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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsA discussion in defense of new race/class combinations, pt. 4
by Michael Sacco 
Aug 18th 2009 at 1:00PM
GNOME PRIESTS:
DW: On the subject of Gnome Priests, I'm going to point out that Gnome healers of a type do exist in game. There's been Gnome Medics spotted in Gnomeregan, and more recently in the Howling Fjord as part of the Alliance's Northern Fleet. If you really want to be thorough, you could point out that Gnomeregan offers a Gnomeregan Bonesaw as one of its Argent Tournament rewards, and a bonesaw is traditionally a healer's tool.
MS: Yeah, absolutely. Gnomes clearly have the ability to heal, though we've not necessarily seen it magically done before. One the other hand, it's not as if other gnome magic users are few and far between.
DW: I definitely agree, which is why my final word on why Gnomes should be Priests would probably come from Northrend itself.
MS: Yeah, Northrend has certainly been eye-opening for the gnomes, or at least for those gnomes that choose to believe what they've seen in Borean Tundra and Ulduar.
DW: Right, the Gnomes have had a very interesting time of it there. They've had their whole origin and original purpose laid out before them at Fizzcrank's Airstrip in the struggle with Gearmaster Mechazod. Given that they now know where they come from, they need to come to grips with that. Are they horrified that they're descended from near-mindless Automatons and Machines, or are they proud that they were once the perfect machines of invention and innovation? Those are the type of questions a new Gnomish religion would work on answering.
MS: True; Blizzard has said before that religion might be beyond gnomes, but they've been interacting with other religious races for a long time now. Maybe they could take a step away from the drawing board and into more abstract concepts.
DW: Yeah, exactly. I'm going to raise the flag in support of Comparative Religion and Mythology in Azeroth again. I'd like to see the Gnomes not worship the Light, but rather start a Church of Innovation and Discovery, with Priests of the same preaching the virtues of said ideas.
MS: The Holy Light is comparable to Mimiron's Spark of Imagination, really, when you get down to it.
DW: Yeah, the idea of Gnome Priests being able to heal and harm via pure belief in the power of thought is actually scarily cool to me.
MS: And hardly as outright scary as some other stuff gnomes have done!
DW: Haha, right. But hey, if it comes down to it, I can deal with Gnomes depressed by their origins seeking solace in the Light too. But it would be cooler to have that whole Church of the Imagination concept, and would open up a lot more interesting lore and storytelling possibilities.
Priest columnist Matt Low's perspective: With the inclusion of Gnomes, every race in the Alliance will have access to Priests. It's very difficult to hate a Gnome (some exceptions may apply depending on faction loyalty). It's possible to see these knee biters as Priests. We already see them wielding arcane powers and demonic spells in the form of Mages and Warlocks.
For naming a Gnome Priest, might I suggest the likes of Gnoheals, Gneedmana, and Gnoblegnome?
From a tactical perspective, the Expansive Mind racial effect increases Intellect by 5%. That in itself is great as Intellect ties into Shadowfiend, Hymn of Hope and Replenishment. Escape Artist could very well rival Stoneform in terms of PvP racials. Lastly, Priest Engineers will have a head start.
DW: I'm really very excited for what all these new race and class combinations could mean not only for immediate gameplay options but for the long term story of the Warcraft Universe. With Arthas probably dying in Patch 3.3, we're entering a whole new chapter of the story, and it's a perfect time to shake things up. With new religions, new paths, and new philosophies permeating the races and stories of Azeroth, I'm very excited to see where the lore team can take the story next.
MS: Definitely. I think that while these additions are more overtly for gameplay reasons, to facilitate more choice in faction switches and to encourage rerolling in a game where we've had the same class options for years, they also show that Blizzard isn't afraid to advance the game lore and mix things up a little. Hopefully these are just one small step toward making that happen on a large scale.
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 7)
moomoocons Aug 18th 2009 2:00PM
give me tauren...rogues....now.......
KJP Aug 18th 2009 3:01PM
So you can roll a character named Invisibull? Isn't one bad pun in Hoycow enough?
Katalliaan Aug 18th 2009 2:07PM
It's about damn time that gnomes get their healing class.
Anaughtybear Aug 18th 2009 2:09PM
I think Allison Robert misses the boat again, with arguing that belfs should get druid over trolls. Belfs shouldn't even be able to be hunters. And Rossi, as far as belf populations compare to undead, they already outnumbered them 2 to 1 on many servers. Many times, belf make up 25% of the TOTAL server population.
RogueJedi86 Aug 18th 2009 2:41PM
The end-boss of Botanica is a Blood Elf Druid. So there you go.
Egrep Aug 18th 2009 2:59PM
Not sure who you're thinking of, but the end boss of Botanica is Warp Splinter, a tree-ish elemental
Suzaku Aug 18th 2009 4:16PM
He's thinking about High Botanist Freywinn, the second boss.
Blood elves do have druids as part of their history, not only did they diverge from the druidic night elf society, but those runewards all around Quel'thalas were erected by high elf druids. It's also known that the high elves and blood elves have used magic to manipulate and alter the wildlife in their kingdom to suit their liking.
And the hunter thing, I don't even know what he's talking about. Rangers have always been a major part of high/blood elf lore, and hunter is the class WoW uses to approximate rangers.
RogueJedi86 Aug 18th 2009 3:56PM
Err, I never ran the Tempest Keep instances much. I'm thinking of the High Botanist in the Botanica I think. The High/Blood Elf Druid.
Neirin Aug 18th 2009 3:57PM
Your population numbers are definitely way off, but I think her argument was about BE racials being more beneficial than actually making BE druids.
The boss you're thinking of is the 1st boss, the high botanist. BE that uses Tree Form and Tranquility.
Killik Aug 18th 2009 4:08PM
He's thinking of http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=17975
Karth Aug 18th 2009 3:23PM
The one I still don't see the justification for Forsaken Hunters. I know Blightcaller's story but I think he is the exception, not the rule. I think the lore shows animals as being instinctively frightened by the undead. The Forsaken use Skeletal horses after all. (though for other reasons as well) And Blightcaller's only pets are Blighthounds. So it seems to me that the undead are only capable of working with animals that are either also undead, or associated with the plague somehow. I don't see most common animals being accepting of an Undead master.
Suzaku Aug 18th 2009 4:17PM
My forsaken has plenty of mounts and vanity pets, I don't know what you're talking about.
:|
Neirin Aug 18th 2009 4:00PM
I hadn't thought about the pet aspect of it, that's definitely a good point. On the other hand though, the faction leader is a hunter (even if it's remnants of when she was alive).
wil Aug 18th 2009 3:32PM
something tells me the Worgen will be the alliance's 2nd druidic class
GOOO KITTIES THAT GO KITTY FORM :D
Suzaku Aug 18th 2009 4:17PM
Kitties that go kitty form...?
Worgen are werewolves.
ash Aug 18th 2009 3:40PM
If Tauren's decided to join the Argent Crusade lore-wise it might work. The thing is, though, the Argent Dawn already has Tauren associated with it so it has to be something special for Tauren to become paladins. This whole sun worhip thing does NOT work. Unless An'she turns out to be a Naaru I don't see this working; anything short of that is not enough to justify such a monumental change to lore. When blood elfs became paladins there was pretty massive lore behind it. I mean they had a friggin Naaru in their basement and then later Liadrin meeting up with Adal himself. What I have seen so far for justifying Tauren's as paladins is paltry in comparison. Unless something major is revealed this is just going to devalue the class a whole.
Suzaku Aug 18th 2009 4:17PM
All it takes is a source for the race to draw on the powers of the Light.
Humans believed in a philosphy/religion called "The Holy Light", and in previous games outright worshiped a God.
Draenei draw their power directly from the Naaru. Blood elves now likely draw their power from the Sunwell.
My point is, it doesn't matter what they call that power, it simply has to bless them with its power. The Tauren are easily one of the most open-minded, spiritual, and all around good-hearted races in WoW, so I don't see why they wouldn't be able to weild the Light through worship of An'she.
Aubrecia Aug 18th 2009 5:53PM
While this applies more to priests than to paladins, remember that the Night Elves, Forsaken and Trolls don't worship the same Light as humans/dwarves/draenei and yet they're still able to access the power associated with it.
It's not hard to see how this could be extended to Paladins, really. What you're saying is a bit like "Tauren are pagans, so they don't worship God!" They do worship, though -- they worship the Earthmother, whose eyes are the moon and, hey, listen to this, the sun! That's not so different from the traditional light at all!
While you'll never see a Forsaken paladin because their priests are based around the Forgotten Shadow, and you'll never see a Night Elf one because their priests are based around Elune, the Tauren priests, if they exist, will draw their power from belief in the sun. If you are okay with that and still have issues with Tauren Paladins, I really don't know what else to tell you except "wait and see." Blizz isn't likely to change this many things without some explanations for the upheaval.
ash Aug 18th 2009 6:27PM
Suzaku I think you counter your own assertions with your examples. Draenei draw power from the light as blessed by the Naaru. Blood elves originally stole the power from the Naaru but were then blessed by Adal. Tauren do not draw power from the light and unless An'she is some kind of Naaru then this whole sunbased worship thing does not fly. Priest can draw power from anywhere as long as they have faith in it, but Paladins have only drawn power from the light. The whole idea of a sun based Paladin is just cheap and chintzy - why even call it a Paladin then?
Aubrecia I think that's a funny thing you bring up. I think Forsaken Paladins are more feasible than Taurens. Forsaken already have priests and some of them could have been paladins in their former lives. (Maybe there's a shake up in their beliefs following the little civil war brought on by events at the wrathgate or further on bringing down Arthas.)
Being a priest and being a paladin are not the same thing. A race does not have to worship a specific god to be a priest, that has already been established. That's why I didn't say anything about Tauren priests because each race already has their own respective faith that they draw power from. However, the sun does not equal the light and unless their is some sort of lore introduced to make that sort of connection strong and explicit it does not come up right.
I don't want to just critique, but unless Blizz brings the lore big time as in introducing worship of the light (or Naaru maybe) or some sort of strong presence by the Argent Dawn/Crusade in Tauren society then this whole Tauren paladin speculation just smells foul.
Aubrecia Aug 18th 2009 7:54PM
@Ash: The thing you have to remember is that Naaru weren't even a factor in paladin-ship before BC came out. I'd still argue that most Humans and Dwarves don't draw directly from the Naaru so much as they draw from a firm belief in the Light that's really unrelated to the Naaru themselves at all.
Sure, Naaru are avatars of the Light, but that doesn't mean their presence or power is a requirement for paladins at all. The only race in WOW that's in constant touch and contact, in a sense, with the Naaru, is the Draenei. The other races follow abstract beliefs and faith to keep their power. The Naaru didn't affect that power in the least when they showed up.