WoW Petopia Community

This might be long-winded and rambling, so I apologize. I've had trouble connecting to Rhyela since the re-design of all the character models, because none of the faces really feel like "her". Her original face now has chubby cheeks and a fat nose, and the one I've been using is a little more appealing to me but I know it's not her original face.

For whatever reason, the "Show new character models" thing doesn't work for night elves for me. Just night elves, of course. So, I had to dig around on Photobucket to find something that even remotely shows her face.



The updated version:


The other one I changed to:


I just can't help feeling like the new one is nothing like the original, and it's bothering me. Add in the fact that hunters have changed quite a bit, and she just doesn't feel like what I remember. She used to be my favorite character, and now she's been relegated to "alt" status. It makes me sad. I just switched to MM to try to get some of that familiarity back (it's the closest to original hunters IMO), and it kinda helps, but the face issue still bothers me. I feel like the second one actually looks closer to her original face, even though it's not. Go figure (same thing happened with a gnome priest I have, and my human warrior).

I've also somewhat toyed with the idea of changing her completely back to her original form. Her original name was Nakoma, and she had the light teal hair and different facial markings, like this:


The problem is that I have so many sigs on here that it would feel weird to go back to Nakoma (if it's even available on this server, probably not). And it's a Disney character, and as I've aged I've come to dislike naming my characters after already existing characters. Rhyela was something I came up with after looking at a D&D name generator that means "jade hawk" (favorite stone, favorite bird). Then I changed her hair to the bright green (which I do love tbh). So in a way, that's her new "original" look now because it's been that way since LK, much longer than her old appearance (vanilla only, didn't play her during BC).

I told you I'd ramble! Anyway, I guess I'm just looking for opinions/advice from other people. Which face looks more like "Old Rhyela" to you? Maybe others have had a similar issue since the re-design. If so, how did you handle it? Did you just get over it, or did you do something to help you re-connect? I'm at a loss!

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Signature and avatar created by Serenith!

Dragon Cave!

Slickrock wrote:

Given their current trend, we'll probably get a spirit toucan that farts loops.

Imo, I feel that the only distinct difference between the first and second image is your character's face width. The second image seems to represent the older model a teeny bit more than the first, but I feel it's more of a debate on whether you prefer Rhyela to have a broader or narrower face.

Perhaps altering the facial tattoo and/or hair style is all you really need if you still feel inclined for a change. A new 'do' could make all the difference you need to help you reconnect with Rhyela without having to completely rehaul her -- because you will be staring at the back of her head 99.9% of the time afterall. The name itself and her hair color are so iconic, I wouldn't necessarily go as far as to change them now.

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Avatar by Jeydis, Signature by Serenith

Oo, Rhyela is iconic? :3 I didn't know I was so famous, hehe! Naw, I know what you mean. I've been on Petopia for years as that name/appearance. I think sometimes the old nostalgia hits. My brother and I used to play our hunters together and I start to miss that, and miss him, and then it makes me think of "Nakoma".

I changed her face back to the narrower one, as IMO the original face was more similar to that. I've tried some of the other smiling faces, but those don't work either because it was originally a more neutral expression that she had. It's been aggravating, to say the least. Or maybe I'm just excessively picky, lol.

I also spent a ton of gold to change her outfit to something that's a bit more..."Rhyela"? I had that gaudy fel armor from the pre-expansion events and it just didn't look right. I'll probably mog the bow to a gun because Rhyela's always been a gun person. Hopefully once I do all that, and get more comfortable with MM, things will start to feel right.

Thank you for the suggestion about the hair, I might give that a shot! I think the short hairstyle they gave nelves is pretty cute. :3 And thanks for taking the time to read all that crap, I do appreciate it.

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Signature and avatar created by Serenith!

Dragon Cave!

Slickrock wrote:

Given their current trend, we'll probably get a spirit toucan that farts loops.

When Demon Hunters went live, they removed the ability for elves (night and blood both) to use old character models. I was able to successfully petition a GM for a free recustomization for my druid prior to 7.0's drop because going one skin tone to the right or left (up or down on char creation) fixed her almost perfectly, but skin tone is still the only unavailable option in the barber shop for non-furry characters, and none of the face options on her existing skin made her look like her. (Old model, new model pre-recustomization, comparison I made to try and get it fixed, which it never was).

Have you tried seeing if any of the other skin tones fixes your problem the way it (sort of) fixed mine? I know the roundness of the face won't change skin-to-skin, but I have to wonder if lip colour changing isn't helping either (that was my main issue, to be honest). You can try to proc a recustomization/race/faction change on the PTR, or pretend-make a new character and use the character creation screen. If the face modeling really is the issue, it may not help, but you might find something that you like. There's also no guarantee you could con a GM into comping you a $15 service either (I'm still not sure how I managed it) but it'd potentially be worth a shot.

(That face in particular didn't survive well on most skin tones; my NE DKs both got deleted because there was no acceptable substitute even with a skin change, and I wasn't gonna push my luck trying to get THREE recustomizations on alts I wasn't super keen on playing anyway, whereas my druid is my OG live main and kind of has to keep existing for that reason alone)

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Current main: Basanti-Skywall
Primary hunter: Xella-Proudmoore

Yeah you are!

I've always identified you as Rhyela, a emerald-haired Night Elf huntress. To imagine you as anyone else would be nearly impossible simply because that is how I've always known you. I feel that way about a lot of the members here, especially those of us who have been with the forums since the very beginning (and beyond if you remember Mania's Arcania).

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Avatar by Jeydis, Signature by Serenith

You know, I did notice that the lip color changed, and I was wondering if that had something to do with it. Maybe I'll mess around with CC to see if anything else looks closer, and go from there. Thank you! I shouldn't say I'm glad that other people have had this problem, but I'm glad that at least I'm not the only one that is so attached to a character's whole persona, I guess.

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Signature and avatar created by Serenith!

Dragon Cave!

Slickrock wrote:

Given their current trend, we'll probably get a spirit toucan that farts loops.

I hope you find something that works for you! I agree that Rhyela has always been so iconically green in my mind. It would be a shame to change that about her if you didn't want to, but of course if you do that's completely up to you.

To be honest I still don't like the way Veph looks. I guess in some ways I've learned to live with it. The best period was when the fel goggles first came out because I *loved* them on her, and they covered most of her face and she looked good again. But then in some later patch they changed the way the goggles sat on character faces and they went from looking awesome to looking stupid and I couldn't use them anymore. So now I have to see her face again (I don't like the look of any other goggles or things like that) and I'm just...meh. I'm still unhappy with female blood elves overall, especially their faces, and I still hate the way they did Veph's hair and made her bangs all messy where they used to be more straight.

Anyways, I guess I don't have much of an answer to this other than...I got used to it, somewhat. But I've hardly touched Veph this expansion. My other hunter Castorien is my main now, and he's also my RP character who I'm deeply attached to, and Veph's been relegated to being a side alt for the first time in...well, ever honestly.

I'm much happier playing blood elf males nowadays. I'll always love Veph as a character, she's very important to me, but she might not be my focus anymore and I'm alright with that mostly.

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signature artwork by d1eselx
• Flight Rising lair

Yeah Veph, I admit I thought of Vephriel when I posted this. I remember you saying you weren't too fond of the blood elf changes (females, anyway). I'm glad you're so into Castorien, though!

I'm starting to think that part of the problem is that I'm just not too enamored with hunters in general this expansion. Survival is fun, but just isn't as "huntery" to me, I guess. MM is close to old hunters, but I was never a MM person. And I honestly cannot stand BM now, as much as I hate to say that. Hopefully in the next expansion, we'll see some improvements to hunters that will make them more enjoyable for me again.

I gave Rhyela a try in PvP and I did awful. Damage-wise I'm in the middle of the pack (very low ilvl right now, very few traits and no relics /cry), but I'm just not good at knowing what to do and when, especially when I've got big ol' warriors barreling at me. I'll probably stick with healing or some other class for PvP.

I dunno. I may shelf Rhyela for this expansion and keep working on my priest. I started playing my DK again, and I find that more enjoyable at the moment. It sucks, but I guess it just happens sometimes. I haven't played my druid in two expansions, and my warrior in I don't even know how long. All of those classes were "mains" at one point or another. My DK was my main in WoD. /sigh

Anyway, thank you all for your insight! I do appreciate it. I'll probably fart around on Rhyela (especially in new patches if/when they release new pets), but as far as my main is concerned, I'll go with something else for now. Rhyela is still, and always will be, my persona on the forums, though.

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Signature and avatar created by Serenith!

Dragon Cave!

Slickrock wrote:

Given their current trend, we'll probably get a spirit toucan that farts loops.

Yeah, that's basically how Veph is for me too! She's always been my in-game persona (and my persona over here and in WoW spaces in general), but it's fun to try other characters too! I've managed to get 8 classes to 110 somehow this expansion. I personally still love BM though, it just took a bit to get used to but I've been maining it all expansion and having a lot of fun with it in progression raiding myself (I know that doesn't speak for everyone though!).

I guess essentially my verdict is...I can live with Veph's new appearance, but every so often I go and look at old screenshots and see a completely different character vibe and I miss it, but I can get over it. At least I'm pretty happy with her current Nightfallen-esque ranger transmog.

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signature artwork by d1eselx
• Flight Rising lair

I really feel like a whole lot of good would come from more character customization options in general. Add some more face options on for every race now and again (it wouldn't even have to be every race at once, even), tattoos (if appropriate), more hairstyles, etc. It doesn't have to all come in one patch. It can come gradually. Things can develop organically. I really do think expanding character customization, even if only slowly, would be a good thing. It's really hard to preserve things exactly in updates, but more options can help people find something that they connect with, and I mean people like more options in general.

Rhyela - Before I returned to these forums this expansion, I still browsed them periodically. It was your transmog (posted in the transmog thread I'm p sure) using val'kyr vestments (or w/e version you used) + the legion dungeon shoulders that actually inspired me to focus on my hunter again, actually. I'm not sure if that knowledge helps you at all or creeps you out but there you have it. For SV, I absolutely love playing it, but wish there were some aesthetic glyphs or something that tied it in more with nature and less with metal traps - for some races this doesn't bother me but on my Nelf it does. I get the logic behind traps being made of what I guess is an Azeroth equivalent of iron and steel but the visual seems wrong w/ my Nelf if that makes sense. MM faces the same visual/aesthetic issues (for my nature loving Nelf), I think, and hasn't been as fun, although I've been playing around with Explosive Shot and Piercing Shot and I am having fun as I get used to using them better. BM I do not enjoy (but have never really enjoyed) sadly. As for other classes, I have always found Balance Druid fun to play, and love my Fury Warrior this expansion - it's not a complicated spec (which isn't always a bad thing) but it feels really good to play still. Love smashing shit on my Warrior.

Veph - Belfs, for me, are extremely interesting, and so much fan art (and even official art) of them looks so good, but I can never get into playing one. It's disappointing.

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