Blizzard tosses Priest racials out the window

by Zach Yonzon Sep 15th 2008 at 9:10PM

In an effort to further balance the game, Koraa levitated over to the Priest Beta forums to drop the bomb that Blizzard was canning all Priest racial abilities in an upcoming Beta build. This comes long after Fear Ward, formerly a Dwarf racial ability for Priests, was made baseline and trainable at Level 20. However, Koraa makes a few important points, the most notable being that Desperate Prayer, the Human and Dwarf Priest racial ability, will become the 11-point talent for Holy. Holy Nova, on the other hand, will become baseline. Desperate Prayer will likely be retuned to better fit an 11-point talent (it currently has a 10 minute cooldown).

Koraa adds that the formerly Undead Priest racial Devouring Plague will also become a baseline spell, with a reduced cooldown of 30 seconds (down from 3 minutes) and "greatly reduced" mana cost. The Draenei racial ability Symbol of Hope will be renamed Hymn of Hope and also become a baseline ability, now restoring 5% of total mana every 2 seconds for 8 seconds to the priest's party members. All other racial abilities, from Starshards to Shadowguard, will be removed from the game. Enjoy them now before Patch 3.0 hits!

Tags: Desperate-Prayer, Devouring-Plague, Holy-Nova, Hymn-of-Hope, Koraa, Patch-3.0, Priest, Priest-Racials, Racial-Abilities, Symbol-of-Hope, Wrath, Wrath-Beta, Wrath-of-the-Lich-King

Filed under: Priest, Talents, Wrath of the Lich King, Forums

Reader Comments (Page 2 of 7)

joe Sep 16th 2008 11:36AM

How is that any different than your 'honorable and pious Holy Night Elf Priest' casting Shadow Word: Death or Shadow Word: Pain or Mind Blast?

There is no lore or RP problem with DP on all priests other than the fact that you've been trained to associate it with the Forsaken.

matthew Sep 15th 2008 9:35PM

baseline??? does that mean every race will be getting Devouring Plague? if so is it gonna in the shadow tree?

Zach Sep 15th 2008 9:36PM

Yes. It'll be of the Shadow school, but not in the Shadow tree. It'll become a trainable ability.

Langley Sep 15th 2008 9:42PM

well, it IS a shadow spell after all...

Eternauta Sep 15th 2008 9:40PM

I think it's gonna be trainable.

This is a very good change indeed. Horde-side, everybody rolls Undead Priest just for Devouring Plague. If you roll a Troll or Blood Elf Shadow Priest, you're kind of in disadvantage, and everybody tells you: "You didn't roll undead?? What a noob!!!"

WoW endgame is all about min/maxing. Therefore, this change was necesary.

CvijaFaQ Sep 16th 2008 7:48AM

Or not give in to peer pressure and tell others to suck it.
Min maxing is not always fun and games should be all about fun.

Cetha Sep 15th 2008 9:36PM

nooooo leave my mana free starshards alone...they finally made it useful and now they take it away:(

Deb Sep 15th 2008 9:42PM

If they are going to homogenize us into hum drum mode, why bother making raids require a tank or healer?

Jack Spicer Sep 15th 2008 10:06PM

I'm guessing you're one of the people that railed against the cross-faction Paladin/Shaman thing?

I love these changes. I'm a sucker for priest buffs. All priests across the board are better with these changes.

my2cents Sep 15th 2008 10:57PM

I really think the apocalyptic "homogenization" that everyone's so worried about is GREATLY exaggerated. Classes still feel quite unique and races have their own flavor.

I don't see how people take changes like this and turn it into a doom and gloom scenario where everyone plays a grey cube that has the same abilities as everyone else.

So far in the beta, it's not like that at all. Not even close. Doing Naxx last night was a total blast! The way raid stacking works now (something I was originally against) is great in practice and makes perfect sense. This is just another change that will make the game less limiting.

Deb Sep 15th 2008 11:15PM

@ Spicer No I'm not one of "the people that railed against the cross-faction Paladin/Shaman thing"

@ my2cents and Spicer

My point is that we still have to "stack" a raid with healers and tanks.

chrit Sep 15th 2008 9:47PM

I, for one, am excited about this change. Goodbye shadowguard, hello devouring plague; welcome to my action bar. Whee!

Terrant Sep 15th 2008 9:54PM

I dislike this change, because the priest racial spells reflected the cultural differences between races. The weapon-centric classes didn't need unique abilities because stabbing or shooting is pretty much the same. Meanwhile warlocks, mages, druids, and shamans of different races use the same or similar power sources (elemental spirits, arcane forces, etc.). On the other hand, priests acquire their powers from very different deities and powers, and the differences occur along racial lines. Of course, for game balance, a Forsaken priest and a troll priest need to have the same capabilities, but the priest racials were a nice bit of "flavour" that reflected the significance of the Holy Light or Elune or loa or whoever.

dan Sep 15th 2008 10:48PM

The problem is that the racials made it so a forsaken priest and a troll priest DID NOT have the same capabilities. If you ever played alliance side in end-game vanilla wow raiding you'd realize just how damaging the racials were to player enjoyment. That sort of min-maxing is gladly a thing of the past.

Kakistocracy Sep 15th 2008 9:56PM

One of the things I really liked about Warcraft three was that the different teams were, well, different. When I started playing WoW, I wished that there was more distinction between races, like in WC3, and I liked what they had done with the priest, but i guess this is a sign that that wasn't the direction they wanted to go. I get that they don't want people to feel like they made a mistake by not picking one thing or an other, but what about us who play games for fun? Aren't we entitled to little variety(of course we aren't actually entitled to anything, but it would be nice)?

Kae Sep 15th 2008 10:02PM

I really dislike this change. People reroll as certain races mainly based on there priest racials! If you do away with the this.. I can guaranty you there'll be a decrease in the number of priest! Because leveling up a priest isn't any fun.. at all! The priest racials, in a way, spice things up. They all creates a uniqueness amongst the priest. There are only 3 talent trees?! The priest racials was & still is a good idea to this day. PLEASE do not do this.

jbodar Sep 15th 2008 11:12PM

Huh? Did some other class get a 4th tree that I'm unaware of?

Riph Sep 16th 2008 9:56AM

Last time I checked, almost NO ONE ever rolled a second priest just to try out the racials (and before I get slammed, I did say almost). If you roll a priest, it's cause you want to play one. I don't see how this will cause a decline is people playing priests, and even if it does, that's good for the people who already do (yay more raid spots for us!)

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