Despite all the well deserved shit they get, I love elves. The Tolkien style wise hippies are the lowest tier of elves for me. I prefer elves that have active and interesting ties to the world they're in, not the reclusive and secretive kinds.
The elves in the Warcraft universe, for example, are pretty great. They have the longevity of elves but otherwise are pretty different from the standard. The night elves are matriarchal, including their warriors being compromised of and lead by predominantly women, and their strong ties to nature are largely fulfilled by their (mostly male) druids who do cool shit like turn into animals. The blood elves are a different breed entirely who in current times are basically junkies constantly jonesing for another fix of mana thanks to a historical event where their constant font of power was corrupted, and they'd been tapping into it so often that they'd grown a dependency without realizing it so they got all fucked up when it was taken away, so they're basically magical crackheads but still manage to play up the haughty and austere aspects of elven stereotypes. And then there's a third type, high elves, who are basically just secretive wizards and aren't super interesting, but at least they aren't hippies.
That's the kind of elf stuff that I enjoy. Races that can live a long damn time allow for really cool story stuff, and when they have other interesting aspects to go with it I love them.
Oh, and for more monstrous things, liches are badass. Way cooler than dragons imo. 8D