Elf racial useless crap

[Dm1989]

Hey, guys. Before anything, happy new year and thanks for the effort and commitment involved in this brave project.

I've got a suggestion for the forum background. It looks a little bit weird in some screens as I tested.

There's the css class body.pbwow3 with background-attachment:scroll; showing a black screen in FHD monitors.

It might be background-attachment:fixed; instead.

I've also have some suggestions about punctuation in the expansion texts for the web. PM if you think it's important and I'll be happy to send em.

Grats and cya around.

[Unangwata]

Give me gnomish 5% int any time instead of this ridiculous 8 min cd nonsense.

[Steyr]

It seems the original post got modified, or I am missing something.

In any case, seems as some people aren't very happy with High elf racial, a suggestion:

Name: Spell Steal ( Devour magic? )
Type: Racial
Cast time: Instant
Cast range: 20yd (10yd?)
Cost: Free
Cooldown: 2 min (5 min? )
Description: An instant cast spell, that strips one beneficial magical effect from hostile target and applies it to the caster. Auras, totem effects, item effects, temporary enchants (like wizard oil) and paladin bubbles (both) are not affected. Cannot miss.
[EDIT] Cannot be cast while silenced, or under any effects that cause losing control of the character.

Additional suggestion: If the spell steal is successful, it also restores 2% of total mana to the caster.
Additional suggestion: Can be cast on hostile target to steal one beneficial effect or on friendly target to steal one negative effect (and put it onto the caster). Although this part might lead to some serious changed in raiding tactics.
Additional suggestion: Can be resisted by targets with high arcane resistance.

I understand that the devs probably won't like the idea of changing anything once the expansion is already out, so just posting it here as a speculation on the topic.

[Sultansaxophone]

Name: Spell Steal ( Devour magic? )

This is an awesome idea and would improve gameplay instead of making it awkward to pause with melee classes to cast an evocation-like spell :)

[Gheor]

Spell steal is a blood elf thing, we made the racials according to lore, thanks for the suggestion, will present your case, but not making any promises.

[Roxanneflowers]

Here's an alternative idea that might work.
Instead of a Spell Steal ... do a Spell Nullifier.
And yes, this is Blue Sky Thinking™.

I'm thinking in terms of Nature's Grasp (Druid) where it works like a reactive shield.
The High Elf casts Spell Null on self (only) ... cooldown 1 minute, duration 1 minute, 1 charge.
Hostile Magic spells cast against the High Elf are nullified (no damage, no duration) and the mana cost of the spell is granted to the High Elf.

So it's basically a pre-cast "bubble" that drains away magic attacks on the High Elf and siphons the mana used to cast the magic attack into the High Elf's mana pool, thereby nullifying the attack.

If the spell needs to be rigged with Ranks, you can give the spell a limitation that Rank 1 can only nullify Rank 1 spells. Rank 2 can only nullify Rank 1-2 spells ... and so on ... that way you don't have a low level High Elf nullifying Level 60+ Elite spells and can keep the spell "in the lane" of the Level range of the character.

[Tortuga]

Just make it 0.5 sec cast without channeling, that would justify the meager power gain and long cooldown. I mean, for now, I'd better take a cheap potion, it's instant at least.

[Steyr]

Spell steal is a blood elf thing

Not sure, what's the essential difference between blood elves and high elves? Seems to me they belong to the same race that has only fractured a minor time ago.

At the same time, Spell Nullifier sounds like a nice idea as well, especially if it's rank-limited, as Roxanne sugested.

Another option could be a [Reflect Spell] ability.

Name: Reflect Spell
Type: Racial
Cast time: Instant
Cast range: Self
Cost: Free
Cooldown: 1 min (2 min? )
EDIT: Duration: 10 seconds
Description: Reflects next targeted (non-area), hostile spell back at it's caster. Damage from items and item enchants (unless it is a projectile, like casting shadowbolt on hit), like fiery weapon, as well as reactive damage ( like thorns, or paladin's [eye for an eye] talent ) cannot be reflected.

Additional suggestion: Might limit the reflect to only direct damaging spells, thus excluding any DoT effects and debuffs, although that makes less sense.

[Steyr]

EDIT: Double post o.O

[Unangwata]

just make the racial instant and with 3min cd. 10% mana is no biggie, 25 energy/rage is not worth 5sec channeling and thus useless. Make it instant and problem solved. 8min cd can make you forget you have that ability at all.

[Mrkrissatan]

just make the racial instant and with 3min cd. 10% mana is no biggie, 25 energy/rage is not worth 5sec channeling and thus useless. Make it instant and problem solved. 8min cd can make you forget you have that ability at all.

I second this or make it a 10 - 15 minute cd that returns 100% of mana over 5 seconds that way its still powerful but you can't just abuse it for every fight and the fights where you do use it you've got 5 seconds downtime

[Lexi]

Honestly I think our best bet would be to make it so high elves regenerate a small portion of their mana while casting (or during the 5 sec rule) having say 2-5% of normal mana regen. Similar to the trolls racial but for mana instead. I have no idea what could be done for rogues and warriors though.

[Steyr]

If we're talking about passive racial skills, how about increased resistance to all schools of magic instead (except holy) ? Something like +1 resistance to all schools of magic every 3-5 levels.

Not sure why people are so attached to the idea of mana regenerating ability.

EDIT: On the other hand, I believe High elves already have decent passive racials that blend in with game lore well enough. It's just that usable skill people have been commenting on.

[Roxanneflowers]

Honestly I think our best bet would be to make it so high elves regenerate a small portion of their mana while casting (or during the 5 sec rule) having say 2-5% of normal mana regen. Similar to the trolls racial but for mana instead. I have no idea what could be done for rogues and warriors though.

Copy/paste the Troll health recovery racial and modify like so:
For mana using classes, recover mana instead of health.
For Rogues and Warriors, recover health just like Trolls.

[Moon]

Hello, I'm the person who made the racials what they are currently. While I welcome feedback, I do not appriciate the ideas that boil down replacing a racial with situational usefulness with a universally powerful one that completely demolishes game balance.

Name: Reflect Spell
Type: Racial
Cast time: Instant
Cast range: Self
Cost: Free
Cooldown: 1 min (2 min? )
EDIT: Duration: 10 seconds
Description: Reflects next targeted (non-area), hostile spell back at it's caster.

This is insanely overpowered and I don't even have to explain why.

Honestly I think our best bet would be to make it so high elves regenerate a small portion of their mana while casting (or during the 5 sec rule) having say 2-5% of normal mana regen. Similar to the trolls racial but for mana instead. I have no idea what could be done for rogues and warriors though.

Why even roll a caster of another race then? Especially priest.

Name: Spell Steal ( Devour magic? )

This is an awesome idea and would improve gameplay instead of making it awkward to pause with melee classes to cast an evocation-like spell :)

Not every racial is useful to all classes in all situations, why would this one be any different?

Not sure why people are so attached to the idea of mana regenerating ability.

Couldn't have said it any better myself! Unfortunately there aren't many other ideas that manage to be both flavorful, lore appropriate, and balanced all the same time.

[Tortuga]

Still holding to my earlier proposal: remove channeling part, just make it a 0.5s cast.
Also, instead of direct numbers gain for rage/energy, maybe modify the gain speed (like a short buff), but I'm not sure is the game engine will allow this. The 8m cooldown perfectly justifies that.
Currently, it's hard to imagine a situation when this racial could be useful.

[Steyr]

Unfortunately there aren't many other ideas that manage to be both flavorful, lore appropriate, and balanced all the same time.

Hence my initial suggestion for spellsteal.
High elves ( and blood elves by proxy ) are supposed to be superior spellcasters (having practiced their craft for over 10.000 years), so being able to manipulate magical effects makes sense lorewise (same as enchanting bonus). At the same time ability to regenerate energy or rage doesn't suit them well logically, and, in my opinion, neither does the ability to drain magic from thin air, ever since the Sunwell was desecrated by the Scourge ( otherwise they wouldn't have that addiction problem, would they? ).

From purely technical point of view, that ability benefits all classes and it isn't overpowered. We have to remember that it's only the magical effects that can be stolen, that means the ability is only useful when countering a spellcaster, that bothers to buff himself ( which, in pve content, is about 10% of the fights ). The effect itself is hardly any different from [dispell magic] priest ability, in terms of when you can use it.

But, as I said before, I'm just posting it here as a speculation, I'm perfectly content with whatever we have at the moment (probably because my main is a human paladin).

[Roxanneflowers]

Hello, I'm the person who made the racials what they are currently. While I welcome feedback, I do not appriciate the ideas that boil down replacing a racial with situational usefulness with a universally powerful one that completely demolishes game balance.

For what it's worth (now that I can't play anymore since the patch) ... I agree. The racial mods aren't supposed to be play defining, but rather they ought to be "flavorful" bonuses that nudge the edges of performance rather than radically relocate the balance point. That's why most racial bonuses are so relatively "weak" on the power scale.

[Sultansaxophone]

[/quote]

Not every racial is useful to all classes in all situations, why would this one be any different?

[/quote]

You're right, but this racial could be a lot more interesting I think. Evocation on melee is weird and having an extra, not so great evocation on an 8 minute cooldown for caster is even weirder in my own experience.

[Hunewearl]

Goblins is worse at least your racial does not stop you from attacking or casting

[Sultansaxophone]

Goblins is worse at least your racial does not stop you from attacking or casting

That goblin racial has saved my ass many times as a warlock

[Xaltotun]

Why not look at other races for inspiration? The orc has an ability which gives them 25% increased base attack power for 10 seconds with a 2 min cooldown. (with added negative that any healing on them is halved during that time). Why not give the high elves a similar thing, <level of elf> increased spell power for 10 seconds with a 2 min cooldown. (Possibly some number times the level if that is too weak or too strong)

[Malys]

@Moon0
First, I want to thank you all for what you are doing. Awesome job, and I waited to play high elf here for a while now. Rolled a few characters to "test the waters" so to speak, but ultimately wanted to focus on one high elf character (hardcore).

"Not every racial is useful to all classes in all situations, why would this one be any different?"

While I agree with this statement, THIS racial as it is now is almost completely useless to all classes.

For mana classes, 10% mana on a 5 sec channel (not to mention horendous cd) is all but useless. Drinking level apropriate water for 5 seconds provides more mana.

For warriors, 25 rage is almost useless. I can see it as a pre buff before charge to start with some more rage if one is doing, say an elite quest. No other situation can justify channeling it for 5 seconds.

And worst yet, it is 100% useless for rogues. Rogues get 20 energy/2 seconds, so 10 seconds for full bar. Channeling this for 5 seconds would cut the time by 2.5 seconds every 8 minutes. This doesnt even warrant putting it on action bar.

I don't want to come off as overly critical, but I simply cannot find any justification for ever using it with any class. This needs to be reworked or replaced.

[Lichenwitch]

i think it's fine as is. most racials really aren't particularly strong, i see them as nice situational bonuses and i think the high elf racial fits that.

[Unangwata]

Nah this racial is really crap. Useless for melee, casters can sometimes use it but it's complete insignificant, you will probably get more mana from not casting.. and cd is just joke. It could work if it was over time effect instead of lame channeling.
I think devs were so careful when designing this spell that they were too careful.. with result of this controversial crap.

[Merikkinon]

I have yet to hear any reasonable argument for the CD time. It's not a racial ability that I think is interesting or has much value, but even still, the CD is unbelievable. 1/2 sec cast, 5 sec channel.. and nothing to really show for it.

Appreciate wanting to be lore-adhering, appreciate understanding and not wanting to create a big, game dynamic-altering ability that is situationaly universal (although, laughingly, this attempts to universally give something for everyone according to their power type). But what is the worst is that it isn't impactful in pretty much ANY situation.

No real value in any moment. Sorry.

[Fizzeek]

Take away the channeling but keep the small cast time and it becomes usable by everyone, and can't be used on the move. Even have the effects be an over-time thing and it's fine. Agreed though that it's lackluster to everyone in its current state, especially the melees, and while I agree that not all racials are beneficial to every spec, this was clearly designed to be a boon for every class but in practice it just isn't.

[Ravielsk]

I would say that the only real problem I have with it is the long cooldown. If it had like a 1 min. CD it would be fine as a quick out of combat regen option but with it being as long as it is its barely useful.

If it had to changed I would perhaps suggest a speed casting buff. High elves are supposed to be exceptional mages so giving them the option to cast faster only seems like to next logical step.

But then again I would like them to also have access to the warlock class, so there is that.

[Merikkinon]

Winding up (casting) and then having to channel....

Is there any other spell in the game that does this? I cannot recall, but it seems a worse-case activation protocol.

[Balake]

Winding up (casting) and then having to channel....

Is there any other spell in the game that does this? I cannot recall, but it seems a worse-case activation protocol.

A bit off-topic: Actually a few class spells have that. Warlock summoning ritual and priest Mind Control for example.

[Hardwelsam]

Probably,im wrong,but racials only really matter at the very beginning/leveling .