Wanted to put up a link to the current racial skills, courtesy of Tamriel Foundry.

http://tamrielfoundry.com/2014/02/racial-comparison/

My biggest question is what happened to the racial ultimates? My sole desire for having a Bosmer alt was the fact that an episode of gameinformer a few months back spoiled their ultimate was to summon a bear.

Pfft. What a pathetic ultimate ability. Any idiot can summon a bear.

Buy slab of meat, let it sit in the sun for few days then wander out into the woods with it and bingo, you've just summoned a bear.

May want to bring a slow friend with you though, just in case.

As far as I know, racial ultimates have been removed; I really have no problem with it personnaly. I'm happy that the differences between the races seem smaller this way.

I'm worried about Breton's magic resistance amount, that isn't 96% is it? For spell resist? .. o_O

The differences between the races should be significant. I am sick and tired of mmorpgs leveling everything to the ground for the sake of lazy balancing.

The racials are somewhat significant, which is a great thing. I hope they don't change.

I don't believe so. Pretty sure it's just a flat 96 resist. We'll most likely have to wait for launch to get into the mechanics behind resistances to see just how strong that is though.

Hopefully it isn't too obserd, Breton's would kill any mage no problem.

I guess racial ultimates made race balance much harder to achieve.

Now that these skill lines are out there, something that I feel should be made clear to those who worry about race balance or who have the idea that your build constrains your race choice:

The one "free" racial ability you have (no skill point needed) is in every case a 15% increase to experience gain rate in a skill line. Since skills have soft experience caps (I THINK it works by diminishing returns), this bonus only gives you a temporary advantage; you can level that skill line faster, but everybody else will catch up with you after you hit the cap. Which means that at max level, the free racial passive doesn't make any difference at all.

The other racial passives make more of a difference, but they have to compete for your skill points with every other passive in the game, and for each of them I believe there are other ways to achieve equivalent effects (health/magicka/stamina availability, resistances etc) -- either via other passives or gear. Obviously I don't have all the numbers available to crunch to prove this, but from those where I do have the information to assess, it seems to hold.

Which means that really, particular races may advantage particular builds while leveling, but ultimately any build works with any race.

I know right? Screw being able to play whatever you want with your favorite race. You should be forced to play certain races due to their racial passives. Sounds great!

Were talking single digit percentages here. Hardly what I would call mandatory for certain classes/builds. Its mostly flavor and small boosts but again nothing that really stands out and says you MUST roll this class if your building a certain class.

now i can talk about how awesome the khajiit passives are and why so many people will make one

If I was playing a healer, I would most certainly call +12% mana pool mandatory. That is huge.

If I was a tank, +12% armor is huge, so is +15% Health regen.

If you are a class that uses stamina, the Orc racials boost your performance a lot more than single digit %.

the redguard stamina bonus is really nice also. i was debating with someone before over the passives and how much they will drive character creation for mmo players while the TES crowd will care less for them and go with the race they like. the argonian and wood elf will be good examples of people picking race over racials

First of all, If the game is clever about them, it could give you multiple reasons to pick more than one race for a class but make the bonuses DIRVERSE.

For example for a healer a race could have increased healing done and another it could have increased combat magicka regen. Both, with significant numbers, resulting in different healing play-style and the way you conserve your mana.

And in the end, none forces you to choose that specific race for your class. If you are not a min-maxer that is.

Yeah I mean i wish it wasn't the case, but if you have played an MMO before, there is no way you can tell me a 12% increase in magicka is no big deal when building a healer or even a pure magic damage dealer.

Perhaps the others are more balanced and/or less exaggerated. I wish the bonuses were smaller, like 3% or 6% at the highest. I am also glad they removed racial ultimates... Orc's berserker rage was insane heh.

i would say that each class has at least 2 good options except melee stealth. really one one choice there imo

yeah the passives for sure push me towards a character. i would never roll a pure mage not dressed in high elf, breton, or dark elf skin. never a stealth character thats not a khajiit.

Both Khaziit and Bretons are excellent. Magicka is very important for a nightblade (stamina as well), making most of the rest races, like Redguard and maybe even Altmer good for the role.

In general, let's not screw the lore over please. Nords for example aren't exactly the best sorcerers but they still are able to become sorcerers.