Are racials really that crucial?

[Azrogol 0]

I just had a quick question. I plan on rolling a druid main, and I really don't wanna be a troll, but beserking seems to be pretty great. Will i be fine without it, or does it really make an inherent impact on healing/dpsing performance?

[Hybrys 199]

It depends on how much you think an 'impact' is.  IIRC, the most a racial contributes is 2-3% DPS gain, and that's without counting what the other race offers.  In WoD, the gap closes even further with their upcoming changes to racials.

 

If you're not the hardcore of the hardcore, I'd just go with the race you like rather than the best.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Hybrys

[Paloro 39]

Simple answer:

Yes, it does make an impact.

 

Complicated answer:

It really depends upon what you are trying to achieve.  If you are part of a progression oriented raid group, then you will absolutely need to maximize every part of your character.

If you don't really sweat the little things, then choose the race that you like the best.

 

As Hybrys said, the racials will be changing come WoD and will not provide as much of an impact, so keep that in mind as well.

[Kazistrasz 216]

I just had a quick question. I plan on rolling a druid main, and I really don't wanna be a troll, but beserking seems to be pretty great. Will i be fine without it, or does it really make an inherent impact on healing/dpsing performance?

 

The impact of racials depends on your spec as well as the level of play you're going to do. Are you pushing the last few heroics right now? If so, I'd go with it. If not, it's not that big of a deal even for the specs racials actually make much of a difference for.

 

As of right now, Berserking is really big for Boomkin and Feral because of the way snapshotting works and how much you can take advantage of that 20% haste for much longer than the 10 seconds. It's a sizable increase to your opener and lines up with our 3-minute cooldowns. Your other option is Tauren, which does absolutely nothing for us.

 

With resto, it's not a big deal. The 20% haste for 10 seconds is only going to increase healing a little bit against pressure damage, but you have to use it before the damage because your HoTs also snapshot and you want them in place early. To be honest, most of the time I'm using it with Heart of the Wild for more damage output. But, Tauren does nothing for resto either.

 

If you're a guardian, the extra health from Tauren will be nice when you're undergeared. As you get geared, the health makes that much less of a difference, but your rage generation in higher gear is way more than needed, so the Berserking doesn't make that huge of a difference either.

 

In WoD, Tauren will actually provide a benefit to our DPS specs, while Berserking will become less useful when it goes down to 15% and snapshotting is removed from the game mechanics. If you're looking forward to WoD, you really can't go wrong either way.

[Azrogol 0]

What about Alliance side? Will the one 1% baseline Worgen crit racial do enough to merit that race? I've seen the few Alliance that top SimDPS on WowProgress are Worgen,but it could just be coincidental (is that a good website to utilize too? As far as damage goes? Or should I stick to WarcraftLogs?

[Kazistrasz 216]

Sims are all-but-meaningless right now, to be honest. You can't accurately model and code the kind of actual split-second decision-making that go on from situation to situation. It takes a human to do that, and half the time you don't even remember the decision by the time raid is over for the night if you even remember it by the end of the fight.

 

Worgen are best for alliance, yes, but it's not that big of a deal. The 1% crit is nice for boomkins and guardians, but it's not that much. Crit isn't overly spectacular for ferals, IIRC, and it's pretty worthless for resto. Conversely, night elf provides nothing except occasional wipe protection IF you can manage to safely Shadowmeld without getting hit anyway (never could understand why bosses would still run over and punch you in the nuts when you're melded...) and the 2% reduced chance to be hit, which is really nice for guardians.

 

Alliance racials matter less than horde racials, but it's still not a big deal. Going forward into WoD, it's tough to say. I feel like the 1% crit during the day and 1% haste at night thing will have to be changed, as it's just silly and inconsistent. But, either way, they'll basically be on par when that gets introduced.

[Tarazet 144]

The most important thing to realize is that with the 6.0 patch, Taurens are getting a new racial that increases the effect of critical hit/healing by 2%, and Berserking is being nerfed by 25%. That should bring the racials much closer to parity.

 

Night Elves are getting 1% crit as well (during the day.. 1% haste during the night. For flavor, you know.)