Idea: Merit system

[Barraind]

But XI was more based around 'Certain races are better at certain classes' from what I remember. Racial bonuses are negligible here.

Unless they give you more than just passive stat increases (and it has to be either a very good active ability or game-breaking passive), racial bonuses are usually only relevant for a couple years at most in any MMO. As soon as mudflation hits, minor stat bonuses are worthless.

Examples of this are dwarf priests in WoW having fear break or undead being passively immune to certain CC (game-breakingly good and caused the entire system to get re-balanced) vs Troll regeneration in EQ (stopped being relevant less than 10% into the games lifespan)