It’s not a secret that many Horde players have been complaining about the underwhelming nature of Horde racial abilities in PvP this expansion. Faction imbalance has grown to the point where we’ve seen Mercenary Mode added to the game, allowing Alliance players to queue to play on the Horde side of a Battleground (and vice versa) in order to address it. Now with Patch 6.2.2 announced for September 1st, we also have news of another change aimed at PvP — several Horde racial abilities are being buffed.

What’s the intent behind this change? Well, according to CM Lore:

@Supatease The goal is not to push everyone over to Horde, just shore up some Horde racials that are underperforming. — Lore (@CM_Lore) August 19, 2015

He later specifies that these changes are intended for PvP and are expected to have very little PvE impact. Based on the changes in question, I’d have to agree with him, but it’s still a pretty big deal to see racial abilities changed like this for not one, not two, but five Horde races. Five of the Horde’s seven races are considered to have underperforming racial abilities? Wow. That’s a pretty huge change, all told, and a sign that the designers are accepting the prevailing wisdom in terms of the Horde vs. Alliance in PvP.

What exactly are the changes?

Rygarius (Official Post) Originally Posted by Blood Elf Arcane Torrent now Silences all enemies in an 8 yard radius for 3 seconds (up from 2 seconds), and cooldown has been reduced to 1.5 minutes (down from 2 minutes). Goblin Rocket Barrage now has a 1.5-minute cooldown (down from 2 minutes).

Rocket Jump now has a 1.5-minute cooldown (down from 2 minutes). Orc Hardiness now reduces the duration of Stun effects by an additional 20% (up from 15%). Troll Voodoo Shuffle now reduces the duration of all movement impairing effects by 20% (up from 15%). Trolls still be flippin’ out mon! Tauren War Stomp now stuns enemies for 3 seconds (up from 2 seconds), and cooldown has been reduced to 1.5 minutes (down from 2 minutes).

Now, none of these changes are enormous when taken on their own. An extra second on War Stomp and a slightly faster cooldown isn’t going to break the PvP game wide open or anything. But taken as a whole, it’s a pretty big change and a tacit admission that yes, the Horde really does suffer from some lackluster racials in comparison to the Alliance, at least in terms of their PvP applications. It’ll be interesting to see how things shake out once the changes go live.



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