How to Choose a Race in the Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls Online presents players with 10 distinct playable races, each offering unique gameplay advantages through specialized racial passive abilities. A crucial distinction involves the Imperial race, exclusively accessible to players who acquire the Imperial Edition through pre-order or special purchase. This premium race selection breaks conventional faction boundaries, allowing Imperial characters to align with any of the three major alliances while starting in corresponding beginner zones alongside faction members.

Typically, races maintain fixed allegiance to their designated factions, creating narrative consistency within Tamriel’s ongoing conflict. However, players obtaining the digital edition or digital Imperial edition gain unprecedented faction flexibility, permitting any race to join any alliance. Standard edition purchasers must adhere to predetermined racial faction assignments, making early purchase decisions impactful for long-term character flexibility.

Tamriel’s political landscape divides into three warring alliances, each comprising three specific races with shared cultural and strategic objectives. Understanding these faction compositions proves essential for both roleplaying immersion and practical gameplay considerations.

  •Aldmeri Dominion: Unites the sophisticated Altmer (High Elves), nature-aligned Bosmer (Wood Elves), and versatile Khajiit in their quest for elven dominance.

  •Daggerfall Covenant: Brings together the magically-gifted Breton, resilient Orsimer (Orcs), and martial Redguard races seeking to restore the Second Empire.

  •Ebonheart Pact: Forms an unlikely alliance between the adaptable Argonians, mystical Dunmer (Dark Elves), and hardy Nords united against common threats.

Each alliance offers distinct starting zones, storyline quests, and PvP objectives in Cyrodiil’s massive battlefields. Your faction choice determines which allies you’ll fight alongside and which races you’ll predominantly encounter during your adventures.

Every race possesses four distinctive passive abilities that provide combat advantages and character customization depth. While some passive effects appear across multiple races, each combination creates unique synergies with specific classes and playstyles.

The initial racial passive activates automatically at character creation without skill point investment, delivering a substantial 15% experience bonus when leveling particular weapon or armor skill lines. These initial bonuses reflect each race’s cultural heritage and historical combat preferences, ensuring lore-appropriate character development pathways.

Subsequent three passives within each racial skill tree feature three upgradeable ranks, with each rank requiring additional skill point investment for enhanced effectiveness. Progressive unlocking means you cannot access all racial benefits immediately, encouraging strategic planning for skill point allocation throughout your leveling journey.

Common mistakes include underestimating racial passives’ long-term impact or choosing races based solely on aesthetics without considering build compatibility. Advanced players should analyze how racial bonuses complement their intended class abilities and endgame content preferences.

Altmer, known as High Elves, represent one of Tamriel’s most magically gifted races, possessing human-like stature accentuated by characteristically elongated ears and refined facial features. Their innate magical affinity makes them exceptionally suited for spellcasting roles and magicka-intensive combat styles.

Their racial abilities concentrate heavily on magicka management and destruction magic enhancement, positioning them as natural spellcasters within ESO’s class system.

  •Destruction Talent-Provides 15% accelerated experience gain when training the Destruction Staff skill line, significantly reducing time investment for magicka-based weapon mastery.

  •Spellcharge-Enhances Magicka Recovery during combat by 3%, 6%, or 9% depending on skill point investment level.

Optimal Altmer builds typically involve Sorcerer, Templar, or Nightblade classes focusing on magicka utilization. Their inherent magicka recovery bonuses prove particularly valuable in sustained combat situations and veteran content where resource management becomes critical.

Choosing your character’s race requires careful consideration of multiple factors beyond superficial preferences. Your selection significantly influences combat effectiveness, resource sustainability, and long-term character development potential.

Key strategic considerations include analyzing how racial passives complement your preferred class abilities. For example, magicka-focused races like Altmer synergize exceptionally well with classes that heavily utilize spellcasting abilities. Meanwhile, stamina-oriented races often excel in weapon-based combat styles.

Playstyle alignment represents another crucial factor—aggressive players might prefer races with damage bonuses, while defensive players could benefit from health or resistance enhancements. Understanding these alignments helps prevent common mismatches between racial strengths and actual gameplay preferences.

For endgame optimization, advanced players should calculate how racial bonuses scale with gear sets and champion points. Some races provide marginal advantages that become significant in optimized endgame builds, particularly in veteran dungeons and trial content.

Practical tip: Create multiple characters to test different racial combinations before committing to a main character. This approach allows hands-on experience with various passive combinations and their practical applications.

The Redguard race represents humanity’s peak physical conditioning, specializing in martial prowess and endurance. These warriors naturally gravitate toward tank roles, with racial traits specifically enhancing one-handed weaponry and shield techniques while optimizing stamina-based combat approaches. Players favoring aggressive, physically-oriented playstyles will discover substantial advantages from these stamina-centric attributes.

•Shield Affinity – Accelerates skill progression within the One-Handed and Shield discipline by 15%, allowing faster access to crucial defensive abilities.

•Vigor – Boosts Stamina regeneration during active combat situations by 3/6/9%, ensuring sustained offensive capability.

•Conditioning – Elevates Maximum Stamina capacity by 4/7/10%, providing greater resource pools for abilities and attacks.

•Adrenaline Rush – Recovers 24/48/72 Stamina points when successfully striking enemies with Melee attacks. This regeneration effect triggers no more frequently than once every 5/3/3 seconds depending on ability rank.

Argonians present an exceptional racial option for Ebonheart Pact members who intend to heavily utilize Alchemy systems and consumable items, or those planning to incorporate Werewolf transformation skills into their builds. While thematically designed as proficient healers, Dunmer typically outperform them in pure restoration roles. However, Argonians demonstrate particular excellence as Nightblades, capitalizing on powerful synergies with the Catalyst passive ability.

•Restoration Expertise – Enhances experience accumulation within the Restoration Skill Line by 15%, accelerating healer specialization.

•Amphibious – Improves underwater mobility by increasing swimming velocity 50% while boosting potion effectiveness by 5/10/15%.

•Argonian Resistance – Augments Maximum Health by 1/2/3% while providing Poison and Disease Resistance bonuses of 375/750/1125 points.

•Quick to Mend – Increases all Healing received by 2/4/6%, enhancing survivability during intense encounters.

Understanding the deeper mechanics behind racial abilities unlocks significant optimization potential. Redguards particularly shine in stamina-intensive roles where resource management proves critical – their Adrenaline Rush passive essentially functions as additional stamina regeneration that bypasses combat penalties. For tank builds, this means maintaining block and ability usage becomes substantially more sustainable, especially during prolonged boss encounters where stamina depletion often causes fatal failures.

Argonian players should prioritize potion-centric gameplay; their Amphibious trait synergizes exceptionally well with tri-stat potions, effectively granting bonus resources across all three pools. When combined with the Alchemy skill line’s Medicinal Use passive, Argonians can achieve nearly 45% increased potion effectiveness, making them incredibly self-sufficient in solo content and valuable in group scenarios where resource support may be limited.

Common mistakes include underestimating the value of experience bonuses – the 15% faster skill line progression translates to approximately 20-30% reduced time reaching crucial morphs and passives. Another frequent error involves misallocating attribute points; Redguards require less investment in Stamina to achieve breakpoints, allowing more flexibility for Health allocation. Similarly, Argonians can often forego some Health enchantments in favor of Magicka or Stamina, thanks to their inherent resistance and healing bonuses.

For advanced optimization, consider pairing Redguard stamina recovery with sets like Bone Pirate’s Tatters or Seventh Legion Brute for phenomenal sustain. Argonians excel with sets that enhance healing received or potion effectiveness, such as Gossamer or Desert Rose. These combinations amplify racial strengths beyond what gear alone can accomplish.

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