Night elf or Tauren?

[ogromnosranje]

Hey everyone!

I am looking forward to start playing on Frostmane 2nd season. It will be my first playthrough of WOTLK, and I cant decide if I should roll NE or Tauren? I dont have a bias towards alliance or horde, so I would like to hear the pros and cons that are only related to races (racials) and similar stuff.

Thanks very much!

[Memitim]

Shu'halo are the master race.

[adios113]

Hi, for me night elf - both for PvP and PvE.

PvE:

Quickness is the main reason - Bosses have 2% chance to miss you, especialy as a tank - that is a big thing.
With Shadowmeld you can also leave combat, so thats a small little trick while the raid is wiping.

Tauren's 5% base HP racial is noncomparable.
Regarding stomp - all raid bosses are immune to stuns, so no interrups there.

PvP:

I prefer NE here as well, cause I use Shadowmeld as a fake Vanish. As long as you dont have any dots on you - you can restealth withing 1-2 sec and reopen with your usual opener. (If you are quick enough and time it right, you can even do it with dots on you - key to enter stealth and open within those 3 sec before the next tick)

[Kovachut]

Hi, for me night elf - both for PvP and PvE.

PvE:

Quickness is the main reason - Bosses have 2% chance to miss you, especialy as a tank - that is a big thing.
With Shadowmeld you can also leave combat, so thats a small little trick while the raid is wiping.

Tauren's 5% base HP racial is noncomparable.
Regarding stomp - all raid bosses are immune to stuns, so no interrups there.

In addition to what you said:

Shadowmeld

In dungeons: Imagine if someone has pulled too many mobs for the tank to handle, which leads to a party wipe and you are the one remaining. Instead of commiting suicide, you can go to a safe spot, hit Shadowmeld and resurrect your teammates from a safe distance. In raids, sometimes I didn't pay attention to my threat. If the boss was chasing me, I used the aforementioned ability and waited, till the tank regained his aggro.

Bonus for NEs:

1% hit from a draenei (if there's a such toon in the same party group) -> this helps the player stack desired stats

So, night elves have a lot of things going for them. However, if I decide to play on Frostmourne again, I would definitely play on the side of the Horde. Fantasy-wise, that faction is way more interesting (let's be real for a moment - humans, dwarfs, and gnomes look pretty much alike), but the biggest reason why I would consider going there is because most of the pve maniacs play there. Last season, I was looking for a good guild on the Alliance's side, and there weren't that many to choose from. Most of them had already filled their spots, and they weren't looking for new recruits. I might be mistaken, but I have heard that <Knuckles Deep> switched to Horde at one point during ToC. Now, even <Casual> is doing that, which goes to show where people's preferences actually lie. In other words, if OP is a pve maniac, he/she could consider where the majority of pve enthusiasts are heading towards.

[Bastardbottle]

Tauren > Nelf, due looks :D. Also belf chicks love taurens.

[ogromnosranje]

Hi, for me night elf - both for PvP and PvE.

PvE:

Quickness is the main reason - Bosses have 2% chance to miss you, especialy as a tank - that is a big thing.
With Shadowmeld you can also leave combat, so thats a small little trick while the raid is wiping.

Tauren's 5% base HP racial is noncomparable.
Regarding stomp - all raid bosses are immune to stuns, so no interrups there.

PvP:

I prefer NE here as well, cause I use Shadowmeld as a fake Vanish. As long as you dont have any dots on you - you can restealth withing 1-2 sec and reopen with your usual opener. (If you are quick enough and time it right, you can even do it with dots on you - key to enter stealth and open within those 3 sec before the next tick)

So, If I got it right, I can use the shadowmeld even in cat form, as it will enable me to get into the "cat stealth" again, and enable me to use "cat ambush" and "cat cheap shot" (sorry, I cant remember the names of these abilities).

Thanks very much for replying!

[ogromnosranje]

In addition to what you said:

Shadowmeld

In dungeons: Imagine if someone has pulled too many mobs for the tank to handle, which leads to a party wipe and you are the one remaining. Instead of commiting suicide, you can go to a safe spot, hit Shadowmeld and resurrect your teammates from a safe distance. In raids, sometimes I didn't pay attention to my threat. If the boss was chasing me, I used the aforementioned ability and waited, till the tank regained his aggro.

Bonus for NEs:

1% hit from a draenei (if there's a such toon in the same party group) -> this helps the player stack desired stats

So, night elves have a lot of things going for them. However, if I decide to play on Frostmourne again, I would definitely play on the side of the Horde. Fantasy-wise, that faction is way more interesting (let's be real for a moment - humans, dwarfs, and gnomes look pretty much alike), but the biggest reason why I would consider going there is because most of the pve maniacs play there. Last season, I was looking for a good guild on the Alliance's side, and there weren't that many to choose from. Most of them had already filled their spots, and they weren't looking for new recruits. I might be mistaken, but I have heard that <Knuckles Deep> switched to Horde at one point during ToC. Now, even <Casual> is doing that, which goes to show where people's preferences actually lie. In other words, if OP is a pve maniac, he/she could consider where the majority of pve enthusiasts are heading towards.

Thanks for pointing out some of these details, they are very useful! Do you consider PvP (battlegrounds) balanced faction-wise? I would hate to play in a faction that is unorganised and constantly just giving out free honor to the opposing one. Ive mostly played vanilla, and alliance was usually in this spot; dont know if I an extrapolate to Wotlk servers.

By the way, are professions working the usual way on this server, in terms of leveling speed (x1)? I was thinking of trying herbalism and inscription for the first time in my life, so tauren racial for herbalism may not be bad cause less grind. Do you guys consider inscription a good prof. for a druid?

[Kovachut]

So, If I got it right, I can use the shadowmeld even in cat form, as it will enable me to get into the "cat stealth" again, and enable me to use "cat ambush" and "cat cheap shot" (sorry, I cant remember the names of these abilities).

Thanks very much for replying!

Quick clarification:

If you are in cat form and have aggro, you can use Shadowmeld. By doing this, your character leaves cat form and becomes invisible. Until you exit that state, your are out of combat, and you could use that to your advantage. Let's look at some scenarios:

- you are outside, and a player is hitting you. You can use Shadowmeld to turn into a bird and fly away. It's also possible to turn into a cat, in order to prowl and use pounce, BUT there's a catch - you need to keep your distance from your opponent, otherwise you will enter combat mode, and you won't be able to prowl. This can also happen if the opponent uses an AoE on your location while you are shadowmelded.

- If you are in a raid, and the boss has been engaged, you can use Shadowmeld, but once you become visible, you will regain all of your threat, i.e. you will immediately enter combat, so prowl is out of the question. Also, if the raid is dying, and you use Shadowmeld, you can still die. In order NOT to die, you need to be the last person alive from the raid group (which isn't always going to happen, but for the sake of argument I will continue). If that's the case, then you should run far away from the boss's initial aggro radius and use Shadowmeld. The boss will then reset back to his initial positioning, and he won't chase you. If you use that racial while other people are still alive, then the boss will kill you last.

[Kovachut]

Thanks for pointing out some of these details, they are very useful! Do you consider PvP (battlegrounds) balanced faction-wise? I would hate to play in a faction that is unorganised and constantly just giving out free honor to the opposing one. Ive mostly played vanilla, and alliance was usually in this spot; dont know if I an extrapolate to Wotlk servers.

By the way, are professions working the usual way on this server, in terms of leveling speed (x1)? I was thinking of trying herbalism and inscription for the first time in my life, so tauren racial for herbalism may not be bad cause less grind. Do you guys consider inscription a good prof. for a druid?

1) I haven't played competitive pvp as a feral cat, so I don't know anything in that regard. I have only raided and cleared dungeons. That said, I have heard that the Alliance is favoured in pvp, because humans have a very powerful racial - Every Man for Himself - which acts as a free pvp trinket. I can't tell you more than that.

2) Profession rates are 3x on Icecrown and Frostmourne and 1x on Lordearon.

3) I think you might have misunderstood the Cultivation racial. The grind is still the same; you aren't gifted with 15 levels in Herbalism upon acquiring that profession. The racial widens the learning bar, and you get to farm herbs for 15 extra levels.

4) Regarding your profession choices - well, they can earn you a lot of easy money (inscription lets you craft Noble cards, which can be combined into a quest item and used for the "Darkmoon Card: Greatness" trinket), but herbalism isn't a PVE profession, because its bonus effect is self heal, which is useless in raids. Also, I am not particularly excited by the bonuses provided by Inscription. For a while now, I level pve professions on my toons, e.g. on my feral cat I go with BS and JC, and if I have BiS gear - Engineering and JC. You could ignore this and go with your gut, but just know that in some serious guilds people are required to have suitable professions.

[ogromnosranje]

1) I haven't played competitive pvp as a feral cat, so I don't know anything in that regard. I have only raided and cleared dungeons. That said, I have heard that the Alliance is favoured in pvp, because humans have a very powerful racial - Every Man for Himself - which acts as a free pvp trinket. I can't tell you more than that.

3) I think you might have misunderstood the Cultivation racial. The grind is still the same; you aren't gifted with 15 levels in Herbalism upon acquiring that profession. The racial widens the learning bar, and you get to farm herbs for 15 extra levels.

4) Regarding your profession choices - well, they can earn you a lot of easy money (inscription lets you craft Noble cards, which can be combined into a quest item and used for the "Darkmoon Card: Greatness" trinket), but herbalism isn't a PVE profession, because its bonus effect is self heal, which is useless in raids. Also, I am not particularly excited by the bonuses provided by Inscription. For a while now, I level pve professions on my toons, e.g. on my feral cat I go with BS and JC, and if I have BiS gear - Engineering and JC. You could ignore this and go with your gut, but just know that in some serious guilds people are required to have suitable professions.

1) I was thinking more about the social generalization - if such can be made - if PvP isnt heavily dominated by one faction.

3) Indeed, I have misunderstood it. Well, whats the purpose of this racial, I dont understand? I guess there isnt anything that requires 475 as a +15 to maximum in WOTLK to gather? I am confused xD

4) This bonus effect/spell is self heal, which isnt bad for a druid, but may be overkill. Still, coming from vanilla I would say that engi would be hard to level on a fresh server and impossible without mining. I guess the same is true for JC. Does mining give some kind of bonus spell like herbalism? I guess I would hate to have both mining and herbalism at start, because they are impossible to search at the same time. Does skinning give any kind of bonus spell? Maybe I should go two gathering profs and sell all these skins and stack the herbs or ores? Sorry for these detalied questions, but they are important lol.

[Kovachut]

1) I was thinking more about the social generalization - if such can be made - if PvP isnt heavily dominated by one faction.

3) Indeed, I have misunderstood it. Well, whats the purpose of this racial, I dont understand? I guess there isnt anything that requires 475 as a +15 to maximum in WOTLK to gather? I am confused xD

4) This bonus effect/spell is self heal, which isnt bad for a druid, but may be overkill. Still, coming from vanilla I would say that engi would be hard to level on a fresh server and impossible without mining. I guess the same is true for JC. Does mining give some kind of bonus spell like herbalism? I guess I would hate to have both mining and herbalism at start, because they are impossible to search at the same time. Does skinning give any kind of bonus spell? Maybe I should go two gathering profs and sell all these skins and stack the herbs or ores? Sorry for these detalied questions, but they are important lol.

1) As I've said above, I can't tell you more than what I already know.

3) Honestly, I don't remember if 475 gave you a slightly stronger Lifeblood. It was long ago when I leveled Herbalism on an alt, so I completely forgot if there was a reward for reaching the aforementioned threshold. Regardless of answer, people usually have this profession for the easy money and easy to obtain mats. As a druid, you can fly around and pick flowers while you're still in bird form. Other classes need to dismount and mount up again, which is a time waster.

I guess there isnt anything that requires 475 as a +15 to maximum in WOTLK to gather?

Nothing.

4)1) Are you planning on playing solely pvp? You were curious about combining Shadowmeld with prowl and pounce, which leads me to believe that you want to play as a feral druid. Is that correct? Usually, I will ignore herbalism in that case, but if you want to explore the game, you can have whatever you want.
4)2) As a veteran player (and a very lazy person), I stopped farming mats. Instead, I just bought them from the ah. Some can be quite cheap, so this method actually saves you a lot of time. If you worry about not having enough gold, then there are various ways to obtain it. Personally, I prefer questing. In the past, I did quests in Icecrown and the Storm Peaks, and the missions there gave me 47g or 81g (whenever I had to kill elites). Admittedly, there are better ways to farm gold, but I preferred this method, because it wasn't contested, and I was still able to finance my professions, mount flying, gems, and enchants, i.e. everything my character needed.
4)3) If you are interested in the different profession bonuses, I'd suggest you check the following page:

https://www.wow-professions.com/news...ession-bonuses

[ogromnosranje]

Thank you very much for all of these replies, they are very helpful!

For now, I guess Id like to play feral, but I like variety so I am not sure if I will stay with this. And I want to experience both PvE and PvP. I guess that you would recommend engi and mining in this case of focus on PvP? What is the 2nd best PvP prof? Do you think engi can be leveled without that much farm on a fresh server? My main concern is that I wont have enough time to mindlessly farm, so I need a good method for obtaining enough gold to sustain my main char.

Thanks again!

[Kovachut]

Thank you very much for all of these replies, they are very helpful!

For now, I guess Id like to play feral, but I like variety so I am not sure if I will stay with this. And I want to experience both PvE and PvP. I guess that you would recommend engi and mining in this case of focus on PvP? What is the 2nd best PvP prof? Do you think engi can be leveled without that much farm on a fresh server? My main concern is that I wont have enough time to mindlessly farm, so I need a good method for obtaining enough gold to sustain my main char.

Thanks again!

Again, I haven't pvp'd in the past, so I can't answer such questions. For anything pvp related, go to this thread:
http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=309957

Do you think engi can be leveled without that much farm on a fresh server? My main concern is that I wont have enough time to mindlessly farm, so I need a good method for obtaining enough gold to sustain my main char.

Read 4)2) again. Doing quests in Northrend acts as a double dip - you get a huge chunk of XP and easy gold. You don't need to go out of your way to acquire ingame money, you can do it while leveling your toon.

[edit] More efficient ways to farm gold include farming mats (minerals, herbs, skins), killing humanoids for Frostweave cloth (there's a popular area in Icecrown), killing elementals for crystallized fire/shadow (VVintergrasp), making flasks/potions, making glyphs or noble cards, and playing the ah. As I've said before, questing for me is more enjoyable cuz it's not (that) contested.

[ogromnosranje]

Thanks you for these extraordinary answers!