Lore Friendly Racial Swapping

[Tess322]

I would like to suggest adding racial swapping for couple of reasons.

• Racials are very unbalanced and are punishing to new players (or players which pick a race because of visuals), by not picking the best race.

• For certain classes (priest for example) one race is better for one spec whilst other is better for others (high elf for smite, dwarf/human for holy for example) this encourages for making multiple characters of 1 class which in most cases is not a realistic option

I think adding a way to change racials would greatly benefit the players, not only would it add another way to customize your character (without changing the game) but it would also allow players which made the "wrong" choice of picking race for their visuals.

There are ways this feature could be added without loosing the RPG element.
To begin I would create quests which would allow this. They would require a level 60 and could be scattered throughout the world. Every class would have a quest available from races which can be that class. Quests themselves could be heavily focused towards each of the respective race's cultures and could be focused on a lore friendly way how the player could learn such skills. By completing these quest you could enable a dialogue option with that specific NPC to switch to their respective racials.
As NPC's would be scattered throughout the world, players would need to travel to them in order to swap their unlocked racials. This would also encourage more players to move throughout the world, which I consider a positive.
I would even go as far as allow races of opposing faction to pick racials of their counter parts, IF the race has that class option. Cooperation between factions is part of the lore so this could be accomplished.

Here is a simplified example of what one of these quests could look like:
Dwarf: NPC would be located somewhere on an icy mountain (maybe near Ironforge or in Alterac)
To learn the way of the dwarves player would need to procure certain ingredients to create specially strong brew (this could be a combination of getting Greater Stoneshield Potions, traveling to Grim Guzzler to buy some alcohol, finding some ingredients in treasure ... ).
Upon returning player would be sent to Ironforge where they would seek someone who could brew this concoction and return to the quest giver after. With the brews procured player would need to drink all of them and get completely hammered to build resistance to alcohol, whilst also turning to stoneform.

[Astrallizard]

I would go a different route and adjust the current racials so that they either have less impact or by adding new ones to all races. New abilities or passives could help to balance out the old ones while still preserving the identity and overall theme of a race.

[Sylveria]

I have an Idea myself, that comes from the RPG "Legend of Grimrock" (Well.. the concept is much older already), but i dont know If IT even CAN be implemented: what about making the characters creation a Bit more complex right at the Beginning? All classes have the Same Base-stats from their selected Race, but you're able to spend a few Points by yourself, in Addition to that you can select your racials by yourself. Of course there would be a few restrictions Like only one activateable racials. That way people could decide on their prefered Playstyle or what they Intend to be. (Racials should be adjusted to that, Like the elemental-resistance ones could be Made stronger, to compete with the stun-resist for example)

A way to implement:
Remove racials from all, give them all Tokens at the Beginning Which are used to "select" those perks from an npc, Like with the glyph vendor

[Akos1896]

One thing to note is that sometimes it's not even the racial that makes a build OP but the class' racial.
For example dwarven priests. Stoneskin is good, kinda OP in PVP but what makes thwe whole unbalance is fearward.
I'd go for rebalancing, too, but there is 1 thing. There are many min-maxers here: if you change the racials with your balance in a way that race order for a build changes, then many-many hours of min-maxing become wasted. I'm all in favor of closing up gaps but if someone spent 1000 hours on an Orc fury warrior just for min-maxing, his time should be respected, too.

[Tess322]

One thing to note is that sometimes it's not even the racial that makes a build OP but the class' racial.
For example dwarven priests. Stoneskin is good, kinda OP in PVP but what makes thwe whole unbalance is fearward.
I'd go for rebalancing, too, but there is 1 thing. There are many min-maxers here: if you change the racials with your balance in a way that race order for a build changes, then many-many hours of min-maxing become wasted. I'm all in favor of closing up gaps but if someone spent 1000 hours on an Orc fury warrior just for min-maxing, his time should be respected, too.

My personal problem with this comes exactly from priest. I had chosed a human and leveled it to 60. As it was my alt I wanted to try smite priest. Just after reaching 60 I learned that the new high elves have not only Meditation but Grace of the Sunwell which would work perfectly.
Or in our guild pretty much every warrior regrets not picking human.

[Tess322]

I would go a different route and adjust the current racials so that they either have less impact or by adding new ones to all races. New abilities or passives could help to balance out the old ones while still preserving the identity and overall theme of a race.

Whilst that could work for most classes, some like priest or shaman have race specific features Fear Ward etc., which would either need to be made part of the general toolkit (leading to possible balance issues) or removed (which is a bad decision)

[Tanasa]

OP's idea is flavorful and probably the best way to do it if you want to approach from a lore perspective and not powergaming. As long as you trade your default for something new it should be balanced by default. Limit it to one or two slots to prevent stacking the best options.

Best way to fix priests problem is to just dole out fearward to everyone and give dwarves something compensatory. (And while you're at it make starshards cool!)