Paladins are holy warriors, wielding the light and exacting vengeance on all who commit wrongful deeds. They are a blend between a traditional warrior and a priest, not only capable of dishing out incredible damage, but also using powerful healing spells to help their allies. This makes Paladins very versatile in all aspects of the game.
When the game first launched, Paladins used to be Alliance-only, where only Humans and Dwarves could be chosen as a starting race. Nowadays, not only can both factions choose Paladins, but the number of available races has increased drastically. Today, Paladins can choose between 8 available races and enjoy a wide range of powerful racial traits.
If you’re interested in learning what the WoW best races for Paladins are, then stick around as we explore all the available races for Paladins in World of Warcraft.
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Retribution Paladin
Retribution Paladins hit hard, have strong instant heals, and powerful shields to keep them alive in the thick of battle. They’re one of the strongest hybrid specializations, focusing on heavy burst damage to take down their foes swiftly.
Alliance Retribution Paladins can’t go wrong with Humans. The Will to Survive racial ability is too good to pass up, allowing Paladins to cleanse stuns for free, while allowing them to equip a second dps trinket for even more burst. It’s the best race for Alliance Retribution paladins for both PvE and PvP.
Horde players will want to go with Zandalari Trolls. This race offers powerful buffs with Embrace of the Loa, while also giving Retribution Paladins another heal in the form of Regeneratin’. Oh, and they look incredible in all the WoW transmog sets for Paladins.
Blood Elves are a strong second choice for their Arcane Torrent skill, which essentially works as an AoE dispel on a 2-minute cooldown. It can help in many situations.
Protection Paladin
Protection Paladins are all about shielding and mitigating damage, as well as protecting your raid and party members through powerful cooldowns.
If you’re playing a Protection Paladin on the Alliance side, you’ll probably want to consider picking Dwarf for the Stoneform skill. Stoneform removes almost every debuff in the game and provides a solid damage reduction boost for 8 seconds. You can add Stoneform to your already impressive arsenal and be an even stronger tank in every situation.
Horde Protection Paladins usually go with Tauren as their go-to choice. Tauren are massive in size and have some great racial traits for tanks, such as Endurance and War Stomp. Endurance boosts your stamina based on your level, while War Stomp acts as an AoE stun, perfect for crowd controlling large groups of mobs in Mythic+ and WoW raids.
Holy Paladin
Holy Paladins are some of the best healers in the game. Unlike other healers who usually stand in the back and heal from a safe distance, Holy Paladins like to get up close to use their most powerful healing spells. They also do solid damage, making them an excellent pick for Mythic+ speed runs.
For Alliance Holy Paladins, the best option is the Dark Iron Dwarf. These dwarves have some seriously powerful racial traits that can help Holy Paladins do their job well.
Fireblood is a strong 2-minute cooldown that removes all debuffs and boosts the player’s main stat by a significant amount. This is both a defensive and an offensive cooldown for Holy Paladins, and great in almost every scenario. Dungeon Delver and Forged in Flames are both solid traits, since they give a 4% movement speed while indoors, and reduce damage taken from physical attacks by 1%.
Horde Holy Paladins will probably want to use Zandalari Trolls for their extra heal and powerful buffs. Tauren will also work well since Holy Paladins often find themselves in melee range, so they can help their team with a well-placed War Stomp to keep up the cc chain in Mythic+ WoW dungeons.
Pick Your Favorite Paladin Race
These were some of our favorite picks for different Paladin specs, but some of them might not work for you. It’s important you test all the races and see which ones work best for your Paladin.
Maybe you’re a fan of Draenei and really like their looks, or even Lightforged Draenei. In this case, our advice would be to follow your gut instinct and go with whatever feels better to you. If you don’t like the look of your character, then you probably won’t care for their racial abilities either.
Hopefully this guide has given you a general idea of what each Paladin race is capable of. Now go out there and try them all out, and make your own perfect Paladin character.
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