switching my Mage to the Ally side.

[Ortho]

So im going to switch my Undead mage over to the Alliance but cant decide what race to pick.
will there be any changes to the racials when Cata drops?
is there one race that stands out more than the others?
does it even matter that much?

[Popesickle]

Human racial is OP for PVP, Every Man For Himself. Also worgen racials look pretty tasty.

[Vancha]

You'll be able to choose from Night Elf and Dwarf when the pre-cata patch hits. And yes, racials were changing with cata last time I checked.

[Valanna]

As of now gnomes rule all.

[Sundreamer]

NIGHT ELF!!!!! the former highborne

[The Polarbear]

gnome for the int id say

[Nymphys]

I'm hoping this is because you have friends on alliance that you want to play with rather than for faster PVP queue times. Sure we get quick queue times, but we still lose almost every time - in fact the times we win, Horde usually end up with twice as many HKs than us and still end up getting more honor - wheee! (Disclaimer: Results on your battlegroup may vary)

For PVP, humans are hard to skip in terms of racials. It gives you one extra trinket slot which allows for a little more DPS. Horde seem to think it's a vastly OP racial, although likewise most Alliance would sacrifice a DPS trinket to get a racial with more OFFENSIVE UTILITY. Every PVP racial on alliance is defensive or passive (eg, Stoneform, Escape Artist, Every Man for Himself, Quickness - NE dodge, Shadowmeld, Gift of the Naaru. Our one offensive ability, the human Perception skill, is being removed in Cataclysm).

Vice versa, every single Horde race has an Offensive Utility racial. Orcs - Bloodfury. Tauren - War stomp. Troll - Beserking. Undead - actually, they are the one horde race that also only has defensive abilities. Blood Elf - Arcane Torrent. Goblin - Rocket Barrage. Are these game changers individually? Of course not. Does having 5 Offensive abilities to 0 offensive abilities change things? Absolutely.

So... I'm getting off track here. Humans have the strongest Alliance PVP racial even if its ultimate utility is simply increased DPS. Additionally they have increased spirit - only a slight benefit but still something. There are only limited changes to racials occurring, which you can read about at: http://www.wowwiki.com/Racial_trait

For PVE alone, Draenei are a great choice. A free heal, a high starting INT range, and 1% increased chance to hit (reducing hit levels needed on gear by 1% so you can start gearing towards a different stat earlier on). Humans are decent in PVE due to the incresed spirit and rep gain. Gnomes have long been favorites due to the increased intellect, however in Cata this is being changed to an increased mana pool - which will let you cast one more spell, but without the INT bonus will no longer increase the strength of spells from bonuses via talents.

TL;DR:

PVP - Humans
PVE - Draenei
Both - Humans

EDIT: Someone else just made a good point to me - the human racial is being nerfed to 3 minutes in Cata, so many players will opt for reduced DPS and an Alliance trinket in order to keep with the two minute cooldown - rendering the human racial useless. In this case, Gnomes would be the best bet for PVP for their escape. Humans are still better all rounders though, with increased Spirit and rep gains, which would change the table to:

PVP - Gnomes
PVE - Draenei
Both - Humans

[Mythodiir]

Choose the gnome, they have the a really nice racial cuteness to them that would sooth the heart of even the most savage of gladiators, or dungeon bosses, it should stun them for long enough you can frost bolt, fire bot, or arcane blast them, you will love it.

[Nymphys]

gnome for the int id say

Alas, that's being nerfed in Cata. It's changing to a straight increase in the mana pool. While this will give you slightly more mana, it'll take away the DPS increase to spells because of INT being applied via talents, or any other secondary effects from having higher INT itself.

NIGHT ELF!!!!! the former highborne

Night elves will be fun and have a good starting INT bonus, but none of their racials provide bonuses to mages at all.

[Sundreamer]

gnome for the int id say

nope they removed that...well changed...it now increases 5% of your mana pool (4.0.1)

[Deleted]

Night Elf.
They are new mage class, they have awesome lore and Shadowmeld is a great, unique racial.

[CR77]

New race combos will be available with Cat, not before it.

[anti-wow]

I'm hoping this is because you have friends on alliance that you want to play with rather than for faster PVP queue times. Sure we get quick queue times, but we still lose almost every time - in fact the times we win, Horde usually end up with twice as many HKs than us and still end up getting more honor - wheee! (Disclaimer: Results on your battlegroup may vary)

Are you on Blackout-EU?

[litledude]

Id say Gnome, but not because of their Int buff. Their awesomeness simply dwarfs that of other races.

[Sundreamer]

Alas, that's being nerfed in Cata. It's changing to a straight increase in the mana pool. While this will give you slightly more mana, it'll take away the DPS increase to spells because of INT being applied via talents, or any other secondary effects from having higher INT itself.


Night elves will be fun and have a good starting INT bonus, but none of their racials provide bonuses to mages at all.

what happened to the +5% spirit for humans, btw...nerfed too right? otherwise i'd say human for more mana regen

[Sundreamer]

New race combos will be available with Cat, not before it.

wrong
"New race/classes combo availability
They will be available to everyone shortly before the release of Cataclysm when The Shattering takes place. " (from the blue post: by Boubouille Published on 2010-10-05 10:12 AM)

[thresh]

what happened to the +5% spirit for humans, btw...nerfed too right? otherwise i'd say human for more mana regen

it used to be 10% on TBC, it's 3% now since beggining of wrath

[Zarkon]

If you pick Gnome, you are doing it wrong. Humans get Diplomacy (10% increased rep)and Every Man For Himself for PvP and PvE. The spirit buff is useless now for mages, though. Also, humans look 1000x better than any gnome. Gnomes are just disgusting.

[tilatequila]

why exactly are you rerolling..?

[AvalonTLW]

Human by far. Why?
Becouse the armor looks best on them.

Also, Every man for himself is good for bossfightts that imobilizes you.