Balancing the races

[blakemw]

I think the main thing that holds Dwarf back is their talents are extremely focused around defense and that defense is further specialized around attacks and statuses (both of which can be largely mitigated with good equipment) and doesn't do a lot against ye old soul rot and such. Dwarf does precisely nothing for burst damage unless you happen to be hitting things with a Shield of earthen fury - that's extremely specialized (though admittedly can hit like a freight train if you set it up). Shalore has three, count em three, ways to burst damage faster. Ogre has crit enhancement and hits harder if using 2h. Halfling has free crit. Thalore has a +13% or so damage bonus and the trees can hit things, and so on. The only race which might be offensively worse than Dwarf (that is actually worse than having no racials!) is Ghoul, with the -20% global speed going a long way to mitigate any possible advantage from the extra strength and the puke damage over time.

So Dwarf is (only) a logical choice if you're already 100% happy with the damage and burst damage of a class and just need more protection against attacks and statuses (and it's not inconceivable this might be the case, glass cannony classes can be quite poor in the areas dwarf is strong). Shalore is raved about because being able to burst stuff down is often more valuable than having those things running around all alive and making trouble.