Guild Wars 2

I am new to GW2 and don’t know much about the upcoming expansion. Are there any plans to add a new playable race? I watched the videos GW2 posted on their Heart of Thorns website, but they seemed to be keeping a bunch of stuff secret. Personally, I would love to be able to play as a Hylek. Whenever I am running around questing I find myself stopping and staring at the Hylek npcs and their various armors and animations. They are hands down the coolest race in GW2 and in any mmo I have seen. I keep thinking about the possible racial skills, dances, and emotes they could have. Their little villages are sweet looking and their major city would be even cooler. I would gladly pay $100 to play as one.

No new playable races.

Man, that is a real bummer. I think the other races are great, except for the Charr. I really think playing as a frog-person would have made up for the unimaginative, generic Charr race. lol Maybe in the future…

Tobacco.6815:

Man, that is a real bummer. I think the other races are great, except for the Charr. I really think playing as a frog-person would have made up for the unimaginative, generic Charr race. lol Maybe in the future…

How exactly are the Charr generic? I can kinda see how the Norn are generic (them kinda sorta being big dwarves) or the Sylvari (them kinda sorta being wood elves) or the Asura (them kinda sorta being gnomes*). I actually think the Charr are the least generic of GW2’s playable races.

*In fact the guy who came up with gnomes for one of the dnd worlds also came up with the asura (Jeff Grubb).

I think the Charr look dumb. They are a just a lazy mix of random animals. They look exactly like Booster from Jingle All The Way, that really lame side-kick to Turbo Man. It’s like GW2 knew they had to have an animal species of some type so they just said “Idk how about a lion with like horns and raptor claws?” And that is what they went with.

I actually think the Norn are unique to fantasy mmos. Every fantasy mmo has a default human race and over-sized race. Never have I seen the over-sized race be human. I think it is sweet. Typically, it is the animal race that is the largest, not a type of human. It was actually pretty weird seeing an mmo with two types of humans to choose from. I have an extremely large Norn warrior and I love running around with a human character the size of the Hulk with viking hair and tattoos. Humans are typically the most boring race in any fantasy mmo and they found an awesome way to mix it up. You said it yourself, they are like big dwarves. What other game has something like that? None, that I am aware of. But every mmo, just about, has something like the Charr.

To be fair their not just a random race Anet made up, they were a big part of GW1 and had a ton of lore and backstory for them. I would advise looking back to GW1 and researching the charr a bit before you judge them solely on appearance. As for the hylek they don’t have near as much potential, being separated into a more primitive tribe based society with limited abilities (not even sure if I’ve ever seen a Hylek spell caster honestly) and are more of a minor race in GW2.mCurrently the only race with real potential for becoming playable are the Tengu, and as said above that won’t happen in this expansion.

Tobacco.6815:

Snip

So, basically you judge the Charr purely based on their looks, got it. To you all big animal races are the same. As if WoW Tauren and GW2 Charr are anything alike.

Agree with the last post. The Charr are fantastic.
And all of their story lines eclipse the other races in depth and drama.
So the OP would rather be a frog than a tiger?

Diovid.9506:

Tobacco.6815:

Snip

So, basically you judge the Charr purely based on their looks, got it. To you all big animal races are the same. As if WoW Tauren and GW2 Charr are anything alike.

Well, I have only been playing this game for a week, so there is not much else for me to go on besides looks. lmao I am not a master of GW2 lore yet. Going off of looks is what I imagine most new players do when selecting which race to play. I don’t think anyone studied the lore of each race in-depth before choosing which race to play.

Sorry, you must have misread what I typed. I never suggested all large animal races look alike. Some are much cooler and unique than others. The Charr look extremely generic and especially stupid in armor. I’m sorry if my opinion offends you. I can tell you must play Charr.

DresdenAllblack.1249:

Agree with the last post. The Charr are fantastic.
And all of their story lines eclipse the other races in depth and drama.
So the OP would rather be a frog than a tiger?

Yes, I would much rather be a frog than whatever the Charr are supposed to be.

Man-eating wild beasts. Very heavy metal.

But on the serious side. Their story lines are fantastic, and the centuries of depth of being the main antagonist in GW1 (at least the first half of Prophecies), only fleshes them out that much fuller.

Tobacco.6815:

Diovid.9506:

Tobacco.6815:

Snip

So, basically you judge the Charr purely based on their looks, got it. To you all big animal races are the same. As if WoW Tauren and GW2 Charr are anything alike.

Well, I have only been playing this game for a week, so there is not much else for me to go on besides looks. lmao I am not a master of GW2 lore yet. Going off of looks is what I imagine most new players do when selecting which race to play. I don’t think anyone studied the lore of each race in-depth before choosing which race to play.

Sorry, you must have misread what I typed. I never suggested all large animal races look alike. Some are much cooler and unique than others. The Charr look extremely generic and especially stupid in armor. I’m sorry if my opinion offends you. I can tell you must play Charr.

Sorry if I came off a bit strong. Yes, I do play Charr (well, I actually play all races). What I was getting at though is that there is a lot more to a race than what appearances and superficial lore alone. Norn are more than tall dwarves, Sylari are more than wood elves, Charr are more than giant cats with horns (and ugly armor, I agree there). And if you really look at what’s underneath then I would argue that Charr are the most uniquely guild wars race there is.

Though it has been confirmed in future xpacs playable races will take the spot of new professions, I don’t see the Hylek working out. Then again, Anet has been really smart with the story and made it where it could go anywhere. We all expect generally this, but it could take a hugely different path.

I find it rather odd that the reason for no new race is “It doesn’t bring anything new to gameplay”, considering this game is VERY skin-heavy.

VentiGlondi.9830:

I find it rather odd that the reason for no new race is “It doesn’t bring anything new to gameplay”, considering this game is VERY skin-heavy.

I don’t think they said that. And if they did, they were just talking about THIS xpac, as this one is set to establish all mechanics currently not in game. Future xpacs are going to have races, and additions to new features coming in HoT like new masteries.

Fenom.9457:

Though it has been confirmed in future xpacs playable races will take the spot of new professions

No it hasn’t, at all. Neither the fact that we will get more races nor the fact that we won’t be getting more professions is confirmed. That said, I consider it far more likely that we will get races instead of more professions.

The latest Anet has said on the topic is the following:

Shacknews: You’ve added a new profession, however you did hold off on adding a new race. What led to this decision?

Johanson: For this one, we looked at what we would get out of adding a new race and what benefit it actually brings to the players from a gameplay standpoint. It’s very limited in Guild Wars 2. A new race adds a racial skill or two and a little bit of story, but it doesn’t give that much meaningful gameplay in the grand scheme of things. The race is more context for the early story that you experience. So we wanted to focus things that would provide a lot more gameplay and address parts of Guild Wars 2 that we felt like we really wanted to be able to make a better experience and grow. So right now, we didn’t feel that a new race was a key need for the game, whereas the other things that we’re adding really provide fundamental building blocks for the future.

Diovid.9506:

Fenom.9457:

Though it has been confirmed in future xpacs playable races will take the spot of new professions

No it hasn’t, at all. Neither the fact that we will get more races nor the fact that we won’t be getting more professions is confirmed. That said, I consider it far more likely that we will get races instead of more professions.

The latest Anet has said on the topic is the following:

Shacknews: You’ve added a new profession, however you did hold off on adding a new race. What led to this decision?

Johanson: For this one, we looked at what we would get out of adding a new race and what benefit it actually brings to the players from a gameplay standpoint. It’s very limited in Guild Wars 2. A new race adds a racial skill or two and a little bit of story, but it doesn’t give that much meaningful gameplay in the grand scheme of things. The race is more context for the early story that you experience. So we wanted to focus things that would provide a lot more gameplay and address parts of Guild Wars 2 that we felt like we really wanted to be able to make a better experience and grow. So right now, we didn’t feel that a new race was a key need for the game, whereas the other things that we’re adding really provide fundamental building blocks for the future.

He said right now, and that this xpac was different as it was adding the building blocks. Also, it was at least confirmed Revenant was last profession, unless something changes, which is unlikely.

Fenom.9457:

He said right now, and that this xpac was different as it was adding the building blocks.

True but that doesn’t in any way confirm that new races are coming in the future. In fact, his remark that all a new race does is bring in ‘a racial skill or two and a little bit of story’ seems to point to the opposite.

Also, it was at least confirmed Revenant was last profession, unless something changes, which is unlikely.

I haven’t read anything of the sort. Can you give a source?

Diovid.9506:

Fenom.9457:

He said right now, and that this xpac was different as it was adding the building blocks.

True but that doesn’t in any way confirm that new races are coming in the future. In fact, his remark that all a new race does is bring in ‘a racial skill or two and a little bit of story’ seems to point to the opposite.

Also, it was at least confirmed Revenant was last profession, unless something changes, which is unlikely.

I haven’t read anything of the sort. Can you give a source?

I thought it was confirmed, are you sure they never said anything about new races? Either way, with HoT still not out it’s way too early for them to talk about the next xpac, but I can’t imagine not getting a new race. I can’t provide a source sorry, but I believe Wooden Potatoes mentions it several times?…

Tobacco.6815:

Well, I have only been playing this game for a week, so there is not much else for me to go on besides looks. lmao I am not a master of GW2 lore yet. Going off of looks is what I imagine most new players do when selecting which race to play. I don’t think anyone studied the lore of each race in-depth before choosing which race to play.

Sorry, you must have misread what I typed. I never suggested all large animal races look alike. Some are much cooler and unique than others. The Charr look extremely generic and especially stupid in armor. I’m sorry if my opinion offends you. I can tell you must play Charr.

I suppose a lot of new players might go off looks but honestly I love their look anyways lol. Besides that point I am a cross over from GW1 and I believe the charr are more of a tribute to the old GW1 guys as they were such a big part of the story and game back then that it would seem crazy not to include them. On a side note since I’m assuming your not anGW1 player I would highly recommend reading through its lore as well as there are some connections and it is a great read.