Breakfast Topic: Priest racials
by Eliah Hecht 
Apr 29th 2007 at 8:00AM
One unique thing about the Priest class is racial spells. Every race has their own traits for all classes, like Dwarves' Stoneskin and the Undead's Cannibalize. However, Priests also have special spells that are only available to certain races (each race gets two of the racial spells). Fear Ward is probably the most infamous; it's a 10-minute duration targetable buff that absorbs one fear effect, and is available only to dwarves and draenei. This leads to the common contention that the best race to roll for an Alliance Priest is dwarf, because Fear Ward is far better than all the other racial spells. Some racials are obviously trash -- my own Priest, being a human, has Desperate Prayer, which is a free instant self-heal on a 10 minute cooldown, and Feedback, a sort of very expensive mana-burning aura. Desperate Prayer is pretty decent, but Feedback is such utter rubbish that I can't even bring myself to spend the money on training it.As you may imagine, this is perceived as a sub-optimal situation by many Priests, including this blogger. However, it's not immediately obvious what the best way to fix it is. Remove racials entirely, possibly making some of them baseline abilities trainable by all races? Keep the lower-powered racials and baseline/remove the high-powered ones? Eyonix recently said it's likely that at some point in the future, you'll see additional improvements to priest racials -- what improvements would you like to see?
Filed under: Priest, Breakfast Topics, Features
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
BaboonNL Apr 29th 2007 8:09AM
Considering us Dwarves have 2 of the best racials, I say everything is fine. :)
michel Apr 29th 2007 8:50AM
to REMOVE???
but you hate differences ?
why did we just drop all classes and races, and just play red cube (okay,blue in option). A cube with just 6 sides and the same capabilities of everyone
and to avoid to spoil people, no name , just number
"Hi ! I'm red cube 4364 and I can tank and heal" "- hey ! I'm blue cube 59627 and I can tank and heal too !"
Luciferasi Apr 29th 2007 9:01AM
Actually I think the intention of the poster is the opposite, to favour difference. As things are now, how many people will roll a Dwarf Priest instead of a Human priest because of the racial ability?
The problem is that some skills are too "oriented", and most people will choose the class based on the racial bonus/skill, or the race based on the class bonus (like this post example).
Personally, I would never choose a race/class based on the numbers they bring. I don't like gnomes so I would never roll a gnome for my mage/warlock, despite the evident INT bonus, but some people don't think like me.
Lunada Apr 29th 2007 9:10AM
I agree with #2...the only reason anyone is considering this anti-fun idea is cause it works against them, but when it works for them they praise it. Dwarves have a way for their groups and themselves to fight those who fear (i.e. locks)but now people r complaining about cheapness, and these same people r those that have grown comfortable of being overpowered and yell and scream that blizz having it out for them.
An improvement i wanna see is the NEs shadowmeld...let NEs be able to move while doing it (perhaps make it so that its a lil less improved as a rogue's or druid's cat form invisiblity). Lets see how u feel when 5 NEs pop outta stealth behind u, u dirty horde :P
Renz Apr 29th 2007 9:22AM
I like them the way they are aswell, people should spend more time considering their options before choosing a class to begin with. Its silly that people are complaing about it when they had a choice from the start like the rest of us. Besides that, racials are not exactly "game breaking" yes, devouring plauge helps the undead more than a night elf, but it doesn't mean that the night elf is harmless in any scence of the word. Same with fear ward, yea it sucks that two ally classes now have it (still don't get that one) but the horde CAN deal with it, there are ways around it and having the differences there are a nice addition.
Thijz Apr 29th 2007 9:27AM
Lol @ #2
You're right tho. There's this dutch saying: 'Verschil moet er zijn' Meaning: there has to be some difference.
uncaringbear Apr 29th 2007 10:00AM
Fear Ward or Star Shards? Hmmm, such a tough decision! Oh wait, there's also Elune's Grace. LAWL.
Chris Anthony Apr 29th 2007 10:13AM
Wow, guys. It's not like Eliah said "let's remove all the class and race differences". How about turning down the overreaction a little?
At the same time, I tend to agree that removing priest racials is at best a far suboptimal answer. Instead, simply make them more usable and efficient. What's especially frustrating about Feedback to me, for instance, is that it has the potential to be vastly more useful than Fear Ward. The problem with it, as it stands, is that it's horribly inefficient. At rank 1, an enemy has to cast 8 spells on you within 15 seconds in order for that enemy to lose as much mana as you have; at rank 6, it's 5 spells in 15 seconds, but that's still a lot of casting. In other words, Feedback hurts you a lot more than it's going to hurt anyone else; its only utility is in a situation where you're almost certainly going to die anyway (lots of mobs/enemy PCs casting at you at once).
But imagine a Feedback where the effect burned as much mana as you'd spent on the spell, every time a caster hit you with a spell. At rank 1, Feedback costs 18 mana and burns 18 mana from any caster who casts a spell at you; at rank 6, Feedback costs 165 mana and burns 165 mana. All of a sudden, Feedback starts punishing your enemies when you use it instead of punishing you.
(As an aside, is Fear Ward objectively the best racial in the game, or is it seen as good because Fear effects are so d--- annoying?)
Nogun Apr 29th 2007 10:41AM
"Eyonix recently said it's likely that at some point in the future, you'll see additional improvements to priest racials "
CM's said pretty much the same in the period the priest talent tree got reviewed in patch 1.10 (patch after Ahn'Qiraj), nothing happened of course but be patient.
Delilah Apr 29th 2007 10:45AM
Fear ward is the classic "overpowered" priest racial, but the new draenei one is just as good imo. Symbol of Hope, party-wide mana regen over 15 seconds. My draenei priest is 55, and I can't remember off the top of my head how much her symbol of hope ticks for right now but it's definitely noticeable. It's not such a great talent if you wait until you're already going OOM, but if you time it right it can really extend your mana pool well, as well as helping out any other mana users in your party. I try and use it either when I know I'll be able to get out of the five second rule for a little bit and regen, or early on in a long fight in the hopes that it'll have come off of cooldown again by the end. But it's also a nice little "oh crap" button when you get unexpected adds or the fight is taking much longer than you planned. Also it makes a nice big noise and big obvious animations, and therefore is a lot of fun to freak out unwitting puggers. "WTF WAS THAT??"
I haven't played my blood elf priest enough to know how well those racials work (they got touch of weakness - also an undead priest racial - and consume magic, which takes a buff from the caster and gives them mana instead). Horde get pvp racials, again, is how it looks to me, but I can see consume magic being useful for that extra little oomf in pvp.
At any rate, (wrapping up this wall of text) draenei are the new dwarf priests, and I get a perverse amount of pleasure out of casting fear ward on all the dwarf priests I see. :P My poor nelf priest is never going to see past level 40. At least she'll get a rich long life as a bank alt. (I could never level a dwarf before, the animations irritate me too much. But draenei are hott. :D )
Herty Apr 29th 2007 4:37PM
Hey Eliah, hate to break it to you but Dwarves also have desperate prayer on top of fear ward. Let's see, Desperate prayer with 2k+ instant heal, Stoneskin which is surprisingly very useful and oh yeah good old fear ward. Is there a choice really? Funny thing is, when I first rolled my dwarf priest many years ago, I had no idea these racials would be so useful in the endgame.
Urthona Apr 29th 2007 11:05AM
I mentioned a bit ago how I'd restructure all the priest/paladin racials to even it out and make it more fun to play with different kinds of priests. But, I'd give everyone(besides Dwarves) a 60 second Fear Ward buff, just because.
Each race has a different way of engaging the divine, and a somewhat unique way of manifesting "holy" powers. I'd like the racials to exemplify them a bit more.
Night Elves have the short end of the stick, so I'll start with them. As a mystery cult that worships a moon goddess, why not allow Night Elf priests a boost when the sun goes down? Their heals and damage is increased at night, and Starshards becomes an AOE -similar to the "Starfall" effect from WarCraft3.
Dwarves are a hardy race that sees the "Holy Light" as a mysterious force guided by a strong will. It's the wind in their sails, as it were. I'd give dwarven priests the strongest and longest priest buffs and power words, doubling their duration compared to other priests and increasing their effect. Willpower may also be expressed by a racial ability to shackle undead longer, and Mind Control enemies faster.
Humans and Undead are essentially two sides of same race, and as such, are subject to an overwhelming sense of religious dichotomy. Humans retain Feedback and Undead their Devouring Plague, but they both have an increased amount of damage in Shadowform, and increased effect of Holy spells. Discussions of a "Holyform" will have to wait.
Trolls are like Night Elves in that their racials pale in comparison to the rich lore and mystique to thier religion. I know shamans have a monopoly on totems, but I'd allow Troll Priests the ability to drop up to three Healing Wards at a time, in addition to Hex of Weakness and Shadowguard. Also a polymoprh spell "Hex of the Frog" would be a cool addition to the game, and allow for more crowd control.
Blood Elves are mages of the body and mind, and Draenei are holiest of the holy... but I haven't thought of what would be the most effective racials in terms of their outlook on the divine.
Ugkul Apr 29th 2007 11:41AM
It would be nice if they gave every class racial abilities. Make things more interesting.
someone Apr 29th 2007 11:43AM
All priests need fear ward period.
I really cant believe bliz didnt give the BE's fear ward but they gave it to a second allie class, you allie are such a bunch of little girls.
Matt Rossi Apr 29th 2007 12:08PM
I am not afraid of your insults, someone, because I have Fear Ward readily available to me.
jess Apr 29th 2007 1:11PM
@12 agreed, I never understood why blizard gave racials (and very unequal ones at that) to one class and not to others. Actually racial abilities in general were not very well thought out.
Bronori Apr 29th 2007 1:21PM
dunno if anyones mentioned this yet (or if its right) but Desperate Prayer is for all races... not just Humans...
Eliah Hecht Apr 29th 2007 1:29PM
Bronori: Actually, only dwarves and humans get Desparate Prayer.
Blaise Apr 30th 2007 9:24PM
I like the idea of racials, not only for priests, but for all classes. Of course then you have forum whiners saying "now i can't roll blood elf mage because the undead racial is better!" and inevitably people are going to insult the other faction and completely ignore balance (I really hope #4 was joking, or i may have to leave this site as its becoming dumber by the day;), but it would be pretty cool.
Kuro Apr 29th 2007 5:35PM
I always wondered why they never gave every class racial abilities... I mean come on! Troll rogues should be able to do something that Human rogues cant?!
Moot point i know, but even still it would make the game alot more interesting.