Best Race for a New Rogue?
Good question. First, I will tell you what I’ve gathered from available resources for your easy Good Rogues answer, and then we’ll get more into the “why”.
For Player vs Environment (PvE) Rogues
Play what race you feel most comfortable with and/or enjoy playing the most.
For Player vs Player (PvP) Rogues (w/racial weapons bonus)
- Human
- Night Elf
- Dwarf
- Orc
- Blood Elf
- Gnome
- Undead (Post 3.3 patch)
- Troll
I’ll start off by saying that everyone will have a different opinion, and won’t mind sharing it, based on what race they like and have played in the past. The thing that matters most in playing any class is THE SKILL OF THE PLAYER. There are some horrible human rogues in PvP as well as some fantastic troll rogues. This is just a consensus based on player feedback from various forums and some mathematical figures gleaned from ShadowPanther’s wonderful rogue resource site.
For PvE rogues, I just don’t see that any racial ability is going to hinder or help that much to make a huge difference in leveling. There are things that are helpful for various races, like the extra bit of stealth for Night Elf Rogues or the extra bit of stealth detection for Human Rogues. But no deal breakers. You should play what you enjoy the most.
For PvP rogues, I will defer to the gifted spreadsheet creator and mathematician, ShadowPanther, for his racial spreadsheet to show you why I’ve listed the races under PvP like I’ve done.
For a detailed look at racial abilities as they pertain to rogues, click here for Alliance rogues, or click here for Horde.
But in a recent discussion about a nerf of Will of Forsaken on the WoW Rogue Forums, a level 80 human rogue named Eyeheartpie had this to say…
You can choose a race for the racials, but be prepared when they change. They WILL change. If you choose a race solely for the PvP benefits of its racials, then don’t be surprised when Blizzard uses PvP as an excuse to change the racials. When that good rogue you met IRL told you to go undead just for the racial, you could have been assured that the racial would change. Whenever something is seen as indispensable, a must-have, a requirement to do well, then you can be assured Blizzard will catch on and nerf it. When you re-roll human (again for the PvP benefit of the racial), don’t be too surprised when a nerf follows after.
Or as French philosopher François de la Rochefoucauld said…
The only thing constant in life is change.
