Retribution Paladin PvP Best Races and Racials — The War Within (11.1.5)

Recent buffs to both Zandalari Troll and Lightforged Draenei racials have made them more competitive with some of the other races. With the current popularity of Feral Druids, Assassination Rogues, and Shadow Priests it is currently recommended to play Dark Iron Dwarf if your goal is to min-max.

1. Dark Iron Dwarf
2. Lightforged Draenei
3. Human
4. Dwarf

The Dark Iron Dwarf racial bonus ( Fireblood) removes all bleeds, poisons, magical, and curse debuffs and increases your primary stat by 750 and an additional 250 for each effect removed. This is a great racial to use defensively. However, you can use this to remove debuffs right before you use your burst rotation to increase your primary stat.

The Lightforged Draenei Racial ( Holy Resistance) is a new 1% healing increase on all healing done added in 11.0.7. This compounded with the 40% damage buff and 5yd range increase to Light's Judgment makes Lightforged Draenei more competitive than it has been in the past.

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.

The Dwarf racial bonus ( Stoneform) removes Poison, Disease, Magic, and bleed effects. In addition to this, it reduces all Physical damage taken by 10%. This racial can make a large impact versus teams that have multiple Bleed or Magical damage over time abilities. It is also important to note that this racial lines up with the cooldown from Maledict trinkets and can be used to remove the absorption that is placed on you from Maledict. Another example is removing bleeds versus Assassination Rogues or Feral Druids that are focusing you. This will significantly slow down the damage being dealt to you.

1. Zandalari Troll
2. Tauren
3. Blood Elf

The Zandalari Troll racial bonus ( Regeneratin') channels a heal on you until you are at 100% health or get damaged. This racial is particularly good for Paladins, because you can use it while Divine Shield is active. If you are the primary focus, you can use Divine Shield, then Regeneratin’, and be at full health when it expires. Zandalari Trolls also give you the ability to choose a passive Loa. Because Critical Strike is a very important stat to have, Embrace of Pa'ku is the best Loa to choose.

The Tauren racial bonus ( War Stomp) provides an additional way to interrupt or setup crowd control on an enemy player. For example, if you are playing with a Survival Hunter, you can use War Stomp and follow up with your own crowd control or the Hunter can use their Freezing Trap. The additional health from Endurance will also help with your survivability.

The Blood Elf racial bonus ( Arcane Torrent) has multiple effects. The primary use for this ability is that it removes 1 beneficial effect from all enemies in range. This is great for removing abilities such as Blessing of Protection from Paladins or Soul of the Forest from Restoration Druids. The other effect is that it restores resources based on what specialization you are.