You have three choices to consider depending on if you choose to play horde or alliance.

• Racials that have no effect on the mage class
• Racials that have no effect on combat mechanics

What to Choose?

Each race has it’s own benefits, so its hard to say that there is any one race which dominates above all. When choosing a race you have to ask yourself two questions “What are the most valuable abilities for me?” and “What do I really want to play?”. What race you choose should depend largely on what your going to be happy seeing day after day and as a secondary something that will be advantageous to your class.

PvP

When it comes to PvP mobility is King. As a squishy class you want to avoid melee contact with any other class as much as possible and to do that you need to be able to first keep your attackers at bay and second slip out of any snare, stun or crowd control effects they can place on you.

My Alliance Choice

Human – when it comes to Alliance for the racials Perception and Everyman for Himself. Perception is a great talent for seeing rogues and feral druids before they can get in too close to cause real damage (and believe me they will). Every Man for Himself is in my opinion probably one of the best racials available as it gives you a free get out of jail card once every two minutes and it frees up a trinket slot which would normally be used for the Alliance or Horde PvP trinket (same abilities and shared cooldown).

My Horde Choice

Blood Elf – though undead is a close second. The blood elf Arcane Torrent is an AoE silence effect and having an extra counter-spell is broken in PvP. The Magic resistance is also a nice bonus. Now by comparison the undead (which use to be my race of choice) have Will of the Forsaken and Cannibalize. Will of the Forsaken is not as good as it once was mostly because it use to grant immunity to charm sleep and fear effects for a brief duration now it simply removes them. Cannibalize however is still a great utility racial for gaining back a nice chunk of health in a pinch (mostly in battlegrounds).

PvE

In PvE your looking for any kind of edge to boost your cast speed, dps, or stats. When your leveling you will have to kite mobs around but in a raiding environment the main tank “should be” attracting the mobs or boss’s attention, leaving you free to dps. Mobility is not as critical since mobs are generally more forgiving than players in a combat situation though it still remains your bread and butter.

My Alliance Choice

Draenei – For one they have a racial heal over time spell which they can cast on anyone and two they have a party wide aura that increases melee and spell hit. With these powers combined they make the best candidate for the aspiring raid mage.

My Horde Choice

Trolls - there are a number of nice racials which make Trolls attractive, first while leveling there is the damage bonus vs beasts. Berserking can bump up your casting speed by 10% – 30% though usually its only going to be 10% unless your taking damage. Regeneration lets you gain health back even while in combat, granted its not a lot but still they are the only race capable of doing that without gear to support it. Last of all movement impairing effects on you are shortened in duration by 15%

Conclusion?

The bottom line is play what makes you happy, while all these racials can give you a unique spin or ability that comes in handy the truth is that none of them will make or break your class. Choose to play what you want to rather than because you heard it was “the race to play” you will be happier in the long run.