Races

[Remimartyn]

Afternoon all,

Can anyone tell me if choosing a certain race is more benificial other then what the obvious is? Will there be vast differences when I hit level 70 being a gnome rather then a Human? I've never played a warlock before and will be rolling one after I move back to Florida. I really would love it if someone could break it down for me if there are many differences between the races.

I do however, enjoy the Alliance side.

Thanks so much!

Remi

[Xilen]

there is very little diffrence between races when you hit 70, the only major diffrence that if you are a gnome people will make fun of you.
(or maybe thats just what i do....)

[i_am_hyleon35]

i agree, it doesnt matter much in the long run, but imo, Undead is best for Horde, and Gnome for Alliance

[Ghaleon]

Human with the +rep been very helpful for me.

[Sidora]

Humans are great on alliance for their diplomacy - 10% increase to faction point gain. It's nice for grinding rep

[Pzykotic]

Undead

• Will of the Forsaken ("Will of the Forsaken") - Causes the user to become immune to fear, charm and sleep effects for five seconds. Two minute cooldown.
• Cannibalize - When activated, regenerates 7% of total health every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. Only works on Humanoid or Undead corpses within 5 yards. Any movement, action, or damage taken while Cannibalizing will cancel the effect.

The Horde ("Orcs")

• Blood Fury - Activate to increase attack power and spell damage/healing by an amount based on level/class for 15 seconds, and decreases healing done to the user by 50% for 25 seconds. The cooldown is 2 minutes.
• Hardiness (Passive) - Increase resistance to stun effects by 25%
• Command (Passive) - Warlock/Hunter pet melee damage increased by 5%

The Sin'Dorei ("Blood Elves")

• Arcane Affinity - 10 point bonus to enchanting skill
• Mana Tap - Activate to reduce target's mana by (50 + Level) and charge you with arcane energy for 10 min. This effect stacks up to 3 times. 30 yd range - Instant - 30 sec cooldown.
• Arcane Torrent - Activate to silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds. In addition, you gain 10 energy or (5 + Level) mana for each charge of Mana Tap currently affecting you.

Honestly, Alliance racials for Warlocks are kind of ...yeah and don't really provide any real benefit to your ability to level. A lot of Horde racials (some argue) are more suited for leveling, grouping and are purely aimed at reducing downtime. I'm not really sure if I agree but some people will either tell you:

a. racials are the MOST important thing ever
b. racials are the LEAST important thing ever

With the advent of Hardiness and Will of the Forsaken being changed to 15% and five seconds respectively, the only real racials that stick out are Blood Elves considering all others have been pretty nerfed into the gutter.

As a Warlock, a lot of people will try to convince you the Undead is the way to be. I personally disagree (and I have played a dozen Undead to 60 before BC). A Warlocks biggest enemy is a rogue and as far as I know, always has been. With that in mind think of these two things ...

Orcs get a 15% base (default, passive) stun resistance which means it can proc six/seven times (but is unlikely to do so). Also, Blood Elves arcane torrent (somehow, supposedly) breaks combo points Rogues have on you. I have not really heard anything about that, but if that's true - meta gem for stun resist + that equals WIN.

Hope that helps.

Oh and if you REALLY are set on Alliance; I would go with a Gnome unfortunately intellect > spirit IMO. Some will make a HUGE deal out of Diplomacy but WOW has been easy-moded down easy-avenue in terms of reputation grinds so realistically, you won't be doing a lot of that unless you're heart-set on heroics (which you won't be for a good long while).

[Giest]

gnomes for alliance since they get escape artist. that helps a lot since warlocks don't get anything else to get out of snare effects.

orcs for horde since they have increased pet damage and blood fury. My orc lock is 36 at the moment and blood fury gives me 73 extra damage every 2 minutes. you can't beat that.

I also recommend playing on the horde side. My first lock was a gnome and he's 70 now on a pvp server. I decided i wanted to try horde on a pve server and I'm enjoying it so much more. Horde quests seem to give better rewards than Alliance ones and they are just more fun to play period. That could also be from this being my first horde character and it's like a whole new game from all the areas and content I've never done before.

[Pzykotic]

gnomes for alliance since they get escape artist. that helps a lot since warlocks don't get anything else to get out of snare effects.

How many effects are classified as snares though?

orcs for horde since they have increased pet damage and blood fury. My orc lock is 36 at the moment and blood fury gives me 73 extra damage every 2 minutes. you can't beat that.

Honestly, any Horde race is totally viable for Warlocks, they all really have something good to bring to the table. Although like I said before, racials aren't as important as people like to think they are. At the end of the day, if you choose a race SPECIFICALLY because either a. how it looks or b. it's racials (over everything else) then you PROBABLY shouldn't be playing WOW in situations where they matter anyway :P

I also recommend playing on the horde side.

I think he should choose the race/faction that he finds the most interesting and fun to play. Although I'd advocate Horde myself ;)

[Remimartyn]

Originally Posted by Pzykotic

I think he should choose the race/faction that he finds the most interesting and fun to play. Although I'd advocate Horde myself ;)

Thank you all so much for your feedback, I think she will go with Human, I do like the racial ability that I have experienced with my rogue. Not that the horde isn't worth givin a go. Some how I just can't picture playin a gnome though either.

My main intent was to make sure before I roll one, there wasn't some major concern that would pop up later for me. I'm sure that rolling a human warlock will be great, I can always make up the difference in mana/Int with gear or enchants correct?

Anyhooo...

Thanks again

[fbg111]

If you're a casual player, Human. With all the faction rep grinds in BC, Diplomacy cuts your grind time alot. Perception + Felhunter + Engineering Googles lets you detect rogues from up to 40yds away, since all that Stealth Detection stacks. There was a nice demo of that posted to the wow Warlock forums recently, but I can't find it now. The +spirit and +sword/maces are pretty useless for locks though.

If you want to pvp, and especially if you want to Arena, and can handle a slightly longer faction rep grind, gnome. Escape Artist is the best pvp racial alliance side, and lets you conserve your pvp trinket for Stuns, Slows, Fears, and whatever else EA won't get you of. +5% Int is also nice for casters. +10/15 (whichever, can't remember) is only marginally helpful in leveling Engineering, as it just gets you to the expensive stuff a little faster. But Eng is a pvp-oriented speciality, so every bit helps.

On the Horde side, the only considerations are Orc or UD. Orc makes a little better all-around warlock, but they're roughly equal for Arena and team-based pvp. Choose the one you like the looks of better, you can't go wrong with either.

Orcs have 3 racials that benefit warlocks: +5% pet damage, nice for Felguard spec locks, esp FG raiding locks since that +5% just gets better and better the longer your pet can continuously wail on some boss mob. Blood Fury is an awesome spell power trinket you can proc at the same time as other spellpower trinkets for a few seconds of dps spike. BF also buffs Drain Life and Siphon Life, but it's 50% healing debuff does not apply to those spells. DL and SL are Periodic Leech effects, not Healing effects, and hence are immune to BF's healing debuff. And Hardiness helps us 1v1 against rogues (our nemesis, counterclass), mace spec Warriors, HoJ-happy pallies, and other stuns. That 15% stun resist makes it possible for level 70 orcs to hit 25% (5% base + 15% racial +5% meta gem) or 30% with engineering (5% +15% +10% Foreman's Enchanted Helmet). That's 1 out of every 3 or 4 stun attempts resisted, nice way to mess up a rogue's stunlock and cause them energy management issues.

UD on the other hand have Will of the Forsaken which gets you out of Fear/Charm/Sleep and lets you conserve your pvp trinket for Stuns/Slows/Roots. This is especially useful in Arenas, when teamed with a Pally who can Blessing of Freedom you, or a druid who can remove rogue poisons, gives you 3 different escapes. Cannibalize is a second bandage on a separate cooldown from your First Aid bandages, and is buffed by Fel Armor and other things that buff warlock self-healing. If you look up 'Shadowborne 2v1' on Google video, you'll see a cool vid of one of the top arena warlocks winning 2v1, and Cannibalizing his first defeated foe while the other runs around feared. Underwater Breathing is useless to locks since we get the spell Unending Breath at 16. The +shadow resist is helpful when stacking SR, otherwise marginal.

Blood Elves on the other hand have great racials for rogues, good for pallys, decent for hunters (deadzone defense against mages and other casters) ok for AoE'ing mages, but not so useful for warlocks. Warlocks are already dominant against casters, and an additional 2s silence is only marginally more useful. The amount of mana you get back at level 70 from 3 Mana Tap charges is paltry, not even worth bothering to maintain the charges, just use Arcane Torrent's AoE silence without them. +10 enchanting skill only gets you to the expensive parts a little faster, does nothing for you at 375/375. And +5 to all resists is alright, makes an MD warlock with Felhunter out have 75 to all resists instead of 70, but still not a huge benefit.

Finally, one more problem with BE warlocks is that most people who choose this combo are perceived by the rest of horde as noobs, or alliance->horde rerollers who want to play the 'pretty' race, and pick the race based on aesthetics rather than functional concerns. You may encounter some 'bias' related to that if you pick BE warlock, so be forewarned.

So for Alliance, go human if you're a casual player or prefer pve/raiding over pvp, or go gnome if you prefer pvp.

For Horde, Orc and UD are roughly equal, just pick the one you like the looks of better, and learn how to use the racials in conjuction with other gear (trinkets, gems, etc.) as best you can.