Here’s How WoW's Blood Elf Update Is Coming Along

Blizzard’s still in the midst of updating their character models in World of Warcraft and it looks like the Mana-tapping Blood Elves are next in line.

The latest Artcraft update on the official blog grants a peek at how the changes are shaping up. They’re not ready for release just yet, with the team “now focusing on model and texture variations, as well as rigging and animating.” On the bright side they expect to roll out the update pretty soon thanks to streamlined processes.

Senior Artist Dusty Nolting is focusing on the female model—here are his thoughts:

The Horde has classically been about brutes, blood, and thunder. The Blood Elves bring a bit of subtlety to the Horde, and I think that was one of the most important aspects of the Blood Elves to maintain. For the female specifically, something we did often was move things around in small but deliberate increments, to make sure everything was just right. It’s the delicate details like her nose shape or fingertips that represent the most challenging parts of upgrading the female.

The Blood Elves were introduced in the game’s second expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, which released all the way back in 2007. I’m pretty sure that swelled Horde population by a significant amount.

In related news, here are the latest patch notes from this morning.