The monk races

With the upcoming expansion Mists of Pandaria one of my most favorite types of class is coming. The monk is by far the type of class I most connect with. I don't know why. Perhaps it's because I fell in love with it back in Everquest about 10 years ago.

So today I wanted to go over some basics. The races available to become monks come 5.0.

For the Alliance we have: Pandaren, Dwarf, Human, Draenei, Gnome and Night Elf
For the Horde we have: Pandaren, Blood Elf, Tauren, Orc, Troll and Forsaken.

Now of course we'll take a look at what racial abilities (theoretically for now) will have the most to offer the upcoming Apprentice Monks.

Pandaren:

• Epicurean - 100% bonus to stats acquired from food
• The rest seems like they would be quite useful. Like Inner Peace for the levelers that are going to take their time, but for anyone pushing to get that monk up to 90 fast won't be leveling with the xp bonus active anyway. Quaking Palm seems rather weak at a whole 3 seconds of CC.

Alliance:
Dwarves:

• Mace Specialization - The increased expertise off Mace spec is really the only benefit a Dwarven monk would have from racials. This would also only extend to DPS monks as 2h-maces are not on the list for Tanking Monks.

Humans:

• Sword and Mace Specialization - Same as the Dwarves above this is for the DPS Monks out there but benefits both 1h swords and 1h maces instead of just maces.
• Every Man For Himself and Diplomacy are both very nice bonus abilities as well.

Draenei:

• Heroic Presence - The 1% hit rating may seem minor but the amount of hit that it's going to take for 1% at level 90 may turn into quite a benefit to other secondary stats.
• The Gift of the Naaru is another one of the bonus racial abilities that are nice to have but won't be something to base the choice of race from.

Gnomes:

• Expansive Mind - Increased Mana pool size. Obviously only a benefit to the Healing Monks, the advantage of an increased base mana pool is going to be based on how any mana regen skills for Monks works, whether off spirit or % based.

Night Elves:

• Quickness - 2% increased chance to be missed when attacked. Benefits to the Tanking Monks here.

Horde:
Blood Elves:

• Arcane Torrent - An extra silence and will likely restore some Chi. Silence abilities are always a nice bonus but this would only turn into a slight DPS/Threat increase.

 Tauren:

• Warstomp and Endurance make Tauren racials a great fit for Tanking Monks in a utility standpoint.

Forsaken:

• Will of the Forsaken has been a key utility ability for a very long time. Cannibalize might assist in the leveling process but it would be of very small utility.

Orc:

• Blood Fury - On demand Attack Power increase, great for DPS monks.
• Axe specialization - Expertise bonuse for Axes, also great for DPS monks.

Troll:

• Berserking - Increased attack speed has always been one of the better racials for DPS classes of all kinds.

In the end however the most important thing to think of when choosing a race is how it feels to you. If it feels right and it's fun to you, that's absolutely the most important aspect. I myself am not sure yet what I'm going to choose. Pandaren seems like such a default easy answer, but I've realized I really like Night Elf animations. I guess we'll see once the beta kicks in and we can have a real look at the animations.