Imperial Vs Nord

sionIV · April 2019

My main is an Imperial, and has been so since the release of Morrowind (he is a Warden). I tend to focus mainly on Normal/Veteran Dungeons and Solo content. My builds rarely follow meta, and I tend to build them in a way that I sacrifice some DPS for survivability, which lets me solo most dungeons, even some on veteran. With the changes to racials, I feel that taking into consideration the way that I play, Nord would be optimal for me. I sacrifice some health and stamina, but I gain armor and ult generation. While this wouldn't be a good trade if I was purely DPS, it is a wonderful trade for the builds I run.

My problem is that I'm very fond of my Imperial, both when it comes to name and appearance, but I just can't help but notice that the Nord racials would be perfect for the way I tend to play this character. So, what are your opinions? Is it worth changing?

FrancisCrawford · April 2019

When they announced the Nord changes, they added a warning that they'd monitor things to see if a nerf would be needed. And I doubt the overall difference in strength is significant one way or the other.

The main reason to switch would be if you think it would be fun to use gear loadouts that are more appropriate for the Nord's set of passives than the Imperial's.

sionIV · April 2019

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

When they announced the Nord changes, they added a warning that they'd monitor things to see if a nerf would be needed. And I doubt the overall difference in strength is significant one way or the other.

The main reason to switch would be if you think it would be fun to use gear loadouts that are more appropriate for the Nord's set of passives than the Imperial's.

100% the bolded part.

The armor bonus would let me build my character in different ways than I normally would be able to, without sacrificing too much. The problem with Imperial is that I get minor bonuses for when I play magicka (Red Diamond), but as a Nord the armor bonus and ult generation would be viable even for a magicka user. It would be possible to run a 5/1/1 light Frost Warden, and still have a tanky build with some bonus ult generation.

Maulkin · April 2019

The imperial passives are a little weird because the stat bonuses (HP and Stam) and XP on sword and shield scream “tank”, but the cost reduction and regen is on all stats which to me says “hybrid”

If they changed the 2k stam bonus of Imperial Mettle to 1250 stam and magicka, then my next character would be imperial because I would have a niche for them.

Currently Nords make better tanks and Dunmers make better hybrids. So imperial’s are caught a bit in no mans land.

MartiniDaniels · April 2019

Nords are great choice now, but overall difference with imperial will be barely noticeable after you'll compensate for lose of sustain, that I won't bother changing if it's your main and so you value "backstory" of your character.
And ultimate generation is mostly useful for group content, i.e. a lot of people will benefit from your horn, but in solo content impact of ulti to dps is very small. Still somewhat pays off on DK due to battleroar, but on Warden.. no point to race change in my opinion.

Wing · April 2019

oh boy I know what you mean, that ~5k resistances is just so darn solid no matter what your doing.

I would like to point out that as long as its a stat bonus (+2000 stamina, etc. ) and not a damage bonus (+200 weapon damage, etc.) that it will still work out solid no matter if your magicka or stamina, as either spec can always benefit from having a decent sized off resource pool.

my main gripe with nord is the inability to make a pretty one to be honest. mechanics have to be pretty amazing for me to chose a race whose culture or appearance I hate.

for instance I hate dunmer (especially after playing the morrowind expansion) and no amount of racial bonuses could get me to play that race.

on the flip side I love khajiit, their lore is amazing, their attitude is amazing, they literally invented both sweets and drugs. just got lucky their racial bonuses are good to.

my end all question would be. is mechanics that important to you, and if not: What race would you play, if racial bonuses did not exist?

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO · April 2019

.The imperial passives are a little weird because the stat bonuses (HP and Stam) and XP on sword and shield scream “tank”, but the cost reduction and regen is on all stats which to me says “hybrid”

That is because a true tank uses both magic and Stam. Tanks are really the only useful hybrids in the game.

Grianasteri · April 2019

sionIV wrote: »

My main is an Imperial, and has been so since the release of Morrowind (he is a Warden). I tend to focus mainly on Normal/Veteran Dungeons and Solo content. My builds rarely follow meta, and I tend to build them in a way that I sacrifice some DPS for survivability, which lets me solo most dungeons, even some on veteran. With the changes to racials, I feel that taking into consideration the way that I play, Nord would be optimal for me. I sacrifice some health and stamina, but I gain armor and ult generation. While this wouldn't be a good trade if I was purely DPS, it is a wonderful trade for the builds I run.

My problem is that I'm very fond of my Imperial, both when it comes to name and appearance, but I just can't help but notice that the Nord racials would be perfect for the way I tend to play this character. So, what are your opinions? Is it worth changing?

Make a new character! 100% xp buff, you can be up to lvl 50 inside a week no problem.

sionIV · April 2019

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

Nords are great choice now, but overall difference with imperial will be barely noticeable after you'll compensate for lose of sustain, that I won't bother changing if it's your main and so you value "backstory" of your character.
And ultimate generation is mostly useful for group content, i.e. a lot of people will benefit from your horn, but in solo content impact of ulti to dps is very small. Still somewhat pays off on DK due to battleroar, but on Warden.. no point to race change in my opinion.

I never have issues with sustain on my Warden, I didn't have it before the changes, and I didn't have after the changes. So I wouldn't feel the loss of Diamond.

Wing wrote: »

oh boy I know what you mean, that ~5k resistances is just so darn solid no matter what your doing.

I would like to point out that as long as its a stat bonus (+2000 stamina, etc. ) and not a damage bonus (+200 weapon damage, etc.) that it will still work out solid no matter if your magicka or stamina, as either spec can always benefit from having a decent sized off resource pool.

my main gripe with nord is the inability to make a pretty one to be honest. mechanics have to be pretty amazing for me to chose a race whose culture or appearance I hate.

for instance I hate dunmer (especially after playing the morrowind expansion) and no amount of racial bonuses could get me to play that race.

on the flip side I love khajiit, their lore is amazing, their attitude is amazing, they literally invented both sweets and drugs. just got lucky their racial bonuses are good to.

my end all question would be. is mechanics that important to you, and if not: What race would you play, if racial bonuses did not exist?

If there were no racial bonuses, I would play Imperial. It's a struggle between having a character I love, and my love for gameplay and combat mechanics. I enjoy crunching numbers and making MY (not meta) builds optimal.

Grianasteri wrote: »

sionIV wrote: »

My main is an Imperial, and has been so since the release of Morrowind (he is a Warden). I tend to focus mainly on Normal/Veteran Dungeons and Solo content. My builds rarely follow meta, and I tend to build them in a way that I sacrifice some DPS for survivability, which lets me solo most dungeons, even some on veteran. With the changes to racials, I feel that taking into consideration the way that I play, Nord would be optimal for me. I sacrifice some health and stamina, but I gain armor and ult generation. While this wouldn't be a good trade if I was purely DPS, it is a wonderful trade for the builds I run.

My problem is that I'm very fond of my Imperial, both when it comes to name and appearance, but I just can't help but notice that the Nord racials would be perfect for the way I tend to play this character. So, what are your opinions? Is it worth changing?

Make a new character! 100% xp buff, you can be up to lvl 50 inside a week no problem.

I have one main character, which I complete everything on, and it would feel strange to create a new Warden, only to do the same thing I want to do on my main.

Maulkin · April 2019

Wing wrote: »

I would like to point out that as long as its a stat bonus (+2000 stamina, etc. ) and not a damage bonus (+200 weapon damage, etc.) that it will still work out solid no matter if your magicka or stamina, as either spec can always benefit from having a decent sized off resource pool.

An off resource pool is indeed very helpful but not as helpful as your main one. If you build a magic Imperial, you struggle to build high enough magicka and if you build a stamina one, then you don' t have that off stat bonus you are talking about. And you need both mag and stam for hybrid builds, more than anything.

That's why Dunmer's Dynamic passive that gives you 1875 of both damage-related resource pools is insanely strong. Arguably better than both Tough and Imperial Mettle (2k HP and 2k Stam) combined when it comes to PvP builds in general, hybrid or not.

The thing is there's more optimal ways to raise your HP, such as prismatic glyphs, triune jewel traits, tri-food or set-bonuses; rather than a 2k HP passive. However those glyphs and traits become sub-optimal on Imperial because your HP stat starts climbing over 30k in PvP, which is a bit of waste when you're struggling to get your mag or stam above that 30k threshold.

The HP bonus is useful mostly for tank builds but then the rest of the Nord bonuses make them clearly better tanks. I'd very happily take 1k HP less on Imperial in exchange for more balance between stam and magicka stats, like 1.5k of each. Or otherwise simply turn Imperial mettle to 1.25k of each stat.

Dunmer is race of choice for hybrid builds focused on damage because of the higher wpn/spell dmg and higher damage-related resource pools. Let Imperial be the hybrid of choice for more sustain focused builds. A bit like the balance between Altmer and Breton for magic builds. The resource bonuses of Imperial are not conducive to hybrids atm and the rest of the bonuses don't make them optimal tanks.

Deathlord92 · April 2019

My Breton my main character I play both magblade and stamblade on him because i like the looks and lore of Bretons. I always role a Breton assassin oblivion skyrim eso and of course I play meta to nightblade all I play so I have 4 Breton my main nord orc wood elf 🙂

Minno · April 2019

Maulkin wrote: »

The imperial passives are a little weird because the stat bonuses (HP and Stam) and XP on sword and shield scream “tank”, but the cost reduction and regen is on all stats which to me says “hybrid”

If they changed the 2k stam bonus of Imperial Mettle to 1250 stam and magicka, then my next character would be imperial because I would have a niche for them.

Currently Nords make better tanks and Dunmers make better hybrids. So imperial’s are caught a bit in no mans land.

Imperial passives let you go blue food when other races have to give up allot to use. Like I can reliably hit 25k health in PvP when using a food/drink that doesn't have max health and Stam is around the 14-18k mark. And the cost reduction on everything means moving 3% CP to other areas that otherwise wouldn't have with other races not to mention cheaper cost ultimates slightly better to cast. You just have to live long enough to make use of the sustain passive.

Stx · April 2019

I would say nord racials are definitely better for a solo build but not so much better that it's worth giving up the race you enjoy. Imperial racials are still very good, and since they have sustain you can focus more on resists or damage on your gear.

The ultimate gen racial is good but if you stack other forms of ult gen then it becomes less noticable.

Insco851 · April 2019

Maulkin wrote: »

The imperial passives are a little weird because the stat bonuses (HP and Stam) and XP on sword and shield scream “tank”, but the cost reduction and regen is on all stats which to me says “hybrid”

If they changed the 2k stam bonus of Imperial Mettle to 1250 stam and magicka, then my next character would be imperial because I would have a niche for them.

Currently Nords make better tanks and Dunmers make better hybrids. So imperial’s are caught a bit in no mans land.

Imperials are a better mag race. Stam prominent races put them very far behind in regen comparably but on par with Argonians for mag pvp toons.

dazee · April 2019

Make a nord female. Nord women are among the easiest to make look good.

GallantGuardian · September 2019

So my main is an imperial templar tank....

Been thinking a lot lately if I’d be better off as a nord

I’m sitting at currently while buffed around 32-34 k spell resistant and 30-32k physical ...

Would it be worth my while as a tank to go nord ? Or stay imperial and continue to enjoy 3% less resources used ?

Kuratius · September 2019

On a templar I'd stay Imperial. The sustain is pretty amazing. On a DK I'd go Nord though.

master_vanargand · September 2019

Imperial does not have good roles.
Red diamond should buff a little.

Deathlord92 · September 2019

I’m with birth stone idea and hope zos will consider this idea in future racial passive changes.

ChefZero · September 2019

IMO imperials excels in No-CP heavy armor build's and proc regen build's in general. The real 'play what do you want race'.

beadabow · September 2019

I use both Nords and Imperials, and both have racial qualities that stand out when doing soloing content like vetMA and some vet dungeons (as you mentioned in your original post). Because there are so many different factors that go into the final damge output (both are stam dps builds: Nord -DK, Imperial -NB), I may be erroneous in saying that the Nord seems to do a little more damage than the imperial. The difference isn't by much. The Imperial seems to have slightly better survivability. Another thing is, I use Dubious Cameron Throne drink buff on my Nord (15 min duration increase for racial passive), and Arteum Takeaway Broth for my Imperial -so that could be the differing factor as well.

My recommendation to you is to keep your Imperial and role a Nord. You will be glad that you did. Aesthetically Nords and Imperials seem to be easier to make into very attractive characters, but the same can be said for just about all of the races, depending on the beholder.

Eirinin · September 2019

Just create a new Nord character. With how ZOS changes stuff around here, your beloved imperial may be in a stronger place in a month.