Guild Wars 2

Norn are supposed to be hearty and powerful people. A lot of that really comes through.

But equip a Norn woman with a great sword and everything goes down hill. She swings it and carries it so daintily and weak. I could be wrong but these animations look way too much like the regular Human female GS animations. Where is the power and confidence?

I’d really appreciate some GS animations that are more Valkyrie or Xena and less inept and feeble. It is really killing the whole Norn image for me.

Edit: To be clear I suppose I’m referring to the general carry animation (shared by all classes) and the swing animations used by the Guardian class. Not sure how different everything is between classes.

I don’t think there is any difference. I see other classes/races carry my sword and they do it the same way.

I don’t know what the problem is all weapons get scaled to match race. Greatswords are supposed to be heavy so running around with that monstrous sword the way female norn carry it should be impressive in it’s own right. She isn’t dragging it on the floor from target to target. I feel like such a kitten when I switch to my GS on my ranger & dive right in to maul everyone in range. Should they have given each race different carrying animations? Yes they could’ve fit that in I bet, but this game is so great I really don’t mind.

The only complaint I have for GSs is the last swing in the normal attack chain.

She swings upwards as if she’s letting go of the blade, there’s no technique nor ferocity, it shouldn’t even damage, and should cripple you for being so reckless.

They should have something more fierce, a downward slice to the ground. The rest is perfect, to me.

as far as i know all the greatsword attack animations are the same on the races (except asura).

I’d like to use spear instead of greatsword. I don’t mean like underwater spear though.

RJMazz.6798:

The only complaint I have for GSs is the last swing in the normal attack chain.

She swings upwards as if she’s letting go of the blade, there’s no technique nor ferocity, it shouldn’t even damage, and should cripple you for being so reckless.

They should have something more fierce, a downward slice to the ground. The rest is perfect, to me.

That specific swing and the basics of how she holds it when running are what get me.

Looks so weak.

I agree, it looks like she is struggling not to drag it in the ground.

When running she should hold it with the blade facing up not sideways and in combat it needs to look heavy but under the users control.

It’s a common feature that I’ve seen in many games. I think the entirety of the problem comes from a misconception that greatswords are super heavy. The medieval greatswords weighed between 6-10 pounds. That’s 3-5 kgs. Something a human female can easily hold and wield.

Real life two-handed swords are faster to swing than most one handed swords. It’s true. Check your facts.

I leaned on the proper size of a Norn Guardian Female so my GS is pretty fricken huge
Gotta weigh at least 25lbs
But only when I get a speed debuff does she have the awesome swagger of holding the massive blade upon her shoulder

aeonZgamer.5307:

I leaned on the proper size of a Norn Guardian Female so my GS is pretty fricken huge
Gotta weigh at least 25lbs
But only when I get a speed debuff does she have the awesome swagger of holding the massive blade upon her shoulder

You can keymap a walk toggle in the options. It’s actually rather useful for caravan escorts so you don’t look silly running 5 feet every 10 seconds, not to mention you get to enjoy that awesome walk animation.

Riot Inducer.8964:

aeonZgamer.5307:

I leaned on the proper size of a Norn Guardian Female so my GS is pretty fricken huge
Gotta weigh at least 25lbs
But only when I get a speed debuff does she have the awesome swagger of holding the massive blade upon her shoulder

You can keymap a walk toggle in the options. It’s actually rather useful for caravan escorts so you don’t look silly running 5 feet every 10 seconds, not to mention you get to enjoy that awesome walk animation.

Cool thanks I’ll have to do this most definitely

Agreed with the OP. It’s said that they are equal in physical strength to males (unlike humans) how so if they look like barely holding their weapons?

Norn males will at some point durrning the attack animations throw their greatsword over their head and chop downwards with ONE HAND… wish we where the same =(

I agree, the female Norn looks like she’s not quite strong enough to wield it.
Epecially the standard pose (weapon drawn, doing nothing), the tip of the sword is way too low imo.
The males hold their tip up high, like hes ready for a fight.

Aye, now that I know about it, that’s rather disappointing, especially with how effortlessly the male Norn swing their blades about.

A norn female is also decidedly less bulky than a norn male. It has no reflection on gameplay, but it makes a little more sense that a mountain of a man can effortlessly swing a blade that takes a great deal of strength.

Palad.5718:

A norn female is also decidedly less bulky than a norn male. It has no reflection on gameplay, but it makes a little more sense that a mountain of a man can effortlessly swing a blade that takes a great deal of strength.

However, it makes no sense that a female Norn, still some ten feet of sheer muscle (female Norn are physically on par with male Norn), has more trouble with a greatsword than a human male.

Female norn have bigger swords than male humans, FYI.

Female norns are just as strong as male norns as per lore, FYI.

If you know how a zweihander or big swords like a scottish claymore should be used in rl, all the animations are horrible. But this is just a game and the animations are fancy to look at, so it’s good.

PotatoKnight.3507:

Female norn have bigger swords than male humans, FYI.

But female Norn, and both RJ and I pointed out, are considered the physical equals of male Norn. And all races being equal for gameplay purposes aside, the Norn are far and away the strongest of the five races, physically speaking. Eir, in the stories, is basically a walking ballista, and is known to have carried a five-hundred-pound bust of Zojja from her home in Hoelbrak through the Asura Gates to Snaff’s laboratory. Eir was not noted to have any remarkable physical strength by anybody.

So if one Norn female can carry five hundred pounds of dead weight, why should any Norn female have issue with a greatsword?

Yeah, I was a little disappointed at first when my norn warrior held a greatsword the same way the smaller humans and sylvari do. And I also don’t understand why the regular attack [skill 1] has her swinging in upward arcs in the animations. Norn are tall; why would I swing above my targets?

I always switch out of my greatsword to my rifle for running around. I absolutely loathe the image of her dragging it around like some human weakling.

I just got in the habit of holstering/sheathing it as soon as I was done killing something if I was just running around.

Rollin’ with two axes now, though, so it’s a moot point.

Don’t male norn also hold their greatswords in much the same way as the females? Also check the human forum, there’s a thread complaining about how male humans hold the greatsword which is about the posture people are asking for here. Guess you can’t please everybody.

FWIW, I like the pose. Just didn’t expect it on the supposedly strong norn.

I don’t think those who disaggree tried running around with it while wearing long skirted armor thats just VERY BAD looking.

They should have hold it straight and swing more effortlessly, that is way it should have been. You can’t compare them to the other races, they are way more smaller and dainty.

Both holding, running also swinging animations are bad looking and boring for such strong race, they really need adjustments.

are u kidding me?!?!? female norns are much scarier then male norns…how many male norns can say that they bleed once a month? without even going into combat???? also have you seen the size of those greatswords they are like 2 asurans man

It does look a bit heavy for the poor norn lass.

Until she lifts it with one hand to stroke the blade, perhaps it all a smoke and mirrors illusion to lull her prey into a false sense of security!

Or perhaps the Animation director did not think it that important.

The way the female norn is holding a greatsword looks too anime-ish to me, so YES, I agree that it should be changed

In addition I would like to point at how the legs are bent when a Norn female holds a Greatsword. I am not sure if the animator(s) intended to create such a pose/posture to demonstrate an actual combat or readiness status (ready to strike), or does it mean that the Greatsword is simply so heavy that there seems to be so much weigh on the legs that the female holding the sword has no choice but to keep them bent to keep equilibrium.

When I think about it the current idle posture (while holding the Greatsword) has no clear visual cue as to what the actual pose “means”. The player has to assume – on his or her own – with suspension of disbelief, that the sword is either simply very heavy and the female struggles to hold it at all, or that the female simply opts to use such a posture for combat purposes out of pure preference while the actual weigh of the sword is not responsible for such a pose in the first place.

Additionally, if you are observant (and patient) enough, while the female Norn holds the Greatsword if you do not press any keys and wait enough there is another animation in which she looks at the sword’s hilt by literally lifting it at around shoulders-level pointing it skyward (while still holding it by the hilt I think) to have a short glance at the hilt, as if the sword wasn’t so heavy after all (but the legs remain bent while that specific animation plays out).

It’s rather unclear I have to say.

It is quite annoying. I find myself sheathing the weapon or switching to another set often so I don’t have to see the weak/ugly pose. It isn’t consistent with the weapon’s idle animation either…

The leg bent is a martial art stance to assert sure footing. It makes turning swift while maintaining the pose as well as hard to be tackled. Different martial arts/swordmanship may have different pose but they are quite similar to achieve sure footing.

To me, it’s definitively a “combat readiness” or pose for best leverage/attack strength (no matter if you’re the strongest, you still want the best leverage technique so you can hit that much harder than a weaker person with a technique that uses the max leverage – If you didn’t use max leverage in your technique it could enable the weaker person to win the battle as they’d have better technique). In many sports, the legs bent just means “ready” – related to what TinyHowie was saying.

Oh… and keep in mind, weapons scale to race so Norn women carry bigger weapons than Asura women!

If most animations look bad, boring then “Combat readiness” has nothing to do there, its not important in a game.

People sheat GS before starting to run around just not to see the ugly animation. (including myself) Because legs get bent beside GS animation and that makes most armor look ugly, even worse in combat slowed mode.

They also swing barely on most classes which is boring.

All of these issues make you regret for using GS as main weapon even playing Norn Female.

I disagree! My Norn Ranger has a greatsword that’s almost as big as she is! It should be hard for her to carry. If you were to hand a sword that size to my Asura, it’d crush her to death.

Lets clear any confusion with female norns using greatswords.

The problem is the swing animation to the warriors brutal strike and the guardians wrathful strike, which are both the 3rd attack in the chain of attacks.

The ranger using the greatsword seems fine as it uses different animations at least for its powerstab, and the mesmer casts so there isn’t any problem there.

I agree with the op, a Valkyrie or Xena pose when running round would be more appealing instead of a dainty opse I might break a nail.

Ageia.5843:

I disagree! My Norn Ranger has a greatsword that’s almost as big as she is! It should be hard for her to carry. If you were to hand a sword that size to my Asura, it’d crush her to death.

Man, Norns are extremely strong. A sword their size is no problem. Eir was able to lift 500lbs without sweat, and she wasn’t known to be a physically strong norn.

Your sword doesn’t weighs 500lbs, even being almost your size. They should be swung easily around, and with might.

Norns are NORNS for a reason.

There is nothing wrong with the norn fighting stance, it does look good and works well if your human, but unfortunely this isn’t the case as its about the norn.

A more barbaric feel would be more appealing, or at least a stance that would make her look overpowering.

This gets worse if you maxed their height, with big swords bad animations can be seen better.

I hope they will get some warrior animations in the future, even charr like would do with animation fitting the norn but definitely not this copy paste from humans