New WoW Alliance Race Revealed

Finally an Ugly Alliance Race and Pretty Horde! by Captain+Kirk · 2006-05-10 04:25 · Score: 4, Insightful

One of the bigh imbalances in WoW is that far more people roll "cute" Alliance characters and the Horde is played by people who think about issues like Stun resistance, enhanced melee speed and so on. This makes a HUGE difference in battlegrounds where Horde usually win because they have more thinking players and Alliance have interminable queues becasue there are often 3 to 1 alliance to Horde population imbalances.

I'm an Orc Shaman and we win in battlegrounds 90% of the time. My hope is that this will lift the level of Alliance players a little while encouracing more peope to try Horde characeters.

--
1000s Warcraft Gold while you sleep

Re:Finally an Ugly Alliance Race and Pretty Horde! by dzym · 2006-05-10 04:29 · Score: 2

Hey, maybe if my entire faction were composed of races that had innate resistances to stuns, fears, mind control, and all other manner of crowd control and the other faction weren't entirely dependant on the ability of one single class on clicking one single blessing of freedom button when instead they're all toting 2h weapons instead of healing/shielding/blessing, I'd win more BGs too!
Re:Finally an Ugly Alliance Race and Pretty Horde! by GodaiYuhsaku · 2006-05-10 04:36 · Score: 2, Insightful

Yes there's a population imbalance.

However your post makes it seam that alliance are full of idiots.

They both have good players and they both have non-thinking players.

The population imbalance just means its harder to find the good alliance players.

More likely though is that it will cause the Horde to slowly become more like the alliance as the new flood of blood elves hit the servers,
where the good players are harder to find amids all the lesser ones.

--
60 gnome mage
Re:Finally an Ugly Alliance Race and Pretty Horde! by SatanicPuppy · 2006-05-10 05:17 · Score: 2, Insightful

This totally sums up all the "problems" people have with the paladin.

On the one hand, they only need to push one button.

On the other hand, everybody thinks its the wrong damn button.

There is no way to win. I stopped playing my pally because I could never get any pvp respect. Jacked criticals using a fast two-hander and laying down the hate about as well as a paladin possibly can, and what do I get? "OMG Duud why ar3nt joo healing m3?! N00B! U suck wtf" People would whine and whine because I had no interest in gimping myself and following them around healing. I'd duel them, win and they still wouldn't shut up about what my job was.

If there was a way to change your name to "IamNotYerHealBitch" I'd still be playing that character.

Oh yea: Gnomes are the second best at escaping crowd control, with their "Get out of Root free" card.

--
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Re:Finally an Ugly Alliance Race and Pretty Horde! by Incoherent07 · 2006-05-10 05:34 · Score: 2, Insightful

Um, not really, just that most paladins don't know how to play their class... including the guy above you who somehow thinks paladins are damage dealers, and that hate means anything in PvP.

Oh wait, did I say that?

--
This is my sig. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.
Re:Finally an Ugly Alliance Race and Pretty Horde! by SatanicPuppy · 2006-05-10 05:51 · Score: 2, Insightful

Having played both of the "ZOMG SO OVER POWERED NERF NERF" classes to 60, I can confidently say that people who honestly believe that one class causes all the swing are completely wrong. For every alliance player who swears Shammys are unbeatable, there is a horde player who's frothing at the mouth because Pallys are unkillable.

Yea sure, 1 on 1 a shammy can beat a pally, I'd say 3 times out of 5 easily, all other things being equal. At the same time, 2 pallys in a pvp group is just fricking WRONG.

Considering that I've been playing for a looong time, on multiple servers, for both factions, the one thing I have noticed is that there is always a population imbalance favoring the alliance. At the same time, there is often a battleground win/loss ratio that favors the horde. Now why this is the case, I have no idea. But I have noticed that when the alliance organizes, they tend to clean up, because they generally have better equipment.

So why do they not do as well in even contests? I have no idea. Probably does have something to do with the differing mindsets though, people who would choose one side over another. What that says about the various sides, I have no idea.

--
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Re:Finally an Ugly Alliance Race and Pretty Horde! by Chris+Burke · 2006-05-10 06:28 · Score: 2, Insightful

The reality is that the Horde players and Alliance players are, on average, equally skilled. The fact that the Horde wins 90% of the time cannot be attributed to skill and must be attributed to simple balance issues. Face it, Shamans are horrendously overpowered. It's not skill, it's not luck, it's bad balance.

It can't be the fault of shamans, because I have the same experience in BGs with no shamans.

Really, my experience across multiple servers and multiple brackets on each is that the alliance is just as good at fighting yet is on average much, much worse at strategizing. The Alliance tends to win individual skirmishes as often as they lose. It's not character balance. If killing the other guy was all it took to win a BG, the record would be close to 50-50. Yet it isn't. The tendency of Alliance to pick strategies that are guaranteed to lose no matter how skillfully they play is striking.

In Warsong Gulch, they will turtle inside their flag room. This makes it hard to take their flag, sure, but eventually it can be taken and in the meantime they have virutally no offense. No offense == no victory.

In Arathi Basin, they will zerg around in a huge mob from node to node. Yes, they can easily take nodes this way, but they can't actually keep any. Just by letting them take the node they're trying for at the moment, and re-taking the node they just left, it's easy to make sure they never get more than two nodes. Taking nodes but never actually holding more than your enemy == no victory.

Sometimes you get a group that is on the whole clueful about strategy and intends to win rather than farm HKs and collect a single token. These are usually also good players, and these are tough fights with or without shamans on the horde side. This is where the 10% comes from.

Do I think this imbalance in ability to strategize stems from the races' "cuteness"? I'm not sure, but it's all I can think of to explain it. 25% of all WoW players are night elves. A large number of them are hunters, and a large number of those are named a derivatve of Legolas. Teenies who are thinking more about how they look like Orlando Bloom than how to win the battle? That's what I'm implying. I shudder to think of what's going to happen now that Horde is going to have blond haired fair-skinned elven hunters.

--

The enemies of Democracy are
Re:Finally an Ugly Alliance Race and Pretty Horde! by Incoherent07 · 2006-05-10 09:16 · Score: 3, Informative

To be perfectly honest, if you were expecting a paladin to be simply a warrior with healing spells, that was never the case to begin with. Paladins sacrifice the damage of a warrior to gain quite a bit of survivability: healing spells, an invulnerability shield, immunity to most kinds of debuffs, and a short range stun. Yes, paladins can dish out some decent damage with the right gear and spec, but part of playing a character is playing to their strengths as they are. The paladin class hasn't changed significantly since release; their review merely shuffled some talents around.

As for your assertion that shamans are superior to paladins...

In the PvE game, paladins are far superior to shamans. Four paladins can give more mana regen, more threat reduction, and more attack power to EVERY MEMBER OF THE RAID with blessings than eight shamans can with totems, and even without the greater blessings the blessings last longer than the totems. Paladins themselves have the most efficient, lowest threat heals in the game, and can remove three different kinds of debuffs with one fairly cheap spell. About all shamans have going for them is Windfury/Grace of Air, which only apply to the shaman's group and cannot be used at the same time as the threat reduction totem or each other.

In PvP, they're opposite sides of the same coin. Paladins are by far the dominant PvP healer class simply because of their survivability, and can leverage their heals and Cleanse to make their group that much more powerful, even if a paladin by himself isn't much of a threat. Shamans are an excellent offensive class with some capacity to heal and (against bad opponents) buff their groups.

The reason so many people think shamans are more poweful than paladins is because 90% of paladins keep thinking they're a warrior with healing spells, instead of using the rest of their abilities. It's like playing a hunter in PvP without a pet, or a druid without using forms.

--
This is my sig. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.

For What It's Worth by eldavojohn · 2006-05-10 04:31 · Score: 2, Informative

This was posted on Wikipedia quite sometime ago as a rumor. I use them for a lot of my information (old and new).

In addition to Thottbot (quests) and Allakhazam (pricing and searching), a lot of the WoW Wikis out there provide for me a lot of my World of Warcraft information.

It seems they're introducing more "middle styled" races that are akin to the otherside. Perhaps they're planning to allow draenei to be warlock and blood elves to be palladins? This is all speculation but I know that I, for one, am very much looking forward to this expansion.

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My work here is dung.

Re:For What It's Worth by SnowDog_2112 · 2006-05-10 05:17 · Score: 4, Informative

There's an interview on the NYTimes site:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/09/technology/10war craftqa.web.html

It has info on the race, profession choices, and much more. Very interesting read.

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Not representing or approved by my company or anybody else.
Re:For What It's Worth by Southpaw018 · 2006-05-10 08:25 · Score: 2, Interesting

Dranei became shamanistic after settling on Draenor, before its destruction and transformation into Outworld. They are a highly magical race, and their history fits perfectly into giving them Paladins, Priests, and Mages as their three primary classes, as they were originally saved from being corrupted into the demonic Eredar (as Archimonde) by the Naaru, who are somehow related to the Holy Light that gives Paladins their power.

Apologies to those who aren't familiar with the Warcraft Universe. I'm not typing out the novel that would be required to explain that. ;)

--
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.

Dude... by E-Sabbath · 2006-05-10 04:51 · Score: 2, Funny

I'm sorry. I know about the rumored china issue...

But I wanted pandaren. I would so have played a Pandaren. And then I'd attack every PvP and Penny Arcade player I could find. Cause... you know, giant panda.

Ah, talking out the arse, then? by Moraelin · 2006-05-10 05:01 · Score: 3, Insightful

"Seriously do any of you WoW players see the string that is tied around that ever-fleeting carrot?

Having never played I can speak down upon your addiction with impunity but I do feel for you all...please get well soon."

So, you've never actually played something, you have no first-hand experience with it, but you feel qualified anyway to pass judgment upon it and compare it with a carrot in the stick. Pray tell, on what do you base that judgment, then?

_How_, pray tell, do you know then whether WoW is good or bad, and what do those players find in it? Maybe, just maybe, it's not just illogical addiction, but paying for a game that's every bit comparable to Oblivion as both complexity and fun factor go. In fact, to about 10-12 Oblivions, since it has a _lot_ more content to explore and enjoy.

WoW has its own issues, later, much later in the game. You need to play pretty damn intensively for a month or more before you get anywhere near the level where it becomes a carrot-on-a-stick exercise. Or more if you try playing more than one character. At which point you got more content for your money out of it than out of any SP RPG you can get for love or money nowadays.

Still, yes, it has them. But you've never experienced them. So even then I'll rather hear about them from other players who _do_ know first hand what they're talking about. Do you even know what the carrot _is_ in that metaphor you sling about? What do you bring to the table, other than some more noise to drown the useful signal with?

So, yeah, I feel for you. Get well soon. Talk to a competent psychiatrist about getting your head removed from your ass. And maybe, just maybe, try talking about stuff you have any clue about next time. Might keep you from looking like a trolling retard, for a change. Because even as trolling goes, this has got to be the most retarded form of it.

--
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.

HUrm. by Churla · 2006-05-10 05:08 · Score: 2, Interesting

I just don't get how Blizzard are calling whisps that "corrupted" and "posessed" demons (SAtyrs in this case) and twisted their appearance to match the demons from outland (Eredar) as Draenei. Makes no sense whatsoever..

Oh.. wait... forgot who I was talking about.

It's a real shame to see what was a great backstory and lore in a gameworld being so shamelessly bend over and violated for the sake of fitting game dynamics they'd like into the game world.

--
I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore

Supposed to be ogre by smartidiotaz · 2006-05-10 05:46 · Score: 2, Interesting

http://videogames1.mtv.com/pages/news/story.php?id =6150056 Draenei :( Not ogre. Now all the change in the ogre artwork is worthless. They were much better as big fat ogres.

Hi. You're a bit off. by BitterAndDrunk · 2006-05-10 06:01 · Score: 2, Insightful

So, you've never actually played something, you have no first-hand experience with it, but you feel qualified anyway to pass judgment upon it and compare it with a carrot in the stick. Pray tell, on what do you base that judgment, then?

I've never shot heroin into my cock, but I'm pretty sure that would be a Very Bad Idea. And I do feel qualified to say that.

Not completely disagreeing with you, but your point above isn't strong.

--
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . . .

Just like any other game, then? by Moraelin · 2006-05-10 06:33 · Score: 4, Insightful

"I haven't played but working in IT everyone I work with plays it incessantly and all admit that it's reached apoint where they can't stop and yet they don't see any point in continuing. I don't need to use cocaine to know it's addictive and has no real finite purpose."

Some people get addicted to it, yes. But then people get addicted to anything else. Including:

- counterstrike
- BSD/Linux/Amiga/obscure-programming-language debates
- Everquest2 (and unlike EQ1, I can't even really see what a couple of co-workers even see in EQ2, since it's mostly just a mediocre idea and badly executed)
- sex
- porn (see people who end up unable to stop browsing for it even at work, and then sue the employer for firing them)
- karma-whoring on Slashdot

Etc, etc, etc.

The problem isn't as much the game, as the people. Some people are the kind that just has to find refuge in something and, unsurprisingly, a good game will collect more of them than a bad one. So, yes, you're more likely to find them in WoW than in crap games like Anarchy Online or SWG.

And some people basically have an Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, so they can't leave anything they haven't 100% finished. They _must_ have opened every single chest, killed every single boss and collected every single armour piece, before they can consider a game finished and move on. I can see how some MMOs would trap them, because they're games designed so you can't really finish them. The end-game grind in WoW is there precisely so you'd need at _least_ a year of doing the same thing over and over again before you're finally "finished".

Again, I'd "blame" the people not the game. (Well, not as much "blame" as have some compassion.) The same personality types do the exact same in other games too. E.g., I had a friend who simply _had_ to find every single chest, secret door and quest in such games as "Betrayal At Krondor". I remember that game particularly because he's explicitly fumed about not being sure if he covered 100% of an area, and there could be some chest he's missed. Or in games like Panzer General he'd save before moving each and every single unit, and reload if the dice-driven result was anything less than _perfect_. (Meaning his unit had to take exactly zero damage, and the enemy had to take exactly the maximum attack value of his unit.) Not because he couldn't have finished it otherwise, but because it _had_ to be perfect, if he could help it.

At any rate, I'd venture a guess that it's not really the game which turned them into that.

Is it just addiction and carrot-on-a-stick for everyone? I'd say I'm proof enough that it isn't, seein' as I'm not even playing it any more. Can't recall any withdrawal syndrome either. If you _don't_ approach it with some silly idea that it's like a marriage for life, or that you _must_ finish everything before you give up, giving it up is actually pretty darn easy. It's just a game. You've seen as much content as was enjoyable, and when it starts being consistently unenjoyable, it's goodbye and good riddance.

As for my comments about "trolling" or "noise drowning the signal", they're not about your having an opinion. It's about your passing a harsh judgment on something you just don't have the data to judge. Knowing one IT guy who's a WoW addict doesn't make you an expert in WoW, and, no, doesn't give you enough data to extrapolate about why everyone else is playing it. It's like knowing that some terrorist was from South America and did drugs, and deciding that surely all people in South America are terrorists and junkies. It's that uninformed a judgment. That's all.

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A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.

Re:Fuzzy... by rehtonAesoohC · 2006-05-10 06:34 · Score: 2, Funny

Sorry, all I got out of that post was a reminder that I had a Carrot on a Stick in my bank...

Re:Fuzzy... by crabpeople · 2006-05-10 07:12 · Score: 3, Funny

"Seriously do any of you WoW players see the string that is tied around that ever-fleeting carrot?"

As you can clearly see, there is no string.

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I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...

Official Draenei homepage by Zatar · 2006-05-10 07:58 · Score: 2, Informative

Well, it's pretty official now since they have updated the expansion website with information on the Draenei.

It also explains that the Draenei are the remnants of the Eredar race who chose not to become evil demons back when Sargeras was forming the burning crusade.

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New WoW Alliance Race Revealed

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