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- Author: Nevermore
- Date: September 29, 2022
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
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When choosing the right race for your character, keep in mind that each one offers completely different bonuses and effects, and 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
When it comes to playing a Frost Mage in the Horde, Trolls constitute the best possible choice, offering you a very powerful Haste-increasing effect, and then some other interesting bonuses.
Trolls are one of the best options for playing a Frost Mage in the Horde. They come with several notable racial effects, the most powerful ones being Berserking and Da Voodoo Shuffle. Due to how dependent Frost Mage is on Haste, we can arguably say that this is the strongest race in the Horde!
- Berserking is an on-use spell that grants +20% increased casting speed for 10 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown. This racial effect is very potent when combined with Icy Veins and Hyperspeed Accelerators, letting you burst your target in mere moments.
- 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 from 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, especially since you don’t have healing spells.
- Bow Specialization and Throwing Specialization increase your critical strike chance with bows & throwing weapons by 1%. This racial is absolutely useless for a Mage since you can’t use any ranged weapons, with the exception of a wand. Hogwarts looks down on such primitive weapons, and so should you.
Undead is the second best choice for playing a Frost Mage in the Horde. They provide you with a secondary trinket which lets you remove crowd control effects. Undead also have a gimmick type of an ability, which allows them to feast on the corpses of their enemies, inducing mental distress to anyone witnessing the act.
- Will of the Forsaken removes charm, fear, and sleep effects. This effect will act as your secondary trinket, providing you the ability to remove some crowd control effects. This racial effect will be most useful against Warlocks and Hunters!
- Cannibalize allows you to 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 to us, other than inspiring fear and distress in your foes as they watch you feast on their corpses. This is more of an RP effect rather than a gameplay-enhancing effect.
- Shadow Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%. This racial effect will be beneficial in defending yourself against Warlocks, Death Knights, and Shadow Priests!
- Underwater Breathing helps you survive for a very long time underwater.
Blood Elves are the last choice for playing a Frost Mage 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 comes with an instant AoE silence, while also providing you with 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, entirely impairing any spellcaster.
- You can also use this ability to defend yourself in sticky situations, or to easily recuperate a small portion of your mana. However, as a Frost Mage, you will mainly want to use this ability defensively, as you will generally want to kite your targets and out-range them.
- Magical Resistance reduces the chance to be hit by spells by 2%. This racial effect offers 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 very significant gameplay implications, only providing a minor starting bonus.
Alliance
On the side of Alliance, there is one race that dominates the PvP scene entirely, and that race is, ironically, the Humans. Human race has one of the most powerful racial effects for PvP — the ability to retain their PvP trinket while using two DPS trinkets with their Every Man for Himself racial.
Human is, arguably, the strongest race for playing a Frost Mage for the Alliance, thanks to their strong racial effects and the unique trait of being able to use two PvE trinkets, instead of the normal PvE/PvP combo, without incurring significant penalties.
- Sword Specialization & Mace Specialization increases your expertise by 3 when using swords or maces. This racial is utterly useless for a Mage, since you don’t ever want to find yourself attempting to stab your enemies. Just imagine trying to stab a behemoth like a Warrior or a Death Knight with a puny mage sword.
- Every Man for Himself is a crowd-control removal ability similar to the one the Undead race has, but this one has universal applicability. It’s useful both in PvE and PvP encounters, however, it truly shines in PvP.
- This racial effect lets you fully benefit from two PvE trinkets, with the only downfall being the reduced resilience rating. This racial is, arguably, the sole reason for the total dominance Humans demonstrate in PvP, allowing them to equip two powerful DPS trinkets without renouncing their PvP trinket.
- Perception passively increases your stealth detection level by a small amount. This racial effect will be beneficial against Rogues and Feral Druids!
- Diplomacy increases the rate at which you gain reputation by 10%, a significant boost for your reputation grind. Yet, while it’s 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!
Gnomes are the second best choice for playing a Frost Mage, with beneficial racial effects for both PvP and the Mage class itself. They have access to a variant of the PvP trinket, only here it has a 1-minute cooldown with limited effects while also empowering your overall Intellect!
- Escape Artist instantly removes all movement-slowing and immobilizing effects, on a 1-minute cooldown. While this racial effect is strong in PvP, it’s the weaker version of the Human’s racial effect. Nonetheless, it can be powerful against classes that employ a lot of slowing effects.
- Engineering Specialization increases your initial Engineering skill by 15. This is slightly more useful than other profession-boosting racials, since Engineering has guardian-type summoned pets which scale with your Engineering skill. This racial makes your summoned pets level 83, which makes them a decent bit stronger but, as there aren’t many useful guardians, this racial isn’t really groundbreaking.
- Arcane Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Arcane spells by 2%. This is only useful against Mages, Druids, and Hunters.
- Expansive Mind increases your total Intellect by 5%. This racial effect really shines when used in conjunction with a caster class, letting you benefit from an increased mana pool and higher critical strike chance. You will love it as a Frost Mage.
Draenei represent more of an aesthetic choice when it comes to playing a Frost Mage in PvP. They have access to a powerful Heal-over-Time ability, albeit on a long cooldown, while also boosting your Hit Chance.
- 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 one 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 can come in handy, especially since we do not have access to healing spells as a Frost Mage, with the exception of Glyph of Evocation.
- 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 significant gameplay impact besides minor convenience.
About the Author
Nevermore
Hey there folks, I am Nevermore and have been deeply passionate about WoW for more than a decade. Whether we talk about the hidden mysteries of Azeroth or the otherworldly Outland, my journey brought me here to share the things that I have experienced with you all.
