It wasn't a stealth nerf. It was a bug fix to make the goblin racial function as stated. This is the racial description:

"Always receive the best possible gold discount, regardless of faction."

What this means is you will get the exalted discount from faction vendors regardless of your standing with that faction. There was a bug, however, which allowed the discount to go beyond the maximum (exalted) discount provided to all other races.

We fixed the bug so that the goblin racial now functions as advertised. If you're friendly with, say Kirin Tor, you will receive the same discount as a tauren would who is exalted with that faction. If you're both exalted, you'll still receive the same discount.

Did a stealth nerf happen to this racial? I'm in the process of transferring a toon, and have too much gold to transfer, so I was investing some into the Vial of the Sands mount. As of two days ago, the vendor mats on my goblin, in a level 25 guild, was 2100g for the dust (20% best deals anywhere, + 10% guild level 24 perk) and 3500g for the vial. Now they're 2700g and 4500g, respectively.

What is going on here?

So it was previously stacking with other things, like the guild bonus and such? And now it's fixed?

That's correct.

06/01/2011 03:25 PMPosted by Serrif

To Blizz: This is the kind of thing that should be documented. Whether you call it a change to intended behavior or not is irrelevant. It's a behavior that people had gotten to know and expect. It should be announced.

My apologies for that. We've gotten a little behind on the documented hotfixes.

Now there's a fix, associate all these vendors with a faction. I mean the Orc who sells the guild items in Orgrimmar isn't associated with Orgrimmar. Really? Heck the only discount I get with him now is the 10% guild perk discount. Even though Blizzard's hot fix patch notes seem to indicate that I should be getting a discount based on my guild reputation with that guy, but even at exalted, I only get the 10%.

That's not quite right. Conceptually, the racial perk should behave as follows: The goblin is treated as exalted for all reputations for which it is possible for any player to be exalted. Being able to be exalted is defined as any reputation displayed on the reputation page of the Character sheet.

06/02/2011 12:27 AMPosted by Aetherwind

This is hardly even a racial now. What does it give Goblins that everybody else doesn't have access to now? What other races have a racial that everybody else can be on-par with by putting in a little effort?

Best Deals Anywhere explicitly states you get the best possible gold discount from vendors, not more of a discount than any other race can possibly get.

We’re not trying to nerf fun here, but the goblin racial package is very powerful even if you ignore Best Deals Anywhere completely. It’s a fine line between making racials fun and interesting, and making players feel like they can only pick a certain race.