Arcane Mage PvP Best Races and Racials — The War Within (Season 1)
Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best races to choose for each faction. The races are sorted from highest impact in arena to lowest. However, all races below have their own unique ways of making an impact in a PvP match.
This page is part of our Arcane Mage PvP Guide.
Best Alliance Races for PvP Arcane Mages
- Night Elf
- Human
- Void Elf
- Gnome
Night Elf Racials
The Night Elf racial bonus ( Shadowmeld) is always a strong choice. This race has a high skill cap, but using it to avoid crowd control can be very powerful. For example, if a Mage is casting Polymorph on you, use Shadowmeld to avoid it. If you use Shadowmeld at the same time that a Priest uses their Psychic Scream, you will not be feared. You can also use it to leave combat in case you need an emergency drink to replenish your Mana. Being a Night Elf also provides you with two noteworthy passive abilities: Quickness, which grants you 2% extra movement speed and 2% dodge chance, and Touch of Elune that increases either your Haste or Critical Strike by 1% depending on whether it is night or day.
Human Racials
The Human racial bonus ( Will to Survive) is a great way to get out of stuns. If you think you will be the focus target versus teams with multiple stuns, this race allows you to play Relentless. This will help increase your overall survivability. It is also important to note that Humans also have The Human Spirit. This increases your secondary stats (Haste, Critical Strike, Mastery, Versatility). This is another beneficial reason to play Human.
Void Elf Racials
The most important part of being a Void Elf is the Preternatural Calm racial. This causes your spell casts to no longer be delayed when taking damage. This is great, because even when you are the primary target, you will still be able to deal maximum damage and cast crowd control. Spatial Rift can also be mentioned, because the teleport it provides gives you additional mobility and will help your survivability.
Gnome Racials
The Gnome racial bonus ( Escape Artist) removes any movement speed reduction effects on you. With only a 1-minute cooldown, this can be used both defensively or offensively. You can use this to help kite incoming damage or use it to remove slows on you while chasing down an enemy. Another racial that Gnome provides is Expansive Mind. This will increase your maximum Resource, which helps with not running out of resources.
Best Horde Races for PvP Arcane Mages
- Orc
- Undead
- Troll
- Pandaren
Orc Racials
The Orc racial bonus ( Hardiness) is great for reducing the duration of stuns on you. This is absolutely the best Horde racial to have if you are primarily focusing on PvP. In addition to Hardiness, Orcs also have the Blood Fury racial. This is off the global cooldown and should be used when you are using your burst rotation.
Undead Racials
The Undead racial bonus ( Will of the Forsaken) removes any Charm, Fear, or Sleep effect from you. This is a great racial versus specializations that are able to fear you constantly throughout an arena match. It is important to note that this does share a 30-second cooldown with Gladiator's Medallion, so it is advised to only use it when you do not want to waste Gladiators Medallion. Here are a few examples of spells that Will of the Forsaken will remove from you:
- Sleep Walk from Preservation Evoker/ Devastation Evoker/Augmentation Evoker
- Fear from Demonology Warlock/ Destruction Warlock/Affliction Warlock
- Intimidating Shout from Arms Warrior/ Fury Warrior
- Psychic Scream from Holy Priest/ Shadow Priest/Discipline Priest
Being an Undead also grants you the passive abilities Shadow Resistance, reducing Shadow damage taken by 1%, and Touch of the Grave, sometimes dealing a small amount of Shadow damage to your target and healing you for the same amount.
Troll Racials
The Troll racial bonus ( Berserking) grants you a large amount of Haste. You should activate this ability right before you are using important cooldowns or to cast crowd control faster. Another racial to note is Da Voodoo Shuffle. This significantly reduces the duration of slows on you and will help when kiting enemy players that are focusing you.
Changelog
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 18 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5
- 09 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Pre-patch.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 28 Feb. 2022: Paged reviewed and approved for Patch 9.2.
- 17 Nov. 2021: Page reviewed for Patch 9.1.5.
- 04 Jul. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.
- 17 Oct. 2020: This page was checked for patch 9.0.1 and no updates were necessary.
- 20 Jan. 2020: This page was checked for Patch 8.3 and no update was deemed necessary.
- 26 Dec. 2019: Page added.
Other PvP Guides
This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved 3000 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.
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