Guild Wars 2

I play Charr for several reasons.

1. I love cats, and the only games that let me be a cat are, The Elders Scrolls and Gw2. I’m one of those people who imagines themselves as their game/story character. Most people would choose something like themselves, but honestly I really don’t like the human race, and we just look so stupid. I play video games to be someone else, like me but better. And no games will let me be a dragon.

2. The running animation is really cool, and I feel so much faster than the other races, except Asura. Maybe I’m the only person who can jump and land easily as a Charr, but I’ve never had problems with that.

3. The females look awesome, and they have fluffy tails! I can easily tell, just be looking at their face or tail, if they’re male or female. It’s near-nigh impossible to tell Asura apart. And the FemCharr don’t have breasts, and I don’t feel embarrassed about running around in my under-wear, like I do in other games. They weren’t made to look sexy, which is another thing I have a problem with.

The only thing I don’t like about the Charr is that they are a very military based race. That’s just not my thing. And they are very advanced and don’t like magic, which I love, but still, their lore is fantastic, they look and sound awesome, what more can I want from a fantasy race? And their armor looks pretty good, but could be better if it was designed for them and the Black Citadel is a great capital.

I think the constant clipping and terrible charr armor design is a bigger reason than the Citadel.

The stupid run animations that drop Char characters to all fours is simply unbearable. None of the NPCs use this animation, by the way – they can run just fine on two feet. Apparently only player characters are deficient in this way.

As a new Charr, Black Citadel looked big at first, but after walking around I find it easier to navigate then The Grove.

In my opinion the easist cities to navigate from easy to hard is:

1: Rata Sum
2: Divinity reach
3: Black Citadel
4: Hoelbrak Stead
5: The Grove

The answer is simple, no one wants to play a half cat half goat cross breed, they want PANDAS

I can’t be the only one who likes the fact that the Charr characters get down onto all fours when they run. It makes them feel more fierce, in an odd way. More like the predators they are and are based on. I actually bound “draw/sheathe weapons” to a key just so that I could run on all fours whenever I wanted out of combat.

However, the horrible armor design (all armor should have different models for Charr, since they have an incredibly different body type than the other four races) stings hard. The massive camera problems that are caused during jumping puzzles also frustrate me to no end.

That said, my main character is a charr, and my favorite race, they always will be (Norn are actually my least favorite. Not sure why)

i made a charr engineer because i thought it would be (and it is) hilarious to see a gigantic cat firing a shotgun.

In light of this thread, I went out to the Charr starting area to watch new players rolling charrs.

Its still happening. People are still making Charr.

Well, not all of them are actually going to be ‘new players’, but still.

Also, that’s kind of creepy of you.

Don’t consider this a flamebait, but if by ‘creepy’ you mean that I like to form my own opinions based upon what I see instead of what I read on forums, then i’ll take your assessment as a compliment.

I was actually already there doing something else. It only took few minutes of standing around to see how misguided the OP is.

Thats the reason you think? It MIGHT be a contributing factor (( Might, as i suck at maps and Black Citadel is becoming home to me :p )), but I doubt that its the main reason. Still, well thought out thread

The main reason?

Animation Speed…. I hate feeling SLOW. I understand they are big so the speed looks slower than, say.. a Human or an Asura.

Wish they could somehow make it look faster but not kitten . then I would probably make a Charr.

agreed with tansrb, rata sun is very difficult. But I like that about the game, I love to try and navigate a difficult city and get to know it. All my toons are Charr, as I am new to GW I’m not used to playing a human so the Charr speed and height feels natural to me. I love the story arc and the personality of the Charr race. There are some really funny pieces of conversation in charr npc loops. I convinced my friend to play Charr who was reluctant and now he loves it. Meaty chunks is my battle cry.

Ramethzero.3785:

Don’t consider this a flamebait, but if by ‘creepy’ you mean that I like to form my own opinions based upon what I see instead of what I read on forums, then i’ll take your assessment as a compliment.

I was actually already there doing something else. It only took few minutes of standing around to see how misguided the OP is.

No no, it was definitely the ‘so I went to stalk some noobs’ thing. ;P

While I don’t really agree with the OP’s reasoning, I’m pretty sure charr were the least played race the last time anet posted actual statistics. Slightly behind asura and sylvari, which were a bit behind norn, which were still a lot behind human. Not sure if that’s still the case (as far as I know no further stats on it have been posted) but OP isn’t just making it up out of nowhere.

according to this chart, Charr are dead last, so yeah he didn’t make it up.
http://gw2census.com/charts.php?pie=total÷=charrace

I think it has more to do with a sense of cultural identity. It makes sense that more humans would be played since the bulk of the players themselves feel comfortable identifying with it in game.

Whereas, Charr are much harder to get behind because they come off as too warlike and in your face. Only a small portion of the overall demographic can really put themselves into that mindset comfortably. Combine this with some of the ‘features’ of the race that are a little less then normal, and its no wonder Charr come in dead last.

They are a very well thought out race and I am enjoying the story arc from the Charr perspective. I really dig their intro, and the voice acting is rich and textured. I’m really surprised more people don’t play them.

id love to play charr infact i was talking about charr for 1 1/2 years but i liek my armor to look nice and non clippy

bosty.7603:

id love to play charr infact i was talking about charr for 1 1/2 years but i liek my armor to look nice and non clippy

Charr aren’t the only ones with clipping issues. My Sylvari ranger, in the tutorial, was talking to Caithe, moved her hand, and it when right through the bag attached to her belt. And it still does that. And my Asura’s hand keeps clipping through her starting armor. But Charr clipping is the worst.

I’ve played Asura far more than Charr, and I still get lost in Rata Sum. BC is easy. Rata Sum and the Grove are the hardest for me to navigate. Divinity’s Reach can be annoying sometimes, but I’ve never been frustrated by the BC.

My issue with playing charr is that the armor looks so horrible on them. That is literally it.

I don’t care about looking pretty as much as I do about what I wear. It’s not the race that does it for me, it’s the assortment of tanned animal skins, processed metals, rocks and plant fibers that does it for me. Unfortunately charr look awkward in stretched out human armors.

Sarisa.4731:

Charr, female especially, aren’t overly sexualized, which is a drawback to some people.

This is one of the reasons I play a Charr female. Reasonable sexual dimorphism FTW.

Humans play this game
Soooo what do you humans do?
Judge everything by its cover
When you look at the girl that passing you, what do you do?
You checking her out? Her looks, her outfit, etc
Same here, we dont have many face options as Charr and do I really need to mention lack of good looking armor and all the clipping issues?

I actually disagree with the OP. I find Divinity’s Reach to be much more cluttered and convoluted than the Black Citadel. sure it’s jagged and looks messy because of it’s metallic architecture style, but it’s actually sectioned and organized really well in comparison to many of the other cities.

Not my problem some people aren’t able to contain the awesome that is the demon kitty.

People aren’t awesome enough to fully understand the true epicness of the charr, and the asura. Coincidentally those two are the best races. Pattern? I think so.
I dont mind being an Endangered Charr, when I swing my greatsword I am the most deadly thing on the battlefield.
Also, “Your faith is your weakness, human.”
That sold it for me. Screw being a salad, being a boring kitten sapien, and being a tall large human, be a huge kitten rampaging beast, or a small genius that can be the next Einstein, or better.

My main is a Charr, and she hangs out with her Charr buddy who is my friend’s main as well. We’ve both been 80 for a while now, and never really go to the Citadel, so I rather doubt that has much effect on what people play.

However.. on the ‘prettyness’ side of things.. there is a lot of armor that just does not look very nice on our Charrs. A lot of the helms and some of the other armor types just do not end up looking very nice on them. The helms tend to look super ackward on them in some cases when they would have looked perfectly fine on anyone else.

However.. on the ‘prettyness’ side of things.. there is a lot of armor that just does not look very nice on our Charrs. A lot of the helms and some of the other armor types just do not end up looking very nice on them. The helms tend to look super ackward on them in some cases when they would have looked perfectly fine on anyone else.So if someone is wanting their characters to look pretty, or even just not look like their hat melted on their head, they also have to keep in mind that it can be a bit tricky to find armor that is going to look good on them. I hope down the road that they’ll get better at designing Charr armor appearances so we have more variety without the lumpiness.

However.. on the ‘prettyness’ side of things.. there is a lot of armor that just does not look very nice on our Charrs. A lot of the helms and some of the other armor types just do not end up looking very nice on them. The helms tend to look super ackward on them in some cases when they would have looked perfectly fine on anyone else.So if someone is wanting their characters to look pretty, or even just not look like their hat melted on their head, they also have to keep in mind that it can be a bit tricky to find armor that is going to look good on them. I hope down the road that they’ll get better at designing Charr armor appearances so we have more variety without the lumpiness.On the other hand, I feel that the Charr have some of the best voice acting and story writing in the game, which had a lot to do with mine becoming my main. Those who enjoy the story side of the game are really missing out if they don’t try them.

However.. on the ‘prettyness’ side of things.. there is a lot of armor that just does not look very nice on our Charrs. A lot of the helms and some of the other armor types just do not end up looking very nice on them. The helms tend to look super ackward on them in some cases when they would have looked perfectly fine on anyone else.So if someone is wanting their characters to look pretty, or even just not look like their hat melted on their head, they also have to keep in mind that it can be a bit tricky to find armor that is going to look good on them. I hope down the road that they’ll get better at designing Charr armor appearances so we have more variety without the lumpiness.On the other hand, I feel that the Charr have some of the best voice acting and story writing in the game, which had a lot to do with mine becoming my main. Those who enjoy the story side of the game are really missing out if they don’t try them.I also have a second Charr which is based on the one I played in the beta which was where I became fond of them, but I do feel that they are a bit lacking in creation options. They could certainly use some more hair and face options. If I had made a third one, I have a feeling I would have had to resort to using the same hair as one of my existing Charr. I wouldn’t have to resort to that for any of the other races, except maybe the Asura as they do not have a great deal of hair options either.

What the heck happened with your post there, Shaileya? O.o

Zaxares.5419:

What the heck happened with your post there, Shaileya? O.o

The forum likes to go utterly haywire like that sometimes. There isn’t a way to fix it as if you hit edit the post looks perfectly fine. I reported it on the forum bugs forum ages ago, but you know how that goes, lol.

Daharahj.1325:

I really doubt that’s the main reason, I find Divinity’s Reach and Rata Sum unbelievably hard to explore, however the Black Cit is as clear to me as the back of my hand, only because my first 2 toons were Charr.

Imo the real reason is, as unpopular as it is, people just want to look pretty, 80% of the population are human female.

Also: Charr armor clips everywhere.

83% of all statistics are made up on the spot. True story.

I agree on the quest problem. At lvl 13-14 i couldn’t find a quest for my charr at ashford plains. I know i’m missing one heart (maybe that’s the one), but it is bit tricky for a charr to advance to 15. Also the next map in line is near start of ashford plains while your 14-15 leveling takes place at end of it…right next to high level map where you get smeared;) Well no one said war is easy;)

Now i should go and scout more around for those quests and maybe npc that warns you about the next map being a “suprise”, if not it should be suggested to put one there;)

what’s wrong with the BC?
one flat ramp area with class trainers leading to the core, guild stuff on the bottom floor, racial stuff on the middle, story stuff on the top, elevator on the right of the bottom floor to the bane, eleveator to the left to the gladium canton, ruins of rin access via gladium canton, smelter and food merchants near gladium elevator, crafting, banks and BLTC to the right of the citadel

not that hard

for rata sum it’s racial stuff, trainers, and portals on top, crafting, guilds, BLTC and banks on middle, food on the bottom

hoelbrak and DR, not got any opinions on since I never go there, but the wheel structure of DR makes it a bit of a pain to get anywhere easily

the grove is a bit of a mess, but it’s trainers on top, everything else in the middle, racial stuff is a bit scattered

ZeftheWicked.3076:

I agree on the quest problem. At lvl 13-14 i couldn’t find a quest for my charr at ashford plains. I know i’m missing one heart (maybe that’s the one), but it is bit tricky for a charr to advance to 15. Also the next map in line is near start of ashford plains while your 14-15 leveling takes place at end of it…right next to high level map where you get smeared;) Well no one said war is easy;)

Now i should go and scout more around for those quests and maybe npc that warns you about the next map being a “suprise”, if not it should be suggested to put one there;)

hint: look for the telescopes :P

I didn’t like Charr at first, though in every game I play I’m generally playing the more savage, bestial races. I gave Charr a try and deleted all but one of my Sylvari so I could make more Charr. They’re pretty awesome. I think it was setting a few of them in my first wvw that made me really want to roll one.

The main reason more people don’t play Charr is the “running on all fours” thing. Took me awhile to get used to being a quadruped too. Deleted several before settling in on my current kitty.

I think it’s just that the all fours running looks so SLOW compared to other races running animations. In wow, I couldn’t play tauren until paladins were released since they had the run speed talent.

I initially thought charr looked stupid, but then messed with the customization and I’m now in love with them. And their story is GREAT.

The biggest problem with the char is jumping puzzles. They’re so big, they obscure where to jump.

Demented Sheep.1642:

D) Many players from GW1 made their GW2 character to be a descendant of their GW1 character.

mine IS my GW1 character :P
it involves the asura gate in the HoM, the portal stone that links to it from anywhere, the FotM (the ascalon invasion one to be specific) a charr disguise, and time travel shenanigans making the universe think the charr disguise is the real thing and makes the disguise permanent (think “The Fly” style teleportation mishap).

and this is why you should always take care when messing with untested spacetime warping technology, you could end up a different species, half the way across the continent, 250 years in the future :P

I think most people don’t play charr is due to the fact that they were the bad guys in guild wars 1. IN prophecies the charr did treat humans like cattle and it probably because of how most people are from gw1 that why charr is not their first choice of character.

Well i am human in RL,and if i am playing a game in imaginary world why should i be human or human like creature if i want to play a game.And who says that charr armors dont look nice.Here is one which is awesome

@Kopa.4206

That’s an obvious lie by someone who has some real mental problems (you take fantasy racism far, far too seriously). If you got into Prophecies so much that you feel the need to spread anti-charr propaganda, then you may need to see a shrink.

The races were both as bad as each other. Don’t believe me? In Eye of the North, a charr was captured and tortured for crimes it was innocent of. This charr (Pyre) found this act so despicable that he outright called his captor (Gwen) evil.

Both races have their atrocities. But the charr never ‘treated the humans like cattle.’

Grow up.

I love Charr but sometimes its the animations that just turn me off a certain race for a class, for example, I cannot play a Charr Engineer because every time you fire the rifle auto attack your jacket flips up which looks like your flashing people every 3 seconds.

Graywolf.6513:

Yet i play Charr because i feel like their unity, technical prowess and discipline are key features i can identify and respect. They are immense in combat, but they have the brains to back it up. They are smart, but they don’t techno babble you, they say it how it is.

These are some of the main reason I play Charr over any other race. Yes some armor does look weird on them but my combined set of Vigil and Cultural Tier 3 Shoulders/Arm makes him look like a kick kitten Roman Spartan. I like the fact that will not bother talking there way out of a situation or try to outsmart you. It would seem if you tried to get into a debate with them although they could out smart the person they rather just hit you.

AuldWolf.7598:

Both races have their atrocities. But the charr never ‘treated the humans like cattle.’

That first bit is undoubtedly true. We did skin Charr and wear their skins as armor in GW1, after all. And I wouldn’t have put it past the Ascalonian army to have slaughtered any wounded Charr they found on the battlefield.

However, the Charr in GW1 did also organise barbaric death matches where unarmed humans were pitted against giant siege devourers, the equivalent of putting a rabbit into a hungry lion’s cage, just so they can laugh while the poor creature is eaten alive. Charr of the day really did not view humans as being much better than overly intelligent meat animals.

Times have changed now, and while modern Charr still love war and violence, it also seems that they would have regarded the activities of their ancestors as crude and excessive, the same way we look back on our own ancestors who practised animal sacrifice and slavery with disgust.

@Zaxares.5419

You quite easily mix up ‘charr’ with ‘Flame Legion.’ Not understanding the difference there is like not understanding the difference between Germany an the Nazi regime.

I agree with the OP, when doing the storyline there are some pretty confusing moments as to what level and where the next entry point is located. Overall, storyline aside, I agree it isnt that hard to navigate. I do not agree this would be a top 10 reason since most people would decide not to be a Charr based on biases at or before the character creation and not three quests into the storyline.

Charr armour. Its taken me to level 70 to finally get a set of decent looking armour. The lvl 70+ crafted armour transformed my Charr warrior into someone with bad posture, and horrible run animation into a warrior-scholar type look. TA armor can also look pretty good on a charr imo for the same reason, but the stats are horrible for melee and essentially would entail getting two sets of exotics. Ended up deciding to go with transmuted cultural T1 as an affordable middle-ground. The main problem is that the charr are supposed to be war-like and imposing yet most of their armour makes them look like the opposite, like unconfident schlepps who don’t know how to dress themselves and only a few sets that properly represent the “force projection” that is everywhere else in charr culture and creations. The charr are guns and spikes bristling, while the armour is the exact kitten opposite most of the time

i just boughted the game. and i will create charr because i like cows like playing with Tauren in wow

AuldWolf.7598:

@Zaxares.5419

You quite easily mix up ‘charr’ with ‘Flame Legion.’ Not understanding the difference there is like not understanding the difference between Germany an the Nazi regime.

I’ve actually used that same example to argue in the Human forums as to why the Charr of today can’t be blamed for the Searing or the events that followed. XD

But at the same time, we also shouldn’t forget that while ordinary German civilians may not have directly participated in the crimes committed by the Nazi regime, they also did nothing to stop it. They could have taken a stand, protested, left the country, and so on. (And in fact, some courageous Germans did just those.) But the majority just went along with the flow. I don’t blame them for this, because were I in the shoes, I’d probably have done the same; kept my head down and just hope for things to improve.

So while the majority of the Charr legions probably had no hand in organising those activities, they also did not feel strongly enough against it to try and put a stop to the Flame Legion’s excesses. (Not to mention that dialogue with Pyre and his warband indicates that even though he was opposed to the Flame Legion, he and his warband didn’t have much higher opinions of humans than the shamans did.)

I think there are a few possible reasons.

1. Some will prefer to play a humanoid that is either an avatar representing them, or someone they would find attractive. I suspect this is the biggest reason for not playing them.
2. Some GW1 players may still bear grudges. Yes, we’re not playing Flame Legion – but they might still recoil at the thought of playing their old enemy race.
3. The militaristic culture may be a turnoff for some. I think they’ve done a really good job with thinking through the whole society, but that doesn’t mean it will be everyone’s cup of tea.
4. The difficulty level seems very slightly higher in the starting area and this may put off those who like very unchallenging content.
5. Certain armours look silly on Charr, and not in an ‘aww cute’ kind of way like with the Asura.
6. The bouncy run takes a while to get used to.

It seems to me that in many games you’ll find more humans/humanoids played than any other race. Does anyone know the breakdown of race for WoW? Did the Horde get a big population boost when the Blood Elves came on the scene, for example?

quickthorn.4918:

1. Some will prefer to play a humanoid that is either an avatar representing them, or someone they would find attractive. I suspect this is the biggest reason for not playing them.

Pretty much this. ANet released a chart showing the most popular races and professions. The most popular race is human, and then norn, and then sylvari. Few people play asura or charr by comparison. It’s simple: people want to be pretty. And they want to look relatively normal.

This isn’t everyone of course. People will still play charr. Just not as many as are playing human. I myself have 2 humans, 3 sylvari, 1 norn, 1 asura, 1 charr.

Daharahj.1325:

I really doubt that’s the main reason, I find Divinity’s Reach and Rata Sum unbelievably hard to explore, however the Black Cit is as clear to me as the back of my hand, only because my first 2 toons were Charr.

Imo the real reason is, as unpopular as it is, people just want to look pretty, 80% of the population are human female.

Also: Charr armor clips everywhere.

I agree with you. What I have noticed with GW2 is that its community is a lot……softer than most. The only thing keeping it from being outright feminine is the colors!

I have been in lots of online communities, and in fact when I first heard of GW2 I was positive that everyone was going to end up rolling Charr, because everyone I knew were part of the more brutal and hardcore communities.

quickthorn.4918:

I think there are a few possible reasons.
2. Some GW1 players may still bear grudges. Yes, we’re not playing Flame Legion – but they might still recoil at the thought of playing their old enemy race.

Seriously? XD Ahahahahah. Come, ON!

I play charr, I enjoy it, but I would never roll a Female Charr – zero feminity, wears male armors, etc <- But yeah, Fem Charrs have some cool faces.