Drawing the short straw: Racial Bonuses
I feel sorry for Gnomes, Draenei, Taurens and Blood elf. Primarily Gnomes of course!
Why?
They have a racial bonus taken up with something completely useless… profession racial bonuses.
Let’s take a look.
- Gnome
* Engineering Specialist : 15 point skill bonus to Engineering (note, this also raises the cap by 15 at each level of Engineering). - Draenei
* Gemcutting : 5 point skill bonus to Jewelcrafting (note, this also raises the cap by 5 at each level of jewelcrafting). - Tauren
* Cultivation : 15 point skill bonus to Herbalism (note, this also raises the cap by 15 at each level of herbalism). - Blood elf
* Arcane Affinity : 10 point skill bonus to Enchanting (note, this also raises the cap by 10 at each level of enchanting).
Yes yes, I hear you Forsaken, Trolls, Orcs, Night elves, Humans and Dwarves screaming out:
If you don’t want +5 to 15 to your skills, then we will take it!
Well, I am of a good mind to just give it to you… actually, you are welcome to my Gnome Engineering skill, cause it’s worth diddly squat to me!
My problem with the professional racial bonuses is three fold…
- It helps you naught – leveling
- It helps you naught – capped
- It helps you naught – in itself
It helps you naught – leveling
It means you get to max your profession out faster…
I hear you say…
Who you kidding buddy?
What the 1st 5-15 points in a skill are difficult? Correct me if I am wrong, but for those first 5-15 points you could run 2 sticks together and level up… doesn’t matter what the profession is.
You think it’s hard to pick some peacebloom, or DE some level 5 green items?
Yeah but you get to the next level of the profession faster!
Hunh? Didn’t you just read what I said…
So you out-level your current gathering zone faster… ohh that’s great… no wonder Blizzard have put all sort of performance enhancing levels gimmicks in the game. Otherwise how are you going to be high enough to grab the next lot of mats?
Fundamentally, I think you got two tradespeople together, one with the racial bonus andone without, there would be little or no difference in who reaches level cap first. Hell I would even put my money on the one without the bonus if they need to get the mats.
It helps you naught – capped
Yeah but when you hit the profession cap, you can be 5-15 points ahead of the next Man, Dwarf or Orc.
There are only two instances in which I know that it is beneficial being beyond the skill cap of a profession.
- Skinning… well it did matter back in Vanilla WoW, if you wanted to skin the The Beast? you needed Finkle’s Skinner…
- Fishing… If you want to fish in 20% of the waters of Azeroth, your better have some performance enhancing gear, whether it’s a fishing rod, bait or bobber. If you don’t have it, you may as well have not equipped your fishing rod.
In fact what do you know what… neither of those professions have a racial bonus… Nope, you get some extra gear or enhancement to allow you to do what you spent hours/days/weeks leveling your toon to accomplish.
It helps you naught – in itself
I remember when I was a Tauren Druid, running about the wilds… I would seem peacebloom (or other low level herb) here and there.. Occasionally (I have short term memory problems… umm where was I?) I would stop to pick it… but I wasn’t a herbalist… so the bonus was USELESS! Well, more useless than I have already explained anyway…
If this isn’t the 1st of my posts that you have read, you know that I have a major issue with Gnome Engineering Racial. I am happy that we get it, I am just unhappy it isn’t worth the pixels expended to put it in my spell book.
Can We Fix It? Yes We Can!
I think, quite simply that Us Gnomes have an affinity for all things mechanical, therefore, while we may not have chosen Engineering as a long term profession to follow, our natural aptitude should afford us the use of engineering only items.
Let me put it this way.
The Average Man on the Street
Some people, with no mechanical skills can drive a car…. Hell, anyone with eyesight and use of some of their limbs can drive a car. I seem to vaguely remember a movie where a blind guy even drove a car with a sighted guy giving directions from the passenger seat.
Yeah so.. anyone can ride a mechostrider… fair enough…
The Average Gnome on the Street
Some people, while not investing in a Mechanic’s apprenticeship, can still work out common probelms with a car. They can drive the car, change the tyres, check the oil.. maybe even tune the car if need be.
This is where I see the average, non-Engineer Gnome. Smarter (well, more knowledgeable) than the average mechanostrider rider.
I strongly believe that Gnomes should be able to drive all things engineering based… In particular of course, I am talking about them flying mechanical engineering mounts. I think Blizzard should change the requirements on them to “Requires Engineering”, without any specific level of engineering… or “Requires XXX Engineering, or Gnome Racial”
Larisa should at the very least be able to oil her favorite Strider so it doesn’t squeak like a matrimonial bed on a honeymoon.
The Guy with the but crack on the street
Some people actually do the whole mechanic’s apprenticeship. If they want to they can build the car from the ground up… and then, if they want to… sell them to people that can drive them (Gnomes!)
Spread the Racial Love…
I think those herb grazing Taurens should also get some sort of natural benefit out of their affinity for keeping their noses in the grass… I don’t know.. allow them the herbalist buff… of if they have herbalism, give it a bit of a kick.
Draenei should get a bonus to have a proc that gives them additional gems, or better gems.
Non-jewelcrafting Draenei should be able to use otherwise BoP gems supplied by a professional gemcutter.
Blood elves can just get stuffed…. Ohh OK, as much as it pains me to offer a Blood Elf anything, give the enchanters soemthing anything… even if it is just limited to my upcoming suggestion…
Non-Enchanting Blood elves should be able to get their rings enchanted (I am going to keep this polite OK…)
Give those most attuned to a profession, something to show for it.
So…
- A Gnome Engineer is 15 points better than a non-Gnome.
- A Tauren herbalist is 15 points better than a non-Tauren.
- A Draenei jeweler is 5 points better than a non-Draenei.
- A Blood Elf Enchanter is 10 points better than a non-Blood Elf
So where are the 465 Engineering and Herbalist items? Where are the 455 jewelcrafting items? Where are the 460 Enchanting formulas?
Come on… where are they?
If you need 550 to fish in some areas, and you need 300+ skinning to skin a special beast, surely having higher than average professional skill should benefit you in the way of additional “patterns” or plucking?
You see, that way we could have a bit of rare “crafting” gear or mats in the marketplace that has nothing to do with RNG’s, but all to do with intelligent Race selection… Make that decision at the very 1st screen matter in some way other than a bit of extra reputation, or escape abilities. Make it worthwhile choosing a professional racial over a combat racial
But above all… Make it possible for me to ride a bloody flying engineering mount, without me having to give up my Enchanting or Tailoring, because let’s face it, I am more skilled in Engineering than a huge percentage of the population (considering only 5% are Gnomes… and I have no idea about professions… but who would choose Engineering otherwise 
)
More Wanted Meme
Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink, Say no more…
Gnomer and Out!
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http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/03/19/drawing-the-short-straw-racial-bonuses/
And here I thought it was going to be about being short.
There is much to be desired when it comes to racials. Even for, say Trolls and the bow/throw specialization. It used to be +5 weapon skill and now has been changed… but what if they don’t use those weapons? Bah.
I suppose wanting to add some uniqueness is good, but make it something a little MORE special then, as you suggested at the end.
I think there should be a bigger deal about races abilities myself. I’m all about giving us more uniqueness in the game. (seeing how we’re going to lose a lot when duel specs come out – don’t get me wrong I’m excited too, but most people will be doing the same two specs, but that’s a whole post on its own). Wow, I’m sorry I had a big tangent on your comments. I’ll behave in the future.
Except for the other half of the bonuses, which are not all that bad. Free Hand of Freedom (ish)? AoE stun/silence? Insta-heal (after the patch)? Not bad.
Yeah, the profession ones make sense lore-wise, but come on. Give us something better.
Though, like every RPG, humans get the most racials because no one wants to play the boring, normal race.
@ Syrana: Me short? Goblins are short, I’m right sized…
I always found the weapon bonus thing a bit annoying too, at least make it +specialization/+spell damage so it gets a wider use.
@Aoirselvar: Yeah, it would be nice if we were all a bit more special. Of course, no sooner do you buff one race, then another cries out. Still, I think an alternative would be to have one or two selectable “racials” as well as the default ones. Why can’t you be a bit different to the rest of your race… maybe you are a Gnome fascinated with enchanting… so pick that up as well/in exchange for other racials.
@Luthvian: *Some* of the other ones are good, and yeah I can accept lore as a reasonable excuse for what we have… but then wouldn’t Lore dictate that a Gnome Engineer is just better than any other Engineer… able to do extra things, invent extra things…
As for Humans… it cold be said that their reputation bonus trumps all other racials. Accepting my maths skills are average, let’s call it a bonus 4,200 rep from Neutral to exalted. Which in the end is skipping Neutral, or 3/4 of Friendly. Nice in itself, but spread that across all the reputation “grinds”… around 25k or extra rep…
I agree that some of the races need better racial bonuses. I’ve only used the profession racial bonus once with my Tauren Druid. I like your suggestions.
Hold the phone.
Before REPLACING my racials, I think there’s another thing worth mentioning.
We only have 3. I want my 4th racial!
Oh, and dwarves got flown the pooch. Treasure tracking is near useless. Find a use for it too.
Otherwise, I’m very much inclined to agree with you. I haven’t use my profession racial once, which essentially means I only have 2 racials.
Hrrm.
Yeah it is kind of odd that they changed the leveling mechanics so that you can level faster, but you it takes the same amount of materials etc to level a trade skill.
While yeah this makes sense for folks who’ve been playing the game for a while, it makes it a little more challenging to swap out skills on their mains. For folks brand new to the game though, it’s really tough. I mean even picking up herbalism or mining means that you’re going to have to stop for every weed and rock you see to keep your skill up, and your still probably going to have to head back to the last zone for another go if anyone else was out there doing the same thing. And crafting? Forget about it… Folks leveling their first toon on a server aren’t going to be able to get the one or two last things they’d need to make anything really useful out of the AH the prices are too high.
Ok, guess this just needs to be a blog post.
Oh and “Larisa should at the very least be able to oil her favorite Strider so it doesn’t squeak like a matrimonial bed on a honeymoon.” I’m still laughing at this one hehe!
I would actually really like this. I’m not pleased with the homogenization that Blizz has started and I think that if there are so many races in the game, of course they would have certain aptitudes! And it does only follow that races with crafting/gathering racials would have access to better end profession stuff. I would love to see these ideas implemented.
The Engineering is useless to non-engineers, but man was it nice while leveling up. I made it to nearly 400 Engineering on TBC mats thanks to the +15 bonus.
During TBC I got 375 (and thus my mount) using much cheaper mats than non-Gnomes.
Honestly, I think every race should have some sort of tradeskill bonus AND every race should have a bonus applicable to all classes.
I mean what does a Dwarf Paladin or Priest need with Gun Specializations.
@Gaming Diva: I used to cry with my Tauren Druid (once I dropped herbalism), when I ran past a plant… couldn’t even pick it to smell it.
@Klinderas: WTB 1.5 racials for that SlowWolf over there… Yeah, find treasure is very situational, at best. On a side note… Have you noticed how at early levels/ Vanilla WoW (and a touch of TBC), stray chests were common. I know they usually just hold junk, but I always stop to open one when I see one sitting around… WTB more random chests.
@Creep: Agreed. The xp boosters do have drawbacks that haven’t been compensated for. I guess the upcoming removal of training quests and improvements to fishing (round 2) will help out a bit. I haven’t read up on the Fishing changes yet, but I really wish that instead of just being (numbers made up due to laziness)
@ level 1, 1 catch = 1 skill point.
@ level 200, 20 catches = 1 skill point
@ level 300, 30 catches = 1 skill point
etc.
That a zone modifier was applied. So, at level 300, fishing in a skill 1 zone, it will take you 300 catches, but in a level 300 zone, it will take you 1 catch.
I hope Larisa’s mechanostrider stops squeaking soon… otherwise it might just be a bit embarrassing…
@Anea: Thanks for your vote… need to take this one all the way to the top!
@dorgol: Really? How so… surely a “level 360 recipe” is as green to you as the next engineer… It think it hurts a little at lower levels too… although I guess it’s all the same quantity of mats you have to create. But if you need to spend the 1st 15 levels crafting mats for items you are going to create later, then getting a head start of +15 doesn’t help at all… just means you don’t get any value out of it. I know that I got stuck a couple of times following an Engineering powerleveling guide… I would hit the required level to move to the next item, but wouldn’t have the mats that were assumed by the guide (cause I was such a clever Gnome).
In reality I only leveled Engineering (pre-TBC) for the Jumper Cables… but it rapidly became obvious that I was always the 1st to die… so not much point in having Engineering. of course this was pre-Invisibility, so I had no wipe avoidance mechanism.