This might not actually seem like news to most of us, but a recent Blizzard tweet confirmed that the BC races are due to get their visual revamp along with the vanilla ones, though again, this does not confirm that these races will be revamped along with 6.0. While I hope that we'll see all the new models by the expansion's release, I realize that that is almost like asking for ten new races (albeit new races who have already been fully conceptualized.)
Along with these cosmetic revamps, I expect that we'll be seeing a fair number of revamps to the various racial abilities.
Racials have always been tricky. Before Wrath of the Lich King, there were actually class-based racials as well. Priests had a number of different abilities that were later spread around. For instance, Devouring Plague in its original incarnation was, I believe, only available to Undead Priests. Likewise, while Heroism and Bloodlust have always been functionally identical (the differing names likely meant to call to attention that before BC, Shamans were Horde-only,) the formerly Alliance-only Paladin got Seal of Vengeance (which has evolved and mutated into Seal of Truth) while Blood Elves (at the time the only Horde Paladins) got Seal of Blood, which did a slight amount of damage to the Paladin him or herself (which actually helped with mana regeneration… which Prot and Ret worried about... things were weird back then.)
But of course, most racial abilities are just based on race. Some have been added and some taken away (rather than the infamous Every Man for Himself, Humans used to get "Perception," which marginally increased their ability to see Stealthed enemies for a few seconds.)
It seems that a lot of these abilities and passives are going to have to change. Usually, these abilities are meant to be fairly minor. A 1% boost to crit is nice, but in the grand scheme of things is not going to increase your damage by a ton. A lot of racial abilities are based on game mechanics that are disappearing, though. For instance, many deal with weapons. Humans like Maces and Swords, Dwarves like Maces and… well, they used to prefer guns but now there's just a bonus to all ranged weapons, which basically encourages them to be Hunters. Gnomes like one-handed swords and daggers, Orcs like Axes and Fist Weapons, and Trolls originally preferred Bows, but now get what I believe is the same bonus as Dwarves. And meanwhile, Draenei get a flat 1% bonus to their hit chance.
Most of these weapon bonuses take the form of expertise, which is nice, but given that that stat is going out the window, it will be pretty useless. Sure, it might make it so that melee DPS can attack from the front and suffer a slightly smaller penalty, but it's pretty tiny.
I suppose they could make you do 1% more damage with the given weapons, assuming that this was decently balanced.
There is also the problem of some of the less exciting bonuses. For example, Tauren have something like 5% more Base Health, but not only is that a tiny portion of what one tends to have, health-wise (it is calculated before even base stamina is factored in,) it's also something they're just straight getting rid of. All health will be based on stamina (including base stamina, so you won't just drop dead if you're naked.)
The other issue, of course, is also that some racial abilities are just flat out more powerful than others. Trolls have Berserking, which is like a mini-Icy Veins. While some races are getting true damage cool downs, others have utility buttons that, sure, might be great in a pinch, but become clearly inferior in a typical fight.
I don't even dare suggest I know how to balance all of these, especially given that stuff like Every Man for Himself or Will of the Forsaken can be really powerful in PvP, but given that they aren't doing any new races and that the art team's already working on the old ones, it might be a good time to do a minor overhaul to make sure that the racial abilities are balanced while still being fun.
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