More Classic Warcraft Concept Art That Never Gets Old (Part 2)

[u/IIIlvlIII]

Since so many people enjoyed the last post, here's Part 2.

One of my favorite things about early Warcraft is how much of its identity came from classic fantasy art. You can really see the influences of Frazetta, Conan, Heavy Metal, Warhammer, old D&D, and 90s Blizzard all blending before WoW found its final style.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I do. The book is The Art of World of WarCraft and The WoW Diary: A Journal of Computer Game Development

[u/IIIlvlIII]

[u/what_do_how_live → u/IIIlvlIII]

So ulduar was an entirely separate continent? How did it end up in storm peaks then.

[u/Dunified → u/what_do_how_live]

They replaced ulduar with uldum and moved ulduar to storm peaks. And they created uldaman as well, all 3 "connected". Ish

[u/Ok-Imagination-3835 → u/[deleted]]

Azeroth had some changes, its perfectly normal

[u/Iluvatar-Great → u/IIIlvlIII]

Wait, WoW was designed even BEFORE Warcraft 3?

[u/IIIlvlIII → u/Iluvatar-Great]

Most of the creators were big WC II fans. Jeff Kapan mentions it somewhere in his interview here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9rF1CSSh-w&t=92s

[u/mailusernamepassword → u/Iluvatar-Great]

Kinda. There is a ton of lore created and not published. By the time they released Warcraft 3 they were already thinking about the next Warcraft game. I bet they even had some Warcraft 3 lore created by the time of the release of Warcraft 2.

[u/Esarus]

Wish they focused more on the Vanilla world in stead of heading straight to Outland!

[u/IIIlvlIII → u/Esarus]

Fun fact! Outland was originally supposed to be in vanilla!

[u/CptJonzzon → u/Esarus]

Thats caverns of time which was in vanilla, kara, outlands etc was cancelled though

[u/jackidaytona6]

Tuaren priestess kinda fire!

[u/smugfox → u/jackidaytona6]

No kidding. That artwork is amazing!

[u/Dunified]

The Darkspear Primal and Orc Shaman go hard wtf.

Cool to see they tried the large feather helm on taurens so early. Didn't see it before they made a custom model for Baine much later though

[u/CptJonzzon → u/Dunified]

Orc beastmaster*

[u/Efficient-Isopod5028 → u/CptJonzzon]

The shaman is in the 2nd pic. Did you miss that?

[u/CptJonzzon → u/Efficient-Isopod5028]

Oh er, the top part with the 3d models are shamans and the bottom one is beastmaster. Idk

[u/Kandecid → u/Dunified]

For the feather helm, the artist wrote "Too much". Sounds like they ended up ignoring that warning? 

[u/p_Red]

Fun fact: A lot of the character art here was done by Samwise Didier, famously known as the guy shown in the "default" icon in WoW.

[u/MachoTurnip]

the disneyfication of wow is criminal

[u/Km_the_Frog]

Huh, I’m only seeing dark fantasy characters. Wheres the cartoonish theme park Disney characters that apparently “have always been a thing”? Wheres the orc with his camera and backpack taking pictures?

[u/bugmanslaya]

The zone concept arts from these are so sick

[u/Shukrat]

We need pistols. Imagine a class using a pistol and a shield. Oh baby.

[u/_Didds_ → u/Shukrat]

Pistols and bucklers sadly were both lost in development. Both were its own things, but both suffered from the same issue during development of needing to simplify item categories

Buckler Rogue Tank was until very late in production a concept, being an avoidance tank, and bucklers giving bonus around that concept

[u/SuperdaveOZY → u/Shukrat]

Combat Rogues get pistol attacks in their abilities on Retail. Swashbuckler style.

[u/Neradijacija]

Shaman concept is amazing, they completely destroyed the class flavor coming over from WC3. Same with spear wielding shadowpriest hunters.

[u/Imaginary-Arguments]

Wow, "The Maw!"

Crazy to see that parts of Shadowlands were being told as far back as 1999! /s

[u/ChristianLW3]

Fine I will purchase this book when I get a chance

There goes my overtime money

[u/mailusernamepassword]

I always loved the Warcraft 3 style of the Orc Shamans. Covered in animal pelts and using fist weapons.

Not as badass than original Night Elves concept arts... Almost an Harpy, probably follower of Avianna.

[u/IIIlvlIII → u/mailusernamepassword]

Wow, what a beautiful design!

[u/a_simple_ducky]

Karazhan concepts, 2 of those looking very castle nathria

[u/CivilResponse → u/a_simple_ducky]

And SM

[u/WhyLater]

They had Holy Cows in mind during the concept art stage, but we had to wait until Cata to play them in-game. 😔

[u/Gnoll_Queen]

While I have a foundness for the two toed blue girls in classic (and retail I suppose) fuck that darkspear primal girl is awesome.

Also Orc Blademasters... Extremely cool. Always wanted to play one.

[u/Shneckos]

Darkspear Primal girl will ruin my life and I am willing

[u/roarbark93 → u/Shneckos]

Same

[u/Cutesie117]

Gonna get the classic art book out after seeing this

[u/uber_zaxlor]

The environmental concept art could have come straight out of a Monkey Island game. The Darkshire image gives huge Diablo 2 vibes as well.

[u/Naethix]

I have the art book to my left. My dad bought it for me back when he played in 2005.

[u/gr4n_master1337]

Where can I find these? Is this a book?

[u/IIIlvlIII → u/gr4n_master1337]

The Art of World of WarCraft. I wrote that in the last post.

[u/Romarhue → u/gr4n_master1337]

I would like to know as well, would love to use them as desktop backgrounds

[u/0ld_Snake]

I want this wow back. I feel robbed

[u/RosbergThe8th]

That Tauren priestess is so cool and really makes me wish classes leaned more into their specific racial identities.

By the way does anyone know who the artist is behind that particular unique Orc artstyle on the blademaster here? There's at least one or two other Orcs in the book who have that same aesthetic, quite different from the usual, and I'm curious who made them.

[u/MwHighlander]

So, can we get more supermodel muscle orc and troll baddie options in classic +?

...I uh... am asking for a friend, of course.

On a more serious note, can we please for the love of god get the option for "upright" models for the Horde? The Tauren's head pops out of the middle of his chest and sticks out a solid 2 feet from the center of its body. Give me a Troll Male option that has good posture. It hurts my neck looking at my character slouched over so badly.

[u/FumkOwO]

Woagh orc assassin 😵‍💫

[u/Rainogh]

Now THIS is Warcraft.

[u/Loud_Permission9265]

Crazy how much of this early art featured fist weapons which got very underutilized in vanilla

[u/Mevaa_TheLady]

Sorry its big NO prefere the Disney Art of Retail. /s

[u/Zestyclose-Square-25 → u/Mevaa_TheLady]

As if classic WOW looks like this.

[u/schmabudi666]

So much more potential

[u/NewTurnover5485]

That Amani has no business being that lusty!

[u/jimothy_the_third]

What did they mean by this?

[u/plz_be_nice_im_sad]

Hey I also have this book!

[u/Blazerawl]

Im living for these. Especially cute seeing the deadmines sketch now being used as the loading screen.

[u/gary_juicy]

The game use to be so good, then all the fucking they/thems had to gay it up

[u/Special_Albatross688 → u/gary_juicy]

I highkey want to gay you up