Should Blizzard Revamp Racial Abilities?

[thealexbobsy]

This is just an idea I had - Not actually mentioned by Blizzard at all.

I'm sure there are plenty of people in this game that picked their race not for their looks, but because of the combat utilities and passive buffs that their race had. I for one am a Worgen Warrior because Worgen have the maximum dps output for my class (+1% Crit). Others aren't min/maxing to the extreme and simply play what they see fit, and there's no problem with that at all. I just figure that a large percentage of the gaming community; mostly people in the top 25 guilds, are forced to play certain races because they know what is best suited for their class.

Here is the idea I'm proposing: Get rid of all racial abilities that offer combat utility and replace them with new abilities that are fun and unique, and by no way influence anything in a raid group or pvp.

Note: This is just brainstorming, I'm not finished with this list.

Current Racial Abilities:
[*]Human
- Increased Spirit [ Remove ]
- Bonus to Reputations [ Keep ]
- Increased Sword and Mace Expertise [ Remove ]
- Every Man for Himself [ Remove ]
[*]Dwarf
- Stoneform [ Change ] (Gives your dwarf a stone looking texture - Can toggle on/off for cosmetic purposes.)
- Increased Crit with Guns [ Remove ]
- Archaeology Bonus [ Keep ]
- Increased Expertise with Maces [ Remove ]
* Allow Dwarves to summon a barrel of ale once every 2 hours to provide food and drink to all raid and party members.
[*]Night Elf
- Shadowmeld [ Keep ]
- More difficult to hit [ Remove ]
- Wisp Form [ Keep ]
- Faster Movement While Stealthed [Remove]
* Light of Elune - A beam of light appears of the night elf and regnerates health and mana while not in combat. 30 minute cooldown.
[*]Gnome
- Escape Artist [ Remove ]
- Increased Mana Pool [ Remove ]
- Engineering Increased [ Keep ]
- Increased Expertise with Daggers and Small Swords [ Remove ]
- Larger Mounts [ Keep ]
* Maybe allow Gnomes to have the Toy Making ability. They can make toys and stuff.
[*]Draenei
- Increased Jewelcrafting [ Keep ]
- Healing Ability [ Keep ]
- Increased Hit [ Remove ]
[*]Worgen
- Darkflight [ Keep ]
- Two Forms [ Change ] (Maybe as an added bonus, allow the Worgen to fight while in human form.)
- Running Wild [ Keep ]
- Increased Critical Chance [ Remove ]
- Increased Skinning Skill [ Keep ]
[*]Orc
- Enrage Effect [ Change ] (Maybe allow them to toggle on/off for cosmetics only)
- Resistant to Stuns [ Keep ]
- Damage Done by Pets Increased [ Remove ]
- Increased Expertise with Axes and Fist Weapons [ Remove ]
[*]Undead
- Can Remove Fear, Sleep, and Charm [ Remove ]
- Cannibalize [ Keep ]
- Underwater Breathing [ Keep ]
[*]Tauren
- Warstomp [ Remove ]
- Increased Health [ Remove ]
- Increased Herbalism Skill [ Keep ]
* Maybe add Plainsrunning (They had it in beta!)
[*]Troll
- Berserk [ Change ] (Allow them to toggle on/off for cosmetics only)
- Regeneration [ Change ] (Only out of combat)
- Damage Increased Versus Beasts [ Remove ]
- Increased Critical Chance with Bows and Throwing Weapons [ Remove ]
- Reduced Duration of Movement Impairing Effects [ Keep ]
[*]Blood Elf
- Enchanting Skill Increased [ Keep ]
- Can Restore Sources such as Mana or Energy [ Remove ]
- AOE Silence [ Remove ]
[*]Goblin
- Can Rocket Jump Forward [ Change ] (Allow them to use while out of combat.)
- Can Launch Rockets at Enemies [ Remove ]
- Receives Vendor Discounts [ Keep ]
- Can Periodically Summon a Bank [ Keep ]
- Haste Increased [ Remove ]
- Alchemy Skill Increased [Keep] but the Increased Potion healing [ Remove ]

Didn't show spell resistance racials because they're all getting removed next patch.

Another option I was exploring was giving every race the ability to teleport to their home city on an hour or so cooldown.

So what do you guys think? Do you want to cling to your current racial combat abilities and ignore the unbalance? Or would you rather have them replaced with non-combat related perks and play whatever race you saw fit? Also, share your ideas about new racials you might want to include to this list!

TLDR

Lets not be restricted by combat racials. Lets play whatever race we want to, and not have to worry about min-maxing. Non-combat racial abilities can be just as fun, if not more than the existing ones that we currently have!

Post on page 5:

Example:

"Dwarf Shadow Priest" is a prime example of someone who exists on one end of the spectrum when it comes to racial bonuses - He really has no need for them at all. He gains no benefit from having them and there is no fun to be had at all.

Then take someone like "Night Elf Bear Druid" who makes use of every single racial ability that a Night Elf has to offer whether passive or on use. This is a good thing, but a worgen bear can never be as good as a night elf bear with our current system. Night elf bear druids simply have more survivability. - Fact

The message I'm trying to send here is that every single race/class combination should have racial abilities that they find fun and interesting, whether passive or activated. But at the same time, they shouldn't make your class/race combo more efficient at healing, tanking, or damage dealing. Go ahead and take a look at the abilities I'm suggesting we should remove. A lot of them look like 1% crit, +3 expertise, 1% hit, etc. These are the same kind of boring abilities that Blizzard removed from our talent trees going into this expansion. They could do the same with these talents, and replace them with some new abilities that were actually fun and set the races apart.

I don't know how people can support the idea of having boring old stat stick talents that do nothing but create unbalance between races.

[loki504]

sounds a bit boring. maybe some more gimmick stuff with out anyting needed for pvp or pve.

[Anjerith]

You remove many of the flavor Racials that make the character creation process amusing.

[Resentful]

Yes remove them so I don't have to have a DPS increase just by playing X race <.<

[Tomana]

IMO the only racial that need fixing is Every Man For Himself. All other racials are not THAT game-breaking in PVE nor PVP.
What you propose is basically butchering the racials.

[BatteredRose]

Keep and possibly change a few. The majority of them are hardly gamebreaking.

[kaze950]

Rather than removing the more useful racials, I think it would be more fun if every race had them. For examle,

Humans: Every Man for Himself (same as it is now)
Dwarf: Stoneform, Same as it is now, but 20% reduction and for 15 seconds (Not sure about this)
Gnome: Escape Artist, maybe change CD to 2 min and make it give a little boost to speed for X seconds.
Night Elf: Shadowmeld, does not go away with moving but lasts 15 (or whatever number) seconds. Maybe triggers a short CD on other stealth abilities?
Draenei: Gift, Change to 2-min CD (maybe reduce to 15% healing?)
Worgen: Darkflight, keep the same.
Orc: Blood Fury, AP/Spell power equal to the burst pvp trinket, but shares CD.
Troll: Berserking, change to 2-min CD (maybe reduce to 15% haste?)
Tauren: War stomp, make it instant (maybe change to 5-yard range)
Undead: Will of the Forsaken, just make it the same as human.
Blood Elf: Arcane Torrent, keep the same
Goblin: Keep Rocket Jump the same, remove damage from Barrage but give it a disorient or something like that.

Also, give every race a non-stacking aura that gives 1% to each main secondary stat - crit, mastery, haste. Change Draenei's to one of those, since reducing the hit cap seems like an unfair advantage. This would give a slight advantage to not stacking races for racials (3% stats altogether), and would have an equal effect whether in a 25 man raid or a 5 man dungeon group.

Plainsrunning for tauren sounds like a good idea - it'd be the horde's answer to running wild.

[Deleted]

Yes remove them so I don't have to have a DPS increase just by playing X race <.<

I think this is the major reason behind this post ...
I - for example - enjoy SWTOR pretty much lately and I find it very amusing that I can chose whatever race i want (if available for the class) because i don't have to "optimize" with certain racial passives ...

My opinion:

- keep profession bonuses
- remove all dmg-improving racials (passive and active, e.g. +expertice, +hit, +crit ...)
- make all other racials "out of combat-only" & "out of pvp-zone" (e.g. draenei heal)

where my opinion differs greatly from OP:

- remove Human +reputation racial ... that one just sux ...
- remove Goblin +vendor discount racial ...

[Raxtus]

I love this idea, right now I would be playing a tauren if they had better racials. Regardless though, in MoP just about everyone will want to go pandaren because they are new and they have by far the best racial of all the existing races anyway.

[Deleted]

Will of the forsaken back to its original vanilla state.

Mod Edit: Don't post meme's please <snipped>

[kaze950]

I love this idea, right now I would be playing a tauren if they had better racials. Regardless though, in MoP just about everyone will want to go pandaren because they are new and they have by far the best racial of all the existing races anyway.

How blizzard cannot see that a gain of +90 (since that is the cata value, MoP will probably be close to double) of a primary stat is OP, I don't understand. If we assume that the food value for MoP is just 120 or something like that...for a lot of classes, that would be close to +400 dps. From one racial ability. I think it's the same problem as with goblin and worgen - they just don't have one cool racial, they have several. Most of the "old" races have only one racial that really stands out.

[ZeroEdgeir]

I don't see any value in keeping the profession-based bonuses... yay, you got +15 skill, it gives no bonus at all, cept maybe a slight headstart on the next expansion's crafting grind. The Worgen, Goblin, and Tauren ones at least give a bonus that has some form of VALUE to it.

Removing any combat-implied bonuses won't happen. Maybe making some races more attractive in that respect could happen though.
Maybe each race gets the following:
A defensive cooldown (Arcane Torrent, War Stomp, Stoneskin, etc)
An offesnive cooldown (Blood Fury, Berserking, etc.)
A weapon proficiency (at most covering 2 weapon types. Humans should be stuck on 1H and 2H Swords, since Dwarves already got 1H and 2H Maces, Orcs would be just 1H and 2H Axes)
A profession-based bonus (with an actual bonus, not just a passive +skill that gives no value)
A thematic, non-combative, ability.

[Deleted]

- make all other racials "out of combat-only" & "out of pvp-zone" (e.g. draenei heal)

So draenei would be running around their home cities(out of combat) healing themselves just for fun? :-)

[Bitlovin]

Keep and possibly change a few. The majority of them are hardly gamebreaking.

Problem is, the Pandaren racial is going to be so overpowered in PvE, compared to the other classes, that it would be foolish for raiders not to race change to them (if your class allows it.) Either their buff (double food stat bonus) needs to be toned down, or other races will need to be buffed.

[Demetrion]

Totally agreed on removing everything which will give you advantage over other race.

Make some stuff which will give you cosmetic bonus and something that could be used out of combat.

[Brightamethyst]

Or maybe base stat increasing food is going away, leaving us with only haste, mastery, etc foods. Wouldn't surprise me.

[beanman12345]

Blizzard has 100% confirmed, they will never revamp the racials.

[gutnbrg]

homogenize everything!!! NO

[yjmark]

I like the flavor of different racial abilities. It just adds that tiny bit of variety. None of them have any significant impact, so meh.

[Keoren]

Racials are not currently balanced and should be changed.