Tuesday Morning Post: Racial Roulette edition
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jun 30th 2009 at 5:30AM
So we're swimming in news again this week, what with the patch 3.2 PTR well underway (you can check out the latest patch notes right here) and all, but the biggest piece of news for me, remains the faction changes. If nothing else, this should pave the way for me to be able to switch every single one of my characters to the High Elf race once they're finally implemented. Of course, that's not the only race-related news bouncing around this week. It also looks like the Tauren may be looking to make some waves in lore.But anyhow, we have some nice long maintenance today, so you should have plenty of time to read the above stories and all the awesome news coming out of the PTR while you're at it. Check out a list of some of the highlights of the past 7 days below, and be sure to stick around throughout the day. There's bound to be more patch 3.2 news trickling in.
Hot News and Features
- Some data mining of the new patch 3.2 achievements dredged up some juicy information about new holidays and new bosses.
- Patch 3.2 will also bring more questing ease, with objectives shown on the world map and a double wide quest log.
- We have a Gallery of the stats on the new Badge of Triumph loot and one of the Tier 9 set names and stats for your viewing pleasure. While you're at it, check out the new Heirloom items as well.
- Children's Week will also be coming to Northrend with patch 3.2, and we have shots of the new quests.
- Check out our screenshot gallery of the new Isle of Conquest battleground. You might also be interested in the latest tweaks to the place.
- What does patch 3.2 mean for casuals?
- The BlizzCon live stream order page is up.
- There's more to Blizzard's big Orc statue that meets the eye. Kevin Kelly got some pretty awesome pictures of the thing that you'll want to see.
- We have video of the new patch 3.2 Druid forms, both Tauren and Night Elven alike.
- Here's some of the new class changes on the PTR, freshly datamined.
- Death Knights got their Q&A this week, though most of it covered changes already in patch 3.2.
- Rossi has a patch 3.2 wishlist for Warriors.
- Scattered Shots continues to mull over the patch 3.2 Hunter changes.
- What does patch 3.2 bring for the Paladin?
- Totem talk continues to prepare for patch 3.2, Shaman style.
- Arcane Brilliance isn't quite happy with the Mage Q&A.
- "Bring the player, not the class" is sort of a cliche by now, but it may hold some truth. But then again, maybe not.
- We have some hands on impressions of Koralon the Flame Watcher, the new Wintergrasp raid boss.
- Engineers will be getting even more amazing toys in patch 3.2.
- Mislooting will be far less of a problem in patch 3.2.
- We have the stats on the new relics and set bonuses in patch 3.2. Of course, that post is already old news: Be sure to check out some of the most recent updates to the set bonuses as well.
- if you're interested in the math of tier 9, we have a tier 9 ilevel breakdown.
- Unfortunately, some of us have some problems with the tier 9 look itself.
- Twinks are thrilled with the new experience change. No, really.
- Check out the new Arena season 7 sets.
- In more immediate news, Mimiron's hard mode got a nice hotfixed nerf.
- Ready Check helps you get through Razorscale, Ignis, and the Deconstructor.
- Insider Trader answers some questions about professions in patch 3.2.
- Figureprints recently unveiled its new Figurepets line, and Turpster got to unbox a few and interview the creator.
- Ghostcrawler dislikes Bluetrackers.
- Rob Pardo dislikes consoles.
- Ryan Reynolds doesn't play WoW.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, Odds and ends, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Retropally Jun 30th 2009 5:36AM
If this service is free of charge then I think I personally will definitly use it.
Then again, I think they'll use the system they use with character transfers. If theres something insane like 5 alliance for every 1 horde then they'll probably make it free for alliance to move to horde on that server.
If its anything around the £15 we get charged for server transfers then I wont bother.
notworksafe Jun 30th 2009 12:17PM
It could end up being like WAR where you get a bonus for moving to a server where that faction is outnumbered (for example switching to alliance on a mostly horde server gives you +10% XP gain)
Dreadskull Jun 30th 2009 1:46PM
I'm hoping it'll be a long line of quests that you have to do to betray your faction/show the other faction you're really pledging allegiance to them. Then for those who want a racial change they can just buy a potion or do a quest or something that'll turn them into whatever faction-appropriate race they want, they'll be able to do that but keep their original race's racials (so people wouldn't be able to do it to try and get the "most OP racials" and whatnot).
Though Blizzard will probably just make it a "pay and you get it" thing that has no explanation in-game as to how (for example) an Orc suddenly joins the Alliance as a Human.
Milk Jun 30th 2009 5:43AM
Is this only cross faction? Or is it possible to switch races but stay horde or alliance?
Seedcake Jun 30th 2009 7:54AM
I think faction change is fine, as long as it comes with an enforced racial change. The whole idea of having humans/night elves/etc flying the Horde flag (or blood elves/orcs/etc. flying the Alliance flag) is disgusting and flat-out unacceptable.
Happily, though, I just don't see it happening. I have just enough faith in Blizzard to believe they would maintain the race/faction divide that has sustained their massive monthly income so well these many years.
Also...what I *would* like to see is the ability to change race within one's own faction. I have a couple blood elf characters that I'd like to change to undead and orc. I want to do my part to reduce the BE overpopulation!
Luci Jun 30th 2009 9:04AM
@ Milk
I imagine so, it makes sense to think of it as an "any race" switch
moth Jun 30th 2009 5:56AM
I highly doubt they will ever make faction change completely free of charge. It still remains to be seen how this process is implemented, but chances are that it will take up loads of server processing power. There's another reason why, say, character transfers cost quite a bit besides making a bit of extra money for the company - to ensure that people don't start wildly transferring because that would create a huge load for the servers.
Personally, to be honest, I always thought that the possibility to switch classes would be implemented before the faction change. After all, when switching classes, you just remove all the old abilities and talents, and set the new ones to level 0 so the person has to learn all the spells/abilities and can allocate all the talent points. No issues with mounts, pets, quests, reputations, items, etc. Set the cost to something like 30 euros/dollars to ensure that people don't too it too often, or that leveling a hunter to 80 and then switching to shadow priest doesn't become the norm, or set the cooldown to 30 days per ACCOUNT, not character.. Those of us who have little time to play but who's guild, say, needs a resto shammy, can change our existing character without having to go through the leveling process with yet another alt.. Blizzard gets the money from the class change service.. everybody wins, no?
Ishy Jun 30th 2009 6:10AM
No. Whatever class is OP flavour of the month will suddenly see their population spike and all the others dive.
moth Jun 30th 2009 6:17AM
Actually, to think of it, there are a couple of issues with mounts (warlock and pally class mounts) and items (armour and weapon proficiencies, tier items). But the mounts can just be removed and the armour and weapons removed from the character. I know that a lot of people would be very happy to change their useless alts or characters they no longer enjoy to something else they'd like to play more or that their guild would need for raiding.
For example, I'm tired of my protection warrior. I never tank anymore, I've played the game too much and I'm burned out and tired. I used to enjoy the organizing and the responsibility, but not anymore. I would love to have a ranged dps instead so I can relax a bit more and have a bit more fun. But I work and study and it's summer outside so I'm not going to level a new alt. Hell, I'd even take a -10 level deduction penalty.
cookiemonsterjordan Jun 30th 2009 6:22AM
lol they didnt say your changing classes.... FACTIONS... l2read more.
honestly, i do not see this coming any time soon, and way after 3.2. Think about all the "pro" pvp players switching to human for the 2 trinket spots, or undead for WOTF. Or what about pver's changing over for the troll's racial. i wouldn't worry about this too much yet.
cookiemonsterjordan Jun 30th 2009 6:25AM
lol they didnt say your changing classes.... FACTIONS... l2read more.
honestly, i do not see this coming any time soon, and way after 3.2. Think about all the "pro" pvp players switching to human for the 2 trinket spots, or undead for WOTF. Or what about pver's changing over for the troll's racial. i wouldn't worry about this too much yet.
Avan Jun 30th 2009 6:29AM
They'll probably re-evaluate the racials again.
Markainion Jun 30th 2009 6:54AM
I would love to play a High Elf, I would especially like to change one or two of my Blood Elves into one, and join my other alliance characters. But saying that my Orc Hunter would be lonely with out friend. Ok what am I saying? I think would like my characters on both to be able to join together with out having to change their race to do it. Which doesn’t sound like an option. So factional transfers won’t do much for me. I already got high-level characters on both sides.
To address you issue of two many Blood Elves, which I agree with. The reason the Horde got Blood Elves and the Alliance didn’t get High Elves. Is that Alliance way out number Horde during Vanilla WOW. So Blizzard decided to give the Horde a cute race, which they did, with the Blood Elves, and Horde popularity grew greatly even though mostly as the result of so many Blood Elves.
So I fear Blizzard will fear to give the Alliance the High Elf with out giving the Horde an equally desirable race in return. Which they could likely do by giving the Horde some sort of Human, either Barbaric Human or a fallen away from the light Human, in exchange. Because I think Human is a natural choice for so many of us, simple because we are humans. But I am not sure a Human/Elf Dominate Horde is what most Horde player want. I only played Horde a little bit during Vanilla WOW, I wish I played it more it did seem quite a different place than it is since BC came out.
kokigomi Jun 30th 2009 1:24PM
you have absolutely no concept of the lore of wow if u ever think the high elfs will ever be a playable race on the alliance, due mainly to the fact that they are a playable race on the Horde side ie Blood Elfs which are high elfs, the high elfs became blood elfs after the alliance hung them out to dry when arthus and the scourge invaded silvermoon so to add high elfs as an alliance race would be contrary to a huge part of the lore of wow and to blaspheme the game itself...
Delita Jul 1st 2009 1:45AM
Kokigomi, the Silver Covenant begs to differ.
And so does every high elf in Stormwind, Theramore, and other Alliance locations.
What happened to Silvermoon was very unfortunate. If only Lordaeron and most of it's territory hadn't been decimated right before Arthas marched to Silvermoon things would have been different, yet somehow that seems to be our fault. The elves were still in the Alliance after that though, and what really caused the defection of most of them was Garithos' mistreatment and lies and Lady Vashj's plotting.
Learn about the actual events before you correct someone, there's more to the lore than what NPCs in your own faction say. 'Specially' what blood elf NPCs say.
Adam H. Jun 30th 2009 7:34AM
PLEASE OMG SOMEONE POST ABOUT THE ENGINEERING CHANGES.
ESP THIS ONE: A Steam-Powered Auctioneer has been added to the Dalaran Like Clockwork engineering shop, allowing access to one's faction Auction House. The Steam-Powered Auctioneer was programmed with a superiority chip, and will only interact with Grand Master engineers.
if it has been, my deepest apologies, I've been up all night.
Adam H. Jun 30th 2009 7:35AM
Yep someone already did, you may now commence downrating me.
jason Jun 30th 2009 8:35AM
id really like to see this change be faction to faction...not a re-role and racial switch. give a quest change and then let us rep grind and switch the current char to the other faction. srly the horde is sick of the blood paladin...i love em...but i get a lot of s**t for it. and i miss SW
Luci Jun 30th 2009 9:09AM
Where is this info about the High Elf race being implemented coming from? This is the first I've heard of it being added as a playable race.
Urthona Jun 30th 2009 9:45AM
If I may:
Alliance > Horde
Human Warrior > Undead Warrior
Human Paladin > Blood Elf Paladin
Human Rogue > Undead Rogue
Human Mage > Undead Mage
Human Priest > Undead Priest
Human Warlock > Undead Warlock
Human Death Knight > Undead Death Knight
Dwarf Warrior > Orc Warrior
Dwarf Paladin > Blood Elf Paladin
Dwarf Hunter > Orc Hunter
Dwarf Rogue > Orc Rogue
Dwarf Priest > Troll Priest
Dwarf Death Knight > Orc Death Knight
Gnome Warrior > Troll Warrior
Gnome Rogue > Troll Rogue
Gnome Mage > Troll Mage
Gnome Warlock > Orc Warlock
Gnome Death Knight > Troll Death Knight
Night Elf Warrior > Tauren Warrior
Night Elf Hunter > Tauren Hunter
Night Elf Rogue > Blood Elf Rogue
Night Elf Druid > Tauren Druid
Night Elf Priest > Troll Priest
Night Elf Death Knight > Tauren Death Knight
Draenei Warrior > Orc Warrior
Draenei Paladin > Blood Elf Paladin
Draenei Hunter > Blood Elf Hunter
Draenei Mage > Blood Elf Mage
Draenei Priest > Blood Elf Priest
Draenei Shaman > Orc Shaman
Draenei Death Knight > Blood Elf Death Knight
That's probably how one side of switches will work.