Hi folks,

I know, it's probably exhausting, but I would be interested about your opinions about suitable race / class combinations, although everything is possible.

Perhaps you can provide me some information (for instance related to lore why you think something is suitable, or perhaps due to ES racial talents/bias, whereby Orcs are no famous assassins, but fearless warriors, ...)

Are Bretons suitable battlemages? And/Or bretons?

Can a redguard be a good assassin, are they known for this?

What about wood elves, dual wielding fighters or only rangers/archers close to nature?

I don't need internet links our other sources, just some opinions, chain of thoughts.

I'm interested in some views, without discussion "everything is possible" - I know, and I really like it. Also it's not a playing style discussion, as we all know, that we can go for every combination and also we can combine styles, swap weapons and so on. That's not the point.

My stereotyped thinking is something like:

Breton: Sorcerer, Templar (also somewhat famous for battle mages?)

Orc: Dragonknight

Redguard: Dragonknight, Nightblade, (battle mages with destruction imaginable?)

Argonian: Nightblade, Sorcerer, Templar (?)

Nord: Dragonknight, Templar

Dunmer: Sorcerer, Nightblade

Altmer: Sorcerer, Templar

Bosmer: Nightblade

Khajiit: Nightblade, Dragonknight (?)

I would like to hear your opinions. Thanks in advance for everybody that plays a part in this thread without answering "everything is possible" or bringing in truism.

We're still regrettably quite limited in how much we can discuss about racials, due to NDA. The EP ones have slipped through the net though. I'd like to see ZOS do an article on this soon.

Oh, I don't want to discuss racials, more are "what do you think make sense" view on this topic. Or related to lore, if you like. No discussion about values/racials/percentages, that's nonsense.

But getting some opinions is interesting for me, and a forum is a great place to exchange opinions and information.

Without breaking any NDA, my personal preference for builds would be these.

Altmer Templar - One set up to focus on healing in PvE and PvP. Restoration staff and Heavy Armour for the active skill so I can use the ultimate without being interrupted or stunned. A second set up of sword and shield if I ever get into an 'oh crap' moment where swarms of enemies cover me, for some defensive abilities.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that particular opinion. It's the only thing that makes sense, everything else is fluff.

So you think there is ONLY a good combination possible because of suitable racials?

No influence from other sources - like lore, or whatever?

in the case of MMO's, yes, if the racials are actually going to be as powerful as it seems.

Well, this confirmes my assumption, but perhaps some other users will step in and provide some other opinions, especially as I can see in several ES community forums that other aspects are important for the players. What a typical MMO player wants I know for sure.

Not just in any MMO, but pretty much most RPG games there are always going to be a 'best build' so to speak, one that offers 2% more damage to another, and the like.

If you're into maximising the efficiency then go for that, but if you're playing how you want to play, then nearly any combination can be effective.

Race&Class combinations are ok, if the benefits are in balance. This is rarely the situation. If those are in balance, it would sure make more options for you, which would be good.

Slight unbalance will probably create this kind of "lore" based race/class combinations, simply because most class X players will min-max and take the race X for them.

Race, Class and ESO in mind I would add Faction. This combination will probably be not so healthy for PvP. I do hope I am wrong.

In one way you can say that the faction A has the strongest class A, and the faction B has the class B. In one way it sounds interesting to be honest, but at the same time it sounds to be far from balanced.

Then there are 4 classes, and only 3 factions. Which faction has 2 strongest combinations? Or will there be even a faction that has no best combinations at all?

Also PvP population might not be in balance, because everyones favored race is in faction A, so it has population 3 times bigger than the other factions.

Also for gaming communities this is a bit nasty. You want the race A, but because your gaming community goes to under Faction B -> You cannot play the race you want, or with your friends.

I definitely do not know all from ESO and I hope I am so wrong with some of the negative things I listed. If someone can tell how it works, would be more than happy to learn.

It's not worth it to min/max in singleplayer MMOs, or which RPGs are you talking about. Online RPGs like ..?

And I tend to be min/max-er, not sure whether I'll also do this again in ESO or start a more relaxed gameplay, don't know yet, depends on the addiction.

Set-ups that people like based on lore are entirely valid as well, given that we're talking preference, so it's entirely subjective. Either way though, the OP's trying to match classes to roles, and they're open enough that you can't really do that. As an example, Sorcerors have skills that would be very useful to melee players such as PBAoEs, and Bolt Escape as a gap closer. It doesn't *have* to be used as an escape.