Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone! I have decided to roll a thief and I am really stuck on which race to choose. I want to choose human or sylvari but I don’t know which one is best. What race did you guys choose for your thief and why? If you could go back and change it would you and to what? I want the race with best animations and most unique.

Asura are small and nimble, Sylvari can be really skinny and agile.
I’d say either of them or the asura, as Norn and Charr are a little too big in my eyes to be proper assassins (if they want stealth, that is)

Considering Charr have an ENTIRE legion dedicated to assassination and the more subtle aspects of war, the Charr are a fine race to have thieves for. As for norn, well there is Snow Leopard who also has somewhat of a focus in teachings about stealth. Humans have the best fit in my opinion (especially street rats), but others may disagree. Sylvari to me don’t feel the thieving type lore wise, but there are plenty of examples of Sylvari who don’t share that wide eyed view of the world and see it in a darker tone than most (caithe and canach). Asura are really the odd one out in my opinion, since why would a known thief have any good reputation for research? Sure the inquest are shady, but they don’t respect the standards set by the rest of asuran society. Its a bit of a stretch in my opinion and I wouldn’t mind counters to the idea. Their small stature does greatly help the ability to be a thief, seeing as there’s less of you to hide when compared to a norn or Charr.

All in all, there is no ‘best’ race to choose for any profession. However, I chose a thief because when I made my first character, a human mesmer, I saw the street rat option and it all clicked in my head. Animation wise I couldn’t tell you which is the best since I only have one of each profession. However I would like one of each race and profession combination so my opinion may not be in line with the majority.

castlemanic.3198:

Considering Charr have an ENTIRE legion dedicated to assassination and the more subtle aspects of war, the Charr are a fine race to have thieves for. As for norn, well there is Snow Leopard who also has somewhat of a focus in teachings about stealth. Humans have the best fit in my opinion (especially street rats), but others may disagree. Sylvari to me don’t feel the thieving type lore wise, but there are plenty of examples of Sylvari who don’t share that wide eyed view of the world and see it in a darker tone than most (caithe and canach). Asura are really the odd one out in my opinion, since why would a known thief have any good reputation for research? Sure the inquest are shady, but they don’t respect the standards set by the rest of asuran society. Its a bit of a stretch in my opinion and I wouldn’t mind counters to the idea. Their small stature does greatly help the ability to be a thief, seeing as there’s less of you to hide when compared to a norn or Charr.

All in all, there is no ‘best’ race to choose for any profession. However, I chose a thief because when I made my first character, a human mesmer, I saw the street rat option and it all clicked in my head. Animation wise I couldn’t tell you which is the best since I only have one of each profession. However I would like one of each race and profession combination so my opinion may not be in line with the majority.

I didn’t say they couldn’t be assassins, I’m just saying I personally find it a bit hard to believe that a giant ferocious beast could hide in a corner. it would work in a jungle or somewhere else in the wild, but I have a hard time believing they can go unnoticed in a rural area or a city (unless they sneak around at night). But then again, stealth in this game has a magical aspect as stealthed people can walk in the middle of the road without being seen so maybe I’m just overthinking it

Amaimon.7823:

I didn’t say they couldn’t be assassins, I’m just saying I personally find it a bit hard to believe that a giant ferocious beast could hide in a corner. it would work in a jungle or somewhere else in the wild, but I have a hard time believing they can go unnoticed in a rural area or a city (unless they sneak around at night). But then again, stealth in this game has a magical aspect as stealthed people can walk in the middle of the road without being seen so maybe I’m just overthinking it

While magical effect of stealth is the more likely explanation for why player characters can do it so effectively, there is another aspect of assassination and thievery that gw2 actually recently provided in two of the recent episodes. Hiding in plain sight. Donning the mursaat armour and the sons of svanir armour to appear like those races to fool something or someone to allow passage into more secure areas in order to accomplish a mission (such as assassinating a target), now this really only works on the Charr side of things (being a war mongering race that has the entire ash legion) because snow leopard falls more as a natural teacher, where norn hunt prey in the wilds, hide their tracks and other similar things. It can still work in the capacity of an assassin, but really even the largest of races can have a surprising nimbleness to them which helps with being a thief. If a norn thief or Charr thief were to perform an assassination, they would definitely try to blend in and may even have alibis and back up plans to find a way out Scot free. So I honestly disagree. Especially if Charr or norn were to perform an assassination/heist in their own capital. They’d be just as sneaky as a human would be in divinitys reach.

I went with the Asura, small and sneaky type but I acknowledge human female really suit it well.

You can move around the Sylvari home instance really effectively with infiltrators arrow, FWIW. Lots of corners and thin floors to hop between, and it’s quite pretty.

If you’re about pure aesthetics though, you’ll probably prefer the human looks.

I’d go for Norn. If you ever decide to play a venom-share-build, you can summon an additional frost-worm to share your venoms with.

any of the smaller races, i don’t like asura for anything though so i’d pick sylvari/human.
i do have a charr theif who i use for a bound/vault build so they don’t need to be stealthy since they’re all about in your face slam slam XD

norns and big charr are a no no :P

whatever you do, DONT choose charr. for gods sakes ppl, stahp.

Aesthetically, Human is a solid choice as you’ll have access to some of the best medium cultural armour at T2 and T3. Sylvari can work pretty well too. Some of the makeover kit hair and face options allow you to make the sneakiest, most sinister looking characters possible.

I have a human female, if I were to re-do my thief character it would probably be a Sylvari male.

I have both an asura male and human female (aka, meta) thief. I vote human female.

I like the way asura leap around and almost trip over their own feet when running. On the other hand, I don’t like how tiny their gear becomes.

Compared to my human male medium armor toons, I much prefer the styles available to females. More straight pants and tops options, instead of trenchcoats.

Jahroots.6791:

I have a human female, if I were to re-do my thief character it would probably be a Sylvari male.

If only sylvari males had human female armor models as standard everyone would be happy. And they would look absolutely fabulous.

My thief is a human male. But don’t read too much into that, I had already decided that character was going to be a human before deciding what class he was going to be.

Skritt nuff said, now we just wait for next expansion!

#HumanFemaleMeta
#Underboob
#Buttcape

For animations:

Human and Sylvari have pretty much the same animations, while Norn have mostly the same but with some key differences (The most striking one being Female Run animation). Overall, Thief isn’t too heavy on unique Animations, the most striking ones for Core Thief are Death Blossom (which looks about the same on all races.) and Unload (Which looks best on Asura IMO, due to them going full gangsta hold while channeling).

Now, if you’ve got HoT and access to Daredevil, then you’ll get a slew of unique animations in Staff and Physical Skills. Humans and Sylvari are the same still, Norn gets a different Vault Animation, Asura and Charr have entirely different Staff Animations. Daredevil Staff is one of the better weapons to get the most out of your Asura due to how flashy their skills are.

Mostly race in GW2 is a role playing thing. If you are looking for practical benefits to a given race, I say pick the smallest race you can besides Asura. Why not Asura? Their jumping animation is weird and takes some getting used to on jumping puzzles. I’d go human or sylvari and pick the smallest possible body size. Avoid Charr like the plague if you like jumping puzzles. Small models make it easier to see where you are going.

TheSwede.9512:

For animations:

Human and Sylvari have pretty much the same animations, while Norn have mostly the same but with some key differences (The most striking one being Female Run animation). Overall, Thief isn’t too heavy on unique Animations, the most striking ones for Core Thief are Death Blossom (which looks about the same on all races.) and Unload (Which looks best on Asura IMO, due to them going full gangsta hold while channeling).

Now, if you’ve got HoT and access to Daredevil, then you’ll get a slew of unique animations in Staff and Physical Skills. Humans and Sylvari are the same still, Norn gets a different Vault Animation, Asura and Charr have entirely different Staff Animations. Daredevil Staff is one of the better weapons to get the most out of your Asura due to how flashy their skills are.

Actually when I tried thief there was a move or two that sylvari looked more ninja like I cannot recall exactly its been a while I think it was a flip with the air move where you attack them from behind.

Sylvari females looks the best when running. Especially in sneakthief armor.

asura because you’re hard to see even if not in stealth.

Paulytnz.7619:

Skritt nuff said, now we just wait for next expansion!

I would absolutely looooove to have a Skritt assassin. Hell, Skritt anything!

Definitely Charr!

Once you see Charr’s animation for Dash, you well never look back to other daredevils!

Around launch, I made a max height male charr thief. This was a terrible mistake, imo. I’ve seen very few characters in games who play as awkwardly as he does. He just feels janky and bizarre, even with the thinnest body type. Then there’s the joys of medium armour on charr.

I’ll probably Daredevil him at some point. In the meantime, if I play thief, I go with the min height asura I made. I recommend asura, sylvari, or human if you want a character where the animations match up well with their size.