Race Ranking/Tier List (Almost 3 hours)
Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 7:35 pm
This topic really doesn't warrant a three hour video. Also I disagree with the overall list aside from Ghoul at the bottom and Shalore and Ogre at the top. Here's what a text guide should look like.
Top tier
Shalore: Grace of the Eternals can kinda replace Blinding Speed or Eden's Guile at just 1/5, and most classes max either Dex or Mag so it gets over 40%. Magic of the Eternals is a straight damage boost and a good place for extra generic points if you have some to spare. Secrets of the Eternals can randomly save you sometimes but it's not reliable and not worth more than 1/5. Also sometimes it tanks Entropy for your good sustains which is cool. Timeless enables great combos like double VD -> Catalepsy and extends buffs like Webs of Fate. It can also be used as a second Relentless Pursuit in a pinch. Its potential varies a ton class by class. Recommended 1/1-5/1/5
Ogre: Ogric Wrath is usually kinda bad but gets pretty funny with Bathe of Light. Grisly Constitution at 5/5 lets you use both 2h and shield or DW talents which is cool on classes like Sun Paladin. It also makes Inscriptions a little better but may not be worth the points. Scar-Scripted Flesh quickens your Inscription cooldowns and (arguably more importantly) your saturations. Not really worth more than a point or two though. Writ Large is hilarious and makes Cornac obsolete since Ogre now does its job better. 5/5 this always for a free slot. Active is great too and works very nicely with Scar-Scripted Flesh's saturation quickening. Recommended 1/1-5/1/5
High tier
Thalore: Wrath of the Woods is a straight damage boost and damage reduction. Pretty great stuff even with no Willpower. Unshackled is useless. Guardian of the Wood is like a mini Thick Skin which is awesome, but not all classes can spare the points. Nature's Pride is the best 1/5 racial since the trees can taunt and stun. You can drop these in front of projectiles or melee foes to trivialize them. Recommended 1/1/1-5/1
Doomelf: Haste of the Doomed is two teleports, the first one instant. Obviously this is ridiculous. Resilience of the Doomed is pretty cool if you can spare the points, since lategame crits can take out half or more of your life. Corruption of the Doomed is basically the same as Secrets of the Eternals, kinda cool if you're Necromancer for the dark damage but even then nothing special. Pitiless is great for extending stun, silence, disarm, etc but you need to be able to beat their saves. If you stunned them in the first place this should happen most of the time. Recommended 1/1-5/1/0-5
Yeek: Dominant Will lets you steal summons which is pretty funny against Summoner randbosses. Otherwise the target can tank for you which is still good. Unity is kinda bad because confusion resist and mental save usually overkill on Yeek. Quickened is great, 15% global speed is especially good on physical classes so Yeeks make surprisingly good Berserkers, Marauders, etc despite their bad life gain. Wayist is like Nature's Pride; the summons are worse but you get three instead of two. Still excellent at body blocking and eating projectiles. Recommended 1/1/5/1
Mid tier
Cornac: Obsolete because Ogre exists but if for some reason you don't feel like going Ogre this is always and option. Its alright on classes like Archmage that want a lot of categories and are generic hungry.
Halfling: Luck of the Little Folk often brings your crit chance to 100% late game, it's one of the better first racials. Duck and Dodge is great, if you survive a hit you get 55%+ evasion. Don't get Lucky Day for this, it's still worthless. Militant Mind often gives you the max because 5+ enemies in sight isn't that rare, and even with 2 it's not bad. Debatable whether or not its worth the points though. Indomitable is insane even at 1/5, and at 5/5 it gives you stun and pin immunity for 7 turns with 23 cooldown. If you manage Movement Infusions well you will never get stunned or pinned. Recommended 1/1/1-5/1-5
Low Tier
Higher: Gift of the Highborn is worthless outside the early game. Overseer of Nations is not needed since barely anything has 11 range and you can use Track/Arcane Eye items instead. Born Into Magic is useless. Highborn's Bloom is neat in some classes like Paradox Mage but it's still a poor choice overall since it has three useless racials. Recommended 1/1/1/5 on builds using Highborn's Bloom otherwise please never pick this race.
Dwarf: First three racials are unreliable, useless, or both. Armor without hardiness sadly doesn't do that much. Power Is Money essentially costs a randart and is still worse than Militant Mind. Stone Walking is pretty good though, if you position yourself wisely you can reliably escape to safety. Recommended 1/1/1/1-5
Undead Tier
Skeleton: At least Skeleton has a shield and a heal. Unfortunately they have absurdly long cooldowns. Resilient Bones is really good but Skeleton racials eat up a lot of points and don't give anything to make up for the lack of Infusions with. This race works well with Archmage and Corruptor since they use lots of runes already and have synergy with the racials. Recommended 1/5/5/5
Ghoul: Worse racials than Skeleton and a global speed penalty. Good if you're looking to challenge yourself, bad if you're looking to win. Gnaw is the worst racial in all of ToME. Only decent things are Retch's cleanse and Ghoulish Leap being a reliable (short-range) teleport. Recommended 1/1-5/5/0
One thing I want to mention is that Skeleton is much better in normal difficulty since stuns are less common and last around 4 turns max. Bone Shield is also almost impenetrable in normal and stat bonuses are a good damage boost for classes like archer, marauder etc.It falls off very quickly in other difficulties though. I dont think i have played Higher except Kill Bill runs and Dwarves except Antimagic Archmage runs. Cheers.