I like the benefits you get with Iksar, the only biggest downfalls I see about them is
- They are hated
- They have a hell of a time getting OFF Kunark
- 20% exp penalty does show it's ugly face in hell levels
- Unless you're willing to do a lot of faction work, can only bank in Cabilis
- They miss out on a few key items that are vanilla
However, this can be offset by higher mana pool, easy soft cap, being right in FoB and Kurn's, and LoIO, and OT. Can easily go 1-40 there. It will just take a really long time to get there.
Regardless, I'm tossed between Troll and Iksar. I know Iksar's will get a lot of love in the next expansion, but Trolls get some nice clickies. I ended up with a Barb Shaman, which I may just go ahead and kill off to move to Iksar/Troll. It'll just be a bit of a bitch to get the items over there.