I realize you're probably asking more about damage & optimization and such, but...

Imperials have kind of adopted the dragon as the symbol of their empire, and their race as a whole. So that's a nice fit. Imperials have also always had fairly versatile passives, so they're likely to be good now and in any future patches that include (potentially upsetting) racial reworks.

Nords have history with spanking Dragons' behinds and I've personally always felt like Nords becoming DKs has a sort of "fight fire with fire" kind of vibe which is pretty neat. Their extra tankyness and robustness fits well with the Dragonknight play style.

Orcs are renowned for being brutally effective & enduring warriors, and currently (and for a while now) they've got swiftness in their passives as well. If you want to chase people down and whoop their asses with big rocks and burning poison, being an Orc DK seems like a decisively awesome way to do it!


I guess what I'm trying to say is, all three of the races you're considering are good choices. Since all are totally viable when looked at from different angles, I think the best way to decide is to ponder what "flavor" of DK tickles your tidbits more.

Personally, I went with Imperial, but that was more because of how I wanted my other stamina characters balanced out; I wanted an Orc StamSorc (for the mobility Orc + Hurricane gives!), and Nord Warden (ice, ice, baby!), so Imperial DK seemed like a solid choice to round out the trifecta for my characters, so to speak. But that's me; I'm just weird like that I guess.

Also, if this matters to you at all, making an Imperial character grants that racial motif. If you don't know it, and don't wanna pay a moderate amount of money to get it from Guild Stores, then that's a factor to weigh too.