A lot of skills have int/dex as their more powerful factor for warriors now. So while the fire giant is good at forceful attacks and parrying, the elf is good at evading, dodging, and more dextrous/intelligent attacks. They have become fairly even in combat prowess now. However, the giant still has a horrible learning rate while and elf/arial etc learns pretty darn quickly. Most now think that dex builds actually top out over str builds now. I, personally, think this might be due more to the fact that many giants don't get skills up high enough to be as reliable as the int/dex builds get and many just quit early as a result.

I won't push anymore on the idea though, if it isn't desired. I haven't even played a giant in over ten years.. mainly because of learning rates.