#31 - Feb. 15, 2011, 9:28 a.m.
We see that some feel Tauren herbalists are overpowered. We understand the frustration when someone else gets to a herb before you. We know that it can seem worse if they can also gather it faster than you, because of their racial ability. We've got herbalists ourselves and we do empathise.
But we didn't feel that +15 Herbalism skill was really good enough for Taurens and we wanted them to have something a bit more useful, especially once they've reached the cap. They've got a 0.5 second advantage on other herbalists, and while yes that can be an advantage we are relatively satisfied with how it is at the moment.
Yes, sometimes it can seem like they swoop out of nowhere and take the herb before you've even seen them flying in. But that's more to do with how the game client deals with very fast moving flying mounts than anything else. It's probably quite likely both players saw the herb at about the same time and the Tauren just got in quicker. It's the same kind of thing for Worgen and skinning, though herbs are often more hotly contested.
Though we do hear the feedback and have taken it into consideration, we wanted to make
Cultivation a bit more interesting and useful and we feel we've achieved that. So we do not, at this time, have any plans to alter this racial ability.