Really depends on your overall goal in ESO. Are you a min/max with high endgame in mind, then maybe. Overall I do not find them all that important once you reach max level though for normal play experience.

People will say they aren't all that significant, but when compared with the gains from top tiered gear, they are very significant. 1.3.3 saw an increase to the softcaps as well so those 10 or 12% boost from various races are even more powerful now. Personally, I rolled a Khajit Sorc on first day of early access and was hoping to make a melee sorc work with Crit Surge. Well, unfortunately I did not fully grasp how overpowered impenetrable was in PVP or how underpowered melee builds were in high end group PVE, and I am now stuck with a race that provides absolutely zero benefit to my character besides some health regen. Compared to an Altmer, I am missing out on 10 magicka regen, 200 magicka, and probably around 6% dmg increase (4% flat from passive and rest from more magicka).

Personally I am not sold on Nord passives. A lot of people were praising the 6% dmg reduction passive when it was switched, but without thinking about it too critically, it just seems like an additional 170-180 HP on a 3000hp character. I know that isn't how it really works because you won't be hit for all 3000hp at once, but burst dmg is what I'm really worried about in both PVE and PVP.

To me the only races worth using for their passives are Breton, Altmer, and Dunmer for magicka builds and Redguard, Imperial, Dunmer for Stamina. Dunmer is especially strong because it has a passive to counteract vampirisms main weakness and vampirism is very powerful in almost all situations besides perhaps tanking. Maybe Argonian as well if combined with nightblade potion passive and some potion cooldown reduction jewelry but I'm not sure of that yet.

Yes, 50% extra swimming speed is OP.

And seeing as Nords passive 'rugged' was now fixed to: "Rugged: This passive now correctly decreases damage taken instead of increasing damage taken." - 1.3.3 patch notes.
It probably plays a rather significant part, and Im deliciously satisfied with my Altmer (he isn't OP though, he is a Templar and I dont PvE really). Im feeling good knowing I have the explorers pack so I can stay in AD and picky choose racials for alts - I am a min/max'er or try to be, this is what I find fun in a mmo. If I want to roleplay I go to the woods

I consider it quite significant, I chose altmer for the bonuses

The caps on stuff helps balancing things out, I think. I find that a race that gets bonuses to, say, magicka are more flexible than others. Say, your Breton magicka user could get away with using medium or heavy armour, but your orc magicka user probably should stick to light. That kind of thing.

Stacking up on everything isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there is such a thing as too much.

Nestor wrote: »

I have not explored the races fully, but the ones I do know, it's the Passives, not the Bonuses that are key. The Bonuses are just training bonuses that can be achieved with Traits (although they do stack nicely with training traits on armor or weapons)

http://tamrielfoundry.com/2014/02/racial-comparison/

The training bonuses are nice for leveling a secondary weapon later on in the game. Say you've got a nightblade that you want to primarily use dual wield, but you want a bow as a secondary weapon for range. Well, the bosmer bonus is nice for leveling that bow later on.

Otherwise, they're not that useful. Your primary weapon is going to easily level to 50 long before you get to level 50 anyway.

Tremulous wrote: »

I would have said pre-1.3.3 they didn't matter but now the the soft cap has been risen quite a bit they really do now.

Which makes the need for a option to change our race or racial passives even more important ..... http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/120423/i-implore-you-let-me-change-my-race/p1