Azeroth Survivors Best Race

What a racial actually is

Every race carries one racial ability and one to three passives. The picker marks the ability as racial, casts on its own: it fires on its cooldown like a second class spell, so it keeps working while you move, kite and pick cards. The passives are flat modifiers to health, damage, movement, gold or luck, printed with their exact values. Read the numbers in the table above rather than the flavour text: 15% health is 15% health on a 245 health Paladin and on a 165 health Warlock.

Tauren — take this first

Endurance is the biggest defensive trait in the game at 15% maximum health. On a Paladin that is roughly 37 extra health, and unlike a shield it is not on a timer, so it is there at the start of the fight and still there when the pack closes around you.

War Stomp is the other half. A two second stun on a fifteen second cooldown is the shortest cooldown of any racial, which makes it a tool you use several times per boss rather than a panic button you save. Stun the pack, walk out of the ring, let Consecration keep ticking. If you are still deciding who to play, read the azeroth survivors best class page first: the race is a modifier, the class is the run.

Dwarf — the runner-up

Stoneform absorbs 30% of your maximum health every forty-five seconds. Against a single boss mechanic that is a bigger save than Tauren's health bonus, and Gun Specialization adds 6% damage on top, which is more than any other race gets from a passive. Treasure Finding adds 30% pickup range, and pickup range is the quiet quality-of-life stat: caches and gold get collected while you keep moving instead of pulling you off your route.

The reason Dwarf is second and not first is the cooldown. Forty-five seconds means one Stoneform per boss, and if you spend it on a wave instead of on the mechanic that kills you, you have nothing left. Tauren's health cannot be spent at the wrong moment.

Undead and Night Elf — the races that cheat death

Undead carries Will of the Forsaken: near death, four seconds of immunity on a sixty second cooldown, the longest immunity window of any race. Add Cannibalize, which heals 1 health per kill, and Shadow Resistance at 4% damage reduction, and Undead is the race to take when you know exactly which mechanic kills you and want one free escape from it.

Night Elf is the same idea with a shorter window and a shorter wait: three seconds of immunity on a seventy-five second cooldown, plus 8% movement speed and 5% damage reduction. Quickness is the trait to notice. Movement speed is the stat that keeps you out of the situation where you need Shadowmeld at all.

Orc and Troll — the damage picks

Orc is Blood Fury, 35% damage for twelve seconds out of every forty, and Hardiness at 10% maximum health. That is close to a 10% average damage gain on top of a defensive passive, which makes Orc the best race for a player who has stopped dying and started counting time.

Troll runs on cooldowns instead of raw damage: Berserking makes cooldowns recover 30% faster for ten seconds every thirty-five seconds, Regeneration heals 1.5 health per second, and Throwing Specialization adds 3% critical strike. Regeneration is easy to underestimate. Over a sixteen minute run it is well over a thousand health of healing that costs you no card pick.

Gnome and Human — the farming picks

Gnome is the luck pick: Engineering Specialization adds 20% luck, and the game's own tooltip defines luck as better odds of rarer upgrades when you level up. Expansive Mind cuts cooldowns by 8%, and Escape Artist roots nearby enemies for two seconds every twenty seconds. If you are chasing a specific card rarity on a class you already clear with, this is the race.

Human is the economy pick. Diplomacy pays 20% more gold, The Human Spirit pays 10% more experience, and Perception adds 15% damage for ten seconds out of every thirty. It is the weakest of the eight in a straight fight and the fastest at buying armory upgrades.

Does the race matter as much as the class?

No. A bad class pick loses more runs than a bad race pick, because health and the opening spell decide whether you survive the first three minutes. Pick Tauren on the class you intend to learn, and once you have cleared Elwynn Forest, the choice is free to change: the azeroth survivors guide lists the twelve zones in unlock order, and the azeroth survivors difficulty and Heroic ranks are where the health bonus starts to matter most.