Guild Wars 2

Does anyone actually incorporate any of the Racial Utility Skills in their builds?
It would seem they were made part of the game so that players who chose a particular race could pick a defining skill in their build. Some races have three skills, others only two (did Anet run out of ideas?) None of these skills seem worth their place on a skill bar when far more powerful and synergetic utilities can be chosen.
Would it be a good idea to replace these with some new skills available to all races or should Anet revamp these skills in some way so that they bcome a more attractive proposition when thinking about a character build?

Some are good like Asura Pain Inverter in WvW. Others are complete kitten like Avatar of Melandru….. or Norn Bearform

Scruffy.3982:

Does anyone actually incorporate any of the Racial Utility Skills in their builds?

I have in a couple builds. The Charr’s Shrapnel Mine works really well in conjunction with the trait Bloodlust if you’ve taken the Arms trait line but don’t have any reliable sources of bleed.

Warband Support has been useful for distracting large waves of foes to better wade through them in glorious slaughter.

Yes they’re highly situational, but racial skills can be useful… when I remember them.

~EW

These skills were supposed to provide a unique flavor and diversity to builds, but were put down to the ground with absurd cooldowns so that every race was equal (no race equality puns intended, but yeah…).

Ironically, on a side note, Sylvari necros now have the best possible necro elite, which is Take Root, that has less cooldown and same bleeding duration as the Jagged horrors :P

I have found the charr’s ‘battle cry’ useful in conjunction with the warrior shout “For Great Justice” and the elite Rage Signet. You wind up with a crap ton of might, fury and quickness.

All races have 3 non-elite racial skills and 3 elites. Some just have a racial healing skill thrown into the mix instead of 3 straight utilities.

As for their usefulness… I still use some of them from time to time. They usually aren’t the “best” choice, but many of them are still useful enough to use in situations where its more “for fun” and you don’t necessarily NEED the absolute best, like open world environments.

Them being sub-par is by design. To keep one race from being more desirable for highly competitive situations through their racial skills, as happens in many other games. They’re basically just there for “flavor”. And I personally agree with that philosophy. I would like them to do a balance pass on some of the completely horrible ones to at least make them somewhat useable (I’m looking at you Charr Mortar Barrage) I think they should by and large remain sub-par.

I would like to see them made available to all races, maybe via a mastery track.

Sometimes I like to get all Taimi and run around in my summoned golem.

asura’s aoe weakness field is nice sometimes, sylvari’s 3s invulnerability+ turrets is great for thiefs

Norn’s racial elites are awesome bear form gives a long dash+ like 60k hp for me
leopard gives stealth + another huge dash for escaping

charrs have the iconic charrzooka wich is the most fun ranged weapon

im gonna make a charr just for the charrzooka now that i remembered it exists

Electro.4173:

Them being sub-par is by design. To keep one race from being more desirable for highly competitive situations through their racial skills, as happens in many other games. They’re basically just there for “flavor”. And I personally agree with that philosophy. I would like them to do a balance pass on some of the completely horrible ones to at least make them somewhat useable (I’m looking at you Charr Mortar Barrage) I think they should by and large remain sub-par.

This argument doesn’t make any sense. Being subpar skills doesn’t mean that they are necessarily balanced with each other. Likewise, even if they were the best skills in the game, if they were balanced across all races then no one race would be more desirable because every race would have access to OP skills.

Some are useful in specific circumstances while others are not but that is also true for normal class skills too.

I like pet builds for Sylvari Rangers…

2 x Hyenas, Rock Dog, Sylvari Hound and a few Flesh Reavers. The Sylvari Immobilize is also good in duels.

Also the Asura Golem when it was bugged, that was amazing watching it dump 100k attacks onto zergs.

Some are useful. More so on low levels without a lot of options though. On my low level human chars the Balthazar hounds are useful as a distraction and extra damage when fighting multiple mobs. Same for the sylvari Summon Sylvan. I’ve also used the syvari Grasping Vine on my level 80 sylvaris.

I like using Reaper of Grenth on my Necromancer. There’s a nice trait that adds Vulnerability when you Chill targets, and RoG Chills constantly. Very nice to spike damage in PvE.

MeinUguu.8256:

I like using Reaper of Grenth on my Necromancer. There’s a nice trait that adds Vulnerability when you Chill targets, and RoG Chills constantly. Very nice to spike damage in PvE.

It is a shame it has such a massive cooldown, else it would be actually be the perfect Reaper elite. I always hoped they’d change Plague into a better version of it since Anet will never let racial skills be useful aside from niche builds.
Also something many people don’t realise is that it has a 10 target cap instead of 5.

Most of my characters are norn and bear form makes the heat room in the Thaumanova fractal super easy

Vavume.8065:

I would like to see them made available to all races, maybe via a mastery track.

Me too. I knew they wouldn’t break the game because they are weaker.
I like mixing matching stuff to see how they synergize. Is a fun pastime for me.

Don’t even think of touching my golems!

Signed: the asura hiding behind a golem army (golemancer runes and asura racials ftw )

I use mine very often – there is a monster i can’t defeat alone protecting a chest, then i use my racial skill, seed bombing flowers apear everywhere, i can loot the chest and run away – in general as sylvari mesmer i used that skill permanent until i became a chronomancer

Rasimir.6239:

Don’t even think of touching my golems!

Signed: the asura hiding behind a golem army (golemancer runes and asura racials ftw )

You should roll a chrono as an asura and get golemancer runes

The biggest problem here is how the Devs seem to lack the willingness to have races functionally be different, hence they try to intentionally undertune the skills.

That races are already funtionally better or worse due to their size and shape seems to escape them, sorry to state it so bluntly devs.

So why not… utilize that?

What if Asura had slower-casting racials which were useful in niche situations but easy to see coming, whereas Norn and Charr ones are much more difficult to counteract? This’d make up for asuran inherently superior size-related elements, like tiny animations and ofc, our superior intellect which let’s face it, none of you Bookahs can make up for no matter what you try.

The only two racials I consistently use are Shrapnel Mine (for bleed and kiting) and Radiation Field (for wide area AoE damage/poison). Which, now that I think about it, I only do that to replace Thief utilities. Hm.

OriOri.8724:

Rasimir.6239:

Don’t even think of touching my golems!

Signed: the asura hiding behind a golem army (golemancer runes and asura racials ftw )

You should roll a chrono as an asura and get golemancer runes

One of my asura is almost a chronomancer, I just might have to try this.

Endless Soul.5178:

OriOri.8724:

Rasimir.6239:

Don’t even think of touching my golems!

Signed: the asura hiding behind a golem army (golemancer runes and asura racials ftw )

You should roll a chrono as an asura and get golemancer runes

One of my asura is almost a chronomancer, I just might have to try this.

One of my guildmembers gave me the idea. Its a lot of fun to double summon with CS, now if only the cooldown on the summoning skills were shorter

Radiation field on the Asura in a condition build thief. Trait Caltrops. Drop Caltrops on a target such as two rams at a gate manned by the enemy. Drop radation field on top the caltrops. 15 seconds of Poison field. Whirl inside with deathblossom and apply poison,

Any that stay manning the rams are dead in short order and the rams themselves take a whole lot of damage..

This also works very well on Pve Bosses and large monster groups.

As a charr ranger, I find the charrzooka and artillery strike decent dps skills

I would like racial elites to have at least 90s cd. some could be very cool and everyone could just make a new char if they like.

OriOri.8724:

Rasimir.6239:

Don’t even think of touching my golems!

Signed: the asura hiding behind a golem army (golemancer runes and asura racials ftw )

You should roll a chrono as an asura and get golemancer runes

I’ve actually got a couple of asura chronomancers (as well as a norn, a human and a charr one … mesmer is my favourite profession ), but the extra golems don’t really fit them all that well. On the other hand, have you ever seen a mesmer/chrono with the hohotron backpack in action? Each of the clones’ backpacks have their own chatter, making for a variety of comments at once . At times it really is hillarious. (and if I ever feel any of them needs more golems I’ve got a spare set of golemancer runes in my bank ).

Rasimir.6239:

OriOri.8724:

Rasimir.6239:

Don’t even think of touching my golems!

Signed: the asura hiding behind a golem army (golemancer runes and asura racials ftw )

You should roll a chrono as an asura and get golemancer runes

I’ve actually got a couple of asura chronomancers (as well as a norn, a human and a charr one … mesmer is my favourite profession ), but the extra golems don’t really fit them all that well. On the other hand, have you ever seen a mesmer/chrono with the hohotron backpack in action? Each of the clones’ backpacks have their own chatter, making for a variety of comments at once . At times it really is hillarious. (and if I ever feel any of them needs more golems I’ve got a spare set of golemancer runes in my bank ).

Now i seriously think about buying that …. thanks…. my preasus gems…

Charr elite racial skill

Summon Box; Summon a cardboard box to play with and sleep in. Adds +5% to all stats. for 1 hour. Can only be used out of combat. 180 second recharge.

babazhook

Radiation field on the Asura in a condition build thief. Trait Caltrops. Drop Caltrops on a target such as two rams at a gate manned by the enemy. Drop radation field on top the caltrops. 15 seconds of Poison field. Whirl inside with deathblossom and apply poison,

Any that stay manning the rams are dead in short order and the rams themselves take a whole lot of damage..

This also works very well on Pve Bosses and large monster groups.

That sounds interesting, but I’m not sure what “trait caltrops” means. Or should that have been “equip caltrops?” Or did you mean the trait that drops caltrops when you dodge?

There’s plenty of them that are handy depending on builds. One not mentioned yet is the Charr Hidden Pistol which provides you with an additional evade every 15s (and acts as a projectile finisher for what it’s worth).

Some got badly hit by the various nerfs, but are still useful if less potent: Asura’s Technobabble was awesome on Ranger when the MoC trait gave +100% daze duration, and Bear/Leopard form used to run much faster on skill 5 before taking a nerf to the knee, allowing to run through the hot room in the Thaumanova fractal. Before the crit damage nerf too, the Bear form charge could be supercharged with all possible damage buffs (Ranger SotH for example) for gimmicky but hilarious one-shot kills when they connected.

Bear and Snow Leopard elites used to be the best skills in WvW to escape with, still miss them, only way my old Norn Guardian would ever get away from anything at all.

joneirikb.7506:

Bear and Snow Leopard elites used to be the best skills in WvW to escape with.

they were also really awesome when charge/dash skills dealt damage repeatedly for the duration of the charge
if you had your target against a wall/corner you could do a whole heap of damage.

My female humans are so cute though. Isn’t that a racial skill in it of itself?

Dear Anet

Since it is such an utter shame that racial skills don’t see the light of day, we decided to chip in and give our 2 cents.

This solution is taking into account the facts that you don’t want racial skills to be stronger then normal skills and that you don’t want to favor any race.

Remove all but 2 elite racial skills from the game.
Give each race a transform (bear, golem suit, charr battle outfit?, tree monster something, an avatar) and a summon (golem, snowleopard, warband, sylvan hound, hounds of balthazar)
Then make them all do the exact same thing, with the same stats – but viable.
And disable the skills in the places where you don’t want them active (wvw, pvp, raids, dungeons, fractals)

It is such cool lore, some of the animations are brilliant, it is a real shame that it’s silly to use’m. Espcially the norn, where GW1 set’m up as being complete beasts in bearform, yet there are none to be seen.

We hope this can help in any way.
And thank you for this great game.

maxwelgm.4315:

These skills were supposed to provide a unique flavor and diversity to builds, but were put down to the ground with absurd cooldowns so that every race was equal (no race equality puns intended, but yeah…).

Ironically, on a side note, Sylvari necros now have the best possible necro elite, which is Take Root, that has less cooldown and same bleeding duration as the Jagged horrors :P

Well they didn’t want race to become a meta for a particular game play mode due to skill synergy. Plus I see them as a vestigial skill from the early days of the game. I used them in those days to provide a touch more fire power (the summon support skills like the ice wurm or sylvan hound). They are fine for leveling but they certainly aren’t for “end game”, whatever you consider that to be.

Scruffy.3982:

Does anyone actually incorporate any of the Racial Utility Skills in their builds?
It would seem they were made part of the game so that players who chose a particular race could pick a defining skill in their build. Some races have three skills, others only two (did Anet run out of ideas?) None of these skills seem worth their place on a skill bar when far more powerful and synergetic utilities can be chosen.
Would it be a good idea to replace these with some new skills available to all races or should Anet revamp these skills in some way so that they bcome a more attractive proposition when thinking about a character build?

they are great ..i have a whole build that uses them.

I don’t understand why everyone is so against racial skills being in a meta build. Why is that a problem?

The only change that racial skills need is that we should have an event chain/quest we can complete to acquire the racial skills for the other 4 races. Adds more content to the game that a lot of people would enjoy, its a chance to add in more race specific lore (again, something people would enjoy), eliminates the need to make a new toon of a specific race to access a specific skill. There’s no real downsides to this outside of the development resources to implement it.

Plus, that way it wouldn’t matter at all if racial skills were the best skills in the game or not, because everyone would have access to them.

I use Hounds of Balthazar and Prayer to Kormir all the time.

lukejoe.1592:

I use Hounds of Balthazar and Prayer to Kormir all the time.

lol i have like 30 characters and i have whole builds that use race skills…for all the races. lol

OriOri.8724:

I don’t understand why everyone is so against racial skills being in a meta build. Why is that a problem?

The problem is creating a meta where say dungeons should only be done with Norns or certain Fractals with Asuras for maximum efficiency. It’s bad enough player characters are discriminated against due to profession, just imagine by race as well (Charr and Sylvari need not apply).

And that’s exactly why Anet should introduce a way to get the racial skills for the other 4 races. It adds content, adds avenues for new race lore, removes this problem. Its a win-win-win for comparatively little development time.

Technobabble on asura… in use a lot for cc situations.

I think I used the Sylvari healing turret to get that achievement for healing/buffing Lord Faren in Verdant Brink on my Thief…

I often use them on low level characters. Especially now they don’t cost skill points to unlock and you can use a whole traitline right from level 21. Around level 16 I start saving my hero points to spend on traits so the racial skills give some nice variety.

Although I don’t use the elites as much because I tend to go for the Mistfire Wolf. Partially because it’s fun and partially because I sort-of paid for it (wasn’t the reason I got the deluxe edition but it was included in the price) so I feel like I should use it.

i love the golem skills..wish we had more of them..would love a bar full..true asuran combat let the golems fight for you lol like minions

OriOri.8724:

And that’s exactly why Anet should introduce a way to get the racial skills for the other 4 races. It adds content, adds avenues for new race lore, removes this problem. Its a win-win-win for comparatively little development time.

Indeed. Make a questline for each race where members of another race go to an NPC who teaches/gives a way to earn the racial skills of that race. All races can learn all racial skillls and the racial skills can then be buffed to be worthwhile.

WoodenPotatoes acctually have a great idé for making them usefull and possible to make them good instead of intentionally worse then the class skill counter part. It’s about putting them in the skill tree and unlocking them and then adding a new slot on the build ui for racial.

I won’t make a long post about it since he already said all of it, instead I’ll just link the video where he explains it.

https://youtu.be/HxmQoJeRlYc

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Indeed. Make a questline for each race where members of another race go to an NPC who teaches/gives a way to earn the racial skills of that race. All races can learn all racial skillls and the racial skills can then be buffed to be worthwhile.

This. Set it up as Current Events content during LS4 to provide some news about the latest from each race in regards to their respective storylines, and get taught their skills as a bonus. For some, you could reuse dungeon maps like LS3 Ep4 did.