ALL RACES should have the same racials, but with unique flavor (like hearthing)

[thottstation]

People have argued for decades that racial abilities are unbalanced. And they forever will be.

If you give unique spells to each race, then obviously some would be better or worse in certain situations. And when you have 20 races with 4-5 abilities? It's a balancing nightmare with no end. Every content patch, devs must consider every racial and re-balanced accordingly. And what about when more races are added? And more?

So my radical solution is to eliminate unique racial abilities entirely, and replace them with 3-4 core spells that are universal to ALL races, however make the visual animation unique so that the person feels just a little bit "cool" whenever they see it.

But what spells would that be?


1. HEARTHSTONE



Everyone has a hearthstone, and it serves a fundamental purpose. Take it away and the game becomes inconvenient, but not unplayable. You can literally play the game in it's entirety without a hearthstone, but having one gives you substantial quality-of-life improvement.

But as the game progressed, we now have several hearthstones in our bags: Hearthstone, Dalaran Hearthstone, Garrison Hearthstone... not counting all the necklaces, cloaks, tabards, rings and other items that teleport us around, plus perks like MoP Challenge Mode portals. But the original hearthstone item is unique because it can be binded anywhere. So why lock that ability to an item taking up bagspace for another 15 years?

Turn "Hearth" into a racial ability, but give it a unique animation for each race. It has no game balance issues, is a core spell that people use numerous time every day but can also never be used without game-breaking impact, and you can make the animation "cool" so that it reflects the racial identity. Make players feel awesome every time they hearth! And the spell would have one of those little arrows, so you can click on it and a menu would appear, with all the other hearthing options you've unlocked (ie. MoP Challenge modes, toys, items-that-became-toys, etc).

There's already numerous animations ingame when you teleport to various locations, and recently a plethora of toys have been added ingame that share your hearthstone's cooldown, but instead have a seasonal holiday or expansion-thematic flavor. So what would the racial hearthing animation be? Races have numerous classes, and some races cannot be certain classes... but they might be one day, so you have to be careful. The animation has to be symbolic of the race's culture, but not incompatible with whatever class they chose.



ALLIANCE:

Race	Hearthing Animation	Unlockable Options	Already In-Game
Human	Waves Alliance banner. Gryphon picks up player, flies away	War-torn banner / armored gryphon	YES
Night Elf	"Praise" pose as Elune moonbeam envelopes them	Starfall effects / dark moon	YES
Dwarf	Talks into remote. Ironforge tank picks up player, speeds away	Siege Engine	NO
Gnome	Channels Ultrasafe Transporter	Summons toys that wave goodbye	YES
Draenei	Summons Vindicaar teleport pad	Purple/Gold	YES
Worgen	Goes savage, does furious attacking animations, dashes away/vanishes	Kills critters, makes bloody mess	YES
Pandaren	Blue zen meditation	Cloud serpents / Alementals	YES
Kul Tiran	Tide-sage spellcasting	Kraken tentacles	YES
Dark Iron	Talks into remote. Dark Iron Mole Machine erupts	Fire elemental	NO
Lightforged	"Praise" pose as a beam of Holy Light envelopes them	Vision of Naaru	YES
Void Elf	Struggles as Void Portal slowly consumes them	Tentacles	YES
Mechagnome	Summons Mechagon Model W. Revs up, then speeds away	Mechaspider	YES

HORDE:

Race	Animation	Unlockable Options	Already In-Game
Orc	Waves Horde banner. Wyvern picks up player, flies away	War-torn banner / armored wyvern	YES
Tauren	Creates fire/smoke signals. Kodo picks up player, speeds away	Armored Kodo	YES
Undead	Blows horn. Banshees pick up player, flies away	Val'kyr	YES
Troll	Voodoo dancing amidst Loa Spirits	Totems/snakes	YES
Blood Elf	Caresses critter. Drains mana from it and teleports away	Critter lives	YES
Goblin	Equips jetpack. Countdown... then launches into the sky	Explosions	YES
Pandaren	Red zen meditation	Cloud serpents / Alementals	YES
Zandalari	"Worship" spellcasting, then Loa spirit appears and carries them off	Loa	YES
Nightborne	Drinks Mana wine. Laughs as vision of Oculeth appears above them and teleports them away	Past vision of Elisande	YES
Mag'har	Waves torch. Iron Horde vehicle picks up player, speeds away	Iron Horde vehicle	YES
HighMountain	Plants giant Totem pole. Eagle appears and carries them off	Drogbar Fist	YES
Vulpera	?	?	?

Recently the game has introduced whistles and other items where a mount appears and "carries you away" (even when underwater), so some of the ideas above already have the technology implemented. Both you and players around you see your character perform a spellcasting animation, then at the last second get on a mount and flap away. Your screen fades to black, while other players just see the flying mount moving away and slowly vanishes. The same would be for various hearthing animations listed above. The ones where vehicles or mounts appear and take your character away would still be visible to other players, but they would just see it vanish, while you would just see a loading screen.

This also deals with a pet peave of mine regarding hearthstones: depending on your PC/Internet, you never see the final "poof" as you leave. Currently your character performs a generic spellcasting, but only sometimes is there lag enough that you see the final animation. Most times, the Loading Screen appears too fast and you never see the climactic vanishing. I just think it would be nice to actually see your character perform an exit animation start to finish, rather than just wave their shining hands and then suddenly a loading screen pops up. I see other people's full hearth animation, but almost never my own.


Anyway, that's just my idea for one possible racial that could act as a replacement for the numerous problematic +10 Versatility style racials that are plaguing the game and causing grief for the developers and the player base. Just REPLACE THEM ALL with core spells and abilities that all players have, but make them flavorful for each race to give them a "moment of cool" they can do every now and then. Making hearthing a racial ability is one example, with the added benefit of also freeing up a bag slot that has never been free since your first day of playing. Plus the little arrow on the Hearth icon means you could remove some bloat from the Toy Box panel (563 and counting, with no signs of stopping).

What do you think?

Also, what animations do you think would be more suitable/cool? The ones listed above were just ideas I came up with now, but there are other possibilities (for Dwarfs, I thought maybe they would start drinking while other dwarfs appeared around you and danced and clapped, and it would end with you collapsing. You would "wake up" in your assigned hearth spot. But then I thought... nah. Too on the nose. Having an Ironforge tank suddenly speed in and out, not stopping as it grabbed you and disappears in a puff of smoke seemed much cooler).

Some of the spellcasting animation ideas listed above I like, while others are obviously lazy, albeit appropriate. Do you have a better, "cooler" idea?

And what other racials besides Hearthing? What core spells/abilities are there ingame that (1). everyone does/should have, (2). doesn't affect gameplay unfairly, and (3). could be given a unique racial flavor?


Another idea I had was a "leap" ability. Warriors have one (Heroic Leap), Outlaw rogues have one (Grappling Hook). I'm sure there are others. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone had some form of leap ability, but with a racial theme? Maybe, maybe not... but I'm just throwing ideas out there.

[Kiki b]

Good news; Vulpera have this.

Bad news; it's their racial.



https://gfycat.com/rarerepentantcranefly

[Nathasil]

Blizzard will oppose, as toys to replace the default hearthing animation have been their only new and somewhat cool idea for holiday rewards in ~4 years of very hard and intense brainstorming.

OT:
Races already have purely cosmetic flavour - models and sounds. That's really all they need. If you want to remove racials, fine, let's talk about that...but adding visual fluff like hearthing does not push any buttons with me.

What i would vastly prefer to this idea are complete class/spec skins based on your race. An Orc warrior should not look/move exactly the same as a Draenei warrior.


A problem i see with the general nature of this proposal is that the most important "racials" - which faction you are allowed to join and which classes you are allowed to pick - are not covered. Call me delluded, but i think it is much more important to talk about Goblins having 1 class more than Gnomes for absolutely no reason...and Blood Elves still being unable to play Alliance.

[benting]

No, racials make it interesting. The problem is the faction divide or not allowing guilds to have cross faction members.

[Destinas]

For some people racials make or break the class they play. For me, it's how they look - I barely even look at racials. Having hearthstones is an interesting idea for racial toys, though.

Call me delluded, but i think it is much more important to talk about Goblins having 1 class more than Gnomes for absolutely no reason....

They both have 8 classes. They share DK, Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Mage, Priest, and Warlock. Gnomes can be monks, Goblins can be Shamans.

[Lochton]

Thought the path was to get away from everything being the same?

[ReVnX]

And every class of the same role should have the exact same skills /s

[Drpizka]

Why to have races and classes at all?

Just have one race and one class and let the player pick their own visuals!

[Kharadin]

People have argued for decades that racial abilities are unbalanced. And they forever will be.

If you give unique spells to each race, then obviously some would be better or worse in certain situations. And when you have 20 races with 4-5 abilities? It's a balancing nightmare with no end. Every content patch, devs must consider every racial and re-balanced accordingly. And what about when more races are added? And more?

So my radical solution is to eliminate unique racial abilities entirely

Yes, lets remove flavour and interesting mechanics in the name of perfect balance and homogenization.

No.

[George Lucas]

Everything should be the same grey blob, with the illusion of differentiation existing only in the form of cosmetics. Good idea, that will bring back the feeling of excitement to WoW.

[Irian]

I don't really want the game to be homogenized more, personally. A part of me oddly likes that when I choose an unconventional and unpopular choice for a racial option, it's sending a clear message that I'm putting aesthetics above minmaxing.

I once didn't join a hardcore guild because they wanted me to change from belf to troll in Cata, when I was the top warlock on our server. I'm glad they made me make that choice because frankly I don't want to be a part of a guild that would push me to put aside my own personal enjoyment of the game in favor of eking out a tiny bit more DPS. I understand that some people want to do that but I'm not one of them.

It's a system of expression to me, and one of the few things WoW has going for it. I don't want the game to lose that, too. This kind of mindset sounds good on paper but leads to game design like we see in 2019 WoW, where nobody's allowed to stand out or provide unique utility in case someone might have to play something they don't want to if you want to minmax DPS.

[Elias01]

You are creating problem where isnt one. Assuming that all players play races (specialy horde one) becouse of racials is absolute nonsense. 99.9% of players do not care about racials.

[VinceVega]

That is exactly the problem many people have with the game nowadays...

Everything is kinda the same.
There are some classes/races with better utility/racials but nothing so consequential, that you are unable to play the game.
Find friends play with them. Then you can run high level keys an mythic raids without the optimal combination of class and race

[BlackGoldShooter]

Why to have races and classes at all?

Just have one race and one class and let the player pick their own visuals!

How about this cool idea. There is one spell called "bolt." and you put glyph like things on the spell that change bolt's visual. like, put a shadow glyph on and it becomes Shadowbolt, Frost becomes Frostbolt, Nature becomes Lightning Bolt, etc. etc.

[Irian]

How about this cool idea. There is one spell called "bolt." and you put glyph like things on the spell that change bolt's visual. like, put a shadow glyph on and it becomes Shadowbolt, Frost becomes Frostbolt, Nature becomes Lightning Bolt, etc. etc.

I know this is meant sarcastically but I've always wanted something like that for Shaman, where they can choose which element to harness as their filler.

I think it'd be a really cool touch for a class that's supposed to be a master of the elements.

[Raven]

If they wanna balance they need racial which is pure cosmetic or very generic, even if everyone have same racials some classes will always synergies better then others.

[Syegfryed]

nah, not like this

i could be ok with some mirrored racials with different "skins", that have nothing to do with gameplay, or some"feats" your race/class can chose regardless of what it is.

but i would not give up the older racials, they are something important in the RPG genre.

[Kharadin]

I have no idea what racials each race even has, that's how little they matter to me, I'd be in favour of doing something like this with them.

- - - Updated - - -



Fuck me dude that 1% arcane resistance and +15 engineering skill on my gnome is super interesting whatever would I do without it

Have a unique hearthstone animation, apparently.

[Darkarath]

I am with you OP. Racials are a bad thing for WoW and they need to go away. Choosing a race should rely exclusively on how they look.

Sadly with the addition of AR they are doubling down on this system and I do not see any chance of them removing It.

[Tarba]

Each race should have different racials. Each race should have different classes accessible. Each race should have different personnalities.