Best races for Shamans in WoW Dragonflight

Shamans in World of Warcraft Dragonflight have three specs—Elemental, Enhancement, and Restoration. While the first two are DPS specs, Restoration is a healer spec focused on raid healing and damage mitigation. In this day and age of WoW, the races don’t play a huge role, but you can min-max it to get an edge over your enemies.

Generally speaking, each Shaman spec, although quite unique in their playstyles, loves the same stats—Critical Strike and Haste. It’s important to note that the primary stats are a bit different and Enhancement loves Agility, while Restoration and Elemental Shamans are always on the hunt for more Intellect. The best races will primarily depend on the type of activity you plan on doing, whether that’s PvP or PvE.

Here’s an in-depth guide discussing the best races for Shamans in Dragonflight.

What are the best races for Shamans in WoW Dragonflight?

Dwarf

My first option as a long-standing Shaman main is always Dwarf because of their racial, Might of the Mountain, which increases your Critical Strike bonus damage and healing by two percent.

Since Shamans’ favorite secondary stat is Critical Strike, they always put this passive to good use. Besides that, the Stoneform passive, which removes all poison, disease, curse, magic, and bleed effects, and reduces physical damage taken by 10 percent is an excellent button to press in both Mythic+ dungeons and Rated Arenas.

Tauren

Although this is my least favorite race, it’s still one of the best options for Shamans as a class. Not only do you get Critical Strike bonus damage and healing increased by two percent from Brawn, but you also get more Stamina from Endurance, and War Stomp, a stun for two seconds. 

Generally speaking, the two best options are Tauren and Dwarf because you get the most out of their racial abilities, and it boils down to your preference.

Dark Iron Dwarf

The main reason why you could opt for a Dark Iron Dwarf rather than a regular Dwarf when playing Shaman is the Fireblood racial ability. This ability can remove all poison, disease, curse, magic, and bleed effects, and, on top of that, it will increase your primary stat by 600 for each effect removed. While this may sound broken at first, this is one of the last-stand buttons that you press when you’re hoping you’ll survive the pull or encounter.

Besides that, Dark Iron Dwarves take one percent less damage from physical attacks due to the Forged in Flames passive.

Zandalari Troll

My favorite race for Shamans is definitely Zandalari Trolls. Not only is this the perfect race lore-wise for Shamans, but you get the Embrace of the Loa racial ability that allows you to choose between different buffs. The buffs you can get are quite different, but Embrace of Pa’ku goes best with Shamans’ play style because your abilities can grant you a whopping four percent Critical Strike for 12 seconds. 

Other racials aren’t game-breaking, and can always come in handy, but Embrace of the Loa is the main reason why you go Zandalari Troll.

Troll

Trolls are quite similar to Zandalari Trolls, but the reason why you might go the Darkspear Troll route is the Berserking ability that will serve you as your own Bloodlust effect. Berserking increases your Haste by 15 percent for 10 seconds and it’s at its best when paired with your biggest cooldowns.

Da Voodoo Shuffle reduced the duration of movement impairing effects by 20 percent and it will definitely come in handy in sticky situations, but it’s nothing revolutionary, and most of the time you won’t even notice this effect.