Guild Wars 2

So, I’ll admit.

After two years of playing this game, I’ve never been able to make a Sylvari and be happy with it. I’ve deleted at least 50 Sylvari and a lot of those had makeover kits used on them.

So, I come to you. What do you like the do when creating your Sylvari? How do you make the perfect character?

I understand your frustration. As someone who loves sylvari and have a bunch of them I have to agree the hardest thing about them is to actually create them.
They have a huge variety of options for skin, pattern, glow colors etc.
I think it’s all about preparation. I usually determine what color scheme and theme I want to run on a sylvari. They are not like humans where pretty much anything works and you can change it on a whim. Your skin, pattern, glow and hair colors pretty much lock you into certain palette.
I usually end up using at least 1 makeover kit even with the planning when I hit 80 and decide on final look for final touches.
I suggest you to find the best color scheme for you, one you won’t get bored quickly. Also check other peoples sylvari posted in threads here, that can be a great inspiration.

Well, I completely understand you. It took long enough for me aswell when I decided to create a Sylvari character. But on the other side, they’re not that bad! They do look really cool.
My first Sylvari was a pale-bleachy skin with Midnight Yew dyed ponytail.
My originally idéa was to create one of the Nightmare Court’s members, since I really liked how they looks like.
Only for a few months ago, I decided to make-over her since I barely played with her.
I made a make-over for her so she looks just like one of the Nightmare Court’s member! And I just love her!

Reason why I create my Sylvari characters is based on the Nightmare Court, since I really like them!

Sadly I do not have before how she looked like, since I lost my old screenshots back then, but take a look on my so far Sylvari characters based on Nightmare Court!
More will come..

I have a friend who makes a ton of Sylvari. For her most recent one she actually was just doing a makeover and rename on one whose story had played out. She generally picks a plant as inspiration; this time she wanted to make a sycamore tree sylvari, so she and I got on Mumble to chat while staring at googled images of sycamores and using the character generator to noodle out the design for texture and color and leaf style.

For my little subset of ‘varis, lessee. First one I did with dark brown bark and white leaves with a yellow glow, using the grooved wooden face and adjusting everything to as narrow and pointy as I could so she would look like a winter wood spirit. Next alt I did a much softer face, which I kept, but after realizing I couldn’t stand the limitations the Apple Red skin and mushroom hat gave me in terms of dyes that would work, I swapped her to lichen green with a short leaf bangs look with a bright blue glow (then the new hair came out and she got the fern dreads, then more new hair and now she’s in the flat spike forward do). The face has a less dazed expression than many ‘varis, as she’s my intellectual researcher one, a necromancer studying decay and rot with an eye to stopping it before someone hurts the Pale Tree with a necrotic attack. (She wasn’t fast enough, it seems, and is quite unhappy just now).

Somewhere in all that I made a ‘vari man to be my second warrior. He’s never been RP’d but I still like his cheerful smile and vivid gold skin, if only it didn’t blotch dull brown into his cultural!

My latest ‘vari is a mesmer made to be a Scarlet Pimpernel. He has a debonair face and a deep red ponytail with vivid pink-purplish glow. In his cover identity he’s in pinks and golds and reds; in disguise he covers up completely, even a gas mask to hide his distinctive hair and glow.

So I guess I make them “perfect” by figuring out what sort of plant they are, whether they’ll be wearing cultural or not (glow and bark patterns depend on that), and shaping the face to an expression that fits the intended persona. For color I go with what will blend with the most dyes, and I always take the brightest possible glow.

It’s all so subjective, though. I’ve seen people post pictures of sylvari they are incredibly proud of that did nothing for me, exaggerate features I’d minimize and vice versa. What’s perfect for me is a yawnfest for others, I’m sure. If you’re finding yourself unhappy with your designs, take some time to ask yourself what about them irritates you. Instead of putting in the things you think are cool, leave out the things you think aren’t! Much as ANet did when designing the game and deciding what they thought wasn’t fun in an MMO so they could toss it out. You might just end up with something that you love because it doesn’t have anything you hate in it

I’ll tell you how I made my two Sylvari.

I wanted my Mesmer to look “natural.” So I made her green (variations on pine green for her skin, pattern, and glow, as pine is a “tree” type green and they are well, spawn of a tree). I wanted her “pretty” since she is a Mesmer. Thankfully green goes with just about any armor color since she is a plant. It flows in very nicely with armor sets and looks very natural.

My second character, well, her name means “cold night,” but I accidentally made her a Dawn cycle (didn’t realize that until later, oh well). I did a “frosted” pattern on a dark green. I ended up finding it boring. So I decided to use a makeover kit and take into account her “cold,” “night,” and “dawn” characteristics. I asked for help on these forums actually. Since I used it, she is now probably my favorite character in terms of customization. I am most happy with her, in spite of her being probably one of my least favorite professions. But it works. Anyway, since she was “night” and “cold” I chose a light skin tone (plants can look very exotic at night, and pale is more common). I chose a dark purple pattern/leaf pattern for a similar reason – it’s exotic. The pale color is also a bit of an indication of dawn, but what is most dawnish on her is her glow – it’s a bright purple – that transition color of the sky from night to day. For her face, I chose a more “creature” type face, less pretty, but still symmetrical. Her eyes also go more with the color of her glow. She has indeed turned out otherworldly and exotic, and I believe befitting of her name and cycle. I have to be a lot more careful with armors for her, though, due to her color scheme.

If I were to make a heavy (if arenanet adds a heavy profession, it’s going to be Sylvari!), it would be more “tree” like (as in twiggy and barky and I’d go for that twiggy hair with the flowers on it from a kit).

First and third pictures are my mesmer, 2nd is my engie

I’m a story person, so I start with an idea for a great tale.

Before I bought GW2, I knew it was about heroes fighting evil dragons. When I saw the debut trailer, the rise of Zhaitan and the spread of his minions reminded me of the disease, Cancer. Then I thought, “What kind of food fights cancer?” The first answer to my mind: Blueberries!

I knew at that point that my first GW2 character would be a blue sylvari.

When I finally bought a copy of the game, I couldn’t decide on a class. I went back to my Blueberry hero idea. I thought of all the ways that blueberries fight cancer: shrinking tumors, stopping cancer migration, prevent the cancer from multiplying, and ultimately destroy the cancer itself. Since the game offered the Engineer class, I felt that a gun would be much more efficient weapon in my character’s quest than a sword.

For gender, I preferred the look of the male sylvari for this story idea.

As for looks….. I’m a fan of JRPGs. I prefer my avatars to be bishonen and bishojos. Most anime & manga tend to have an average person in extraordinary circumstances instead of a beefed-up superhero. That’s my personal taste. So I settled on the basic looks for my main character. I have never used a make up kit on my main.

For me it’s a tradition to name my GW characters after gemstones and incense. That’s just what I like. I decided to name my main, Lapis.

The concept for my second character is based of the Rose from the children’s story, The Little Prince. Her name is Lazuli.

My recommendation: Use what inspires you to create your character.

I did it

I don’t know how, but I was finally able to make myself click the “Make Changes” button without feeling like I needed to check the sliders/look at the faces some more/change the hair.

What do you guys think?

I think he looks great I really like the color scheme/face you went with