Guild Wars 2

No matter how powerful any elite skill is, giving it a 4 minute recharge means it is forgotten as a viable skill. It seems that Anet is so scared of recreating the Ursan superpower that they are not willing to put thought into making this skill something that could be used in a build.

2 minutes is still too long for me to use, but others might. If you must leave it at 4 minutes, reduce the recharge times of the form’s skills so they can be used 3-4 times each (yes all 5 skills). If a fight is going on for 4 minutes, 30 sec of enhancements isn’t going to break the feel of the game. Other Elites that have outrageous recharge times are mostly passive. Players get good by practice. How does one master a group of skills that they can use for 30 seconds every 4 minutes. too much work for awesome players, too complicated for average players. I found this true of the old Guardians Elite Tombs of Wrath/Courage as well.

Another option would be to give the Norn forms a static bonus (no weapon stats), a single use for each skill that it would make this Elite like a chain skill that could be timed by the player. Once the player has completed the chain (or used all 5 skills once), they revert back to Norn form. Then reduce the recharge to 2 minutes. This option could really open up the playing field for original feeling Norn forms. For example, Leopard could charge to a range between 400-300, pounce, before the knockback takes effect use growl (which will paralyze for .5 seconds and negate knockback) and Frenzy could do x3 power to paralyzed foes. This is like a rend effect that is devastating once every 2 minutes and that is dependent on the chain. If this whole chain is executed in stealth there could add the 4x precision bonus. Or they could just stealth away after the attack. All 5 skills could be used once on their own but are meant to be used as a single attack.

It also appears that the wiki entry makes these forms look more appealing than they are. Sure, Bear gets 30k of life on top of our current health (and keeps the Vitality of any equipped weapons) but there is no evidence that Leopard gets the listed +3000 precision to its attacks. When I first tried all the forms I never felt they were deserving of elite status. After 2 years I decided to really see if I could make them work which led to me crunching the numbers and finding that these skills seem underpowered for the stats listed on the wiki.

All around, The forms get used because they are a cool concept… but are soon forgotten. I personally would never have a skill that took 4 minutes to recharge in a MMORPG that I created. Skills that remain offline for more than a minute are for real time strategy games like Age of Empires.

They are racial skills and therefore will always be underpowered.

All racial skills were planed to just give a flavor to the race and never be an option above regular skill, including elites.

still, I wish there was a way to use them not only as a gimmick. :I

I’d say the better argument is that most Racial skills aren’t even “fun” to play around with. Right now theres the Norn Bear form Charge attack……. and thats pretty much it. Golem suit had so much potential, but its simply too slow and doesn’t last long enough to really enjoy playing with.

Really the only reason they exist is to pay homage to the title skills of EotN. Technobabble, Pain inverter (but no Air of superiority?), Norn totem skills, and Charr Warband and Charrzooka.

They all need some rethinking. But I honestly can’t say what direction they should go other then “childish entertainment”.

The only ones I find viable are Norn Bear for the hot room in fractals and Sylvari Turrets cause they do decent bleeds and direct damage. Hounds of Balth are fair too but yea, the cooldowns and extent of uselessness with race skills is bad.

A better way to handle it would have been to make all the racial skills available to all races. In sort of how the EotN skills were earned by doing some rep challenges or something so each race could unlock them. That way the racials can still be viable but don’t require you to play a certain race to make the class viable.

I know some of them wouldn’t make sense lore wise but I’d enjoy playing an asura that could have bear form. :P

It’s sad but understandable that racial elite skills are underpowered. But they should be at least viable. A quick pass to reduce some of the down time (lasting active time) on some wouldn’t hurt. It’s not like asking for a damage increase on them or making them super viable.

Regardless, I play this game for fun. So I use the skills I like. And nothing beats hoping into an Asura Power Suit as my Asuran Engineer. And my main Human Ranger uses the Mistfire Wolves because I don’t like any of the other skills.

That said, I’d like it if I got an F5 skill for the Racial Elite skills as an Engineer. Kind of odd just staring at that blank spot. For a while I just thought I’d unlock the skill for there eventually. Then I found out there isn’t one.

*planned.

That said, I love running around as a wolf. I’d love to see some sort of overhaul for the skill.