After 6 years, World of Warcraft's Haranir basically requires a feature overhaul

This article was updated by Andrea Trama on March 24, 2026 with a link to the new customization options in patch 12.0.5. It was first published on March 17.

World of Warcraft: Midnight is finally here and escalates the battle against Xal'atath as it takes place in four new zones, including the Eversong Woods and Zul'Aman remakes. Among the many features added in the expansion, one of the most interesting is the Haranir, a new allied race. These wild, elf-like creatures reside in Harandar, one of the new expansion areas, where they gravitate towards the roots of the World Trees. Of course, one of the biggest attractions of Haranir in World of Warcraft is their breadth of wonderful character customization options.

In fact, one might say that the Haranir have been given too much love when it comes to customization. From body hair and foot shape to eyelashes and quills, the Haranir have two, three, or even four times as many ways to customize characters compared to most base and allied races. Attention to detail World of Warcraft Dal Haranir made it painfully clear that the character's customization needs another overhaul, the likes of which he hasn't seen since 2020.

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Customization Options Haranir Put other WoW races to shame

Two to four times as many customization categories as most other races in World of Warcraft

Haranir inside World of Warcraft they have a huge number of ways they can be customized, a total of 29 different categories (28 for body type 2). These range from basic customization elements like hairstyles and faces to unique options including backs, fur patterns, leg shapes and even eyelashes. What's more, most of these categories have a lot of options; for example, they have 18 different hairstyles for each character type, including some of the best black hair textures in the game and optional highlights. What's more, their eyes have a mesmerizing reflective quality unmatched by any other race.

This new race has more customization options than almost any other race in the game, Dracthyr from WoW: Dragonflight be the only exception. In fact, over half the races have half as many customization categories as the Haranir alone. While some make up for it by having many different options in their individual categories, such as 34 hairstyles or 45 faces for type 2 people, most aren't so lucky. Some, including basic classic races like Undead and Gnomes, as well as Allied Races in World of Warcraft like Dark Iron Dwarves and Vulpera don't even fit into the double digit customization categories.

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If that wasn't striking enough, Haranir also has unique, customizable druid forms. In the Barber Shop, Haranir druids can mix and match details, including coat color or ear and snout shape, on their wolverine-like bear form, bat-like flying form, axolotl aquatic form, and more. Most Haranir Druid forms even have unique animations and dance emotes. While each druid entered World of Warcraft they can modify their Moonkin form from Dragonflight Patch 10.2, no other race can adapt their other druid forms like the Haranir.

While fans thoroughly enjoyed the creation of the Haranir characters, the sheer amount of attention they received felt more than a little unfair. Blood Elves and Void Elves are some of the most prominent races in this expansion, with Silvermoon being the main center of the Sin'dorei. WoW extension. Despite this, neither race has received any new customizations – both are stuck in a narrow number of categories that can fit on one page, with the exception of blood elves, which are sprinkled in for barely a second. The breadth of options Haranir received in the “Elf Expansion” pours more salt into the wound and highlights the need for a massive customization overhaul.

Last World of Warcraft the customization overhaul was in Shadowlands back in 2020. This update gave players much more control as they could now separate faces, eye colors and more. New options for scars, blind eyes, and even upright goblins have brought the game a lot of praise, despite World of Warcraft an otherwise lukewarm reception to the expansion. Since then, there have been a few more customization options for existing races, such as glowing hands for the Nightborne, Man'ari skin tones for the Draenei, and Amani skin tones for the trolls, but nothing nearly as extensive as in Shadows.

Image via Blizzard

While the Dracthyr, Earthen and Haranir look great, the older racing models are starting to show their age again. More time has indeed passed in the meantime Warlords of Draenorredesign of the model in 2014 and now than between it and the release World of Warcraft in 2004. Needless to say, it's time to World of Warcraft to give his other races the same care as the Haranir and the Dracthyr before them.

New customization options are coming to World of Warcraft

But it may take a long time for Blizzard to get around to it

Fortunately, fans are not completely without hope in this regard. During a recent interview with Windows Central, World of Warcraft design director Maria Hamilton and lead artist Jay Hwang confirmed that Blizzard is eyeing further adjustments. What's more, rather than small doses here and there like World of Warcraft Blizzard is hoping to implement these changes in a major project with its Heritage Armor sets, meaning players could see more level redesigns Shadows eventually.

Image via Blizzard

However, World of Warcraft he could go deeper than that; Hamilton also teased the idea of ​​customizing spells and animations. In the past, these were examples through glyphs, toys, or the popular Green Fire quest from Mists of Pandariabut these options do not play well together and are not intuitive. If Blizzard can untangle all of these systems and tie them together, fans might finally be able to fully embody the fantasy of a Moon Priestess of the Night Elves, a Tauren Sunwalker, or any other iconic character. World of Warcraft class archetypes.

Image via Blizzard

That said, players should temper their expectations for now. Hamilton and Hwang stressed that this project is still in early development, and they don't have an exact plan for when it will arrive. World of Warcraft. It may be several years or more before fans see the fruits of this labor.

Either way, the promise of great things is on the horizon. Updated Transmog system from WoW: Midnight it was a great asset and Blizzard plans to continue to repeat it in the future. One day, players may be able to use this system to control all kinds of aspects of their characters, including animations, sounds, and particle effects. Until then, fans will have to enjoy Haranira's moment in the sun and hope so World of WarcraftAny changes may begin to bridge the gap between playable races.

Systems

Released

March 2, 2026

ESRB

Teen / Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Subtext Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence, User Interaction, In-Game Purchases

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