Does Race REALLY Matter?

AcadianPaladin

Does race matter? Of course it does. I only play Bosmer and would change games before changing race.

Seraphayel

Race in this game never mattered. Never. Only for the meta chasing crowd and 99% of that crowd are not limited or held back by their racial choice but by their own skill ceiling.

cyberjanet

One of the best tanks I know - that has completed vet progression trials, hardmode dungeons, you name it, he's done it - is a high elf sorcerer.

Does that answer your question?

Jaimeh

LightningWitch wrote: »

Race is irrelevant in the game, so it should be irrelevant to players.

I've seen "stamina based" Orcs perform necromancy.

I've seen "magicka based" high elves act as Night blades.

Luciana Pullo from Clockwork City ended up where she did by casting a bound sword and clashing it with a wood elf sorcerer.

This should be more than ample proof to verify the race is not important to the game.

It's only important to people who have 402 Excel spreadsheets with built-in calculation programs so that when something changes, they can tweak their meta builds just in time for a new Twitch stream.

I don't know why game NPCs made it to the conversation, but it's not an rrelevant matter to groups who are score pushing, because they have to optimize in every aspect, and racial passives do come into this (especially for DDs). For example, if they didn't optimize in this way, they wouldn't be able to pull off things like a 13 minute vBDV run, with all secret bosses, and other stuff like that, which is where these groups get their enjoyment of the game.

To the OP: for tanks it's much less important than DDs, especially if you're not pushing trifectas or scores, so you can choose pretty much anything, and make up for resistances/sustain/health in other ways.

Mojmir

Depends on what color your dunmers hair is

schoober

I can do +100k dps as a nord magblade. I've done all sort of vet hm content aswell.

Sealish

If you are asking this question, the answer is No. Every race will give you some benefit to whatever you are doing, and those bonuses will, though nice, not make or break you in any way.

Like others have said, having the perfect race for a build only matters at the very top end of the competitive scene, and anyone playing at that level has enough knowledge of the game systems and builds in general to already know the answer to this question. If you are heading towards this, you will likely start tailoring your race to your build far before it actually becomes a requirement.

Leftover_Pizza

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Well.... in a game like this there's going to be "meta". And if you expect to complete endgame content (outside something like the "family guilds" I ran in WoW and RIFT), you're going to have to "meet that meta". So.... up that creek without any means of locomotion probably....

My family guilds (which included a few long time gamer friends as well) didn't get real persnickety in those two games, because we'd all played for YEARS - and we all knew how to manage what needed to get done.

I don't know how things work in this game with the endgame content. No one else I know (eh, mostly) plays ESO, and I'm so done with endgame content (can't handle it any more due to age, crap reflexes, and no "handy family guild") so I just can't help you at all.

I hope you find a place to make you happy....

It can be a lot more fun to play non meta. I have sweet memories to ICC25HC when it was endgame, with 25 druids. Far from meta, but one of the best raids I've done in my entire WoW time.

Danel_Vadan

SydneyGrey wrote: »

You should choose Dunmer, then, out of the two, because Dunmer have both stamina and magicka. I can see a Dunmer dragonknight tank working quite nicely.

*Edit* They're also resistant to fire, which would help, too

And Altmer get resources back.

I believe that tanking is the most easygoing class race wise, so even at endgame it doesn't matter which you choose. Years ago one of the best tanks in the game was a Khajiit....

Troodon80

I'll go ahead and parrot what others have said in that race doesn't really matter outside of top tier end game. You'll get something different with each race, and while some are better than others for tanking it really comes down to subjectivity at the end of the day. If you pick a Dunmer, for example, you'll have an easier time respeccing your tank for slightly higher damage in content where a tank is not needed, or simply going the DPS tank route. Some with Altmer or Khajiit, even Orc. For some people, this would be a bonus. For others, the ultimate generation from Nord along with resistances would the selling point. Sustain from Argonian or Imperial would be the go-to from someone else.

RisenEclipse wrote: »

Now is being a WW something tanks do? Or is that more for the stam dps?

This, however, is something I've seen a lot of in my years of playing. Not many people have replied here regarding your question.

When I see it, I'm doing so from a healer or DD perspective and when it happens I tend to roll my eyes knowing full well that I'm going to be the tank for the rest of the dungeon. Unless you build to be a werewolf tank (using the Tormentor set for aggro when you leap), you'll be lacking a taunt. Remember that even if you taunt something and then do the transformation, a hard taunt only lasts 15 seconds. You might be able to keep aggro... or the boss/thing you're trying to kill might just go after someone else. You'll also be lacking much of the group support that various sets bring.

That doesn't mean you can't be a werewolf, though. You can be a werewolf and have the ultimate slotted for passives (While slotted, your Stamina Recovery is increased by 15%; bear in mind, stamina recovery is 0 when you're blocking, so that might not be as beneficial as it sounds) and simply not use it. If you're going werewolf for roleplay reasons and still want to be effective as a tank, go get the Tormentor set. With the set, you can also use Brutal Pounce as an AoE taunt in the same way you can use Stampede.

Gaebriel0410

Despite what some earlier poster with the Breton example claimed, my experiences are very different.
My main character is a Breton and I've never had any problems playing as either tank or stam dps offspec. Never had trouble in either PVE, PVP because of the race I chose, and when I die in any situation it's usually because it was me who was either stupid or slow to react, not because I had the wrong race or because I didn't follow xyz's build.

Time will absolutely not make 'casual' players into min max players, that's just something that some min max players like to think. None of the players I know who play the hardest trial content regularly (and successfully) care about 'optimal' races.

The need for optimal races in anything less than the most minmax super high score flawless farm runs is a fable propagated mostly by players who really want to be seen as elite gamers.

Castagere

LightningWitch wrote: »

Race is irrelevant in the game, so it should be irrelevant to players.

I've seen "stamina based" Orcs perform necromancy.

I've seen "magicka based" high elves act as Night blades.

Luciana Pullo from Clockwork City ended up where she did by casting a bound sword and clashing it with a wood elf sorcerer.

This should be more than ample proof to verify the race is not important to the game.

It's only important to people who have 402 Excel spreadsheets with built-in calculation programs so that when something changes, they can tweak their meta builds just in time for a new Twitch stream.

This 1000%
If you have no interest in group content or PVP then the game is really open for you to do whatever you want.

ESO_Nightingale

depends. if you care a ton about dps/sustain then yeah, it matters a lot in pvp too especially for certain classes that need sustain like magicka warden.

MEBengalsFan2001

If you plan to play a tank here are my rankings for each race based on my experience tanking with the various races. If I don't list a specific race it's because I don't think it is an optimal race to play as a tank but any race can tank just fine. As for their positioning, all of the ones I have listed below IMO are the top races for tanks and all three of them are perfect for playing as a tank.

#1 Imperial: The red diamond passive is IMO is one of the best passive in the game especially for a tank. Add to it they get bonus to health, stamina and bonus xp with sword & sheild

#2 Argonian: The passive I find that makes this a good tank are Life mender and resourcefulness. They also get 1K for each of the primary stats as well.

#3 Nord: They get bonus to resistance, gain 5 ultimate whenever they are hit, and have bonus to stamina and health.

If you get bored playing as a tank I find that the Argonian also works great as a healer or a DPS for any build.

If you prefer stamina DPS than I find the Imperial is a slightly better than Argonian.

unholy_nox

If you wanna reach your maximum potential you need meta races , if you don't care about it , you can use any race you want.In pvp , race is gamechanger tho.

jecks33

The name of my sorcerer tank is "Tankhajiit" and he is a.... Khajiit.

He did vet hm dlc dungeons and vet trials without problems (and even a 3 hours long flawless Vma run )

Supreme_Atromancer

Slight side-rant, but off-races for any given role would be much better options if the only answer wasn't "whatever gives the highest damage".

Especially in PvE, I wish that other considerations offered real, genuine advantages, and I wish that "just choose damage" had real costs.

I would love it if the environment and the type of challenges in the game came under more scrutiny in terms of solutions to this, rather than the continued direction of just make it so every class has a way to adhere to "just more damage."

Lumenn

As everyone here has said if you have to ask then you're most likely not in a position to push that last .01% so no. Keep in mind like everything else in this game what's true today could change tomorrow. Racials change sometimes (though not often) or other meta change( like resources/Regen gets nerfed so argonians become king again, resistance nerfed so maybe nord dk etc etc). A good player on a sub-optimal race/class will usually out perform a sub-optimal player on a perfect race/class.

francesinhalover

RisenEclipse wrote: »

So I've always been a DPS, and I have been thinking of trying out tanking. Mostly with just family or friends who are online. But I really like the elven races and was hoping to make either an Altmer or Dunmer, because they're my favorite. Unfortunately looking online neither one of them are listed as a race for tanks. So how bad would my tanking be if I were to choose one of them as my character's race? I'm not planning on trying to get bis or any top tier dungeon runs, I just would like to do something new for once.

Depends/slightly
I mean 250 dmg is delicious

Riptide

This one thinks it matters quite a lot to aesthetics