Assassination Rogue PvP Best Races and Racials — The War Within (11.1.0)

1. Night Elf
2. Human

Night Elf is the best race by far on Alliance. The active racial ability, Shadowmeld has great synergy with the Rogue class. Not only can you use it to immune incoming crowd control or to immune a dangerous cast, but you can also simply use it to leave combat and gain Stealth in the midst of combat. This can be used offensively to gain Subterfuge as well as Master Assassin and immediately attack from Stealth, or defensively to escape a dangerous situation. Being a Night Elf also provides you with two noteworthy passive abilities, Quickness, that grants you 2% extra movement speed and 2% dodge chance, and Touch of Elune, that increases either your Haste or Critical Strike by 1%, depending on whether it is night or day.

Human is the second-best race on Alliance. The active racial ability, Will to Survive, allows you to break free of a stun once every 3 minutes, effectively acting as a second trinket, but only for stuns. Even though it shares its 1.5min cooldown with the regular trinket, it still allows you to get out of stuns more often than any other race. The passive racial ability, The Human Spirit, increasing all secondary stats by a small amount.

1. Orc
2. Blood Elf

Orc is the best race on Horde. The active racial ability, Blood Fury, increases your attack power by a substantial amount when used. It is a nice addition to your burst. However, Orcs truly shine for their passive racial ability, Hardiness. This passive will reduce the duration of all incoming stuns by 20% at all times. Even though this passive is now worse than before, because the PvP trinket set bonus already reduces the duration of incoming CC and doesn't stack with Hardiness, it is still a little less time spent in stuns.

Blood Elf is the second-best race on Horde. The active racial ability, Arcane Torrent, restores 15 Energy and purges one magical beneficial effect from all enemies within 8 yards. This can be used to remove spells such as Alter Time, Blessing of Protection, or other key abilities, allowing you to kill your target when they think themselves out of danger. It is very situational, but powerful nonetheless.