Protection Warrior PvP Best Races and Racials — The War Within (11.1.0)

1. Gnome
2. Night elf
3. Human
4. Dwarf / Dark Iron Dwarf

Gnome is competitively the best because of Escape Artist, allowing you to frequently break roots, which is one of Arms Warrior's greatest counters. Expansive Mind is a very minor bonus, and does not offer a lot for Protection Warrior.

Night Elf is incredibly strong and competitive with Gnome thanks to Shadowmeld, which can turn you invulnerable for a brief moment against any attack or CC. The passive stat increases from Nature Resistance and Touch of Elune are very minor and hardly matter.

Since the removal of Relentless, human fell off greatly, but is still a viable race to pick. Will to Survive is usable 30 seconds earlier than your trinket comes off of cooldown, allowing you to have a second cleanse for stuns ready roughly 1 cycle of Diminishing Returns before any other race does. Additionally, The Human Spirit is a decent increase to your secondary stats.

Dwarven races see viability in metas that include a lot of bleed and poison damage, such as Feral Druid or Assassination Rogue meta, or metas that include vital magic debuffs. Fireblood and Stoneform share a 30-second cooldown with your PvP trinket, which hinders this race from being a competitive pick outside of these niche metas.

1. Orc
2. Blood Elf

Orc is the best race on Horde because of Hardiness, making you more effective against stuns. You gain a good amount of primary stat from Blood Fury, and is off the global cooldown, so use it together with Avatar for extra burst.

Blood Elves are primarily picked because of Arcane Torrent, which can purge off important buffs like Blessing of Protection or Nature's Swiftness. Blood Elf is not a very strong alternative to Orc, but somewhat viable competitively.