For a lot of players PVP is the most fun–and important–part of World of Warcraft. Out of the six races available to WoW monks, all will inevitably make for a good PVP experience if you’re having fun, but each of the races abilities can provide a useful or almost useless edge in the battleground or arena. Here’s a quick look at the races and how their abilities affect the PVP monk.

• Blood elf: Arcane Resistance will provide you with a slight reduction in damage from some of the abilities of Arcane Mages, Hunters and Druids. The difference in damage is small, but there is a slim chance it could help you in a difficult situation. Arcane Torrent is a small AOE silence that restores some rage, energy or mana and can act as a backup interrupt behind the monk’s primary one. It will be useful from time to time, but not hugely.

• Forsaken: The small amount of shadow resistance, like the resistances other races possess, is rarely noticeable and highly situational. It a plus to have it, but not a big one. Will of the Forsaken is a mini-trinket on a two minute cooldown that only removes fear, charm and sleep. It definitely has it uses against Priests, and to a lesser extent, Warriors, so it will be of use from time to time. Perhaps moreso in an arena than a battleground. Cannibalism is close to useless in PVP because your enemies will rarely give you a chance to use it in the midst of combat and if they’re not around you won’t need it anyway. On the other hand, Touch of the Grave has immense potential in any PVP setting, but will likely see some nerfing to bring it in line with the others. Even so, it could be quite helpful in the heat of battle, adding to both survival and sustained DPS.

• Orc: Blood Fury and Hardiness are the only useful PVP traits for Orcs. Blood Fury will provide you with a short term damage increase, and Hardiness will allow you to break stuns slightly more quickly than others. Six second stuns aren’t uncommon in PVP and can seem like an eternity when you’re getting beat down, so shaving off a second can be a life saver.

• Pandaren: Pandarens have a little usefulness in PVP, but that’s covered elsewhere so I’ll move this along.

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• Tauren: Like a few other races, Taurens have a resistance. In their case it’s Nature which is also minorly useful. The extra health provided by Endurance is never something you should ignore even if it’s only a small amount. Having said that, a level 85 in good PVP gear could have over 140k hit points and 5% more would add on 7k. Not too shabby at all. War stomp is a nice AOE stun that you can use to interrupt, beatdown or flee a little. It’s also extra annoying in crowds and you can’t put a price on annoying your enemies.

• Troll: Three troll racials are of some use in PVP, four if you count the extra damage on beasts which only comes into play against Hunter pets, but I’ll ignore it here. Da Voodoo Shuffle knocks a little time off of snares and they are extremely plentiful in PVP, especially battlegrounds. It may save your hide more than once or it may not. Worth having though.  Regeneration is something you may not notice in combat since players can put out an obscene amount of damage. Whether this is addressed in Mists with larger health pools at the end game is unknown, so its usefulness is open for debate. Berserking is a nice ability you can macro into your burst damage cooldowns for a little extra oomph. It can be useful at times, but given the amount of stuns and slows you may find it wasted from time to time. In my opinion it’s better to have an extra stun of your own or something passive.

All in all, I’m going to have to go with Forsaken again if the drain trait pans out well. However, if it gets nerfed into the ground, then I think Taurens or perhaps Orcs will be your best bet.

Before you begin your WoW monk leveling, you’ll need to choose a race. And if PVP is at all important to you, it can actually make a difference which race you choose. While you can succeed in PVP with any race, there’s actually quite a disparity between racials when it comes to their benefits in Player-vs-Player combat. Let’s examine them race by race.

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• Draenei: Sadly, none of their racials are all that useful in PVP. Shadow Resistance helps some vs. shadow priests, warlocks, death knights and–minorly–hunters. Heroic Presence gives you a slightly higher chance to hit, which is always nice, but never game-changing. Of all of them, Gift of the Naaru might save your life once or twice, especially if you take advantage of the fact that it’s not on the Global Cooldown. This means that if you create a hotkey with Gift of the Naaru and another heal, you can basically set them both off at once, which really could save you.

• Dwarf: Like the Draenei traits, dwarves have not got a lot of strong racials for PVP. Frost resistance helps vs. frost mages, frost death knights, shaman and the infrequent hunter trap. Mace specialization helps penetrate defenses a bit better. The best is Stoneform, which can be quite nice if you’re fighting a melee class (see: warriors, rogues, death knights, feral druids, and even other monks). Just pop it on and you’re free of debilitating physical effects!

• Gnome: Gnomes are fortunate to have one very useful racial (as well as three lesser ones). To start from the bottom, Arcane Resistance will help against arcane mages, and to a lesser extent against druids and hunters. If you use a sword, Shortblade Specialization will help you hit a bit more often. Expansive Mind is less useful than in PVE, because you’re not likely to run out of mana before you die in PVP. Still, it’s always better to have more mana (especially if you’re a Mistweaver and being mana burned by a priest). Until you get a trinket, though, Escape Artist will be your friend. It frees you from roots and slows, which you’ll find are on you almost all the time when fighting a warrior, druid or rogue. Plus, it’s on a 1:45 cooldown, which is shorter than any trinket you can buy.

• Human: While not as universally useful as in PVE, humans still get the best PVP racial: Every Man For Himself. It’s basically the equivalent of having a free 2-minute cooldown trinket from level 1, and you should have it hotkeyed immediately, because you’ll be using it all the time. Even better, having it frees up the trinket slot that would otherwise be taken by the PVP trinket, so you’ve got space for two more useful trinkets. Immensely helpful once you hit 90. Oh, and the other racials–The Human Spirit and Mace and Sword Specialization–are all okay. If you’re a Mistweaver, The Human Spirit can help you regen mana faster. And since monks can use maces and swords, there’s some versatility there, too.

• Night elf: There isn’t a lot going for night elves in PVP. Shadowmeld can be handy for forcing an enemy to lose target on you, but if they’re in melee range, they can just pop off an AOE and drop you out of shadowmeld. It’s slightly more useful when fighting a caster, since they have to run up to you before they can cast the AOE. Elusiveness doesn’t really help here, since your enemies are unlikely to forget where you were just a second ago.  Wisp Spirit only has use in world PVP, where you could have an advantage if you get to your corpse and spawn faster. Nature Resistance offers some help with shaman, druids, hunter stings and rogue poisons. Quickness is probably the best racial, offering a 2% dodge rate that stacks with other monk dodging benefits.

• Pandaren: The new race has got a few things to recommend them. Epicurean can be nice in world PVP if you’re always diligent about eating. You can also use it in battlegrounds, though it’s unlikely to stay on you once you leave the starting area unless you’ve got a great team and never die, or you alone are just good enough that you never die. If you’re leveling, Inner Peace can help that go faster, since you get experience from world PVP and battlegrounds. Bouncy can be nice if you get thrown off the edge of something (see: lumbermill in Arathi Basin) by a druid or shaman. In world PVP and battlegrounds, it’s definitely situational. Probably the best racial Pandarens are endowed with is Quaking Palm.  A four second stun? That’s always going to be useful.

So, which race is the best? As with PVE, I’m going to have to say human. Every Man For Himself is simply excellent, and you’ll continue to use it once you hit 90 and can equip two stat trinkets, which is one more than everyone else.

But if we’re accounting for studliness, it’s hard to imagine anything more awesome than a gnomish flying serpent kick. Seriously.