Since beta no race has had anywhere near as lousy and as useless racials as argonians have had and I am seriously wondering why is that ok with zos? They pretend to "buff" us by making our potions ever so slightly better over and over again to no effect. Patch after patch, year after year, the state of this garbage racial never gets any better. Some how by some miracle the amphibious racial still exists and has not yet been replaced by something meaningful. Look at our racials and tell me what role/class that goes with? Are we supposed to be healers? I mean you gave us restoration staff bonus xp(even though lore wise that makes no sense). Yet we don't get increased heals to others and are only good at healing ourselves, so who would pick argonian for a healer? Its obvious we aren't intended to dps since we get ZERO bonuses to stamina or magicka. Even tanking is garbage with the racials we have been cursed with.
We got a racial that only works when drinking a potion and swimming.... let that really sink in.... On top of that it isn't even a good potion racial! Even if it restored 100%hp/stam/magicka it would still be junk and that is the highest possible buff you could put on it zos. While you have been incrementally increasing it, I skipped straight to 100% and found it to still be crap so just get rid of it already! Why would argonians be better at chugging potions anyways? Where is the lore that supports that?!?!?! Better at making potions, yes, but not at drinking them. Here let me help you remember what argonians looked like in previous games because apparently you forgot!
In morrowind we had:
Male 40 str Female 40 str
40 int 50 int
30 will 40 wil
50 agi 40 agi
50 spd 40 spd
30 end 30 end
30 per 30 per
40 luck 40 luck
+15 to athletics,+5 alchemy, +5 illusion, +5 medium armor, +5 mysticism, +5 spear, +5 unarmored Waterbreathing, 100% poison resistance, and 75% disease resistance
Notice that argonians have very low endurance which back then meant they were bad in the health department, yet somehow we ended up with a hp increase! Also take note of our extreme speed! Not only do we have the fastest base speed, but we also get a massive +15 to athletics making argonians the favorite race for speed runners(yet some how orcs get the speed boost, yeah ok zos you were high when you made the racials admit it)! Female argonians are not to bad at being mages and yet no magicka boost what so ever! We are looking at the stats for a race that either chooses to go thief/assasin or mage, not tank zos and not healer. Based on this we should remove the health passive and replace it with the stam and magicka racial that dunmer have because it makes perfect sense lore wise.
In oblivion we had pretty much the exact same attributes, but with more luck this time. We still have the water breathing and the same resistances as before.
+10 Athletics and Security
+5 Alchemy, Blade, Hand to Hand, Illusion, and Mysticism
So yet again these are stats that would be rather bad for a tank or healer, but actually not half bad for a mage or thief. Also take note that neither of these games gave us a bonus to drinking potions(only making better ones), that one was pulled from a dark and smelly place.
Now in skyrim the most up to date game we no longer get attributes so we can't look at those, but we do have these starting skills.
Lockpicking +10
Light Armor +5
Alteration +5
Pickpocket +5
Restoration +5
Sneak +5
Alright so now we see where this sudden restoration boost of +5 comes in, but before you go "BUT SLAM YOU SAID ARGONIANS BEING GOOD AT RESTORATION MAKES NO SENSE LORE WISE!!!11!" Imperials have a +10 to restoration in skyrim and yet they get no healing boost in eso. Ignoring that though based on these starting skills we can see yet again a focus on magic and thievery!
So with the actual argonian racial stats before us what conclusions can we make that zos failed to? We are clearly not a high health race so lets scrap Argonian resistance because based off all existing lore argonians are actually rather squishy. Argonians have never been any better at chugging potions then anyone else so amphibious has to go! I can see where they were going with quick to mend because argonians have hist skin in skyrim which makes us heal super fast, but other then that it makes no sense for argonians to get more healing received. Also we know hist skin will no doubt be our racial ultimate so no need to cover that with a passive skill. Now argonians are actually the most athletic race on nirn, so I could see us getting the orcs sprint speed and reduction, but with a disease resistance instead of a weapon damage bonus. Argonians are skilled thieves and assassins so perhaps we could get stealthy? Female argonians being good mages and males good warriors means we should get the dynamic racial that dunmer have.
So with a good and proper buff to argonian racials we could end up with:
Restoration expertise(unfortunatly we are stuck with it now unless we switch with imperials)
Dynamic 6% more magicka and stamina
Stealthy(same as khajiit and bosmer)
Swift warrior(same as orcs but with our current disease resistance)
Yeah they still aren't the best racials ever and I know I just copy pasted existing ones, but they still make far more sense for the race. Obviously zos could look at the numbers better and figure out what would make us more competitive in this game, but this time with real argonian stats and not made up on the spot ones.
