The year is 2025, and Redguard remains solidly in the position of worst racial passives for 8 years in a row. ZOS has shown that they are not afraid to introducing sweeping changes and rebalancing even in the face of controversy. This is made clear by the upcoming subclassing changes which will be the biggest update seen since hybridization. Yet for some reason, ZOS refuses to even give a passing thought to racial passives despite how certain races have been left in the dust since 2017.
With subclassing in effect, ZOS has made it possible for players to be less limited and pigeon-holed by their classes by adopting the skills and passives of another class. The class that a player chose in character creation will no longer inhibit their ability to play a certain role effectively. For example, a healer who may have felt that they were held back for having picked Dragonknight can now subclass into Warden and have an easier time fulfilling their role. Essentially, everyone regardless of base class has almost equal potential in effectively playing any playstyle. The purpose of subclassing and hybridization, according to ZOS themselves, is to keep true to their motto: "play how you want". Zenimax's lack of regard for racial passives does NOT reflect this.
Certain races are pigeon-holed by their passives: Breton is only really useful for a magicka builds; Bosmer and Redguard are only useful for stamina characters. This is in direct opposition to the "play how you want" philosophy. Racial passives can very much limit how effective someone can be in a particular playstyle, and Redguards in particular have NO playstyle in which they excel compared to other races.
Here's a recap from my old post that is just as relevant as ever:
Tank:
Adrenaline Rush allows Redguards to regain stamina through block which can be useful in permablocking fights, however this pretty much sums up the pros versus the several cons when picking Redguard over another race. Every other races has some sort of defensive passive whether it be resistance to a specific type of damage, a little bit of extra max health or health recovery, or straight up a bonus to resistance in general (Nord). Redguard gets snare resistance, which does NOTHING to improve their tankiness; in other words, they are THE SQUISHIEST race. Other races, specifically Nord and Imperial have ultigen/ult-cost reduction that contribute to group utility through better buff uptimes, and which indirectly contribute to sustain if playing a DK tank where ulting restores a portion of every resource. Argonian likewise offers sustain to all resource pools. Redguard passives pigeon-hole them into purely stam sustain specs in a role where magicka skills are abundant for self healing and buffing, and on top of that they offer no group utility.
Healer:
The healer role is one of the few areas in the game where investing in sustain is important. Redguard's 8% weapon skill cost reduction may help a little bit in this department by reducing the mag cost of the commonly used healer skills Illustrious Springs, Radiating Regen, Combat Prayer, and Wall of Elements, but this accounts for less than half of the skills in a healer's arsenal. In regards to sustain, both Imperial and especially Breton leave Redguard in the dust, not to mention that Redguard has no bonus for maximum magicka and nothing that might boost the strength of their heals. Suffice to say that Redguard passives contribute almost nothing to a healer.
DPS:
DPS do not need to invest in their own sustain because it is generally provided to them from an outside source (support roles in content and by the trial dummy when parsing). Building for damage is best because the shorter the fight, the less need for endurance there is. Redguards have absolutely zero damage passives, meanwhile Altmer, Dunmer, and Orc get the equivalent of an infused weapon/spell damage jewelry enchant that can be further buffed with major/minor brutality. With buffs, this ends up being being over 300 weap/spell damage, which isn't at all insignificant: it's basically a Hunding's Rage or Julianos' 5th piece bonus for free at all times. This bonus has become even more significant since the change to proc sets that cause their damage to scale with stats. Their absolute lack of both damage and survivability passives makes Redguard the best at being the worst pick for DPS.
PvP:
Sustain is an important element in survivability in PvP, but Redguard sustain suffers heavily in this environment because of the way their stamina recovery is obtained. For starters, Redguard will only ever really benefit a stamina setup, making them an inflexible pick from them get-go: the 8% weapon skill cost reduction is just too niche as most builds will at most slot only a handful of weapon skills. Looking at the stamina sustain side of things, Adrenaline Rush seems to offer a pretty nice amount of recovery, right? Perhaps, if PvP involved 2 people parsing away at each other until one dies. Obviously, this is not the case. Half the battle in PvP involves running away, kiting around cover, dodging to avoid damage, etc. In these situations where your aren't hitting the enemy, arguably the time where you rely on sustain the most, Redguard gets nothing. Even in duels, the damage window is short compared to the amount of time spent healing, dodging, and buffing. For sustain in PvP, Imperial, Bosmer, and Breton are light-years ahead. If damage and tankiness are your preference in PvP, Redguard isn't even on the radar.
Edited by M4RSHM4LL0W_CL0UD on 21 May 2025 20:21
Are Redguards in an acceptable state? (2025 Edition) 69 votes
Yes, they are balanced compared to other races.
No, they are significantly weaker than other races.