Orc Mages

[Adunai]

(As I was writing this, my browser crashed, so I have to start anew, and it's awkward.)

My idea is to justify Turtle's addition of 4 new class/race combinations in a constructive, pragmatic manner.

1. Gnome Hunters - might have been included in the light of the Legion expansion, or just in general due to the Gnome's proclivity for mind-control contraption, or outright building mechanical beasts. Makes sense.

2. Undead Hunters - a large part of the Undead population is derived from the culling fields of Quel'Thalas, a Forsaken Dark Ranger is their archetypal hero. Of course, the very idea of a Hunter is two-fold - is it a tree-hugging nature lover, or merely a marksman? In the case of the Forsaken, however, it is a shadowy archer... who would ideally befriend spiders if he/she must, but that's a feasible cop-out in the light of the Undead Priests using Holy magic in-game.

Now, what other races might even accommodate an additional class? Neither the Humans, Trolls, nor the Tauren - the Humans and Trolls already have 6 slots, and the Tauren can never breach their 4 (Tauren Rogues can't work due to their hooves and magnanimity, and unlike Orcs, they don't have any proclivity for clothies).

3. On the Alliance side, it's either the Night Elves or the Dwarves. I wouldn't be as opposed to Night Elves mages per se - yes, on the one hand, they break their identity (and infringe on that of the High Elven Mages, in Turtle's reality), but on the other, they once indeed were part of their society, before the split (and their animations are cool - although granted, Turtle supports the no-moonkin glyph for Balance Druids).

If we take Dwarves, however, there are three options. Shaman would fit in the memory of the wild Gryphon Riders, but not gameplay-wise. Both Mages and Warlocks feature in the Dark Iron clan, but the Mages are overall a safer bet - considering the long-standing position of the Dwarves in the Alliance, Blizzard's own intention to have Dwarf Mages in WoW alpha, and the Titan heritage from the more recent lore in vanilla.

4. Finally, the Horde. Both the Mages and the Priests were forced upon the Kalimdor races - it was just the Trolls who took it in place of the Orcs. Troll Priests are effectively waved off as Shadow Hunters (the same as voodoo is not Elune or the Holy Light). And thus it comes down to the Orcs and the Tauren.

It's not in the Tauren nature to read books (thus no Arcane). Whereas the Orcs have never had anything approaching priesthood. Thus, the dilemma is between adding Tauren Priests or Orc Mages... Honestly, I would almost prefer Tauren Priests, but they would require more work for the new racials.

...In a word, Orc Magi are dumb, but they're less dumb than any of the alternatives. :P

[Gheor]

I'd recommend doing the Undead Hunter quests.

https://database.turtle-wow.org/?quest=40220
https://database.turtle-wow.org/?quest=40260
https://database.turtle-wow.org/?quest=40261
https://database.turtle-wow.org/?quest=40248
https://database.turtle-wow.org/?quest=40249
https://database.turtle-wow.org/?quest=40250
https://database.turtle-wow.org/?quest=40262
https://database.turtle-wow.org/?quest=40263

[Gheor]

Also, here's the inspiration for Orc Mages:
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Pyremaster