Sign inNight Elf
This is revision 1, from Oct 29, 2026 04:23. See the current page.
Night elves are an ancient, long-lived race of the forests of Kalimdor and the Alliance's western partners in Classic. They live on and in Teldrassil, a vast tree they grew off the northern coast, and their capital Darnassus sits in its branches. Their racial traits favor stealth and avoidance: Shadowmeld lets any night elf vanish while standing still, and the race is the only source of Alliance druids.
History
The night elves, or kaldorei, were the first great civilization of Kalimdor. Ten thousand years before the game, their queen Azshara and her Highborne nobles drew the Burning Legion into the world through their reckless use of the Well of Eternity. The resulting War of the Ancients ended with the destruction of the Well in The Sundering, which shattered the continent. The survivors, led by Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind, gave up arcane magic and turned to druidism and the worship of the moon goddess Elune. They planted the World Tree Nordrassil on Mount Hyjal and lived in isolation for millennia.
That isolation ended in the Third War, when the Burning Legion returned and the night elves fought alongside humans and orcs to defeat the demon lord Archimonde at Mount Hyjal. Nordrassil was badly damaged, and the night elves lost their immortality. Afterwards Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm led the planting of a new World Tree, Teldrassil, and the night elves joined the Alliance.
Homeland and starting zone
A new night elf wakes in Shadowglen, a glade at the foot of the tree-house Aldrassil in northern Teldrassil. Conservator Ilthalaine gives the first quest, The Balance of Nature, asking for help thinning the overpopulated young nightsabers and thistle boars. Further quests deal with the grells around the glade and the Webwood spiders of the Shadowthread Cave. From Shadowglen the road runs down to the village of Dolanaar and on through the rest of the island.
Teldrassil is cut off from the mainland, so at around level 11 night elves take the boat from Rut'theran Village to Auberdine in Darkshore. From there the usual path leads south into Ashenvale, or across the sea to the Eastern Kingdoms by way of the boat to Menethil Harbor in the Wetlands.
Capital
Darnassus is a quiet, wooded city built on Teldrassil's upper branches, reached by a magical portal from Rut'theran Village at the tree's base. It holds the Temple of the Moon, where Tyrande leads the Sisters of Elune; the Cenarion Enclave, where Fandral Staghelm and the druid trainers gather; and the Warrior's Terrace, home to the Sentinels. Night elves buy their saber mounts from Lelanai in Darnassus.
Racial traits
| Trait | Effect |
|---|---|
| Shadowmeld | Active: fade into the shadows while standing still, 10-second cooldown |
| Quickness | Dodge chance increased by 1% |
| Nature Resistance | Nature resistance increased by 10 |
| Wisp Spirit | Become a fast-moving wisp after death |
Shadowmeld works like a lesser stealth. It breaks on moving or acting, but as long as the night elf stands still, enemies have a hard time seeing them, and night elf rogues and druids already in stealth are harder still to spot. Quickness adds a small amount of avoidance, which makes night elves a solid choice for tanks. Wisp Spirit means a dead night elf runs back to their body 50 percent faster, a small but much appreciated comfort when leveling.
Classes
Night elves can be warriors, hunters, rogues, priests and druids. They are the only Alliance race that can be a druid; on the Horde side only tauren can.
Night elf priests learn Starshards, a channeled arcane damage spell, and Elune's Grace, which reduces ranged damage and raises dodge chance for a short time, a useful defense against hunters.
How night elves play
Shadowmeld is the night elf's signature. In world player-versus-player fights, a hunter can sit in Shadowmeld beside a road and wait for a target, and a night elf who loses a fight can drop combat, Shadowmeld and hope to be overlooked. A night elf druid or rogue in stealth is even harder to see. In battlegrounds such as Warsong Gulch, night elves used Shadowmeld to guard flag rooms or to sit unseen near a node in Arathi Basin, and it was a constant source of fear for Horde players walking past bushes.
Outside of fights, Shadowmeld is useful for drinking or eating to recover mana and health while hiding, and for avoiding unwanted attention from monsters when standing still. Night elves have no way to break fear or stun on their own, and against Horde warlocks and Undead they rely on the honor system trinket.
In raids, night elf druids and hunters are the most common choices, and night elf warriors make good tanks thanks to Quickness. The nature resistance helps a little against nature damage in places such as Temple of Ahn'Qiraj.
Notable night elves
Tyrande Whisperwind is the high priestess of Elune and the leader of the night elves in Classic. Her love, Malfurion Stormrage, is the greatest of druids but sleeps in the Emerald Dream, so Fandral Staghelm leads the druids in his place. Malfurion's brother Illidan Stormrage was imprisoned for ten thousand years for his crimes and has since fled to Outland. Other night elves appear across Kalimdor, from the Sentinels of Ashenvale to the Cenarion Circle druids of Moonglade.
Later history
Later expansions brought Malfurion back from the Dream, revealed Fandral as a traitor, and, in the Battle for Azeroth, saw Teldrassil burned by the Horde. Night elves gained the ability to be mages, and the nightborne and void elves joined the game as allied races.
Sources
Categories: Races