u/Marlax101

Granted I just got back into the game after many years and I have been looking more at the races in game and how their abilities really impact some build playstyles but when looking online I never see much about some of them. like even argonian for example as a mage with crazy regen and defenses would be interesting.

however the imperials i have always seen as the best race if you are not cheesing things. Like granted you can make "better" builds overall that are specialized like orcs getting way more damage but if you are doing everything in the game the imperials got seemingly the best start and can level up everything and at a good pace.

Lets say for example imperial vs orc the orcs racial is very flexible for battle against all types of enemies and the orc can do almost everything the imperial can but it will require the orc to put themselves in the line of fire or spend more time preparing. but an orc or breton in a 1v1 would likely win.

However Imperials are leaders of men and turn tides of battle. They can choose to engage in a 1v1 but its their choice and is it better to have twice as much damage with my attacks or defensive stats i can just buy or to be able to influence the masses and have an army equipped with the best gear.

the voice is also very flexible as it can even fix some bugged missions or let you get away with murder even in some areas. but lets take a early game kind of mission for dawnbreaker. the simplest way i tend to do that mission is take the ritual stone and head up to solitude take the imperial mission to capture the fort on the way there you run into some thalmor and likely sabercats ect. with the voice you can pacify them and kill them 1 by 1 easily or have them kill themselves with illusion magic. then revive them and kill all the bandits. let the fort spawn imperial soldiers kill them and revive an army. yes the voice mostly just affects humanoids but its very easy to both make a army and equip them with much better weapons when needing to do a big mission. almost any camp will do.

on the flip side other racials generally force you into direct combat with the enemies, so you could ambush and pick off the patrol or go hunting kill saber cats revive them to kill others along with your own damage and then revive an army however not you spent more time building your force up and why do you need your damage buffs when you have an army with way more damage fighting for you.

The extra gold isnt a major bonus for people especially if you are spamming things to sell all the time but as an imperial you dont have to do anything you can just take the gold and use for things like training or forging weapons for your army.

then you have the combination of imperial voice, spell like frenzy and especially early game the werewolf form which can just wreck most missions on top of ritual stone. the werewolf has a ton of damage built into it and the imperial voice has the ability to allow you to vs and ragdoll most enemies early. then you can feast on the bodies if need be and revive everyone to fight for you.

the biggest downside is any mission that forces you into an area alone but you still have conjuration spells and defensive abilities and perks. are able to calm enemies mostly and have the wolf forms fear. Something like the azura star mission you also get fairly early is a cake walk altho you could go in with beserkers rage, enter werewolf mode and slap him around easily with the voice you can calm him transform and keep him from running down the path and easily pick him off and be able to just dodge attacks until you get pulled out.

You get to start the game and just free farm everything naturally the faster you kill the more gold you get, the more gold the more xp, the more power, and when its all done generally most of my abilities are all leveled at a close amount and the ones i dont level i can just pay for at some point or find a enemy to hit a bit while the minions tank damage.

now the enemies levels might climb faster but who doesnt like a little extra challenge.