Guild Wars 2

I am a huge fan of the Norn, their lore and kinship to the spirits. Their shapeshifting forms are beautifully done in GW2 and add a nice spice to their racial elite powers. Sadly, due to being not a toggle skill, but a 30-second shapeshift, I can’t really use the animal shape for roleplaying purposes.

I can perfectly understand that for balance reasons we can’t have access to the skillset for an undefined length of time. But would it be possible to grant access to just the cosmetics, the visuals of the form, to allow for stories of our own while roleplaying the characters? It could be a non-combat thing similar to the town clothes.

I was going to suggest adding it to the Town Clothes panel, so it could only be used when dressed in “civvies”.

No, no, not skivvies! Civvies!

Yes, that could give the whole town clothes panel some more usability. Maybe there are even more roleplay-related appearance events for the other races, too? Like toying around with a golem suit for our Asuran friends?

Back to the shapeshifting forms: I really would love for them to get more screentime. They are beautifully done – and finally with proper tails, something that I missed in serveral other games I played over the years.

Or…how about tonics sold in Hoelbrak that turn us into the Norn’s shapeshifted forms?

Norn wolf is BA, but for some reason, i can’t move and attack with him. Is this intentional?

You also can’t dance in shapeshifted form. We tried to do a victory dance after defeating one of the world event bosses… wouldn’t do.

Cosmetic animal forms would be cool. It could even eventually include forms of the lesser Spirits. I’m sure Norn don’t just shapeshift into the forms of the four major Spirits.

Asura could get golems. Sylvari maybe glow or pollen as it is described in the books. Charr and Humans… hm… maybe someone else can think of something cool for them

It’d also help make them feel like they’re something other than ‘big humans’ considering how minor a part their shapeshifting appears to play. Though I think pretty much every ‘transformation’ ability could use a cosmetic option. Some people just enjoy dressing their characters up a certain way even if they don’t role-play!

Syphenion.5064:

Or…how about tonics sold in Hoelbrak that turn us into the Norn’s shapeshifted forms?

Tonics could be a way, but they would most likely be another money sink and take away space in your inventory. I would prefer to be able to roleplay whenever the mood strikes me, not only when I got the coin and/or mats at hand, so personally I would prefer a solution that has no mats involved.

I really like the idea to utilize the town cloth panel for special purposes. I am pretty sure you could find something for each race. The norn spirit forms are a given, but there could be a lot of other things – maybe big costumes for the humans who take part in the carnival. And I need to read up on that pollen/glow-stuff Ascari mentioned for the Sylvari.

I would love to do that (I prefer the town clothes panel idea over the tonics)

Yeah, me too.

If it’s tonics anyone can use ‘em. It’s the Norn racial ability, lock it to the civvies panel for Norn only.

this is a wonderful idea, i second this!

I’d never play a Norn, personally, but I don’t believe in denying someone else the opportunity to be happy. +1

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+1

In favor of providing toggle abilities that produce the effect. I’d like to see this restricted to the people who have unlocked the related skill though and only to Norns. I definitely prefer the town clothes idea over the tonic.

THIS, 100%. Would love to have the shapeshift available for fun and roleplay. Make it a town clothes sorta deal!

I guess they are still too busy fixing bugs and hunting bots to start adding additional features yet.

To be honest the shapeshift and golem suit as cosmetics, sound like an awesome ideas!

Yessssss !!!!! agree

Colonel Kernel.7506:

I guess they are still too busy fixing bugs and hunting bots to start adding additional features yet.

I don’t even think ArenaNet is monitoring this forum yet. There definitely aren’t any moderators merging threads.

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Tonics would be the easiest solution to implement it, probably. Make then cost a few copper from a vendor in Holebrak, would work great.

Draco.2806:

Tonics would be the easiest solution to implement it, probably. Make then cost a few copper from a vendor in Holebrak, would work great.

I am opposed to this idea. As I stated above, this is for the Norn racial ability. If it’s a tonic anyone can use it.

Furthermore, how quickly does a tonic run out? This is a feature that should be able to be turned on and left on indefinitely while the character is in town clothes.

Why do I have the feeling this is a pro-yiffer thread……

I wouldn`t mind having the elites nerfed slighty to make the forms more permanent. I would seriously run around as a bear all day.

Sometimes lore makes rules, but often rules also make lore.

Norns can’t hold their form indefinitely. Svanir was the only one that has ever seen holding his form, and it was because of Jormag’s liutenant’s icy corruption.

If you roleplay as a Norn that shapeshifts, it would make sense to follow Norn rules, and don’t hold the form permanently, because very nasty things may happen if you do that. And we don’t want those very nasty things to happen.

I consider your point valid MithranArkanere. Would you still object if it were something that expired and went on cool down after a certain period of time? The main thing to me is that it last a bit longer. I don’t personally require it to be indefinite.