Do you play a race you genuinely like or solely for beneficial racials?

[YUPPIE]

Gnomes are by far my favorite race in Warcraft since WoW's inception. However, for practical reasons as a PvP goer, I feel shackled to playing human for those sweet trinket slots (and one less keybinding). I don't especially hate being a human, but as someone who loves to connect to their character, I always have a sense of dissatisfaction when I see myself lumbering around as a human in a fantasy setting. But be it as a PvE player or PvP player, do you personally play a race that will benefit your role and class or simply what you like?

[whynotchris]

I play it cause it's the only pretty Horde one. lol

[Hyral]

PvP player too and racials have never affected my choice of race. Always play human, tauren, worgen or undead depending on which has the class I want available.

[Deleted]

I love my Femdorf!! I won't change just because one racial ability is 1% better than another for the Class I play.

[Feali]

I love everything Blood Elven. The architecture, the lore, the aesthetics, the racials. It's the perfect race.

[Deleted]

I made a mistake and picked a name that starts with Troll when I made my Druid into a troll in cataclysm. The name later morphed into a nickname among my guild buddies that I just cannot shake off, so I'm pretty much locked into being a troll now.

[BarelyLegalBear]

Humans look the best in armor models to me, that's why I play them.

[Frolk]

for the look, and the 2h swing animation for nelf male
Nelf male also looks smashing in dreadnaught

For my alt, shaman, cuz was only draenei shamans when i made it, and my mage is also shaman, that was for +1% hit (while that was relevant) and the selfheal

[derpkitteh]

i only play what makes lore sense to me.

racials don't even come into my mind when i think about making a new character.

[Chirri]

For love of the race, the heck with racials (in fact, for my class, I rather down graded from a race with "the right" stat bonus to a race with ... not the wrong stat, but not as integral to my chosen spec).

[Stormcall]

I play the races I want to play, which means for Horde, usually undead or orc(if they're available for the class), and for Alliance, night elf or draenei.

[threads]

i just play whatever i think fits the class

[Thelxi]

I definitely consider them.

[Daetur]

I'm a PvE player. I used to be a Heroic (now Mythic) raider, but now I'm more casual- just Heroics (then Normal) for me. I've always picked my race based on aesthetic and lore preferences. Never cared enough for such a small amount of minmaxing.

For PvP, I believe you'll have more freedom because of the PvP talents in Legion, yes?

[docterfreeze]

Yes, I play to PvP and therefore racials tend to make a bigger difference, so I minmax.

[Deleted]

I like the way female orcs look, they have a very nice stature and look good in armor, that's why my main is one.

[PaladinBash]

I normally play human male or female space goats as Alliance and cow or orc as Horde. Cows look great in plate and I love orc cast animations so I divide between them along those lines. I had a blood elf paladin back when they were the only Horde paladin but since I exclusively play Alliance for a couple of years now, space goats and humans all the way. I couldn't care less about racials but I'm glad mine don't suck. I like humans in their gear and how it looks but space goats look sexy as fuck so if I am playing a caster (or something with a slutmog), I make them draenei.

[Tucci]

Main has always been male NE Warrior since vanilla. Rogue's been male Dwarf Rogue since BC. I did change my lock and mage from male gnomes to female humans years ago. I always felt slower playing gnomes for some reason. I think my brain was used to the feedback of bigger characters and larger motions. Also wanted the racial for pvp and wanted to look sexy in gear.

[Bosen]

I have to like my character and have a connection in order to commit to the time I spend playing that character. I come up with a theme.. A minor fantasy for the character tied to a few goals involving reputations and maybe professions and Transmog.

[Thrif]

A bit of both. But mostly preference.