Idea: Spells by race?

[Nira]

First off, I want to say I do not think this to likely ever be added, but someone was QQ'ing about tauren paladins and saying;

They are attempting to cover up the this crime with all this junk about "Sunwalkers" or w/e that crap is. Sorry that sounds more like a shaman to me, and it's not like they are even going to rename ANY of the tauren pally skills to be more "tribal paladin" styled.

That got me thinking, what if Blizzard did exactly that? and not just for Tauren paladins, but for all races and classes that don't really fit into the lore of a class? I know that according to the lore Trolls get their priestly abilities from Loa and shadow magics. Likewise, Night Elves get their priestly powers from Elune.

I am not suggesting it go back to the racial abilities for priests, so much as I am suggesting the difference between Bloodlust for The Horde and Heroism for The Alliance.

Does anyone else think that would be very cool? maybe even change the graphics for the casting a bit too? Imagine a troll priest healing you with shadow magics, or a Night Elf's heals being bright blue/white instead of holy yellow.

[Paskgotsheal]

It'd be a nice touch but nothing that's needed

[Albert the fish]

it'd be cool, but way too much work for the creators and a massive balance bitch

[Syzran]

Blood Elf Paladins already have different spell names than Alliance Paladins - so it's not impossible. On the Tauren Paladin issue, they will almost certainly rename some spells. Other than that, I don't know.

[Nira]

uh, a couple things, meant this thread for the general forums not involving cataclysm, and also i got an error when i first made the thread and then re-submitted and apparently made a double. how do i go about deleting both threads?

Never mind, my thread in the general forums isn't getting any discussion so I'll stick with this one.

[Jimer]

I suppose there's nothing wrong in the idea itself of changing names to more race specific, but it would make discussion about spells probably quite confusing, since every spell would have like 10-12 different names. As for changing the animations; I guess changing the colors would be easy-ish but otherwise visually changing the spells would require a bit too much work probably from Blizz to make... especially if they wanted to alter almost every spell :P

[rabbimojo]

I think think it would be neat, but everything comes at a price. What would we lose while they renamed everything? How about for the new art? etc.

Would they need to rename a lot of glyphs, or what?

Really, I think it would be kind of neat if the spells themselves varied very slightly. Have a tauren boomkin's starfire cast a little faster, have a troll boomkin's wrath hit a little harder, etc. Sounds like hell to balance, but with Blizz moving towards a lot of standardizing between specs/classes (e.g., the heal trinity showing up in each heal class), it might be possible.

Again, though, what would this cost us in terms of other features? Though these things would be nice, would I prefer having them over, say, each class's masteries being made interesting like a boomkin's? I don't think so.

[Wrien]

Seal of Light= Seal of the Earthmother*
Seal of Wisdom= Seal of Wisdom
Seal of Command= Seal of the Chieftain*
Seal of Justice= Seal of Brute*
Seal of Corruption/Seal of Vengeance= Seal of Spirituality*
Seal of Righteous= Seal of the Ley walker*

Holy Light= Ancestors Light*
Flash of Light= Spiritual light*

[Xorious]

Priests used to have just 2/3 spells for different races etc, blizzard already changed this because it was 'unbalanced', having each race with different spells would have an even lower chance then.

[theheratik150]

Priests used to have just 2/3 spells for different races etc, blizzard already changed this because it was 'unbalanced', having each race with different spells would have an even lower chance then.

If i understand him correctly, he isn't saying give them different spells, just different names and animations for the different races. So just a example off the top of my head, tauren druids could have their healing spells green and night elves could have their healing spells blue. They would do the same thing, just look different for some variety in the game.

[Wrien]

Priests used to have just 2/3 spells for different races etc, blizzard already changed this because it was 'unbalanced', having each race with different spells would have an even lower chance then.

yes. priests used to have different spells for different races pre-wotlk

http://www.wowwiki.com/Starshards (night elf)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Touch_of_Weakness (undead/blood elf)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Hex_of_Weakness (troll)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Chastise (draenei/dwarf)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Feedback (human)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Elune's_Grace (night elf)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Devouring_Plague (used to be undead only and with 1min coldown)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Shadowguard (troll)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Consume_Magic (blood elf)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Desperate_Prayer (used to be human only)

[Jerion]

If i understand him correctly, he isn't saying give them different spells, just different names and animations for the different races. So just a example off the top of my head, tauren druids could have their healing spells green and night elves could have their healing spells blue. They would do the same thing, just look different for some variety in the game.

Correct.

However, it's an absolute nightmare for anything other than RP. Think about someone trying to read a guide on their class, and they read to use Seal of Vengeance for long fights as ret. But they don't even have a spell by that name. This already happens and is annoying, but it is just one spell so it's bearable to just type both. But to have multiple names for every single spell? Ridiculously annoying for anybody trying to talk about their class. Think about acronyms, there is already alot of overlap between the classes, but when it comes to each class they're pretty much ok, except of course for SoC and SoC, one is seal of command, the other seal of corruption.

What it comes down to is you sacrifice ease of understanding for a small bit of immersion, and as someone else mentioned, the resources that could have been used elsewhere, like giving a boss a new animation for a spell, or giving Hammer of the Righteous an actual animation instead of the shared one with exorcism and smite.

[Deleted]

No, didn't work. They did that to Priests from Vanilla until Wrath, but it was horrible.

[Broccolii]

haha - "When they read a guide on their class.. ... etc confusing... etc etc"

I don't think it's Blizzards prerogative to make sure their game design meshes well with outside resources. It would be a nice added touch. Players tend to disregard lore in this game already but this game has some of the best lore and back story of any game I've played and I would hate for them to skimp on it just to make it less confusing for bads reading guides.

[RakuRaku]

yes. priests used to have different spells for different races pre-wotlk

http://www.wowwiki.com/Starshards (night elf)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Touch_of_Weakness (undead/blood elf)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Hex_of_Weakness (troll)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Chastise (draenei/dwarf)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Feedback (human)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Elune's_Grace (night elf)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Devouring_Plague (used to be undead only and with 1min coldown)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Shadowguard (troll)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Consume_Magic (blood elf)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Desperate_Prayer (used to be human only)

I wish they kept those. It made some priests really unique.


On another note, im not really for renaming spells, but I wouldn't mind having their color's alter a little. (For healing spells/smite holy fire)

Night elf = White
Undead =Light violet, or purple.
Troll = Light violet, purple, or yellow.
Tauren = Yellow, or gold orange
Humans = light yellow
Draenei = Light blue, maybe yellow.
Gnomes = Light yellow.
Dwarves = Light yellow.

[Vasti]

First off, I want to say I do not think this to likely ever be added, but someone was QQ'ing about tauren paladins and saying;
That got me thinking, what if Blizzard did exactly that? and not just for Tauren paladins, but for all races and classes that don't really fit into the lore of a class? I know that according to the lore Trolls get their priestly abilities from Loa and shadow magics. Likewise, Night Elves get their priestly powers from Elune.

I am not suggesting it go back to the racial abilities for priests, so much as I am suggesting the difference between Bloodlust for The Horde and Heroism for The Alliance.

Does anyone else think that would be very cool? maybe even change the graphics for the casting a bit too? Imagine a troll priest healing you with shadow magics, or a Night Elf's heals being bright blue/white instead of holy yellow.

I would absolutely LOVE that change!

But to avoid confusion it should be de-activated drom the start and manualy activated trough the ingame menu......

Not that any of my spells/skills would change.....human paladin.....but it would be a step towards versatility.....and I fully support that.....I wish the racial mounts were tied to their race.....but oh wel........ now every class looks the same.....would be fun to see different mounts more often and if blizzard finds the time, different tier sets for horde/ally (but also differentamong plate classes, other then jsut the colors (same goes for cloth, leather etc))

VOTE FOR VERSATILITY!

[emni]

People should read OP's post properly before replying with "Tried it, didn't work".

I am not suggesting it go back to the racial abilities for priests, so much as I am suggesting the difference between Bloodlust for The Horde and Heroism for The Alliance.

I think this is a neat idea. It would allow for races with questionable class choices to better fit into the lore.

[exdeath202]

I would love it, been hoping for this since vanilla, but i dont think it would happen. Forsaken priests for example would have Shadow Mend (this spell is in game, used by NPCs to heal) instead of greater heal, the spell would do the same and the same tooltip, but would have Shadow Mend´s name and graphics. It would be lovely.

[Azyure]

i personally like the OP's thought, it would be to much to implement now. But i agree it makes more sense.

[Yomiko]

I don't like it. I'm not a big fan of people rolling races, based on racials alone and therefore that's why Blizzard is re-working all racials to stop this problem. having fancier spells or heals that would be shadow-based and not holy-based would just be wrong.

There is also the problem with balance (if you're changing the spells completely and not just look). Confusing for other players in PvP as well, not to mention a majoir overhaul on spells/talents would have to be done. And frankly...what use is this besides RP? It would be major wasted time that would be better off spent on something better.

I'm glad it would never happen and I'm not a fan of "holy cows" either That just sounds silly.