Gaurdians also have acrons which teleport them to their fellow ship member's locations.
So having an elf you party with who has return to rivendell would be nice since he could call you next to him with your acorn (acorn is lvl 38).
Most of the stuff I'm talking about is near-end game. The beginning game really isn't hard enough to justify any strategy or planning...so I'm just trying to inform you about this stuff now. Plus no one wants to learn all the intricacies of a game before the play it. Some of this you might have to experience for your self to really get. The game is pretty balanced for the most part, but like I said before that lvl 35 elf skill really surprised me. It sucks compared to the man one.