Guild Wars 2

Does anyone else think it would be really cool if they buffed racial skills to be at least usable. They don’t have to be strong or anyhting, just not so obviously worthless (long cd for crappy effect, at least in most cases). Because I think those skills look really cool and are fun to use.
I mean; imagine being able to run a build focussed on nearly permanent golem suit usage (wich is possible since chronomancer) without that turning you in a wet sponge.
I honestly don’t know why they bothred to make these skills in the first place if they are so weak and broken, (golem suit gatling fist full channel barrage does LESS dmg than one punch from the auto-attack …..).

Improving existing racials skills or even adding new ones could even be a good way to make PvE more interesting and diverse without having to be afraid to mess up PvP balance. Doing something like that ofcourse would probably require a system to ‘share’ racial skills between characters. (Something that allows you to select wich set of racial skills you want to use on any character once you unlocked them on another).

(I must admit that I mainly hope they buff racial skills somehow just because I love asura golems :P.)

If anyone understood my ramblings here, please leave a comment and share your vision on how Racial skills could play a bigger role in the game.

I really like racial skills, because I think they’re interesting, and I’ve spent a lot of time using certain ones. (Hounds of Balthazar, Radiation Field, Golem Suit, Norn Transformations…)

I think I would dislike them if they were much stronger, however. Even in PvE, I think it would be lame for any race to have an advantage, so that leaves them being weak. If they’re going to introduce new skills, I think it seems wasteful to make them racial skills. (I feel the same way about racial armor. I love racial armor, but I also have mixed feelings about how it limits who can use what skins.)

The idea of unlocking racial skills for cross-race use is interesting. It changes the concept of what racial skills are in the game, but the concept it pretty flawed, for reasons stated above, so change might not be bad.

Maybe in the next update to Masteries, we could see a WvW like mastery for Racial skills.

- Increased damage against Veteran enemies
- Increased CC against break bars
- Increased duration when under the effects of “achievement eligible” (you’ll see these markers in personal story)

This would make them more useful in PvE and story instances where we could enjoy them more without them affecting PvP, and only having small impact on WvW (if any)

one doesn’t have to be more powerful then the other, they just need to be more useful, even if it’s only in PvE.
for instance, no matter how you look at it an elite skill that summons something (like Balthazar’s hounds) should not have a time limit, they sometimes die faster then even the time limit can keep up.
IM the hounds should have a certain armor pool without a time limit (PvE-only), when they die the recharge starts. (like now)

they then become something we want to use without breaking the PvP balance, in PvP everything is as it is now or just a tiny bit better.

Anet really doesn’t want that to happen, from the beginning they say that racial skills were made to be just a flavor and never be on par with class skills, that way you are not “forced” to make a Charr or a Norn, for example, to have the right warrior build.

Belzebu.3912:

Anet really doesn’t want that to happen, from the beginning they say that racial skills were made to be just a flavor and never be on par with class skills, that way you are not “forced” to make a Charr or a Norn, for example, to have the right warrior build.

Ironically that never stopped this for Engineer with their tool belt skills. The racial skills come into play there, and dear god some races get a better one than others. Charrs, Humans, and Sylvari make much better Engineers than Asura and Norn simply due to their tool belt skills from the racial abilities. Look them up, the racial skill thing has already come into play, at least with that class.

I wan’t to clarify that one of the main aspects I think should be changed is to make Racial skills usable on ALL OTHER RACES as well, so refrain from commenting that racial skills add inequality, that is not the discussion here.

Alexander.6250:

I wan’t to clarify that one of the main aspects I think should be changed is to make Racial skills usable on ALL OTHER RACES as well, so refrain from commenting that racial skills add inequality, that is not the discussion here.

then it would be just the same as a normal skill, racial skills are there for a reason, just letting anyone have them makes no sense.

It seems to me that ANet’s current design imperative is focusing on skills tied to Elite specs. This allows them to make new skills while ensuring that there is a trade-off in terms of needing to sacrifice existing options. I don’t see them adding new skills that can be slotted regardless of specialization set-ups, racial or otherwise.

It’s my belief that racial skills are weak because of fear that players will find ways to use them to gain an advantage over players playing a different race in WvW/PvP. They don’t seem to be able to prevent players finding advantage with certain professions, though. So, I suspect this is due to not wanting to complicate balance issues along a second (racial) axis.

That said, I’d like to see racial skills, particularly the Norn totem forms, be more desirable to use beyond just novelty. What I expect from ANet on the subject, though, is crickets.

sorudo.9054:

Alexander.6250:

I wan’t to clarify that one of the main aspects I think should be changed is to make Racial skills usable on ALL OTHER RACES as well, so refrain from commenting that racial skills add inequality, that is not the discussion here.

then it would be just the same as a normal skill, racial skills are there for a reason, just letting anyone have them makes no sense.

The diffence with normal skills is that they are lore based skills that are not tied to a profession but rather to a certain culture. Given the way races have a lot of interaction in this game, it is not unthinkable for races to learn skills from one another. (Also they are just cool and have more ‘flavour’ than normal skills imo)
Also they cannot be used in PvP wich gives the devellopers more freedom regarding balance.

I know racial skills becoming a thing is just a highly unlikely fantasy since Anet kinda ignores their existence, as they do with everything they don’t want to fix. (spirit weapons, thief traps, pets,…) I was just curious if more people would like to see more Asura golems or Charrzooka’s around.

btw do Revenants even have Racial skills?

Alexander.6250:

sorudo.9054:

Alexander.6250:

I wan’t to clarify that one of the main aspects I think should be changed is to make Racial skills usable on ALL OTHER RACES as well, so refrain from commenting that racial skills add inequality, that is not the discussion here.

then it would be just the same as a normal skill, racial skills are there for a reason, just letting anyone have them makes no sense.

The diffence with normal skills is that they are lore based skills that are not tied to a profession but rather to a certain culture. Given the way races have a lot of interaction in this game, it is not unthinkable for races to learn skills from one another. (Also they are just cool and have more ‘flavour’ than normal skills imo)
Also they cannot be used in PvP wich gives the devellopers more freedom regarding balance.

I know racial skills becoming a thing is just a highly unlikely fantasy since Anet kinda ignores their existence, as they do with everything they don’t want to fix. (spirit weapons, thief traps, pets,…) I was just curious if more people would like to see more Asura golems or Charrzooka’s around.

btw do Revenants even have Racial skills?

1.) racual skills are only for that race, no one can ever change in an animal except norns, it’s a race thing and you can’t just learn it.
2.) the revenant is a profession, not a race.

Alexander.6250:

I know racial skills becoming a thing is just a highly unlikely fantasy since Anet kinda ignores their existence, as they do with everything they don’t want to fix. (spirit weapons, thief traps, pets,…) I was just curious if more people would like to see more Asura golems or Charrzooka’s around.

btw do Revenants even have Racial skills?

1 – Racial skills aren’t broken, they just don’t work as you wanted.
2 – Revenant/Herald doesn’t have access to racial skills.

As a asura ele, I REALLY use racial skills quite often.

- Tecnhobubble is a strong daze, and with breakbars it became very very useful.
- Radiant Field is a poision aoe pulsing field pretty strong.
- Both elite golens are quite useful, mainly the defensive one that gives a nice aoe bobble reflect shield.

@Alexander : Revenants don’t have acess to racial skills.

Belzebu.3912:

Alexander.6250:

I know racial skills becoming a thing is just a highly unlikely fantasy since Anet kinda ignores their existence, as they do with everything they don’t want to fix. (spirit weapons, thief traps, pets,…) I was just curious if more people would like to see more Asura golems or Charrzooka’s around.

btw do Revenants even have Racial skills?

1 – Racial skills aren’t broken, they just don’t work as you wanted.
2 – Revenant/Herald doesn’t have access to racial skills.

Just concerning you’re statement that they aren’t broken, have you ever used the asura power suit? The channeled gatling gun attack that hits 20 times and takes a few seconds to cast, deals less total dmg than one punch from the melee attack ,wich punches twice in 1 second. That just makes no sense at all. Also elite skills offer engi’s no toolbelt skills. I don’t think any other skills are really broken though (did they fix the crappy animation on hidden pistols yet?)

And yes Revenants don’t have racial skills wich is why I posted it along with the reasons why racial skills will most likely see no changes. (I didn’t really need an answer to that guys…)

Revenant doesn’t even get Racial skills. :[ My poor keyfarmer Revz.

I think one possible solution to one race becoming stronger than the others because of racial skills would be to make the same skill for all races but with very different visuals. For example you could place an auto-attack tower. For Sylvari it would be a seed turret, for Asura an asuran turret and maybe for Norn a totem. Or a skill that summons a golem for Asura, a moss heart for Sylvari, a tank for Charr, etc (all with the same health, armor, attack, etc). That way racial skills could be strong because every race has access to them.

Only the poor revenant would miss out. ANet really needs to give Revenant access to racial skills.

There is nothing quite like the feeling of having 3 phantasmal swordsman up with 2 offensive golems as a Chronomancer.

I actually am forced to use the golems in place of Time Warp cause sometimes it’s just god kitten useless. Warp speeds up your wells so they do less damage/cleanse/chill and I need more dps. Anywhere else in dungeons is like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkplPbd2f60