Guild Wars 2

I’m mostly interested in hearing people’s opinions of the Elite skills, is the D-Series golem worth using? I’m currently running an Asuran Guardian, and could pick that ability up, but I’m not sure it’d be worth it. I’m currently using the Tome of Wrath, but wasn’t terribly impressed with it.

More broadly though, what do you guys think about Asuran racial abilities, compared to class-based abilities and other races’ abilities? I know the racials are meant to be a bit weaker than class abilities, but are there any that really stand out when used in a certain build? I actually have three Asurans, a Thief, a Guardian, and an Engineer, so any Racials that would be worth slotting on them over other options would be nice.

The Asuran racial elites are pretty much garbage if you want my opinion. Both golems are pretty weak, as is the golem suit. The suit might be pretty decent if it wasnt so horribly slow and clunky. You have to strop and stand still for every single ability it has and they all have fairly long cast times.

As far as the Racial non-Elites, I think the poison field can be pretty nice. It stays up for a long time and adds the condition Weakness to all that stands in it. Can really help lower the damage output of enemy mobs. I wouldnt use it for PvP though

The suit is mostly for roleplay uses.
D-Series Golem is the least sucky. Still not great.
Other Golem is rather bad, really.

But hey, they look cool.
If Engineers didn’t have Supply Crate, I’d probably use D-Golem.

I think Radiation Field is actually pretty solid, for a racial ability. 60second cooldown is about on the border of playability, but in some situations it’s very good. WvW tower assault/defense it allows you to apply a long duration AOE to scare people away from the wall or make attackers back off.

And for classes with limited access to ranged AOE abilities like Warrior or Guardian it works well. I have not tried pain inverter or technobabble yet, but I’m sure each has it’s on unique uses and will unlock them eventually.

The first tier golem however is fairly dissapointing. The cooldown and duration are fine, especially compared to something like Mistfire wolf, but the damage is pretty wimpy and the golem seems to get 3shot by normal pve mobs and 1-2 shot in dungeons. And pretty much just ignored by players in WvW, or quickly burnt down in AOE. I’ve yet to try D series but I don’t expect a whole lot.

Pain Inverter and Technobabble have some interesting potential uses for an Asura Mesmer. Master of Misdirection (33% more Confusion Duration), and there’re traits in Domination line that effect Dazing. Hell, tempts me to get another slot and try the combo out …

99% of Asuran Racial skills are pretty Rubbish, as stated above Radiation Field is probably the best..

All the Golems are too weak and the Suit suffers from the “lock you in the spot issue when using the skills, same as Norn Shapeshifting abilities” very annoying and weak as well..

I found the attack golem (the first elite tier golem) pretty useful in PvE situations: sometimes I would call on it to draw the heat off me if I was running low on escape options, and I think it’s damage output is somewhat decent. It’s good against skill point bosses/veteran mobs and the like.

D-series/defensive golem (second tier elite) is somewhat useful, but could be more so if the barrier discharged more often. I would sometimes use this in dungeon runs.

The golem you can operate yourself is almost purely for fun/roleplay, it’s actual usefulness is very low. Skills take too long to execute and don’t make up for it in damage output.

Technobabble’s effect is too short for me to consider it useful, although it could be worth looking into with a properly traited mesmer.

Pain inverter is the same as the above IMO.

Echoing what everyone else has said, radiation field is probably the best racial for asuras. Since you’re working with a guardian specifically, if you don’t like the tomes or the golems, the virtue recharge skill is probably the most useful in PvP for an asura guardian.

I haven’t tried the D-series golem yet, but yeah, I use the 7-series the same way others have said: when I really need to distract a Group Event boss for a few seconds.

I have to disagree about Pain Inverter. If you’re at all into melee, or even if you just bop in and out of melee (like I do when I’m using the elixir gun) dropping confuse+retaliate into the mix can be a life saver. I could wish that it recharged in 15 seconds, so I could use it every time I ran forward to drop an Acid Bomb, but that’d probably be too good.

Wish list item, for me, one I’ve seen already in the suggestion forum: I wish Asuran rangers could “tame” a smaller, more fragile pair of the 7 series and D series golems. Stick ‘em in one of the Home instances that only spawn after, say, you complete the first story arc, or something. But, then, I also wish that Asuran engineer turrets looked like the Inquest turrets instead of like steampunk kludge, and I wish that Asuran elementalists’ elementals were golems with the same power the existing demons get, instead of demons. Sadly, you fight elder dragon minions with the game skills you have, not with the game skills you wish you had.

InfamousBrad.5879:

I haven’t tried the D-series golem yet, but yeah, I use the 7-series the same way others have said: when I really need to distract a Group Event boss for a few seconds.

I have to disagree about Pain Inverter. If you’re at all into melee, or even if you just bop in and out of melee (like I do when I’m using the elixir gun) dropping confuse+retaliate into the mix can be a life saver. I could wish that it recharged in 15 seconds, so I could use it every time I ran forward to drop an Acid Bomb, but that’d probably be too good.

Wish list item, for me, one I’ve seen already in the suggestion forum: I wish Asuran rangers could “tame” a smaller, more fragile pair of the 7 series and D series golems. Stick ‘em in one of the Home instances that only spawn after, say, you complete the first story arc, or something. But, then, I also wish that Asuran engineer turrets looked like the Inquest turrets instead of like steampunk kludge, and I wish that Asuran elementalists’ elementals were golems with the same power the existing demons get, instead of demons. Sadly, you fight elder dragon minions with the game skills you have, not with the game skills you wish you had.

Having a golem as an option for a starter pet for an asura ranger is a great idea.

Advent.6193:

Pain Inverter and Technobabble have some interesting potential uses for an Asura Mesmer. Master of Misdirection (33% more Confusion Duration), and there’re traits in Domination line that effect Dazing. Hell, tempts me to get another slot and try the combo out …

Technobabble is useless unless you don’t want a Signet buff on your character. Signet of Domination has a 2 second STUN for the same cooldown, but it gets affected by Traits.

Both an additional flaw and bonus is that it’s a Signet. You get a bonus while it’s off cooldown, but it also shows up on your buffs in WvW/sPvP.

Pain Inverter is useful to run when I have nothing else to run, however I’ve been using Phantasmal Defender instead of it as iDef is a bit more stable (unless there’s a ton of AoE damage) in terms of mitigation/damage control.

Radiation Field is amazing. As a Mesmer there are so many times where I have nothing else to run as my third skill, so I’ll just throw on a field, and Radiation Field is both a bonus field AND a damage/mitigation all bundled together.

As for the elites… Golem Suit is trash. Offensive Golem is trash. Defensive Golem is nice for the reflect, but that’s about it. I only use it when I’m hard-stacking Reflects (e.g. Asuran Fractal Boss to prevent any player in party from taking agony damage).

As an AOE elementalist in WvW i get a lot of use from radiation field. As it constantly churns out its debuff, its a great weapon against massed players where a standard AOE would be limited. It also ignores “shake it off” and just slaps its debuff right back on if they are exposed to the field again (many just click that button and stay put).

It is very effective for attacking defenders on walls as it sits on top of the wall and has a great area denial presence.

As to the golems, i use elemental summoning instead because the golem summon makes you stand still while you do it, but elementals can be summoned while moving. In pvp situations, thats life and death.

The power suit doesnt even have roleplay potential, as it vanishes so quickly. It should have a 5 minute time limit or something so we can actually use it.

If you run a condition engi, Technobabble and Radiation Field offer great toolbelt skills, Radiation Field itself being good and Technobabble being usefull once in a while. The offensive golem is better than Supply Crate for an offensive build, it is squishy but provides good DPS.

Having a golem as an option for a starter pet for an asura ranger is a great idea.

Any option that allows Asuran Rangers only to acquire a given pet, regardless of its function, would be unbalanced, but I’d love to see a golem as a general pet that anyone could use.

The power suit doesnt even have roleplay potential, as it vanishes so quickly. It should have a 5 minute time limit or something so we can actually use it.

Good point. It might be nice if they made it so that it had a near-infinite duration, but took damage along with you, so that it wouldn’t reasonably last more than ten to fifteen seconds in heavy combat, but could last pretty much forever outside of combat (or at least several minutes), and then the timer would only reset when it “died.” (preventing you from chain summoning it).

This might also be nice for other alternate form /weapon replaces, for example instead of the Tomes wearing off after X number of seconds, give it a limited number of “charges”, with each spell costing a different amount, and once they’re used up, it vanishes similar to the Ele summoned weapons.

Ohoni.6057:

The power suit doesnt even have roleplay potential, as it vanishes so quickly. It should have a 5 minute time limit or something so we can actually use it.

Good point. It might be nice if they made it so that it had a near-infinite duration, but took damage along with you, so that it wouldn’t reasonably last more than ten to fifteen seconds in heavy combat, but could last pretty much forever outside of combat (or at least several minutes), and then the timer would only reset when it “died.” (preventing you from chain summoning it).

This might also be nice for other alternate form /weapon replaces, for example instead of the Tomes wearing off after X number of seconds, give it a limited number of “charges”, with each spell costing a different amount, and once they’re used up, it vanishes similar to the Ele summoned weapons.

Or have it’s healthbar be independant of yours, so you can sit in it for, say, your 1 minute duration. You die in it? Boom, you’re on your feet again at full hp.

Or have it’s healthbar be independant of yours, so you can sit in it for, say, your 1 minute duration. You die in it? Boom, you’re on your feet again at full hp.

Yeah, maybe, but if it basically gave you a second healthbar that could potentially be very unbalancing whether it dealt much damage at all or not. If they gave it that function then its offensive strength would have to be very low, whereas if it just had a parallel life bar then it could be more offensive. I would give it a high parallel life bar, longer than most people’s normal bars since the normal bar could be healed while the golem’s could not.

I was just about to make a post about how amazing Technobabble is for my high burst damage thief in WvW. Cloak and Dagger, Backstab, TECHNOBABBLE, stab stab, Basilisk Venom, Headshot!!! I WIN!!!

As a ranger I love the crap out of radiation field. I think that pain inverter can be useful in WvW. Does retaliate block damage as well as reflect it?

“Retaliation does not reduce damage taken by the affected player, but damages anyone who hits them (even if the hit doesn’t actually inflict damage; for example, if it is blocked).”