TBC will absolutely have a population issue if racials aren’t addressed, it’s not even a question. With Blood elves being a favorite race and paladins being available for the horde, the alliance will not stand a chance. Now I’m NOT suggesting nerfing racials, rather the weak ones should be brought in line. I also believe that the nerfing of hardiness and the troll bow skill should be reversed and in turn just buff alliance racials up to par.
Strong racials are fun and reinforces lore with your class race combo. I love being able to pick an orc who is a master of axes and more resilient to stuns or being a tauren who has a larger health pool and can AoE stun. Alliance, however, suffer from very poor racials with the exception of humans.
Here are some changes I would like to see:
-Night elves, I don’t know why shadowmeld would ever not work like a vanish. How is being able to stealth in one spot out of combat worth a damn. Shadowmeld should be a vanish it would allow you to survive a DG or raid wipe in Pve or dodge one spell from a caster in Pvp. Also having more MS while dead is such a lame ability. Maybe move that MS to NEs when they are alive make it small so it wouldn’t be OP but they are supposed to be an athletic race why not reflect that.
-Gnome, escape artist is a cast and can be resisted. I feel the cast time and resist need to go and then it would be balanced.
-Dwarf, honestly isn’t that bad but I feel like stoneskin should have more oomf. You are turning into stone the armor should be much more than 10% and maybe some MR. Like bloodrage, though, since this would be a powerful spell maybe reduce the players MS to reflect you’re in a heavy stone form.
-Draenei are the biggest offenders not only do they not bring a unique ability unlike the BE pally counterpart who brings a unique and powerful seal, the racials themselves are also weak. Now I like the idea of the race having a self heal but the cast time and the amount are terrible. I believe that the cast time should be reduced and the heal should be much larger. Side note a Draenei shaman with a unique totem or weapon buff would be interesting.
Lastly I would like to bring up a horde racial
-Troll regen needs to be looked at. This one would be hard to balance but I feel like even with a tiny buff it wouldn’t be too powerful and not make it just a useless ability.
I really hope blizzard decides to do some tuning. We don’t need a repeat of classic where the whole server is lopsided. Racials should compete for your attention. I made a NE warrior in classic and the entire time I couldn’t shake the thought that my 1% dodge was just a free overpower for a horde warrior. I ended up rerolling Orc warrior and the experience of having strong racials added so much to the game for me. Now I have an Orc warrior ready to go for TBC but if blizzard did tuning to racials, I would think about my choice and maybe bolster alliance.
What you want is a lot of work on the part of Blizzard. Besides, it’s hard to believe that most people are choosing their faction based on racials. Race? Sure. But not faction.
I’m curious, OP. Have you spent the entirety of Classic sneering at +hit as weak, or does it just suddenly become weak when it comes from an Alliance racial ability?
Wait, I lied, I’m not actually curious. “Wah the Horde is overpowered!” is as boring now as it was in 2004.
And OP, you’re drastically overestimating how many players care about these things and let it impact their decision making. WoW had its most popular years when it was objectively the least balanced. Why? Because most players don’t obsess over every little tiny detail. They just play the game for gasp fun.
Now I know that concept is largely lost these days, but a Classic TBC should try to recapture a simpler time. It’s up to you to adjust to the game, not the other way around.
At some point in TBC this was changed. I remember vanishing to dump threat then shadowmelding off in the corner to save myself repair bills.Also wisp form is BiS for SSC wipes.
Stoneskin is amazing and doesn’t need to be touched at all.
They don’t need an ability when their passive gives the entire group 1% spell hit which is sizeable. Couple that with their new air totem and they’re saving their group members 4% hit which is 25% of whats needed.
My prediction is as soon as TBC comes out the min max mentality will only go up another gear from where it sits in Classic. Classic already demonstrated significant server imbalances almost all in favor of horde. Racials played a big part in that. Be silly to assume TBC would be any different.