Kheldul's Hunter DPS Tip #22: The Skin Is Always Greener

Tip #22: The Skin Is Always Greener
Right now you can login to your account and change your race (or faction). Some races are just plain ole' better for PvE Hunter DPS. Before you do this, you'll want to do some research. Below are the racial abilities that benefit you in PvE:

Orc - Pet +5% Damage, 322AP
Troll - +5% vs Beasts, +20% Attack Speed, +1% Crit with Bows
Blood Elf - mana refund
Tauren - nada

Dwarf - +1% Crit with Guns
Draenei - guaranteed Draenei in your group
Night Elf - nada

The Orc and Troll racials are actually pretty close. Orcs abilities look great. They have a free trinket and large pet damage boost. If they're BM then that boost is a nice huge offset to the penalty of being BM. ;-) The Troll's +20% Attack Speed is a multiplier on top of any haste effects. (It's not additive.) So if you pop it when you're under other haste effects then you'll have an additional 1.2 multiplier to that boosted damage. And if they're fighting beast bosses then they're in the money. Blood Elves and Tauren have more PvP related specials. And they aren't green.

The Draenei hit aura is a beautiful thing. But to be fair, you could essentially add that ability to Dwarves and Night Elves for the purposes of comparison. It's why Alliance let space goats raid with them after all. So that leaves Dwarves as the best choice for Alliance hunters in terms of base PvE benefits. Night Elves lack PvE buffs in favor of some PvP abilities.

When Cataclysm lands, all races (both Horde and Alliance) will be able to be hunters except Gnomes.

So who should you switch to? The big three are Orcs, Trolls, and Dwarves. And they're pretty much ranked in that order. That shouldn't be your only criteria of course. Super hard core raiders might disagree. No matter what, it's good to know what some of the benefits of a transmogrification would be. I may end up switching an alt, but I can't see changing my main's race. Characters take on a personally that is tied to how they look. But if you're already looking for a change, a couple hundred extra DPS isn't anything to sneeze at.