The Actual Magnitude of Racial Abilities

[cuddlekin]

Human trinket racial is pretty much useless now, 3 min CD that shares with the actual 2 min trinkets. Meaning Humans only really give perception and expertise(and not to daggers).

[Holydays]

as of right now

human is kind bad... 1 min extra cd on ur trinket is not worth it

gnomes have an awesome half trinket that doesnt share cd with anything that i know of

worgens have sprint wich is awesome, but if it shares cd with sprint...then it is useless

i would go gnome. but if worgen racial doesnt share cd with sprint then i would go worgen

thats of course assuming no change till cata

[zlygork]

Human trinket racial is pretty much useless now, 3 min CD that shares with the actual 2 min trinkets. Meaning Humans only really give perception and expertise(and not to daggers).

and a great + lvlv 85 you choose wich stats increment
riiight, totally useless

oh btw, perception is gone

[army1237]

Check out http://www.wowwiki.com/Racial_trait
It really depends on what your doing. However since its a rogue i'd suggest either gnome due to their Escape artist, bonus to engineering which is going to be one of the best professions in cataclysm as well as increased expertise with daggers or swords which are the main two weapons that rogues use currently I believe.

[Slavemaker]

If you're locking yourself to Alliance, and if you want the overall best utility, Human is the way to go.

Expertise bonuses, detection bonuses, a built-in PvP trinket...all of these will help you out in BGs/Arenas.

Personally I base all of my opinions on racial abilities off of PVE content because that is the majority of this game, I mean obviously some/most racial abilities help a lot in PVP but I don't PVP so that is where my stand point is.

The only downside with this is that the fact that if I wanted to be "the best of the best" every single one of my horde characters would be Orcs because their racial abilities are deemed "Best" for PVE and I dislike that, I personally like orcs but not that much, I have one out of my whole server and it is my death knight, the rest are either trolls, blood elves or goblins (soon).

So out of the choices for the Alliance I think each race has its own bonus's.
Night elves:
--Stealth speed increased.
--Shadowmeld.
--Reduced chance to be hit by melee and ranged attacks.
--Increased nature resistance.
Humans:
--Expertise with swords and maces.
--Free get out of everything.
--Stealth detection I think.
--Increased reputation (good for pve reps).
Dwarves:
Well I honestly don't know the dwarf racial too well...

[cuddlekin]

and a great + lvlv 85 you choose wich stats increment
riiight, totally useless

If you could read, he said he is primarily a PvPer, and serious PvPers know that having a 3 min trinket effect when there is a 2 min version available IS useless. Nice trolling though.

[Monkeyturtle]

Shadowmeld gets you out of combat. Once out of combat you stealth. Thus shadowmeld is an extra vanish. So Night Elf.

[Ughugh]

Shadowmeld is actually quite handy in PvP, as others have said, but it requires a bit of finesse to pull off effectively. It's not a true Vanish in that it only puts you in stealth (not improved stealth), so it's wasted if you use it to get away from a melee class, since they'll just see you and keep whacking. But against ranged classes, it's quite handy for breaking their target.

Keep in mind, though, that it also destroys threat and in Cataclysm, threat will matter a lot more than it currently does. So it might not be too bad for PvE, either.

[Holydays]

Shadowmeld gets you out of combat. Once out of combat you stealth. Thus shadowmeld is an extra vanish. So Night Elf.

sometimes u dont get out of combat, wich sux, but when u do it is just awesome =)

[Kaeskalol]

Human is great... for PvE. The extra minute cooldown is not worth the loss of resilience (BiS PvP stat, so to speak), and it's a complete liability in Arenas and will be in Rated Battlegrounds. That being said, with the right trinkets and setup- and the right amount of resilience onboard- it's a great racial for dueling and world PvP. Racial expertise for Swords and Maces- so Combat and Sub off hands (lolno, use a 1.4 speed dagger OH for Sub), somewhat useful. Reputation racial is great for those who hate grinds. And uh, that's it for racials that effect human rogues.

Night Elf has the potential to be completely OP in the hands of a good player. Currently, sitting down while Shadowmelded with DoT effects won't break Shadowmeld. It can also be used to Vanish spells (WTB old vanish for that), or just dropping targeting to break a cast into you. Couple that with the passive stealth speed increase, and Night Elves are pretty strong for rogues. Nature resistance isn't bad, but it's nothing to write home about.

Gnome is a flat out AWESOME race for rogues. With all the snares and roots and shit flying around, Escape Artist is a beautiful racial for melee classes. Also, racial expertise for daggers and swords, while not overly useful, is still nothing to sneeze at. There's also the passive Engineering bonus, too, which is NICE. I think on live ATM, max engineering gnomes can summon level 90 mechanical dragonlings, so yeah. Arcane resistance is... OK.

Worgen. Passive crit, shadow and nature resistance. Not bad, not bad. Darkflight SUPPOSEDLY shares a CD with sprint- haven't been able to test this, and if someone could confirm it that'd be swell- so if it does, it's crap, if it doesn't, it's great. Running Wild just looks hilarious.

Dwarf racial. Stoneform is solid- 10% armor, yeah, not huge, but removing bleeds, poisons, and diseases is nice. Especially if you're trying to get a clean restealth against a warrior. Mace expertise, so Combat loves it, but Sub only kinda loves it and you'd be retarded to not use a 1.4 speed OH. Frost resistance is OK, but not game breaking. And there's the Archaeology bonus, so if you're into that sort of thing, it's great. Not bad at all, but the dance clinches it for most people.