Guild Wars 2

At the moment I have a Norn Ranger, Norn Guardian, Charr Warrior, Sylvari Thief, Human Elementalist.

I feel like I may be missing out on personal story aspects if I don’t play an Asura, but I don’t see the value.

They are small, snobby, arrogant things. Zojja is the most arrogant, mean spirited, least likable hero in any video game I have ever played, from my experiences with her on other characters. I like Norns, I’m tempted to make the remaining classes another Norn, human and sylvari.

So, people on this forum, convince me, what do I get if I join you? Is there some hidden gem to playing an Asura? Does their arrogance and apathy make the story funny or just painful?

Asura are generally snobby towards non-asura, not so much towards each other. If you play the asura storyline, you’ll actually find a lot of characters look up to you or at least consult you as an equal. Additionally asura have, IMO, the best pre-Order storylines, particularly the Dynamics + Infinity Ball (it sounds like a joke, but it’s really quite good) stories.

Aside from that, mechanically speaking, the asura feel quicker, more responsive, and more meaty. This is merely an illusion from their relative size compared to other races, but everything from the way they look when they run to how they leap about while swinging a greatsword have made many people turn around and refused to play any other race.

My best tip is to, if you have the character slot available, make one and play it through the first 2-3 missions post the introduction. Then you should have a rough approximation of how much you like it.

It’s worth noting that Zojja suffers a bit from the same thing that Trahearn does — it makes a LOT more sense if you come from that race when you first meet them. For everyone else, you get introduced to her at the Let’s Get the Band Back Together event during the personal storyline and yes, that’s not one of her shining social moments.

However, she plays an integral role in every asura personal storyline, since they all start with your character’s entry into the Snaff Savant science fair. I found her to be funny, smart, encouraging, and resourceful during the dozen or so quests you do at the beginning before things start to angle off towards the Orders. Of course you never get a second chance for a first impression, but if you keep your mind open to asura thinking patterns, I suspect she’ll become a more sympathetic character to you.

I love Zojja. Shes very fun and snarky in the Asura story. Zojja is fun when no around Eir. Plus merely getting to try every race should be good enough. They are different enough to warrent it, why people make 2+ of the same race in their first 5 characters eludes me.

I can assure you your own Asura does -not- (90% of the time, anyway) come off as an arrogant SoB. The Asura PC is smart and thoughtful, but not condescending. In those times when she has been more stereotypically Asuran, it’s because those she was talking to were being idiots.

That said, Asura have very cool designs in cultural armor, and their elite skills are fun. Summoning golems to fight for you? I never get tired of that. Even better is the golem power suit you can summon and wear! You’re like the Asura version of Tony Stark!

Why play Asura? They have alluring ears, laser display screens and are all round amazing. I enjoyed their storyline (infinity ball is much fun).

Besides, we made the Super Adventure Box, baby!

I’ve done many of the race specific story lines, and I have to say that the asura ones are among my favorites, only surpassed by the iron legion story. The ghostbore turrets were awesome, but I also love the golem fights with the personal golem storyline, and the infinity ball story is very well done. Other than some of the best looking light/heavy armors in the game, their attitudes and size are clearly a winning factor.

Asuras have some of the best looking emotes in the game. zojja can be kind of ignorant at times but u have to remember she looked up to as a genius and she lets it get to her head and the fact that her master died and trying to keep his legacy alive and alot of other things she really ok and funny at times and the personal story for asura for the infinity ball is really the best idea for a personal story anet has had just wish it was longer.

Edit: Also asura just fit perfectly with the order of whispers story with tybalt.

Some of the dialogue in the first part of the personal story (any choice of college or invention) is just pure genius. Puns and jokes that will make you laugh.

Male PC voice hits it perfectly – just the right tongue-in-cheek intonation which still comes across as meaningful and serious. Female voice is good, and my main character is a female asura, however the male voice is fantastic.

Animations are amazing all round – from dodging, jumping, idle, emotes…

If you need convincing of the superiority of Asura you’re clearly not cut out to be an Asura, it’s that simple bookah.

Ryuujin.8236:

If you need convincing of the superiority of Asura you’re clearly not cut out to be an Asura, it’s that simple bookah.

On that note OP, be prepared to delete all of those inferior characters once you create your asura.
;)

Asura have the most well done animations in my opinion. I find the way they carry Greatswords/Hammers to be very endearing; they seem to struggle with the weight on one shoulder, and tilt their heads forward to gain momentum. They also seem to have difficulty coming to a complete stop since they are so small and have such little inertia.

They sniff around when idle and their ears dangle when they walk. It’s hard to get bored watching their movements. I was one of those people who are in the MMORPG category (Many Men Online RolePlay as Girls) and rolled exclusively human female toons… but I deleted 2 level 80 humans for a reason. Asura are worth it.

superior pvp ,wvw, and jumping puzzle race, period

Asura have the only decent racial abilities Pain inverter is a nice fast Retaliation and Confusion, Technobabble is a good solid daze and, Radiation Field is awesome AOE poison and weakness that also works as a poison combo field.

Well if an Asuran thief jumping around like Yoda vs Count Duku is not your thing then you can always get the power suit for any profession and wander around looking like ED-209 from Robocop. Also if you play wvw, the Asurans small size can be useful for hiding or attacking dolyaks from underneath as you are pretty much invisible to anyone outside of tag range.

Asura have a lot of personality: in their dialogue, the way they run, fighting animations, all kinda of things. It’s all really noticeable. You’ll never get to appreciate your armor the way you might want to, but the Asura itself is a hoot.

After reading this thread I probably will make an Asura, so thanks peeps for all the reasons.

Personally I find their appearance, voices and lore boring/annoying.

I prefer the Dwarves if they were to be playable due to their lore, hardy appearance, but I really respect A-net not including them as a playable race (or with the exception of that 1 guy a visible race).

I dunno if I “[found] their appearance, voices and lore boring/annoying” I probably wouldn’t bother. Seriously, you’re going to be looking at them for 80 levels and countless personal story quests, etc.

All our proffered reasons aside, many if not all of those are based on the lore, the appearance, the animations, and the voices. If they are boring to you, don’t subject yourself to it!

So many people seem to think because they CAN do a thing means they SHOULD do a thing even when they’re saying outloud why they don’t want to, and there’s no overwhelming reason why they should!

^ tbh i havent really explored their lore, i shoulda mentioned that. appearances aside i feel like its worth exploing every race on this game.