Does Race matter for a player between casual and hardcore?

[Suan]

Hey,
Just like title says. Does race matters much if I'm someone that sits somewhere between casual and hardcore gameplay? I guess more of a casual now, but if I wanted to start doing Veteran dungeons as a tank, does race matter a lot? I know that one of the best races for tank role are Nord, Argonian, Imperial. But I wanted to stay with my Breton. I'll assume that on normal dungeons it's whatever but what about Veterans and I belive it's called Trials [is this some sort of raid like content?]

Also side question for any story/lore players outhere is Elsweyr story completely new arc as in, there are no character that you can meet in earlier DLC's and will have special dialogue? I'm relatively new and still going through DLC's, but would like to do Elsweyr for now, and I think I heard that this whole Dragon saga is it's own thing. I know Abnur is there and I did the core story campaign but are there any other characters that we could meet before and they do show up or it's mostly new Khajit characters and Sai with the upcoming DLC?

[deadspawn]

race matters, just to what extent. Certain races are better for tanking than others. I won't attempt to explain them, just go to https://alcasthq.com/category/eso-beginner/ or check their builds. If you are a tank in veteran dungeons, people expect you to face tank everything and pull ads, being the right race for the tank class is helpful due to certain passive abilities of the class

[Naravolian]

First off, race doesn't matter for casual or mid-hardcore gameplay. But if you won't to be able to perform efficiently in endgame, then yes, race matters more. They make a small difference, but in endgame content a tiny boost can make all the difference.

And yes, there is an official chronological story and character arc. Players who're getting into the game now will experience this in the wrong order, unfortunately, unless they go straight for the main story quest. This also messes up the different character arcs, as you might expect.

But to answer your question, the characters you can meet before the new DLC and Elsweyr is:

- Abnur Tharn
- Cadwell
- Sai Sahan

...as well as a few minor side characters that have their own tiny character arc, but this doesn't matter as much (as an example, Razum Dar).

[Halcyform]

Race choice is more quality of life. By picking the appropriate race for your preferred playstyle (class), you can buy yourself some lee-way on what equipment you wear. It's not like it's a mindblowing difference, but there's definitely an advantage that allows you some flexibility.

Doesn't take long to look up. Takes a few minutes to research each race's attributes. Just decide how you'll spend most of your time playing your chosen character and go from there (unless your race choice is based primarily on roleplay).

Also, the road you choose (magicka vs stamina) will also affect your choice.

I don't see dunmer up there as one of your possible choices. You see tons of dunmer Dragonknights. They have bonuses to magicka and stamina as well as bonuses to fire damage and resist. Fire tends to be pretty common for incoming damage. Also, Dragonknight uses a lot of fire based damage. It's a good choice if you switch back and forth between dps and tank (and magicka or stamina).

[Drake]

Dunmers don't have fire damage any more. They have a full spell damage bonus since the last racial patch (which is pretty much a buff, since now it's the same value as high elves).

About races. Unless you do scoring, it doesn't really matter. And especially for tanks, the only race that really doesn't gives you anything is the bosmer.

With a breton for example you have a good magicka regen bonus and magicka max pool as well as skill cost reduction. Those are 3 stats a tank needs. That means you can ajust your stuff with some other stats to compensate.
Tanks are not like dps in pve, it's not a race to get the best value in magicka and spell damage (or stam and weapon damage) and skill cost reduction/stat regen to get the most efficient spam rotation.
Tanks rely on stat caps. Once you hit the cap with a stat you don't stack high, you put your bonus somewhere else to have a well rounded char, because you need to face different situations.

[sergykid]

only endgame top tier guilds require you specific race. Otherwise anything in the game does not require u any race.

[Suan]

Originally posted by Naravolian:

But to answer your question, the characters you can meet before the new DLC and Elsweyr is:

- Abnur Tharn
- Cadwell
- Sai Sahan

...as well as a few minor side characters that have their own tiny character arc, but this doesn't matter as much (as an example, Razum Dar).

So basically for Elsweyr you just need main [core] campaign and perhaps be Aldmeri Dominion character or finish it's zone story? Razum shows up in Summerset I think, do we get a "How you've been after Summerset?" line or something?

[Naravolian]

Originally posted by Suan:

So basically for Elsweyr you just need main [core] campaign and perhaps be Aldmeri Dominion character or finish it's zone story? Razum shows up in Summerset I think, do we get a "How you've been after Summerset?" line or something?

Yeah, pretty much that. Like I said, the minor character arcs like Razum doesn't really give you a WHOLE lot, but it makes the experience more wholesome.

But for Elsweyr to make sense (assuming you don't care about the overall chronological order of the "whole" story), you'd only need main quest from base game, yes.

[🐺Blue Wolf]

If you want to min/maxer or want to do end game vet stuff, it will matter somewhat. Otherwise play your fave race and just enjoy things.

[Da Nut Crackah]

Unless your doing vet trials, or vet DLC dungeon achievements, race wont really play too impactful a role in your tanking. As for what races do make the best tanks, Nord is arguably the best, followed closely by Imperial. Argonians still make very good tanks. I even know of a few ppl who have made more magicka based tanks that were bretons, and they succeeded in vet DLC dungeons. Though I wouldnt advise that for anything that involves attacks that hit so hard as to be one shots.

You'll meet many of the same NPCs in different zones, sometimes they make reference to previous hapennings from other zones, some of them you may not have actually even participated in as the zone stories can be done in a non linear fashion. For the most part, its a very vague reference to stuff, like "ohh good you made it out" or they mention John Doe who in fact didnt make it out.

[Keyrala]

There aren't big differences between races. But i think some pvp/trial guilds will demand you to pick certain specific race and class to cruntch as many stats as possible.
But you can still do all the content even if you don't have those specific extra stats.

[Katmorphous333]

NO races doesnt matter, all my characters have been khajiit and my main is a khajiit healer,been playing for over 5 years and beat all vet content that way, without a meta build either and before the recent khajiit buffs too. Play whatever you like and become good at the build you like.

YES you do meet old characters if you talk to every single npc in the zone. They remember every important things youv done too. As a player who beat every single quest in the game up to this day,its great to see old npc youv liked remember you.

[Soul2506]

Race doesn't matter unless you're going for score / leaderboard run
Certainly some races are more efficient than other at certain role but that is negligible
It is mostly gear dependent than race
I easily tank all vet dungeons and most of trials on my Altmer sorc tank (Altmer good for magicka dps)