Racial Preference, Does It Matter?

kylewwefan · March 2020

Why Does This Question Keep Coming Up?

Because people want to play what they want to play of course.

Then wonder how much difference it actually makes? Does anyone have any hard numbers?

I recently heard an ol friend telling some people “There’s no reason to play a Breton, unless it’s about looks or Role Play or something.”

How Much Difference Can It Really Make?

I have a friend that race changed from Nord to Orc and her DPS on the trial Atro dummy went up nearly 8k.So I’d definitely say it can make a significant difference. Now that’s going from 65k up to 73k; so still not hitting the top of the pack DPS chasers in the 90k range, But a significant difference none the less.

What If The Racials Are More Similar

There are more magic or stamina inclined races and a few hybrid.

Nord really offers nothing for either, at least in a pure damage sense.

Argonian, Khajit and Dark Elf can all swing either way truly.

How Much Difference Will It Make On A Stam or Magicka Inclined Race?

Not quite as dramatic coming from Nord I would assume.

I have a friend that just switched from Dark Elf to Breton and he loves it. The extra sustain is so noticeable, according to this guy.

But he’s a little different. He’d gladly give up 2k or 3k to not have to heavy attack to be able to sustain through a fight. My most played magic characters are Breton so I really didn’t know. The whole topic arose from the dangers of using an ice stave and my point was, “I don’t have to heavy attack, like ever. So whatever passive, makes no difference to me.”

So The Difference AFAICT

You have the Best in Slot for Damage or Sustain not Optimal, Niche, Hybrid or PvP type builds.

What are you planning on doing with this character? Is it beating a dummy real hard so you can get in to some über group and do cool things? You likely already know what the BiS is. For sneaking, thieving, murdering and pillaging, there’s really only one BiS anymore, but you can do this stuff with anything really.

Asardes · March 2020

Orc has 500 more stamina and 258 more weapon damage compared to Nord, so it's normal that the difference is high. But for races that have similar resource pools, and one has weapon/spell damage while the other has cost reduction and/or some other sustain bonuses, the difference narrows, since you also change the consumable: the sustain race can use blue food, while the damage one will need to use recovery food, which gives less HP and main resource, so you'll need to sacrifice a few additional points to get decent HP except for Orc+Necromancer. For stamina the difference is a bit higher since you have a higher multiplier for weapon damage(+15% from Medium Armor:Agility), on magicka - less, because you don't have such a multiplier, and your resource multipliers are higher: you can slot Inner Light, some classes have additional multipliers for maximum magicka on top of that.

I've done the math for a Stamina Sorcerer build, one using Redguard using blue food, the other Orc+Artaeum Takeaway Broth, and the tool tips were just 1.5% higher for the 2nd compared to the first. Even when considering the recovery, Redguard still had a bit higher sustain because of the cost reduction and resource return, as well as 1K+ more HP. So if the Redguard manages 80K, the Orc will be at around 81.2K. I mean higher on paper, but not something that noticeable in a trial environment.

Asardes · March 2020

For PvP the discussion is quite different, because there mitigation and off-resource pool are important as well, especially for magicka characters. So some choices that are actually very good may seem counter-intuitive at first.

For example a Nord for a Magicka DK can seem an odd choice, but if you look at it you get +1.5K stamina and +1K HP, meaning you don't need to transmute/craft triune jewelry and/or use as many prismatic defense glyphs on your gear to reach decent HP and stamina pools, you have higher resistance and ultimate generation, and hence better sustain too, compared to a High Elf.

Faulgor · March 2020

Asardes wrote: »

For PvP the discussion is quite different, because there mitigation and off-resource pool are important as well, especially for magicka characters. So some choices that are actually very good may seem counter-intuitive at first.

For example a Nord for a Magicka DK can seem an odd choice, but if you look at it you get +1.5K stamina and +1K HP, meaning you don't need to transmute/craft triune jewelry and/or use as many prismatic defense glyphs on your gear to reach decent HP and stamina pools, you have higher resistance and ultimate generation, and hence better sustain too, compared to a High Elf.

Yeah, PvP makes this discussion much more complicated.
For PvE, I think it makes no sense to have races that are effectively only geared for healing or tanking - namely Nord and Argonian - because the DPS races can heal and tank just as effectively. Racials are really only of import for the DPS role, because tanks use every resource pool and healers are very modest in their demands. So Nord and Argonians should IMO be opened up for DPS roles.
However, in PvP, those two races are still very useful, if not among the best, due to their defensive passives. Maybe it's wise that not everything is geared for DPS, but it still seems unfair to limit these races in this way.

MudcrabAttack · March 2020

Weapon damage has more multipliers than spell damage thanks to medium armor and fighters guild.

Magic has more multipliers than Stamina because of the mages guild.

The way ZOS balanced racial stats so some can have 248 weapon or spell damage while others get 2000 stamina or magic wasn't balanced from the outset.

Orc's will deal way more damage than any other stamina race in spite of using lavafoot soup and slotting health glyphs on armor.

Nestor · March 2020

I had a Breton NB that was struggling as a Stamblade. Switch to Magblade and things are much easier.

My Khajiit Stamblade is just sublime.

Note, I can't complete a 6 Mill Dummy Parse myself, I always run out of resources....lol

idk · March 2020

If you are min/maxing and especially if you are truly pushing your playability to be a top DPS, healer, or tank, then race choice matters.

Beyond that just choose what you want. Appearance counts for something.