What would a racial review entail.

[Midgetface]

If Blizzard really wanted to bring old racials up to speed - with the new sexy Worgen/Goblin to compare with - there are a couple of things they should have in mind:

1. Racials should be as universal as possible. While profession racials are alright, some racials - the main offenders being the ranged weapon specializations - feel "too bad" because only very few classes that race can be can use them to a perceivable effect. Axe/Fist Weapon Spec is swell and dandy, on the other hand, because recently, every melee class Orcs have can exploit that talent. Being an Orc Rogue and being told that even if you were supposed to be an expert with Axes, you still couldn't wield them, is not entirely copacetic with the flavor. On the other hand, Gun and Bow Specs are extremely useless for the great part of the classes, and could be replaced with something that achieves in depicting the same concept while being more comprehensive.

2. Profession racials should be more interesting than a straight up boost. Goblins get a boost on pots, Worgen can skin with their claws. What if Gnomes had a chance to create extra grenades through Engineering? What if Blood Elves lost less durability on enchanted equipment? What if Tauren could collect consumable roots through Herbalism? Ideas that are simple to implement and would make a whole lot of difference in the flavor department.

3. Provide fluff talents. Another thing that wouldn't be hard to implement - but one nice racial that provides an additional benefit, even if it is not something that will make or break your character but just allows you to feel special just by being a member of that race can make all the difference.

Here is a mock-up of what could be done to spice up Horde racials: http://www.war-tools.com/t69100.html

I'll probably prepare an Alliance version just for kicks later.

One the one hand, I don't believe Blizzard is going to pay that much attention to neither racials nor updating the old race models.

On the other hand, this is one topic that I believe most players would support getting a review and enough rapport could be summoned in Blizzard to deem it important.

I wish I hadn't cancelled my account to try and get some rabble-rousing done in the official forums though :7

[mööh]

why do tauren have more then anyone else?

[Midgetface]

In my mock-up? Those are just examples of the roots you would be able to get through the Cultivation racial; I think I noted it below it.

But that's just an idea. Maybe Cultivation could instead allow Lifeblood to grant extra damage, maybe allow the tauren to eat the herbs they gather as buff food.

I just thought tauren being able to extract special herbs would have a nice hippie-I-love-mother-Earth-check-out-this-groovy-shrooms-I-picked-up ring to it and would expand on the flavor.

[Deleted]

I like the Tauren, Orc, Troll and Blood Elf. But the Undead racials seem EXTREMELY DULL and not useful, except the 3% damage on bleeding, diseased or poisoned target. Sure Cannibalize is flavorful, as you said, but it doesn't really have that much use. Water Breathing? That is something Blizzard should either add leave as it as, AND add a new racial, or remove it and put in a new racial. Really, it doesn't have much use PvP or PvE wise. Will of the Forsaken should be like EMFH, the human racial, or be replaced with something else.

[Grocalis]

I actually made a post with some ideas for all races to get a profession racial, covering all professions. Since there are less professions then races, I actually gave one of them cooking on my list.

One thing I do think is that perception is going to be removed, almost seems inevitable with the stealth changes.

[kaze950]

I think horde needs an equivalent to heroic presence. Seems a little unfair to me that allies get a free 1% hit (a stat where 1% provides more benefit than it would for any other), while horde have no party wide racial like that.

[Talthaeran]

A good racial in my opinion is something that is both useful yet situational to the extent that it isn't used the moment it comes off of a cooldown. On top of that, something that doesn't require picking a certain class/profession to get benefit out of it either.

[Lesigh]

Some of the racials you suggested in your mock up have the same problems that you were complaining about. Good example here is the undead "visciousness"; it applies to rogues and warriors, but wouldn't do anything for mages or warlocks. Your idea for changing most of the profession racials are worse than their current form. I certainly don't make enough grenades (and they don't have difficult mats) for me to be excited over an extra one every once in a while. The Worgen one would just be broken (an extra gathering profession for free?). A lot of your mock up racials are really extreme and too powerful.

[Gallahadd]

Very nicely done, I had a quick look and they all seem pretty cool. Belf's need one more though, all the other races have 5, belfs have 4, maybe give them something along the lines of a 1% hit aura, or return their current 2% chance for spells to miss.

[Cyph3r]

There's a few interesting ideas here but overall I think your design suffers from the "more is always better" school of thought. You essentially gave everyone a racial that boosts damage/attack/casting speed by 3%. If EVERYONE gets this, why even bother in the first place. At that point the racials are just there so that there's MORE racials. Racials should be used to differentiate the races in a more tangible way than just physical appearance. The tricky part lies in making sure they're unique without becoming unbalanced.

In the past when a racial became TOO good (will of the forsaken), it got nerfed. Admittedly, it currently seems that the Goblin/Worgen racials may in fact prove to be too good, and I strongly suspect that if (when) this proves to be true we're much more likely to see them nerfed than the other class' buffed.

Blizzard recently clarified in a mostly non related post that they only intended to "retune" the current racials, not completely overhaul them all. We may see things balanced out a bit in number and type, such as giving every race a boost to a specific profession, as well as making sure everyone has 1 active ability. I don't expect to see ones like warstomp or escape artist going anywhere, though currently I'd argue that every man for himself is too good, and I foresee a nerf. They're also removing all weapon specialization talents from the class trees, so I wont' be surprised to see racials regarding weapons dissapear as well (sorry Dwarf and Troll hunters).

The point is that racials are primarily meant to be flavor first, utility second. Profession boosts are great while leveling, but useless once capped. Most of the current active abilities are awesome... every once in a while. The big problem is that they've remained relatively unchanged since launch, I expect them to look much better for Cat.

[Basmothel]

In the past when a racial became TOO good (will of the forsaken), it got nerfed. Admittedly, it currently seems that the Goblin/Worgen racials may in fact prove to be too good, and I strongly suspect that if (when) this proves to be true we're much more likely to see them nerfed than the other class' buffed.

Blizzard said at Blizzcon that they want the Goblin/Worgen racials (specifically the Goblin ones) to be the new benchmark for racial abilities. So we're more likely to see the others buffed.

I think horde needs an equivalent to heroic presence. Seems a little unfair to me that allies get a free 1% hit (a stat where 1% provides more benefit than it would for any other), while horde have no party wide racial like that.

All hit rating buffs are being removed. No Heroic Presence. No Misery/Improved Faerie Fire. No Prayer of Spirit/Fel Intelligence or Spirit given by Blessing of Kings/Mark of the Wild (for the classes who will get hit rating from spirit). This has been stated by Ghostcrawler (and he mentioned removing Heroic Presence before any of the others were being removed).

[pyrostorm9001]

you dont think this is forcing players into molds?

eg1. I want to be an enchanter so i have to play a bloodelf to make the prof worthwhile?
eg2. all Tauren's pick herbs and those who dont are shot down by peers for not min/maxing

things are the way they are because 5 even 10 points bonus means nothing come the end of the day.

having said that, i like where your head is at. the current racials are boring and could do with a revamp

[Midgetface]

I think horde needs an equivalent to heroic presence. Seems a little unfair to me that allies get a free 1% hit (a stat where 1% provides more benefit than it would for any other), while horde have no party wide racial like that.

Actually, Heroic Presence needs to be removed. Having players gear with having a Draenei in their party in mind is not great design. It could be "Naaru's Guiding" that gives Draenei 1% chance to hit, but not something that affects hit for the whole party.

Profession boosts are great while leveling, but useless once capped.

But the Undead racials seem EXTREMELY DULL and not useful, except the 3% damage on bleeding, diseased or poisoned target. Sure Cannibalize is flavorful, as you said, but it doesn't really have that much use. Water Breathing? That is something Blizzard should either add leave as it as, AND add a new racial, or remove it and put in a new racial. Really, it doesn't have much use PvP or PvE wise. Will of the Forsaken should be like EMFH, the human racial, or be replaced with something else.

Will of the Forsaken may or may not require being removed from the trinket cooldown. I personally think it doesn't, but Blizz thinks it's necessary -- I'm sure they will modify it back to normal eventually.
And Undead racials are not dull - at least not exaggeratedly. It seems what you call dull is lacking a DPS PVE ability.
But I would love to hear ideas until we find something we consider both balanced and fun.

Good example here is the undead "visciousness"; it applies to rogues and warriors, but wouldn't do anything for mages or warlocks. Your idea for changing most of the profession racials are worse than their current form. I certainly don't make enough grenades (and they don't have difficult mats) for me to be excited over an extra one every once in a while. The Worgen one would just be broken (an extra gathering profession for free?). A lot of your mock up racials are really extreme and too powerful.

It applies to Mages and Warlocks, as it says in the NOTE. The only difference is that they can't apply the effect on their own, but they still cash in from the damage boost.

On the second part of your post, Worgen DO get the racial I made as an example -- they can skin with their claws and remove the necessity to carry a skinning knife. On the other hand, Goblins get a boost to potions...

Here lies the conundrum: Worgen have a profession racial that makes their favorite profession easier; Goblins have a racial that gives a skill boost to their profession but also a boost to the product of their profession regardless of whether they are Alchemists or not.

I applied the first mentality to Tauren, to an extent: Herb gathering allows you to find potion-like items. In this way, you are not becoming more powerful by doing herbalism, it is just more convenient and allows you to have some utilities in your bag - but in end-game raiding, you'll still want actual potions in your cooldown timer. So these roots you find just make a cute flavor expansion, they make your race's profession easier, but they are not something that sets you apart from other Tauren. If you want to go Blacksmith, you would not be gimping your character, and you can always trade for the roots to feel like a grass eating tauren.

I applied the second mentality to Blood Elves: they get an enchanting bonus, but if they are using enchanted weapons - regardless of profession - they get a speed boost because they channel auras through enchanted materials better or something like that. So while the race does have a penchant for enchant, it does not mean they HAVE to be enchanters to be able to enjoy that part of the flavor.

Please, do tell me which racials are extremely powerful, 'cause I'd like to fix them though.

A good racial in my opinion is something that is both useful yet situational to the extent that it isn't used the moment it comes off of a cooldown. On top of that, something that doesn't require picking a certain class/profession to get benefit out of it either.

As stated, you don't have to be any of the professions to benefit from the profession racials I proposed.

On the cooldown philosophy, well, you might want to coordinate Berserking/Blood Fury with your other cooldowns, while WotF/Warstomp/Arcane Torrent have their own specific uses. I think may designs don't attempt against any cooldown management purpose too much.

There's a few interesting ideas here but overall I think your design suffers from the "more is always better" school of thought. You essentially gave everyone a racial that boosts damage/attack/casting speed by 3%. If EVERYONE gets this, why even bother in the first place. At that point the racials are just there so that there's MORE racials. Racials should be used to differentiate the races in a more tangible way than just physical appearance. The tricky part lies in making sure they're unique without becoming unbalanced.

I only gave the speed boost to Tauren and Blood Elves, and they get it in different ways - Blood Elves through enchanting their weapon; Taurens after being healed. The bonus may be the same, but the ability very different.

Trolls and Undead do have a very similar racial in that "if the enemy has this, you deal more damage against it" and I think that could use some work.

They're also removing all weapon specialization talents from the class trees, so I wont' be surprised to see racials regarding weapons dissapear as well (sorry Dwarf and Troll hunters).

This was one of my objectives. I think I managed to transform the Troll weapon racials into a racial that had the same flavor in a pretty elegant way.

The only weapon racial I kept was Axe/Fist Spec, and tossed extra crit with Fire damage to it. I think every class the race can be benefits from it and gives an idea of the favorite weapons of choice of the Orcs.

you dont think this is forcing players into molds?

eg1. I want to be an enchanter so i have to play a bloodelf to make the prof worthwhile?
eg2. all Tauren's pick herbs and those who dont are shot down by peers for not min/maxing

Read above.

A topic I would like to touch is certain classes/specs benefiting more from racials than others. I am not entirely opposed to that - there will always be min-maxing.

I understand Destruction Warlocks or maybe Enhancement Shaman get the most from my proposed Orc racials, but that's part of the fun. You may be gimping your character by being, say, an Arcane Mage because you can't use the pet damage or fire damage increases to their full potential, but not by a huge amount and if you still like Orcs, the difference would not be great so that you are punching yourself for not being a Blood Elf or something.

Yes to showing that Orcs prefer some method to another, no to making that method mandatory.