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1. GNOME
Key Factors: Escape Artist
Unpopular among lore lovers, the Gnome Deathknight is my choice for the best on Alliance. Escape Artist, as a root/snare remover, is one of those active-use abilities like WotF that can completely turn the tables and win a game for you if used at the right time. Death Knights do have a few ranged skills, but they are still basically a melee class and kiting is their biggest enemy; an extra root/snare breaker is fantastic.
2. HUMAN
Key Factors: Perception, Every Man For Himself, Sword Specialization
Perception has changed from an active mega-buff to a passive effect that offers only a tiny boost to stealth detection. It has lost its uber-ness, but it may still help you every once in a while against those pesky Rogues and Druids. The expertise from Sword Specialization is another extremely minor passive factor, but missed attacks are missed attacks -- it's good to have as few of them as possible. The real story here is "Every Man For Himself," which operates as a PvP trinket replacement and basically gives a Human DK the flexibility to go with any two trinkets he wishes. Using two purely offensive trinkets may be quite useful depending on the situation, and that will only be an option for Humans.
3. DWARF
Key Factors: Stoneform
The addition of Deathknights and disease-based gameplay has given a little buff to the dwarf racial, which removes all poison/bleed/disease and grants immunity for 8 seconds. On top of the diseases, Blizzard has tried to buff poisons for rogues and bleed effects in general in WotLK, so this one will definitely come in handy. It won't be useful in every matchup, but you'll still get some wins from this ability. A little less flexible than the Human racial, so we rate it lower, but not by a ton.
4. NIGHT ELF
Key Factors: Shadowmeld
Thanks to Lusitania for hinting to me that Shadowmeld is now usable in combat! Hunter veterans (who hasn't played a hunter?) will testify to the usefulness of this Feign Death-style mechanic for interrupting incoming damage or CC spells, albeit on a 2 min cooldown. This has mainly defensive applications, but it's good enough to put Night Elves almost dead even with Dwarf on the Alliance list.
5. DRAENEI
Key Factors: Gift of the Naaru, Heroic Presence
Not the best choice if you're interested in being competitive in PvP. You will almost never end up getting yourself a win because you had Gift of the Naaru, so another racial (from the list above) is always going to be better. Deathknights already have some self-healing abilities which are all better than GotN; the one upside is that you can potentially help your teammates with the passive hit chance racial. Avoid this race for your DK!
