So, yeah, are the races at all close to balanced? I play an orclach (mainly for RP reasons) and even time I do rwho it's either me alone or me and one other ur'guard. I can't see any reason for this (orclach are cool, k?) other than orclach maybe severely sucking.

Can anyone tell me if any of this is true?

While I can neither confirm nor debunk the disparity of 'balance' between races (even though, from what I've seen, they aren't entirely balanced), it oftentimes comes down to people wanting to play the "pretty" race. And let's be honest, orclach ain't pretty.

This is why you see so many people play races like elfen or human; they're familiar, they can be elegant, they can be gorgeous.

I'll let someone who's more familiar with races and how they relate to combat comment on that portion of your question.

Orclach isn't bad. Doesn't mean there aren't bad races (like merian/mugwump).

Orclach are pretty nice, even with the fire weakness. These days, I think a lot of people like to be able to both influence and hunt. This is where the orclach falls markedly short, as I see it.

RWHO won't see past cloaking gems, so you can't judge a race's sum popularity with it so much as judge how popular it is with people who have made low credit investments. These two generally aren't that far off, but you might be surprised sometimes.

RWHO also differentiates between living Orclach and an Undead one

My observations of races have come to these conclusions:

- The non-comm's will always be a pretty race. Elfen, Faeling. Non-comm's don't like being ugly races. Because for some of our 'unmentionable crowd', it will distract people away from the trademark 'perky rears and large chests' that are unfortunately all too common for that group of players.

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot, some of our non-comm groups will also either be Aslaran, Furrikin, or some Elfen/Aslaran hybrid. *shudder*

- The combatants are either Human, or whatever race has the most Domoths on it at the time. Combatants don't care what the race is. Krokani, Orclach. Doesn't matter, if the stats are good, they'll go that race.

- Humans are just pure awesome, and cater to both crowds.

That said, I've heard good things about Orclach. The main disadvantage is the charisma and the elemental weaknesses. Personally, I think elemental weaknesses make any race that has them undesirable because of the iffy way they are tacked on right now.

You can do good as an Orclach, and good on you for being original.

No character of mine has ever had a perky anything.

Many roleplayers will gravitate to an org's spec race, due to that race's cultural significance within the org. In many (not all) cases, the stats don't hurt, either!

It seems you think the non-comms races aforementioned are substandard, which isn't the case. If not okay, but your wording implies it.

Eflen and faeling are amazing when specialized. Aslaran is a very good warrior spec on all counts. Krokani is pretty solid for BCs. Nienla was right about humans though, they are pretty much awesome for just about everyone.

I don't think people appreciate the tankiness of tae'dae. They're absurdly tanky, and even for non-comms they make a good timed instakill spamming meatshield.

Sometime, just for fun, I'm gonna make an alt who's race is completely wrong for his guild. A Tae'dae mage or an Orclach bard or something.

Furrikin are relatively solid across the board, they just get outshined by the other races in every specific instance. Jack of all trades and such.

I think mugwumps could use a little more love.

Tae'dae mage would be an acceptable PvP choice with psionics, especially telekinesis (although terrible bashing).

Except a perky attitude!

You're right, a few of them have had that!

My one son, Reim, was a Tae'dae monk herbalist (before reincarnating as a faeling for obvious reasons). Talk about completely wrong. Though, apparently strength really adds to choke damage from what I hear.

I saw a tae'dae nekotai the other day. My mind was blown.

I think my favourite race is taurian. I would probably make Tynghall one if not for a few things holding me back.

Thul is Glomdoring's resident bear monk. We <3 him.

Try lobo mage. But what's a boy to do? Hallifax looked irresistible and oh my goodness I can be a dog how cool. Aeromancers were the only option when I started.

So I guess what I'm saying is give me Hallimonks with chakrams and an evolution for lobos who specialize in chakrakata. Kthx.

No more monks. Other monks are still broken.