The final word on priest racial abilities
by Elizabeth Harper 
Oct 19th 2006 at 1:30PM
At last we have full disclosure on the racial abilities for Blood Elf and Draenei priests come the expansion -- or at least unconfirmed rumor from beta testers on the World of Raids forums. I am somewhat disappointed, though, having hoped the addition of new priest-available races would give Blizzard an opportunity to equalize the racial abilities across the factions -- as currently the Dwarf's Fear Ward ability makes some difficult raid encounters much simpler. So when it was announced that priests would have one old and one new racial ability, I had hoped to see a horde priest with Fear Ward. But instead, Blood Elves will receive Touch of Weakness (not a bad self-buff for soloing or PvPing) and the Draenei will receive Fear Ward (no explanation required). Well, perhaps we'll see fewer raid encounters in the future in which fear plays a large part.
Update: Eyonix responds to the issue of racial abilities by saying (among other things), "there will be new ways (for both factions) to remove and/or prevent fear in the Burning Crusade. So, in short -- lay down that crutch, you don't need it anymore."
Filed under: Priest, Expansions, Draenei, Blood Elves
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kyle Oct 19th 2006 1:43PM
Draenei get fear ward, huh?
Was expecting the BE to get that too, heh.
Kaziel Oct 19th 2006 1:52PM
I agree, Kyle... I was expecting them to balance the scales and give the Blood Elves Fear Ward, while the Draenei got something else... instead we see the Alliance getting another Fear Ward, and the Horde? Horde get's another Touch of Weakness.
Mike Schramm Oct 19th 2006 1:54PM
Kind of a slap in the face to Horde, isn't it? Guess Alliance really is supposed to be easy mode.
Ken Oct 19th 2006 2:02PM
Mike, I didn't think you'd be the kind of person to say something like that. Sorta reminds me of the whining on the official Blizzard forums.
Ephor Oct 19th 2006 2:08PM
^^^ speaking of which, a message to all my friends in the horde: cry more n00b, l34rn2pl4y! :P
Kaziel Oct 19th 2006 2:10PM
It may be whining, but I feel it's fairly justified. When a certain race/class combo is considered needed on a raid, just for one spell, it has to make you think it's unbalanced. Esp if it's only available to one side of the faction divide. And just to clarify, I'm not an angry Horde member. My main (Human Mage) and future main (Draenei Shaman!) are both Alliance, and I'm content staying on that side. While I'm happy with there being differences between the factions, this is one that I think needs to be balanced.
neil Oct 19th 2006 2:17PM
STFU whiners. Half a horde raid can hit there "Iwinbutton" and clear fear anyways.
Ken Oct 19th 2006 2:20PM
Oh, I feel it's justified too. I was just a little surprised because I didn't expect Mike to ever say something like that. /Respect
Dagget Oct 19th 2006 2:34PM
You Nub.
Why would you want all skills/magic/abilitys to be equal across each race?
I pose a question to you. Why have races if you want them to be all the same? The look? Come on.
Mojak Oct 19th 2006 8:03PM
Fear on boss fights is dumb anyway... Lets face it. If someone is crazy enough to run into a room with a 50 foot tall, 200 foot long man eating dragon, when that dragon roars the chances of those poeple or person to go... omg it roared.. run away, is slim to none... Stop with fear already...
jpc Oct 19th 2006 3:20PM
Why do BE need fear ward when half the horde population has WotF?
Mordiceius Oct 19th 2006 3:25PM
It's like I once heard an alliance warrior said this "If I ever wanted to leave defensive stance while tanking, I would have rolled horde." We all know being horde takes more skill anyways.
tevrin Oct 19th 2006 3:27PM
Fear Ward isn't that great anyways... sure it lets you be lazy as a tank, but having tanked (ony, mag, nef...) both with and without fear ward (our dorf priest sometimes doesnt show up) let me tell you its not that hard. I dont even have TM and its not an issue. Its handy, but not gamebreaking.
Zuhjatak (Dunemaul) Oct 19th 2006 3:53PM
Uhm, guys, hate to bring it to ya, but a blue posted on the official forums saying Fear Ward won't really be as useful in TBC as it is atm (meaning fewer/no TBC bosses fear). Besides, the Horde has done fine without it so far and it won't be a problem from now on anyway.
Swiftlydead Oct 19th 2006 4:09PM
so much for balance... ah well. Horde still dropped C'Thun and Kel'Thuzad first, so a middle finger to the alliance for having it easier and still losing in the end. A gigantic L2PLAY is called for in this situation.
lalHorde Oct 19th 2006 4:12PM
You can't compare Fear Ward to WotF.
30sec cooldown, can be cast on anyone, WotF useable only by undead as self cast.
This let's the alliance easily sidestep all of Blizzard's LOLFEAR encounters. I have tanked everything up to Cthun. Let me tell you on NON-30s timed fears fear ward can make things go that much smoother.
Anyone who has tanked nef knows that his fear isn't a perfect timer and on horde, your MT will get feared, likely it wont cause a problem because by that point you are used to it.
It's a sill skill with silly uses. I agree.
foip Oct 19th 2006 8:17PM
if we are at balancing and equalizing I'd like the forsaken fearbraker racial for my alliance char please.
Fetching Oct 19th 2006 4:55PM
Percentage of Horde that are undead: 25%
Average number of AoE fears cast during Nefarion phase 2: 50
WoTF cooldown = 2 minutes.
Average Nefarion fight phase 2 duration: 10 minutes.
Number of times the Undead can use WoTF = 5
[Number of times AoE fear occurs] - [number of times the 25% of the horde population can use WoTF] = [Number of reasons why horde players are better skilled and don't need weaksauce fear ward]
50 - 5 = 45
jpc Oct 19th 2006 5:07PM
QQ more.
Your MT has to change stances in nef fight - wah.
You know that fear ward can't be cast on all members of the raid right?
So your math is all wrong. If you have 5 priests and all of them are dwarves/draenei then you get 5 fear wards. Everyone else besides those five have to just deal with the fear. Unlike in horde where only 75% of the raid have to deal with the fear. Also, I think your 25% figure is really wrong. On my server everyone is an undead unless they are a hunter/druid/shaman - and those are some of the least played classes.
PNess Oct 19th 2006 5:32PM
HOW about more ways to break stuns/dazes?