Windwalker Monk PvP Best Races and Racials — Midnight 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 Windwalker Monk PvP Guide.
Best Races for Windwalker Monk
Best Alliance Races for Windwalker Monks
- Nightelf
- Human
- 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 or to
get a
Stealth if you play a Rogue. 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) allows you to break free of
a stun once every 3 minutes, effectively acting as a second trinket, but only
for stuns. Even though it shares it 1-min cooldown with the regular trinket, it
still allows you to get out of stuns more often than any other race. 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.
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 Windwalker Monks
- Orc
- Highmountain Tauren
- Undead
Orc Racials
The active racial ability,
Blood Fury, increases your attack power by a substantial amount when
used. It is a nice addition to your burst. However, Orcs truly shine for their
passive racial ability,
Hardiness. This passive will reduce the
duration of all incoming stuns by 5% at all times. Although it might now seem
strong, it is still less time spent in stuns.
Highmountain Tauren Racials
Highmountain Taurens come with a few racials that are worth noting for PvP.
Bull Rush charges you forward, knocking down all enemies you hit, and
stunning them for 1.5 seconds. This is incredibly strong if you are stuck in a
Smoke Bomb and do not have the mobility to get out of it. You can also
use it as an interrupt with the stun affect.
Mountaineer increases
your Versatility by 1%. This is always a strong stat in PvP and should not be
overlooked. Finally, the primary reason you would be playing Highmountain
Tauren,
Rugged Tenacity. This spell reduces damage taken from each
attack you take by a certain percentage. However, this impacts different spells
differently. Versus classes like Demon Hunter, this will actually reduce damage
you take from spells, like
Eye Beam, by upwards of 30%! Use
Highmountain Tauren if you are the primary target for most teams and you want
to focus on surviving.
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.
Changelog
- 16 Mar. 2026: Reviewed page for Midnight Season 1.
- Updated best Horde and Alliance Races.
- 26 Feb. 2026: Updated races page.
- Updated styling.
- 19 Jan. 2026: Updated for Midnight Pre-Patch.
- Updated best Alliance races.
- 30 Nov. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.7.
- 21 Oct. 2025: Reviewed page for changes.
- 05 Oct. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.5.
- 04 Aug. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.
- 15 Jun. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.7.
- 21 Apr. 2025: Reviewed for patch 11.1.5.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.7.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated 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 Patch 10.2.6
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 17 Jun. 2023: Updated Best Alliance races.
- 06 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- Updated Best Horde and Alliance races.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated Best Horde race.
- 21 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 01 Aug. 2022: Reviewed for Shadowlands Season 4.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 27 Feb. 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.1.5.
- 02 Jul. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.1.
- 08 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
Other PvP Guides
This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned multi-Rank 1 PvP player. You can watch Mysticall create educational and entertaining content that showcases advanced PvP strategies on on Twitch, and YouTube.
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