A few days ago, Warcraft Technical Game Designer Celestalon dispensed two hours worth of information on Twitter. One specific topic caught my eye. It’s no secret that racial bonuses in the game are a little skewed and slightly imbalanced. Many of the top tier raiding guilds are Horde and I’m fairly certain much of it is due to the min-maxing bonuses that the racials provide. So come Warlords, they’re mostly getting overhauled. While nothing has been finalized just yet, here’s where the racials stand right now.
WoW Head’s Perculia did a phenomenal job hunting down and assembling the information in an easily digestible package right here. You can check out the official blue post about racials here.
Alliance
- Draenei:
Heroic Presence is now +X to your primary stat. 
Gift of the Naaru heals for the same amount but over 5 sec.
- Dwarf: Lost
Crack Shot and 
Mace Specialization. Gained Might of the Mountain, a passive which adds 2% Crit Damage. Also… A change to Stoneform: Also removes Magic/Curse. HOWEVER, it still cannot be used while CC’d. (It is still NOT a CC-break)
- Gnome:
Escape Artist dropped to a 1min CD (from 1.5min), and 
Shortblade Specialization became Nimble Fingers, 1% Haste. Also- A tweak to 
Expansive Mind. Was +5% max Mana. Now +5% Max Mana, Energy, Rage, or Runic Power.
- Humans lose the Mace/Sword racials.
The Human Spirit becomes +X to two secondary stats of your choice. 
Every Man for Himself, we’re still evaluating. Itemization changes may mean no nerf needed.
- Night Elves:
Quickness also increases movement speed by 2% passively. They also got a new passive which is quite unique… (Remember, no more haste breakpoints!) Touch of Elune, a new passive which grants 1% Haste at night, 1% Crit during the day.
Shadowmeld is unchanged.
- Worgen: Darkflight is staying unchanged.
Horde
- Blood Elf: They gain Arcane Acuity, a 1% crit passive.
Arcane Torrent now restores 20 Runic Power, or 1 HoPo, or 3% Mana, or Chi.
- Goblins: Not much. They were about at baseline.
Time is Money becomes real 1% Haste, not just attack speed / cast speed. Subtle diff.
- Orcs were one of the outliers we brought down. Lost the
Axe Specialization, and 
Hardiness is 10% Stun reduction (down from 15%). 
Blood Fury is unchanged.
- Tauren:
Endurance becomes +X Stamina. Brawn is a new passive which increases Crit Damage/Healing by 2%.
- Troll:
Berserking Reduced to 15% Haste (down from 20%).
-
Undead are seeing relatively few changes. Tweaks to the scaling rate of
Touch of the Grave, and WotF to 3min CD (up from 2 minutes).
Pandaren, of course, will most likely not see a change and retain their Epicurean bonus.
The Draenei racial bonus is much more appealing. Too bad we don’t know what the +X value is for the primary stat. It’s going to go right to Intellect for priests of all kinds. Gift of the Naaru will heal 20% of a target’s health over 5 seconds (instead of 15). It’s another healing spell you can add to your bar and you can save it for emergencies (every 3 minutes).
My first Priest was a Dwarf. I miss Stoneform and the ability to shrug off poisons. Now it functions as a secondary self dispel since it can remove magic debuffs and curses. The extra crit damage is handy for the Shadow and the Discipline Smiters though. May not be as helpful for Holy.
What about the Gnomes? There’s still the bonus to mana but it’s been expanded to include the energy of other class types. The natural 1% haste is new and useful for all priest types.
Humans gain a rather unique spin to their buff. They get to select which two secondary stats get a bonus. I imagine one of those will be Spirit and the other will be Haste, Crit, or Mastery — Whatever your priest is short on. An interface is being worked up right now allowing you to pick. The ability to pick and choose offers some neat flexibility.
Night Elves. Sigh. Really? Server time makes a difference now? Blah. I hate randomness. But it looks like there’s not much that can be done about that.
Horde side, Blood Elves continue to be the winner. The crit bonus passive is second only to Arcane Torrent’s innate mana restoring capability.
Goblins? The ability to Rocket Jump is huge in heavy movement fights. Now you get a flat 1% haste instead of a bonus to attack and bast speed.
Orcs can’t play priests so that point is rather moot.
Tauren Priests are already benefitting from a slight stamina boost allowing them to withstand a little more damage than usual. But the new Brawn bonus is a solid boon for priests of all types.
The first iteration of the Troll’s Berserking was pretty overpowered. It was like a mini-Heroism on demand. Now it’s been nerfed to a flat 15% Haste bonus instead of the 20%. Not quite as good but still reliable for burst healing your way through stuff.
Huge nerf to the Undead’s Will of the Forsaken with the cooldown going up. No other changes.
So let’s assume that you’re rolling a new Priest. You have all these excellent racials available to you. No more of the junk bonus to hit or expertise or any of that stuff.
Which one should you go for?
If you plan on playing Alliance, I would favour the Draenei bonuses. Hard to say for sure without knowing what the X value is. If you’re PvPing, Dwarves or Gnomes are a good bet. I like Gnomes though since Escape Artist is handy (and the fast cooldown).
If you plan on playing Horde, I’m leaning towards Blood Elves. That mana restore is so nice to have especially on progression fights when you’re tapped out. Berserking is another trait you’ll find attractive and is great if you’re playing either shadow or healing.
Personally, I’m staying a Pandaren. Can’t get enough of that food buff.
