Post by Overhaul
Hey, just some thoughts on Racials in PvP.
Currently 3 races dominate top lvl bracket pvp. Humans, Undead, and Night Elfs. There is a very small slice of dwarfs as well - usually as shaman.
I think it is obvious why humans are the most popular, their racial is the only one that 'scales' with gear. The further we are in an expansion, the less sought resil is and the more sought out the extra oomf is. Undead are sought out for their extra trinket that is on a shorter CD, but shared. It don't provide any damage benifits but can make or break in a CC chain, as most CC chains take around the time will of the forsaken comes off CD to become available again. Finally NEs are sought out for the extra hit needed to CC them - which many people don't gear for, and also for shadowmeld.
What I don't get is that even though these classes have always been sought for their racials, blizzard has done next to nothing to balance racials. Yes the extra oomf is not game breaking, it amounts to little more than someone lvling their professions and you can say that the reason they dominate arena is because they are sought out by people who min/max their toon and those are the kinda people to reach those high lvl brackets. But still, this isn't just making an arena rift, it is making a race and faction rift.
Today most realms are becoming dominated (I speak only for US, as that is what I play) by alliance. 2 of those races, 3 if you count dwarfs, are alliance. Only undead are a strong race for horde in pvp top tier. There are still a few horde dominated realms - like illidan or Area 52, but the majority are becoming alliance dominated. This can be seen in the US if you look at arena junkies ratings. Seen here:
http://www.arenajunkies.com/rankings/3v3/?sort=®ion_id=US&battlegroup_id=-1&realm_id=-1&faction_id=-1&class_id1=-1&class_id2=-1&class_id3=-1The top 15 teams in 3s are ALL Alliance, and the vast majority of the 3s teams in the upper brackets are Alliance. Now I know this is only US realms. For some reason, EU is far more even split. But I play on a US realm and everything is heading towards Alliance. Slowly people are xfering to alliance dominated realms and faction changing. I have seen this change while I was on Illidan and Bleeding Hollow - 2 fairly horde dominant realms. The battlegrounds I even feel are slowly going along with this shift, as many of the min/maxers are eventually going to be alliance.
Finally, I think it *Might* be short lived. Like the human racial scales with gear, it works the opposite in the start of an expansion. Resil will become highly sought and the extra trinket becomes more of a hassle with choosing what to do with it. Also, if pvp power and pvp resil works the way it is supposed to, that extra slot will automaticly get filled with a pvp trinket that deals damage, not some OP version of a pve one. They will be forced to take some of the decreasing returns to scale resil, keeping them more in-line with the other classes.
I think, in the end, Undead and NEs will be the top pvp classes in the game, and undead even more sought with their buff (not sure if it is still in beta, but people i have talked to say it still is) to their racial that gives a chance to deal shadow damage and heals for the amount done. I think it will go back to a more even domination.
But this brings up my big point, what is the point of racials if they affect faction balance? Because of racials, you rarely will see a Tauren or Troll in the very top tier. Or for that matter a gnome or worgen. If you choose one of these races - which i think are fun, you sacrifice some of your min/maxing that you want to do for top tier arena. Why does blizzard to this exactly? Wouldn't it be more fair if blizzard allowed you to 'choose' your racial of your toon instead of making it a given with what race you choose to be? It would also add some variety to pvp, makes you ask yourself 'does that Troll have berzerking, will of the forsaken and is going to ruin my CC chain, or some other racial.'
Post by Levarus
The duration of stuns for Orcs last 15% less which is very nice.
Blood Elves also get an interrupt.
Trolls deal 5% more damage against Feral Druids, and if specced in On a Pale Horse the duration of movement impairing effects is reduced by a whopping 45%
Their racial
Berserking is also very nice.
And obviously,
Bow Specializion is amazing for Hunters.
So, let's move on:
Tauren - They get an aoe stun, that's awesome.
Orcs - 15% reduced duration of stuns, self-explanatory.
+5% pet damage, unholy dks and bm hunters will be fiending over this.
And then there's Blood Fury , which goes good with a burst macro.
Goblins - Rocket Jump allows a melee class to effectively leap to a target's destination and a mage to blink and use this to completely avoid and escape range.
Post by Adamsm
You know, why does Every Man for Himself always gets mentioned, but people rarely complain about
Escape Artist?
Post by Interest
You know, why does Every Man for Himself always gets mentioned, but people rarely complain about
Escape Artist?
There's a lot of snarebreaking abilities is why, I would think. I would almost say WotF is better even though the latter has a shared cooldown effect with PvP trinkets.