perfect for players who like to design unique characters. Additionally, even their shapeshifting druid forms have a number of customizable features. Fans of the latest allied race in the World of Warcraft eats well in Midnight – but unfortunately most of the other playable races are left to starve.

World of Warcraft gives Haranir a lot of love at midnight

How World of Warcraft's new allied race leaves others in the dust

Haranir gets many customization options. In total, they have 29 (28 for body type 1) different choices to make, ranging from staples like hairstyles and face shapes to unique options, including fur patterns, backs, and even eyelashes. Beyond that, their base options run deeper than most other races; their 18 amazing hair options include tons of amazing black styles and a color scheme for highlights, and their eyes reflect the light in a mesmerizing way.

Most of the other playable races simply cannot compare to this breadth of customization. While Draktyren from WoW: Dragonflight actually dwarf Haranir, with 42 different categories to browse by their draconic form alone, every other race has far fewer. The likes of humans and orcs can make up the difference with the sheer number of options within each category, but most have less than half of what Haranir gets. Some races, including core options like Gnomes and Undead, allied races like Dark Iron Dwarves and Vulpera, and even Blood Elves, who take center stage in Midnightdon't even break into double digits.

It gets worse. Druids are central to Haranir's imagination, and like other races they have unique shapeshifting forms, including a werewolf-like bear form, a bat-flying form, and an axolotl water form. But all their transformations are also customizable, with mix-and-match fur and feather colors, plus ear, nose and gill shapes depending on the shape. While players can customize a generic Moonkin form for their Balance Druids from now on World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Patch 10.2, no other race-specific shapeshifters have this level of detail.

While these options are undoubtedly great, they serve to highlight the growing divide between playable races. Like the Draktyrs before them, the Haranir received a barrage of attention from the development team, leaving the other races in World of Warcraft Neglected.

It's time for a model and customization refresh in World of Warcraft

Ultimately, the highlight of Haranir World of Warcrafts desperate need for a new model and adaptation renewal. Save the Worgen and Goblins, which were updated in The Battle for Azeroth after entering Cataclysmthe latest model update in World of Warcraft was under Warlords of Draenor in 2014. In the meantime, the major adaptation review has in WoW: Shadowlands dates back to 2020. In comparison, the all-new models and abundance of customization options for the Haranir and Dractyr put most of the previous races to shame.

Theoretically speaking, World of Warcraft may be to cook such a renewal as a function before or after World of Warcraft: The Last Titanand it just wants to finish each race before rolling them out, but there is no evidence that such a review is underway. Regardless, World of Warcraft can't continue to put all their attention on the latest playable races while leaving their old classics out in the open, or risk the community's anger reaching a boiling point.

System

Released

2026

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op

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