Racial Traditions (Gu53)
August 28, 2009 (Friday) @ 9:40 am | Game Updates & Maintenance, SOE Wants Feedback

Alrighty, you want it, we got it. Here are the Racial Traits we will be seeing in Game Update 53. It’s a huge change, and provides a ton of options. Everyone gets a free respec, and honestly, we’ve gone from traits that make each race have an obvious class associated with it, to being perhaps a little too Cut-and-Paste and not daring enough.

I know some people will always choose race for lore reasons. They like ratongas, they like high elves, etc. Just like min/maxers will always choose race for the bonuses (and then use illusion totems). So I think the differences between the races could have been a bit bigger without hurting anything. Not a lot bigger, but a bit bigger. I’m also rather sad that Ratongas lose Pitiful Plea. This extra Detaunt was quite useful.

Good

Fae | Dwarf | Froglok | Halfling | High Elf | Wood Elf

Neutral (in progress)

Barbarian | Erudite | Gnome | Half Elf | Human | Kerra

Evil

Arasai | Dark Elf | Iksar | Ogre | Ratonga | Sarnak | Troll

UPDATE: The bonus for your primary stats (STR, INT, WIS, STA, AGI) is 2.7 at level 1 and 33 at level 80. The Out-of-Combat Health and Power Regen also scale with tier. Also, the 50% runspeed and 50% in-combat runspeed are short-term boosts (36 seconds).

UPDATE 2: Gnome has been corrected with the Mage rather than Priest package.

Written by Feldon

17 Comments »

  1. Comment by Yerkich — August 28, 2009 @ 1:06 pm

    I want to thank you Feldon for EQ2Wire. It is my favorite place to get the latest game information without having to navigate the terrible soe pages and forums.

  2. Comment by Green Armadillo — August 28, 2009 @ 2:09 pm

    Thanks for taking the time to put this together, Feldon! It’s great to actually have complete and reliable info to evaluate these changes with.

    That said, overall I’m disappointed with this revamp. The Fae and Arasai keep their wings as innates because they don’t affect combat (though this did cost them 5% runspeed compared to live), but it does seem that basically everything else that was unique about races (e.g. Sarnaks breathing fire) is gone, in favor of generic passive stat bonuses.

    Also, the Mage/Priest synergy set looks overly powerful compared to the other sets for appropriate classes. This set allows you to spend 1-2 additional traditions on stuff that actually affects your in-combat archetype role compared to any other race that has just the one set for the appropriate archetype. I guess they want Erudites and High Elves to be the best casters, it just seems out of place, especially since they were very clearly very careful not to create an optimal tank race with Str+Sta.

  3. Comment by Mavolence the Maligned — August 29, 2009 @ 11:06 am

    Well what surprises me is how none of the races are agile… No races get an agility bunus? That seems like a big Ol’OOPS to me! And much of racial bonuses could have been more unique and taylored to the race… instead of so many getting the same stuff (Trolls get +Wis too?).

    Oh well… it was a stab at it, and probably got half way to where I think it should have gotten.

  4. Comment by Feldon — August 29, 2009 @ 12:14 pm

    and I have fun writing it. :) Ok, the racials were tough, because I didn’t cut-and-paste but made a new character of all 19 races and verified each setup. Hopefully this isn’t the last we see of the Racials because they’re kinda lame IMO.

    I have not dived into the Nights of the Dead activities yet. There seems to be a lot here to cover!

  5. Comment by Noizy — August 30, 2009 @ 1:51 pm

    Wow, Feldon! Great job!

    I have to say I like the changes they made to my favorite race, wood elves. I’m not sure what this will do to my gnome necro, but I was thinking about leveling up my level 12 wood elf warden and now it looks like SOE is going to help me along the way :)

  6. Pingback by West Karana » Daily Blogroll 8/31 – End of Summer edition — August 31, 2009 @ 7:19 am

    [...] WoW and EQ2 are revamping their innate racial bonuses, and the Verdant Dasypodid at Player vs Developer looks at the reasoning behind the changes, which [...]

  7. Comment by Jemarji — August 31, 2009 @ 3:21 pm

    Some of the changes are good but I am not particularly happy about almost being forced to pay to change race to get the most out of my character. Also, the Kerra is loosing an extra decrease hate – leaping grace, which is quite useful for high dps scouts. In good faith, I think sony should offer a limited one time free racial change in lieu of these changes. Perhaps with the next expansion sony should consider a veteran reward that allows one racial change and make it redeemable by one character only. Otherwise it appears to me that it is part of a strategy to earn more revenue from regular players, especially players that have played the game for a long time.

  8. Pingback by The EQ2 Wire » Racially Motivated — September 2, 2009 @ 7:51 pm

    [...] overpowered abilities, and adding in a few more colorful, interesting traits to each race, the Racial Traits we seem to be looking forward to in Game Update 53 are just bland and [...]

  9. Comment by Serpicos — September 4, 2009 @ 1:09 pm

    240 Mitigation at level 80 for the resists, really who cares. It needs to be at least 4 times that to make any difference at all.

  10. Comment by Tweek — September 14, 2009 @ 5:39 pm

    I think that this taking of abilities is stupid, and will only lead more people to quit. Sony is being idiotic and killing the game; if you give something you cannot take it back! They have to give the other races just something to match it. I hope that this and the avatar gear nerf does not go through, I do not have avatar gear, but I know if it does go through, that a guild called exordium will be possibly disbanding(the number 1 guild worldwide). Sony is killing this game by taking and must remember this is a business, and in order to make it run smoothly they have to make the customers happy.

  11. Comment by Scott Adams — September 16, 2009 @ 3:19 pm

    Super article many thanks for putting it together! I am letting my guild know about you and plan to check back here often!

  12. Comment by Kahonen — September 20, 2009 @ 11:41 am

    How do they possibly justify Dwarf, Ogre and Barbarian getting +STA while Fae and Halfling get +STR?

  13. Pingback by The EQ2 Wire » Shards of Destiny (Game Update 53) Summary — September 22, 2009 @ 7:36 pm

    [...] Racial Traits – Racial Traits have been completely redone to match “packages” for Scouts, Mages, Fighters, and Priests. More Details can be found here on EQ2Wire. [...]

  14. Comment by Silentfoot — September 23, 2009 @ 3:10 pm

    This puts some races at a serious advantage to others for tanking. 240 mit, 15 skill points and 2% avoidance add…. To a brawler trying to max all of those it hurts not being the right race.

  15. Comment by Hollis Howard — November 23, 2009 @ 10:09 am

    Sony what the heck are you thinking? You are taking every decent advantage from races so they are all basically the same or giving them ones that make no sense. Why not just nerf all the races and everyone can play a sarnak SK…sure seems like that is what you want. The fun of EQ2 is being able to play different races with unique advantages to that race..stop with the political correctness…a fae should not be able to arm wrestle an ogre!

  16. Comment by Serenity — July 6, 2010 @ 7:13 pm

    Is there a way to change what racial tradition you’ve picked after you’ve picked it? I accidentally clicked the wrong one now I’m going crazy trying to figure out how to fix it.

  17. Comment by Starseeker — July 25, 2010 @ 9:58 pm

    Yes just use the achievement councilor to reset your character abilities

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