Should You Play Earthen in The War Within?
World of Warcraft: The War Within is about to enter its first official season of content and with it comes the chance to try out the newest playable race — the Earthen. The stout, stone creatures offer a bold new look to any raid composition and bring a few interesting racial bonuses, but are they worth your time? Let's take a look at how you unlock the Earthen and why you might want to play one.
How to Unlock the Earthen Allied Race
To gain access to the race guiding us through The War Within, you need to complete the main expansion quest campaign as well as a series of quests featuring the Earthen. These quests are clearly noted with an icon showing that they will get you one step closer to unlocking a new allied race.
The relevant quest lines include:
- Mourning Rise
- Broken Tools
- Merrix and Steelvein
Head over to Wowhead to get a full breakdown of each quest within the chain.
What Classes Can Earthen Be?
Minus the race-specific WoW classses like Evoker and Demon Hunter, most classes are available to the Earthen. They can play as:
- Hunter
- Mage
- Monk
- Paladin
- Priest
- Rogue
- Shaman
- Warlock
- Warrior
Related Article: The Most Popular Class in The War Within is an Old Favorite
Earthen Racial Feature
Like any good bit of powerscaling, the Earthen allied race comes with some modern and potentially promising abilities. These will actively change the way you play your character, even at max level.
- Azerite Surge: Draw upon your inner strength. Release to invoke the power of Azerite on a cone in front of you, dealing Fire damage. 2 minute cooldown. This is an empowered spell that gains additional effects as you empower it
- Hyper Productive: Increases Finesse by 2%. Finesse increases the chance of gathering additional materials when gathering.
- Ingest Minerals: You are always Well Fed, but cannot consume food. Activate Ingest Minerals to consume a Khaz Algar gem and change the benefit granted to you by Well Fed:
- Titan-Wrought Frame: Base armor from equipped items is increased by 10%.
- Wide-Eyed Wonder: When you gain experience for exploring a location, gain 200% additional exploration experience.
How to Change Earthen Well Fed Bonus
Each type of gem changes the stat that benefits from the well fed bonus. To make a swap, refer to this handy chart
Gem | Stat |
|---|---|
Emerald | Haste |
Ruby | Critical Strike |
Amber | Stamina |
Sapphire | Versatility |
Onyx | Mastery |
Is the Earthen Allied Race Good?
Outside of the very best guilds, racial bonuses do not make enough of a difference to radically improve or inhibit your play in World of Warcraft. Ultimately, the correct answer is to play the race that makes you most excited to explore the world and participate in content.
Related Article: All Rewards in The War Within Season 1
However, we all love to power game and so it makes sense to try and pick a way to play Earthen that optimizes its racials.
Earthen are pretty promising as a gatherer. The extra 2% finesse is always nice, and being permanently Well Fed without having to waste food will make you that little bit more optimized when blasting away mobs that are blocking your mineral nodes. Being a miner also means you can more easly get the gems needed for Ingest Minerals. Not to mention the extra exploration bonus rewards starting your gathering journey alongside your leveling path.
The other logical choice for Earthen is as a tank. An extra 10% armor isn't going to mean much to a Priest or a Hunter at the back of the fight, but when just a few stat points can mean the difference between killing a boss or yet another wipe, every little bit counts. Of course, most of the meta tank specs aren't available to the Earthen right now, but Paladin is always a reliable choice if you're going to be focusing on Mythic Plus.
Trent has covered esports since the birth of the LCS. He also led content strategy and served as Senior Writer for The Esports Observer and Sports Business Journal, and worked on the development team for Rushdown Revolt.