I've been kinda teetering back and forth between race changing San to a Worgen and leaving him a NElf. I won't go into a long boring list, but most of the reasons for changing to a Worgen revlove around the fact that, visually, they appeal to me more. Most of the reasons for staying NElf revolve around it having been my in-game identity for so long. (Among other things, I'd feel compelled to change my name. Saniel isn't very Worgen sounding.)
But there is a single reason above all others that's holding me back.
Shadowmeld.
Saved my blue-skinned butt so many times while leveling to 85. Pull too many mobs? Or that angry Elite? Couldn't get away from a spawn point that churned out enemies as fast as I could down them? Wanted to get swoop in, skin a corpse, and get out without a fight?
No problem. Pop Shadowmeld to drop combat, then pop flight form and fly away. Easy peasy. No mess, no fuss.
I would have died so many more times without that...
Warcraft is old (and so am I)
4 years ago
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Saniel seems like a fine name for a Worgen to me.
ReplyDeleteShadowmeld is indeed a great ability. Being a skinner you'd benefit quite a bit from 0.5 second skinning instead of 2.0 seconds. While Shadowmeld will get you out of combat, popping Darkflight and running away can do the same for you. It might not be quite as reliable, but Shadowmeld does nothing for you in AoE/Bleed/Poison/Curse situations where fleeing can.
You spend 95% of your time shapeshifted, and most of that is as a bear. Make someone else a worgen :)
ReplyDeleteBTW, night elf mage? Really? /shun
I did the race change and the reason why is because it FEELS so druidy.
ReplyDeleteIt feels druidy to shapeshift worgen to human. It feels druidy to drop to all fours and run like hell. It feels druidy to have a sprint in any form. (and then that's 2 sprints in cat form).
I love it. It feels feral-y druid-y. I probably wouldn't care for worgen as a healer or a boomkin. But as a feral just.... hot damn.
Aren't there some other racials to think about.... like the extra Nelf dodge for bear or the extra worgen dps-crit(?) for Kitteh?
That is true. And faster skinning would get me out of a lot of those aggro-drawing situations before I even got in them.
ReplyDeleteMy Pavlovian Tolkien conditioning has left me to feel that anything ending in -iel should be reserved for Elven races. If I were still a Druid of the Claw, that would be one thing. But being that Worgens as a playable race were Human first...I'd need to find something a little more Victorian that still starts with "San." Because I'm OCD like that and it would just bug me...
There are, but I'm not usually such an uber-min/maxer that I let the racial traits take priority over playing the Race/Class combos that just appeal to me. If I get something out of them, I see it as more of a bonus.
ReplyDeleteGoblins excepted. I would totally roll a Goblin just for Best Deals Anywhere.
Night Elves did not appeal to me.
ReplyDeleteLook how cute and girly I am, tee hee bounce... cast a spell with BIG MAN HANDS! FIST PUMP IN THE AIR TOUCHDOWN... I mean cast rejuv, tee hee.
The man hands are just too much for me to deal with.
I like the Worgen bears slightly better. They feel...beefier. More tankish. I like the NElf kitties more, though.
ReplyDeleteAnd I happen to think NElf Mages are totally acceptable and supported by the Lore. I wish they would have done more in-game to show how they were ultimately accepted back into NElf society (even if grudgingly). But they always continued to exist in depths of Dire Maul. And 3.3.something introduced an emissary in Darnassus trying to gain audience with Tyrande.
First, I could never race change one of my characters. I've grown accustomed to them the way they are, and race changing them would alter their identity (yeah, closet RP tendencies here).
ReplyDeleteSecond, I agree with Cheres that it seems kind of silly to make a worgen druid. Since you are in cat or bear form almost all of the time, you could be worgen, elf, or satyr for all it matters and you still look like a cat or bear. If you want to feel like a worgen then you should want to be in your worgen form, which means not a druid. Just my opinion.
The concept of the worgen druid seems odd to me. If a druid is so in control of their form that they can change to a cat, bear, bird, or manatee at will, then what's up with the inability to stay human? It seems inconsistent.
Admittedly, the original races are in dire need of model updates.
ReplyDelete"then what's up with the inability to stay human?"
ReplyDeleteSounds like someone hasn't played through the starting zone yet. :-)
And don't forget shadowmeld + Arathi Basin = No one expects the nelfish inquisition!
ReplyDeleteOoh, and the threat drop is oh so lovely in raids and 5 mans. Surviving wipes is a yay.
Shadowmeld+ pvp = No one expects the Nelfish Inquisition!
ReplyDeleteAnd it's great for wipe-survival as well. Honestly, I'd roll a worgen alt, play them for a while, and see if you still feel the same. Of course, I'd rather spend the cash on a minipet anyway.
True, I haven't played through the starting zone yet. But consider me a skeptic.
ReplyDeleteJust because Blizz can come up with an explanation doesn't make it an explanation that I'll like. As a comparison, some author can decide that vampires sparkle, and even explain it in a way that makes sense, but that won't make me buy into her version of vampires.
So it would need to be one heck of an explanation in the starting zone - specific to druids - about why they can turn themselves into a bear but can't control turning into a wolf.
Shadowmeld to get out of wipes is nice...but it seems to only work when you're the last one alive. As a tank, that's not often the case.
ReplyDeleteAnd then it still seems somewhat unreliable. I was never able to Shadowmeld out of an LK wipe, even when I was the last alive.
I would suggest sticking with what you wanted to do and play a Worgen Warrior. It's about you, not them. Play your game, regardless of what everyone else is doing. Especially when it comes to an alt.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the reasons for so many of them, though, is that it's one of those classes not a lot of people have already played.
Warrior has always been somewhat of an intimidating class. The mechanics aren't as easy to understand. Rage as a resource isn't as intuitive as Mana or Energy. And until sometime recently, it was just tough and slow to play. I went through 3 or 4 attempts at leveling a Warrior before I finally rolled Hotahinahu and started having a lot of fun with it.
Also, the origin of Worgen-ism is Druidic to the point that all Worgen are a little bit Druidish. Not just the Druids. It actually is a pretty sound explanation for the whole thing. Although now I'm trying to remember how much of my understanding of it came from the game and how much came from other sources...