My idea on how to fix racial imbalance.

[Nobleshield]

Just makes the racials cosmetic and you fix the imbalance.

This is pretty much the only real solution. I liked that about Rift (which I only bring up as it's about as close to a WoW-clone as you have right now) where on either faction all the racials were cosmetic things that had no effect on PVE or were so minor to not matter in the least bit.

That's exactly what WoW needs to do.

[JudgePayne]

People think that removing racials will fix the issue. it won't please stop saying that it is the solution.
here read this from a member of dread

Speaking as a member of Dread:
Racials are a nice perk, but they're only indirectly related to why we faction changed. The chief concern is that 2/3 of the top 60 US guilds (i.e. the people we'd most directly be interested in recruiting) are horde, and this balance is becoming increasingly skewed as time passes. Racials could disappear from the game tomorrow, and that wouldn't fix the problem - the top guilds wouldn't have any incentive to repopulate the Alliance ranks, and their presence Horde-side would continue to draw the majority of high-end raiders in that direction.

We need something else to bring some of the players back. Hardcore players and top 100 guilds will stay horde due to the high recruitment pools currently playing horde.

[TheWindWalker]

The best answer I've ever heard to this is to just make six racial groups and mirror the racials across.

B/N Elf
Human/Orc
Troll/Worgen
Goblin/Gnome
Draenei/Undead
Tauren/Dwarf

Just change the flavor text for the "reason" the passive/active ability is there and move along.

[Spl4sh3r]

Easiest way to remove racial imbalance is to remove the racials in question. For example any racial that leads to increased damage should be re-worked so it has nothing to do with damage.

You can take the Pandaren food racial and make it so it maybe doubles the food duration, or make it last through death. That makes the racial still useful but doesn't make it better than for everyone else, other than goldcost. Could make something similar with all profession based racials, because +skill doesn't really change anything other than it being quicker to hit max skill level. I rather have something that increases the value of the profession without it just making it faster. What if certain races knew the profession based bonuses by default? Such as gnome getting the engineering perks (glove enchant and such) without actually having the engineering profession? Of course they would still limit the profession perks to two per character. So if you would do a gnome blacksmith+enchanter, you can't do sockets+ring enchant+glove enchant, you have to choose which profession you want the perks from. However this allows so that you aren't forced to get a profession just because of the perk.

[JudgePayne]

I agree that the racial system should offer vanity and other small changes but unless blizzard really step up I can see the 5.4 SOO top guilds all being horde.

I think this might be the wake up call Blizzard needs to finally fix these issues.

[Msi]

Or keep the racials. As soon as you enter a BG/Arena or something with PvP you get a window with: choose your racial skill (doesn't matter of which race)
Same goes for PvE as soon as you enter an instance you get a window with :choose your racial skill

This might be stupid but it sounds reasonable

[Kazgrel]

-Remove any sort of gameplay/performance enhancing racials (can leave stuff like +10 to trade skills, rep bonus, etc.).
-EMFH should be a baseline ability for all players

Really really bland and generic, yes, but the simplest and easiest way to balance the racials out, IMO.

[Noraktar]

Racials should affect the gameplay even more. Screw the balancing issues, this game needs less homogenization in every aspect.

[GrieverXIII]

The problem right now isn't only racials but that the vast majority of high end raiding guilds are Horde. Even if they remove racials tomorow there's close to no reasons to be Alliance if you're an hardcore raider as Alliance top end guild have a really hard time recruiting since most of their potential recruits are already Horde. Plenty of high end guilds faction changed this week, and the one i'm friend with (see my Druid), is also considering it since they couldn't find any potential recruits in months.

No clue if Blizzard even consider this a problem tough.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Either racials need to go and not be replaced with new stuff, or every race needs a PvP and pve racial.

[JudgePayne]

I find it strange that alot of the votes are to leave the racials the way they are even though it is hugely inbalanced

[Worgoblin]

I think the racials need to be reworked, to be more interesting. Making them strictly cosmetic? I am STRONGLY opposed to that. That would be bland as hell, and basically saying game balance trumps fun at all costs. All racials should be interesting and really fit the theme of a race. Some examples of that to me are Shadowmeld, War Stomp, Rocket Barrage/Rocket Jump.

[Airwaves]

It's easy to fix. Remove them all. EVERYONE should pick there race off looks not what they can do.

[Sinndra]

i cant vote in a biased poll. i dont like alliance. its never appealed to me. except for one tiny brief moment just before i started the game... night elf mohawks. that commercial was too cute. but im HORDE now, and i dont care if the alliance wither away to dust. but racials are silly. id much rather prefer they be reworked into cosmetic things instead of what we have now. that way people will stop trying to pick stuff for some very tiny number gain, and pick a faction based on how they feel about that faction.

[Boogums]

Perhaps but I don't think so,

No one cares what you think, they care about what you no. Your racial ideas are terrible and would further imbalance the system. People should choose the race they like, not the race they feel they have to.

Make all racials cosmetic and let people play what they want.

Also, what you're describing is a bait and switch, which is illegal.

[Ampere]

Making Alliance racials insanely overpowered doesn't fix imbalance, just changes which side is stronger.

Remove all combat enhancing racials IMO. Stuff like profession bonuses is fine and stuff like Stoneform could still exist but just be for looks with no effect.

edit: I do not agree with 'find another way to buff alliance raiding'. If racials are removed where's the imbalance?

[JudgePayne]

Making Alliance racials insanely overpowered doesn't fix imbalance, just changes which side is stronger.

Remove all combat enhancing racials IMO. Stuff like profession bonuses is fine and stuff like Stoneform could still exist but just be for looks with no effect.

edit: I do not agree with 'find another way to buff alliance raiding'. If racials are removed where's the imbalance?

Once again this is not about the inbalance issue it is about getting guilds back to the alliance that only switched due to horde racials and now are staying because something like 40% of top 100 alliance guilds switched horde.

---------- Post added 2013-06-10 at 04:36 PM ----------

No one cares what you think, they care about what you no. Your racial ideas are terrible and would further imbalance the system. People should choose the race they like, not the race they feel they have to.

Make all racials cosmetic and let people play what they want.

Also, what you're describing is a bait and switch, which is illegal.

If you actually continued to read on you would see the change would be temporary and fix the fact that guilds which have been alliance for years are now having to switch horde to just compete.

And please if your going to insult someones idea's please offer your own suggestion instead of just bad mouthing someone eleses.

[Boogums]

Once again this is not about the inbalance issue it is about getting guilds back to the alliance that only switched due to horde racials and now are staying because something like 40% of top 100 alliance guilds switched horde.

---------- Post added 2013-06-10 at 04:36 PM ----------



If you actually continued to read on you would see the change would be temporary and fix the fact that guilds which have been alliance for years are now having to switch horde to just compete.

And please if your going to insult someones idea's please offer your own suggestion instead of just bad mouthing someone eleses.

Regardless of what the change is going to accomplish, changing something to cause someone to purchase something than taking it back is illegal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait-and-switch

[Zaelsino]

Just makes the racials cosmetic and you fix the imbalance.

I agree. Give each race a minor cosmetic effect or two, and put them all on par with one another. Remove the perceived need to pick one side/race over the other and let personal preference be the main decider.

[RicardoZ]

Racials are fine. It's probably such a very small percentage of players who chooses their race based on a miniscule-at-best performance enhancement in end-game content that it's probably not worth going in there and giving it some kind of major overhaul.