Are you starting on a TLP? This is a good race/class with some deity choices min max guide that someone shared prior to the Teek launch.
Early TLP Min-Max Race Choice.
First off know that
Starting stats are pretty low impact, generally if you're broke on a new server dumping points into
Strength so you can carry a lot of vendor loot is more helpful than anything else. If you're gonna be able to afford weightless bags early and wear your armor without being overloaded then you can afford to worry about Int, Wis, Stamina, Agil, and Dex. Int and Wis early on are more impactful for classes that use mana than any other stat they can get.
One exception is Charisma. On any toon where you are going to be pulling a ton with
Lull/Pacify it will save you from criitcal failures (pacify resists that actually agro the mob.) It is suprisingly very high impact in reducing critical lull failures. Probably the most high impact starting stat overall, but only applies to lull pullers. Also helps you get better prices from vendors so dovetails nicely with the strength meta.
Stamina is more HP which is always great and very early on it's a tough stat to get on gear whereas lots of gear has strength on it from the start. The downside is that at low levels it doesn't give much HP but it does improve as you level.
Dex and Agil are the lowest impact early on, unless your agil is so low (<75) that you take an AC penalty.
Racial innate abilities don't mean much for most classes. Some are particulary low impact. A few are nice-to-haves. But a few are pretty impactful. And since eventually you're going to be capped on every stat picking that erudite for higher starting Int will be completely worthless whereas your Dark Elf "Hide" skill won't be.
Major Abilities:
Ogre frontal stun immunity is definitely the highest impact racial ability and generally if your class can be an Ogre he probably should be.
Halflings are the only race to get the Sneak ability. Occasionally very useful for instant indifferent faction with any NPC and sometimes even for actually sneaking past mobs! Really nice for classes that don't get invis, like clerics, warriors and later paladins.
Iksars get a bonus to AC and Regen. The Regen is actually very impactful for Necros early on and more AC is always nice for any class but less valuable for tanks than ogre stun immunity.
Halflings, Wood Elves and Dark Elves all get the Hide ability. Useful for AFK'ing as it's an unlimited duration invis as long as you don't move.
Wood Elves and High Elves have the best origin point early game due to access to 1) the most popular early leveling zones, 2) the Nexus Spires during Luclin and 3) PoK Books that are very close to Kelethin and Felwithe.
Once Frogloks are available they are generally the best Origin point for any class they can be.
Only Gnomes can do the Tinkering Tradeskill so you have to be a gnome if you want to do Tinkering.
Ogres, Trolls and Barbarians all get the ability "Slam", doesn't do much but it's an extra attack with a tiny amount of damage and chance to interupt casters.
Wood Elves and Iksars get the Racial ability to Forage. Slightly useful for Iksars spending a lot of time in lands without access to merchants.
Innoruuk Troll Shaman, Innoruuk Human Clerics, and Innoruuk Dark Elf Clerics can do a simple quest to get a clicky with unlimited charges of the lowest necro/sk snare.
Trolls get racial regen like Iksar which is kinda nice for regenning back health from Cannibalize but combined with the Snare Clicky makes them a reasonable second choice for Shamans after Ogres. The Regen has Negligible impact for War/Sk unless you're soloing a lot which is trash exp on official servers compared to grouping.
Small races like Gnome, Halfling, and Dwarf also have an advantage in that you typically don't need to worry about getting a shrink clicky or pots.
Class by Class:
Bard - Low impact. Wood Elves best Origin Point.
Beastlord - Ogre for frontal stun immunity or Iksar for AC Bonus.
Berserker - Ogre for frontal stun immunity.
Cleric - Halfling for Hide and Sneak. Dark Elf for Hide and easy Snare Clicky Quest. (Must Choose Innoruuk)
Druid - Halfling for Hide and Sneak.
Enchanter - Dark Elf for Hide or other for preferred Origin point.
Magician - Dark Elf for Hide or other for preferred Origin point.
Monk - Iksar for AC and Regen. (Humans are Cooler though and get better origin points and faction.)
Necromancer - Iksar for Regen. Initially high impact but eventually meaningless as you get raid gear.
Paladin - Low impact except Halfling (if avail) for Hide and Sneak. High Elf for best origin point. Dwarf for best starting stats.
Ranger - Low impact. Wood Elves best Origin Point.
Rogue - Low impact. Wood Elves best Origin Point. Gnome so you don't feel bad about not having a Mask of Tinkering.
Shadowknight - High Impact. Ogre for frontal stun immunity or distant second Iksar for AC Bonus.
Shaman - Ogre for frontal stun immunity or Iksar for AC Bonus and Regen or Troll for regen and easy Snare Clicky Quest. (Must Choose Innoruuk)
Warrior - High Impact. Ogre for frontal stun immunity or distant second Iksar for AC Bonus.
Wizard - Dark Elf for Hide or Gnome for Tinkering, The only class that Doesn't suffer from Dark Elf's terrible origin points.
tl:dr
If you can be an ogre be an ogre. (Unless you're a shaman and really want regen and the ability to snare mobs with the worst snare in the game, then be an Innoruuk Troll.)
Pally, Cleric, Druid. Halflings get sneak and hide.
Dark Elf Int Casters get hide at the cost of a crappy Origin point.
Dark Elf Innoruuk Clerics get Hide and Snare clicky neck at the cost of a crappy Origin point. (Human Innoruuk Clerics can also get the clicky Neck (and Paineel Fear Mask) with less terrible origin point and faction.)
Necros benefit a lot from Iksar Regen for a long time.
Wizards should be Dark Elves.
Origin points:
GFay and Felwithe are the best early on and stay really good. Easy access to main early level dungeons, closest possible Luclin Spires, PoK Book in same zone as Kelethin and another PoK book right near Felwithe. Also BB docks are one zone away for quick access to Firionia Vie and Freeport areas.
Second best during classic/kunark is probably
Freeport for access to EC tunnel and the docks to BB in Freeport and OT in Oasis and improves in Velious cause of N Ro Docks to Iceclad. Takes a Hit in Luclin cause of no Nexus Spires but there's plenty of Druids and Wizards in Commons to buy a port from.
Nothing changes much in
Luclin except
Erudites get access to a nearby Set of Luclin Spires.
Once PoP drops it's all about how far you have to run and whether you need to zone to get to the PoK Books.
Froglok Village in Rathe Mountains, Wood Elves in GFay, North Qeynos Classes, and West Freeport Classes all have a PoK book in the same zone as their Origin point and are pretty much the best Origin points.
Lots of others are slightly worse but still above average, like Fewlithe Clerics and Paladins do have to zone once but it's a very short run to the zone line and the Pok book is very closeby outside.
Most others are like a medium run and zoning once, kind of annoying but not a huge deal. Like Rivervale, Cabilis East. Felwithe Int casters have to zone twice but both are very short runs.
The Worst is Basically anything in Neriak but especially third gate like Necros and SK's because they have to zone 3 times and then it's still a long run to the PoK book once you're in Nektulous. A close runner up is West Cabilis, zoning twice and running over canals with crap hanging overhead to get stuck on. 3rd worst is probably Ak'Anon, just feels like forever getting to the zone out and then you still have a way to go to get to the PoK book.
There are a bunch of others that also require zoning more than once or just annoying cities to navigate like Paineel, Erudin, and most guild halls that are in the deeper parts of a multi zone city. Surefall is a zone-twice situation with a bit of a run but at least it's a straight line you can autorun and the Druid port is right inside the zone.
So if you care a lot about Origin Points that have a PoK book in the same zone:
1 Kelethin
2 Rathe Mountains Frogs
3 North Qeynos Classes
4 West Freeport Classes
