One of the major selections when creating your World of Warcraft main character or  new alternate characters is the choice of what race to make your character.  Some races have distinct gold making benefits (especially the goblin race), while others have bonuses to primary or secondary professions.  Let’s take a look at the racial bonuses of each race that relate to gold making in World of Warcraft.

WoW Racial Traits

Note:  I am not listing all racial traits, just the ones that relate to farming, professions, and gold making.

Blood Elf – Arcane Affinity – Increases Enchanting Skill by +10

Draenei – Gem Cutting – Increases Jewelcrafting Skill by +10

Dwarf – Explorer – Faster Archaelogy Surveying Speed & Find Extra Fragments At Dig Sites (an extra +15%)

Gnome - Engineering Specialization – Increases Engineering Skill by +15

Goblin – Best Deals Anywhere – All vendors that have an associated reputation level sell to you as if you were Exhalted (20% off) and Better Living Through Chemistry – Increases Alchemy Skill by +15

Human – Diplomacy – Increases Reputation Gains by 10% (Allows For Faster Acquiring of Repuation Recipes)

Night Elf - N/A

Orc – N/A

Tauren – Cultivation – Increases Herbalism Skill by +15 & You Pick Herbs Faster

Troll – Beast Slaying – Increases Damage To Beasts by +5% (Allows For Faster Farming Of Beasts For Skinning)

Undead – N/A

Worgen – Flayer – Increases Skinning Skill by +15 and Allows For Faster Skinning Speed

So depending on the race you select, you could get a +10 or +15 skill point bonus to the Skinning, Herbalism, Alchemy, Engineering, Or Jewelcrafting Skills.  Does that extra bonus to your profession skill really matter? 

Do The Racial Profession Skill Bonuses Matter?

Sometimes they do matter, but usually they don’t.  Having a racial trait profession bonus is beneficial for your professions as you are leveling them to max.  Once the profession is at maxed skill, the bonuses are for the most part useless.  Example:  Your Blood Elf enchanter is above level 75 character level and his Enchanting skill is maxed at 535 (525 max skill + 10 racial bonus).  You get no benefit at maxed level, since there are no enchants that require higher than the maximum skill of 525.

The racial profession bonuses do help while leveling the profession, as you get access to better item recipes faster or, in the case of a gathering profession, you get to skin or herb higher levels faster than you would without the bonus.  Yet again, this bonus is mostly worthless at maxed level.  The secondary benefits of the Flayer (for skinning) and Cultivation (for herbalism) that increase collection speed do continue to be a benefit beyond maxed level.  They are also useful as there are mobs that need higher than skill level 525 to collect their skins, but a simple Gatherer enchant will help any character without the racial bonus.  Engineers can also “mechanical skin” high level mobs.  Currently only a maxed level Gnome Engineer can “mechanical skin” some of the higher end mobs in current Cataclsym Heroic content as they are the only race with the skill over 525.

The one major bonus of the racial trait profession bonuses is for twinking.  A twink is an uber geared out low level PvP alt character that hunts other low level players within the lower level battlegrounds.  Having +15 Engineering as a twink allows access to some extra gear and gadgets from the Engineering profession at a lower PvP bracket than usually found.  This can be a nice advantage in PvP.

So you don’t really have to pick the race that has the racial trait profession bonus associated with the profession you are shooting for.  Picking a race for the gathering bonuses tend to outweigh picking one for just a bonus to the maximum profession skill.