The weaknesses of the Altmer make the game harder for low to mid level characters. However, they have the potential to become, like all characters, practically invincible. At which time, their former weaknesses won't matter and their level of magica will still be the greatest of any race in the game. Therefore, the Altmer, while posing a great challenge, has the potential to be the greatest mage. Therefore, I choose Altmer.

aren't they all dead though?

If you were building a pure mage character the hps were actually very important since for low to mid level characters being a pure mage was difficult. Plus for higher level spells that extra 50 pts of magicka was often the difference between being able to cast a spell and not being able to. So again Altmer were the better choice for a pure mage build.

Altmer vs brenton.... brenton ftw anyday

altmer easy all day everyday bretons still cant stop an altmers elemental spell

Breton for life! (They're my second favorite race after Dunmer :celebration:)

Anyway race IMO. A extra 50 magic didn't really make my Breton spell caster better than my Redguard mage. In fact, I enjoyed the benefits of more health and AR with my redguard battle cleric.

In Morrowind the Atronach was easily the best sign to take and there's no reason to take anything else. There, the 50% breton resistance eventually becomes meaningless (just like the altmer's weakness) as it's not that hard to get 100% absorb at which point the altmer will still have more mana than the briton but their spell defenses would be equal.

I voted Altmer because they have the most magika with the Antronach sign. Now that we dont' have Birth signs in Skyrim, not sure who will have the most now. While Bretons can be easier to play,
with the magika resistence, I found it way to easy and borin to play with Breton and the Antronach sign, so I played as Altmer with Antronach to make it a bit more harder to play.

Breton and Antronach birth sign makes the game alot easy in Morrowind and different in Oblivion. So I like Altmer, and prefer them now.

Then use both of them like
Altmer Atronach
Breton The Mage/The Apprentice
But isnt better to play an role with different traits then an Power-Leveling Munchkin?

Really, where did you get that? It would be a real shame if they are gone...

Anyways, the Altmer ARE better mages, but although I almost always play a pure mage, somehow I always choose Bretons... Go figure.

Well I believe Birth signs still in game but now they are starting perks, do you remember thats three major birth signs (The Warrior, The Mage, The Thief) protect other birth signs from The Snake?
Choosing staring perks will simulate classical character creation, thats better then old one there still no classes but player already take first steps into specialization.