WoW patch 9.1.5 to remove unique starter sets and it’s not a popular move

Bill Cooney

Characters in World of Warcraft will no longer start with unique items in patch 9.1.5 and some players aren’t happy with the change.

Since WoW first came out in 2006, characters start with unique items based on their race. Even though these are bare-bones statwise and quickly replaced, they make each race feel unique. 

Orcs rocking the same starting gear as humans would just look weird, but that seems to be exactly what we’re getting with 9.1.5.

Most WoW races losing unique starting gear

The new starting gear on the left definitely doesn’t seem to have been made specifically for Orcs.

In 9.1.5, Blizzard are replacing the starting gear of every race in WoW (except Worgens, Goblins, and Pandarians) with a standard, very human-looking design.

As you can see in the picture above, the pre-patch gear on the right actually looks like something an orc would wear, while the new starting set on the left definitely does not.

Starting zone gear typically isn’t used all that long, but Blizzard removing more content, no matter what it is, has rubbed some players the wrong way.

On Reddit, WoW fans were piling on Blizzard, with one commenting that it was “starting to feel like 9.1.5 is removing more than it’s adding.”

“They are the main reason to why leveling and the RPG part of the game doesn’t matter. They don’t want it to matter,” another user added.

One of the main complaints is that race-specific starting gear has been a feature of WoW since literally day one, a little bit of polish that a lot of other MMORPGs didn’t have.

“Having every class start with the same generic gear no matter the race and having it be flashy just feels like those s**tty MMORPGs you installed at 2AM,” one player pointed out.

This is all on the back of several months of players getting upset with Blizzard for removing content, including most recently changing the design of the pumpkins during the Hallow’s End event.

About The Author

Bill is a former writer at Dexerto based in Iowa, who covered esports, gaming and online entertainment for more than two years. With the US team, Bill covered Overwatch, CSGO, Influencer culture, and everything in between.