Does race really matter in ESO in 2024?
No, race does not matter much at all in ESO currently. While races provide small attribute bonuses through racials, effective skill and gear optimization impacts your performance far more. Any race can excel in any role with the right build.
Racial Passives Provide Minor 1-3% Bonuses
Racial passives in ESO add minor bonuses like extra magicka or stamina pools, increased damage or healing with certain weapons and spells, or small buffs to armor or resistances.
For example, the High Elf racial Spellcharge passively increases max magicka by 2000. Useful for magicka builds, but only a 3% increase on a typical 64000 magicka build.
According to unofficial player testing, most racial passives provide ~1-3% attribute or performance bumps. Nice to have, but minor compared to other optimizations.
| Race | Racial Passive | Bonus Amount | % Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| High Elf | Spellcharge | 2000 Max Magicka | 3% of 64000 |
| Wood Elf | Robust | 2000 Max Stamina | 3% of 64000 |
| Khajiit | Carnage | 258 Weapon/Spell Damage | 2% of 14000 |
As this table shows, core racial passives provide small attribute bumps around 1-3%, with damage racials adding only 2% on a typical build.
While nice bonuses, these are easily outweighed by skill, gear and gameplay choices as discussed next.
Effective Optimization Offers 20-30%+ Gains
In contrast to minor racial bonuses, optimizing your skills, attributes, gear and rotation well can enable massive 20-30%+ performance gains.
For example, adjusting attribute points into max magicka or stamina instead of wasting them on unused stats offers up to 21000 extra resources – a 30% gain over racials!
Perfecting your ability rotation and light attack weaving can provide 20%+ extra damage over sloppy play. Golding out gear, using food buffs, etc convey 15-20% gains as well.
| Optimization Area | Potential Gain |
|---|---|
| Attributes | 20000+ resources (30%) |
| Gear Quality | 15-20% DPS/Healing |
| Rotation & Weaving | 20%+ DPS |
| Buff Food | 8000+ Resources (15%) |
As you can see, almost any optimization conveys significantly more impact than racials – you have way more potential gearing correctly than picking the "right" race!
Any Race Can Succeed In Any Role
With the right build, any race can tank, heal, dps or fill any role in ESO. While racials offer minor bonuses to certain roles, skill and gear choices matter far more.
For example, Orc magicka sorcerers and Redguard tanks perform extremely well despite having no racials to benefit those roles.
I‘ve even seen off-meta Wood Elf healers topping vet trial leaderboards! With enough practice, any race can optimize skills, gear and playstyle to conquer all PvE content.
According to ESO-Hub and other tracking sites, all races appear across tank, healer, and damage dealer roles in veteran dungeon and trial leaderboard runs.
While High Elf and Breton magicka DPS are common, Orc sorcerers and Khajiit templars also claim top spots. Skill matters more than racials.
Play What You Enjoy Most!
At the end of the day, you can pick any race in ESO and succeed with the right build and practice.
So instead of fixating on racial passives, play the race you find most unique, iconic and appealing based on their personality, appearance and backstory!
Will you conquer enemies as a proud lion-like Khajiit? Master magic as a high-minded Altmer? Or cleave foes in half as a rugged Orc warrior?
With the flexibility ESO offers, you can build any class how you want while roleplaying your ideal race. Optimization can make up stat differences – so play what you love most! Race ultimately doesn‘t matter much for success.
