Guild Wars 2

I’ve been looking to make a new Asura Warrior, and I’ve been thinking of ways to justify to my friend that they would make fine Warriors. (He argues that their physical stature and small size automatically disqualifies their viability in being Warriors.)

In doing so I’ve developed many personality quirks and and tons of backstory for my new character.

His name is Irkk, of the self-created “Bionics Krewe”, (Yes, I like Bionics, and the Asura could totally do it, just not with the traditional mechanics, obviously, this is magical Asura Technology we’re talking about!) which is dedicated to inventing ways to improve the Asura body via “bio-magical-machinery”.

He has had many strides to improving his physical strength and acrobatic abilities. With use of his internal bio-magical-engineering, he is capable of feats of strength only shown by the Norn, such as effortlessly swinging a greatsword, one handed, or being able to create shock waves by smashing into the ground with a hammer. He also able to defy gravity for mere seconds by activating a magnetic reversal system within himself to create the stunning animation behind Hundred Blades, or Flurry.

I realize this is all a stretch, but is anything REALLY a stretch with the Asura?

They are responsible for the technology that allows you to instantly port to somewhere on the other side of the world- at a cost of course. Asura Technology can explain pretty much everything in the game, if you really want it to, like some of the more comical events like floating jellyfishes, (Clearly, the Asura are patenting this obnoxiously deadly weapon because NO ONE expects a flying land-jelly to sting them. Element of Surprise, OP.) or the fact that weapons shrink when an Asura sheathes it. This, clearly is magical Asura weapon diminishing technology to save space.

All in all, this is a post for anyone who had doubts of playing an Asura Warrior seriously. I have given you everything you need to give a new twist to your tiny armored terrors.

I’m gonna go enjoy my Yoda-esque Bio-Magical-Engineered Masterpiece now. But what does everything of this prospect? Let me know!

Not sure if there’s an Asura equivalent of bionics, but if it works for you go for it.

Another angle may be a simple muscular mutation. Considering one of the race abilities of theirs is Radiation field (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Radiation_Field), and I recall Logan mentioning something about growing extra limbs from various forms of radiation, I can assume radiation works in a similar way to other fictitious settings.

So rather than turning green and growing large muscles and sporting purple pants, your Asura can simply be a mini-hulk Warrior who mistakes adrenaline for radiation levels :P

Not really I’ve long assumed that Asura warriors are likely specialists in weapon, bionics or power armour technologies, or just straight up soldiers if they specialise in rifles and I know some of my friends and guildies held the same opinion.

Most Asura are reliant on technology to do what they do.

I made an asura warrior but relegated myself to a rifle in RP situations before deleting him.

Though, we see the peace keepers carrying hammers and swords. I doubt they would compare with warriors of the bigger races. So I see no problem justifying putting them in the same league. personally though, i wouldn’t try so hard to make yours the equal of a Norn warrior. I’d tone it down maybe to a tonic or something that increased my physical characteristics making me utilize my game given acrobatics to stay on par. Also, keep in mind that Asura weopons are alot smaller than Norn so that needs no justification. In the case of feats like the hammer, I might go with an augmented weopon over Norn-strength but that’s just my flavor. My two cents.

Dustfinger.9510:

I made an asura warrior but relegated myself to a rifle in RP situations before deleting him.

Though, we see the peace keepers carrying hammers and swords. I doubt they would compare with warriors of the bigger races. So I see no problem justifying putting them in the same league. personally though, i wouldn’t try so hard to make yours the equal of a Norn warrior. I’d tone it down maybe to a tonic or something that increased my physical characteristics making me utilize my game given acrobatics to stay on par. Also, keep in mind that Asura weopons are alot smaller than Norn so that needs no justification. In the case of feats like the hammer, I might go with an augmented weopon over Norn-strength but that’s just my flavor. My two cents.

Norn was just the example I used. I assume Charr are equally strong, and Humans are also capable of great feats of strength. I don’t know about Sylvari.

But basically, I like it being over-the-top, but the Asura as a whole, are over the top.

The way to justify asura warrior? Little midget roflstomping 8 ft char and norns in pvp

I developed a similar back story for my warrior as the OP—kind of a cross between magical bionics and a magical version of Iron Man. But I also think that the Asura animations take some of the pressure off of us to come up with an elaborate, lore-appropriate justification. Weapons such as Great Sword and Hammer look crazy heavy when my Asura warrior swings them around. I love how she has to hurl herself up into the air with each swing of a thousand blades, and how she teeters around afterward while carrying the great sword. The animations make it look like she doesn’t have superhuman (err…. super-Asuran) strength, just a hell of a lot of determination.

escherbach.8376:

I developed a similar back story for my warrior as the OP—kind of a cross between magical bionics and a magical version of Iron Man. But I also think that the Asura animations take some of the pressure off of us to come up with an elaborate, lore-appropriate justification. Weapons such as Great Sword and Hammer look crazy heavy when my Asura warrior swings them around. I love how she has to hurl herself up into the air with each swing of a thousand blades, and how she teeters around afterward while carrying the great sword. The animations make it look like she doesn’t have superhuman (err…. super-Asuran) strength, just a hell of a lot of determination.

This is exactly what I’m talking about.

Drugs. Lots and lots of physical enhancing drugs.

The short stature gives an Asuran more access to the “critical hit” area between the legs in a fight.

I don’t believe that an asuran warrior needs justification, honestly. They’ve existed in lore since pre-GW1 (via Eye of the North stories).

An asuran warrior is just an asura that respects martial puzzles as much as mental puzzles. Warriors don’t have to be strong or stupid. In fact an asuran warrior is most probably unbelievably intelligent to the point that she’s augmented her physical capabilities in some absurd way. For example she might have created a golem-like exoskeleton or hand/foot binders or something that give her the ability to turn ogre skulls to dust with a single punch.

I actually believe that there were asura in GW1 working on just such a device. It’d be a branch of Dynamics and Golemancy.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s because the world of Tyria is so heavily laden with magic that the physical reality is completely immaterial and all that really matters are enchantments and willpower.

This is borne out by armor and weapon appearance being completely divorced from your character’s actual performance in the field.

And naturally, Asura being the wizards that they are, they get the best enchantments and at least equal amounts of willpower. Though I prefer to imagine that my Asura warrior is just totally crazy and thus doesn’t hold back in martial combat.

Also, what Kerithlan said. Combat is as much an intellectual challenge as anything else. And perhaps some Asura think the body must be fully honed before the brain can truly realize its potential? After all, even IRL, exercise has a huge effect on one’s mental competence. Thus it seems likely to me that Asura warriors actually possess greater mental acuity than many of their peers.

It can also be a way to make up for one’s appearance. For example, my Asura warrior presents herself in a rather intimidating manner…

Kerithlan.1659:

I don’t believe that an asuran warrior needs justification, honestly. They’ve existed in lore since pre-GW1 (via Eye of the North stories).

An asuran warrior is just an asura that respects martial puzzles as much as mental puzzles. Warriors don’t have to be strong or stupid. In fact an asuran warrior is most probably unbelievably intelligent to the point that she’s augmented her physical capabilities in some absurd way. For example she might have created a golem-like exoskeleton or hand/foot binders or something that give her the ability to turn ogre skulls to dust with a single punch.

I actually believe that there were asura in GW1 working on just such a device. It’d be a branch of Dynamics and Golemancy.

That’s why my guardian went with the College of Dynamics.
My golemancer skills and knowledge will allow me to create a enhanced armour by adapting the Power Crystals used for golems. Controlling it won’t be an issue since we invented the golem-to-pilot interfacing that was presented with the M.I.G. who won the Snaff Prize!

Zyrusticae.7245:

As far as I’m concerned, //intimidating manner…

Just want to say how awesome he looks. GG

You guys are all giving me even more points to prove Asura can be Warriors to my friend. thank you.

Don’t need justification when you’re a badmofo

sushicide.9371:

Don’t need justification when you’re a badmofo

He’s a complicated man
But no one understands him but his woman

Honestly, it is because it must be.

Im sure not even Anet thought of a reason for it also.

Well , an ant can lift 10 times its weight anyway, and no magic is used there.

If you want another solid justification

Look at the tier 3 asuran heavy armor. Being asuran, do you honestly think such a heavily technological looking suit would not have physical enhancements?

You may as well be a golem with free will in that suit.

Instead of being a brute and strong you could be quick and precise. Being short can give you alot of chances to get under the enemies guard and getting the right blows in.

You Asura could be strong enough to be able to use heavy armor and not be so encumbered and skilled and quick enough to be more like a duelist then a berserker.

And if you want to go the blood crazed powerful you can go “it’s magic and science I don’t have to explain anything”

Never really though about this, but the idea of building your own exoskeleton sounds amazing

The first word that came to mind when I started thinking of reasons was: Yoda. Looks kinda like an Asuran too XD

Chalk me up as another one for “I don’t think justification is needed, but if it were, yours is cool.”

Physical strength, while important for all martial combat, is not the primary concern so much as the application of that strength: the mastery of physics (leverage, forces, momentum, acceleration, velocity, …).

Butch El Magnifico.4720:

The first word that came to mind when I started thinking of reasons was: Yoda. Looks kinda like an Asuran too XD

This. You don’t need to be able to out wrestle a Norn to be an effective warrior.

Who says, Asura cannot fight on par with Humans(ok norn could be problematic… Without enhancements, that is…)
Their intellect would allow them to develop highly systematic and effective combat styles. Throw in some kind of power gear, exoskeleton and whatnot and you are ripping apart norn and charr like it’s no problem.
Also, just play with rifle+sword/warhorn and be a sniper.

The Asura do not need to justify themselves to races with inferior intellect. It should be obvious that Asurans simply have a superior understanding of The Eternal Alchemy which the less intelligent will simply never understand. ;-)

If you want some justification, just look at chimpanzee. They are smaller than humans and look much weaker too. However despite their size they can break someone’s arm or tear off someone’s face with a single move (quite dangerous animals). Now look at Asura, they have thick arms and legs, surely full of muscle. Just because they are short and prefer to use golems in battle or magic, they could be very well strong enough to be warriors and the like.

Asura warriors aren’t about strength, you don’t need to be strong to be a warrior, not all fighting styles require that you be a brute.

If you feel you need to justify being a warrior, you could focus on being a bleed warrior or a crit warrior or a gun warrior.

With wars, you have many specs to choose from that don’t need a norn’s might.

Shout-healers just need a big mouth… and I think we can all agree Asura has that >;)

I will justify myself by intimating your indolent ego with my hyperactive fists of destructive fury.

Manticore Five.9867:

If you feel you need to justify being a warrior, you could focus on being a bleed warrior or a crit warrior or a gun warrior.

With wars, you have many specs to choose from that don’t need a norn’s might.

Shout-healers just need a big mouth… and I think we can all agree Asura has that >;)

Charr: “FOR GREAT JUSTICE!”
Everyone goes “RWAAAAR!” and bravely charges into the enemy lines.

Asura: “FOR SCIENCE!”
Everyone: “Wait… What?”

Dunno, shouts don’t really suit an Asura. Having to raise your voice over others in order to be recognised, means, your words don’t hold much weight.
The whole concept of adrenaline, battle frenzy, whatever… Fine.
But Asuras just don’t strike me as the kind of primitives who will go all hot because of a flag or someone yelling random glibberish…
That being said, my Asura uses banners regardless :>

Asura warriors do not need any justification in my opinion. I play an asura warrior cos i like to play and asura warrior. I pay no attention to lore. Its whatever your happy playing that counts. BTW my asura warrior holds his own in both PVE and WvW, not bad for a pint size toon :p.

Good things come in small packages.
Take for instance C-4. lol

I’ve seen quite a few Asura warriors filling out the ranks of the Lionguard. They might not be “Warriors” in the same sense as the player profession, but they wear heavy armor and fight with a sword and shield.

Of course Asurans make great warriors.
Asuran’s outstanding expertise (aka ‘attitude’) means that they’re great at everything. Why would Warrior be any exception?

I couldn’t stand the phrases Asura Warriors say. “You’re really good at riling me up”. “I’M ALL WOUND UP”. “FULLY ADRENALISED”. Annoying as hell lol..

Zenguy.6421:

Of course Asurans make great warriors.
Asuran’s outstanding expertise (aka ‘attitude’) means that they’re great at everything. Why would Warrior be any exception?

cause they are vertically handicapped…
Well, until they smack your balls with a huge hammer
Doesn’t matter if you can’t reach the head, there’s plenty of weak spots for the smaller ones to exploit :>

Zappix.7928:

I couldn’t stand the phrases Asura Warriors say. “You’re really good at riling me up”. “I’M ALL WOUND UP”. “FULLY ADRENALISED”. Annoying as hell lol..

What do they say when they get Might applied on them?

Zaxares.5419:

Zappix.7928:

I couldn’t stand the phrases Asura Warriors say. “You’re really good at riling me up”. “I’M ALL WOUND UP”. “FULLY ADRENALISED”. Annoying as hell lol..

What do they say when they get Might applied on them?

“I feel 6 feet tall!”

Rottaran Owain.6789:

Zaxares.5419:

Zappix.7928:

I couldn’t stand the phrases Asura Warriors say. “You’re really good at riling me up”. “I’M ALL WOUND UP”. “FULLY ADRENALISED”. Annoying as hell lol..

What do they say when they get Might applied on them?

“I feel 6 feet tall!”

I don’t mind that one. It’s cute lol.

I always chalked Asura Warriors to alchemical alterations(Think The Witcher style). Asura Guardians however used power armor or “Golem Suits”.

But thats my thing.

I tend to try and use the more “magi-mechanical” looking weapons at higher levels.. they fit the ideal of asurans very well.

Well, never underestimate the value of a well crushed kneecap!

Secondly, the axe whirlwind animation is worth every second of being a warrior.

puts on the nerd hat

I suppose technically speaking if you’re looking for some kind of realistic excuse in a “magical fantasy world” this race did come from far underground. You’re dealing with multiple atmospheres of pressure the further down you go. Their short stature probably adapted as such and probably have a very dense bone structure and strong muscles that adapted to that environment. Meaning that where they are now above ground they’re dealing so much less resistance than their native environment meaning that denser bone structure and supporting muscles would provider much higher levels of strength which should be enough for them to get away with massive leaps and knocking down larger opponents before they eat their faces with their gloriously pointy teeth. yum gore

Lore wise, Asura were under so much pressure while they were underground, it is understandable that they would have a very solid bone structure. It may have even changed their bone density to rival iron.

Given that, they would have also had to adapt to having stronger and heavier bones. This would cause their muscles to grow and strengthen. Theoretically, Asura could be stronger then an average Norn. (Proportionality.)

Now, as far as a brute strength warrior, Asura wouldn’t be the best for that job, but it could be possible. Think of this: A normal human with dwarfism has an average height of 4.5ft. This would mean that they can lift much more then a normal human with the same muscle mass. This is due to the fact that they don’t have as far to lift the weight.

Some could also argue that Asura have devoloped technology to stengthen themselves. This would mean that an Asura warrior may have augmented his body with a robotic endoskeleton that allows him to have technologically assisted strength. Given an Asura’s ability to think dynamically, an Asura warrior may be a normal Asura that has given himself extra power.

Think about it, Asura believe that they are the best. As a child, one Asura sees this big, hulking Norn lift much more then he could ever think of. Well, this Asura is suddenly shown that he is much more intelligent, but he is obviously inferior when it comes to raw power. Now the Asura has to think. “Why can’t I be that strong.” So, he starts developing a self-regenerating apparatus that he later installs into his own skeletal systems. He uses his mind to create more power for himself.

OTGBionicArm.2417:

(He argues that their physical stature and small size automatically disqualifies their viability in being Warriors.)

I’ve never found this argument compelling, personally. Asura are only small in comparison to the other playable races; by Asura standards, Asura are normal-sized.

When an Asura is choosing a profession, he/she would use the standards of his/her own race, not a human-centered metric of body size.

To argue that Asura can’t be viable warriors because they’re smaller than other playable races is like arguing that humans can’t be viable warriors because they’re smaller than Norn, or that Norn can’t be viable warriors because they’re smaller than Jotuns and Ogres, and so on. If you went by the standard that only the biggest works, none of the playable races work as physical combatants – why single out the Asura?

I don’t think an Asura warrior requires any more justification than a human one. An Asura warrior would simply view the world from his/her own framework… which happens to be a little closer to the ground. When we look at Asura from an Asura perspective, there’s no reason they can’t be fighters.

Have you looked at the Glyphic weapons? Norn swing their weapons. Charr swing their weapons. Even Humans and Sylvari swing their weapons, somehow. Asura? Only have to aim them, and the power crystals do all the work. The way any truly sentient being would design a weapon.

Beyond self-defence for when their devices go awol, there is an Asuran Warrior in GW1: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Renk (you can draw inspiration from him)

Don’t merely not justify yourself… embrace your Asuran way of the warrior!
You could use an exosuit to fight like a golem… but why would a mastermind do that?
Don’t fight like a Norn… fight like a genius!

Pain Inverter: Apply Confusion to nearby enemies. You gain retaliation.
Distracting Strikes (Str 20): Apply 3s confusion if you interrupt a foe.
Interrupts come from: Daze, Fear, Knockdown, Launch, Push, Pull, Stun.

Confusion and Retaliation do not care weather the enemy’s attack actually damaged you, so you block enemy strikes after causing confusion.
Shield: Has one stun move and one block move. Can block infinite strikes while it is up.
MH mace: Has one block, one daze and one stun(burst).
OH mace: Has one ranged, multiple target knockdown.
MH sword: Bleeder. You don’t want your Condamage stat to feel lonely do you?

And what genius who’s loading himself with blocks would neglect Missile Deflection?

The idea would be to use blocks and interrupts to control the fight and simultaneously cause the enemy to damage himself while you negate his most damaging attacks. As the fight proceeds, start using your stuns to eat up his breakers then use sword/shield to immobilize, cripple, and bleed him out. Both sword and shield have gap closers which can be chained and OH mace has 1200 range on its knockdown.

That’s just a loose overview of one way to roleplay an asuran warrior, should you choose to. I’d also put condition cleansing on one weapon set and poison dispensing on the other. Remember that might will boost both your weapon damage and your confusion/bleed damage, so consider that a large priority in the rest of your build. Weakness can also have a role to play if you choose the mace trait.

My justification would be like comparing them to ants their little but are able to carry objects 10x their weight, or sence their a super smart race they might have came up with a way to chemically enhance their body’s making them super strong just a thought xD