Hands on with baby Blood Elves
by Jennie Lees 
May 11th 2006 at 4:29PM
I played through the first few levels as a Blood Elf Mage at E3 today. As a veteran of every other newbie land, I have to say that starting from scratch as a Blood Elf has a similar feel to the other races -- there's only so much you can do as a newbie, after all.
However, the newbie quests have an interesting twist. Thanks to the Blood Elves' Mana Tap racial, levelling downtime is reduced, and quests teach you how to use the racial effectively. It's going to be a really vital get-out-of-jail card -- when you Mana Tap enemies, their mana is reduced and you receive a buff with no immediate effect. You can stack this effect up to three times, and then unleash the Arcane Torrent racial to restore your much-needed mana at a time when it really counts. The cooldown means you can't use this all the time, but I can see it becoming really vital for healers, for instance.
Filed under: Horde, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
sev May 11th 2006 4:47PM
I am not clear on what the Arcane torrent actually does?
Does it replace mana, or do an AOE mana drain on nearby targets?
Tibbsy May 11th 2006 5:12PM
A previous post on the WoW insider showed the racial abilities for the new races, but I'll summarize:
Blood Elves use the racial ability Mana Tap to gain charges. Then, every two minutes they can use the second active racial ability Arcane Torrent which does two things: first, it causes an AoE Silence for 2 seconds to everyone within 8 yards. The second is that it replenishes 20 mana, energy or rage per charge they have stored via mana tap.
As far as racials are concerned, it's awesome.
Dragonvarld May 11th 2006 8:48PM
Oh great. This makes shadow meld look even more pathetic. The BE racial is going to make a huge imbalance in PVP. Any BE class gets a free AOE silence.
Seth May 11th 2006 9:28PM
Yeah it would be a horrible unbalance in pvp, a second aoe racial in Horde land and 0 in Alliance. Also the Alliance's new racial is pretty poor, while at low levs a hot is nice, but unless it scales as you level it will become useless, where as the Horde's ability will be usefull through out their leveling.
daniel May 11th 2006 10:50PM
World Of Hordecraft. Nuff Said.
Some guy May 11th 2006 11:12PM
Wonder if blizzard will reduce the effect to only affect 5 targets rather then all, like aoe fear and stun O.o
...another problem is, are raid bosses going to be immune to Mana Tap, if so kindof useless in PvE, but extremely useful is PvP.
BE rogues basically get a free thistle tea (if they have three charges active) :P
jennie May 12th 2006 3:51AM
Thanks Tibbsy. Yes, it's certainly a really powerful racial from my experience with it -- reduced downtime and a PvP weapon. I didn't get a chance to check out how Arcane Torrent scales with level, so perhaps that's where the balancing will come in.
elerrawyn May 12th 2006 5:10AM
The first time I get on WSG 10-19 and it's a Horde guild filled with nothing but twinked BE rogues... it's time to quit WoW.
Elladria May 12th 2006 9:14AM
But then the Draenei have the health replenish racial. =
PodMonkeys May 12th 2006 9:16AM
Sounds pretty cool, although like mentioned it does sound a bit too cool. :P
Dan May 15th 2006 3:06PM
quit your whining. alliance have been having shadowmeld to ANY night elf class and improving rogue and druid stealth.. ZOMG AIM SHOT OUT OF STEALTH O_o. boohoo alliance will suck at pvp now...nothings changing
Cava Jun 22nd 2006 7:14PM
About the Horde Crying:
Save it. I hear the same crap from fellow horde crying about alliance. Deal with it. Your cries do nothing but make you seem stupid.
As for racials they dont make or break a darned thing.
And by now if your a 2004 player whos been through all the changes. You darn well know that balancing WILL be adressed in DUE time.
That AOE mute that lasts 2 seconds ...pffft. So its a Interuption if you really look at it. 2 seconds is nothing.
So whats the difference between a 2 second mute and a warstomp by a tauren...? Nothing either way your spells just got shut down. Atleast the 2 second mute doesnt prevent you from moving like warstomp will.
And I agree about the NE stealth. Ive had my share of Warrior ambush on a road by pair of warrior NE cause I didnt see them till it was too late. I never cried Foul or Unfair..I thought it was smart use of ones talents.
Instead of crying maybe you need to be saying wow..that will be a new challenge to overcome.
The Draenar racial...just another paladin with an extra damn heal....great instead of 10 min to kill one paladin its gona take 15 min. =p
Question:
What classes can Blood Elfs use? I see that the Draenar get to play Paladins....will BE get to play Shamans?