Sunday, September 07, 2008

Don't be a Racialist.

UPDATE: Human/NE racial changed again. Clicky.

The Racials are changing come the next Beta push. Lots in there for everyone, with some winners and some losers. Taurens obviously come out worst from these changes with the HP boost no longer scaling with Gear, and on balance Draenei probably benefit the most with a newly scaling Gift. Most obviously, certain races who gained a significant advantage in a PvE role or general PvP were nerfed pretty heavily. If it's not on the list, it hasn't been changed:

Orc
- Hardiness now reduces the duration of stun effects by 15% [Thank goodness for that. I hated coming up against an Orc warrior or priest simply because of the number of resists my stun would throw up]


Troll
- Racial Passive "The Voodoo Shuffle": Reduces the duration of all movement impairing effects by 15%. Trolls be flippin' out mon! [Yah Mon!]
- Berserking: no longer has an activation cost of energy/rage/etc


Draenei
- Gift of the Naaru: now scales based on the higher of either the caster's Attack Power or Spell Power [This greatly increases the usefulness of this racial. My only concern is how well it will scale for PvP at 80]
- Shadow Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Shadow spells by 2% [Gimmicky, like all the school-specific resistances, but at least it's no long a 10 resist @ 80 issue]


Dwarf
- Frost Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Frost spells by 2%
- Racial Passive "Mace Specialization": Expertise with Maces and Two-Handed Maces increased by 5. [Good change. About time non-gun using dwarfs (i.e. Paladins) got some sort of interesting weapon racial. Obviously great for Dwarf Paladins]


Undead
- Shadow Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Shadow spells by 1% (yes, this is lower than the other resistance racials) [Curious]
- Will of the Forsaken: removes any fear, sleep, or charm effect (no longer has a lasting immunity). [A pretty heavy nerf, though not unexpected. Even an extra trinket effect remains pretty powerful]


Night Elf
- Quickness: reduces the chance to be hit by melee or ranged attacks by 2% [interesting. Possibly very interesting for NE Tanks]
- Nature Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Nature spells by 3%
- Elusiveness: Increases your effective stealth level by 5 (previously part of the Shadowmeld racial)
- Shadowmeld (New Version):
"Activate to slip into the shadows, reducing the chance for enemies to detect your presence. Lasts until cancelled or upon moving. Any threat is restored versus enemies still in combat upon cancellation of this effect."

It has a cooldown of 3 minutes, and it can be used in combat. In PvP it will force enemies targeting you to detarget you. It will cause any mobs currently on you to de-aggro, but it does not take you out of combat unless you are the last one on the hate list of any mobs that you were engaged with.

This effect is very similar to what was previously "The Fall of Humanity". [but better, as it is now an effective FD-lite for escaping combat too]

Tauren
- Endurance: now scales based on base health, to be tuned to approximately a 5% heath increase if the player were wearing green quality gear [Very Hefty nerf. It no longer scales with Gear, and so Tauren won't be the PvP juggernauts they once were]
- Nature Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Nature spells by 2%


Gnome
- Escape Artist: the freeing effect can no longer be resisted [about time]
- Arcane Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Arcane spells by 2%


Blood Elf
- Mana Tap: ability removed (partially integrated into Arcane Torrent)
- Arcane Torrent: restores 15 energy, 15 runic power, or 6% of mana to the Blood Elf (along with the current 2s silence effect) [Overall, probably a good change to make it useful for more classes. The only question is whether it's 6% of base or total mana, if it's the latter then its huge, especially as it's no longer on the GCD].
- Magic Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by spells by 2% [Another interesting change. Should be interesting to see if this has any lasting impact on PvE or PvP]


Human
- Perception: changed to a passive, now grants one character level of passive stealth detection [A hefty nerf to this skill (Perception currently grants 10 levels of stealth detection on a 2 min cooldown IIRC). It seems a shame to reduce this to a passive ability, but then having 2 active abilities could be overkill]
- Racial "The Fall of Humanity": Feign death which may trick enemies into ignoring you. Any threat is restored versus enemies still in combat upon cancellation of this effect. 5min cooldown [Rather than a Foreign Death, this seems more like a priest Fade. It could be useful, but then again it may not] Removed. Now:
Every Man for Himself:
Removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character. This effect shares a cooldown with other similar effects, such as the PvP trinket. This essentially means that you gain flexibility regarding what to do with your second trinket slot. [Hrm.... definite buff, though it doesn't account for the resilience seen on those trinkets these days]
- Racial Passive "Human Supremacy": The dominance of Humanity is evidenced by having one more racial bonus than normal. Actually, make that two counting this one. (just a tooltip, no actual functionality) [Heh]
- The Human Spirit: spirit bonus lowered to 5% [Given how good a stat Spirit is stacking up to be, this is unsurprising]


Again, if it's not listed then it is unchanged. However, it's all still subject to change, especially if any outcry is large enough.

*Voodoo Shuffles out, stage left*

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