Blizzard has revealed what the visual update on the Blood Elf race in the World of Warcraft MMO looks like so far. Posted on the Battle.net blog, the developer stated that it was happy with the direction of the aesthetic upgrade for the Blood Elf race, and shared images for both female and male blood elves.

Senior artist Dusty Nolting said that the Blood Elf race was more about subtlety, and this was reflected in the female's design, "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."

Speaking about the male Blood Elf design, senior artist Joe Keller said that while the model "already has a lot of character" thanks to his "easily recognizable pose and stylish hair," the upgrade provided opportunity to define these traits, "while still maintaining his iconic look, bringing him to the level of the other new character models."

While Blizzard has not provided a specific timeframe for when these models will go live, the company has stated that it is "focusing on model and texture variations, as well as rigging and animating" and hopes to release the updated visual look soon.

Most races in World of Warcraft received a visual upgrade in the lead-up to the launch of the Warlords of Draenor expansion. After the Blood Elves, the Goblin and Worgen races are still due for visual change.

Warlords of Draenor launched earlier this month, hitting 10 million active subscribers within 24 hours of release. The game was beset with server issues at launch, to which Blizzard responded by allocating extra game time to active subscribers as compensation. World of Warcraft celebrates its ten year anniversary this year. Check out GameSpot's look back on the game in our 10 Years of WoW feature.

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