What Is The Best Race For A Death Knight?

With the addition of a brand new class to World of Warcraft in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, many of you are probably wondering how to choose the best race for a Death Knight.  Never before has a WoW player enjoyed the chance to start a character at such a high level, so you should make the best of this opportunity to start fresh down the right path.  To help you make this decision, I'm going to break down the top race choices for Deathknights, with an emphasis on PvP.

Preface: Unless You're Hardcore, Choose By Looks

Let me first say that WoW in general is set up in such a way that you can't really fail with your character by selecting the wrong race.  Blizzard has made this even clearer in WotLK, as racial abilities are slowly getting more balanced over time.  Unless you are an absolute die-hard min-maxer playing at the most competitive levels (pro gamer?), your ability to play the game is going to hold you back much more than your character's race.  There are plenty of Gladiators on Night Elf rogues and Troll Warriors, after all -- so I recommend you choose your race by what you think looks coolest unless you're really serious about your WoW.

What If You Only Care About PvE?

I'll give you the easy answers on picking your DK race for PvE, and you can be on your way.  The decisions are pretty straightforward here.

Best Race For PvE

DPS only: Human / Orc
Tank only: Night Elf / Orc
DPS+Tank: Human / Orc

See how easy that was?  The weapon skill racials make all the difference for DPS here, although Human and Orc also have active abilities that are helpful in PvE scenarios.  If you are flexible on faction, go with Orc, as they are hands-down the best overall for PvE.

Serious Business: Top PvP Races

This is the stuff that really counts.  Now, if you're going to pick your race solely based on PvP performance, you're probably serious enough to realize that sometimes a specific team Arena team composition or strategy may favor one race over another.  Taking this into account, I am aiming to recommend races in a general sense, since we all know how quickly the balance of power and popular team compositions can change.  Thus, the most "flexible" race (that can be optimal for the widest variety of situations) is the best.  On to the rankings.

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Alliance Races

1. GNOME

Key Factors: Escape Artist

Unpopular among lore lovers, the Gnome Deathknight is my choice for the best on Alliance.  Escape Artist, as a root/snare remover, is one of those active-use abilities like WotF that can completely turn the tables and win a game for you if used at the right time.  Death Knights do have a few ranged skills, but they are still basically a melee class and kiting is their biggest enemy; an extra root/snare breaker is fantastic.

2. HUMAN

Key Factors: Perception, Every Man For Himself, Sword Specialization

Perception has changed from an active mega-buff to a passive effect that offers only a tiny boost to stealth detection.  It has lost its uber-ness, but it may still help you every once in a while against those pesky Rogues and Druids.  The expertise from Sword Specialization is another extremely minor passive factor, but missed attacks are missed attacks -- it's good to have as few of them as possible.  The real story here is "Every Man For Himself," which operates as a PvP trinket replacement and basically gives a Human DK the flexibility to go with any two trinkets he wishes.  Using two purely offensive trinkets may be quite useful depending on the situation, and that will only be an option for Humans.

3. DWARF

Key Factors: Stoneform

The addition of Deathknights and disease-based gameplay has given a little buff to the dwarf racial, which removes all poison/bleed/disease and grants immunity for 8 seconds.  On top of the diseases, Blizzard has tried to buff poisons for rogues and bleed effects in general in WotLK, so this one will definitely come in handy.  It won't be useful in every matchup, but you'll still get some wins from this ability.  A little less flexible than the Human racial, so we rate it lower, but not by a ton.

4. NIGHT ELF

Key Factors: Shadowmeld

Thanks to Lusitania for hinting to me that Shadowmeld is now usable in combat! Hunter veterans (who hasn't played a hunter?) will testify to the usefulness of this Feign Death-style mechanic for interrupting incoming damage or CC spells, albeit on a 2 min cooldown.  This has mainly defensive applications, but it's good enough to put Night Elves almost dead even with Dwarf on the Alliance list.

5. DRAENEI

Key Factors: Gift of the Naaru, Heroic Presence

Not the best choice if you're interested in being competitive in PvP.  You will almost never end up getting yourself a win because you had Gift of the Naaru, so another racial (from the list above) is always going to be better.  Deathknights already have some self-healing abilities which are all better than GotN; the one upside is that you can potentially help your teammates with the passive hit chance racial.  Avoid this race for your DK!

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Horde Races

1. UNDEAD

Key Factors: Will of the Forsaken

WotF, the controversial fear-breaker, has been nerfed slightly in the newest expansion (no more immunity period), but it's still going to win you more games than any other racial.  Some fear/sleep/charm effects have been buffed, and a few new ones have been added, so this actively usable ability remains quite powerful.  You'll face these effects from Warlocks, Priests, Warriors, Hunters, and potentially Deathknights in WotLK, and being able to save your trinket for a "second" major CC is just too good to pass up.

2. BLOOD ELF

Key Factors: Arcane Torrent

Though Deathknights do have a few silences and interrupts of their own, the addition of this on-demand PBAOE silence is still a nice (and flexible) tool for your DK arsenal.  It can be used offensively or defensively, and with zero resource cost, there is no downside.  More and more instant spells are being added to the game all the time, and silences are the only way to stop them -- this one will definitely win you some games all by itself.  Slight extra points here because Death Grip will help DKs land this more often.

3. ORC

Key Factors: Hardiness, Blood Fury, Axe Specialization

Orc DKs will be quite viable, and while their racials may help you win some games, it will not always be as obvious as a win coming from WotF or Arcane Torrent.  Hardiness to reduce stun duration is fantastic, as more stuns have been added in WotLK, and stuns usually lead to death.  Blood Fury no longer applies a healing debuff, so that is a huge step forward for this on-demand DPS boost (which stacks with trinkets).  Lastly, the increased expertise on Axes may not seem like a huge deal, but it's one more advantage on the pile.

4. TAUREN

Key Factors: War Stomp, Endurance

Tauren racials have gotten a little worse this time around, as War Stomp suffers from the addition of "reduced stun duration" effects, and the 5% increased health from Endurance has been changed to a sliding-scale buff which gets less effective as your gear improves.  With stamina-heavy PvP gear, you can bet we'll be seeing a good bit less than 5% health out of this passive talent.  Both of these racials are still useful, but I think you'll see fewer wins directly attributable to them.

5. TROLL

Key Factors: Da Voodoo Shuffle, Berserking

Deathknights are fairly light on auto-attack damage, so Berserking is not really so hot in practice.  The addition of a passive 15% reduction to root/snare duration is a nice buff, especially for a class with a major weakness to kiting, but I still believe Trolls are the bottom pick for Horde.  The snare duration reduction, while solid, is not quite as good on a melee class like Deathknight as it is for a class that would rather get AWAY from melees (like Shaman, Hunter, or Priest).  I also weight it lower than Orc's stun duration reduction because snares are much more readily reapplied than stuns. You may win a game every once in a while due to Voodoo Shuffle, but it's not going to be that often (and you probably won't know it when it happens).

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Agree? Disagree?

I hope this breakdown has helped you pick out the best race for your Death Knight, but opinions will differ from person to person.  If you think you can make a strong case for your favorite race, feel free to do so in the comment section below.

Overall, I don't think any of the Horde races makes a bad DK, and only the Draenei is a bad choice for Alliance.  Steer cleer of the space goats, and you shouldn't have any regrets unless you are incredibly hardcore; in that case, you should have followed my list!  For the record, my Deathknight will be a Troll...