Race Night

Chances are if your reading this article, your interested in the MMORPG, World of Warcraft, maybe you’ve already started, in any case, I have some experience to share, as well as some tips and tricks to make the game a bit more enjoyable, the first of which is this.

If you need a little help choosing a character class to play, the first question you have to ask yourself is this:

Am I going to be someone that will put my effort into healing and buffing my allies?

Am I going to be the guy at the head of the group going toe to toe with our opponents?

The third option is to be a DPS (Damage per Second) Arch-type, whose role is dishing out lots of damage, really fast.

Once you’ve chosen which arch-type you want to play, it becomes a bit easier to choose a class. If you’ve decided you want to play a tanking character, then the Warrior, Paladin, or Druid classes are going to be the three you choose from, on the other hand, if you pick a healer arch-type, you’ll need to decide between a Paladin, Druid, Shaman, or Priest, lastly, if you want to be a DPS Arch-type, you’ll want to pick between Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Mage, Warlock, Shaman, and Druid.

You may be wondering why Druid’s and Paladin’s show up in almost all three categories, the answer is that the Druid and Paladin are the most versatile classes in the game, they both have the potential to be fantastic healers, tanks, and DPS.

The next thing you need to know is about the different races in World of Warcraft, each race has their own unique racial abilities, which can make two characters wearing the same gear and using the same talent build vastly different, there are also two opposing factions in World of Warcraft, the Alliance (of which I’m a proud member of!) and the Horde (which I do play on occasionally) There are currently 5 races for each faction, for the Horde: Orc, Troll, Undead, Tauren, Blood Elf, and for the Alliance: Human, Dwarf, Gnome, Night Elf, Dranei, next ill be detailing the racial bonuses each race gets.

Gnomes are the shortest race in the game, aside from the non-playable goblins, the have high intelligence, have increased arcane spell and effect resistance, and gain a bonus to the engineering skill if they take it as a profession, they also have a special ability, called Escape Artist, which dispels movement impairing effects, such as a Hunter’s Concussive Shot, Warrior’s Hamstring, Mage’s Frost Nova etc Gnomes can play as Mages, Warlocks, Warriors, and Rogues.

The next race are the Dwarves, they earn a bonus to their gun skill, increasing their accuracy, and damage with gun type weapons, if their class can use them, they have two racial special abilities, Find Treasure, which shows the location of nearby Treasure Chests on the Mini-Map, and Stone form, which temporarily makes them immune to Bleed and Curse Effects, which is a very useful ability throughout the game, Dwarves have high stamina, and increased resistance to frost spells and effects, they can play as Hunters, Paladins, Priests, Rogues, and Warriors.

Humans have a 10% increase to reputation gain, meaning, it is far easier for them to gain faction rewards then any other race in the game, they also have enhanced stealth detection through the use of a special racial ability, increased spirit, and skill with swords and maces. Humans can play as Warriors, Paladins, Priests, Mages, Warlocks, and Rogues.

Night Elves have a special racial ability that allows them to use Stealth as if they were a Rogue, only, while a Night Elf is Stealthed, they cannot move, or the Stealth is broken, They also gain bonuses to their agility, and chance to dodge, and have a +10 to nature resistance, they also have a different “Ghost Form” that counts as a racial ability, Wisp Form grants them an extra 50% movement speed, making the run from the spirit healer, back to your body much quicker.

The Dranei were added to the game in the expansion “The Burning Crusade” they have a passive racial ability that grants a +1% chance to hit with physical or spell attacks when within 30 yards of an allied player in their group, the type of + hit bonus provided is dependent on the Dranei’s class, in addition, Dranei have a bonus to the Gemcutting profession, of +5, and have a unique racial special ability “Gift of the Naaru” allows a dranei to cast a Heal over Time spell that regenerates the target’s health by an amount determined by the caster’s level, lastly, the Dranei have increased resistance to shadow spells and effects, and can play as Warriors, Hunters, Mages, Shamans, or Paladins.

Orcs are the first Horde Race we’ll be going over, their racial abilities increase their resistance to stun mechanics, and also increase their damage or healing output dependent on their class, but also reduce the healing the caster receives while the effect lasts, they specialize in axe weapons, and so receive a bonus when using either one handed, or two handed axes, also, Orcs that choose to play as either a Warlock or Hunter, recieve a passive ability that increases their combat pet’s damage. Orcs can play as Warriors, Rogues, Shamans, Hunters, and Warlocks.

The Trolls Racial Abilities are as follows, specialization with throwing weapons, and bows, beserking, which increases in effectiveness when the caster’s health is lower, and health regeneration while in combat. Trolls can play as Warriors, Rogues, Shaman, Priests, and Mages, and Hunters.

Next are the Tauren, in all probability, the best race for tanking characters, why? One of their racial grants a 5% increase to their maximum health, combining that with the option of becoming a feral specialized druid, which in dire bear form, receives 400% armor and an additional 25% stamina bonus, and its clear to see why, in addition, Tauren players receive a racial ability called Warstomp, stunning nearby opponents for 2 seconds, it may not seem great, but it can be a lifesaver. Additionally, Tauren receive +15 to the herbalism skill, if learned as a profession, and Tauren receive additional resistance to nature spells and effects. Taurens can choose between Warrior, Hunter, Shaman and Druid.

The Undead have an ability that makes them immune to most crowd control abilities for 5 seconds, can also breathe underwater longer then any other race, and can devour the remains of humanoid or undead opponents to regenerate their health quicker, they also receive additional resistance to shadow spells and effects. Undead can play as Warriors, Rogues, Mages, Priests, and Warlocks

The Blood Elves are a race that was added to the game in the expansion “The Burning Crusade” They have two racial abilities that allow them to reduce an opponent’s mana, and recharge their own, they also receive +10 to the enchanting skill, if they take it as a profession, and have additional resistance to all schools of magic. Blood Elves can play as Paladins, Rogues, Mages, Warlocks, Priests, and Hunters

After picking your class and race, you’ll start the game, at which point a few small pop-up windows will appear offering advice to get you started, the pop-up should say something about talking to the person in front of you for a quest, instead, go slay some nearby animals for experience and gain at least one level, which will open up another quest, or two, that you can take in addition to the starter quest to earn experience a little faster, this is an encouraged tactic, as taking on multiple quests and completing them all before turn in, will increase your leveling effectiveness.

As far As Talent Specilization goes, it is always better to choose a specilization that is damage based if you intend to solo, the Shadow branch of the Priest’s Talent Tree, Fire for The Mage’s, Marksmanship for Hunters (though entirley debatable, i choose marksmanship because of personal experience and preference.) Fury, or Arms for Warriors, Retribution for Paladins, though it is the general opinion that paladins are better off switching to their tanking, or healing spec by level 70, Feral, or Balance for Druids (personal prefrence has been feral thus far) I have next to no experience playing warlocks, so, with that in mind, it seems that affliction is the popular DPS specilization for Warlocks, and that Combat is the popular Rogue specilization.

Thanks to Conn for pointing out that i had left Hunter’s out of possible class choices for Trolls and Blood Elves.

By: Justin Humble

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