- Author: Nevermore
- Date: June 5, 2022
- Updated: July 8, 2022
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
Warriors can be any race in Wrath of the Lich King, except for Blood Elf.
Unfortunately, unlike casters, race matters a lot for physical DPS, with only 2-3 races per faction being considered viable.
Horde
Orc is by far the strongest race for Horde Fury Warriors. This is largely due to Axe Specialization, which provides 5 expertise when using axes and fist weapons — with Shadowmourne, the best weapon in the game, being an axe. Orcs also get Blood Fury, a powerful attack power boosting cooldown.
Often considered the best race for Horde Fury Warriors in PvE, Orcs provide several powerful racial effects that make them extremely strong. Orcish warriors like Grom Hellscream have been iconic in the world of Warcraft, so it is no coincidence that Orc Warriors are very powerful.
- Axe Specialization increases your expertise by 5 when using axes or fist weapons. There are a lot of very powerful axes out there, including Shadowmourne, the strongest two-handed weapon in the game, thus this racial is extremely powerful.
- Blood Fury is an on-use spell that increases your Attack Power and scales with your level. At level 80 it will provide +322 attack power for 15 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. The fact that this is an on-use ability has big implications for burst phases / stacking your cooldowns.
- Hardiness provides you with resistance to crowd control effects which is better suited for PvP scenarios but it can also help you during certain PvE encounters.
- Command is a very powerful racial, that unfortunately does not apply to Warriors, as they have no pets.
Trolls are not typically associated with the Warrior class, but they are very viable nonetheless, arguably being the 2nd strongest race for Horde Warriors.
- Berserking is an on-use spell that offers +20% increased attack speed for 10 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown. The fact that this is an on-use ability has big implications for burst phases / stacking your cooldowns.
- Beast Slaying increases your damage dealt to Beast type enemies by 5%, which is very powerful. Unfortunately, there aren’t a whole lot of Beasts in Wrath of the Lich King, specially inside raids, making this racial not too impressive in practice.
- Da Voodoo Shuffle passively reduces the duration of movement slowing & immobilize effects on you by 15%. Generally mostly a PvP racial, but it can occasionally come in handy in PvE as well.
- Bow Specialization and Throwing Specialization increase your critical strike chance with bows & throwing weapons by 1%. A neat little bonus, but unlike Hunters, you only use your bow or thrown weapon occasionally, thus mostly negligible.
- Regeneration increases health regeneration by 10% and allows you to regenerate health during combat at 10% of the your normal regeneration rate. While this racial is mostly only relevant while leveling or questing, it can have situational uses when combined with Warrior health regeneration effects, such as Enraged Regeneration, Blood Craze and Second Wind, making it surprisingly OK for Warriors.
Taurens are an iconic race for Warriors, with their badass looks and multiple useful racials. However, their racials are unfortunately mostly tailored for tanking, making them a slightly inferior choice for Fury Warriors in specific.
- Endurance increases base health by 5% — meaning your natural health at level 80, without your extra health or stamina from equipment, buffs, etc. This can help you survive slightly better than other Warrior races, but is generally not very noticeable.
- War Stomp gives you an on-use AoE stun with a 2 minute cooldown. While it’s mostly useful in PvP situations, it can also be used to provide a quick crowd control effect to aid your tank or your healer — but generally not too useful.
- Nature Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Nature spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Cultivation increases your initial Herbalism skill by 15. This doesn’t have a gameplay impact besides minor convenience.
Undead are generally not a very strong option for Warriors since Warriors already have the ability to break fear effects, making Will of the Forsaken, the most powerful Undead racial, partially redudant. For that reason, they’re not really recommended — though they undeniably look very cool.
- Will of the Forsaken removes charm, fear, and sleep effects. This will be the biggest beneficial racial for PvE as it will help mitigate certain raid mechanics.
- Cannibalize allows you to feast on the corpses of your slain enemies to restore your health. This does not have big implications for PvE content but does come in handy whilst doing solo content.
- Shadow Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Underwater Breathing helps you survive for a very long time underwater.
Alliance
Human is seen as the strongest option for Alliance Fury Warriors, though 
Dwarf is pretty close in power. Humans gain 3 expertise when using swords and maces thanks to Sword Specialization and Mace Specialization respectively. This is lower than the 5 expertise that other races get, but instead offers more versatility when it comes to picking weapons. Every Man for Himself also has some niche use in removing crowd-control effects.
Human is arguably the strongest race for Alliance Fury Warriors, thanks to the versatility offered by having 2 different weapon specializations. Many will pick Human for its powerful racial effects, particularly for PvP, but there’s no denying the coolness factor of Human Warriors dual-wielding two-handed weapons.
- Sword Specialization & Mace Specialization increase your expertise by 3 when using swords or maces. This is lower than the 5 expertise that other races get with equivalent racials, but you have more versatility in picking different weapon types, while other races are generally forced into 1 specific weapon type.
- Every Man for Himself is a crowd-control removal ability just like the Undead race, but this one has universal applicability. It is useful in PvE scenarios but has much more use in a PvP encounter, where Humans are typically considered the strongest race in the game.
- Perception passively increases your stealth detection level by a small amount. Since there aren’t a lot of stealthed mobs in PvE, this benefit is largely not too useful.
- Diplomacy increases the rate at which you gain reputation by 10%, a major boost for your reputation grind. Whilst a beneficial quality of life racial, it doesn’t impact actual gameplay.
- The Human Spirit increases your spirit by 3%. This is unfortunately nearly useless for Warriors.
Dwarf is commonly seen as the 2nd strongest Alliance race for Fury Warriors, though it could be argued that they’re actually slightly stronger than Humans if you’re dual-wielding maces. And what a sight that would be, making the King Magni Bronzebeard proud.
- Mace Specialization increases your expertise by 5 when using maces. Most of the strongest weapons you could use tend to be axes and swords, making this racial better on paper than it is in practice. Regardless, it is incredibly powerful if you’re using maces.
- Stoneform is an on-use spell that gives you +10% increased armor for 8 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. For most classes and specs, this would be a purely tanking-focused boost, but Fury Warriors also gain a little bit of extra Attack Power from this racial thanks to the Armored to the Teeth talent.
- Gun Specialization increases your critical strike chance with guns by 1%. A neat little bonus, but unlike Hunters, you only use your gun weapon occasionally, thus mostly negligible.
- Frost Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Frost spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Find Treasure is a very cool racial from a roleplay point of view, allowing you to see treasure on the minimap. This is very fun to use while questing and leveling up, but it unfortunately has 0 relevance in raids.
Draenei are another powerful race for Alliance Fury Warriors. Introduced in The Burning Crusade, the Draenei quickly became a fan-favourite race for the Alliance, offering multiple powerful racials while looking extremely cool in the process.
- Heroic Presence increases the chance to hit with spells and physical attacks by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards. Every single DPS group will want to have at least 1 Draenei for this powerful buff, though generally you will want your group’s Draenei to be a different class, not a Warrior.
- Gift of the Naaru places a heal-over-time effect on a single target that lasts 15 seconds, with a 3 minute cooldown. This can help save your life occasionally, and may even come in clutch with healing the tank during a high damage period, but it’s generally not a great racial for Warriors.
- Shadow Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Gemcutting increases your initial Jewelcrafting skill by 5. This doesn’t have a gameplay impact besides minor convenience.
The crafty little buggers known as gnomes are seen as caster-focused race, having no real PvE-relevant racials for Warriors. As such, they’re seen as one of the 2 “useless” races for Alliance Warriors. There’s no denying that there’s something funny about playing a little but tough gnome warrior, though!
- Escape Artist instantly removes all movement slowing and immobilizing effects on a 1 minute cooldown. While this can occasionally be useful in PvE, it’s generally better in PvP (where Humans are far better anyway), so this is overall not amazing. The best point to this racial is that it allows you to drop 1 talent point in Heroic Fury, placing it in Enrage instead.
- Engineering Specialization increases your initial Engineering skill by 15. This is slightly more useful than other profession-boosting racials, as Engineering has guardian-type summoned pets, which scale with your Engineering skill. This racial makes your summoned pets level 83, which makes them a decent bit stronger, but as there aren’t many useful guardians, this racial isn’t really ground-breaking.
- Arcane Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Arcane spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Expansive Mind increases your total Intellect by 5%. Warriors are not exactly known to be intellectuals, and as such they probably shouldn’t be overthinking things, so this racial will unfortunately be completely useless for them.
Night Elves are more commonly associated with natural magic and agility, typically portrayed as druids, hunters and rogues. It’s no surprise then that they don’t make a very good race for Warriors — being the worst race from a PvE standpoint, and arguably the only completely “useless” race, offering no useful racials whatsoever.
- Quickness reduces the chance you’ll be hit by melee and ranged attacks by 2%. While this racial is way better suited for tank-focused Warriors, it also happens to be the only PvE-relevant racial you get as a night elf, occasionally causing attacks to miss you, which is… something?
- Nature Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Nature spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Shadowmeld can be used in order to escape combat and become stealthed once every 2 minutes. It will also cause you to drop all threat on every target you’re currently engaged in combat with, but all threat will be restored the moment you leave stealth — which will happen the moment you move or take any action. Simply put, this racial is practically useless in PvE for Fury Warriors, though it can have some use in PvP.
- Elusiveness reduces the chance to be detected if you are stealthed. The only way to go stealth as a Warrior is through Shadowmeld, making this racial irrelevant in PvE content.
- Wisp Spirit increases your movement speed by 75% while dead. You generally don’t want to be dead.
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About the Author
It’s a shame that night elves don’t have such good warriors.
In itself, you could make them stronger. Lore wise, night elf warriors aren’t that bad after all.
Night elves are very quick and agile. A warrior needs that too. So why no speed bonus? Or bonus on bladed weapons.
night elves are also larger and stronger than humans. So why should they be weaker than warriors?^^
i like and dislike racials so much…
idk i like how they make each race kinda unique but having races so much stronger than others kinda sucks
Best race in BiS (icc) is troll though, Glorenzelg HC and the 277 pants give you enough Exp to get caped without orc racial. Best DPS race would be troll at the end. Though orc is closs to troll (in around 50 dps).
That is actually going to be a tough call. You’re right, you’re expertise capped without the racial, so that racial won’t apply anymore. However, Blood Fury has a 2 minute cooldown, while Berserking has a 3 minute cooldown. This means that on some fights you get to use Blood Fury twice as an orc, while trolls only get to use Berserking once — meaning Orcs have the the upper hand occasionally. It’ll depend on how quickly your guild downs each boss, essentially.
This guide is intended for every phase, so I couldn’t just ignore the axe specialization racial in general, but you did raise a good point – thank you!