Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12)

I can't stress enough how I've never ever ever ever played retail WoW, ever, so I have next to NO idea about the game in it's prime (or the game in general). Most games make racials an after thought and they play little to no part in how well your character does but I have a feeling in Vanilla it's a lot different. I've seen a lot of people get really specific when requesting classes (ex. "LF Dwarf Priest") and so I'm wondering, in your opinion, just HOW important are racials? I'm leveling both a Human Priest and a Night Elf Priest, and I wonder if I can just willy nilly level either one or should I focus on one more than the other?

Most racials aren't super important, but they're nice bonuses.

For Priests it's a whole 'nother story because they have special spells for their races. Like how Dwarf has Fear Ward, Undead has Devouring Plague, Nelf has Starshards, etc.

But for other classes, racials don't particularly matter unless you're trying to min/max. The big ones are the weapon skill bonuses, which can be nice, and Undead's Will of the Forsaken, which is stupidly OP as it's essentially a 2nd PvP trinket against most classes.

If you're going to be an alliance healing priest, Dwarf or nothing. Fear Ward is really useful, and will get you raid spots for some fights like onyxia. Not to mention, Stoneform is super useful because it essentially allows you to be immune to all standard debuff types, except curses; being that you can dispel magic/disease on yourself, and use Stoneform to dispel poison/bleed. Really funny when a rogue tries to blind you to reset the fight, only for you to stoneform out of it and wreck them.

But really, all of the races have good racials. Human gets some extra spirit and rep and a stealth detection cooldown, and Nelf gets dodge chance and a nice stealth ability, which can be really nice for avoiding gankers.

Vanilla WoW is pretty racist.

Non-Human/Orc Warriors are automatically inferior in PvE
Non-Human Rogues are automatically inferior in PvE
Non-Dwarf Priests are automatically inferior in PvE, PvP and statistically have a 67% smaller average penis size and 94% less facial hair fullness than their dwarf counterparts.

Computeher wrote:I can't stress enough how I've never ever ever ever played retail WoW, ever, so I have next to NO idea about the game in it's prime (or the game in general). Most games make racials an after thought and they play little to no part in how well your character does but I have a feeling in Vanilla it's a lot different. I've seen a lot of people get really specific when requesting classes (ex. "LF Dwarf Priest") and so I'm wondering, in your opinion, just HOW important are racials? I'm leveling both a Human Priest and a Night Elf Priest, and I wonder if I can just willy nilly level either one or should I focus on one more than the other?

The only difference between your priests are that one can stealth while immobile and the other gets more reputation points... that's about all you need to care about. Other than that they're exactly the same. Racials abilities are pretty balanced but sometimes they can be a nice addition to your arsenal, definitely nothing required though.

If you are going to play an alliance holy priest who you plan to raid with, then play a dwarf. Fear ward is so much better than any other racials for raiding that most guilds will look down upon you for not having it.
If you don't plan to raid, then any race will really do.

It is true that the races with weapon skill have a significant advantage when reaching max level... If you are going to use them.

WoTF is game breaking in pug bg's

Computeher wrote:I can't stress enough how I've never ever ever ever played retail WoW, ever, so I have next to NO idea about the game in it's prime (or the game in general). Most games make racials an after thought and they play little to no part in how well your character does but I have a feeling in Vanilla it's a lot different. I've seen a lot of people get really specific when requesting classes (ex. "LF Dwarf Priest") and so I'm wondering, in your opinion, just HOW important are racials? I'm leveling both a Human Priest and a Night Elf Priest, and I wonder if I can just willy nilly level either one or should I focus on one more than the other?

It mostly depends if you want to pvp with good chances or not. An undead rogue can farm warlocks/priests, any other rogue will just usually die in a fear. And yes, the pvp trinket with 5 mins cd is good only for duels, in a decent bg you will be dead 30 times per game while your trinket is on cooldown.

Regarding dwarf priests, they are asked because these guilds have really crappy tanks who dont know how to stancedance so they normally "eat" all the fears Magmadar/Onyxia/Nefarion are throwing at them. The Dwarf priest has an indeed nice racial, fearward, which makes the target resist a fear. Requesting only this type of priest? Sound like a really bad guild.

On alliance side, Dwarf Priest tops because of Fear Ward for PvE. And in PvP Fear Ward is still useful if it doesn't get purged plus they have Desperate Prayer and the Stoneform racial which will break out of a Rogue's Blind like a trinket, meaning Dwarf Priests are solid PvPers too.

Otherwise for PvP on alliance, you could try a Night Elf Priest, which is the only place their racial spells tend to be of use. Plus you can Shadowmeld and camp a cliff to mind control people (who aren't undead and able to WotF out) over the edge.

On the Horde side, Troll and Undead priests are both typically viable but Undead usually tops because of the Devouring Plague DoT in general and the Will of the Forsaken racial in PvP. However a Troll's Shadowguard is decent when combined with Blackout (giving enemies a 10% chance of procing a stun whenever they hit you) but iirc Nostalrius doesn't currently have Blackout proc for Shadowguard, which isn't very blizzlike. Trolls also have 10% health regen from spirit in combat, but no one cares about that because the regen is crap and you're a priest so toss a heal and you've done more than that regen will.

Overall Alliance favors Dwarf Priests and Horde favors Undead Priests.

However, Race isn't just important for priests. It tends to matter for every class. Stimz said that Orc/Human warriors are best for PvE, but that's only true for DPS. For tanking Tauren and Night Elf warriors are actually the best because of +5% health and +1% Dodge.