Blizzard Intentionally Downplaying WoW Forever’s Skyborne Race, and It’s a Positive Move

Blizzard has revealed plans for a major overhaul of the somewhat divisive Skyborne race in World of Warcraft: Forever, set to roll out early next year. This update aims to align their appearance more closely with the classic, less polished models from the original game, and the community seems largely supportive of this move.

In a recent blog update, Blizzard announced that in early 2027, they will be revamping both the standard-definition models for the Skyborne and the models for all Druid animal forms, in both SD and HD formats. The goal is to ensure these models fit better within the overall aesthetic of the game.

Currently, the Skyborne models feel a bit out of sync with the rest of WoW: Forever’s design. The game draws inspiration from the original, vanilla World of Warcraft, which means everything has a certain polygonal charm—think spiky edges and sometimes overly textured surfaces. While WoW: Forever does feature enhanced lighting, water effects, and other graphical upgrades that give the world a fresh look while maintaining its retro vibe, the Skyborne still stand out for all the wrong reasons. Their colors are overly vibrant, lacking the sharpness and texture of older models, making them appear too smooth and modern. For instance, check out my Skyborne in the beta sporting her SD model:

If you’re thinking “SD, no way!” you’re spot on—that’s actually the HD model. The Skyborne currently only have an HD version, so if you switch to SD graphics and find yourself in Orgrimmar among the orcs, tauren, and trolls, you’ll definitely look out of place.

Now, take a look at a night elf’s SD model:

And for a bit of fun, here’s a tauren’s:

Totally different vibes! Blizzard is aware of this mismatch and is actively working on a solution.

We also got a sneak peek at the upcoming changes for Druid forms, which face similar issues—not only do they lack an SD version, but their HD models also stand out too much.

Overall, the community reaction seems positive! While the comments on the Blizzard forums are a mixed bag—some players dislike the idea of the models looking “worse,” and others are still frustrated by the existence of the Skyborne—many are excited about the changes. Even those who aren’t fans of the Skyborne race seem to agree that this is a step in the right direction.

I’ve been using SD models, and it’s striking how much the Skyborne stand out, so I’m looking forward to this update, even if it won’t arrive until months after the game launches in November. This seems to be part of a broader effort by Blizzard to address player concerns about the Skyborne, from their design to their very inclusion in the game. In a recent interview, the developers explained that the Skyborne were introduced to revive the underutilized Air Elemental theme and to ensure a balanced player distribution across factions, avoiding the issues seen with Blood Elves in The Burning Crusade.