Vampires by far. Having access to all skills all the time with only a minor (fire resist) downside wich can be negated by a single glyph is awesome. Not to mention the good variety of skills that comes with vampires, outclasses werewolves in every perspective.

Werewolves have a high cost ultimate to transform. During their limited time as a werewolf (30-40 sec) they have access to 2! active skills. They can be CCed since WWs cant break out of CC.
All positive passives work only when in werewolf form (forgot about the 50% more damage from poison ALL the time). Just one works in human form, thats the ultimate itself that must be slotted to have its bonus effect of getting more ultimate gain when being hit in human form.
All they have is the coolness factor of being a beast, jumping around and getting killed by doing so (at least in Cyrodiil).
Oh..and don't attack more than one NPC in the PVE campaigns as werewolf, you die too or need too much time for killing them and running out of WW time before Devour can be used. Your DPS is even lower in WW form than that of a templar tank in hvy armor.

So in the end...vampires win 7:1, like germany did brazil.

Edit: spelling and addition

LONG post sorry i am too wordy .....

Both are more for fun and role playing than any sort of improvement, definitely not worth all the skill points .... i think WW hurts you char too much as it is implemented now, so my advice is avoid it (till its fixed). ... they are supposedly addressing WW's . I wish world skills were more important since its major investment but they are not. Vamps were majorly gimped 1 month after release because there ultimate improperly stacked in pvp and WW are weak to this day. Me personnel i hope someday they make WW & vamps powerful someday and add some sort of POWERFUL third non-supernatural World skill line to balance supernatural world skills but i am not in charge.

I am a level 4 vamp and fire weakness is offset by my good sneak abilities at higher levels. At i used all skills but level 1-50 are pretty easy in hind sight, I use the AOE ultmate now too, but a sorcerer has other good ultimate for AOE damage. Drain Essence & mist form are not as use full as other abilities, at the VR level. ( i used drain alot between lvl 20 thru 50 tho). Also i have about 12 skill points invested in my vamp and about at least 10 skill i haven't taken because i craft in 4 trees. But i like being a vamp and have gotten used to it. If u are not VR level it will take forever to level. it took me level 28 to about 38. Both only level from how much ur char levels and so it makes more sense around level 40+. On the other hand, i was on a mission to level my vamp so it can be fun just depends on ur mindset. You will be slightly gimped till you level the ult, drain essence and some passives.

My WW comments are just from reading forums and research but my advice is dont be WW at least till they make the ultimate all most free & give the skill line something positive. My advice, wait for WW improvements.

Be a vamp, if like the idea of being a vamp, but it wont help your char much, you will just be more more careful around fire, have less health recovery (or feed a lot) and slightly better magicka & ult recovery (but u will use up at least a slot or two for fire resistance so its a wash). Also the final main quest will be hard to do without GOOD fire enchants (or a reflect spell) if ur a vamp and magika player. If u are stamina player, drain essence restores stamina very nicely at low levels so its synergy is good. At higher levels it is too unpredictable and you take too much damage using it.

samr.wyckoffnub18_ESO wrote: »

@‌cwbriggs6ub17_ESO I agree. I just became a night blade vamp at lvl 10, took a while, but even at a low level it's fun. I have a mixed stamina/magicka character because of my use of bow, so the drain ability is nice. I'm a dark elf in the DC, so I've already been putting points into the fire resistance passives, but overall I have enjoyed being a vampire. I still haven't decided if I like mist form, (my only experience with it being the quest,) and I'm trying to figure out how I feel about it. What is vamp skill do you use the most?

Levels 1 thru about VR1 i used the ultimate and drain essence. Now i only use the ulitmate on one bar for AOE damage and i am not sure its much better than the storm Antioch ultimate. When i started VR levels before the nerf i was dying more than i liked, so switched my build around and the only Vamp Skill left was the ultimate.

If u use drain Essence it recharges the ult so they mix nicely. Since your a night blade the stam. regin of Drain should work nicely for u. When i used Drain essence i used it for healing, but i mainly use a restore staff and critical surge for healing now.

At low levels fire doesn't hurt much and a dark elf probably would not need any fire enchants .... the thing is vamp takes a PERCENTAGE more fire damage and enchants offset an absolute amount of damage so at higher levels u have be more aware of fire and blocking it... my understanding is even with all enchants u are still taking about 25% more fire damage. Not sure exactly how the dark elf works fire resistance works tho.

Since the Ult/Mag reductions at each stage are so low now i all ways stay in stage 1 or 2 if i can. Again the sneak is my favorite part as far as helping me.Some passive are very good, BUT i all ways use at least one fire enchant and one or two health recovery enchants which i probably would not if a non vamp so i see no net gain/loss.... i go in & out of stealth fast and move fast in stealth... comes in very handy in areas way beyond my level to explore, grab skyshards and avoid combat/escape ... also if i send in a pet to attack i can sometimes get in multiple sneak attacks .... i hardly ever PVP so i cant really comment on if vamps are good or bad in PVP but the PVP'rs posting PVP builds are not using Vamp these days i think. In one of the PVP patchs one the fighters guild skills was one shotting vamps, but they may have fixed that so i doubt it is game breaking either way are my thoughts.

From a purely combat perspective, vampires have the edge, but I still prefer werewolf. For me it's just fun. And my character doesn't look all nasty and dead all the time.

Orchish wrote: »

As a Werewolf i can tell you that Vampires trump all over werewolves. WW is not even viable in PvP right now and is basically a big joke. I only remain as a WW as i'm waiting for future buffs to hopefully make it become viable in PvP. Although i have my doubts it ever will.

Agreed. WWs are still vastly underpowered compared to Vampires. We might Do some damage now but the ultimate is still too expensive and the WW-timer still too short.
Without any CC break free chance, they are also just sitting ducks in PvP. I really hope to see the promised changes before I give up and cancel the sub.

robynheraty_ESO wrote: »

My husband plays a vampire and my character is a werewolf. His vamp skill line is much more useful in the course of combat, especially in PvP. He wears two pieces of flame resist jewelry that make him pretty much invulnerable to fire and he can use his vamp skills all the time, while I have to wait and wait and wait for my wolf ultimate to load.

I'm loving the role play factor in being a WW, but find myself forgetting to slot that ultimate much of the time because my other ultimates do way more damage. It doesn't *** me off because I knew all of this in advance and decided to go with werewolf anyway...mostly because I don't think my character would look good as a vamp.

To sum it up: WW useless and Vamp very strong and useful in PvP.