Marksmanship Hunter PvP Best Races and Racials (Dragonflight 10.2)
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 Marksmanship Hunter PvP Guide.
Best Alliance Races for Marksmanship Hunters
Human
Will to Survive
The Human Spirit
Human is generally the best and most versatile Alliance race for Marksmanship Hunters for the majority of players.
With Will to Survive Human Hunters do not need to run a standard 2
minute cooldown PvP trinket (
Verdant Gladiator's Medallion) and can
instead choose to play two different trinkets.
Verdant Gladiator's Insignia of Alacrity has a high chance to proc, and
when combined with
Verdant Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity, you have a
high chance of both buffs being active when the game starts and you first
use cooldowns.
You can also run Verdant Gladiator's Emblem to make yourself more
difficult to kill while still while still gaining the benefits of a
badge/insignia trinket.
The downside of playing Human is that your trinket can only be used on stuns and has a three-minute cooldown. In 3v3 as Marksman, this is not such an issue in most cases because your games will rarely last longer than two minutes and most of the time when you do trinket, it is to save yourself from a stun.
Humans also gain The Human Spirit, a nice stat buff which
automatically follows your stat priority (i.e. increases the stats you are
already deliberately stacking).
Night Elf
Shadowmeld
Elusiveness
Nature Resistance
Touch of Elune
Night Elf is also a strong choice for Marksmanship Hunters, although whether
it is the best choice for you, depending on how much value you get from
Shadowmeld.
You can use Shadowmeld to completely negate any projectile that has been cast
on you. For example, if a warrior casts Storm Bolt and the bolt is in the
air, you can Shadowmeld while it is flying, and the Storm Bolt won't hit you.
Shadowmeld can also completely negate any instant spell (eg. Kidney Shot) if
your timing is absolutely perfect. This is not an easy thing to do, and unless
you really know what you are doing, you will rarely be able to immune spells that
are not projectiles.
Shadowmeld can also be used to drop combat to cast Camouflage when
Feign Death is on cooldown.
Night Elves gain additional Critical Strike rating during the day and
additional Haste rating at night through Touch of Elune. Haste is
generally the better stat for Marksman in PvP, so if you only play during the day,
you lose some value as Night Elf.
Dark Iron Dwarf
Fireblood
Forged in Flames
Dark Iron Dwarf sometimes competes with Human and Night Elf for the best
Alliance race purely because of Fireblood. When DoT specialisations like
Assassination Rogue, Feral Druid, or Unholy Death Knight are very commonly
played; this racial is an excellent counter to them.
When these specializations are not commonly played, Human and Night Elf are better races.
Note that Fireblood shares a 30-second cooldown with your
Verdant Gladiator's Medallion.
Best Horde Races for Marksmanship Hunters
Orc
Blood Fury
Command
Hardiness
Orc is the best race for Horde Marksmanship Hunters.
Hardiness is arguably the best racial ability in the game for the arena.
Most classes and comps will aim to kill you in a stun, and this reduces the
duration of all stuns, making it more likely you will narrowly survive and
be able to use Aspect of the Turtle or
Feign Death.
Particularly into specializations like Subtlety Rogue, being an orc can make
you a non-viable kill target because they will not be able to apply their
second and third Cheap Shot whilst still using their damage rotation.
Blood Fury is also an automatic racial ability - macro it with
Trueshot or
Death Chakram, and you will get the maximum value
from the racial without changing anything about your gameplay.
Command is a passive damage increase that is nice to have, although
it is not what makes Orc the best race.
Other Races
In this section is a list of the other races available, the active and racial abilities they have and any benefits they might give a Marksman Hunter.
Alliance
Dwarf
Stoneform
Might of the Mountain
Frost Resistance
This is similar to Dark Iron Dwarf, but the race is less useful than
Fireblood - when you use either into a bleed class, the damage
reduction has little value because you've already dispelled their burst, so
the agility buff is worth more than the damage reduction.
Note that Stoneform shares a 30-second cooldown with your
Verdant Gladiator's Medallion
Gnome
Escape Artist
Arcane Resistance
Expansive Mind
Nimble Fingers
Gnome can be good for kiting but not much else.
Draenei
Gift of the Naaru
Heroic Presence
Shadow Resistance
Gift of the Naaru doesn't do enough healing to be worth it.
Worgen
Darkflight
Viciousness
Aberration
Darkflight isn't needed as hunter.
Void Elf
Spatial Rift
Chill of Night
Entropic Embrace
Preternatural Calm
This can potentially be good. Not having spell pushback on Aimed Shot
can only be a good thing, and
Spatial Rift can also be a good ability
to kite with.
Lightforged Draenei
Light's Judgment
Light's Reckoning
Holy Resistance
Kul Tiran
Haymaker
Brush It Off
Child of the Sea
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Haymaker can sometimes be used to finish kills.
Mechagnome
Hyper Organic Light Originator
Combat Analysis
Emergency Failsafe

Pandaren
Quaking Palm
Epicurean
Quaking Palm is on the same diminishing return as
Freezing Trap and
Scatter Shot and will rarely be useful.
Horde
Troll
Berserking
Da Voodoo Shuffle
Regeneration
Berserking isn't good enough to compete with Orc's
Blood Fury and
Hardiness.
Tauren
War Stomp
Brawn
Endurance
Nature Resistance
You can use Warstomp to set up traps, but it's awkward to use and there are other ways you can trap already.
Undead
Will of the Forsaken
Cannibalize
Touch of the Grave
Shadow Resistance
Will of the Forsaken is occasionally good in certain matchups against
fear classes, but being able to break fears isn't essential as a hunter, and
getting out of stuns faster is more useful than being able to break some fears.
Note that this shares a 30 second cooldown with your Verdant Gladiator's Medallion
Blood Elf
Arcane Torrent
Arcane Acuity
Arcane Resistance
Situations where Arcane Torrent has value are very rare.
Goblins
Rocket Jump
Rocket Barrage
Time is Money
Rocket Jump is situationally good for kiting.
Nightborne
Arcane Pulse
Ancient History
Magical Affinity
Arcane Resistance
These racials are not competitive with the other races.
Highmountain Tauren
Bull Rush
Mountaineer
Rugged Tenacity
These racials are not competitive with the other races.
Mag'har Orc
Ancestral Call
Savage Blood
Sympathetic Vigor
The pet health increase is nice, but that and the DPS gain from
Ancestral Call are unlikely to win you arena games.
Zandalari Troll
Regeneration
Embrace of the Loa
Note that Embrace of the Loa gives:
- Embrace of Akunda - Your healing abilities have a chance to heal their target.
- Embrace of Bwonsamdi - Your damaging abilities have a chance to deal with Shadow damage and heal you for 100% of the damage done.
- Embrace of Gonk - Increase movement speed by 5%.
- Embrace of Kimbul - Your damaging abilities have a chance to cause the target to bleed over 6s. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
- Embrace of Krag'wa - Taking damage has a chance to grant you additional Health and 66 Armor.
- Embrace of Pa'ku - Your abilities have a chance to grant you 4% critical strike for 12 seconds.
The speed buff is significant and is a nice thing to have, but
Regeneration is canceled on damage and, in 3v3 particularly, is
useless.
Vulpera
Bag of Tricks
Fire Resistance
Nose For Trouble
The racials here are not good at the only reason it is ever played is because
Nose For Trouble is very strong into Demonology Warlocks.
Pandaren
Quaking Palm
Epicurean
Quaking Palm is on the same diminishing return as
Freezing Trap
and
Scatter Shot and will rarely be useful.
Changelog
- 04 Dec. 2023: Corrected typos.
- 19 Nov. 2023: Minor formatting tweaks.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for patch 10.1.7 with minor tweaks.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Guide re-written.
- 09 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 28 Feb. 2022: Page reviewed and approved for Patch 9.2.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.1.5.
- 06 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 15 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch (9.0.1)
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This guide is written and maintained by Slo, a Multi-Gladiator and solo shuffle Rank 1 Marksman Hunter. You can find Slo on YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit
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