Bringing it out as awareness and request of a friend; There are many issues that have been plaguing the Pandaren race for some time, and seeing that Blizzard seems to be updating racials and racial issues lately but hasn’t even looked at Pandaren, I figured it was maybe a good time to list some general issues. This is by no means exhaustive, just some major problems that could and should be fixed.
Model Problems (Pandaren actually has the oldest player model currently).
- Broken neck seam, at some point their neck seam no longer properly merged from their head to their body, leaving this jarring issue. At this point, I usually wear the duelist shirt to cover it, but it should have been fixed a long time ago. I believe this one started in Shadowlands.
- Ongoing feet flipping. Again this one kinda popped in around Shadowlands, mostly because that’s when we started getting 3D model feet more and more. A large number of boots for Pandaren have severe clipping, usually either the toes or the sole of their sandal popping out.
- Generalized foot problem: This one is a problem for a few races but including it here just because its certainly an issue here and one that likely could be fixed more easily. A lot of boots apply a rather generic wrapping to the foot when it has a big chunky model. This usually works for other races because unlike Pandaren they don’t have a big bright sandal on their foot that overrides any textures. end result is that this wrapping doesn’t cover the sole, toes, or heel of the Pandaren leading to texture and color clashing.
- General lack of customization. I realize it’s a general issue in the game, a lot of races need more customization (allied especially). But I’d be remiss to not mention it. Jewelry that can’t be changed color-wise. Males can’t change their tails, unlike females. All they got when the other races got customization updates in I think it was SL was three new hairstyles for each sex and three DK body colors. Hair color is only their hair highlight. Again, I realize it’s a general issue, and I fully agree other races also need more. Though Pandaren currently is on the same level as the poorly treated allied races on lack of customization.
There are links with images for the problems presented above, but alas, I cannot post links in WoW Forums yet. Such is their trust system.
Racial problems:
This is mostly in regards to PvP
- Epicurean needing updating: The Pandaren racial doubles the benefit of food buffs. This is intended to be in line with other damage racials that most races have; for most races it is a 1-2% boost of some kind to a stat or a general increase to their primary state, or just plain be a damage cooldown (which is OGCD for everyone but vulpera and NB). Every race has one, some have both that AND a defensive racial (though Nightborne and Vulpera also need a buff, the first because it only affects magic damage, the second because, unlike other damage racials, it’s NOT off the GCD).
- The problem with the Pandaren damage/stat racial is twofold. First, it doesn’t persist on death, unlike, say, the new Earthen Racial. This normally isn’t THAT big of a deal other than Pandaren having to constantly spend money to get access to their racial which is silly. But in PvP, it means they have to stop and eat should they die (and whenever they queue since it resets).
- This leads to the next point regarding Epicurean. In PvP, Pandaren has its own food. Which… hasn’t left the WoD vendor ever so we have to go to WoD to restock. It’s called Pre-mixed Pot of Noodles, which has its own story where players had to beg for it to be added in the first place. It currently gives just under 1% versatility (I don’t think it was updated after DF). Compare that to other racials, it’s actually low. Human gets 2% more of ALL secondary stats, Kul Tiran gets one percent vers on top of a passive heal in the same ability, High Mountain has 1% vers but on top of a big damage taken buff, Ancestral Call for Mag’har is an on-demand cooldown that’s getting buffed that adds versatility. It just generally seems to need a buff like the other races are getting. On top of needing a functionality update to simply work even should you die. A Panda who dies loses both their food buff AND their racial buff and that’s ridiculous.
- Their other racial, Quaking Palm is awful. So, Quaking Palm’s 2-minute cooldown is as follows: “Strikes the target with lightning speed, incapacitating them for 4 sec, and turns off your attack.” Sounds good? It’s nearly useless for most classes and comps. It’s melee range, it breaks on ANY damage including dots, and if used as an interrupt it doesn’t apply a brief silence as others do, so the enemy can immediately begin cast again. A lot of classes auto apply dots so if say, a warrior does it? Your bleed is going to break it immediately. If you have to have dots in general up? Yes, they’re going to break it, immediately. Does your partner have any dots? Yep, it is gonna break it immediately. Compare this to say, the two Tauren (base and HM) racials, one an aoe stun for two seconds, the other a line charge knockdown for 1.5 seconds, both can hit multiple opponents, and both have the same 2-minute cooldown. Both are infinitely more useful. Quaking Palm is just, overall, so awful and absolutely useless for the majority of specs Pandaren can take… or if you have a PVP partner with any dots. The 4 seconds sounds great but in practice, you’ll be lucky if you get half a second.
Misc:
- Heritage: No mention of it in the road map. They and Dracthyr are the last two without one. Would be nice to just get maybe a “Yeah it’s coming” or “Sorry they aren’t getting one for reasons” from Blizz. I’m tired of wondering if it’ll ever happen.
