I plan on playing a Bosmer at launch but must confess, I feel like the Bosmers drew the short stick (along with Argonians) when it came time for the devs to dish out racial passives.

[Bosmers]

The first passive I think is rather underpowered is: Archery Expertise which boosts bow leveling speed by 15%. The thing that irks me about this is once you hit your level cap, this passive becomes worthless. There simply will be no more leveling to do. I would much prefer to see something like a 1% crit chance or 1% dmg boost with bows so as keep the passive useful even when characters hit the level cap. I'm aware that other races have 15% leveling speed increases but the Bosmer's is only useful when a bow is actually being used whereas orcs for example can milk their heavy armor 15% experience boost with just a single piece of heavy armor being worn. It just feels to me like unless you're dead set on being a bow wielding Bosmer, this passive has no use whatsoever.

Next is Resist Affliction: which increases both poison and disease resists by 8 and also increases max stamina by 1%. I don't really know of anyone who has gotten worked up over this one, to me is just screams "meh", unless you plan on grinding your way up through 50 soloing nothing but spiders, I get the impression that this passive will rarely be utilized. I personally feel that spending a skill point to get these resists isn't justified.

Probably the strongest passives for the Bosmer would either be Vigor or Stealthy. Vigor giving up to a 3% stamina regen while in combat whereas Stealthy improves stealth radius and increases dmg by 3% when attacking while stealthed. (especially useful while in PvP).

But the poor Bosmer just seems lackluster when compared to the mighty Khajiit who has both Carnage and Robust. In fact, the only reason one would choose a Bosmer over Khajiit is due to personal preference (e.g. roleplaying or aesthetic reasons) which saddens me, I would like each race to have some really unique and powerful passives that make it pretty difficult as to which to choose.

[Argonians]

Poor Argonians.

Let's start off with Amphibious: which increases swimming speed by 50% and boosts potions by 5%. Other than for making an occasional quick getaway in PvP, I really am puzzled to see why anyone would feel justified in pouring a precious skill point into here.

Argnonian Resistance: Again we see the lackluster 8% resist to disease and poison make another appearance. Once again, this passive feels rather "meh" for the reasons stated above with the Bosmers.

Quickmend: Increased healing by 2% This doesn't appear enticing either. It pales in comparison to the mighty Khajiit's 5% boost to health regeneration WHILE in combat.

Restoration Expertise: Increases restoration leveling by 15%. I could see dedicated healers who want to level up fast grab this but overall once you max out, this skill becomes useless and healing is generally seen as one of the more "boring" tasks within an MMO.

Would be curious to hear other people's thoughts on which races have the "best" passives and which have the "weakest" just to give the devs some feedback.

think I heard something about argonians getting a stamina buff too?

argonian will heal more from life leeching skills

Bosmer have the BEST racials if you want to go Werewolf, hands down. Also their stealth buffs are one of the few races to get those, at all. So actually I would argue that Bosmer have one of the best kits for anyone who wants to focus on stealth combat and/or werewolf.

You also have to consider the incredibly popular Bow skill line in PvP, the Bosmer's passive poison resist is a huge damage nerf to those in PvP utilizing the bow attacks and there will be many.

@ OP great post . i was thinking the same thing regarding the 15% bow passive.....come end game it means nothing.

Stam regen was mentioned but I haven't seen any patch notes to confirm this yet. Devs of course mentioned that racials are getting a balance look over which always makes posts like this look rather silly asking for balance from the devs on an issue they already said they are looking into and have already made some changes discussed on these forums.

I agree, and I am going to make a Bosmer Werewolf. I only think that Archery Expertise should also give the Bosmer increased damage with a bow, just so it won't be useless once we reach the cap of the bow skill line.

ALL races get a 15% xp boost to something weapon or armor related.

Poison resistance is pretty nice against nightblades, granted, not as universal, but they are the only ones with it.

And Bosmer has some pretty nice, epic nice skills. Reduced Stealth radius for detection? That by itself makes them dangerous.

dp

Actually Redguards make the best werewolves.

All werewolf skills are stamina based, and while Bosmers do get that 3% stamina regen while in combat, Redguards get the same ability as Bosmers do (Vigor: 3% stamina regen in combat) AND they get Conditioning- which increases their max stamina by 4%.

So Redguards are actually the best suited race towards the Stamina intensive skill tree of the Werewolf.

But Werewolves are weak to poison, so "Resist Affliction" is a pretty good passive for a Werewolf.

Not to mention due to the increased stam cap and increased Stam regeneration they can get more bow attacks in than anyone because bow attacks use Stamina...which they get more regen and more cap than anyone else.

Stealth + Bow = quick leveling, more attacks and more resistant vs other poison users and bow users.

O rly? It seems Bosmer is a strong contender then. I guess it all depends on how common poison dps is out there then. Personally, I've always been more of a resource pool builder (health/mag/sta) than investing in resists. But I suppose it depends on your play style.

Edit:

Actually I'm still of the opinion that Redguard is the best for Werewolf for the follow racial passive reasons:

1. Vigor III: Increases Stamina Regen while in Combat by 9%

2. Conditioning III: Increases Max Stamina by 10%

3. Adrenaline Rush III: Restores 3 Stamina to the Player when damaging an enemy with a melee attack.

Given Redguard's serious Stamina Passives and how Stamina intensive the Werewolf skill tree is I'm still going to say Redguard for Werewolf

You get both at the same time in their resist disease. More Stamina pool (MAX amount you can have increased) and more resistances.

I'm actually debating bosmer NB werewolf I have for a while. Things get too hairy too many foes too many mobs /Flips psycho switch and proceeds to tear things to little tiny ribbons of meat. I'd love a bosmer werewolf clan called the wild hunt, that would make my year.

The Bosmer damage bonus from Stealth is really nice.

I would SO join that.

Bosmer's resist afflication III only gives a 3% stamina cap boost wheras Redguard's Conditioning III increases stamina by a staggering 10%. not to mention getting 3 stamina everytime you melee hit someone (Adrenaline Rush) + 9% stamina regen in combat (vigor).

I'm of the opinion that the small poison resists that Bosmer gives can't possibly outweigh all those sweet juicy stamina perks Redguard gives if you're really dead set on being a werewolf

Your approached theory-crafting with too much subjective preference. You have not explored the strengths and weaknesses of those racials properly, and should attempt a purely objective examination.

In what way is it underpowered vs the other races? They all have skills like this. It's just a leveling perk, nothing more. I'd argue if you plan to use a bow at range and switch to melee at close the Bosmer perk is actually more useful as you're getting more out of something you use less vs other races.

I would too...only I am going to be a Khajiit because I like them better (aesthetically) and I also had a dream about being a tiger man stalking around in the darkness with two large shivs.

Which is exactly what my character was in BETA.

IT WAS FORETOLD IN MY DREAMS!

redguards are fine and dandy, But I like Bosmer. If you play a race only for racials, you'll be disappointed in the end. Play a race you enjoy to play, not just for stats this character might last you a few years.

It's pretty useless for all the Bosmers who don't wanna go bow. I would prefer an armor passive personally (medium?). Next like I stated before, that all the experience boost passives become worthless as soon as you max out, that's why I would rather see just a simple 1% dmg boost to bow or something so the passive can retain some utility post the skill cap

Read my original post, I'm playing a Bosmer. The Redguard discussion was just some theory crafting for best Werewolf race

Well every race has a 15% xp bonus to something.