WoW Forever: best Hunter race after the October racial changes

Quick answer

Pick Human on Alliance and Orc on Horde. Skyborne is the credible alternative on both sides since Wind Blessed tripled to 3% haste.

Why Human now: the old sword bonus did nothing for bows and guns; Ruthless gives 2% crit to all attacks. Blizzard also fixed pets so they inherit the higher of your melee or ranged crit chance.

What the October 15 racial changes mean for Hunter

Values from Blizzard’s October 15 beta notes, checked against the Forever tooltips on Wowhead. Blizzard may still tune the game before launch on November 4.

Human — Ruthless

+2% critical strike chance with all spells and attacks. Replaces Sword Specialization: no sword required.

Skyborne — Wind Blessed

Permanent melee, ranged and spellcasting haste raised to 3% (was 1%).

Orc — Savage, Blood Fury

Savage: +1% critical strike chance with all spells and abilities, replacing Axe Specialization. Blood Fury: +10% attack and spell power for 15 s, cooldown raised to 3 min (was 2).

Dwarf — Earth Fury

+2% critical strike bonus to damage and healing. Replaces Mace Specialization. It raises the size of crits, not their chance.

Night Elf — Elune's Light

Not changed on October 15: +10% critical strike chance for 15 s every 3 min. Quickness speed now stacks with other speed bonuses.

Alliance races for Hunter

Horde races for Hunter

By specialization, and what we cannot measure

Human or Skyborne, Orc or Skyborne: crit against haste is the real question, and no measured comparison exists yet. Another change in the same patch: Auto Shot now requires you to stand still for 0.5 s.

We do not claim that Night Elf’s Elune’s Light transfers to the pet: the tooltip only mentions your own crit chance.