Racial traits get overhaul in World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

Blizzard has revealed more details for upcoming World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor. Specifically, updates to racial traits for all playable races, excluding the Worgen and Pandaren.

Posting on the official Battle.net forums, World of Warcraft community manager Micah "Bashiok" Whiple listed the change notes for each relevant race. The original announcement was followed by a post confirming the notes were taken from an internal build of the game, and that they were still undergoing testing. Whiple described the update as in line with the goal to "achieve much better parity among races."

The changes are listed below.

Blood Elf

Arcane Acuity is a new racial passive ability that increases Critical Strike chance by 1%.

Arcane Torrent now restores 20 Runic Power for Death Knights (up from 15 Runic Power), 1 Holy Power for Paladins, or 3% of Mana for Mage, Priest, Warlocks (up from 2% of Mana). Other aspects of the ability remain unchanged.

Draenei

Heroic Presence has been redesigned. It no longer increases Hit by 1%, and instead increases Strength, Agility, and Intellect, scaling with character level.

Gift of the Naaru now heals for the same amount over 5 seconds (down from 15 seconds).

Dwarf

Crack Shot has been removed (was 1% Expertise with ranged weapons).

Mace Specialization (was 1% Expertise with maces) has been replaced with Might of the Mountain.

Might of the Mountain is a new racial passive ability that increases Critical Strike bonus damage and healing dealt by 2%.

Stoneform now also removes magic and curse effects in addition to poison, disease, and bleed effects, along with reducing damage taken by 10% for 8 seconds. It remains unusable while CC'd.

Gnome

Expansive Mind now increases maximum Mana, Energy, Rage, and Runic Power by 5% instead of only increasing maximum Mana.

Escape Artist’s cooldown has been reduced to 1 minute (down from 1.5 minutes).

Shortblade Specialization (was 1% Expertise with one-handed swords and daggers) has been replaced with Nimble Fingers.

Nimble Fingers is a new racial passive ability that increases Haste by 1%.

Goblin

Time is Money now grants a 1% increase to Haste (up from only attack speed and spell haste).

Human

Mace Specialization has been removed (was 1% Expertise with maces).

Sword Specialization has been removed (was 1% Expertise with swords).

The Human Spirit has been redesigned. It no longer increases Spirit by 3%, and instead now increases two secondary stats by an amount scaling with character level. You can choose which two secondary stats it increases. This has not yet been implemented.

Night Elf

Quickness now also increases movement speed by 2% in addition to increasing Dodge chance by 2%.

Touch of Elune is a new passive ability which increases Haste by 1% at night, and Critical Strike Chance by 1% during the day.

Orc

Axe Specialization has been removed (was 1% Expertise with axes).

Hardiness now reduces the duration of Stun effects by 10% (down from 15%).

Tauren

Brawn is a new racial passive ability that increases Critical Strike bonus damage and healing done by 2%.

Endurance now increases Stamina by an amount scaling with character level, instead of increasing Base Health by 5%.

Troll

Berserking now increases Haste by 15% (down from 20%).

Beast Slaying now increases XP earned from killing Beasts by 20% instead of increasing damage dealt versus Beasts by 5%.

Dead Eye has been removed (was 1% Expertise with ranged weapons).

Undead

Will of the Forsaken’s cooldown has been increased to 3 minutes (up from 2 minutes).