Race Guide

Welcome to the *Race Guide*! This player curated guide looks at the various races, from their attributes to their racial passives, and organizes their available classes into a tier list. The aim of this guide is to help you choose the best Race for your preferred class *from a statistical perspective*.

Contributions to the guide are welcome. If you disagree with a large portion of the guide, you are instead encouraged to create your own. Make sure to put tag it with the appropriate category, so that users can find it.

For additional player guides, please see the Guides page for all of the guides available on the wiki.

## Archai

 **Passives**

**Natural Acclimation** increases an acclimation score, depending on the element of the Archai (Fire/Scorching | Water/Frigid | Wind/Windshear | Earth/Toxic).  This doesn't factor heavily into class consideration.

 **Living Reservoir** all mana-drain effects are reduced by 20%.

Great: Druid, Shaman, and Wizard
Useless: Warrior and Monk.
 **Effervescent** grants immunity to effects that drain Endurance.

Great: Warrior and Monk
Subpar: Druid, Shaman, and Wizard. While all classes have Endurance, it is less pivotal a resource to these classes than others.
 **Elemental Attunement** grants a bonus to the effectiveness of abilities that match the elemental attunement of the Archai.

Great: Druid, Shaman, and Wizard all have access to elementally diverse abilities. Wizards will benefit greatly from this trait, as they gain a special bonus on their own by using an element consecutively.
Subpar: Monks only have limited access to elemental abilities.
Useless: Warriors lack elemental abilities.

 **Actives**

TBA

## Dark Myr

 **Passives**

**Born of Deep Waters** (increases Anaerobic & Pressure Acclimation), **Vestige of Syronai** (underwater breathing and swim speed) and **Perceptive** (+10 Insight skill) are largely out-of-combat passives and factor very little into class consideration.

 **Embittered Psyche** increases Stealth effectiveness, and also increases stealth awareness by 10 points.

Great: Rogue is the only class known to have access to Stealth.
Subpar: All but the Rogue. No other class is known to have access to stealth.
 **Actives**

TBA

## Dwarf

 **Passives**

 **Ice and Stone** increases Cold Resistance, as well as Frigid and Toxic acclimation scores. This doesn't factor heavily into class consideration.

 **Fortitude** gain extra Hit Points from each point of Stamina. An excellent passive for every class.

 **Grip of the Dwarven Father** grants immunity to being Disarmed.

Great: All but the Enchanter
Subpar: Enchanter. It's not as impactful against them.
 **Mountain-forged** Increases Blunt Weaponry skills by 10 points.

Great: Cleric. As Blunt is the *only* weapon type available to the cleric, you won't have issues with your new weapon being the wrong item type for the bonus.
Decent: Paladin, Rogue, Warrior. Each of them have the capacity to wield blunt weapons and will engage in melee combat, but since they all have access to more weapon types, there will be times when this passive doesn't function at all.
Subpar: Enchanters are unlikely to utilize this trait, as they prefer casting to auto attacking.
 **Actives**

TBA

## Elf

 **Passives**

 **Lucent Ancestry** grants innate bonuses to Nature Magic resistance, and increases the effectiveness of Nature abilities

Great: Druid, Ranger and Shaman all have access to nature based magic.
Supbar: Enchanter, Rogue, Summoner, Warrior and Wizard don't have access to any nature related abilities.
 **Nimble** increases the effectiveness of abilities modified by Agility.

Great: Ranger and Warrior both favor Agility as a stat, making this a great passive for them.
Decent: Every other class.
 **Sagacious** gain additional Spell Rating for each point of Wisdom.

Great: All except Rogue and Warrior
Subpar: Rogue and Warrior. At this stage of development (aug. 2020) it is hard to say whether or not "spell" rating effects abilities (such as those used by Warriors and Rogues)
 **Unflinching** grants a chance to resist being knocked down or back. A universally beneficial trait, as being moved interrupts casting.

 **Deftness** gain additional Attack Rating for each point of Dexterity.

Great: Ranger, Rogue and Warrior all utilize auto attacking for dealing damage.
Subpar: Enchanter, Druid, Shaman, Summoner and Wizard. These classes favor casting over auto-attacking, making this a generally pointless trait.
 **Actives**

TBA

## Gnomes

 **Passives**

 **Incantation Mastery** gives them a 20% chance to resist *Silence* effects. Universally useful.

 **Constant Scholar** increases the rate at which skills improve. Universally useful.

 **Enigmatic Brilliance** makes them gain more *Mana* from each point of *Intelligence*.

Exceptional: Enchanter, Summoner, Wizard
Subpar: Rogue, as they have no mana whatsoever.
 **Ethereal Being** increases dodge chance by 3%.

Exceptional: Rogue.
Great: Enchanter, Summoner, Wizard. Though ideally they won't use it much, a raw boost to survivability, no matter how small, is a great trait for all classes.
 **Actives**

TBA

## Halflings

 **Passives**

**Wraith Hunters** (bonus to damage done to Wraiths), **Wild Mind** (+20% chance to resist Charm and Mes) and **The Fire of Youth** (grants a bonus to the effects of consumables). These are universal traits.

 **Dagger Specialization** increases the *Dagger* skill by 10 points.

Exceptional: Rogues require a piercing type weapon to use  Backstab, so they will almost always benefit from this trait.
Decent: Ranger and Warrior. Both have access to daggers but unlike the Rogue, they don't have an ability requirement to.
Useless: Druids cannot equip piercing type weapons.

 **Actives**

TBA

## Human

 **Passives**

 **Wanderlust** increases the experience gained via exploration, as well as boosting faction gains with neutral factions. Universally useful.

 **A People Inspired** increases melee, ranged and spell haste by 2%. Universally useful.

 **Shield Specialization** increases Shield Mastery skill by 10 points.

Exceptional: Paladin and Warrior. Both classes have abilities that rely on them equipping a shield, so they are likely to utilize this boost frequently.
Decent: Enchanter, Summoner and Wizard.
Useless: Dire Lord, Monk, Ranger and Rogue. None of these classes can equip shields.
 **Thronefastian Charm** increases the effectiveness of skills and abilities modified by Charisma.

Exceptional: Enchanter and Paladin.
Decent: Rangers. They have some access to abilities modified by Charisma.
Subpar: All other classes.
 **Actives**

TBA

## Ogres

 **Passives**

 **Staggering Strength** increases Critical Damage by 5%.

Exceptional: Dire Lord and Warrior
Subpar: Druid and Shaman. Spells cannot critically hit.
 **Broken Maw's Grit** gives additional Attack Rating for each point of Strength.

Exceptional: Dire Lord and Warrior
Subpar: Druid and Shaman. Unlike Clerics, neither healer has abilities that suggest they will be encouraged to participate in melee combat.
 **Battle Hardened** gives them a 25% chance to resist non-magical stun effects.

Exceptional: Dire Lord and Warrior.
Great: Druid and Shaman. This can help prevent spell interrupts while being attacked, which could be the difference between landing a heal or not.
Note: When the Ogre uses **Battle Trance** (presumably a Racial Active), this becomes non-magical stun **immunity**.

 **Actives**

TBA

## Skar

 **Passives**

**Fear of the Nine God** (+20% chance to resist Fear) and **Pack-Hunter** (Up to 5% additional movement speed when in range of Skar group members.) are universally useful, if situational.

**Long-Suffering** increases max health by 5%. Also universally useful and less situational

Exceptional: Dire Lords have abilities that are modified by their max health points.
Great: Every other class.
 **Actives**

TBA

## Tier List

A summary of what race(s) best suit a class, along with justifications for why.

 Cleric | Human

Capable in Melee, Clerics can leverage both the attack speed and spell haste. Though it's more situational than the Dwarf's HP boost from STA, the Shield Mastery is a nice defensive trait for when the Cleric isn't equipping a Celestial Tome.

 Dire Lord | Ogre

Not a single of the Ogre's traits is wasted by the Dire Lord.

 Druid | Elf (Ashen)

Druids have access to a lot of Nature spells, and Wisdom is a primary attribute for them.

 Enchanter | Gnome / Human

The decision between Gnome or Human depends on one question: "Do you want to Tradeskill"? If you aren't very interested in tradeskilling, then Human is likely the stronger pick.

 Monk | Human

Consistency is the primary factor here. The Human's innate hastes for melee and casting are going to always be functional, and the exploration and faction bonuses are also going to come into play more frequently than traits like the Skar's bonus movement/fear resistance, the Archai's endurance drain immunity/elemental attunement or...any of the Dark Myr's traits.

 Paladin | Human

Humans win out over Dwarves for much the same reason they did for the Monk: a Dwarf Paladin may not always have a Blunt weapon equipped or need the acclimation bonuses, while a Human is always going to benefit from the melee and spell haste and can reliably leverage the CHA modifier. Again, the exploration and faction traits are a nice touch.

 Ranger | Elf (Ember)

Dual AGI/DEX effectiveness bonuses, with the added potential of boosting Nature spells.

 Rogue | Dark Myr / Elf (Ember) / Halfling

Rogues have a lot of interesting options when it comes to Race choice. As Rogues are going to want to have Daggers equipped to use  Backstab, the Halfling is an appealing choice for the damage-minded Rogue. The occasional synergy with the Wraith damage bonus and the boost to consumables are a nice touch

On the other hand, an Ember Elf brings a dual synergy with AGI and DEX along with some defensive qualities, like the boost to Nature resistance and the +20% resistance to Knockdown/Knockback effects. They are a happy medium of aggressive and defensiveness, with their traits being more consistently useful.

Finally, Dark Myr are on the opposite side of the Halfling. They gain no direct combat benefit for their traits, but they do amplify a critical aspect of the Rogue's kit: Stealth.

 Shaman | Elf (Ashen)

The same logic as the Druid: they have access to nature spells and WIS is a core attribute for Shamans.

 Summoner | Gnome / Archai

The gnome is the consistent and "safe" choice. The extra mana is the primary lure, with the added bonus of increased skill experience. The dodge chance and +20% resistance to silence are nice additions.

The Archai is the damage oriented pick, thanks to the elemental boost, but is far less consistent than the Gnome.

 Warrior | Ogre

Similar to the Dire Lord, the Warrior can leverage each of the Ogre's traits.

 Wizard | Archai / Gnome

Very similar to the Summoner, but the Archai makes a more interesting pick for a Wizard because of their Focus mechanic, which rewards casting the same element continuously and synergizes perfectly with the Archai's Elemental Attunement.

As with the Summoner, the Gnome is the consistent choice.

## Reference(s)

1. ↑ Spells can no longer critical (Dec, 2021. Retrieved 2/2022)