Guild Wars 2

Just curious why the incredibly long cooldowns on Norn shapeshifts. I know most everyone ignores them anyway but perhaps if we didn’t have to wait 2 min between each use it might incentivize players to give them more of a shot.

Dunno, always seemed sad that one of the defining abilities for Norn in general is generally ignored and relegated to collect dust for most players.

Cooldown is 240s = 4mins.

I’m willing to settle for 180s cd. Some of the elite forms are insanely OP, people just aren’t experimenting enough. I hit a lvl 80 ranger for 22k in bearform the other day \o/

The reason they have long CD’s is because they are a racial ability. A-net didn’t want race to be a big factor when choosing class. Racials were never intended to be on par with class elites.

180s bear form would be really OP.
Ranger can hit REALLY hard with that, signet of the wild + signet of the hunt with signet of the beastmaster trait = BIG damage with bear #4, maybe stronger than FGS

Racial skills exist only for flavor, not to be actually useful.

because apparently they didn’t want race to be a factor…

which is hilarious when you consider that they’ve disabled the racials in pvp and also playing asura is far more advantageous in pvp than any racial you can possible think of.

i’d like for norn elites to have 2 min CDs

While playing an asura is some kind of advantage, a-net did state that they don’t feel it’s a big advantage for players familiar with the game.

Elite forms strip utility skills, so Ranger signets will do nothing. I’m not sure about traits, they may or may not work but they also tend to have marginal-at-best effects.

I figure the “racial skill” status is the only reason they’ve been passed up for rebalancing since release – there were some minor bug fixes and skill tip changes but that’s all that I can remember. It does seem strange to even have racial skills if you’re not supposed to use them though.

Sirius.4510:

Elite forms strip utility skills, so Ranger signets will do nothing.

Strip the passives, not the actives.
Traits used to work but the fixed that, mainly because of the mesmer trait where you clone at dodge, so a norn mesmer could go Bear → dodge roll → own an army of ANGRY bears fighting for you.

Liewec.2896:

because apparently they didn’t want race to be a factor…

which is hilarious when you consider that they’ve disabled the racials in pvp and also playing asura is far more advantageous in pvp than any racial you can possible think of.

i’d like for norn elites to have 2 min CDs

Tab targeting removes advantage of being small…

I’ve never had trouble with asura enemies in PVP.

Sirius.4510:

Elite forms strip utility skills, so Ranger signets will do nothing. I’m not sure about traits, they may or may not work but they also tend to have marginal-at-best effects.

I figure the “racial skill” status is the only reason they’ve been passed up for rebalancing since release – there were some minor bug fixes and skill tip changes but that’s all that I can remember. It does seem strange to even have racial skills if you’re not supposed to use them though.

Not all ranger signets.

Signet of the Hunt + Bearform Charge attack. You can effectively 1-shot most light-medium armored classes in WvW without deselect/walling.

I don’t have a norn ranger to test with, but on my guardian, popping Bear Form (or any others when I’ve tried them in past) removes and locks all utility skill slots. The part I’m not getting is how you’re going to have any signets stay in effect if it does that.

He’s talking activate them, then use bearform.

Yes, first use the signets, then use the bear form.
Signet of the Hunt rise your next attack damage and Signet of the Wild gives stability and 20% more damage for 6~10 seconds (can’t remember), so you pop those and after that use bear form, so those active bonuses are still valid for your next attack and time in bear form.

To note, he’s also meaning with the ranger trait that causes the signet active bonuses to apply to you as well as your pet.

Yea, sorry if I didn’t clarify. Active effect of Signet of the Hunt increases your first attack by 50% and affects bearform.

Not sure about Signet of the Wild, since both are transformation skills and should override. However, you still get the stability if you trait for it.

With great power comes great cooldown.

Dustfinger.9510:

While playing an asura is some kind of advantage, a-net did state that they don’t feel it’s a big advantage for players familiar with the game.

Anet is wrong. All player hosted/run/organized tournaments have banned Asura for this reason. The animations are too small to see with all the particle effect and the animations go farther than they seem capable of.

Eurantien.4632:

Dustfinger.9510:

While playing an asura is some kind of advantage, a-net did state that they don’t feel it’s a big advantage for players familiar with the game.

Anet is wrong. All player hosted/run/organized tournaments have banned Asura for this reason. The animations are too small to see with all the particle effect and the animations go farther than they seem capable of.

The same advantage goes for human vs norn. Player hosted tournies have their own rules for their own reasons. Right or wrong. Fan opinions on these forums is a big reason I wouldn’t use players as the basis for imperical truth. That rule may help eliminate any advanatage but unless they only allow one race with one set size the reasoning falls flat.