Guild Wars 2

I see so many people telling newcomers not to roll a Norn character because Norns are so large in the game. What kind of ridiculousness is that?!
All player characters in the game have the same hitboxes- Norns are NOT easier to hit than other races.
It isn’t easier to hide with other races. This is because you have your name FLOATING above your head all the time!
Why is there so much misinformation?

I think this is more of an issue of Norn having difficulty getting through jump puzzles.

I enjoy Norn as a race alot: the lore, the voice of the character, the story and the kitten tatoos! But let’s face it, there is a high chance your camera will get “stuck” during a jumping puzzle, that cool armor/weapon you wanted will clip or have bad (very low res) graphics while it looks normal on other races and not to mention the elites/utilites could use some work…Norn could use some attention, the male ones at least.

All this is coming from a Norn Thief that has 100% world completion and most puzzles in the game

It’s just a friendly advice from people who have a large Norn and know it’s mistake. Saying not to roll a Norn at all is extreme though. My first character in this game was a female warrior, default size. By the time I realized something was wrong it was a bit too late, I didn’t want to start all over again. One of the problems with such a big size is all animations feel horribly slow. Specially running and figthing of course, fights feel a lot less dynamic because of that. The other problem is jumping puzzles can be a bit more difficult. My second character was still a Norn but this time I didn’t make the same mistake, I picked the smallest size available. And it’s much better this way.

One thing I like about the size is that it makes armor customisation much easier to see.

Part of it is that size can determine how easy it is to target an enemy players hitbox, where as asura would have the greatest advantage. Given tab targeting and the fact that Asura really aren’t as small as other small races in other games, the advantage is very small.

Size makes you stand out and look bad kitten
too bad it has the same effect on pvp without the bad kitten part
expect to be mobbed everytime you enter combat

The larger the character, the slower it feels like you’re moving. Asura look like their running, and Norn like they’re walking. Makes a pretty big difference with such a big world.

Okay, I understand the being easier to click on in a group thing, but slower animations? It’s just the illusion of being slower, not actually being slower, right? It only makes an artificial difference.

I never had that much difficulty with the jump puzzles, and I have max height norn female.

Faranox.4217:

Okay, I understand the being easier to click on in a group thing, but slower animations? It’s just the illusion of being slower, not actually being slower, right? It only makes an artificial difference.

Of course it will take the exact same time for a Norn and an Asura to get from point A to point B. But since Norn legs are much bigger than Asura ones, since there’s more space bewteen Norn feet than Asura feet, if both were animated the same way, with the same speed, Norn would go from A to B a lot faster. So the devs were forced to slow down all Norn animations. It’s not an illusion, it’s not artificial if you can FEEL it. And big Norn feel horribly slow. Don’t forget that all you do in this game is running and fighting. If it constantly feels slow that’s a really big problem. Think about it very carefully when you’re making your character.

Norns indeed feel a bit slow. It doesn’t help my most played character is a human thief with swiftness on dodge and the +25% speed sigil…
Not only is my norn slower, she also feels slower… I feel like I take forever to get somewhere ._."

And the lesson is: Don’t max your height when you’re creating Norn, kids.

Seriously. I have an avarage height Norn and it’s not that bad once you get used to it.

There are a few things I consider when comparing the norns with a shorter race like the asura.

1. Camera height on the norns is higher than the asura. This leads to the occasional involuntary “First Person Mode” in low ceiling areas. It’s very annoying with jumping puzzles, but by no means a show stopper. Additionally, if you’re used to playing an asura and switch to a norn, the jumping queues are a little different. You will feel like your hugging the edge on the norn more than an asura when performing difficult jumps. Again, just something to get used to.

2. As explained earlier, the animations are slower than their counterparts, but they all perform similarly to the other races. If you look carefully, the shorter races animations seem frantic to me, flailing around unnecessarily. For me, the norn, animatically (if that’s even really a word), seem more calculated and disciplined than the others.

My main has an average sice (standard, I guess) and the slender body-type. I don’t see any problem with it, not even at trying jumping-puzzles.

I guess, the problem for them it’s more about aesthetics. Most people will refuse to play such a big character. In my case, I love them as they are and I barely notice the size if I’m not around… any other race, lol.

Anyway, I don’t see there’s any disadvantage overall.

A lot of newcomers proably don’t know about the whole ‘hit boxes are the same size, not matter how big your character is’

yeh same hit boxes…. when in pvp though, can you seriously say that targeting a big kitten norn is the same as targeting an asura?

I was thinking of making a norn. But for me its the feel of the slow running that killing it.. i cant seem to get used to it .. i had medium size female level her to 7 and deleted her to make her smaller but even then i cant get over it :P. Guess alot is to blame human female thief with 25% speed boost. Even as smallest size my norn is till around 2 heads bigger then my female. I wish i could make her even smaller so i would not have to watch the slow mo animations

It’s not the size of your norn, it’s how you use it!

Ok, now that that’s out of the way, I went from Human thief (I feel like Sonic the Hedgehog!) to an asura mesmer (I feel like Yoda in that one kind-of-a-Star-Wars movie!) to a norn engineer (my dodges look like me rolling out of bed in the morning!) That being said, norn are a blast once you get used to it. Just don’t switch back and forth too often and you’ll forget how slowly your kitten lumbers across the world.

Of course if you are going for a Legendary weapon or want that armour you spent ages working for to actually be seen norn is the way to go.

Why do some people think the tallest Norn have a disadvantage in jumping puzzles?

The only thing I can think of is that your size, and the lack of a first person view, results in your view being obscured of any narrow, small ledge/area in a jumping puzzle, and those annoying camera problems you get in tight spaces.

But is that just me, is there someone out there who excels at jumping puzzles with a max size Norn?

In thinking it over, it seems as though most jumping puzzles were designed with Asura or small Humans as the target user. It’s not fair as I just don’t see anything significant that gives tall characters an advantage elsewhere in the game.

I personally don’t care for jumping puzzels, so when I rolled a Norn, it did not matter to me as at that point, jumping puzzles were optional.

Now that jumping puzzles are starting to be required to complete content like the Mad King instance, I am having second thoughts.

Combined with extra height causing problems with the camera in tight areas like tunnels and staircases, height seems to be a disadvantage. It’s bad game design, to allow players to size a character such that it does not work in parts of the game.

meshcoil.1597:

yeh same hit boxes…. when in pvp though, can you seriously say that targeting a big kitten norn is the same as targeting an asura?

Two words, tab targeting.

I have a max height female Norn ranger that I have a blast with. I made it a melee ranger for teh luzl, and it looks really awesome as a giant Norn. It’s probably better with the female because they are about 1/3 the width. The height does cause camera bouncing issues in tight jumping puzzles, like Troll’s End, but that’s more an issue with the buggy camera and it’s the only place it’s noticable.

I love how big my norn is. I laugh everytime I walk up to a human. Here is a shot of me next to my boyfriend’s thief.

big characters make animations easier to spot, they also stick out in a crowd, I play female norn elementalist and it’s definitely a disadvantage since I’m not going for tanky stats

but

kitten that, I’m norn, come at me, I don’t give a kitten if you target me, I can take it and laugh all the while

Just wanted to say that while some jumping puzzles are negatively affected by the Norn’s size (mostly inside caves and small areas), for others it’s actually an advantage. For outside big platforms platforming all the gaps look relatively smaller for Norn, it feels more like you’re actually going to make that jump!

I started a couple of norn toons but deleted them because the animations felt sluggish, even at the smallest height. Yeah, it felt like it took forever to run anywhere, and, yeah, combat felt less dynamic. But I also found that I was adapting my playing to fit the animations. I read about a phenomenon in game design a few years. People had been playing an MMO (COH?) and the animations for one of the attacks took a long time to complete. The attack itself was balanced: it damaged the target just as quickly as any other animation. It just looked like it was taking longer. The thing was, players subliminally slowed down their reaction times to fit the animation. I had the impression that the same thing kept happening with norn toons. If I played the same class as an asura or a sylvari, then I’d be dodge-rolling and weapon-switching like crazy, but I’d play a lot less dynamically as a norn.

Max sized Norn in full shiny red armour wearing a humongous hammer.

This character has so much visual leadership in WvW.
When our server needs to push I charge in headfirst swinging my Hammer, motivating my teammates to charge along and scaring the enemy away.
Who are you more likely to follow in a charge? A tiny fireball shooting asura or a Huge Hammer Swinging Norn?
Who are you more likely to run away from when being attacked? A tiny asure shooting fireballs at you from range or a Huge Norn stomping you with a Hammer in your face?

The OP is wrong about hiding. It’s way easier to hide with an Asura, floaty names aside.
It’s way easier to spot a huge character in the distance than a small one, especially a distances where floaty names are not up yet.
The hitboxes might be the same, but the “clickboxes” aren’t. Big characters are easier to target.

The OP asks why there is so much misinformation. Ironic to me.