Guild Wars 2

Topic question. I’m talking individual strength. I know they are obviously stronger than humans let’s say (if nothing else because they can shapeshift), but just how strong IS an individual norn in lore? I know for gameplay purposes they are obviously equals to everyone, but I’d imagine in lore they’d be much stronger.

I do remember someone saying that Eir carried a 500lbs stone statue on her back like it was nothing. Also I think it was during gw1 that when all the races of tyria sent out their armies to face the elder dragons (i think thats right.) each raced sent thouands of soldiers. Norn only sent 10 and even then they thought it was to much. They were going to send fewer but one guy wanted to tag along for fun. So on a scale of 1 to 10 1 being puny weak gnome things and 10 being brutal massivly strong giant things Norn strength is about a 25 =P

Haha seriously? “Hey, the humans are sending a few thousand soldiers. How many men should we round up?” “Oh I don’t know…like 5. That outta do the trick.”

It was actually meant to be only 4 Norn, but one of the characters’ daughter wanted to come along :P

Well all you watched 300 right? Which of them brought the most “warriors”.

Don’t know much about GW1, but it the lore seems to imply that Norns have disproportionate strength, even compared to their size (opening cinematic showing a Norn basically benching a giant boulder, plus a Norn knocking Jormag’s tooth, etc).

They’re essentially a race of Hulks… and that makes me happy.

Unfortunately, there is no way to roleplay their strength. In game, if a Norn was to arm wrestle an Asuran, neither would be able to win.

I have 4 Asuran characters and 1 Norn. As an Asuran, I would be perfectly fine with them being the physically weakest and it having an effect in the game, as long as their very high intelligence also had an effect. I would have much preferred each race have their advantages and disadvantages. It would have been more interesting.

But most of all, I can’t possibly imagine an Asuran arm wrestling a Norn to a draw!

An asura warrior will beat a Norn elemntalist into the dust bin in melee……… even if the Norn changes in a bear. Here’s your lore.

Lorewise i think norn are really strong,as was stated above the intro shows your character lifting a huge boulder and in the books i also recall some passages that showed their strenght if someone could help out with some quotes from the books that would be great

norn and proud here

A single Norn is capable of wiping out a Charr warband if they encroached upon Norn territory during Guild Wars 1. Though it was stated that if the Charr sent even a quarter of their military in, they could wipe the Norn out, due to the Norn not fighting in groups, it was also stated that the Norn absolutely crushed the Charr forces sent through the Shiverpeaks to attack Kryta.

Furthermore, the first Norn encountered by the players in GW1 was Jora. When they ran into her, Ogden Stonehealer was extremely worried about her killing himself, Vekk, the PC, and their 3-7 allies in short order. To put this in perspective, his advice when the Destroyers attack is to run away. His advice when he sees Jora is for nobody to move.

This is advice one normally gets when facing a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Eir, as stated earlier, carried a 500 pound statue from her home in Hoelbrak, to the Asura Gateway, then to Snaff’s workshop. Also, as the books have shown, Eir was basically a walking ballista, so far and hard could she fire her bow.

The books also gave us Gullik Oddsson, who very casually wiped out a Charr scouting party and survived Ascalon City—and not, like, survived by running away or sneaking around the ghosts, he picked a fight with them directly.

So yeah, as far as lore goes, Norn are the strongest single combatants. Oftentimes, if an Asura has no golem to ride around in, a Norn’s shoulders are the first place they go to. That doesn’t really have anything to do with this, except for being awesome >_>

Well spoken, makes me want to check up on the lore.

I chose a Norn because it was the first time I read up on a race that looked like it could actually (from a lore perspective) perform the feats that the Warrior class utilized.

Love my King of the Norn.

When you actually go play through Eye of the North and you recruit the individual races you’ll see the accurate portrayal of the Norn’s strength.

You recruit Pyre Fierceshot’s warband and the liberated Charr from the Flame Legion. You recruit (Naturally) the Ebon Vanguard through Gwen and Keiran Thackeray.

You recruit the remaining Deldrimor Dwarves through King Jalis Ironhammer, you also manage to persuade the Asura (Whom use their Technology and less of themselves in the GOLEMs) as well as the Shining Blade…

Then you have the Norn; if you played through it… not only did it take nearly an ENTIRE legion of Charr to force Jora from her homestead but Ogden constantly was arguing with the Norn about their numbers “Will you send an Army?” and Olaf Olafson replied “No but I will tell the other Norn of these worthy foes, the Destroyers, and we will hunt them with you”

The Norn are extremely powerful in Lore shown through their ability to fight large amounts of enemies in Small numbers and without technology.

On the matter of Asgeir knocking out Jormag’s tooth, keep in mind that he was being aided by the Spirits of the Wild during that battle.

redcomyn.4651:

Unfortunately, there is no way to roleplay their strength. In game, if a Norn was to arm wrestle an Asuran, neither would be able to win.

I have 4 Asuran characters and 1 Norn. As an Asuran, I would be perfectly fine with them being the physically weakest and it having an effect in the game, as long as their very high intelligence also had an effect. I would have much preferred each race have their advantages and disadvantages. It would have been more interesting.

But most of all, I can’t possibly imagine an Asuran arm wrestling a Norn to a draw!

I had always just assumed it was machine assisted stuff like hydraulics or some other magic rainbow crystal thing they do.

Ok. But that wouldn’t explain why humans are just as strong as a Norn.

Anyway, I just think it would have been better if each race had its strengths and weaknesses (like DDO for example).

In the old days (GW1, and honestly the books too) yes, individual norn were incredibly powerful – more than a match for pretty much any other race. Obviously, this couldn’t stay for GW2 player characters or bad things would happen, so they had to tone them down a bit.

Some of the results are less than perfectly satisfying, but there’s only so much they can do I guess.

I like the way they did it. Any racial strengths can be RPed but this way it keeps each class from needing to be a certain race to be competitive.

Marlafox.8715:

I do remember someone saying that Eir carried a 500lbs stone statue on her back like it was nothing. Also I think it was during gw1 that when all the races of tyria sent out their armies to face the elder dragons (i think thats right.) each raced sent thouands of soldiers. Norn only sent 10 and even then they thought it was to much. They were going to send fewer but one guy wanted to tag along for fun. So on a scale of 1 to 10 1 being puny weak gnome things and 10 being brutal massivly strong giant things Norn strength is about a 25 =P

the only race that fought against the great destroyer*general of primordus* hat knew about the elder dragons were the dwarfs the other races just thought the great destroyer was the big boss, anyway there were only 5 or 6ish norm against the great destroyer…there was going to be one less but one of them insisted since the norm back then didnt think the destroyers as a threat only as a creatures to hunt. Even though the charr weren’t allies in the first game there was one charr warband that were allies…but they were busy freeing their people rom what is now the flame legion *back then known as the shaman cast…i trailed off back to norn individual strength well that depends are the norns achievements lore wise i Mean knut Whitebeard literally dragged issormir for the great hunt….he kittening dragged that giant worm

Love reading this lore. It sucks now that the Norn ultimate skills are so worthless in game. I never use my shape shifting -_-

Seconded, interesting stuff to read, thanks all for who have posted up on the Lore

As others have said I can totally understand from a Gameplay standpoint why all races are equal stat wise but it’s nice to know some of the background at least from a non MMO perspective.

There is also one of the Romke’s sailors whose name I forgot. It’s said it took 50 risen to overpower and eventually kill him, when Orr rose beneath their ship.

Yeah, norn are pretty tough outside game mechanics.

yup in lore they are the more powerfull race strenght wise and have the feats to back it up,i understand however the need to have all characters with the same amount of strengh in game as to promote equality

I would say that the ingame strength of other races compared to the Norn is actually justified. You must remember that the player characters, according to their stories are all heroes, paragons of their races, much like Destiny’s Edge members. As for PvE enemies, we single-handedly slaughter thousands of those on our way to 80. I’m assuming that any deaths we may suffer are treated as “non-canon” since we respawn.

Ehhh. Norn are superstrong even for their size. For a human to be even close to the strength a Norns size would indicate would make them a hero and pargon of their race. The strength that norn actually have is beyond what a human, much less an asura should be able to ever attain. Then using “Hero logic”, a Norn hero player should be well beyond the heroes of other races.

Even Conan the barbarian has been outmatched in strength at some point. That’s okay. He still has other tools at his disposal that allow him to win.

Sorin.6713:

I would say that the ingame strength of other races compared to the Norn is actually justified. You must remember that the player characters, according to their stories are all heroes, paragons of their races, much like Destiny’s Edge members. As for PvE enemies, we single-handedly slaughter thousands of those on our way to 80. I’m assuming that any deaths we may suffer are treated as “non-canon” since we respawn.

This is kinda how I thought of it. The PCs are supposed to be exceptionally strong for their race, so that each one probably has the rough equivalent power of a norn. However, norns are the exception to the rule. PC norns are not much stronger than a normal norn, so that all PC norns are basically just an average joe for their race, travelling around. Perhaps their biggest bound from a regular norn is their sociability.
While PCs are champions for the other races, norn PCs are just norns who travel a little more.

At least thats how I think of it.

Brannidus.4175:

Sorin.6713:

I would say that the ingame strength of other races compared to the Norn is actually justified. You must remember that the player characters, according to their stories are all heroes, paragons of their races, much like Destiny’s Edge members. As for PvE enemies, we single-handedly slaughter thousands of those on our way to 80. I’m assuming that any deaths we may suffer are treated as “non-canon” since we respawn.

This is kinda how I thought of it. The PCs are supposed to be exceptionally strong for their race, so that each one probably has the rough equivalent power of a norn. However, norns are the exception to the rule. PC norns are not much stronger than a normal norn, so that all PC norns are basically just an average joe for their race, travelling around. Perhaps their biggest bound from a regular norn is their sociability.
While PCs are champions for the other races, norn PCs are just norns who travel a little more.

At least thats how I think of it.

That’s a really interesting way to look at it, thanks for posting.