Priest Racial Changes: The Twitterati Reaction
September 16, 2008 by Matticus
Filed under All Stories, News and Opinion
Yes, that’s right! I called them the Twitterati! They’re my fellow WoW playing and tweeting homeys on Twitter. You’ve read Wyn’s reaction to the news. Here’s what the rest of the Twitterati had to say (Brackets is their blog, if applicable):
@eliah: One more in a long line of things removed in LK that Blizz has realized were a bad idea to begin with. “Hell, it’s about time.” (WoW Insider)
@Aylii: Sure. Imo, it was time they changed that, now you don’t have to roll a dwarf to be awesome. (Murloc Queen)
@danielwhitcomb: I think they’re awesome as hell. Sort of sucks that Chastise is gone, but so much <3 for baseline Devouring Plague and SoH. (WoW Insider)
@karlajean: liking that I’ll be getting Devouring Plague, but I wonder if this is a move to placate everyone else, not help the priests. also starting to think Koraa just hates shadowpriests (KarlaJean)
@ladydanotte: WoW moving towards cookie cutter classes. I kinda like idea of racials having slight advantages 4 game complexity & interest. (Lady Danotte)
@Doug_Williams: Its all about Blizz aiming toward homogenization, you don’t need to have a dwarf or drain-o, you can bring anyone you want.
@Medros: as a non priest, they never made sense to me. I don’t get a special bonus for being a human Paladin, NE Druid, or Draenei Paladin (All Things Azeroth)
@pikestaff: though I never played a priest I always thought the racials were a very unique and cool thing about them… sad to see them go. (Aspect of the Hare)
@shinmeko: Pros: Kept Symbol of Hope. Cons: Gave everyone else symbol of hope. Maybe this will shunt draenei disc priest monopoly howeva. (shinmeko)
@macanima: I hate this homogenization kick Blizzard is on. All the flavor of priests is identical now. We’re heading towards two classes: caster and hitter, with heal/harm and hit/prot trees. (macanima)
/end creative outgoing link exercise
I'm Matticus and I play a Dwarf Priest. My home is in Conquest, a raiding Guild that I have founded. Every week, I log 12 hours raiding on Ner'Zhul.
Wynthea is the Troll Priest with the best Mohawk on Firetree. Currently, I raid 4 nights a week in a hardcore guild. I started playing WoW in May 2005, and raiding end-game in May 2007. My guild is currently working through 25-man WotLK content. I've tried playing other classes, but Priests are my passion. I am extremely fond of Dwarves.... especially with Ketchup. 
My name is Sydera and I like to heal things--think Florence Nightingale with foliage. I play a night elf druid on Ner'Zhul, and I raid 12 hours a week. As a guild officer for Conquest, I coordinate healing and recruit new raiders. I started playing WoW in Fall 2005, and it was love at first click. Before I discovered the joys of Broccoli-stalk healing, I raided as a holy paladin, and I now have alts in all healing classes. I have to say, though, bark beats poofy dresses and heavy plate in my book.
NOOOOO!!! Shadowgaurd!
Trollin’s last blog post..A Winrar is RTZS
I guess maybe my reaction was a little extreme (I’m the very last one, macanima), but I can’t help but think this new homogenization thing Blizzard is doing sort of sucks. Spellpower I was okay with, though it doesn’t sit super-correct with me. The news that +hit would work for spells, melee, and ranged was what made me go “bwuh?!” And this last bit about priest racial spells going away is the newest in a line of ways I feel they’re trying to make the differences between the classes go away.
I can sympathize with Blizzard on the issue of Priest abilities. Invariably, in trying to give flavor to the different races, and to make the Priest class extra-unique in its own way, they created an imbalance. This imbalance resulted in people not playing how they wanted, but making selections such as race a minute detail which could potentially cause 1 player to be excluded as opposed to another for raiding (Honestly, though, how many guilds are THAT overwrought with Priests that they can afford to be picky?).
On the other hand, too much homogenization can be bad. While I can understand that everyone wants to play, and they want to play the way they want to, its going to be crippling to those who sold themselves on the unique advantages that their choices brought to a group and a raid. Not to mention, there is a certain element of fun in getting into the spirit of the character, which is assisted by the different unique abilities, even if you aren’t a “roleplayer”, per se.
I was disappointed that each class didn’t have its own special racials, I thought it was a really awesome feature of the game.