Which would be the better race? My eyes tell me LFD, but practicality wise, it seems the regular Dranei would be best. Anyone have any experience with comparing these two races in the same class? I’m leaning towards Paladin. Thanks!
I like the OG Draenei. They have more class availability than the Lightforged. Plus, the OG Draenei can be a leather wearing class via the Monk, Lightforged can’t be any leather wearing class. I still like the OG Draenei racial via Gift of the Naaru. It still saves me out on my adventures 
1 Like
Purple > Yellow so Draenei
I have played both.
Visually LF wins no question
Lightforged isn’t worth as much towards the end of a patch due to the way character power scales (except on tank/heal where it remains one of the best hectic add cleave races).
So even if you say we’re perfectly using an activated ability every 3 minutes race-wise you’d only be middle of the pack (for extra effort).
Draenei have a stat bonus which also scales poorly but retains a decent level of relevance. Otherwise we get a heal, which I think is frankly more useful (not as amazing as it once was but hey old times ;-;).
I lean towards the normal Draenei but as a fan of both I have plenty of characters of both.
1 Like
Specifically looking at paladin, it really comes down to what you like aesthetically. The racials at least in my opinion aren’t mind blowing enough to make that much of a difference.
If you were leaning toward Mage I might say OG Draenei because of the heal because of Mage’s complete lack of healing, but everything else really comes down to looks.
1 Like
Do you pve or pvp? Other than that, play whichever looks nicer.
1 Like
Lightforged Orcs are almost certainly a thing in AU Draenor.
Lightforging is like deep frying: You can throw anything in there, and no matter what happens… it’s going to turn crispy and be bad for you.
Why play one, when…
You can play both 
1 Like
I PVE. Don’t PVP much.
I would think the lightforged racials are a little better, but I think it’ll come down to preference.
1 Like
Overall racials make such a small difference pick based on which you prefer to look at.
2 Likes
So it largely depends on the class for Draenei vs Lightforged comparisons…
On the racial passive side of things, Draenei have an absolutely massive advantage… a straight buff to your primary stat and resistance to shadow damage is amazing… for starters the stat buff is useful to everyone, so you’ll never have a case of “my race boosts a stat/damage type I don’t use” (a surprisingly common flaw of many races)… and shadow resistance is by far one of the most useful damage types to have a racial resistance to. A lot of creatures deal shadow damage…. Moving over to Lightforged on the otherhand and they kinda got the short end of the stick with both of their passives… holy damage resistance is by far the single worst damage type to resist, it is almost never used by enemies… it honestly make no sense why a race that exists because of magic meant to empower them to better fight demons is not resistant to I dunno FEL! It would have made far more sense lore wise and it would have been actually useful. And then their other passive… there are some terrible passives in the game… and then, there is Light’s Reckoning… this passive is without a doubt the single worst ability in the entire game… not even just the worst racial passive ability, worst racial ability, worst passive in general… but the worst ability in the game period… if you are playing your character properly, this passive does nothing. If you are dying on the otherhand then, we’ll… you just might take a few enemies with you, as you explode in a glorious ball of radiant light that does more damage than half of your class abilities… yeah… it’s super strong, but it only does something if you die… at least the only other race with a “on death” racial passive has the decency to have it be a cheat death ability.
Active abilities are a different story for these two races… the Lightforged has a fairly decent AoE ability, sure the CD is pretty long and targeting it is tricky due to the delayed damage, but it can make a significant difference in a fight for many classes… Draenei on the otherhand, get a fairly weak HoT with a very long CD… if you were to play a Draenei Mage then this is by far the single best racial active ability in the entire game since it gives mages the one thing they are lacking… a healing skill… it might be weak, but for a class that has no self healing what so ever, a weak heal is an absolutely huge boon. For other classes, it’s situational… I used to run as a Draenei Holy Paladin for a time, and I would use Gift of the Naru to top up my own health while I focused healed other party members since Paladins didn’t have any HoTs and with the long CD sit was better to use it as a self heal most of the time, since I wouldn’t take a lot of damage myself in most encounters.
1 Like
I’m actually leaning toward LFD for a Holy Paladin. So if I go down in a group scenario, at least I can output a little bit of DPS before I go! LOL! Just kidding! But, I am definitely leaning towards LFD atm.
they’re both great, but i prefer regular draenei (only a little bit!).
my pally is a normal draenei, and as much as the idea of lightforged draenei is cool, i could never swap her to one, cause then she’d lose faith in what i call ‘the pure light’ she has, instead of the ‘holier than thou’ xe’ra light. also, the extra little heal? quite helpful when i don’t wanna mash the heal button.
1 Like
Honestly as paladin tank or healer i’d rather spend GCD to generate holy power than using it to deal 15k damage.
There’s probably a time as a prot pally where you’re out of range and Judgment, HoW, Divine Toll and Avenger shield are all on cooldown, but that is pretty rare, overall the benefit of the extra strength alone would just make Draenei better (bigger damage, bigger parry, bigger armor from SotR), the heal is just a neat bonus.
It’s probably useful as Disc priest in AOE if it can proc atonement though.
Regular Draenei wins 9/10 for me.
1 Like
LFD all the way.
Dope aesthetic for paladin with heritage armour and barber portions. Cool facials that make you feel like a warrior of light! (The explosion on death can snag you a few takedowns with you when you die which I’ve loved seeing)
1 Like