Priest Racial Abilities Go Bye Bye

I always found it a bit strange that priests were the only class that had their own special racials. On one hand, it lent a little something to the lore since the different priest races worshiped a different deity, giving them unique powers. Of course this also made the decisions a bit less interesting when creating your priest character. Back in the day, the then priest racial ability Fear Ward made dwarf priests more sought after than other races. Undead priests were also popular for their Devouring Plague racial ability. But with the decision to make Fear Ward a baseline ability for all priests sometime in the past, it’s not at all surprising that more priest racials are being made baseline. What’s quite surprising is the decision to toss all the others down the drain. Yep that right. Except for a few of them, all the priest racials are going bye bye.

Blizzard poster Koraa popped in the Priest forum to make this announcement:

In an upcoming build all Priest racials have been retired, except the following:

- Desperate Prayer – This is now the 11-point talent in Holy, Holy Nova is now a base ability. Cooldown also reduced to 30 seconds.
- Devouring Plague – Now a base ability. Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds, mana cost greatly reduced.
- Symbol of Hope – Now a base ability. Now restores 5% base mana every 2 seconds for 8 seconds to your party. Renamed “Hymn of Hope.”

While this change does reduce the “uniqueness” of different Priests, we feel game balance as a whole will benefit.

Note: These new “racials” are not racials, they are trainable to all Priests.

So for those people who are fans of racials like Starshards, Consume Magic, Hex of Weakness and all the other soon to be retired racials, it’s best you cherish the last few moments you’re gonna have them.