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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlizzard tosses Priest racials out the window
by Zach Yonzon 
Sep 15th 2008 at 9:10PM
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!
Filed under: Priest, Talents, Wrath of the Lich King, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 7)
Baluki Sep 16th 2008 12:10AM
I'm starting to think that they've gone too far with homogenizing the classes. I don't like that we'll see multiple classes giving out the same non-stacking buffs, I don't like that the Horde & Alliance-specific skills for Paladins are being given to both, and I don't like this new change to priest racials.
I always thought that one of the coolest things about the priest class was that they had special racial spells, and I wanted to see them expand that to other classes. But they've taken it in the exact opposite direction. Making Fear Ward an all-races spell made sense due to its usefulness, but these changes just make the game less interesting.
One of WoW's greatest failings has been the fact that your choice of race is essentially trivial.
Danel Sep 16th 2008 6:51AM
Unfortunately, there's a kind of irony about it - if they make the races different in drastic ways, then things don't become less bland - quite the opposite, as one race will have min-maxy advantages at endgame and ends up favoured for a particular trait.
Roma Sep 16th 2008 12:20AM
I rolled Undead because I like Undead - racials never even entered my mind.
Personally I'm happy that DP is now way less mana and a short-ass cool down. I could care less if everyone else has it too.
Anaughtybear Sep 16th 2008 12:33AM
Am I missing something here? If it's only for PRIESTS, it's not exactly a RACIAL.
Osc Sep 16th 2008 1:13AM
You sir fail. They are abilities granted to priests based on their race and therefore priest racials. Blizzard had two options get rid of priest racials entirely or attempt to balance them out again, because as has been mentioned certain races didn't stack up with other races of priests. Completely balances out the priest racials would have taken a lot more work than removing them, hence no more priest racials.
Candrian Sep 20th 2008 1:03AM
You are.
Anaughtybear Sep 16th 2008 4:53AM
...then you fail as well. Since other classes don't get this, you obviously don't understand what a racial ability is. This is merely a variable priest ability.
Eh? Sep 16th 2008 8:11AM
And....you fail once more....
What part of PRIEST RACIAL was there not to get???
They were racials.....FOR PRIESTS. You know, spells given to the priest based on what RACE they were.
Thats why they are being called with the qualifier "priest" in front of the word "racial"
They are called "priest racials" for this very fact, preist-specific racial abilities.
Now if Blizz or anyone else were to just say "these racials" in a generic sort of fashion, then you would have a point. But, they aren't, and (since you can't seem to understand that this was a half-implemented feature originally intended to eventually be applied to each class but never was so they are scrapping it altogether) you don't.
Raze Sep 16th 2008 12:51AM
How boring. For a little while there was a reason to roll more than one Priest, their unique racial abilities was their "thing", from a gameplay and lore perspective. Someone's stated it before, but surely a priest from Draenor isn't going to use a spell called "Devouring Plague" as willing as a Forsaken? I understand it's gameplay before lore, but surely the latter should at least still marginally influence the former?
This, the Rogue poisons being scrapped, and the increasingly high mentality that lore and backstory should be behind a forty foot thick steel wall from their beloved gameplay makes me dislike Blizzard's game design mentality more and more. Homogenization makes the game seem watered down and boring, no matter what it's ultimate cause.
Migons Sep 16th 2008 1:02AM
As Hymn of Hope restores 20% of total mana and is a baseline skill, can shamans get Mana Tide Totem as a baseline skill as well?
Farseer Lolotea Sep 16th 2008 1:09AM
So they're nuking Chastise and Shadowguard...and giving Symbol of Hope to everyone?
FAIL. I couldn't care less about Hex of Weakness (also getting axed)...but still: FAIL.
Max Sep 16th 2008 1:17AM
It's just like them giving pallys to horde and shamans to alliance. Bland homogenizing of the game for the sake of balance. I'll take some variety over supposed "balance" any day.
Danel Sep 16th 2008 6:51AM
But that's exactly the problem. Variety in theory - and a lack of balance - leads to a lack of variety in practice, as people avoid certain race/class combination for fear of being gimped and latch onto other combinations solely for the racial abilities. It's a similar thing with hunter pets - the pets were all drastically different, so nobody used some of them because they simply weren't as good. They strive for variety in theory and end up with cats all round.
TriggerHappy Sep 16th 2008 10:48AM
I'm glad you don't design any of the games I play then. Throwing game balance out the window for flavor is one of the silliest design decisions I can think of.
Cylena Sep 16th 2008 1:26AM
I play a Forsaken priest (holy), and I raid. I rolled Forsaken not knowing really much of anything about the game when I first started playing. I think this is s great change, and an across-the-board buff to the class.
Also, the article has a pretty glaring error in the detail of Symbol / Hymn of hope. According to the post by Koraa, the spell will return 5% of base mana per 2 seconds, for 8 seconds. NOT total mana.
Repeating for clarity:
Base mana, NOT total mana.
In other words, it's worth about 1 hit from your Shadowfiend (if that).
Reric Sep 16th 2008 8:14AM
That actually makes me a bit less upset seeing as I am a Shaman and have to spend 6 points to get mana tide which restores 6% total mana every 3 seconds for 12 seconds.
Ugkul Sep 16th 2008 1:50AM
They should have given every class racial abilities. Would have made things more interesting.
uncaringbear Sep 16th 2008 1:52AM
Sigh, I knew Star Shards was on borrowed time after they finally made it useful.
Tes Sep 16th 2008 2:52AM
I've gotta say, I always thought these racials were pretty neat. Even though some were kinda crappy, they added some much needed diversity to the mix.
Implimentation wasn't there but the concept was.
The changes do make my Blood Elf Priest quite happy however.
Michel Sep 16th 2008 2:54AM
I was speaking of that yesterday on a french blog
the main problem is very high level raid : people has forced to min/max, not to play as they want
and it creates frustration and reasons to quit the game
only a few really love to reroll whatever the "raid needs" (is it a sect? a new job? the Raid neeeeds).
others dislike it and try to be quiet about this.
-
I dislike homogenization too, but in the end, it forces the game to be funnier and fairer.
I would prefer ALL talents are nice and helpful the same. but in the end, it's maybe impossible , you always have a raid leader telling you that peculiar boss need you to change everything
and always some annoying elitists telling you you are noob because you chose a combo they don't approve
"no sir, I know EVERYTHING about Wow Equations, but I prefer to play the game, not to specialize in excel"
So in fact, Blizzard try to suppress min/max optimization, to suppress frustration, to make impossible elitness.
in that, they are so right, very right, totally immensely right.
I just fear tomorrow we will all play generic borg against big blue cube.