- Author: Nevermore
- Date: September 17, 2022
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
When choosing the right race for your character, keep in mind that each one offers entirely different bonuses and effects, and each one shines in a different aspect of the game. However, if min-maxing is not your thing, feel free to just choose the race that feels like it fits your character the best and suits your aesthetic style.
Both factions typically have one stronger race for a specific class and specialization, with other races offering lesser performance but interesting effects.
Horde
We have two races competing for the best race spot in the Horde. Trolls and Undead have highly effective racial effects for PvP combat. Trolls get you increased casting speed and crowd control reduction, while Undead provide you with a Trinket racial effect, increased shadow resistance, and a gimmick kind of a racial effect.
Trolls are one of the best options for playing a Discipline Priest in the Horde. They offer you several racial effects, the most powerful ones being Berserking and Da Voodoo Shuffle. Just be careful not to hex your friends in the process, right, young witch doctor?
- Berserking is an on-use spell that grants +20% increased casting speed for 10 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown. This racial is very potent, especially when you need to spam healing abilities on yourself or your allies!
- Beast Slaying increases your damage dealt to Beast-type enemies by 5%, which is, theoretically, very powerful. However, the only use for this racial in PvP is against a hunter’s pet.
- Da Voodoo Shuffle passively reduces the duration of movement-slowing & immobilizing effects on you by 15%. This racial effect is amazing for kiting your enemies, allowing you to escape them faster.
- Regeneration increases health regeneration by 10% and lets you regenerate health during combat at 10% of your normal regeneration rate. This racial effect can be mostly dismissed, but it still provides you with a tiny bit of self-sustain when you are out of mana.
- Bow Specialization and Throwing Specialization increase your critical strike chance with bows & throwing weapons by 1%. This racial is absolutely useless for a Priest, since you can’t use any ranged weapons, with the exception of a wand. Go be a wizard, Harry!
Undead is the second-best choice for playing a Discipline Priest in the Horde. They provide you with a secondary trinket, allowing you to remove crowd control effects. They also have access to a bit of a gimmick type of an ability, letting them feast on the corpses of their enemies, inflicting some… mental distress to anyone witnessing the act.
- Will of the Forsaken removes some crowd control effects: charm, fear, and sleep — this effect will act as your secondary trinket. You can also treat this racial effect as your second Fear Ward.
- Cannibalize lets you feast on the corpses of your slain enemies to restore your health. Since we are a healer ourselves, this ability has little to no use other than instilling fear in our enemies as they watch you feast on their corpses. This is more of an RP effect rather than anything gameplay-enhancing.
- Shadow Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%. This racial will be beneficial when defending against Warlocks, Death Knights, and Shadow Priests.
- Underwater Breathing helps you survive for a very long time underwater.
Blood Elves are the last available choice for playing a Discipline Priest in the Horde. Their racial effects are weaker than the other races, however, they do still get you a strong crowd control effect that can be used either defensively or offensively against your enemies.
- Arcane Torrent provides an instant AoE silence, while also restoring 6% of your mana. This racial effect can be combined with other interrupting and silencing effects to create a complete crowd control lockdown on a target, completely impairing any spellcaster. You can also use this ability to defend yourself in sticky situations, or to simply recuperate a small portion of your mana.
- Magical Resistance reduces the chance to be hit by spells by 2%. This racial effect provides a fairly powerful advantage in PvP, as it forces enemy spellcasters to attain a higher Hit Chance to be effective against you.
- Arcane Affinity increases your initial Enchanting skill by 10. This does not have major gameplay implications since it’s only a minor starting bonus.
Alliance
The Alliance has more choices for playing a Discipline Priest, each of the available races coming with strong effects. However, the top spot is taken by Humans, with access to double PvE trinkets, increased Spirit, and increased stealth detection!
Human is arguably the strongest race for Alliance Discipline Priests, thanks to their strong racial effects and their unique trait — being able to use two PvE trinkets, instead of the normal PvE/PvP combo, without incurring major penalties.
- Sword Specialization & Mace Specialization increases your expertise by 3 when using swords or maces. Sadly, for a Priest, this racial effect is utterly useless unless you want to go close-range and smack your enemy with a mace. Do not attempt that!
- Every Man for Himself is a crowd-control-removal ability, similar to the one the Undead race has, however, this one has universal applicability. It is useful both in PvE scenarios and PvP encounters, but it truly shines in PvP: it allows you to take full advantage of two PvE trinkets, the only downfall being the reduced resilience rating.
- Perception passively increases your stealth detection level by a small amount. This racial effect will be really useful against Rogues and Feral Druids!
- Diplomacy increases the rate at which you gain reputation by 10%, a major boost for your reputation grind. While a beneficial quality-of-life racial, it doesn’t impact actual gameplay.
- The Human Spirit increases your Spirit by 3%. A very strong racial effect, especially when combined with our talents!
Night Elves have very strong defensive racial effects which can aid them in PvP, especially against physical damage dealers. They have a powerful racial effect that forces their enemy to lose them as a target by instantly becoming invisible.
- Quickness reduces the chance you’ll be hit by melee and ranged attacks by 2%. This racial effect is extremely potent against physical damage dealers as it forces them to have a higher Hit Chance to be effective against you.
- Nature Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Nature spells by 2%. This will be very useful against Shamans, Hunters, Death Knights, and Druids!
- Shadowmeld can be used to escape combat and become stealthed once every 2 minutes. In addition, it makes you drop all threat on every target you are engaged with in combat; all of the threat will be restored the moment you leave stealth, however, which will happen the moment you move or take any action. Furthermore, this racial can force an enemy player to lose you as a target, and then to target you again! You can use it even if your have a DoT on your character.
- Elusiveness reduces the chance to be detected if you are stealthed. This racial effect synergizes with Shadowmeld, helping your benefit from your makeshift invisibility, as long as you do not move!
- Wisp Spirit increases your movement speed by 75% while dead. You generally don’t want to be dead.
Dwarves are a decent choice for playing a Discipline Priest, coming with a strong defensive tool against physical damage dealers and a few other racial effects with less of an impact on your gameplay.
- Mace Specialization increases your expertise by 5 when using maces. Sadly, you will not benefit from this racial effect, unless you want to run head first into the frontline and smack people on the head with your mace. Not recommended!
- Stoneform is an on-use spell that gives you +10% increased armor for 8 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. This racial effect can be extremely useful when combined with Pain Suppression, allowing you to survive burst attempts from classes such as Rogues, Warriors, Death Knights, and Druids.
- Gun Specialization increases your critical strike chance with guns by 1%. You can’t use guns as a Priest, so you can’t benefit from this racial effect. Do not fret, however: your trusty wand does not require ammunition!
- Frost Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Frost spells by 2%. This racial effect is useful against Shamans, Frost Mages, and Death Knights, forcing them to have a higher Hit Chance to be effective against you.
- Find Treasure is a very cool racial from a roleplay point of view, allowing you to see treasure on the minimap. This is very fun to use while questing and leveling up, but it, unfortunately, has 0 relevance in PvP.
Draenei offer the weakest bonuses for playing a Discipline Priest, with the exception of one racial effect that helps with the min-maxing aspect of the game.
- Heroic Presence increases the chance to hit with spells and physical attacks by 1% for you and all your party members within 30 yards. Every single class group will want to have at least 1 Draenei for this powerful buff!
- Gift of the Naaru places a heal-over-time effect on a single target that lasts 15 seconds, with a 3-minute cooldown. This racial effect is weak when compared to the number of healing spells in our arsenal. However, having one extra option never hurt anyone.
- Shadow Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%. This is a great racial effect against Death Knights, Warlocks, and Shadow Priests, as it forces them to have a higher Hit Chance to be effective against you.
- Gemcutting increases your initial Jewelcrafting skill by 5. This doesn’t have a gameplay impact besides being a minor convenience.
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