Autosneak is nice, perhaps the best inherent in the game, but iron vuln/mithril and low HP is absolutely wicked at those levels. You really, really have to pick and choose your fights and chances are if you are not super-vigilant you are going to eat a con point, or two from enemies targeting you ranking. Also, most people will target elves first for easy PKs knowing they are more fragile.

Even if you prep up and remove the extra damage because of vuln, you can still get steamrolled in less than 3 rounds because of low HP and high damage commands.

Elves come into their own approaching the hero ranks where they have enough HP to be survivable and a bunch of dex-based perks, plus preps, plus hero level game items/access to racial gear. Giant's are the reverse. They can lag reliably in the lower ranks. They have high(er) hp, higher damage output, physical resist and often, difficult to exploit vulns. Don't forget dual-wielding heavier and even two-handed weapons, which may not typically be used by other classes. The downside is the skill spam and tanking.

Approaching hero ranks giants are still powerful, but often a dextrous race might have the edge, depending on the build.

Edit: I'm assuming an average skill player, sword-spec warrior and typical picks for legacies which those races would opt for. By elf I mean, dark-elf, high-elf and to a lesser extent, wood-elf. Also assuming no religion-based rewards etc.

So if he wants (and has the capability) to power-rank to 45 as an elf, he will have a great time. Conversely, if he is stuck in a levelling rut pre-35 he will be an underdog with an elf, but will be powerful as a giant.



Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2013 02:05AM by istirith.